500 mile debug done or doing?

Friiday I crossed the 500 mile mark and things have been running pretty well for the past few weeks. I took the car in to get the alignment done - I knew the rear had way more camber than I wanted for the street (turned out it was about 2.5 degrees negative camber per side).  The final 300 miles to cross to 500 went pretty quickly with a run to Troy, NY for lunch with friends, another Hemmings Cruise-In night, and some driving around town.

Last night I had a friend up from Virginia, and he wanted to see the car, so I gave him a tour of Arlington in the car. Shortly before we finished the ride, I heard a sound like we were in gravel, but the road was clear there. The sound went away, and nothing was amiss in the gauges. When I parked the car, I saw something dangling under the crossmember. Turns out my six rib serpentine belt self-mutilated itself into a five rib belt. I suspect a pulley alignment issue, since the belt is running in the outer five grooves on the power steering pump and the inner five grooves on the alternator pulley. Bill was able to go home with the latest memorabilia from the Mutt hall of flame. Thankfully it's an easy fix - shim the pump and install a new belt, and it made it home without losing the belt.

National Collector Car Day at Hemmings Motor News

Sitting at Hemmings Cruise-In

Friday, July 11th was the National Car Collector Appreciation Day, a good day for Mutt to make her appearance at a Hemmings Cruise-In behind the Hemmings Motor News facility on Main Street in Bennington, Vermont. I got there a bit late, and the lot was full, so they were parking cars on the hill across the street, but they announced they had space for five more cars, so I jumped back in and managed to get a spot in front of J&J Auto Polishing. The car got lots of looks, but didn't pull one of the trophies handed out that night. I did have a short conversation with Terry McGean about a possible article in Hemmings Muscle Machines. Pulling the car back into the garage at the end of the night, the odometer finally crossed 250 miles, so starting to work through the 500 mile debug. 

Driving

Sitting in the front yard after a wash and quick detail

Fourth of July was a bust with rain, but Saturday the 5th was a good day to put more miles on Mutt. The goal for the week was to cross the 200 mile mark on the odometer, and she crossed the 160 mile mark today. We took her down to North Bennington in the morning, and took the old Route 7A back up to Arlington, then after a quick stop at home, took my 86 year old mother in law down to West Arlington out by Norman Rockwell's old home and the West Arlington Covered Bridge. Lots of thumbs up from kayakers and folks tubing the Battenkill River.

On the ride home she got a little warm. Debugging showed that the fan harness connector had come apart, and tracing the wire led to finding the ground wrapped around the steering intermediate shaft. Obviously I didn't secure the harness well enough for it to get caught in a moving part.

Springtime - Time to get her on the road

Beautiful spring day, and no mud running (that wonderful transition state from winter to spring - mud season), so pulled the car out for the first time since hibernation last fall. Still have a charging problem, and a squeal that sounds like it's off the accessory drive, but did get the last two pieces of stainless trim on the car - the end caps for the door trim with the window felts.

Here's the car up by the Chiselville Bridge in Sunderland, just above the house. Next time I'll try to latch the trunk before I drive off.

Hibernation Time

After a two week cross country trip, Mutt arrived in Vermont on a 28 degree day. 

 Here Joe is lowering the lift back to the ground. Note only the left brake lights are on - turn signal isn't centered. 

Thelma and Louise ready for their ride. You'd never guess it's 28 degrees out from their smiles. 

Sitting next to the carrier after the cross country trek.

Heading into the barn for hibernation. Hope spring comes soon.

Covered and getting closed in for the winter.

All tucked in.

The Big Move

Susan and I relocated to Vermont in March, but I continue to work in California. After about six months, we decided maintaining households on two coasts was too much, so it was time to sell the house in California, and move the essentials to Vermont.

Open carrier was out of the question, so I hired Intercity Lines to move the car cross country. They move a lot of Jay Leno's cars, so if it was good enough for Jay, it's good enough for me.

Mutt was the first car in the van, getting the high berth in the front.  

 In she goes.

Parked in her berth. The left turn signal was set the whole trip cross country. 

Finished Interior

One of the last things to finish on the car was the interior. After having life disrupted with an unplanned relocation to Vermont, I decided to have Little John over at Interior Concepts & Design have his team finish the interior. John is the interior technical expert for the Southern California Solid Axle Corvette Club, and has a beautiful C1 of his own. 

Mutt went into the shop with a white top that didn't have all the weatherstripping installed, but the top wasn't properly installed, so John sold me on his custom top. He did it with a modern cloth matching the interior color, rather than the vinyl of the originals, and he has a custom removable rear window that he does on C1 Corvettes.  True to his prediction, the rear window hasn't come out of it's storage bag yet.

The interior is 1970 Corvette Light Saddle. Al Knock did the carpet kit, molded dash and door panels and seat covers, though John's team cleaned up the door panels and significantly reworked the seats.

Rather than the original springs, the seats are now on John's custom molded Urethane cores, giving a much more comfortable seat, and eliminating the out of phase harmonics with the C4 suspension. John sits customers to get the appropriate seat height, so the core is a lot shorter than the stock C1 seat to match my long torso.

 The passenger package tray was installed for the first time in the 17 years I've owned the car. Who knows how long it was missing before that.

I just wanted a simple mat in the trunk, but my wife convinced me a proper finish to the trunk was what the car really needed.