Long shot on ebay.

The emblems I was watching ended while I was away playing horseshoes. I put in a bid before I left and was the high bidder with $4.00 left on my max bid. I checked when I got home and found I won the emblems. My bid hadn't changed so I was the last bidder too. Anyway the emblems will look nice being a pair of NOS items. One of the pulleys ends tomorrow around 8:30 pm. Still no bidders on either one. The weather is expected to go down hill too. Another 4 to 6 inches of liquid happiness by Monday night. 4 letter expletives galore.

More new stuff.

The fender "El Camino" emblems came in. The GM Restorations parts still sealed bag is marked 71 to 75 emblems. They look real nice. I put them against the fender and the middle peg is about an inch off the hole. I compared the one I had to the new one and the peg is on opposite sides of the letter "a" in Camino. The end pegs fit. I got the drill and now the new ones fit too. The lettering covers the old hole. I installed the new speakers while I was already frozen. High 20's gusting to 40 for 2 days.The new speakers are small but came with their own mounting brackets that fit the existing holes. The wiring pigtail that came with the units is way too short so I cut and soldered the connectors to longer speaker wire. That meant removing the speakers so I could plug the wires into the speakers. I found some repro. wheel well trim on Amazon. $40.00 cheaper than the other places. I also found a 3 groove pulley on ebay and will try to get it as the a/c compressor runs off the 3rd groove. There's a pair of 350 emblems I'm watching too. Maybe today will be warmer.

Tachometer.

The tach arrived today and I spent an hour installing it. The temp. is in the low 30's and the wind is gusting to 40 mph. I found an unused heater wire and it's 12 volts with the switch on so I used it for the tach power.Mounting it on the steering column was a treat as there isn't enough room and the shifter part takes up most of the exposed portion of the column. I attached it at about the 8 o'clock position so when I put it in drive the tach swings up into position. I started the engine and the tach came alive with believable readings. The new speakers came in too but it's too cold to put them in place.

Almost paint.

We decided on a color red for the El Camino and I made a call and got into the system at the auto body shop in New London. I expect a call in a few weeks. I started getting the trim pieces together and some are missing. I figure on having the shop cover the holes in the fenders and not bother with the emblems. Way too expensive to buy from Year One.

Ordering more stuff.

I went through the Year One book and made a list of things for the El Camino. A radio, chrome strips and other odds and ends. The speedometer isn't acting right either. I took the cable asm. apart and it's free and lubed. It acted similiar before the new dash so I figure it's the cable somehow. I ran the car around town a bit yesterday and the heater works fine. Without any weather stripping at all it's quite breezy inside. The new shocks firm up the ride but it still rides better than the other cars.

New shocks.

I went on line the other day and found some air adjustable shocks for the El Camino. 66 and change a piece. I called and asked if they came with the lines to connect them to a fill port. No they said. Where can I get the kit , I dont know they said. I called Richards Service and he got me a pair with the installation kit for 80 bucks. NAPA. Same part number as the Monroe shocks I found on line. I installed them and put the air to them to raise the back end to where it should be. Getting close to paint.

Balancing act.

I've been tinkering with balancing the Fox .29 and .35 stunt engines. They have an iron piston and no counter weighted crank shaft to speak of. Lately most folks say to balance the prop. I say leave it alone and put it to use. The late Duke Fox published a sheet on hopping up the .36 engine. He recommended removing material from the crank shaft near the crank pin. That says to me the little counter weight is too small for the piston/ rod combo. So adding weight to the counterweight is the way to go. Well that is not easy to do. I figure that the props heavy blade in line with the counterweight will hep a bit. I also sawed a prop weight from 2 ounces to 1.1 ounces for plane balance and put it on the prop balancer and found the heavy spot. I put that on in line with the counter weight too. The engine ran much smoother. I will remove more weight from the prop weight and see if it runs smoother yet. Most modern engines, including the newer Foxes have a machined off area near the crank pin for balance purposes. They vibrate but dont have iron pistons to contend with. So they run smoother without any other mods. Still the heavy blade trick will make them run smoother too. I bench tested the engine and used a glass of water near the engine to show vibration. The fuel in the tank had a few ripples but nothing to affect the running of the engine.

January thaw and dirty snow.

The weather man was right on the money with the forecast. I loaded up the car and headed for the dog track. I flew the newest plane in the fleet. I got in two flights and came home for some trimming. The plane flew right wing high and I tried to take the warp out with the heat gun. I loaded that plane and the Magician and went back to the dog track. The de warping didn't do much so I hooked up the Magician. I had tried to get the engine more in balance by grinding some of the piston skirt off but that was the wrong thing to do. I had a piston and cylinder from a .29 and it fit the .35 case and that is what I have in the Magician. The only difference between the two engines is the bore size. I started it and launched it. It wasn't very fast on take off but once in the air it picked up speed and flew quite well. I think I'll put that engine in the other plane and put a real .35 in the Magician. I'm going to call the other plane "Sorcerer's Apprentice". The fuse. is a copy of the Magician as is the tail feathers. The wing is constant chord with the number 5 rib from the Primary Force making the airfoil. It's got 510 sq. in. and weighs in the low 30 ounce range. Much lighter than the Magician. I think the Magician can fly better with less nose weight. I have a 2 ounce heavy hub on the engine and don't have a one ounce. I do have another 2 ounce that is shaped like a cup. After looking at it I figured I could hacksaw some of the cup part off and lighten it a bit. Then I got the idea to check the balance of the new part and use it to balance the engine some more. I have removed some weight from the crank shaft that has smoothed the engine some. I put the heavy blace of the prop in line with the crank counter weight and that helped too. I found the heavy side of the new weight and installed it on the heavy blade side. I haven't tried it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

We have heat without the stink.

I put the anti freeze back into the radiator and started the El Camino this afternoon. I tweaked the electric choke a bit to keep it running when cold and it helped. I backed it out of the garage and warmed it up for a bit before turning on the heater. Warm air came out and all is well. I found a leaking fuel line and tightened it and checked all screw clamps on the engine. I called Vintage Air and told them about the excess #10 a/c hose and that I wanted a new fitting for the compressor end so I can shorted the hose. One of the pictures shows how the hose snakes around the engine bay on it's way to the compressor. The black paint I used on the dash isn't the same as the black on the dash pad. Somehow I didn't get the picture of the left side of the dash to post.

More El Camino stuff.

I got the dash installed today. I had trouble lining it up at first but it went in close enough to get the instruments screwed in. Then I had to unscrew the instruments to get the shift indicator installed. Then the fuel gage didn't work. I removed the bad one and installed the original. That took about an hour. Then the headlight switch had a bent shaft so I used the other one. Then the dash lights wouldn't work. Another half hour until I figured clockwise was off and c.c. is on. The glove box light was a pain but worked when I found a bulb for it. Then I noticed the old glove box door has maint. info on it so I changed the door inserts. Now the door stop lever is missing from the new one and I tried to install the one from the old one but the screw holes are stripped. I got some J B Weld curing in the holes so tomorrow I'll finish that. The engine started and ran, the lights work two good signs. All in all I spent 4 hours installing the dash and final routing the vent hoses. The new heater worked too.

Update

I'm closing in on completing the heater installation in the El Camino. It snowed again yesterday and now it's too cold to do any work on it. I had to modify the compressor bracket to get the pulleys to line up. I didn't think that should be the case. The hose from the a/c unit to the compressor is 2 feet too long and I'm thinking about getting a new end and cutting the hose to size and having Bob Barry crimp it back together. I also have a 4 foot hard line left over. A mistake in packing as it doesn't show up on the directions anywhere. I hope I found the right wire to tap into for the computer power. I still have to run the duct hoses and install the dash board. I found that the other hose from the heater to the condenser is better being routed between the fender and wheel well after the fact. I pulled it through and then had to remove the battery again to connect it to the hard line. The directions are lacking at best. I have been plugging the bypass port on my Fox .35's to get rid of the 'burp'. I cleaned the port and put some JB weld in it. I heated the case and JB and let it flow out and harden. I lightened a piston and found out why it's so long. The intake and exhaust ports are now open to the outside and the engine wont run like that. But if it did it would be close to balanced. I can't just but a piston I have to get the cylinder liner too as they are a set.

Installing the new heater.

I got to work on the El Camino heater for a change. The directions are pretty good but knowing the vehicle saves a lot of work. To install the condenser in front of the radiator they want you to remove the radiator. I only removed the hood latch asm. and slipped the condenser into place between the grill and radiator. The a/c hoses are real stiff and wont twist and don't like to bend either. After attaching them to the heater they had to bend 90 degrees in a short distance to get the heater into place. It took an hour to get it bolted to the firewall. The hoses run through the side wall and then through an old air hole under the fender. These holes have new caps to put the hoses through and to cover the holes. I have most of the hard stuff installed and compressor and wiring to go. Then it's re install the dash and fender well.