1990-1993 (FORMERLY 4 YEARS- NOW CONDENSED TO 3)
Neil Davies:
Loving this Jim. I remember having similar thoughts about timescale when I bought my first crank - if a 1600 is better than a 1300, then a 1776 is great, but why not go for a 2007? And if an 82mm crank is the same price as a 78mm, then that's even better still, right? That crank Sat under my bed for another 4 or 5 years! :D
Nico86:
Great thread, thanks for sharing! (:
Fiatdude:
Remember just biting the bullet and going down to Johnny's Speed and Chrome and buying the 2180 kit in a bunch of boxes and bringing it home around 1980 or so... Only had to call Jim Bangs, Reggie Leslie, Kevin Homar and Mark Christensen once or twice to get it together LMAO -- -- awww those were good times........ Keep the tale coming Jim, I can tell more good stuff is on the way!!!!!
Martin S.:
Wow great writing Jim! I had to google what 'riparian'. Nice style. :)
We made a couple trips down the I5 from Vanc to LA with my beetle in tow during the 80's. Once I had Small Car Specialties install the J tech lowered spindles. Fun times especially when we couldn't figure out how to bleed the brakes and drove the freeways with only front brakes, yikes! The shops were stellar with their service then, and I bet they still are. Keep it coming.
Jim Ratto:
Summer months 1990, Frank Solves the Case
Thanks for comments. I'm glad you guys are enjoying meandering rambling of the good the bad and the very ugly.
So back to the case dilemma and my week and impending weekend being crushed by what I saw at the time as my boss' inability to "cooperate." If I didn't have this 2 liter running in my car this weekend, then it was just going to be another weekend. Work Saturday. Try and find something somewhat legal to do Saturday night that was cheap. More time to look at my car up on stilts in my parent's garage, and more time to re-read article about Rag to Ripper 1800, Galassi's blue Notch, and the article on Berglar.
But my friend Frank mentioned he had a case. I had forgotten about the case he had. Sometime earlier in the year, he heard about some deal on a Claude's 76 crank, where and why now escapes me, but I remember he wanted to build a 94 x 76 motor. All he had at the time was a case, not even a car. One of the cars Frank really admired was also in that Dec '89 Hot VW's it was a green '67 with chrome wheels and nipple caps and some kind of 2.0 liter or bigger motor. I know he dug Berg's car but I remember him going on and on about the green '67 too.
The case was a real sweetheart, especially in context of today, what with seconds, blems, rejects and worn tooling everybody seems to worry about now. This was a AS41 brand new Mexican 8mm stud universal case, fresh from a round trip to Rimco and back. Bored for 94's, stroker clearanced, full-flowed, shuffle-pinned, and still olive green, but twinkling where it had been gone over by Rimco. Secretly I guess Frank had lost steam in his plans to build the stroker, and if I wanted it, the case was mine. Those were the days. A brand new case, not getting auctioned off on the internet. Buddy needs it, there it is. And in 3 years, Frank got his favor back... but that's later. We didn't see monetary value of our stuff, if it came down to a buddy needing it and we weren't using it. It was communal hot rodding at its best.
So I picked up the case from Frank and took it home. I can't believe this, but at 19, after just one engine under my belt I knew to de-burr the sharp corners and chips away in the new case. At my parent's kitchen table. Using a whetstone you'd sharpen a pair of grass shears on. I sat there filing away, for hours, then proceeded to follow up with 400 wet dry. I wish I had pictures on the handwork. I look back at the time I used to take, to do stuff like this, and what I realize is how levels of patience for stuff changes. I had unlimited patience to sit there and basically polish all the webbing etc inside that case, but couldn't be bothered to fix the e-brake that had popped apart a year ago (first gear doubles as a parking brake). Or attach the copper ground strap between the nosecone and the pan. (Why am I constantly replacing throttle cables?). In my mind now it was just a matter of hot-tanking the case and bolting it up with parts inside. Easy.
The next day the case rode in passenger seat of X19 to work with me. Summer mornings in Pleasanton were typically warm and cloudless, but not hot, until 11:00am or so. So targa top stayed in the front trunk. I was flying high, summertime, free bad-ass case riding where a chick should be, targa top stowed, Jane's Addiction live album pouring from the stock hopeless Fiat speakers. Air drumming to "Whores" and living life, on my way to my dream job, gonna get my case cleaned, gonna be running 13's by Sunday this weekend, life was as good as it could get. Mentally I went over and over, the list of stuff that needed to be done. Clean the case, bring home all the bearings, a gasket set ("I know that number... 111198007A, I'm a parts genius"), get my heads bored for 94's, hell- I'll spring for new windage pushrod tubes. Case of non-detergent Kendall. Probably put new cradle mounts in...... Crap... exhaust. I don't have a merged exhaust. And Buggy House didn't stock them at the time. Son of a b-
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page