The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through.

It's hard to describe why this car is fun. It's not fast and it's tough to drive compared to my modern car. It does sound and look fantastic, but you can experience that without the car moving. I just feel good driving it. And describing what good feels like is not something I think that I can do in the same way that I can't explain why green is my favorite color. It is impossible not to smile while driving the car.
 

I finished redoing the ignition system this fall. I don't know exactly what was giving me trouble and why it took me so long but it doesn't matter anymore. I've made it work. It runs, and it runs really well. Even starts on the first crank, too. Pretty amazing.
 

That first drive after everything was correct was smooth and enjoyable...it reaffirmed a lot of things for me and not just about this car. This is something that I really enjoy doing.
 

 

 

 

 

I've had a lot help from brother Steve and cousin Zane, both of whom provided help as well as motivation to get the car right. It makes it a lot easier having a couple extra sets of hands and extra minds to bounce ideas off of.

 

Unfortunately, my brother discovered a fuel leak the next morning. Zane and I decided to remove the fuel tank to do a full inspection, which was horribly messy since we had to drain the gas. The tank is in great shape but the gasket for the fuel gauge sending unit needs replacing. Good news in the end since that's a simple fix, but we could have saved some trouble and replaced that with the tank still on the car. I'll take the opportunity to give the tank a fresh coat of paint.
 

The to-do list is still a bit long and I've got a lot of parts ready to go on. At some point soon I'll need to take the car to a shop for the roll bar install. But after I put the fuel tank back in, I can hop in and drive anywhere. That a pretty good feeling.

Little bit of feel good goes a long way

After the long hibernation of winter, the sweet excitement and preoccupation of spring, and the minor life reevaluation that comes with being figuratively kicked in the balls, I drove the Fairlady down the street for the first time since November. It felt good, even with a technical issue that has me a little confused. The machine moves and that makes me happy.

Over the winter I rebuilt the distributor (the part that distributes electricity to the spark plugs) with a non-smog spec recurve kit. Basically this means I changed the timing of the spark plugs sparking with new springs and weights inside the dizzy to make the car run smoother/better. Dizzy is classic car lingo for distributor and also how I felt looking at everything taken apart on the kitchen counter and then trying to wire everything up correctly back on the car. During this time I also added a pertonix electronic ignition, new spark plugs, a new coil, and deleted a girlfriend. Upgrades all around.

After some troubleshooting and making sure I didn't put things back together 180 degrees off, the car starts right up like a champion on the first turn. Great! Seriously...it's great. This was all new stuff to me and I figured it out (after some trial and error). Now there's none of the old car "wub wub wub wub wub " and feeling it struggle to start. It's just turn key and the engine is on. Pretty dang cool and credit to the Pertronix kit.

I backed down the driveway (mental note: e-brake needs adjustment) and started down the neighborhood street. First gear is good, really smooth. Big smile. Clutch in, put it in second, clutch out, press the gas and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT NOISE?!

I immediately put the clutch back in and go back to first. Everything is somehow back to fine and I can rev happily to 4k rpm. Well that was weird. Lets skip second and try 3rd gear...NOPE no forward movement and it sounds like a gun battle inside my motor. Back to the garage in 1st gear, which is again very smooth and pleasant.

It feels and sounds like a misfire of epic proportions. I popped the hood and everything was damn hot after a very short drive. The pertronix wires showed some rubbing inside the dizzy (not much clearance in there) so I tried to sort that real quick. The ground wire in the dizzy is pretty crappy so I replaced that too. Haven't driven it since as it was getting late but I don't know why a little rubbing in the dizzy would only happen in 2nd and 3rd gear? Why would a misfire be gear dependent? I'm working on it. I should double check the timing to be safe, but I did reset it after doing all of this work.

In other news, I took a closer look at the weatherstripping and have a good idea of what I need to do to square that away.

Also, I got my custom revalved Koni adjustable shocks from some Dutch guy. Heck yeah!

Not sure when I'll get a chance to put them on, but I love me some quality shocks.

Until next time...drive safe, have fun, and don't be a jerk.