Hi folks,
Thought I'd drop a line to let you know how the Solvang show went. I'm
sure many others will give us their experiences as well.
I met up with Michael Carion ('67.5 2000), Fred Katz ('70 1600), Eric
Armstrong ('66 1600), and Ron and Kris Igoe ('70 2000) in South San
Francisco and we headed out on 280 to 101 to Hollister where we met up
with Ken Pletcher and his Datster ('69 2000).
We took Hwy 25 south from Hollister - an incredible road! This road has
been written up in Road & Track and lived up to its reputation. Nice two
lane blacktop through rolling hills and tight twisties. Nothing quite
like a line of six roadsters driving aggressively. I had a heck of a time
keeping up in my '64 1500.
Shortly after getting back on 101 south we stopped for lunch in the
middle of nowhere. While we were eating, a guy drove up and asked "You
guys have those roadsters? I have a bunch of parts.." Skeptically we
drove to his house. One side of his house was a huge garage with a '66
1600, a beautiful early 50's Olds convertible and some muscle cars. In
the other garage was a '65 1500 and in yet another was a project Cobra
replica. On the side of his house were 4-5 roadsters, and another garage
full of roadster parts. We all dug through his parts and got some nice
pieces.
We hauled on down the road to Buellton, where my car refused to restart.
Fred and Michael were able to coax it back to life and it sputtered to
the hotel. The next morning it started but was running really rough. It
died twice on the way to the show - once in the middle of Solvang.
The show was great. 47 cars - the largest Solvang show yet. Engine swaps
got a lot of attention again this year. Ron Hamilton and his wife had
their two FJ20 powered cars, and a guy from Modesto had a really nice
installation of a KA24 from a 240 SX. The quality of cars gets better
each year, and it gets tougher to decide which car to vote for. I had it
a little easier in the 1500 class as there were only three cars, Joe
Roach took first and I got second. (there is huge gap between our cars!).
I'm in real trouble if someone shows up with another restored 1500.
After the fun run I started asking around for help on my car. There
really is no better place to have roadster trouble than at a show with 46
other roadsters around. Big thanks to Bob Moranda for loaning me his
tools and helping me diagnose the problems. The engine seemed to be
skipping. When I pulled the plug wire to number 2, it made no difference.
Pulling the others made the engine stumble a bit. So we began to fear the
worst - valve trouble or hole in the piston. Fred provided his
compression tester, and the results were low, but consistant 110 - 125
across all four. There was spark (tiny, but there) and pulling the valve
cover showed that the valves were doing their part.
Finally Jesse (didn't get his last name) performed a "laying on of hands"
on the carbs. The front choke spring was broken and the choke was
sticking half open. After about 20 minutes of adjustments the car was
purring like a kitten. I don't think the car has ever run this well! Just
to show the difference - on the way down I got about 22-23 MPG, on the
way back I got 29-30 MPG! The car just hummed happily all the way back to
San Francisco on the 101.
I posted some pictures at http://www.shiftco.com/solvang99/
I didn't take too many this year - I hope everyone else did. I'd
especially like to see some of the KA24 installation!
Leigh Brooks
San Francisco
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