The 69 Adventure

Chapter 5 – Kat Restores Confidence and 69's First Drive 

8/10/01 - Plans are made for Kat to come spend the night.  The storms brought by th hot weather have had it raining and I lost power and phone Wednesday for about 7 hours.  By 8:30; I had lost all power again and called Kat's. He ignored my message and trekked over anyway.  Power was restored about the same time as he got here - 1 AM.  I took this to be a good omen.  We discussed out tasks for Saturday and went to bed.

8/11/01 - Up around 9, I make sure Kat has morning coffee.  We head out to the car in a drizzle and take stock of what we'll need.  Ede was right; the tranny fluid was low.  Kat makes the following list for Pep Boys and we go shopping.

We added the wiper motor for the 91 convertible to the list too and took off the gas when I discovered I still had 2.5 gallons in the can in the garage.  An hour later we emerged from Pep Boys with a full shopping cart. 

Back in the driveway, the wagon becomes our portable garage and the heater hoses are the first thing.  A steak knife works well for cutting them.  While Kat starts on the plugs, I order lunch - ravioli and stuffed shells.

Our second task is installing the coolant overflow bottle.  There wasn't one to begin with.  We opt to mount it on the front side of the grill and fill it to the right level with coolant.

Kat has no problems removing the plugs and we replace them with Accels - a matched set. <===old passenger side plugs After the plugs, Kat removes the #1 wire and replaces old===> drivers side plugs

it.  I get assigned #2 - #8.  It is getting rather obvious that height carries a certain advantage as I pry the old wires out on my tippy toes.  Lunch was delivered and we break just long enough to eat  Somewhere when I am busy doing something else (maybe when James called from California), Kat installed the the alternator belt.  I did remember how to do the wires and

how to adjust the belt.  I was feeling pretty good about what we had accomplished so far.  Kat replaced the cap and rotor; the cap gave him a bit of

grief, but I got a quick lesson on the inner workings and the coil. The lack of a vacuum advance canister had me a bit puzzled, but we added that to the next shopping list along with a new radiator hose.   The heat

was getting to me. Kat had torn apart the console covering the shifter and we had added about 2 quarts of tranny fluid.  We decided to move the car in the driveway. The car started right up and Kat fiddled with the carb for a few minutes. It went right into gear

and I straightened it up, testing all the gears in the process.  I retreated to the house to  cool off for a bit and refill water glasses.  When I came out, Kat had removed the drivers' seat and was spraying the slides with WD-40.  A hammer helped persuade them to move.  The funniest was the hunk of wood

under the seat - a Jester-type mod!  The back seat was removed and placed in the garage.  We got out the drill and a wire wheel and Kat scraped the driver's side floor down to bare metal.  The only Rustoleum I had on hand was Gloss White.  We used it anyway, adding Black to the next shopping list.  Kat also tore out most of the headliner.

I added a silver racing stripe across the top of the windshield - aka duct tape to hopefully keep some water out.  There is a leak that drips on the driver's knee. 

Kat hopped in and took the 69 for it's first - just down to the end of the street and back.  There were a few things he wasn't happy with and more items were added to th next shopping list.  We let the oil change go for another day.  It was after 5pm and we were both hot and had accomplished SO much. 

Kitty headed home about 6pm.  I headed for Wal-Mart, purchasing Rustoleum and a new tool box and a few other odds and ends.  All in all a very productive day!

Chapter 4  /  Table of Contents   /   Chapter 6