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As some of you know my 64 Econoline has been in the body shop since December for a job that was promised to take 3 weeks.

The body shop has now gone out of business.  The owner did tell me what was happening and said that he would finish my van up before he turned the shop over to the new owners.  The new owners took over May 15th.

The new owners took over with nothing being done to the van.  The old owner had agreed to stay on and work for the new owners, and they told him he could finish my van up at their shop.

FInally the new owners decided they would finish the paint job to help me out and to get the van out of their way.  They painted it, and it looks pretty dang good. But, they wanted this SOB to put it back together and deliver it to me.  He won't touch it. He keeps promising, but doesn't deliver. I think I've heard every lie a body man can tell in the last six months.

So they decided to help protect their reputation they would try to put the van back together. Now all the new window rubber has vanished.  The NOS parking lights have disspeared, parts of the window regulators have gone,  the new windshiield and gasket can't be found, and my brand new seats with $400 worth of new tweed upholsetery has been left outside in the rain.  The new spare tire is gone. Who knows what else is missing.

The new owners told me that they would finish the van up for the balance on the job.  $600.00 is all I owe them, (already paid over $2,500).  But that they won't replace any of the missing parts or pay for any more materials that are needed.  They've already billed me for paint for some small parts that had been sandblasted and primed but not painted.

I only have liability insurance on it until I get it finished and appraised, so I have no help from  my insurance company to fall back on.


I guess I could go in and raise he!! about it, but that wouldn't get me anywhere.  I could hire a rollback to go get it and bring it home and try to finish it up by myself, but that will still cost me a couple hundred because the body shop is an hour away from home.

Any suggestions?

Dang... Deb Butler, aka KustomLincolnLady, has a birthday today!
Happy Birthday Darlin'!

Just got a call from Debb Butler,  she's just gotten word overnight that her father has passed away.  She said there was a fire last night at his home, and the death was a result of that.  Don't know much of anything else, but thought I'd let her friends know about this terrible loss.


Rob

Our oldest daughter told us this week that she's expecting her first child.  Her first and our 4th grandchild.  Great Christmas news!:D

Last night at my wife's family Christmas party while she and her mom were announcing it to the entire family, her husband had me on the front porch  asking me to help him do a restoration with modifications to his granddad's old Willys pickup, starting after the first of the years.... dang just when I thought it couldn't get better!....    Debbie's given me permission to add on to my shop to make room for C.C.'s truck!

THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS!!

Merry Christmas everybody

from the Rob White house....

I've  working on my 64 Econoline today, even took it out for a test drive.  But having a little problem with the 170 6 cylinder.  I'm no master mechanic so I'm begging for help :?

The van sat up for quite a few years, but is running fine, it idles good, revs up fine (as well as can be expected), and has acceptable power.  After driving it at highway speed for a couple of miles, it dies, like it's starving for fuel.  I replaced the fuel filter thinking that may be the problem, but it didn't repair the problem.  If I let the van sit for a couple of minutes it'll start back up and give me another quarter mile or so.

I'm thinking of taking off all the rubber fuel lines, and replacing them thinking one may be closing up, and while I've got all the hoses off I'll put the air compressor to the metal lines to see if they are clogged up.

Any other suggestions out there?   ....a V8?

thanks in advance!

Rob

The rear end of my 60 Chevy wagon has started grinding like a wheel bearing is going out.  I called my local NAPA store, (friends) and priced the bearings, well over $100.00 each, plus the seals.

I'm thinking maybe I should look into a later model rear  instead of putting all this work into a 45 year old one.   I haven't measured anything yet, but does anybody know of a later model rear end that would be a direct bolt in, or simple swap?

Thanks

Rob

Even though I've been a member here for a while, I don't often post.   I dropped in last night on chat (after taking the summer off) and some of the regulars didn't remember my name.

My name is Rob White, my wife and I live just outside of Augusta Georgia.   Last winter I finished up a Model A roadster and spent the summer driving and showing it.  The car placed in every local show it was in, a first for one of my  cars.

This October I traded it for a 60 Chevrolet  wagon, green and silver with candy green flames.  350 crate engine, 700R4 tranny, vintage air, dakato digital, cruise and 17"polished american wheels.  We're looking forward to driving it to shows in Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and maybe to Cherokee Tenn. in 2005, maybe we'll meet some of you on the road.

Between the cars, two granddaughters being born, and buying our retirement (someday) home at Lake Thurmond this summer,  I haven't spent much time on the computer the last few months. Now that winter has settled in, I guess I'll be spending more time at the computer, hopefully catching up with and getting to know some of you better.

Rob

This past saturday was our first local show of the year.  It was held in a small town about 20 miles or so away.  I spent the better part of Thursday and Friday nights making sure the model A was as ready as it could be.

Saturday I was leading a group of three cars when I saw a dead armadilla (is that how it's spelled?) laying in the road.  Just like my daddy taught me 30 years ago, I moved over to straddle the dead animal, thinking he'd just simply pass under the car.  WRONG, my daddy never drove anything with dropped spindles I guess.  There was a gawd awful splat, then in my rear view mirror I watched tiny pieces of armadilla scattering all over the road.

When we got to the show grounds I pulled over just inside of the gate to check for damage.  There was no body damage, but every cavity on the MII frontend was full of guts and hair.  I got a stick and was able to get the biggest parts of it out of the frontend, then got one of my detail brushes and finished up as well as I could.

After I got registered and finished wiping down the outside of the car, I folded the hood back, there were more guts, everywhere.  The top of the crossmember was full, but this time it was stuck to wires, nuts or anything else that got in the way.  It took me at least another 30 minutes to get the innards out of the engine compartment, the firewall, the underside of the hood, the front of the oil pan, etc.

The smell was still there, so I looked under the car, the front of the gas tank was covered in something that looked like spray on glue, with hairs sticking out of it.  The muffler had stuff on it, the drive shaft , well the entire undercarriage of the car had something on it, almost.

All in all I spent 2 hours and used two full rolls of paper towels wiping what I could reach under my car, and carrying it to the nearest trash can.
Trying all the while trying not to gag while carring the handfulls across the grounds.

Luckily the wind was carrying the smell of my car away from the crowd so most people had no idea what had happened.  I was able to stop by a carwash and clean it up on the way home.

On the plus side I was very suprised that my car took 2nd place in the hotrod/streetrod class, at it's first show since putting it back together.

I am on my 4th alternator  and my 2nd voltage regulator on my Ford. Still not charging.  I want to change to a chevy one wire alternator.... Can anybody tell me how to wire it up to a ford?

Thanks
Rob

As most of you know I have almost finished my Model A roadster.  I am using  American National's "CHROME" insurance on my car.  The car is not a high buck rod but because I wanted to insure it for more than $10,000 they requested an appraisal.

This past weekend we took it up to Myrtle Beach South Carolina for the Run to the Sun weekend.   There was an appraiser on site, and they announced it every hour or so. I called his cell phone didn't get an answer, left a message but he never called back.  Later I was talking to a GoodGuys Rep who told me that he did appraisals.  He went into great detail about the "rough" T-Bucket that he had appraised recently that he gave a value of $14,000.   I got very optimistic about what the value of my car may be, thinking that it may reach $17 - $18K.

First thing he said on the way over to look at my cars was that model A's just aren't worth that much money.

He asked me what I was trying to insure the car for and I told him $15,000.00.  He said that figure was at the top of the price range but my car would be hard to build for that money, and that was the figure he would use.  He filled out the sheet, signed and dated it and handed it to me.  I folded it, and stowed it away in the trunk.  After the show was over I got it out to give to my wife for safe keeping.  That is when she noticed that he had written down $1,500.00 for the value of my car!

Guess I'll have to start all over again, get the insurance company to send me another form, maybe I'll tell them I lost the other one.  Heaven only knows when I'll be able to find someone else qualified to appraise my car.  Qualified appraisers don't get down to Mayberry very often.  

Oh well it was a great car show anyway over 2,450 cars registered, and lots and lots of spectators.

my pinto powered model a is having charging problems.  I've put in 3 alternators, and one voltage regulator.  My guage shows that I'm not getting a charge.  If the back of the alternator is checked when the car is idling it shows the same as if the car isn't running, the battery voltage.
Any suggestions on where to go, or what to check next?

All three of the alternators and the voltage regulator are NAPA items.

anyone from here coming to Myrtle Beach next weekend for the Run to the Sun?

Debbie and I will be getting into town around lunchtime on Friday with the Model A in tow.  Hope to meet some of you folks there.  We will be in our creme colored model A with orange wheels, georgia plates.

Rob

A kid at work drives a mitisibishu (did I spell that right?) pickup to work.  I has the standard 4 cyl engine, with a little over 100,000 miles on it.  It's been running fine until this past weekend.  He changed the oil and filter  and now about 30 seconds after he starts it blueish smoke billows out of the tailpipe.  After just alittle bit of driving maybe a minute, the smoke stops or slows down enough that you can't see it, even sitting still.   All he did was change the oil, it wasn't smoking before.

The motor isn't skipping and still has decent power. Any suggestions on what may have happened, or a quick-fix on it?

Thanks
Rob