Doug made a happy announcement to the Friday 11 o’clock meeting group. “On Monday, there is going to be a nice break in the winter weather, which has been both cold and snowy. The conditions will be perfect for a rod run to Monument and lunch at Rosie’s Diner.”
Count me IN! The timing is perfect. The Bluebird is ready for its first road trip. All it has been doing is running around town with getting fixed for this and getting adjusted for that. The front end now sits level with the new coil covers, and it has been aligned. The rouge front U joint has been replaced, and the drive shaft rebalanced. On Sunday Johnathon will come over, and we will fix the loose shock mounts. Happy times are ahead to see what the Bluebird will do on the highway.
Johnathon wrestled both Gabriel rear shocks off the Bluebird, and A&A yielded a 12 mm bolt that was only 1mm larger that the shock bushing inner diameter. The milling machine and a 12mm drill rectified that situation; the shocks are firmly mounted, and the rear end tympani has been silenced. It was a nice sunny day to drive to the gas station to put in its first full tank of fuel (if the bank loan comes through in time).
I returned to my garage and parked the Bluebird in the driveway to play with the nav system in order to use it for the upcoming road trip. Uh oh – what is that puddle in the driveway? I must have overfilled the tank. Nope – the gas tank is leaking! I put a pan under it to see what is going on. The Super Bowl is about to start, and the outside temperatures are dropping. What am I doing? Pumping gas out of the tank. There is no chance to make the rod run with a leaking gas tank. I am guessing it is probably the filler neck gasket.
I am determined not to miss the rod run, so I will take the old faithful 40 Ford Bahnburner and worry about the Bluebird another day as it will sit safely in the garage on low fuel.
The meeting place for the rod run is Aspen Grove at 9:30am. I will get ready early in order to move the other vehicles in the garage out of the way. As I dusted off the 40 Ford, I realized I needed to put gas in it. No problem – I have lots of time. Then the phone starts ringing. The VA wants to set up a clinic appointment, so I get that confirmed. Back to the task at hand. Phone rings again. It is the District Attorney’s office asking me to come in and talk about how I will be a witness at the trial of the truck thief that parked in front of my house one night, and that I caused to get arrested. They arrested her sitting in a stolen truck, and she wants a trial? To each his (or her) own.
Now time is getting short. So the 40 Ford still has some dust on it and only half a tank of gas. I need to get moving as I have 15 minutes to make it to Aspen Grove. I decided I can fill up in Monument, but these damn red lights keep slowing me down. I arrive at Aspen Grove at 9:35am, and they are gone. Whoever heard of a rod run that leaves on time? But these guys are no nonsense old timers, and 9:30 means 9:30, not 9:35.
Since the rod run for me is now shot to hell, the Bluebird has my undivided attention. I pull out the filler tube and inspect the O ring. Looks OK. I call Dave Fitzgerald, and he says to bring it over to his shop, and he will fix it in a jiffy as he knows the problem. Dave is very busy with a big backlog, so I am lucky that he will take a look at the problem. With the gas level below the filler port, the car is safe to drive.
Dave does an inspection and sees that the filler tube is slightly misaligned from the tank tube, and the O ring may be cocked or even out of its channel in the end of the filler tube. A quick trip to Rocket Seals yields a suitable new O ring. Dave moves the gas tank back slightly and pokes on the O ring so it goes fully into the tank fitting.
I jump in the car and go to the nearby gas station to fill up. (Another $50). I drive back to the shop and ask Dave to verify that the filler leak has stopped. Hurray! Wait – what the hell? There is now a drip from under the tank. Dave flat backs it under the car and finds that the fuel sender unit mounted on the center front of the tank is leaking. ARRGH! The sender unit is almost totally inaccessible and can only be seen using a mirror and felt by braille. ARRGH, ARRGH!
I anticipated that we might need access to the top of the tank and the fuel pump when we installed the new trunk floor pan. My friend Dusty fabricated a neat cover that got upholstered along with the rest of the trunk; he did a great job. I ripped it off to unseal, then unscrew the cover to reveal the top of the tank and the fuel sender unit. Sure enough, there is the leak. It looks like the Allen head bolts might be the problem.
By flat backing under the car and some top maneuvering, Dave removes the bolts, one of his mechanics wraps them with Teflon tape, and Dave carefully and very slowly inserts them. The removed fuel is put back in the tank and all should be happy. Not quite! Dave is meticulous in his work and spots a very minor leak. Damn, this work has been going on for five hours,so Dave’s regular day is shot, and we still have a problem. One more closer look by Dave, and he finds that the leak is due to a bad silver solder joint on the sender unit, which is the cause of the leak. Care to guess where that sender unit was manufactured?
I called the vendor and reported the manufacturing failure, and that vendor offered to sell me another at reduced price. I counter offered to do no more business with him. I found another vendor and a different design. Now I have to take all the fuel out of the tank, remove the filler tube, disconnect the fuel pump, unwire the sending unit and drop the tank out so I can have access to remove and replace the sending unit and hope the new one is properly manufactured and does not leak.
This one small, insignificant, manufacturing failure, and I am out a lot of time and money as well as a breakfast burrito at Rosie’s Diner. Such is the nature of hot rodding. To paraphrase President Truman: “If you can’t take the problems, stay away from the tool box.”
Stay tuned to learn when the diaper can come off the Bluebird.