Just as politicians are event driven, so it goes with the restoration of
my snake. Yesterday morning my wife informed me that she could smell
"oil" fumes in the garage while she was packing up her car for work.
Since my sense of smell is about zip, I tried to get her to give me a
better description of what kind of oil smell she was referring to.
"Like at a service station", she sez. I decided I'd better check for
myself. When I opened the door to the garage the smell of gasoline
overcame even my deaden sense. Sure enough, there was a small reddish
puddle on the floor just underneath the left side of the gas tank.
Well, I did have getting the tank boiled out and sealed on my list but
had hope to put it off a bit. Guess I can't put it off any longer. In
fact, since I can't put the car in the garage with a gas leak, and since
the tank is almost full, I'm gonna have to drive the sucker a lot for
the next few days. Darn!!
For the time being I've found a place to put the clunky and awkward to
store hardtop. On the snake. Fall is finally starting to look like
fall; even a bit of rain! I cursed this top all summer. Actually I've
been cursing it for years because there isn't a good place to store it
in my garage. All of the potential overhead and wall spaces are already
filled with other junk. Problem solved 'til next spring.
I'm still trying to track down 3 1/4" air duct. Since the warm weather
seems to be over I thought this had become less urgent, but with the top
on noxious smelling exhaust fumes seem to collect inside the car. It
doesn't help much that the exhaust pipes stick out on both sides just
below doors. So far I haven't found any "proper" duct but I have a good
lead on an alternative. If I can't get the original automotive type,
aircraft parts suppliers sell an equivalent in this size. The problem
with the aircraft stuff (called scat) is that it's a god-awful orange
color. I was thinking I could spray it black with the paint used to
color auto vinyl trim.
Another increasingly important project is is getting the heater back
together. At the moment it's in pieces in the garage. I was planning
on DP-40-ing and Imron-ing the disassembled parts along with a bunch of
other unrelated stuff. I've been putting this off until I had the time
to get the non heater bits preped because I hate making a paint mess
just for a few small pieces. But I suspect the need for cockpit heat
will get pressing soon.
Speaking of the heater, a few months back I asked whether or not anyone
on the list had heard of Delaney Gallay, which is the make of heater in
the snake. I have a copy of the original Shelby American invoice and
included in the accessories list is a "Smith Heater", so I wondered if
perhaps the Delaney Gallay had been installed at a later date. But not
long ago I was looking through my AC restoration guide and came across
an interior picture of a Bristol powered Ace. There, under the dash,
was the twin of my heater with the name Delaney Gallay Delanair clearly
visible. Just goes to show you that even Shelby didn't always get the
facts straight regarding his own product. And you would have thought by
2282 the people working for him would have learned how to spell Smiths.
Something else I hadn't given much thought to is getting the windshield
wipers working. At the moment the wiper arms are off and the spline
drive mechanisms are pushed into the bodywork under the dash. The
question is: do I want to put the wipers back on now that the rainy
season has started? Do I want to drive in the rain and muck up my
beautiful, just refinished wire wheels? What a dilemma!
Roland Dudley
cobra@hpcdcsn.cdc.hp.com
CSX2282
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