This is a fantastic thread.
Great J.O.B. fishfan
Is the user name a ref to the Marlins or the Dolphins or both?
Great J.O.B. fishfan
Is the user name a ref to the Marlins or the Dolphins or both?
The story of my 1966 Polara, "El Cacharro", in several posts
- Thread starter Fishfan
- Start date
Greg B.
Senior Member
Great story, and I love everything you did - except for that damn triangular mesh air cleaner. Those look vile to me on any car. The original would be a quantum leap improvement IMO.
Did you ever find the reason for the current draw/short circuit?
Did you ever find the reason for the current draw/short circuit?
Thanks. It's in reference to the Marlins. Dolphins aren't fish! :no:
I thought that Edelbrock triangular air cleaner was going to be bigger when I ordered it. I don't like it much either. The bottom of the chrome one with the 318 decal on it that you see in some of the pics was somehow lost so I put the triangular one back on. I experimented with paint on the original black one and wasn't happy with the result so I sanded the whole thing down. I'm in the process of refining the sanding job with ever finer sand paper. The goal is to get a nice brushed aluminum look. Then I'll put a coat of clear on it to protect it.
Never got a satisfactory answer to what was causing the short but some old wiring was replaced and it was resolved.
Last edited:
mr. fix it
Old Man with a Hat
That Edelbrock air cleaner was a typical chrome upgrade back in the day.. I had one on my 351w Ford setup...
Reminds me of seeing a full sized person that ran into a tribe of natives than shrank their head but left the torso full sized..:urkidding:
The option of what you are doing sounds good. I'll wait to see how it looks.
the stock black looks great too.
Part 8 was a bit saddening about the separation/divorce.. how everyone is doing better after all that.
Great classic car you have there though.:clap:
Reminds me of seeing a full sized person that ran into a tribe of natives than shrank their head but left the torso full sized..:urkidding:
The option of what you are doing sounds good. I'll wait to see how it looks.
the stock black looks great too.
Part 8 was a bit saddening about the separation/divorce.. how everyone is doing better after all that.
Great classic car you have there though.:clap:
I know but was just checking. I know the Marlins fans sometimes refer to themselves as fishfans. Great to see another baseball fan on the site.
You guys are having a good run .. must be nice having Stanton belting long ones routinely.
Stanton is the man. Of course people in South Florida only see negatives. Instead of going out there and enjoying a pretty good club today they stay home and worry about how Stanton won't be around in a couple of years. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. The fans don't trust ownership so they stay away. Without fan support there's no desire to open up the pocketbooks and write big checks.
The owner did spend a lot on the 2012 team the the ballpark opened and the team was horrible. He didn't conduct a "fire sale" as fans allege. He dismantled a bad overpriced team. Incidentally attendance was the worst of any first year ballpark in the modern era. The Heat's finals run and the fact the team was out of it by July had a lot to with that.
My bottom line is that I believe Loria wants to win. He loves baseball and being a baseball owner but he's always had to do things with smoke and mirrors because frankly he doesn't have the deep pockets to play with the billionaire owners that are his colleagues.
There's a happy ending. I promise.
greasemonkeyman
Well-Known Member
Hey Fishfan,I know that dealership in Clearwater.I was told by a friend who used to work in that area that it used to be a Buick dealership for a while too but it has been closed down for a few years already.Cleveland St. is only about a block off Route 60 in downtown Clearwater.Alot of the area has fallen into a bad state of disrepair.
cld
Active Member
Thanks for posting your story. You're a great writer. I was taking a break from work and it made my afternoon to go through the whole sequence.
Thanks. Means I a lot. I do quite of bit of writing in my career. Also I used to blog a lot and have even had some of my political pieces published as a paid writer. It's a hobby.
By the way, there's final chapter coming.
Part 9: Rebirth - 2014
Now that things were stable in my personal life and I remarried and climbing out of divorce debt I began to think about that car that was parked in my mom’s garage. A few things clicked for me financially and I now I had some time and wherewithal to tackle El Cacharro for the first time in about four years. The first thing I did was call my old mechanic, the guy who rebuilt the engine. He rents out his shop to someone else now, driven out of business by the bureaucrats with their fees, inspections, licenses, etc. So now he sells cars and works on them on the side. Take that you bureaucrats!
He was finally able to isolate the short and do some needed rewiring. He noticed the master cylinder was leaking at the firewall and so I later had that replaced. AC wasn’t working so I took it to a specialist thinking it was low on refrigerant. He put the gauges on it and said it had some pressure but compressor was not getting any juice. I couldn’t resolve it that day so I ended up taking it to a neighborhood mechanic near my office a couple of weeks later. He got the compressor working and now the only thing is that the fan only blows on the high setting.
I began driving El Cacharro a lot more. My family and friends on Facebook are quite familiar with my status updates and photographs with the hashtag #CacharroLife. Here’s some of the recent fun we’ve been having.
With all these repairs completed I really wanted to put El Cacharro to the test. I now have two stepchildren in addition to my own two. Neither my wife’s daily driver nor mine can accommodate all six of us. My wife, who initially hated the car, warmed up to the idea of taking it on vacation to Ft. Myers Beach, about a 150-mile journey.
All summer I was prepping the car for the trip. I had confidence in the engine, transmission and cooling system as they are all brand new. My fear was an electrical problem or some other peripheral issue.
The tires appeared to be good condition as they only had about four or five thousand miles on them. Appeared is the operative word as I had a blowout going about 80 MPH on I-75. I think the 10-year-old rubber combined with the 90+ degree weather at highway speed was reason.
The blowout was scary but El Cacharro handled it like a champ. It held its line I was able to pull over without incident. The hubcap that flew off was mangled. I thought to myself, a blowout can happen to anyone. I had to remind my wife that her three year old BMW once had a blowout. It didn’t appease her.
With a floor jack, a full sized spare and tire inflator compressor in the trunk, I was prepared. The problem I had was that with all the weight in the car from the luggage (and passengers that I didn’t want wandering on the side of the road) I couldn’t get the floor jack under the car in the ideal spot. I used the factory jack to raise the car just enough to do that, put the spare on inflated it and we were ready to roll.
We stopped at the next exit to get myself cleaned up and hydrated. We were back on the interstate about 10 miles down the road when I noticed a vibration. I pulled over to check the lugs and they were tight. I looked at the tires and they looked ok. I began driving again tentatively and then BANG. When I got out I couldn’t immediately tell what happened. There was a chunk of tread on the road but the tires were all still inflated. I thought maybe a piece of the first tire had been caught up under the car somewhere and dropped off. But I quickly realized the tread had come from the spare. Now I was 20 miles from Naples with no spare. It should be noted that the spare was even older than the four tires that were on the car. It was the best of the four on the car when I bought the new tires back in 2004. I’ve learned my lesson: change the tires every five years no matter what.
Here's me jacking up the car after the initial blowout. My stepson is in the background walking back from retrieving the mangled hubcap:
I called Hagerty Plus and they told me a flatbed would be there in 65 minutes. My problem was the five passengers I had with me. Luckily we were going to meet a friend, who was visiting from abroad, in Naples. She had a rented SUV. We called her and she came and picked up my family. The flatbed got there about 15 minutes before the promised time which was very much welcome since it was boiling hot.
Here's El Cacharro on the flatbed:
Now that things were stable in my personal life and I remarried and climbing out of divorce debt I began to think about that car that was parked in my mom’s garage. A few things clicked for me financially and I now I had some time and wherewithal to tackle El Cacharro for the first time in about four years. The first thing I did was call my old mechanic, the guy who rebuilt the engine. He rents out his shop to someone else now, driven out of business by the bureaucrats with their fees, inspections, licenses, etc. So now he sells cars and works on them on the side. Take that you bureaucrats!
He was finally able to isolate the short and do some needed rewiring. He noticed the master cylinder was leaking at the firewall and so I later had that replaced. AC wasn’t working so I took it to a specialist thinking it was low on refrigerant. He put the gauges on it and said it had some pressure but compressor was not getting any juice. I couldn’t resolve it that day so I ended up taking it to a neighborhood mechanic near my office a couple of weeks later. He got the compressor working and now the only thing is that the fan only blows on the high setting.
I began driving El Cacharro a lot more. My family and friends on Facebook are quite familiar with my status updates and photographs with the hashtag #CacharroLife. Here’s some of the recent fun we’ve been having.
With all these repairs completed I really wanted to put El Cacharro to the test. I now have two stepchildren in addition to my own two. Neither my wife’s daily driver nor mine can accommodate all six of us. My wife, who initially hated the car, warmed up to the idea of taking it on vacation to Ft. Myers Beach, about a 150-mile journey.
All summer I was prepping the car for the trip. I had confidence in the engine, transmission and cooling system as they are all brand new. My fear was an electrical problem or some other peripheral issue.
The tires appeared to be good condition as they only had about four or five thousand miles on them. Appeared is the operative word as I had a blowout going about 80 MPH on I-75. I think the 10-year-old rubber combined with the 90+ degree weather at highway speed was reason.
The blowout was scary but El Cacharro handled it like a champ. It held its line I was able to pull over without incident. The hubcap that flew off was mangled. I thought to myself, a blowout can happen to anyone. I had to remind my wife that her three year old BMW once had a blowout. It didn’t appease her.
With a floor jack, a full sized spare and tire inflator compressor in the trunk, I was prepared. The problem I had was that with all the weight in the car from the luggage (and passengers that I didn’t want wandering on the side of the road) I couldn’t get the floor jack under the car in the ideal spot. I used the factory jack to raise the car just enough to do that, put the spare on inflated it and we were ready to roll.
We stopped at the next exit to get myself cleaned up and hydrated. We were back on the interstate about 10 miles down the road when I noticed a vibration. I pulled over to check the lugs and they were tight. I looked at the tires and they looked ok. I began driving again tentatively and then BANG. When I got out I couldn’t immediately tell what happened. There was a chunk of tread on the road but the tires were all still inflated. I thought maybe a piece of the first tire had been caught up under the car somewhere and dropped off. But I quickly realized the tread had come from the spare. Now I was 20 miles from Naples with no spare. It should be noted that the spare was even older than the four tires that were on the car. It was the best of the four on the car when I bought the new tires back in 2004. I’ve learned my lesson: change the tires every five years no matter what.
Here's me jacking up the car after the initial blowout. My stepson is in the background walking back from retrieving the mangled hubcap:
I called Hagerty Plus and they told me a flatbed would be there in 65 minutes. My problem was the five passengers I had with me. Luckily we were going to meet a friend, who was visiting from abroad, in Naples. She had a rented SUV. We called her and she came and picked up my family. The flatbed got there about 15 minutes before the promised time which was very much welcome since it was boiling hot.
Here's El Cacharro on the flatbed:
Part 9: Rebirth - 2014 (Continued)
I got towed to a tire dealer in Naples. My idea was to replace all four. I arrived to find they didn’t have 205/75/14 tires I needed. They’d have to order them. Remember we were heading to Ft. Myers not Naples so I needed to resolve the issue right then and there to get to our destination. They recommended a place called “House of Flats” a couple of blocks away. Now the flatbed had already left. But the spare still had some air in it so I decided to limp to House of Flats. They had one tire in the correct size and it was for a trailer. I had them put that tire on the car and went to pick up the family. I’d deal with the tires later.
House of Flats:
We made it to Ft. Myers without further complications. I researched all the tire places nearby and they all said they’d have to order the tires. A lot had changed in the 10 years since I last bought tires for El Cacharro.
I decided that the best thing to do was order them from Tire Rack and have them shipped to the house we were renting. I got four Hankook Optimos. $248 plus shipping of $63. When they arrived I went to a local garage/tire place that I actually hadn’t called when I was quoting prices earlier in the week because it didn’t look promising. It turns out they had some tires in the right size right on the shelf. Too late. Plus I had a little more confidence in the Hankooks than the no-name tires they had in stock. I got the four new “shoes” installed on El Cacharro and chose the best of the remaining tires as the spare.
Hankook
The trailer tire on the car and the poor hubcap on the floor:
We came back with no incident. Car cruised comfortably at 75 MPH and we made good time.
I didn’t realize the “fresh air door” (not to be confused with the manual fresh air vents”) in the AC system was stuck in the open position. No wonder the AC wouldn’t cool too much even at highway speeds. The air from outside was being mixed with cold air from the AC and the faster we went the warmer it was. With the fan not working in the mid and low positions some cold air was naturally pushed through the system. Anyway that was the only inconvenience.
It should be noted that engine operated in the cool range on the highway through both legs of the trip. It was only in the unbearably hot South Florida stop and go traffic that the temperature gauge would creep to the area that makes me instinctively sweat. Here’s some pictures of us enjoying the car around Ft. Myers Beach and around Miami. My wife is in the green shirt on the upper left hand corner. The woman in the other photos is our friend who rescued us on I-75. The teenaged girl is my stepdaughter.
So there's a happy ending. #CacharroLife is good.
I got towed to a tire dealer in Naples. My idea was to replace all four. I arrived to find they didn’t have 205/75/14 tires I needed. They’d have to order them. Remember we were heading to Ft. Myers not Naples so I needed to resolve the issue right then and there to get to our destination. They recommended a place called “House of Flats” a couple of blocks away. Now the flatbed had already left. But the spare still had some air in it so I decided to limp to House of Flats. They had one tire in the correct size and it was for a trailer. I had them put that tire on the car and went to pick up the family. I’d deal with the tires later.
House of Flats:
We made it to Ft. Myers without further complications. I researched all the tire places nearby and they all said they’d have to order the tires. A lot had changed in the 10 years since I last bought tires for El Cacharro.
I decided that the best thing to do was order them from Tire Rack and have them shipped to the house we were renting. I got four Hankook Optimos. $248 plus shipping of $63. When they arrived I went to a local garage/tire place that I actually hadn’t called when I was quoting prices earlier in the week because it didn’t look promising. It turns out they had some tires in the right size right on the shelf. Too late. Plus I had a little more confidence in the Hankooks than the no-name tires they had in stock. I got the four new “shoes” installed on El Cacharro and chose the best of the remaining tires as the spare.
Hankook
The trailer tire on the car and the poor hubcap on the floor:
We came back with no incident. Car cruised comfortably at 75 MPH and we made good time.
I didn’t realize the “fresh air door” (not to be confused with the manual fresh air vents”) in the AC system was stuck in the open position. No wonder the AC wouldn’t cool too much even at highway speeds. The air from outside was being mixed with cold air from the AC and the faster we went the warmer it was. With the fan not working in the mid and low positions some cold air was naturally pushed through the system. Anyway that was the only inconvenience.
It should be noted that engine operated in the cool range on the highway through both legs of the trip. It was only in the unbearably hot South Florida stop and go traffic that the temperature gauge would creep to the area that makes me instinctively sweat. Here’s some pictures of us enjoying the car around Ft. Myers Beach and around Miami. My wife is in the green shirt on the upper left hand corner. The woman in the other photos is our friend who rescued us on I-75. The teenaged girl is my stepdaughter.
So there's a happy ending. #CacharroLife is good.
Nice story....glad everything turned out OK for you and no one got hurt.
The Feds say that tires should be replaced at the 8 year mark. At the 5 year mark if you live in the desert.
The Feds say that tires should be replaced at the 8 year mark. At the 5 year mark if you live in the desert.
greasemonkeyman
Well-Known Member
I've had old car tires peel like you were peeling the skin off an apple.The heat down here in Florida can do a number on the rubber and separate the rubber from the belts in the tire.Nowadays very few places carry 14" tires on the shelf. I had that same issue a few years back with a 1987 BMW 733i that I had. Everyone said it would be a few days to get them in on order.I managed to get some later model factory BMW rims and tires that were a takeoff and fit like a glove for less than $100 more than I would've had I gone with ordering the 14" tires.I'm sure it will only get harder to find them in the future which is why many convert over to 15" rims/tires.
mr. fix it
Old Man with a Hat
Glad it worked out. Thanks very much for sharing your adventures with the car over all these years! Beautiful car all around. 
Yeap. I've been thinking about what I should keep in the trunk. Currently I have a gas can, a floor jack, air compressor. Brake and power steering fluid. I also keep a set of small wrenches, tire gauge and a rubber mallet (for hubcaps) in the car.
Should probably add a phillips and standard head screwdriver. What else?
Probably a gallon of coolant.
Anything else?
Maybe fuses.
What other breakdowns can I plan in advance to use your phrase?
cld
Active Member
I've got a combo mobile jumpstarter/air compressor that I got from Costco some time back for 60-some bucks. I believe it's called PSX3. I carry it around in my '68 Fury. You can just leave it plugged in charging when at home, then throw it in the car when you go out. I've had it for about three years and even though it is now past its two-year warranty, it holds a charge for many months. I've also used it on work trucks in remote locations and it can jump a large heavy duty battery multiple times and pump up several large 4x4 tires on a single charge. I also make sure to carry a range of hot sauces in the car because you never know if a particular taqueria or restaurant will be stocked with what you need, whether it's chipotle Tabasco or Cholula or Torchy's Diablo here in Texas...
Chris
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