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Enjoy the blog this week with Pablo Cruise, Watcha Gonna Do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPWqe7l6JK8&list=PLnzWxFWr_jTmzyj1tVXs0Bdm ZZZOK5B5H&index=1
Sometimes I have a background to a song – not much with this one, but when I hear it, it takes me back to the mid 70s. There are a few that seem to grab my essence of the 70s, at that time of my life – those teenage mischief years.
I mentioned last week of my candid camera printer search – so bad, I swore someone was filming it and laughing with a crowd at me. And then some angel came down, touched my shoulder, pointed me to the Brother All in One. From opening the box to print was maybe 10 minutes, including this sequence of printing an alignment page, putting that on the glass, and letting the machine scan it, and align itself. So far, it prints everyday without having to reset my router.
The Tahoe stint is behind me – dings happen, drive defensively, and avoid bad traffic – maybe that’s the best advice I could give. I know better than to drive up Central Expressway on that section of access road. It brings out the Kurt Busch in everyone. Family, biz, home, all good. I’m back at the wood lathe this weekend at the club open house on Saturday – I have access to a cheap harbor freight unit, with tools, so I started practicing on my gear shift knobs. Weather is good, the area is good, and I have a much cleaner garage. But its only a dent in this chaos that is my garage.
Whats new
The final stretch
Bumpers are in, and they are very pretty. And light weight. I have held my original rear bumper in my hands – all 3 pieces. This new stuff, stainless, may be half as heavy. So, my thoughts now are, how durable are they? I mean, I’m not going to button this car up, take it to a warehouse with computers and cameras and let a crash test dummy decide, but my best take on these are, they won’t pass any collision tests from the 70s, much less today. So, these are ornaments. But again, stainless steel, light, cheaper than rechroming one, and a great value, even with shipping. Who would think our vintage cars would benefit from a disposable bumper. Not me.
Final stages of buffing and sanding. My spare trunk lid has a broken prop bolt – that assembly inside the lid is loose, so the facebook community is sharing their mcgiver thoughts on how to solve that. Just hit me that I might reach out the Ed_h, for some clarity……
As always, the diary of the The School Car Wreck Blog is here
Did you put gas in your car? Go do that, even if it’s a gallon.
Lets have a pint
Pull up a chair, and lets have a pint together.
The section formerly known as the Wax, gets some play on words this week. Wax On, for example. It hit me this past week. My journey has been preparing me for this new version of school car. This new example, of cf50460UO will require some expertise that I already have. It will require my experience in the reassembly, in the bits. I know how to install carpet. I know how to pull, refinish and replace a dash. I I know how to replace door trim, window and handle cranks. I know how to replace mirrors, turn light assemblies…. The list is endless. Everything I have pulled from this car to prep for that shop, I have already done. Well, except for my bumpers. I never pulled those before.
I look back at when I did all this stuff as a teen, and even later when we took ownership of this one, I never thought I would lean on those skills later, certainly not for this need. I mean, no one sits around and has epiphanies of a crash, or unbending a bent car. I will say – to read some of the head scratching questions of new owners, that would be me if I had never gone thru this as a young adult. This, assuming I would have considered this mark later in life.
So, as I lay out my parts and bits like a dental tray for a teeth cleaning, That’s how my parts sit as I sort all my stuff for this car coming back.
Ok – on the rest of this ramble.
Tech: Upright bolt swap
Slow the roll
Throwback. The Carb Journey
Tech: Dash Upright bolts
This isn’t the only way, maybe not even the best way, but I am sharing a method I used to replace my 2 upright bolts that support radio facia. I’ve always called that support the upright support. TRF calls it the Dash support, but hopefully, at this point, you know I’m pointing at the vertical rig that straddles the tunnel cover. The original design was a simple bolt with a plastic cover, which, over time, cracks, breaks off, and looks ratty. Simple bolt design – bolt, washer, nut on each corner.
It hit me once, and this was a while back, that one solution could be a carriage bolt on the front, washer and nut on the back. A carriage bolt, for dummies like me out there, is a bolt that has a square backside to the head, and its designed so that you don’t have to put a wrench on the head, just tighten down from the back, and the nut draws the bolt into whatever you are securing. Wood, usually. I type as if I know this bolt – I don’t, and as many already know, I have enough engineering knowledge to be dangerous, but I guess I had seen this bolt before, and it just came to me that this would be a nice subtle solution. Most of these come silver, so that would look odd out of the box. But the bolt, shot with primer, and a few coats of satin black, and you’re done. Some bolts come with raised numbers or designs that indicate the grade, and to smooth that out, simply chuck up the bolt in drill driver, and hold a file or low grit sandpaper on it until smooth. Then paint them, and attach. I think these bolts are 5/16 thread size, but use whatever you want that will fit in the hole.
I’ve had these in place for years now – They look appropriate, subtle, and those that don’t know, think that black bolt is the bolt cover. A cheap, efficient method to replacing old, original design for this upright.
Good luck, McGiver
Patience, Grasshopper
I tend to drift into transportation changes here, and I’ll continue that today. My week, like the rest of us, often has input from the news or media on how we get from point A to point B. Because of this mark, I tend to correlate stuff I see or hear that relates. If I hear that California is banning fuel cars, I wonder what that means to the TR6 owner in California, if that makes sense. You’d think I’d worry about the bigger picture, but I don’t. This car impacts my impression on the trend, or direction of transportation, and my politics do creep into the impression. That shouldn’t, cause we should just see all this for what it is. A change. A vintage car has threats to existence, like rust. I worry that down the road, so to speak, the big threat is ban, or no license to have a gas car on the road.
I threw the California example out, cause I have an impression into all of this based on the fact I live in the States. But this threat is worldwide, and each country has a unique plan. None of scary ghost story is in front of us – we will have gas for years, maybe as long as you and I are driving this car. But you can sense this movement is in place, and the steps to shift to something else. Some of us are embracing this new movement. I do, to an extent. I lean to the slower shift. I think the push we are in right now is rushed, and not thought out well. I’m not alone, and this may sound naïve, but I think that is the friction between the sides – those that want to just shift now, all in, to those that say, take time, and phase it in. If California, for example, shifted tomorrow to electric everything, their grid would crash. It crashes now, and there is only a small percentage of vehicles moving around needing a charge.
I am still on my top gear kick – my Samsung TV Plus system gives me now 2 channels of vintage top gear – each a season or 2 off from the other, and I haven’t checked to see if they go in order, or if its random. I suspect in order, but I can tap into that at any time and get my silliness fill. I get some retrospect on what we were focused on 15 years ago. I get some reminders of something special then, like a 350z, now dated. And on one episode, I see Tom Jones, the singer, sit with Clarkson and chat music, life, and see him throw the car around the track and have his time stuck on that status wall. Then, I see my favorite segment of all time. James May, in California, sharing the impact of the Gen 1 Honda Clarity. I’d share this segment in a link, but I can’t. I can share other segments – they are littered all over youtube. Not the Clarity. As I wrap up this segment, I will lay my cards on the table, and say this. The future of transportation should not be a battery. It should be a tank, and I’ll accept that it won’t be fossil, but rather hydrogen. Electric is amazing. Battery and more power stations are not. Hydrogen is my future, and I think, and hope, what we end up with. A fuel that its only by product. Is water.
Throwback. The Carb journey
I started a thread on 6 pack before covid, taking my spare strombergs, laying them on the dining room table, and began disassembling one of them. My goal was to rebuild them, and to clean them, polish them, and learn these carbs along the way. This tangent started with me, taking a top cover off one of them, and polishing, by hand, with various grades of sand paper and polish. I got one to almost a mirror finish. And then I looked at the rest of that dr seuss rig and said, I’m not afraid of you. I was, but I said that, hoping to give myself some confidence. This segment is about overcoming that intimidating monster, and even though I am not a master of it, I can pull one, or both, and get thru what I need from it, and put it back on with no issue.
Lets back up, since this is throwback. Been around this mark since the mid 70s. Never touched these carbs until the late 90s. When I took delivery of the school car, the plugs were a nice tan. In a few years, they were black. I had a carb adjustment tool, but didn’t know how to really make the most of it. I decided one day to remove one of them. That ended in putting it back on the car. I don’t know what I expected to happen after I got it off the car – I had no plan. I get carbs for the most part. These aren’t carbs. These are dark, medieval torture devices. I know this cause when I put this carb back on, the car ran rough. So bad, I had to limp it to Brit Auto to get Jeff to fix my work. This stint reminded me, don’t ever touch your carbs. Just drive them rich, replace plugs, and keep pouring fuel in the tank.
The light came when, as a member of 6 pack, I get on the Poolboy journey, and life after that was colorful again. I moved from the dark grey, rainy era of plague, to color, songs, birds chirping. I’m still on the carbs I got from Ken almost ten years ago, with tan plugs, and amazing mileage. And if I have issues with these at some point, in a box they go, and Ken will update them. But knowing I have that safety net, I wanted to overcome this fear, which lead me to disassembling 2 of these monster. I took them completely apart many times, and then put them back together, like Forrest Gump and that rifle. That was great therapy, and today, I look at those spare carbs, and realize, I might put a rebuild kit in them, and bolt them up. I’m wise enough to know even if I copy Ken’s recipe, they won’t be the same. Like that headstone in Raiders of the Lost Ark, I’ll forget to take 2 bellums away, or whatever was on the backside of that headpiece. Either way, for me, the carbs were one of the areas I knew nothing about. Simply afraid of them. I am not alone, and I hope this throwback will give some a little solace in one of the areas of this mark that all of us can overcome.
That’s enough for today. See you on down the road,
Thank you for caring for your Triumph TR6. Lets also thank those considering one. This is a great mark for young and old. This mark is blessed with an amazing network development, parts, owners, experts and car availability. A TR6 helps people everyday, lifting spirits, bringing smiles. A TR6 brings happiness to Lynn, a previous owner, missing her car. Please start your car with it out of gear and foot off the clutch to save your thrust washers – they struggle with oiling at start up. Please pop your hood and have a good look around the engine bay. Please put fresh gas in your car each week, even if just 1 gallon. Please have good insurance, and review your policy regularly. And please drive your 6 defensively, as if it was a 4 wheeled Harley.
And remember. Smile when you drive, and whenever possible, take a kid driving.
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I am the 3rd steward of CF50460UO, born September 1975 with paint code 19 and 11 black interior. Nicknamed “the school car”, is now over 100K in miles, with new Cayman Blue Mica 2 stage paint, and 11 interior. Car was delivered with original hard top and factory overdrive. Current upgrades include Volvo overdrive internals, König Rewind 16x7 rims, Michelin Pilot Sport 205.55.16s, 4Runner calipers and 7/8 rear wheel cylinders. Poolboy carbs, FlexAlite electric fan, Patton Fan Eliminator, Pertronix ignitor ignition, TR5 cam, pacesetter header, 70amp Lucas direct fit alternator, solid state Rheostat, Silverstar Halogen headlights, Wishbone blueprinted oil pump, Bastuck 9LB flywheel, Goodparts suspension on all 4 corners, Goodparts sway bar, Goodparts trailing arm brackets, Uprated Armstrong lever shocks with cycle fork oil, high torque starter, JVC Bluetooth audio with front and rear USB, 4 speakers, stainless steel bumpers, flip up scuttle vent, hidden antenna, window tint, custom gear knob, and other concours frustrations.
My to do list
New carpet, new panels, custom dash.
r200B diff with goodparts cv joints and hubs
fresh head with roller rockers.
At some point, a fresh square motor with lightened crank, cam bearings,
Hard top inside insulation, and dome light.
Oh, and AC.
Ken - you are quite welcome. I praise you all the time. You have more of a following that you may realize. I hope they name a street after you. At least come up with an annual award at the Trials.
Cheers gents - always warming to read your comments.
G
This is from an EV manufacturer who stands to make lots of money from EV's. Those in power need to start listening to the experts!
A Dose of Reality...
Depending how and when you count, Japan's Toyota is the world's largest automaker. According to Wheels, Toyota and Volkswagen vie for the title of the world's largest, with each taking the crown from the other as the market moves. That's including Volkswagen's inherent advantage of sporting 12 brands versus Toyota's four. Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Bugatti, and Bentley are included in the Volkswagen brand family.
GM, America's largest automaker, is about half Toyota's size thanks to its 2009 bankruptcy and restructuring. Toyota is actually a major car manufacturer in the United States; in 2016 it made about 81% of the cars it sold in the U.S. right here in its nearly half a dozen American plants. If you're driving a Tundra, RAV4, Camry, or Corolla it was probably American-made. Toyota was among the first to introduce gas-electric hybrid cars into the market, with the Prius twenty years ago. It hasn't been afraid to change the car game.
All of this is to point out that Toyota understands both the car market and the infrastructure that supports it perhaps better than any other manufacturer on the planet. It hasn't grown its footprint through acquisitions, as Volkswagen has, and it hasn't undergone bankruptcy and bailout as GM has. Toyota has grown by building reliable cars for decades.
When Toyota offers an opinion on the car market, it's probably worth listening to. This week, Toyota reiterated an opinion it has offered before. That opinion is straightforward: The world is not yet ready to support a fully electric auto fleet.
Toyota's head of energy and environmental research Robert Wimmer testified before the Senate recently, and said: "If we are to make dramatic progress in electrification, it will require overcoming tremendous challenges, including refueling infrastructure, battery availability, consumer acceptance, and affordability.”
Wimmer's remarks come on the heels of GM's announcement that it will phase out all gas internal combustion engines (ICE) by 2035. Other manufacturers, including Mini, have followed suit with similar announcements.
Tellingly, both Toyota and Honda have so far declined to make any such promises. Honda is the world's largest engine manufacturer when you take its boat, motorcycle, lawnmower, and other engines it makes outside the auto market into account. Honda competes in those markets with Briggs & Stratton and the increased electrification of lawnmowers, weed trimmers, and the like.
Wimmer noted that while manufacturers have announced ambitious goals, just 2% of the world's cars are electric at this point. For price, range, infrastructure, affordability, and other reasons, buyers continue to choose ICE over electric, and that's even when electric engines are often subsidized with tax breaks to bring pricetags down.
The scale of the switch hasn't even been introduced into the conversation in any systematic way yet. According to FinancesOnline, there are 289.5 million cars just on U.S. roads as of 2021. About 98 percent of them are gas-powered. Toyota's RAV4 took the top spot for purchases in the U.S. market in 2019, with Honda's CR-V in second. GM's top seller, the Chevy Equinox, comes in at Blogs behind the Nissan Rogue. This is in the U.S. market, mind. GM only has one entry in the top 15 in the U.S. Toyota and Honda dominate, with a handful each in the top 15.
Toyota warns that the grid and infrastructure simply aren't there to support the electrification of the private car fleet. A 2017 U.S. government study found that we would need about 8,500 strategically-placed charge stations to support a fleet of just 7 million electric cars. That's about six times the current number of electric cars but no one is talking about supporting just 7 million cars. We should be talking about powering about 300 million within the next 20 years, if all manufacturers follow GM and stop making ICE cars.
Simply put, we are gonna need a bigger energy boat to deal with connecting all those cars to the power grids, a WHOLE LOT bigger.
But instead of building a bigger boat, we may be shrinking the boat we have now. The power outages in California and Texas — the largest U.S. states by population and by car ownership — exposed issues with powering needs even at current usage levels. Increasing usage of wind and solar, neither of which can be throttled to meet demand, and both of which prove unreliable in crisis, has driven some coal and natural gas generators offline Wind simply runs counter to needs — it generates too much power when we tend not to need it, and generates too little when we need more. The storage capacity to account for this doesn't exist yet.
We will need much more generation capacity to power about 300 million cars if we're all going to be forced to drive electric cars. Whether we're charging them at home or charging them on the road, we will be charging them frequently. Every gas station you see on the roadside today will have to be wired to charge electric cars, and charge speeds will have to be greatly increased. Current technology enables charges in "as little as 30 minutes," according to Kelly Blue Book. That best-case-scenario fast charging cannot be done on home power. It uses direct current and specialized systems. Charging at home on alternating current can take a few hours to overnight to fill the battery, and will increase the home power bill. That power, like all electricity in the United States, comes from generators using natural gas, petroleum, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, or hydroelectric power according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. I left out biomass because, despite Austin, Texas' experiment with purchasing a biomass plant to help power the city, biomass is proving to be irrelevant in the grand energy scheme thus far. Austin didn't even turn on its biomass plant during the recent freeze.
Half an hour is an unacceptably long time to spend at an electron pump. It's about 5 to 10 times longer than a current trip to the gas pump tends to take when pumps can push 4 to 5 gallons into your tank per minute. That's for consumer cars, not big rigs that have much larger tanks. Imagine the lines that would form at the pump, every day, all the time, if a single charge time isn't reduced by 70 to 80 percent. We can expect improvements, but those won't come without cost. Nothing does. There is no free lunch. Electrifying the auto fleet will require a massive overhaul of the power grid and an enormous increase in power generation. Elon Musk recently said we might need double the amount of power we're currently generating if we go electric. He's not saying this from a position of opposing electric cars. His Tesla dominates that market and he presumably wants to sell even more of them.
Toyota has publicly warned about this twice, while its smaller rival GM is pushing to go electric. GM may be virtue signaling to win favor with those in power in California and Washington and in the media. Toyota's addressing reality and its record is evidence that it deserves to be heard.
Toyota isn't saying none of this can be done, by the way. It's just saying that so far, the conversation isn't anywhere near serious enough to get things done.