Got to remember, this is Canadian beer we are playing with, great stuff the mother of many amazing inventions. Besides even today without beer, the fender is still pretty neat looking.
The Plum Sauce bottle is just another beer fueled Canadian invention. Like all great inventions it has a back story as follows.
Earlier this spring one of the FCBO Fury vert guys was wondering why his top wouldn't fold properly so I decided to take pictures of mine for him to study. I lowered my top (it had been closed for the winter) to the halfway point where it would balance without settling either open or closed. Took a bunch of pictures then with a little push allowed it to gravity settle into the well. Took some more pictures and put on the well cover for the summer. A couple days later I backed the car out of the garage to go and visit Tobias. I noticed it "dripped" but it looked like moisture from the exhaust and figured the run over to Tobias's home would dry it out. It was dry when I got home so I forgot about it.
Couple weeks later I went to a cruise night at the local A&W and while there the weather switched and it started to spit rain. The car was already getting wet so I figured to just raise the top and stay put until the storm passed, but the freaking top wouldn't move. The lift motor made all the right noises, just no go. My wife and I drove home, top down in what turned into near torrential rain. Really pissed me off!
So I cranked up the garage heat and gave it a week or so to dry out. I decided to pull the back seat out. To do this simple task I would normally knee between the front seat back and the rear bench, press with my knee and lift the bench off the floor hooks. Done this many times without and thought. However I discovered my 270 lb fat *** no longer bends enough to fit between the seats. I discovered my wife fits, but hasn't enough strength to push the bench back enough to clear the floor hook. A lot of moaning and groaning tempered with a beer or two gets my creative juices flowing. A 2x4 across the back of the front seat, another across the base of the rear bench and a bottle jack between solved to problem. So I lift out the bench to find a small lake of oil. Dumped in a bunch of kitty litter and quit for the day.
Week later, vacuumed out the kitty litter to find a nice clean floor. So I decided to pull the backrest. Slid the well cover out of it's channel and put it in the trunk. Now the problem of the two bolts at the bottom of the seat. To get at them I needed to get on hands and knees with the appropriate socket. Besides not bending well, my fat *** doesn't do hands and knees. My knees send really "unhappy" signals - like this hurts like hell. So I lay on my side and discovered four things, one - I had the wrong socket, two - there was also a Robertson sheet metal screw so I needed screwdriver, three - never work without a gofer to fetch tools and beer and four - I couldn't get up from the car floor. This was frustrating, I've spent my whole life fixing and building things and now discover my body is in need of a full rotisserie restoration. Not enough years left for that to happen so maybe my grand-daughter might like to be my "Official Gofer" complete with a monogrammed apron and hat! Course she's only one so maybe in a few years.
After resting up from my near alpine climb out of the car, I enrolled my wife to do the wrench work with me as her gofer. With the seat back removed I can see the pump. We felt all around the lift cylinders and all along the hydraulic tubing for oil, every where was bone dry. Wasn't sure how to pull the motor so grabbed a beer and started reading manuals.
Another week goes by before I figure out how and get around to disconnecting tubing tie down clamps and popping the motor mounting rubber feet from the car's mounting plate. That achieved I checked the hydraulic connections and the pump body for wet spots, nada all dry. So how the heck did the oil get out to end up on the floor without any indication of high pressure spray?? It didn't leak out over he winter otherwise I wouldn't have been able to lower the top. It must have leaked when I lowered the top for pictures because it dripped when I moved the car a few days later to visit Tobias. Maybe the lowering by gravity put back pressure sufficient enough to bypass the reservoir o-ring.
At this point, I need to fill the reservoir and cycle the top a few times to bleed the system and to see where it leaks. The filler hole is hard to get at and even harder to see, so how to pour oil into just the hole without making another lake? I sat with my thinking beer and pondered the problem. This is when I noticed my X-ray vision and decided this required a fresh beer and the need to find my camera. During this excursion I happened by the kitchen recycle basket and spotted an empty Plum Sauce bottle. It had nice little squirt spout that I could use to insert a length of plastic tube.
Well, filled with Dexron III my pouring problem was solved and another great Canadian invention was born!!
