The Inheritance

I had made mention five years ago of the passing of my father. Also on other previous posts, I've made mention of his project car of the last several years, a 1962 Studebaker Gran Turisimo Golden Hawk.

He wanted me to become it's owner and curator on his passing. He had told me to get someone to draw up plans to construct a garage on our lot, and he would pay for the construction, so it would have a protected area to reside. I never got to that point, and I don't know if he had a realistic idea of what the price would be to have it constructed. The idea hasn't left my mind, but I digress.

After my dad's passing, the older had moved in with my mom for quite a while. After he had lived with her, helping her with meals and driving her around to shop and doctors appointments, he relocated to Colorado, and she's been on her own for a while. My older sister has been trying to get her into an assisted living facility for a while, and she just last month got her into a really nice place. She is now moving to sell off her house, so the Studebaker had to be moved out. It had been sitting for almost 5 years, and the battery was dead. I took the battery out of the Falcon, and got my tools and a can of quick start. I was there on a Sunday with several friends who were helping move out some other personal effects. With the fresh battery and quick start, it would fire readily, but wouldn't run. One of my friends headed over to a gas station and bought a couple gallons of gas, which we put most of into the tank, and primed the carburetor with some of the rest. It would run for a bit with the carb primed, but stalled out. One of my friends was keeping an eye under the hood, and said it was leaking. I took a look, and asked where, and he indicated the fuel pump. I was out of time for that day, so I came back the next day with the intention of buying a new fuel pump on the way. When I stopped to get it, they didn't have any compatible pumps in stock. I bought a length of fuel hose (I had the thought that it had old hose on both sides of the fuel pump, that could be all it would need) got the address of a hub store with stock, then continued to my mom's house. I jacked up the car, and checked the hoses. Both of them looked fine, but I loosened the clamps and re tightened them, then primed the carb again, and fired it up. This time, however, it stayed running with no issue. I checked, and there were no leaks!!!

My mom had said that it had cooling issues the last times it had been run. This was news to me. Running it in the driveway with the hood open, it didn't get that hot at all. I drove over to a gas station to fill up, and it got hotter, but did fine on that stretch. While heading to the freeway in red light green light traffic, it got up to the higher range of the gauge, but as soon as it was moving along, it came down to an acceptable level. When I was off the freeway again, it started heating up again. I went ahead and headed up our hill. Around halfway, it started hesitating and cutting out, with the gauge climbing. Almost to the top, it stopped pulling, and I threw it into neutral, revved it a few times, and tried going again. It didn't go, so I gave it some more, and laid a patch of rubber and made it the rest of the way. On the way down, I can smell the coolant boiling off, and when I get it down by where I wanted to park it, it was steaming good. Wouldn't go when I tried to back it up, so I left it kind of slanty. A few hours later, I headed back out and backed it into place.

It was terrifying to drive it at night!!! It tracks perfectly straight, but when you're doing any turning, it has that old floaty power steering disconnected feeling. It has that tail dragger stance, so the inside mirror doesn't show much. A choice I never much approved of, my dad had tinted all the windows except the windshield limo black, so visibility isn't great. The outside mirror on the drivers' side has a loose pivot, so it's always going out of whack.

The tint on the drivers' side was damaged by the window mechanism and the slide, so I've removed that, as well as the tint from both of the wind wings. The passenger side front window is next. I've ordered a high flow 160° thermostat, to see if that's all it takes. If not, I'm considering an electric water pump. These are the main things that need addressing, but there's a lot of other things. The windows were rolled down while it was being stored, with a nice cover over it, but mice or rats got into it, and it's smelly and a mess in there.

The thing is a rolling work of art!!! Every time I'm out working on it, one (or several!!!) of my neighbors will stop and ask about it, or talk to me about it. I'd get some of that while driving the Falcon or the Sky, but this is to a much greater degree!!!

Happy Get Day II

Happy 2nd Get Day to Sidney!!!

I caught him waking up while he was up on the perch. The perch has become his regular afternoon napping spot, often with the toe beans hanging over the edge!!!

Pictures was kind enough to make a collage of the day we got him!!! Every picture from the post when we got him was included in the collage!!!

Back when I had my broken foot, I wasn't taking showers at first, so I had moved a chair into the bathroom to sponge bath myself. Of course, Sid was sure it was meant to be a new napping spot for himself.

He's still very much a people cat, and very friendly and playful. He's not much of a lap cat, though, with one exception. Whenever I'm sitting in the bathroom, he gets up on my lap!!! Always starts out snuggly and lovey, with lots of purrs and licks. But almost always, the licks progress to nibbles and bites, and grabbing on with his fore paws!!! He's considerate with his grabbing on, though, it's always with his claws retracted, and he's always purring while he play fights. Bites are one of his love languages!!!