Not a bad day filled with car stuff.
Helped my dad install the engine and transmission into his 1948 MGTC chassis. He's been doing a full nut & bolt resto on it over the last 13 years and it's finally nearing completion - very exciting as I've watched this car evolve since I was just a little kid. He's very meticulous and this car is being done to a ridiculous level of detail - in person it looks like a piece of art:
Then I finally finished the brakes on the the Spitfire and took it for it's maiden voyage - what a great feeling to have all that work and all those pieces come together into something that actually moves and stops on it's own after being immobile for lord knows how many years. Car still needs tons of work, but at least now I can move it around and it's not blocking everything in the driveway.
Then came the
part...With the Spitfire finally out of the way, I dropped a battery in the Sonoma, which has been hibernating since October. I just wanted to move it out of the garage so I could clean up under it and get the Firebird's summer wheels out from above the Sonoma. It started up and ran perfectly, but sounded a little louder than I remembered. Checked underneath and one of the big bolts on the exhaust flange at the back of the Cat had broken away, I assume it was rusty and when I started the truck the vibration snapped it - strange, but all I can really think of. It looked like an easy fix, just replace with a new bolt and nut. However, 1/2 of the broken bolt is still in there and after 4 hours of drilling, and about 10 drill bits, I am only about 1/4 of the way through the old bolt. I gave up for the night - gunna have to think of some other way to remove it - Can't believe this really..finally got the Spitfire moving and was excited to take a break from the car repairs, literally minutes later I am into this problem.
