Cloudy Memories

The mists of time cloud our memories about romance, particularly in the arenas of "women who have dumped you" and "cars I loved."

The latter came back to mind this morning with a quick glance at Hemmings' daily email blast. What made this most powerful was the presence of a light blue 1973 VW Super Beetle convertible. You see, I had a '74 convertible in the same color and ah, yes, I remember it fondly....

 

Not well, or I'd have forgotten the time in rural New York that it completely burned out its clutch, or the ever-spreading rust on a 5 year old car [!], the soulless interior, the instrumentation [none past a speedometer and gas gauge], the gutless acceleration, the wandering spirit on the highway.

What I do remember is that after a drought in British sports cars, this convertible reclaimed the open air driving I adored and coupled it with some reliability, good gas mileage, seating for four and great traction in the snow [I did live in Vermont, after all].

I had the car for two years before selling it to move back into a '63 MGB. That brought me back to the days of removing spark plugs to heat them up in the stove, cans of starting ether, an even more dubious heating systems. 

If my memories of the VW were cloudy, seeing this photo brought them back with some clarity. This owner wants $8,900 for his car; all I can say is "Thanks for the Memories."

Land Rover Celebrates its 25th Anniversary

Land Rover have been brought into the USA since the very early 1950's. The Rover Car Company lined up with US importers in different regions of the country. Both cars and Land Rovers entered the US market with, frankly, poor results in terms of sales.

Right from the beginning in 1948, Land Rovers found willing buyers in markets all over the world. Rover could never make that many of them so the 1,000 - 1,500 sales annually in the US didn't bother them much; they could sell all they could manufacture every year.

British Leyland's corporate ownership meant that Land Rovers now came directly through a British subsidiary, at least until 1974, when Land Rover left the US market because of safety and emissions requirements. That would change in 1987 when Land Rover established a US firm, Range Rover North America, to handle sales and service of the then 17-year old Range Rover.

This year Land Rover celebrates the 25th anniversary of its corporate presence in the USA. They're going to recreate the famous "Most Beautiful Vehicle in the World" ad campaign at the New York Auto Show in April. 

 They've created a video celebrating their 25 years and you can watch it here.

 

Behind the Braking Wheel

When the Land Rover received its state inspection sticker in February, it did so under the condition that I repair a leaking hub seal in the left rear wheel. 

At the same time, Todd, the local mechanic, noted that I also had a wobbly locating pin on the backing plate. The pin on the backing plate helps pivot the brake shoes under load; if it wobbles while braking, you'll get a lot of wear on one side only.

I called Rovers North for parts and sadly learned that tack welding the backing plate's pin requires precision that's unlikely to occur under shop conditions. Somewhere in their inventory they found a backing plate, an original one from Land Rover.

On a pleasant Saturday Todd and I began the process of removing all the brake parts from the rear wheel, as well as the floating axle. Then you had to remove the wheel bearings to get at the hub seal and race - those pieces are supposed to keep gear oil off the brakes.

Sadly, even though the rear brake shoes had lots of life left on them [they'd been replaced during the past year], they also had lots of congealed gear oil on them from the leak. It seemed unlikely I could clean them up so I asked Todd to drive me home where I knew I had another set. At the same time he said I should look for a brake spring to replace the broken one we found hanging free behind the brake drum. I found the shoes but I had no extra spring [we found one in a junk drawer in his shop].

With everything apart I set to cleaning off the grunge and grease, reinstalling all the parts and searching for a spring. In the meantime, Todd greased the wheel bearings and installed the new hub race and seal. He noticed that the wheel bearing had been set loosely on the hub, so afterwards I checked the tension on the opposite wheel and found that bearing loose, too. Once reset, we looked to install the brake drum and finish the job.

With the new shoes the drum would slide over the shoes but the wheel would barely turn. So we removed the drum and Todd turned the drum to take off any excess metal and wear points. It was still a hard turn by hand but the brake linings quickly wore into place under daily use.

Some 15+ years ago I tackled a similar set of jobs on my own, outdoors, when I discovered a leaking hub seal - only I had no idea what caused all the grease that filled the brake drum. The title of the article I wrote for the old Rovers North News was "The Brake Job From Hell." Fortunately this job went better.

 

Corvair Brakes

For months now I've been bedeviled by an odd leak in the Corvair's [single cylinder] braking system. 

When driving the car, the brakes - which have received a lot of attention in the 5 years I've owned the car - had worked well. However, when the car sat at the ferry terminal for weeks at a a time, the brake fluid level at the master cylinder would be down, as if fluid had leaked out during the hiatus.

For a long time I just kept filling the reservoir and topped it up any time I used the car. Then I realized that the only place the brake system had residual pressure was at the master cylinder itself. The gnarly black carpet under the pedal would not show any leakage there [sometimes the fluid runs down the pedal], but the occasionally soft pedal under pressure did hint of an internal leak within the cylinder. 


The old cylinder didn't look that pretty anyway.

Clearly there had been some moisture in the fluid; the inside looked rusty.


The Corvair's master cylinder rests on two studs that protrude from the firewall; you just unbolt the cylinder and remove the short brake pipe from the bottom of the cylinder. 


Since the new cylinder came with its own bench bleed screw I figured this was a job I could do myself - but with the car on the mainland I needed to find a place to do the job. I called Jim Westervelt, who has his own lift in his garage, and knows Corvairs intimately, but medical problems had laid him up. A Land Rover buddy who works at East Coast Rover would not be there on my appointed day, so I contacted a shop in Warren, ME, and asked them to do the job for me.

The old one came out quickly but Copeland's said the new one leaked fluid when they tried to bench bleed the cylinder [bench bleeding removes air from the cylinder, reducing the amount of bleeding later]. A call to Clark's Corvair revealed that the master cylinder rod travel in the car would be much less then our hearty thrusts to purge air from the cylinder. Push lightly and for a short travel only, and all would be fine - and it was.


Copeland's broke a wheel cylinder bleed screw while bleeding the system, but within an hour, I had a new master cylinder and very good brakes. With new wheel cylinders and some new rubber lines, the system should be tight and safe now.


Old systems like the Corvairs had only one brake circuit, so if it failed, you had no brakes. All cars post-1968 have dual [now 4 in some cars] circuits so you'll always have some brakes.


Needless to say the car was an even greater joy to drive. As a bonus, Copeland's took a few moments to track back a brake light problem I've been having; it seems that I have a problem in the wiring to my directionals which also affects the brake lights. I have one for now, at least, and with luck, the second lamp will activate once I check out the directionals under the steering wheel.
 

Some Day My Paint Job Will Come

Hemmings sends out a daily email with links to great posts and interesting vehicles for sale. Today's included this terrific '65 Corvair 140/PG.

I could not help but note the color is the same as my '66, well, the same as it came with as new. Right now mine is a pale imitation of this paint job.

Here's the link to the description of this car for sale. 

Some day mine will get a paint job that will make it look this good, but it will never run with the same power. This one is a 140/4 carb whereas I have only the 110/2 carb with a 4-speed.

Fiat Chooses an Abarth Spokesperson

He would not have been my first choice, even in jest, but Fiat has chosen Charlie Sheen to be a spokesperson for their tongue in cheek ads for the new Abarth model.

Take a look at their tv/internet ad here.

I must admit I'm partial to the original Fiat Abarth; the styling strikes me as more upfront, less boy racer. 

 Better yet, Charlie Sheen wouldn't have liked it.