Letting the wagon go... :(

That's a real shame for that poor lady. Even if the shop is insured and pay her for the car....she won't get what it's worth and she won't have the car she loved again. Unless the fire wasn't too bad and it can be fixed.
hmmm...I know a girl that bought a new 67 Skylark....wonder if it could be her. One in a million chance.

 

No Wix, post all you want... I need all of the help I can get. Thats a good idea. I guess I am frustrated because I have posted online local ads only to have people email and say they want to buy the engine for a Camaro or a truck, then there are those that are supposedly coming to look at it and never show up. My uncle even has a friend that is mobile and checks cars... he was supposed to come and check it for me... that was 9 months ago. I wasnt going to call and beg. Little weasel.

How dreadful. Too bad she didnt have a fire extinguisher or know how to use it.... she may could have saved the car from too much damage. Reminds me of this... my grandpa had a 1955 Cadillac. (now my uncles). My uncle in North Carolina had taken the generator to a supposed reputable shop over there to have it rebuilt. They had put something in wrong, causing the car to put out way too much power. We were heading to a cruise-in in it back in 2005. We (two of my uncles, my cousin, my aunt and grandpa) got about 10 miles and started smelling hot wires. We pulled over and checked it and the generator was smoking a little (he said it was something in the generator that may "burn out" - what an idiot). ME, I wanted to stop and have the car towed... I knew something was wrong, but no, they (uncle) wanted to go on. We smelled burning wire stronger and stronger... about 5 miles later, smoke started billowing in through the dash vents. !! We pulled over (this was on a busy 4-lane), popped the hood and all of the wires to the generator that ran down the side of the radiator shroud were in flames! I took off running... thankfully my dad and mom were behind us in my dads 69 Camaro and always carries a fire extinguisher... he was able to put out the flames and kept damage to a minimal. Only the wires in that area were burned (no other wires were damaged, nor the paint on the car), but I think if dad had of not had that extinguisher, that car would have burned to the ground. The Caddy had the generator wiring harness replaced, a new generator installed and it was running fine and on the road again within a couple of days.

 

Oh, I have another video of the car running (stalling, etc) that is downloading... I will post it within the hour...

 

Wow, OK, finally - here we go. I put 5 gallons of fresh gasoline in it... hoping it would maybe help, but to no avail.

You can hear the car bogging down at times. Dont laugh at the dangling cover on the car... I was hesitant to go over to that side of the car and remove it since there are snakes over there... also there is a delay of me getting in the car as I check over the driver area for those huge spiders that have been getting on the car. There is also a point where you can see a good deal of exhaust blowing out of the tailpipe when I race the engine.

click on pic below and video will open in a new screen....
(also, the photobucket quality is not that good... its blurry and like when it shows the dash lights, it looks like they are flashing, but they are not.... I am also testing my lights here, so overlook that). lol.

Also when I first pull out of that "hole" coming out on the driveway and the car is struggling, I have the accelerator to the floor there! After I back up the second time, it comes over the hump easier, but I am on a lower part of the hump.

 

Tony,

Good video. Your car isn't as bad as I thought. At idle and when revving with no load on it, it sounds real good. It's when you put it under load is when you are having a problem (as I know you know). I'm now thinking carburetor. Let me call my mechanic friend sometime tomorrow to get his opinion. He is the one at the garage that I was telling you about.

But another question it the meantime. How did it run before the guy took your engine apart? Did it struggle under load then too?

Bill

 

Hi Bill. Yeah, it ran exactly the same... still bogged down under load. We also rebuilt the carburator after the engine rebuild, with no change. The carb may be worn out... would love to find another Chevy 4bbl quadra-jet to stick on there to see if that is the problem, but I dont even know where to begin to look for one.

 

BTW, you call that a "hole" and that is a good name for it. No wonder you are getting mildew and spiders. It can feel the dampness through my computer screen. You really need to find a dryer place to park it at.

Bill

 

Tony, that is good news really. I'll also mention that to him tomorrow.

Talk to you soon.

Bill

 

I know it, but thats the only place... we have 7 cars and no where else to put this one. I had it in front of the house on the concrete, but it was too big and didnt leave enough space for people to be able back up and turn. I cant park it where my 1990 Buick is, because its over the fill bed tank and they said the wagon was too heavy and it would cave it in... though I had my 72 Buick Electra parked there for years, but it was probably 300 pounds lighter.

My grandpa has a nice garage, but my 15 year old cousin would vandalize it. He already smashed the window out of my grandpas 55 Caddy.

 

Tony,

I talked to my mechanic buddy tonight. I didn't mention to him what I think it is, till I asked him first. He said it is most likey Gas related. Which could be Tank, Pump or Carb. He suggested getting a Portable Boat Gas Tank. Hitch it up directly to the Carb. This will prove if it is a Tank problem or a Fuel Pump problem. If it doesn't prove anything, then we both agree Carburator.

I'm now thinking that it very well could be a Gas Tank problem because of all the time the car has been inactive. Gas today seems worse than ever as far as how long it lasts. It actually happened to one of his cars. The screen in the tank was plugged on the backside of it. It ran fine, till he put it under load.

But need to ask you this first: Have you changed the Fuel Filter(s), especially the one at Carb inlet? And if you did, was it installed correctly? It is possible that it could be in backwards.

Bill

 

Tony,

Another story about Gas. My '72 Impala with a 350 started running a little rough uphill. It got worse in no time and had trouble making hills trying to get the car back home. It would actually cut out and stall. Same as your car, sounded great at idle, and when revving it, but once it hit a little grade, it cut out and stalled. The car ended up going home on a rollback. I was a little puzzled as it almost seemed electrical, but I changed the Fuel Filter. ...That's all it was.

 

Gas or air is my guess. Too much gas or not enough...probably the latter. OR...not enough air in or not enough air out.

 

Thanks Bill. I am trying to find a carburator to buy for it now. Would be easier for me to do that than a portable boat tank. I dont even know anyone with a boat. lol. I will see and go from there. I do have the car advertised locally, again, mostly as really a trade only, but I put $4000 on there for the heck of it, since I paid $4000 for it (not even including what I have spent to the stupid engine) and there is a guy extremely interested in it, even for $4000. I didnt think anyone would and I wanted to kinda see if I can get it running first with a new carb, so I am going to try to stall, but if I can get $4000 back out of it, I would be happy and amazed. I would hate to see it go, it was my dream car, but I am sure that with the way nothing is selling now, I could find another nice good running wagon for $4K.... t just would not be the one I had wanted and begged the lady to sell to me for years, but at the time I couldnt find anything else local.

I will try to either get another carburator or one of those boat tanks and report back. Thanks for asking that mechanic about this and your advice.

 

King....if someone gives you $4000 for the car it's likely because they know what's wrong with it and it is a simple thing to fix.

 

X2 what the fox said!!!!


my thoughts on the parking pad,
trim it way back ...(put down some snake deterrent...i hate'em too)..and lay down some driveway limestone. nice and thick. make sure it gose past the rear of the car and much wider than the car. this will inhibit some moisture.
and will probably cost you about $30 total! iff you really wanna go the extra mile pour locking sand (available at Lowes or Home Depot)into the limestone too. it will make it just like a concrete pad!