Last Itinerary Calls 2015
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 5:11 pm
This was an epic year of visitatin'. You'll see, when I put up the annual Results Just In.
But, not yet, we have exoticdvm ii and Book End Jivermo yet . . .
Straight off the Cuban Chrome Chronicles, I showered at Jivermo's Air-Conditioned Paradise cottage, collapsed, woke up, and drove Miami's finest morning commute over to the west end to see exoticdvm's Valentina, the '78 Westy, for the second time. We had discovered a sticking cooling flap on his recently rebuilt engine, and it *had* to be addressed with a partial engine disassembly. We incorporated a tune-up/trouble-shooting day into the surgery. Here, our breaker point adjuster adjusts the breaker points:
We are removing a perfectly good condensor that we had left laying in the engine since 2013 because we wanted to use its plastic plug retainer on the new condensor that did not have one:
This year, I thought let's not be silly, go ahead and sacrifice the perfectly good spare condensor and clean this engine compartment up a bit. Why not show the readership what is actually inside a condensor.
After all, my explanation that it is just a bunch of wound up foil separated by wax paper may not be correct . . .
And it was not correct. It is just a bunch of wound up foil separated by thin plastic sheeting:
In the interest of throwing as much trouble-shooting at exoticdvm as possible, I tore up the engine compartment pretty good.
"Pretend you did this, and now have to figure out how to get it back together."
After a couple of hours, I discovered that I could have fixed the flap problem with laproscopic surgery instead of saw-the-breastbone-open-heart-surgery. The flaps were binding only because the left lever was doing an over-center "lock" on the left flap link, like the buckle on the air filter hold-down. We could have bent the lever with a pair of vise grips and no disassembly whatsoever. Yeah, but this was so much more fun:
After we assured ourselves that it could run, I started committing little acts of vandalism on the engine to test exoticdvm's trouble-shooting. We finished the day with a little sliding door maintenance and showing off to his wife that yes, the door actually can latch itself to the car when fully open.
The Last Call was at the very spot of the First Call way back in February, at Jivermo's:
That is a Starbucks cup in "holiday red". No snowflake? No CHRISTmas tree? It is a national outrage. We are a Nation of Outrage at Starbucks Cups.
These are the faces of two Volkswagen Elves who will not be denied:
A truly elegant open-air Bahama Bus:
The joy of Volkswagen mobility is seen in the visage of Jivermo here:
The effects of windshield-free Volkswagen mobility at 30 mph is seen here, a fitting last image of 2015's Itinerary, what my career here is all about . . .
Colin
But, not yet, we have exoticdvm ii and Book End Jivermo yet . . .
Straight off the Cuban Chrome Chronicles, I showered at Jivermo's Air-Conditioned Paradise cottage, collapsed, woke up, and drove Miami's finest morning commute over to the west end to see exoticdvm's Valentina, the '78 Westy, for the second time. We had discovered a sticking cooling flap on his recently rebuilt engine, and it *had* to be addressed with a partial engine disassembly. We incorporated a tune-up/trouble-shooting day into the surgery. Here, our breaker point adjuster adjusts the breaker points:
We are removing a perfectly good condensor that we had left laying in the engine since 2013 because we wanted to use its plastic plug retainer on the new condensor that did not have one:
This year, I thought let's not be silly, go ahead and sacrifice the perfectly good spare condensor and clean this engine compartment up a bit. Why not show the readership what is actually inside a condensor.
After all, my explanation that it is just a bunch of wound up foil separated by wax paper may not be correct . . .
And it was not correct. It is just a bunch of wound up foil separated by thin plastic sheeting:
In the interest of throwing as much trouble-shooting at exoticdvm as possible, I tore up the engine compartment pretty good.
"Pretend you did this, and now have to figure out how to get it back together."
After a couple of hours, I discovered that I could have fixed the flap problem with laproscopic surgery instead of saw-the-breastbone-open-heart-surgery. The flaps were binding only because the left lever was doing an over-center "lock" on the left flap link, like the buckle on the air filter hold-down. We could have bent the lever with a pair of vise grips and no disassembly whatsoever. Yeah, but this was so much more fun:
After we assured ourselves that it could run, I started committing little acts of vandalism on the engine to test exoticdvm's trouble-shooting. We finished the day with a little sliding door maintenance and showing off to his wife that yes, the door actually can latch itself to the car when fully open.
The Last Call was at the very spot of the First Call way back in February, at Jivermo's:
That is a Starbucks cup in "holiday red". No snowflake? No CHRISTmas tree? It is a national outrage. We are a Nation of Outrage at Starbucks Cups.
These are the faces of two Volkswagen Elves who will not be denied:
A truly elegant open-air Bahama Bus:
The joy of Volkswagen mobility is seen in the visage of Jivermo here:
The effects of windshield-free Volkswagen mobility at 30 mph is seen here, a fitting last image of 2015's Itinerary, what my career here is all about . . .
Colin