Sunday, February 2, 2020
Today I drove down to Lomita for a visit with little brother Mike.We went to San Pedro and took the tour of BB #61, the Battleship Iowa. It's a big old thing, very impressive. Photos are here. After seeing the ship we were going to eat at a nearby British pub, but it was closed due to plumbing problems. The second choice, a seafood place, had shut down its dining room in favor of its noisy sports bar. So we went back to Lomita and ate at a Chinese place called the Tasty Noodle House. I'm glad we ended up going there, because the food was excellent.
Monday, February 3, 2020
Saturday and Sunday fooled me into forgetting that it can get cold here in February. The 55º temperature felt a lot colder in the strong breeze. I had planned to walk down to a shopping center about a mile away, but that wind persuaded me to drive with the heater on. Today's highlight was a visit by Michael C Ford. Herbie and I have known Michael for about fifty years, and it was fun for the three of us to get together again.
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
 This morning I rode with Herb through the Santa Monica Mountains down to Malibu. I lived out here for over forty years, but I don't remember ever being on Kanan Road before. |
 The Metro line in the Valley is a bus way built on a former railroad right of way. It goes to North hollywood where it connects with the subway. |
 In the afternon I took the Metro line into Hollywood to buy a couple of rolls of film. The prices at this station on Sunset Boulevard aren't the lowest I've seen here, but they're lower than most. |
 A transit cop said none of the subway stations have restrooms, so a lot of peeing goes on in the stairwells. But you can go to the end of the line at Union Station and use the restrooms there. It was built in the Age of Steam, a more civlized time. |
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Today's adventure was a visit to downtown Los Angeles. Photos are here.
Thursday, February 6, 2020
First thing this morning I was off to see the Nethercutt Collection. I didn't take pictures of everything, but here's some of it.
Friday, February 7, 2020
Today we took a drive down to Malibu and drove around the new Pepperdine campus. It's very big and impressive.
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Today's adventure was a reunion of old Pepperdine Grads.
Sunday, February 9, 2010
Today I went nowhere, just loafed and played online. My dinner with friends was cancelled by a sick baby, so Herb ordered in some Mexican food and and we watched the Oscar show.
Monday, February 10, 2020
Lots of driving today for not traveling. First was a drive to Pasadena for lunch with old friends Joe and Susan. From there I drove to Hawthorn to inflict a visit on old friend Dan. Then down to Lomita to take brother Mike to dinner on his birthday. By the time I got back here to Woodland Hills in the evening I had covered well over a hundred miles. In a couple of days I'll be covering a lot more than that as I head for home.
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Home repair became my business today. The towel rack in Herb's bathroom was falling off the wall because the plastic anchors were too weak to hold the weight of a wet towel. The cure was a pair of toggle bolts. I got the 3/16" size so they would be plenty sturdy. But the holes in the mounting brackets weren't quite big enough for the bolts. I hoped that somebody at the hardware store would be able to just enlarge the two holes for me. But all the lady who waited on me knew to do was sell me a small file, so I enlarged the holes myself. It didn't take much, and now the rack is securely in place.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Old pal Michael C Ford, whom Herbie and I have known since the sixties, made a personal appearance in Herb's living room this afternoon and we all entertained ourselves with how witty and brilliant we are. In the evening I went to Pasadena for dinner with Derrick and Emily Pang, fellow Model T folks. My drive there was a little over thirty miles, and took an hour and twenty minutes. I'm happy to live where I no longer have to deal with that kind of traffic. Anyway, we had a nice visit and a swell dinner at the Korean barbecue. Driving back to Woodland Hills later in the evening was a bit more reasonable and took less than an hour.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Travel day, headed home. After the first hour in L.A. traffic I was able to move right along and had no further adventures. I finally stopped to snooze in a rest area between Moriarty and Clines Corners in New Mexico.
Friday, February 14, 2020
Day 2 on the road. I got an early start, before sunup. A light fog east of Tucumcari prompted me to slow down from 75 mph to only 65, but it had lifted by the time I got to Texas and I was able to do the limit until I got to the middle of the panhandle. There I found snow on the road and slowed down again for that. By the time I got to Oklahoma the snow was gone and the roads were dry and I could drive the limit. I arrived in Arkansas city and picked up the mail at the post office a little after four. When I got home Shorty expressed her approval at seeing me again, and after a couple of weeks roughing it in the garage, at bed time she was eager to get upstairs and sleep on my bed with an electric blanket under her.
Saturday, February 15, 2020
When I stepped on the scales this morning I was pleasantly surprised. In spite of several restaurant meals during my trip I didn't gain any weight. In fact I weighed a pound less than when I left home. I'm happy. Much of today was devoted to the Ruckstell rear axle I want to install on my 1923 touring car. I need to figure out what parts I need for it and get them while I can. Glen Chaffin, who manufactures those parts and many others for Model T's, is 85 and wants to retire. Not finding a buyer to take over the business, he's selling the stock and closing down, so I need to get my Ruckstell parts while I can.
Sunday, February 16, 2020
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Monday, February 17, 2020
Today's main job was hauling my desktop iMac and the Kodak printer to the computer shop in Winfield so they can try to make the printer work with the new operating system. They already have my Epson scanner and will try to do the same for it. I couldn't get either one to work with the computer's new OS. I also asked the guy to see if he can find a user-friendly program for editing web pages. I've been using this old laptop for website maintenance because it has KompoZer, which won't work on the iMac's new OS. It's wonderful how "improvements" make things more difficult.
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
The compressor in my shop building has gone wimpy, putting out no more than 70 psi. That's not enough pressure for running air tools, and barely enough to air up clincher tires, so today I set about removing the compressor from the tank and replacing it with the one from the barn. I've always used the barn compressor for sand blasting, but I can easily move that operation and do my blasting behind the shop. Just switching one compressor with another sounds simple enough, but I spent most of the day on it and will have to finish tomorrow. This is one of those jobs you have to do in order to do other things. I need enough pressure to use an impact wrench to get the flywheel off my mower so I can replace the ring gear and have a working mower when the grass starts to grow. Spring is only a month away, so I need to get the mowing equipment ready.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Done! I finished installing the compressor from the barn on the tank in the shop building and now I have plenty of pressure to use the air tools. I used the impact wrench to remove the big bolt from the mower's flywheel, but I'll need to adapt a puller to remove the wheel so I can get the ruined ring gear off. That will be tomorrow's project.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
While looking for something else, today I found a puller I can use on that mower. It just needs a bolt to fit it. So when I went to town I forgot to take it along to find the right size bolt to fit it. Sigh... Oh well, tomorrow will be good enough. Other activities today were some cleaning up and putting away in the shop, painting the new top socket for the runabout, and painting a pair of engine pan reinforcements. That last job included wire brushing off the old paint, cleaning with muriatic acid, and etching with phosphoric acid to make the new paint stick. Meanwhile, winter continues outside and I'm really looking forward to spring and warmer days.
Friday, February 21, 2020
A little of this, a little of that. I like to use two dollar bills, so I went to the bank in Winfield and bought more. I finished painting the new top socket for the runabout. I put the two engine pan reinforcements in the oven to bake before applying another coat of paint. I bought some wedges to fix hammers with loose heads. I bought a new bolt for the puller. Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to actually using it.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
In the morning I shot the final coat of paint on the pan braces, washed oil and chewed-up lining fuzz out of the oil pan, checked out the auction in Winfield and found nothing to keep me there, and finally used the puller to remove the flywheel from the mower. Next week I'll take it to the small engne repair guy and see if he has a replacement with a good ring gear. In the afternoon I fired up the chain saw and spent the rest of the day cutting, splitting, and hauling in wood. After pigging out at Pizza Ranch, I went to see Call of the Wild. I've read it, but after 65 years I couldn't tell you whether the movie follows the book. I don't think I've ever seen Harrison Ford in a bad movie, and I liked this one.
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Today I installed the new top socket on the runabout and repaired the top where wind had whipped some of the tacks out. I bought some upholstery needles and thread, and will use them to take some slack out of the top so it won't suffer any more of that wind-whipping damage. I also did some much-needed cleaning up in the shop.
Monday, February 24, 2020
Mike Bender came to check out the runabout and see why it's lacked the zip I thought it should have, especially climbing hills. When we did a compression test it didn't take him long to diagnose a head gasket leak, and when we pulled the head we found out why. The head bolts were way too easy to remove, meaning that after last year's engine work I failed to torque the bolts sufficiently. It's a bit embarrassing that the problen was something as stupid and simple as that, but it's also a relief to know that it will be an easy fix. After Mike left I discovered a new mystery having nothing to do with old cars. Road apples and hoof prints in the driveway behind the house suggest a pony has been there. Somebody could have ridden it there, but so far from the road I think it's more likely that the critter was wandering around the neighborhood on its own.
 The head gasket showed evidence
of a leak between #3 and #4.
That explains the lack of power. |
 The small hoof prints suggest a
pony, not a horse.
|
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Today's project was installing a new head gasket in the runabout.
 If the engine was out of the car
I'd just pick up the head and set it on.
With it in the car I decided to go easy on my elderly back. |
 A pair of studs will line up the
head correctly as it goes on.
|
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Yesterday was a total waste, and so was today. After all of that work yesterday the car wouldn't start. Not even a cough or a sputter. I figured that I must not have used enough copper coat to seal the new head gasket. So today I pulled the head again, cleaned everything up, sprayed lots of copper coat on the gasket, and reinstalled the head. The car still won't start. Not even a cough or a sputter. I am absolutely disgusted. Two days wasted and nothing to show for it.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
This morning I tested my compression tester and found it working properly. So I used it on the runabout and found readings of 36, 20, 13 and 16 where 45 is acceptable. Looks like I need to fix some valves. This afternoon the outdoor temperature climbed up above 40º, so I spent a couple of hours taking the mower off my mowing tractor and loading the tractor on the trailer. Tomorrow I'll take it to Deiter if he's home and hope he can have it running right when mowing season arrives.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Today when I went down to the woods to fetch some kindling I found the place wetter than ever. The little stream in the bottom of the draw has more water in it than the last time I was down there a couple of weeks ago. East of the draw, on higher ground, there are a couple of old buffalo wallows. They both have water standing in them. I've lived here since 1985, and I've never seen the place stay wet all through summer, fall, and winter like this. In the afternoon I hauled the Allis B to Dieter Mitchell's place for him to get it in shape for mowing season, and on the way home I stopped at the small engine shop and picked up a replacement flywheel with a good ring gear for my Dixon mower. Mowing season will start pretty soon, and I intend to be ready.
| Saturday, February 29, 2020 As February ends the temperatures are creeping up, with highs most days above 60º. The mornings are still chilly, and I spent the first part of today in the shop pulling the head and manifolds from the runabout engine, preparing to work on the valves and (I hope) correct the low compression. In the afternoon I installed the "new" flywheel on the Dixon mower and put a charger on the battery. Tomorrow I'll try it out and maybe even do a little mowing on a lawn that I didn't finish before the mower quit last fall. Tonight's movie, after a tasty meal of carnitas at La Fiesta, was The Invisible Man. I've never read the book by H. G. Wells, but I assume the only thing the movie shares with it is the title and the basic premise of a character becoming invisible. At the start I didn't care for it because it was so dark. I think there were some opening titles, but they were so dark I couldn't read them (if they were really there), and scenes were so dark it was hard to see what was happening in some of them. I suspect this was a problem with the theater projection and not the movie, as it later improved. At first the pace seemed very slow, and I found my attention drifting, but somewhere along the way it grabbed my attention and moved right along, with good performances by Elisabeth Moss and several actors I didn't know. |
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