A Quick Update on Helen

Got an email from Brian today and he's been busy with Helen!

She was at the shop for 3 months, but the paint job turned out pretty nice. Stuck with the original Musket Brown Metallic. Couple of pics below.

Ended up being "cheap" and went with the set of Coker tires with 1.5" whitewalls instead of the Diamondbacks.

She was apparently homesick for CA and was having "accidents" on my garage floor. New oil pan, gasket, differential cover and gaskets and a few other touches and she's all better.

Money Transferred

And I just checked my bank and found that the funds have been transferred from Escrow.com, so the sale is complete.

Helen Arrives in Akron!

Got a nice note from the buyer today saying the car arrived around 7 PM his time in Ohio. Says he's very happy with the condition and is planning to giver her a nice test drive tomorrow evening. He sent some pictures along and took some video but hasn't gotten it up on YouTube yet. Here are the pix:

So he's signed into the Escrow web site and accepted the car so I should get paid in the next day or so.

Loading on the Truck

Call From Driver

Truck driver just called me from Ontario and said he was leaving now and going via the 134. He thought it would be about an hour and a half. Guess I'd better get Helen out of the barn and ready to go!

Getting Picked Up

So I called the carrier last night and since they are in Troy, MI, it was after hours for them. I left a message but when I hadn't heard back by 9:30 this morning, I called again. Turns out he was right in the middle of talking to the driver as I called. So he said the driver will be calling me in a few minutes to let me know an ETA. Sounds like we are ON for today then. :D

Carrier Found, Pickup Semi-scheduled

Congratulations! We have assigned a carrier to move your 1976 Buick Electra from CA to OH.

They are planning to pick up on tomorrow,12/30.

Your carrier information is listed below. Feel free to go ahead and give them a call to coordinate the specifics of the pickup and drop off:

Carrier Name: Show Car Services
Carrier Phone: 248-925-7552 office [Troy, MI number]
Carrier Fax: 248-250-9954
Carrier Email: xxxxxxxx@showcartrans.com

Driver Name: xxxxx xxxxxxx

Documents

Today was all about getting documents from the title company and signing, notarizing, waiting at AAA for those notary services (at least I got the title to the Pontiac released from it's lien at the same time), and two trips to FedEx. One to send the docs I'd worked so hard to complete and another to retrieve the manila envelope I'd dropped there with receipts and a checkbook. D'oh!

So the process ticks on. The buyer did not get his docs completed today, and he also did not hear from the shipper either, so another day.

A quick video from today

CDS Titling

Got a call from the company handing the title transfer for the buyer and they wanted copies of the title, registration, my CDL, etc. They will be sending me copies of the docs they will need filled out and notarized. Bill of Sale and Power of Attorney, I think. Lots of hoops. I will have to go over to AAA to use their notary service.

Helen's New Home Aerial View

Got the shipping address for the transport company to deliver Helen to and she's going to a really nice neighborhood. Here's an aerial photo, courtesy of Google Maps.

Escrow.com notified me that funds from the buyer are now secured and the car is clear to ship.

ZipShip

Buyer has chosen a shipper and will use a company called ZipShip. (gozipship.com)

He told me the account number the escrow.com gave him for the wire transfer wouldn't go through on his bank's webpage, so he'll go in tomorrow morning. Banks and escrow.com were both closed today in observance of Christmas. Sounds like a 1-day wait once the wire is sent before escrow clears the car to be shipped.

The buyer seems like a very nice and sincere person. Let's keep fingers crossed that he doesn't get neurotic on me! :D  Apparently he is very interested in this particular model. He says he spent many hours the last few weeks chasing down ads on the Internet, only to find that many were expired or already sold. Some had been listed for a while, but were in the $13-$18k range, so they had gone unsold. This car tops out at about $7400 right now on the NADA guide, so not likely those cars will sell anytime soon.

SOLD - Maybe.

So Helen sold this afternoon, and the buyer has posted his deposit on PayPal. But then he decided he wants to use Escrow.com to complete the transaction. Never have used escrow for a car before, but he's paying the fees - quite hefty at that. So what else can I do? My only concern is if he gets the car and decides not to accept. That could get really ugly. The incentive against that is, he's in Ohio, so he'll pay more for shipping the car there and back than he did for the car, unless he uses a crappy service, in which case who knows what might happen along the way. Ugh. For me, it makes for a long delay in getting paid because the funds aren't released to me until he gets the car and accepts it. So however long it takes to arrange the shipping and actually get to car to Ohio, then up to 3 days after that. I don't know about this...

1976 Buick Electra Limited - Must Go!

Got Helen listed on eBay with no reserve, so she will definitely sell tomorrow (Christmas Day) to the high bidder. With about a day left, she is just over $2K. A very low price for a nice survivor like that, but I decided I would not let regrets over the selling price stop me from auctioning her off. I have so overwhelmed myself with projects, and it seems the '49 will forever be in pieces. And life around me needs to get some attention too. I can't be under a car all the time. Now that I seem to have pinched nerves in every part of my body, working on cars is a lot harder and I just don't have the energy to deal with multiple projects. Then too, driving around L.A. is not much fun and not about to improve either. I have my '55 Pontiac which has steering issues I need to plan out and address, and I have that perpetual money sink, the '49 Cad. That's enough. Helen is still a nice car and needs nothing but ongoing love and attention, but she's not getting that and I want the space and resources she's taking up. I wish I had a big ranch out in the sticks I could keep a nice car like Helen and go for long drives on quiet rural roads. Not L.A. Rude bitches, probably carrying guns so you don't want to piss them off, hog the roads and make driving miserable. I'm sick of it.

The Great Autos of Yesteryear car club treasurer came to see Helen today. Here's what he posted on Facebook:

Tomorrow at 4:45 PM we'll know who Helen's new owner is.

Back Bumper

Awhile back, I had slightly bumped into a car backing up. No damage except that the right side of the back bumper had pushed in a bit on it's pneumatic mount and stuck that way. I have been meaning to get a small hydraulic jack under there and push it back out and today I finally did that. Can't believe how easy it was. It's been that way for a good long time, maybe a couple of years. Don't know why I didn't take care if it before!

Gave Helen a nice exterior cleaning too. That paint is so stained...

Price Check

Checked the price NADA lists for this car.

So it would seem that this girl has lost some value since I bought her back in February of 2008. Given the $3000 loss ($1000 for each year I've owned her) so far, I think she is a good candidate to keep if I am in the mood to get rid of a car. Not to mention that fact that she is in very nice shape, drives well *and* has excellent air conditioning. Obviously not a car you want to take to work every day anymore... not with nearly $5/gallon gas and 10 MPG on a good day. But as a backup car Bob can drive and a nice cruiser with Disco Queen interior, a definite keeper. OK she's huge, but she's a wonderful car to drive.

UPDATE: We found out after Bob sold his Escalade that Helen is not a car Bob will ever want to drive. And while everything else I said above was true, she goes on the auction block anyway, as you will see.

Drive

Needed to go to OSH today so I took the opportunity to drive Helen. This seems to be when I will take one of the girls out because its a longer than usual "errand" type run and the parking lot is big enough I don't feel cramped trying to park a large car.

Of course, the ride started out on the wrong foot when one of the first intersections I came to, some fine California driver just drove right through the stop without even slowing down or looking in my direction. The car was nice but the driver was some dumpy female with a cigarette dangling out of her mouth. No comment as to the type of person who looks and drives like that, but it reminds me how many people like that there happen to be around here and it leaves me feeling less and less interested in going out for a drive. And the point of having nice cars if you loose interest in driving is...?

Meanwhile, Helen needed some fuel so a stop at Shell was in order. The car is big and comfortable to ride in, and floats along like she always did. There are a lot of rattles and noises that Los Angeles streets are so good at bringing out in a car. Overall it was more enjoyable coming back from OSH than going, as my mind has gotten past the stop sign incident by then... more or less. Still, I wonder how often I will drive her and if I shouldn't offer her for sale. She is one of the nicest cars I've ever driven, and would be hard to replace.

Startup

It's been awhile since I unlocked the door and slid into the velvety disco-era warmth of this nice car. I had new tags and insurance papers to put in the car so I took the opportunity to fire her up after months of sitting. She has been moved over to my collector car policy to save some money and I haven't driven her since I bought the GMC pickup. With the change in parking at work, I'm less inclined to drive her to work much so the current insurance prohibiting that is not a big deal. I can change it to allow occasional work drives at extra cost later if I want to. Anyway, she fired up and ran smoothly. I put her in gear and she was ready to go for a run, but I just let her get nicely warmed up and put the papers in the glove box an sticker on the license plate. The quartz clock has stopped. It was noisy before, so I think a good cleaning and lubrication will put it back in good order. I may pull it and have it serviced by The Clock Works or I may just go through it myself. She has about a quarter tank of gas. I should fill the tank and add stabilizer.

Friends Anja and Stephan have both indicated they would love to buy her from me if I were interested in selling. I thought for awhile I would sell, but getting into her today I am thinking I would be foolish to sell her. No hurry to do so, for sure. 

A/C Clutch Repair

The rest of the tools trickled in and today, hot as blazes, I had time to do the repair.

 Service instructions start on page 9B-40 of the 1976 BUICK SERVICE MANUAL. However, I had found a web site that showed a step-by-step approach to this repair on a Jag with the same GM A6 compressor. I followed that guy's steps and never even cracked open the Factory Shop Manual (FSM) til I was writing this. A very easy task with the right tools and a little care. I'm glad I found the page linked below or I might never have attempted the clutch replacement.

http://www.bernardembden.com/xjs/comclutch/index.htm

Since web pages have a habit of moving and disappearing, I'm going to use a few of Bernard's pictures here for quick reference. Please do refer to the original page if the link still works as you are reading this. 

As he points out, don't even think about trying this without a proper puller and installer. I bought a Mastercool (MSC91000A) Deluxe Clutch Hub Puller/Installer Kit from Amazon for about $55. I am sold on this brand as I have found the previous tool sets I've gotten from them are outstanding.The kit has several different pullers and installers for various brands/types of compressors. You can probably just buy the ones you need for *this* compressor for a lot less.

So, I removed the center nut from the compressor shaft using a thinwall, deep 9/16" socket. I found I could jam the tip of a screwdriver into one of the three "slots" on the face of the clutch and wedge the shaft against the socket that was over the nut and it would keep the clutch from turning with the socket as I backed the nut off. The nut was not on very tight and it mostly seems to be there as a safety backup. Trust me, that clutch is not coming off even if the nut isn't there.

The clutch removal tool threads into the clutch and the center bolt pushes against the shaft. Fairly simple. I had no trouble at all getting this part off.

Photo by Bernard Embden

With the clutch off, you can see the snap ring that secures the pulley. As the reference web site says, snap rings have a habit of flying off the pliers and disappearing forever. He put a towel down but I was just very, very careful. And yes, I nearly had mine fly off! Large snap ring pliers are required. I bought K-D Convertible Internal & External Snap Ring Pliers - Large from Amazon, at around $20.

Photo by Bernard Embden

The pulley is not pressed on but is a "zero clearance" fit. If you're lucky it will slide off by pulling on it, but I was not lucky. As Bernard's web site described, I had to use a small puller to remove the pulley. The compressor shaft must not be used to pull or push this pulley or any other component not on the compressor shaft itself. As advised on the web page, I used a 1-1/8-inch socket which fit over the center shaft and rested on the compressor nose. I used a bit of flat metal stock on the socket for the puller to push against.

Photo by Bernard Embden

The coil that came with my rebuilt clutch looked awful! I decided since there were no apparent problem with the electric/magnetic portion of the clutch, I would leave the original coil in place and keep the rebuilt spare on hand in case I ever needed it. I am also decided to save the old pulley as a spare because while the face was a bit scored, I found out later from the FSM that this is normal and not a reason to replace it.

Installing the new pulley required a socket that would contact the edge of the pulley's bearing but slip over the compressor nose where the snap ring seats. I tapped gently until I could clearly see there was room enough for the snap ring. Then I popped the snap ring back on, making sure it was well seated.

The clutch shaft square drive key had stayed in the old clutch so I tapped it out with a screwdriver and placed it carefully in the new clutch keyway. Be sure to line up the slot carefully before you go bearing down on the installer tool! [According to the FSM, you should allow the key to project approximately 3/16" out of the clutch keyway. Oops! I did not check this.] The tip of the installation tool screws onto the compressor shaft threads, then the outer nut presses the bearing against the clutch face with one side of the bearing rotating with the nut to reduce friction as it forces the clutch onto the shaft. Super simple.

Photo by Bernard Embden

Per the web page, you want a clearance of .010 to .015 between the clutch face and the pulley face, measured with a standard set of feeler gauges. If you set the gap too close, put the puller back on to increase the gap. No surprise, my clutch was not perfectly flat so I got different readings at various locations around the circumference of the clutch. But I was able to keep the gap between .010 and .015 as Bernard's web page suggested. [The FSM indicates there should be approximately 3/32" space between the frictional faces of the clutch drive plate and pulley.] Then I put the nut back on the end of the shaft using the screwdriver wedge as before. [Again, the FSM contradicts this and says to tighten the nut to 14-26 lb. ft. torque. Then it goes on to say the air gap between the frictional faces should now be .022" to .057" and refers us to Figure '9B-70. Oh well. ]

Belts back on and everything tightened up, I now have a vibration free and perfectly functioning compressor clutch with a minimum of time and money invested. And, I did not need to open the system or do any recharging. Many thanks to Bernard for his excellent web page and instructions.

Parts

A/C clutch arrived today along with the puller-installer and feeler gauges. But the snap ring pliers did not arrive, so can't work on this little project just yet.