10 Mar 2024
First Drive
It was time to pull it out of the garage and get it cleaned
up and ready for its maiden voyage.
And maybe a wash too.
The wash went well.




.. and maybe I need to clean the engine bay too. (I did not)

This is actually washed, a few nicks filled, sanded with 800/1200/1500/2000/3000/5000/8000, buffed, polished, and Chemical Guys HyperSlick coating applied.
Got the vehicle insured.
Today's plan was a trip around the block, then if all was well take the car up to get it inspected.
All was not well.
- The clutch is not fully disconnecting. This actually got worse as the drive continued, because:
- The retainer for the clutch pedal had fallen off and gone .. somewhere.
- At temp, it won't idle. The clutch not disconnecting doesn't help
there, I imagine.
- The parking brake worked great, until I got back. Something popped
and there was suddenly a lot of slack on the pass side cable.. Took up
the slack, and the pass side now gets much tigher than the driver's side,
and the parking brake is completely ineffective. After cleaning up and
coming in, I suspect that the pass side cable came free from the caliper,
and it's catching the stop - so no braking from the pass side, and can't get
tight enough on the driver's side to add any either.
- The driver's exhaust tip is not in the right place. I need to
adjust everything after the muffler.
- I dropped the column a few months back to adjust the high beam switch, and something got tweaked. There's some binding in the steering - not in specific places, but in all of them the steering doesn't turn freely.
- The alignment is SO wrong.
- There's a whole bunch of things rubbing and rattling.
- I didn't even think to verify that the speedometer was reporting
So the afternoon was spent in the driveway wrenching:
- I had a spare clutch pedal retainer in the attic. Successfully installed.
Still insufficient clutch disengagement
- Tried to adjust the clutch rod to let it stroke the slave a little
further, did not help. Think maybe I need a 1/4" threaded sleeve
that's ~1/2" longer than what I have now.
- Also tried to
re-bleed the clutch slave; had a hard time getting the pressure bleeder set
up
- As described above - spent a lot of time trying to get the parking brake
adjusted with no joy.
Plenty to do before the next attempt... but I can say I did drive the car today.