patrick66
Old Man with a Hat
...and had a great time! My '66 has been driven very little since 2000 - a little over 1,600 miles is all. Nearly 400 of that was back in 2010 for a film shoot, where I took it to two different location shots. After that, I started having little things happen on the car (not the fault of the movie shoot - I was with the car all of the time!), and so I parked it in the shop, while paying attention to other projects. Over the last twelve months, I've done quite a bit on it (clock conversion, rear springs, new gas tank/sender/lines, stereo, front brakes and more!). Today was its first road trip of any distance in nearly five years! I was a little apprehensive, since it had sat for quite a while...
Checked all the fluids, fired the Coronet up, and hit the street. I got onto the on-ramp to the freeway, and the left front wheel cover decides to leave the car! I'm not stopping to run across the freeway to retrieve it, so it's going to be there for a bit! On I go. The fuel gauge isn't registering, despite the new sender, and it DID work before...hmmm. My speedo needle is now stuck at 75 mph, but the odo continues to work. Oh, and the tach sending unit is acting up. Terrific, four things in four minutes. This could be fun. Right.
My son and I drive the 25 miles one way to the c-n-c event. There are anywhere from 300 - 500 cars and trucks that show up for this. After 7:15, parking gets to be a challenge! We found a great spot on a corner, but amongst a bunch of newer tuner cars, a Viper, and a cool '68 Mustang. We walk around a bit and check things out. This is where you are going to find all the Lotus, Lambo, Ferrari and Corvettes in town, it seems. I counted over 20 Lotuses of various years! I don't think the local Lotus dealer stocks that many on his lot! Lots of late-model stuff. Challengers, Mustangs and Camaros all over...very few old ones, though. My Coronet was one of maybe eight old Mopars, period! A nice '66 Hemi Satellite, a beater '66 New Yorker, and a cool '52 Dodge pickup were among the other old ones present. A pretty nice time! I ran into several car buddies there. A lot of the old car guys were at the big car swap meet in Wichita today, which explains a lot of the lack of the older stuff.
Now for the trip home. Since I was not at all positive about how much fuel I had in the tank, I stopped to fill up. Took quite a bit to fill it, as I input nearly 17 gallons. This is the point where I discover a fuel leak, and a pretty substantial leak, at that! WTF? At that point, I started the car up and hit the road! It was leaking at either the filler tube seal or the sending unit; I'll find out when I get home. Oh, and I now know the fuel gauge DOES work, so I made the trip to the CnC event on fumes! I get the Coronet home and into the shop. There is a pretty good dripdripdrip going on, to which I immediately traced to the sending unit seal. So, with all the doors in the shop open and a large drip pan under the tank, I'll let it leak until it gets to the base of the sending unit opening. So, there are a few things yet to do today on the car. It's a nice day, with the forecast to 70*F, so I'm happy.
There are two BIG cars-n-coffee get-togethers in the OKC area per month. One is the first Saturday of the month in a mall parking lot, and lasts from 7-11 am. It's held 12 months of the year, regardless of the weather. The other is on the third Saturday of the month, and is held from April to October.
My yellow Coronet 500 is pictured
Pics:
Checked all the fluids, fired the Coronet up, and hit the street. I got onto the on-ramp to the freeway, and the left front wheel cover decides to leave the car! I'm not stopping to run across the freeway to retrieve it, so it's going to be there for a bit! On I go. The fuel gauge isn't registering, despite the new sender, and it DID work before...hmmm. My speedo needle is now stuck at 75 mph, but the odo continues to work. Oh, and the tach sending unit is acting up. Terrific, four things in four minutes. This could be fun. Right.
My son and I drive the 25 miles one way to the c-n-c event. There are anywhere from 300 - 500 cars and trucks that show up for this. After 7:15, parking gets to be a challenge! We found a great spot on a corner, but amongst a bunch of newer tuner cars, a Viper, and a cool '68 Mustang. We walk around a bit and check things out. This is where you are going to find all the Lotus, Lambo, Ferrari and Corvettes in town, it seems. I counted over 20 Lotuses of various years! I don't think the local Lotus dealer stocks that many on his lot! Lots of late-model stuff. Challengers, Mustangs and Camaros all over...very few old ones, though. My Coronet was one of maybe eight old Mopars, period! A nice '66 Hemi Satellite, a beater '66 New Yorker, and a cool '52 Dodge pickup were among the other old ones present. A pretty nice time! I ran into several car buddies there. A lot of the old car guys were at the big car swap meet in Wichita today, which explains a lot of the lack of the older stuff.
Now for the trip home. Since I was not at all positive about how much fuel I had in the tank, I stopped to fill up. Took quite a bit to fill it, as I input nearly 17 gallons. This is the point where I discover a fuel leak, and a pretty substantial leak, at that! WTF? At that point, I started the car up and hit the road! It was leaking at either the filler tube seal or the sending unit; I'll find out when I get home. Oh, and I now know the fuel gauge DOES work, so I made the trip to the CnC event on fumes! I get the Coronet home and into the shop. There is a pretty good dripdripdrip going on, to which I immediately traced to the sending unit seal. So, with all the doors in the shop open and a large drip pan under the tank, I'll let it leak until it gets to the base of the sending unit opening. So, there are a few things yet to do today on the car. It's a nice day, with the forecast to 70*F, so I'm happy.
There are two BIG cars-n-coffee get-togethers in the OKC area per month. One is the first Saturday of the month in a mall parking lot, and lasts from 7-11 am. It's held 12 months of the year, regardless of the weather. The other is on the third Saturday of the month, and is held from April to October.
My yellow Coronet 500 is pictured
Pics:
