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Actually, a couple of weeks, but now Doris is running like a champion! It cost bucko bucks spent to fix her up, but she sure seems to be a spirited young lass again. Doris appears ready to belt out a great many more musical treasures, from her State-Of-The-Art 4 Watt AM Transistor Signal Seek Radio, as we drive the Two-Lane-Black-Top highways of this great land. Doris fires right up every day with just one pump of the “Car go fast now” actuator. The only thing that seems a bother is that when cold, until warmed up and since I can’t usually wait 10 minutes for the auto choke to drop, I let her run high for only about a minute. This is also done in neutral to get her tranny fluids flowing too for a better initial shift into Drive, is that after kicking the gas a couple times for the choke to release she idles like a Hemi ‘Cuda. Doris has dual exhaust, and when I bought her Jeff Carter gave me the choice of NOS Imperial Exhaust set up, resonators, mufflers, or no resonators and a set of 1968 NOS MoPar “Hemi” mufflers. Duh, at least for me. I choose the Hemi path. Doris has a very nice deep tone, but now when still cold, after drop from choke to low idle she seems to want to fart out, especially after putting her in gear. I have been “Two Footing” it when cold for the first couple miles until she is either warmed up, or as is usually the case, I have taken the 8 mile drive on I-5 into downtown Seattle, or home from, via Express Lanes at 70-80 mph, traffic permitting and obvious absence of pesky State Patrol. After that when coming off the freeway to a stop she is fine. Definitely set low, as opposed to being previously set a bit higher to smooth out the rumble “Potato, potato” she does now at a stop. You can just feel her rumble, and she gets many more looks of astonishment when people hear her. Mostly kids in rice rockets with “Hi-C” juice cans applied for use as mufflers. I may have to have the idle brought up a bit, but boy, does she move out more responsively now, and I thought she was OK before.
One thing I asked about specifically was the way the transmission did not seem to want to downshift when I slowed to turn a corner, or slowed enough in traffic, in my opinion, to warrant a downshift to second, or low for better torque, and acceleration. I would just do it manually, especially if presented with a slow down, turn and head up a hill. The shop went in and made a few adjustments, and man-o-man, what a difference! From a dead stop, the car won’t even consider shifting into second until I have reached 20 mph, or stopped accelerating e.g. - as in traffic. If I keep her steady at between 15-20 mph, then she will after a couple moments give a decisive shift into second and want to speed up, so I have to let off the gas to maintain her even at above 20, but not any faster. In non-traffic normal driving, she doesn’t shift into third until I have hit at least 40 and then only if I let off the gas, like as if in a 40 mph zone. If I don’t reach the aforementioned speeds, and I let off the gas, there seem to be no engine drag, or braking. She drives very smooth and torquey like this.
Now, when I slow to turn a corner, head up a hill, etc… there is a definite downshift, and she remains in second, or low up to second up the hill, or until the load is relieved, and steady at above 35 mph. Then a hearty solid shift into third, drive, or “Direct”, I think it was actually referred to in Engineering circles. At least that is what I read recently. I believe it was here in a posting?
Anyway, other than the cold idle, which I think is just set a little to low, she seems to perform like a new car again. The shop wants me to bring her in after a couple more weeks to check all the seals to be sure there are no leakage issues. I’ll have them address the idle then. They were probably adjusting her with the car warmed up and set it low at that point, which is to low when cold. Does that sound plausible?
Now, how do I clean up all the seepage from my parking spot in my condominium garage? I asked if when the re-construction on my condominium bldg. was completed, if they were going to power wash the garage and repaint the lines on the floor. The garage was a staging area so there is lots of construction dirt, debris, dust, etc… I was told NO WAY! They will sweep, vacuum, yes. City of Seattle, EPA, not necessarily in that order would charge our association a grand fortune to do a washing. All the wastewater would run down the garage drains into the sewer system, thus very costly environmental fees would need to be coughed up. That leaves me in an odd position, as I need to, want to, clean up my spot. I have lots of cat litter down, but it is soaked through. I will scoop that up into a plastic bag and put in the dumpster (late at night, in secret, wearing camouflage to avoid recognition via the security cameras and a fine for not taking the litter to a waste station), throw down more litter to absorb whatever else it can, but it will still be black stained concrete. In addition, I back into my space, as there is not enough room to swing wide and pull in facing forward. After 4 years of cold starts, and running rich at times, I have at the crux of the garage floor, and the wall I park up against, two very prominent black soot wall markings from the exhaust. How do I clean it all up without the use of a lot of water, soap, scrubbing, which would send it all down the drain nearby? I assumed I would do just that until I leaned of the prohibitive nature of completing such a task. I have the idea that I could absorb as much as possible, and that there might be some sort of enzyme stuff I could spread out and maybe eat the stains. Any suggestions from anyone with experience of this sort are welcome.
When I put my unit on the market I don’t want the visual of a nasty looking parking space in what otherwise is a brand new looking building. Real estate in Seattle is once again at a premium, and the unit above mine, identical, except without hardwood floors, a storage unit in the garage, or a fancy closet organizer just sold for $130K now that construction is in final stages. I am hoping others will sell too before I put mine on the market this fall. I plan to get $150K for a 472 sq ft studio unit. Very realistic in this market and in consideration of what I am paying for my new condominium downtown, which is only 50 sq ft larger, but a LOT more expensive.
I have become a master of squeezing my car into a small middle space between two cars. One, a very expensive BMW, which my good neighbor Doug owns and is very nice about providing as much room for me as possible by keeping his car as far to the left in his space as possible to allow me more room to back into my space. Doug’s car would take the brunt of the Imperials rear bumper if I were not correct in my backup calculations of room available (glad I found that right side outer mirror!). The A-hole who parks on the other side and his crappy little Honda Civic, however, refuses to back into his stall all the way and parks as far forward (at least 5-6 feet from the wall, or almost bumper to bumper with the Imperial’s front end, and to the right in his space as possible, just within his line. This makes it much more difficult to make the cut in the turn backing up, as I have to avoid his outstretched plastic car and clear Doug’s BMW. Doug and I have both, together, approached him to ask his kind cooperation in the utilization of what is seemingly a cavernous space for a Honda, as it affects us all 3 parkers in our particular segment between concrete support columns. This means I need to pull closer to Doug’s Beemer, which squeezes him. This young man, or more accurately, 30 year old teenager with an attitude problem told us to our faces that he hates big old cars and pretentious German cars and slammed the door. In other words, he is doing it on purpose. If I park when he is not home, he will later park so close to me I have to get in on the passenger side. Doug hates him. Hate is such a strong word. I DISLIKE him intensely though. Doug has joked(?) that he would gladly pay any increase in my insurance premium if I just one day “accidentally” miscalculate and just crush the Honda into what its proper position should be within our ever so thoughtful neighbors parking space. What a tempting proposition to say the least. I’d just shrug my shoulders and say “Oops! Guess you need a wrecker and a dustpan. Here’s my insurance agent’s card”, and scamper away!
Well, if anyone has any suggestions on either the idle issue, or environmental “Super Fund Site” cleanup, please write and provide guidance. As for my rude, nasty neighbor, he has his unit on the market now so that problem will become someone else’s soon enough, hopefully.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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