OWNING SFM6S817 - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE FIRST ROADTRIP I got the car roadworthy (or so I thought) and took my first trip in it to the Third Annual Southeastern SAAC Mid-Winter Meet at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia held January 26 - 28, 1979. It was without a doubt the most miserable trip I've ever taken in any kind of vehicle. I was supposed to hook up with my buddy Mark just south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge on the first night out and drive almost straight through to Georgia. The trip turned into a two day ordeal that ended up with me getting soaked in gasoline. The problem was eventually traced to a blockage at the fuel pickup in the gas tank. Outside of Washington, DC, I had a problem with fuel getting to the carburetor. It would run fine for a while and then just cut off. Did I mention that car had 4.11 gears in it? So not only was I running out of fuel, I was doing it quickly because of the gears. The car had an Autolite 4100 on it (not the correct C6ZF-F Hi-Po carb). Now one of the nice things about that carburetor is that you can take the top off of it and still run the engine, not down the road mind you but it could sit there and idle. And that's what I did. When I removed the top, I found there was plenty of fuel in the secondary bowl but none in the primary. This lead me to believe I had a bad fuel pump. After reaching this conclusion, I changed out the fuel pump and got back on the road. Things ran well for a few hours and then it was back to the same problem. I repeatedly stopped the car and tinkered with things, doing everything I could think of to find the problem. At one point I even disconnected the fuel line at the tank and got thoroughly soaked in gasoline. I reeked so badly that my girlfriend would not let me near her for two days. Things eventually got sorted out when I stopped outside of Greensboro, SC and had a mechanic blow compressed air back through the fuel line. That cleared the blockage and we had no more fuel problems the rest of the trip. But just when I thought that things were taking a turn for the better, the clutch linkage disconnected itself on the last leg of the trip. I had to limp into the show, shifting gears and starting from a complete dead stop without the benefit of the clutch. Fortunately I'd gained experience with just this type of situation a few years previously with my '65 Mustang which had suffered from exactly the same malady. To add insult to injury, when I finally did get to the show, some knucklehead came up to me and pointed out that that the "SHELBY" lettered intake on the engine at that time was wrong for the car. I was in no mood to hear that but held my temper and thanked him for pointing out the obvious. I was awarded the "Hardluck Award" for my perseverance in making it to the show.
The trip back was equally grueling if not more so. Somewhere in North Carolina or maybe Virginia during the middle of the night, the transmission decided that it had been abused enough and started to vibrate. It got steadily worse as the night wore on and forced me to reduce speed accordingly. It got so bad that by the time I got home, I could barely maintain 45 MPH. I was also suffering from extreme fatigue, so much so that I had have my girlfriend keep talking to me to keep me awake. When I finally got to bed, I slept for over thirteen hours straight. THE TRANSMISSION Something had to be done about the transmission. In early February, when I got the car jacked up and crawled under it I found that I could not get the driveshaft yoke out of the transmission. I had to pull both the transmission and drive shaft out together. It turned out the transmission mainshaft was bent and I ended up having to beat the yoke off with a sledge hammer. Don't ask me how it got that way, it just was. Now this toploader was out of a mid sixties Fairlane and consequently the shifter mount was a bit too far forward to fit into a Mustang chassis. The installer decided that cutting the transmission tunnel would be a good idea to gain clearance for the shift handle, and so that is what he did. Since 6S817 was originally an automatic car, I thought it would be a good idea to put one back in, especially since it really did belong to my dad and his shifting days were behind him. I had an old Offy 360° intake manifold that I'd picked up somewhere and thought it could be used as trading material. So I traded the intake to some local kid with a '68 Mustang coupe for a '67 C4 automatic. I think I got the better end of that deal. Anyway, I rebuilt the C4 with a Trans-Go 47-2 shift kit and put it in the car. 6S817 was again an automatic car and able to be driven by all in the family. The only problem was that it would shift from 1st to 2nd but not shift out of 2nd gear and into 3rd. After a frantic phone call to Trans-Go tech support, I figured out the I had incorrectly installed a slide valve backwards. Fortunately the valve was just in back of the vacuum modulator and it was an easy task to turn it around. The car then shifted great and was very drivable. The transmission remains in the car to this day. THE INTAKE MANIFOLD When we bought the car it had a "SHELBY" lettered intake manifold on it. It was the same style as the original "COBRA" lettered one that the car was originally built with but needed to be replaced for the correct one if the car was going to be brought back to original specs. In fact, much to my annoyance (see above "The First Roadtrip") someone had commented on the Shelby manifold on the first road trip I took with the car. I regularly read the car parts section in the local classified magazine, the "Trading Times". On one such occasion, I came across for an add for an original "S2MS-9524-A" Cobra intake manifold. I called the number and found out that this was the part I was looking for. The downside was that the owner lived a couple hours away and it was a weeknight and I'd be getting home early in the morning with work the next day. Still I couldn't let this one get away (even in the late '70s these things were hard to find). So I made arrangements to meet with the gentleman that night as I did not want someone else scooping me on my find. I met the man at a closed gas station in northern New Jersey around 11:00 PM. It was dark and I had to use a flashlight to look into the trunk of his car. I liked what I saw as it matched the description he had given me over the phone. No cracks, only one stripped thread, no sign of any other damage but it did need to be cleaned. But I didn't really expect it to be perfectly clean. $150 dollars later I was the owner of the correct intake for the car. But the whole episode had the feel of a clandestine drug deal (not that I was ever involved in one of those, I just know what I see on TV and read in books). Late at night, no lights, secret meeting. It was just plain weird. After getting a Heli-Coil to fix a hole in the carburator pad and beadblast the intake, it didn't take long for the new manifold to find its way onto the top of the engine.
SAAC-5 was held in Dearborn, MI July 3rd, 4th and 5th, 1980. A group of us had traveled out together in a caravan. I remember all of us with our hands out the window with extended fingers giving the #1 sign as we approached our desination. It was like a homecoming. We stayed at the Hyatt Recency in Dearborn I was inially shocked by how expensive everything seemed to be. My first ever $3.50 hamburger only reinforced that preception. It was exciting to see so many cars in one place and meet so many new people. This was the convention where we stayed up to all hours of the night. Walk out into the parking lot at 2 AM and you'd find groups of people talking all things Shelby. A few of the highlight for me were:
1981 SUMMER NATIONALS In 1981, Ford ask me and my freinds Ed Shaw ('69 G.T.500) and John Shoerder ('72 Pantera) participate in a dsplay at the NHRA Summer Nationals at Raceway Park in Old Bridge, NJ. We spent two days at the track enduring typical east coast hot and humid weather. The two things that made the biggest impression on me were almost meeting Reggie Jackson and meeting Linda Vaughn. Let me explain. While sitting with my car, a guy in a Rolls Royce drove by and shouted at me "Is that a Hertz?" I yelled back "Yes!" I belatedly realized that I or should I say my car had been noticed by none other than Reggie Jackson. Reggie should have been playing baseball for the New York Yankees at this time of year, but 1981 was one of the years that the MLB players went out on strike. So being the car guy that Reggie was, naturally he showed up at the Summer Nationals. Linda Vaughn, AKA Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, was at the Summer Nationals and I happened cross her path while walking around with a couple of friends. If I remember correctly, she was by herself and asked if we'd like to have our picture taken with her. She didn't have to ask twice.
1982 SUMMER NATIONALS Ed and I were invited back by Ford for their display the following year. While on display, we were approached by Nick Brunt asking if he could do a photo shoot of our cars that would appear in a future issue of "America's Best Ford Mustang" which was a semi-anual publication by Modern Day Periodicals. We said sure and later that afternoon we drove over to a field with a wooded background for the shoot. It was something of a thrill to think the our Hertz car was going to appear in a national publication. The results of Nick's efforts hit the news stands in the Fall 1983 issue. I think I bought four copies, two each for myself and my dad.
A TRIP TO THE MALL A few members of the NJ SAAC were invited to put our cars on display at the Orange Plaza Mall in Middletown, NY. I can't remember why we were chosen or what the event was but we had a good time showng off. Participating were:
SAAC-7 (August 12th through 14th, 1982) was supposed to be held at the Playboy Club in Great Gorge, NJ. There was much anticipation when we heard of the proposed venue. However, just prior to the convention, the club was sold to the American Hotel chain and renamed "Club Americanna". Of course we were greatly disapointed when we found out that there would be no bunnies. SAAC-7 was the first (and so far only) convention that I've managed to attend with both Shelbys. Not a lot happened at this convension except there were quite a few cars, one of wich was a Datona Coupe (CSX2299). In my excitement to get pictures of this once in a lifetime chance to get up close and personnal with a Datona Coupe, I managed to shoot a whole roll of non-existant film. I eventually was able to get some good shots of the coupe.
SAAC-8 (July 1st through July 3rd, 1983) was the second convention to be held in Dearborn. This was the one where Joey Flowers made his infamous 150+ MPH pass down Michigan Ave. in a super charged Boss 429 to a standing ovation by those who witnessed it from the big berm next to the hotel. The Utica test track was once again pressed into service for the high speed event. I got more than a few rides with my friends. It was good to be on the other side of the fence rather than being just a spectator even if I didn't do any of the driving. One casulty of the event was Marty Jackler whose 351W powered 1969 G.T.350 broke a camshaft. I'll always remember the dejected look on his face as others roared past him as he woefully looked at his engine by the side of the track. He was able to get the car home and make repairs. He subsequently drove the car on the track at later conventions.
SAAC-14 (July 13th through July 15th, 1989) had us back at the big 2½ mile track at Pocono. Somehow this convention didn't seem as exciting as the one previously held there. I think that is attributable to not having a car to drive on the track. It was hard to beat the intense feelings of running 200 track miles in one day. I don't have any vivid memories of this convention, good or bad. So I guess it was just a run of the mill event. But I'm sure I had a good time.
I took my future wife Mary with me to SAAC-15 in Dearborn, MI (July 5th through July 7th, 1990). Being a Philly girl, she had never been that far west before. There was no track time this year as I was not about to put the Hertz car on the track because the engine had low compression. I didn't want to risk having a problem getting home. But we had a good time and Mary got an introduction to the quirky personalities that make up the Shelby enthusiasts. The show itself was at Domino's Farms which was quite a distance from the hotel. My understanding as to why we didn't have the show in the hotel parking lot had to do with privious conventions where excessive rowdiness and more than a few room towels that ended up being used to clean cars was a cause for concern by the hotel management. One high light was a trip to the Yankee Air Museum in Willow Run. The Ford connection? During the Second World War the longest production line ever created at over a mile and a half in length to build aircraft (B-24 Liberators) was set up at this airport. By the time the war ended, production was at a rate of one complete airplane every hour, 24 hours a day. Ford would go on to produce just shy of 8,700 bombers in the plant by war's end. Saddly, on the night of October 9, 2004, the Yankee Air Museum’s hangar on the northeast side of Willow Run Airport burned down destroying many of the museum's aircraft, exibits, and library. They have rebuilt but most of what was lost was irreplaceable. On the way back, we were most of the way home when the water pump let go. Needless to say, Mary was not pleased. We were on the Pennsylvania Turnpike just before Harrisburg traveling east. With an eye on the temperature gauge, I pulled to the side of the road to have a quick look at the situation. I decided we could make it to the next rest stop, Highspire. At reduced speed and looking more at the temperature gauge than the road, we made it to the rest stop. After I let the car cool down a bit, I very cautiously opened the radiator. I had been badly burned once before when I had looked into a "live" radiator, so I performed this operation with extreme care. I filled the radiator with water and started us on our way to the next exit. Getting off, I found a nearby auto parts store that was open. Since it was a Sunday and out in the middle of a rural area, I considered myself lucky that one was open. I bought a new water pump, coolant, and some sealer and preceded to install the water pump right there in the parking lot. I was quite nervous that I was going to be told that this was something I was not allowed to do, but no one bothered us and I finished the job in about an hour. Things ran fine the rest of the way home. I did have some work ahead of me to clean up the mess left behind from the underside of the hood and the engine being sprayed by 200°+ water.
Once again I took 6S817 to SAAC-16 (June 27th through 29th, 1991 in Charlotte, NC because the G.T.500 was off the road waiting for a new engine. This was another convention in which we would form a small caravan with a bunch of NJ SAAC members. It was decided that we would travel at night to beat the heat. I knew this was a bad idea from the start but I figured I'd give it a try anyway. We left home around 11:00 PM and met up with the gang on the way. Somewhere around 4 or 5 AM I started to get very tired. I had to have Mary talk to me to keep me awake. This brought back memories of when the transmission self-destructed in 1979. We did make it to the into the convention after a stop for an early breakfast. Saddly, this convention would be the last time I'd see my friend Joe Bopp (SFM5S118). On the trip home he told me he wasn't feeling well. Shortly after he got home he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He passed away a couple of months later. He was a great guy and is missed by many to this day.
The SAAC convention in 1993 (July 7th through July 10th) was my second time at Watkins Glen. I had been there four years before in 1989 for the G.T.40 Reunion that was part of the Serengeti Vintage Cup race. The track was really beautiful and well maintained. I spent most of the time just watching the action on the track from various locations.
I'm sorry to say but I think SAAC-19 (June 30th through July 2nd, 1994) in Indianapolis was one of my least favorite conventions. I went to this one by myself. The track was small and not well suited for cars like ours. The car show was pretty average and nothing sticks in my mind as being memerable. The museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the highlight of the trip with lots of cool historical cars on display. I did stop by the Air Force Musem at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Dayton, Ohio on way home and spent three times as much time there as I had planned. That is the furthest solo journey in the Hertz car I've made to date. 1996 - 2010 – THE QUIET YEARS Between 1996 and 2003 the car was gradually driven less and less. My dad was in his seventies and didn't have the same passion for the car that I did. I lived over an hour away from his house and was not able to care for it properly. So it sat in his garage with only occasional outings to church or local shows.It gradually deteriorated to the point that it would not run. So when 2003 rolled around and Randy asked me to drive it in his daughter's wedding, it was at a point that it couldn't be started. I did some basic work on it and got it to run somewhat but it overheated. Eventually, I had to change out the thermostat and almost the entire fuel system from the fuel pump back to the gas tank. When my dad passed in November 2009, the car came into my possession. I kept it at his house for over a year before having George flatbed it to his business in 2011. George and Johnny Herbert did get it running again after playing with the ignition. I didn't do anything with the car for the next year. 2011 turned into 2012 and the next thing I knew was that George had arranged to take the car over to Danny K's shop outside of Reading, PA. And there it sat once again with Danny occasionally starting it and servicing it. He ended up replacing the water pump and the alternator. I subsequently replaced the alternator again with one that was period correct. The water pump will be changed out for a rebuilt Hi-Po pump when the engine gets pulled for one that incorporates the the original block, crank, and rods. PREPARING FOR THE 50th ANNIVERSARY MUSTANG CELEBRATION Initially the plan was to go down to Charlotte for the Mustang 50th Anniversary Celebration in April 2014 with both of my cars. As delays mounted for the G.T.500, I realized that I'd only be able to get one car ready in time. So I focused my efforts on the G.T.350H. Mechanically the car seemed fine but the interior was in less than ideal shape. The carpet was a disaster having faded from exposure to sunlight and become spotted due to mice urine and who knows what. We did find a dead mouse behind the passenger seat, no doubt it had taken up residence while the car languished in my dad's garage. The fold down rear seat trim was also very bad with rust and pealing chrome. The shifter bezel also need to be replaced as it was showing signs of its age.
Bob Hess and I took the seats and carpet out of the car in mid September of 2013. I had previously recarpeted the car back in the early '80s at the same time I recovered the seats. The seats have held up all these years, not so the carpet. A small surprise that greeted us when we pull up the carpet was a fair amount of surface rust on the front foot wells and floor boards, no doubt from water entering the car from the leaky cowls that had developed over the years and which was not helped by sitting outside at Perogie's for the previous year. Fortunately, the rust was not serious and as a means of preventing the situation from getting worse, the areas were treated with POR-15® and Rust-Oleum®. It did cost us a week in preparation time. Once the areas were treated and the paint dry, the new carpet was trimmed and fitted. The interior panels and rear interior trim also received a light coat of paint. At the same time the shifter bezel was replaced and new sill plates installed due to corrosion. I then brought the rear seat home so I could work on it over the winter in my garage when the temperature allowed.
New carpet and new chrome trim were used in the rear seat restoration. It was a real struggle to attach the new trim as reproduction trim has a very poor fit since some of the pieces are too short and the chrome is prone to chipping if the screws are tightened down too tight. It would seem that rechroming the original trim would be the way to go, unfortunately mine was far too corroded to save.
In mid March 2014, Bob Hess and I reinstalled the rear seat to complete the interior work. The 50th celebration was now only a month away and time was getting tight to get everything ready for the trip down to Charlotte.
Early one morning I showed up at Danny's garage to work on the car and he pointed out to me that there was an issue with the right front suspension. One of the cross shaft nuts had backed out of the control arm. Not knowing how long it had been like that or what damage it might have done, I elected to replace the part. Since I didn't have the part on hand, I had to order it and install it the following weekend which was the last week in March. The job wasn't too difficult as I had my own custom designed spring compressor. Made from the bottom of an old shock absorber welded to a 5/8 threaded rod and a plate that takes the place of the upper shock mount, this tool bolts in place of the shock absorber. When the nut at the top of the plate is turned, the spring compresses. This is a much safer setup than the old external hook type spring compressor.
Once the new control arm was installed, it was time to relocate the car to my garage. Danny arranged to have it flat bedded to my house. I was very glad I had AAA.
I'd never had this car permanently in my garage before so I was very happy to see it in its new home. Only two weeks remaind until the Charlotte trip. With all the mechanical work done, it was time to freshen up the engine compartment with a good cleaning and a quick coat of paint. Bob Hess did the painting honors. It made a big difference and as he said, I wouldn't be embarrassed to open the hood. Which was my goal for the Charlotte trip. I wasn't looking for perfection, just a car that was presentable and would make a good accounting of itself. Even after all the recent work, the car had the look of a survivor, which is what I was after.
THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY MUSTANG CELEBRATION in CHARLOTTE The celebration ran from April 17th through April 20th, 2014. Bob Hess was my co-driver for the trip to Charlotte. We planned to stay for just the first two days two days as I needed to be back home for Easter. The trip down was uneventful which meant there were no surprises. Since this was really the first trip in the car since coming out of hibernation, I was very much on guard for anything that might be going wrong. I did have to work out an approximate mileage (mpg) as the fuel gauge was inop. It turned out I could go about 200 miles before filling up.
The show itself was amazing but very poorly run. None of the MCA officials seemed to have any idea idea as to what was going on or where things were taking place. None of them could direct us to where we needed to be. It was very disorganized and not well planed. We got more information from the track personnel that we did from the MCA folks.
We met a lot of great car owners and saw every kind of Mustang out there. Everything from untouched cars that epitomized the term "Rustang", to a perfectly restored example in its own rolling museum trailer, to incredible customizations, and everything in between. There were historic cars such as the original 1964 Indianapolis 500 pace car, SFM5R002 (the '65 G.T.350 that did most of the factory racing), and SFM5003 (the first prototype street car). Some of the customized Mustangs we saw were a '65 body on a '93 chassis, a '67 fastback with T-tops, and a mid engined '70 Sports Roof. I did run into one other Hertz car, SFM6S1562 owned by Ray Bryan. Also of note was that Bill Collins brought his SFM5006. Since the forecast for Saturday was pretty dismal, I didn't feel too bad about having to leave early. In fact, it started to rain Friday night around dinner time. By Saturday morning the parking lot where were were staying was partially flooded. I did notice that the carpet on the passenger side was soaked due to a cowl leak so that will have to be addressed at some point in the future. I was aware of the leak and was prepared for it as I had bought a cowl block off plate before leaving for the show. We loaded up and started our journey home. We did run out of the rain just after crossing into Virginia. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we made it home before sunset. TRIP TO WORK Since I had been talking about this car so much at work, I had to bring it in. I did that on May 2nd. The response from the work crowd was good.
NORTH EAST REGIONAL MEET – OCTOBER 2014 I had made the promise to that I would come to the SAAC Lehigh Valley North East Regional Fall Meet in 2014 which was to be held in Gettysburg. The event ran for three days but I was only able to attend for Sunday, the day of the car show. It was a nice event with maybe 50 or 60 cars. I had thought that Danny K. was going to bring a car or two, but at the last minute he just brought himself, wife, and son. I was able to get Chuck Cantwell to sign my owners manual on the page opposite from where Carroll Shelby had autographed his name. The one problem I had was that the radiator developed a leak at the top tank seam. It wasn't too bad and I felt I could safely drive it home. Which is what I did. I found a radiator repair shop locally that knew how to work with brass and got it repaired for a very modest fee. It was late November when I got it back and since I didn't like working in the cold, reinstalling it in the car would would have to wait until spring. PUTTING THE RADIATOR BACK IN THE CAR OR MURPHY STRIKES AGAIN Spring 2015 and the weather was warming back up. It was now time to get the radiator back in the car and get it ready for the upcoming season. First however I had to strip and repaint the radiator shroud. That went well and I soon had both it and the radiator back in the car. Once started however, the car began to overheat. Turned out it cooling system just needed to be topped off. I didn't get much other work done as I was trying to get the G.T.500 running in time for the 2015 All Ford show in Carlisle at the beginning of June. The week before the Carlisle event I realized that there was no way I was going to have both cars ready for the show and so I started getting the G.T.350H ready. I noticed that there was a leak at the front cover. I thought it would be fairly easy to pull off the upper radiator hose and the intake water neck and tighten up the the bolts on the front cover. But as I tried to unbolt the water neck, the bolt head on the upper bolt snapped off. I hadn't applied that much force to it either. As soon as the bolt broke I knew my plans to get to Carlisle were pretty much out the window. I did try to dill out the broken bold and use an easy-out to back it out the rest if the way, but I was unable to get it out even after applying heat. /i stopped that effort when it became apparent that I was going to do more harm than good. I thought about putting my spare C9OX 9424-B COBRA lettered intake on the car, but that intake also had a few issues and I was out of time. And so I gave up on this particular show with the thoughts that there was always next year and that the Shelby convention was just around the corner. I ended up pulling the intake and sending it to a local machine shop to have the remains of the bolt extracted. I had the intake back early the next week and put it back on the car with new hardware I'd ordered from AMK. I also got a few things for the local auto parts store.I replaced the following:
I installed the following at the same time:
There are still a few things that need to be done to get that survivor look I'm after:
As I was busy trying to get the G.T.500 ready for SAAC-40, I didn't put much effort into getting the G.T.350H started, believing that it would be a piece of cake to finish up. How many times have we fallen into that trap? And as you might imagine, it bit me. It was now two days before the start of the convention. Thinking that I only had to top off the coolant before starting the car I did just that. I started the car and let it run awhile and kept an eye on the temperature. Much to my annoyance, it started to overheat. I once again made sure that the system was full and tried again. Same thing. The next step was to put in another new thermostat. This I did on Thursday (I was supposed to leave that day and had to push my departure to Friday morning). After filling the cooling system yet again, I started the car and let it idle. I had just turn my back on the car when I heard a fairly load pop and found hot coolant on the garage floor. My first thought was what else could possibly go wrong? I shut the car off, mopped up the fluid, and surveyed the damage. I figured the worst case scenario would be a blown head gasket. Fortunately that was not the case. The lower radiator hose had just popped off the water pump. I figured that would be easy to take care of. Wrong again. I found out that I had never truly gotten the radiator hose to slide all the way over the water pump connection. The original style tower clamps were so tight that the hose never properly seated. I thought that if I moved the clamp back, I could push the hose into place and then slide the clamp back into place. No such luck, the clamp would hang up on the hose right where the cast in lip was located on the water pump. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't force the clamp into place. I decided to move the alternator bracket so I had more room to in which to work. Of course in order to move the bracket out of way, I had to remove the upper pulley. In order to take the pulley off I had to remove the fan and spacer. And in order remove the fan, the fan shroud had to be unbolted. So there I was the morning I was supposed to leave for the convention with the front of engine torn apart. Even with the extra room I gained by moving everything around, I still couldn't get that hose on. Finally inspiration hit me. I may not always do things the easiest way but I do have my moments. I decided to lube everything up with dish washing liquid. And it worked. The hose slid onto the water pump nicely and the clamp slid into place over the hose. As quickly as I could, I put everything back together and once again topped off the cooling system. I started the car and watched for any leaks. There were none and I pronounce the car ready for its 75 mile journey to the convention, only a day and a half late. SAAC-40, LONG POND, PENNSYLVANIA, POCONO RACEWAY – AUGUST 20TH – 23RD, 2015 It was a short trip up the PA Turnpike to get to the convention. I was just a bit nervous regarding two things about the car: 1) that I had missed something in the cooling system and 2) how well the carburetor would work the first time out. The cooling seemed to be fine as long as I didn't have to be stopped in traffic too long. And the engine seemed to be running smoothly. Things started to take a turn for the worst as soon as I got on the North East Extension of the Turnpike. As I got onto the ramp, I could see that the cars on the turnpike were not moving. "Great", I thought. "Now I'll be stuck in traffic and the the temperature gauge will go up for sure". Hoping that it wouldn't be a long back up, I merged into traffic. Looking ahead into the distance, I saw smoke rising into the clear blue sky. I wondered if that had anything to do with the delay. I hadn't gone a half mile when I heard the sound of a firetruck. That confirmed my fear that something was burning on the roadway ahead. Then I noticed that the firetruck was making its way up the turnpike by splitting the two lines of cars. I was trying to move to the right to get out of the firetruck's way when, you guessed it, the car stalled. So there I was with a stalled engine and the firetruck was right off my left rear quarter with its siren blaring in my ear. It was so loud I couldn't hear anything else. I certainly couldn't hear the engine as I tried to restart it. The only indication as to whether or not the engine was running was the tach and that wasn't much help. Finally, the car to my left was able to move a bit out of the firetruck's way and it moved on passed. Once the sound of the siren diminished I was able to get the engine restarted and move on. The delay wasn't too bad since we were steadily creeping along. Eventually we passed a fully involved SUV. I guess my day wasn't as bad as that guy's. A few miles further down the turnpike, the engine started racing. My first thought was "what now, what else can go wrong?" It reminded me a bit of when the throttle stuck open at Charlotte in 1986. With that in mind, I did the same thing as I did then, I stuck my foot under the accelerator and pulled back. That helped to bring the engine almost back to idle. I knew I needed to take a look at what was going n under the hood. But when ever I pushed the pedal, the motor would race. Fortunately I spotted an off ramp for a rest area. I had to ride the brake up the ramp and into a parking space. I could tell from the smell eminating from the wheels that I had heated up the brakes. Shutting down the engine, I got of the car and took a look under the hood. Much to my relief, the problem showed itself right away. The throttle spring bracket at the left rear of the carburetor had comes loose and rotated 180°. I guess I hadn't gotten the nut tight enough. It was easily fixxed and I was soon on my way again. I had no further issues with the car the rest of the convention. The convention itself was fine if a bit smaller when compared to others I'd been to in the past. The track action was confined to one of the smaller courses on the grounds but the vintage race was hotly contested, especially among the top three contestants. The car show had a nice turnout of very well appointed cars. I think there were at least six Hertz cars there and I took pictures to document the locations of various parts under the hoods. NORTH EAST REGIONAL MEET – OCTOBER 16TH – 18TH, 2015 Cold. That is the first thought that comes to mind when thinking about this event. The second thing that comes to mind was that this was the first time I had two cars at the same event since SAAC-7 in 1982. That fulfilled a promise I had made to Dan R. I was only able to attend the car show. It was a nice turnout of some 100+ cars. It was a very nice variety of all Mustangs (1965 - 2015), Shelbys, Tigers, continuation Cobras, and everything in between. There were over 25 classes for the show, so almost everybody had a place to fit in. I hope that next year (2016) I'll be able to go on the cruise. I drove the G.T.500 and Bob Hess graciously drove the G.T.350H. We did have a bit of trouble finding the show grounds but finally after a couple of phone calls got directed into to the event by Dan Kiefer. Once I got parked, I was immediately swarmed by people wanting to vote for my car. “Wow”, I thought, “they must really like my car.” And so I puffed out my chest a bit more. A little while later my oversized ego took a serious hit when I came to realize that it wasn't that they liked my car, it was that it was the only one in that class. Who else were they going to vote for? Still I got a nice plaque for my 1st place win. All in all it was a nice event and once again I got to visit with some of my long time friends. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
