Went & did some tire kicking

[Tomeal]

Even if this pushed my car on to the back burner again we will still have something to show what he learned.

Dont completely back burner your car. He will still learn alot from watching you make desicions on your car.

 

[mclellan83]

I did set things in motion when is was brought home after his birth wit surrounding him with car stuff. Just before he was 2 he was starting to ID car brands by logos. Over time figuring out what was what with models. His car was supose to be a surprise for to to make up for my brother-in-law giving him or free a junky go cart that he promissed to haul over to the house that ended up never showing up & was sold to a total stranger. Best was when he did go with me to look at it just to inform the seller the car was missing a pedal cause it was an automatic. This is a great project for both of us to share as I never had anything like this with my own dad as he had his own vices he was more worried about but I did have a good friend I ran with whose dad taught me about cars & helped me become a gearhead. Even if this pushed my car on to the back burner again we will still have something to show what he learned.

My dad was very frustrated once I started wrenching on the car cause I always have these grand ideas but never have been that good with my hands, my dad used to try and show me and have me be the tool runner. But he would get frustrated watching me fumble it and just take over, so many of my early wrenching on my Saturn SL2 started with me screwing it up and having him step in to take over and do it right. When I was really young before my dad blew out his back they were using our deck as an engine hoist and pulling motors from the caddy wagon we had at one point and a bunch of other stuff, at that point I wasn't really interested in the wrenching side. I enjoyed looking at cars and appreciating the beauty of them, and my dad always used to say I would tell him to trade his 87 SS Aerocoupe for anything that drove by that struck my fancy which he obviously didn't appreciate. So once I got the GTO and would do things with buddies to it he would say of course you are interested now, it stuck out the time a buddy helped me pull my rear end and swap it for the 3.91 Trutrac I have in it now he made the comment of using the deck as a hoist and I didn't care then. But I totally get now why my dad would get so frustrated, he was dealing with so much pain in every day life to then go above and beyond to try and wrench some to get me into it was something that was lost on me then but is appreciated now.

 

[pagrunt]

My dad was very frustrated once I started wrenching on the car cause I always have these grand ideas but never have been that good with my hands, my dad used to try and show me and have me be the tool runner. But he would get frustrated watching me fumble it and just take over, so many of my early wrenching on my Saturn SL2 started with me screwing it up and having him step in to take over and do it right. When I was really young before my dad blew out his back they were using our deck as an engine hoist and pulling motors from the caddy wagon we had at one point and a bunch of other stuff, at that point I wasn't really interested in the wrenching side. I enjoyed looking at cars and appreciating the beauty of them, and my dad always used to say I would tell him to trade his 87 SS Aerocoupe for anything that drove by that struck my fancy which he obviously didn't appreciate. So once I got the GTO and would do things with buddies to it he would say of course you are interested now, it stuck out the time a buddy helped me pull my rear end and swap it for the 3.91 Trutrac I have in it now he made the comment of using the deck as a hoist and I didn't care then. But I totally get now why my dad would get so frustrated, he was dealing with so much pain in every day life to then go above and beyond to try and wrench some to get me into it was something that was lost on me then but is appreciated now.

It wou;d of been nice if my dad was half as much involved like that. The biggest thing he was involed with was taking my & my brother (older than me) to pick out a car for us both to drive, It was between the Monte & a '78 Impala 4 door. After that It was more or less me being the mechanic. He might of done brakes as needed but that was it I should of relized he wasn't a car guy when I was learning how to do the rocker replacement on his Custom Cruiser from my buddy I ran with when I was 14 & he was 13. But thnaks to him I was able to see what it a scattered input shaft bearing looked like when he borrowed my '72 & blowing it out dumping the clutch showing off to girls he was trying to pick up (while still married), what happens when you don't shift but just put the transmission into drive in a TH350 with a manual valve body that I told him he had to shift it & the difference between a loose torque converter & a tossed rod when my & the buddy swapped aout a good straight 6 for a replaement 267 cause he never thought about having it looked at before. It was a damn cold Pittsburgh winter day when that happened & he never once came to help or see what was going on. From my experience I do want to be there doing the hands on with Jr. since I didn't get it from my dad. But I am glad there was a dad involved to teach me even if he wasn't my dad. With Jr.'s generation, I wouldn't mind that dad passing on the knowledge to ny boy's buddies if they are interested.

 

[pagrunt]

We had a long over due class today, a basic tune up. Showed him how to do the cap & rotor first as it would of been the easiest to deal with in case the rain decided to surprise us. Jr. got to see the inner workings of the distributor & explained what was what. Next was the plugs. The French AC Delcos that were in didn't really look bad but needed changed. Odd thing with them was that they were plated silver instead of being black like every other R45TS I've seen. I started on the passenger side which also included the wires cause none of the wires would stay locked on the plugs. Remember why I don't like the stock manifolds while doing #8. On the driver side #5 did the same but cause of the way they dipstick is mounted. Now I decided to skip doing the drive side wires due to the joy of how the wires are routed & not wanting to be out of daylight. Got everything back together & cleaned up. Some fresh gas & starting fluid Jr. was able to start the car with two trys. No smoke at first & smooth idle. Then the valve seals added some oil to make it look like we were burning Smurfs. I had a funny feeling they aren't their best anymore. Some carb adjustments might be some help to keeping the motor from droping to a really low idle near stalling. But other than that it still runs like it has been. But this might of encourage Jr. to want his "blood red" engine cause he brought it up since there is a need to do seals. With that thought, I may start looking at ideas for the next engine. I have a set of early '86 (actually '85 made) heads off the 305 from the '86 parts car & wonder how they would be on the '79's 305. Then I was thinking how they would work with a SBC 307. But for time being this motor runs, so until it really needs to be on the road I'll keep the next engine in the "research" phase for now unless I trip over a sweat deal on a ready to send SBC.