Hibernating...

Had to stop for a photoshoot.

So, winter is just few steps from the door and it was time to put baby hibernate for the winter. There is now time to figure what to do and in what order. Funny thing that has happen was that when I got her there wasn't any gaugelights, at all. In mid-september I bought dashboard with km/h speedo and I took from it an intact circuit and installed that to my Elky. First I didn't see nothing, might be that in the garage was so light, and on the next day I drove her to Jyväskylä during day, so couldn't see if light worked or not. Then she stayed there for couple of weeks due blown intake gasket and head gasket. Then I drove her to Laitila in mid- October. And noticed that right hand sided lights were working, YAY! And few days ago I noticed that lights work now half way throught from middle to right. And just wednesday I noticed that lights work almost from left to right, just one light that won't budge. And I haven't done anything to them, since I changed that circuit. Life is full of little surprises!

There's nothing like having an old car, that you can fix yourself...

I got finally Finnish license plates and there is a little bit fixing that I can screw them on. So, I went to a Biltema, which is kinda all-around store for cars, household etc. I did find one plate for forward LP, but not for a back LP. Problem is that since this car is an American and nowdays we have these EU-LP's which are somewhat different in size's. In El Camino front one is loooong and back is doubledecker. The front one I can now screw on, but still have to solve how I am going to screw the back plate.

Well, I went for a drive and picked up a friend and we went to pick up few geocaches. After second geocache we stopped for a red light. When green light lit, I hit the gas and car stalled. Oh, just turn the ignition off and on again, same thing. Then the whole car went dead, no lights, no gen light, no nothing. We pushed the car with a help to near by cold gas station and I opened the hood. After moment I figured what's the problem. The positive cable from the battery has touched the header and burned insulation off and has arced and has made and short circuit. I managed to separate the cable from the header and didn't have any tape or something to cover the cable. There was a near by mall and I bought a black duct tape and then I fixed the problem. Drove her back to garage and now I have to find a place where I can jack the car up and replace the cable from underneath. Sure, old car's have problems, but atleast you can fix them by yourself.

The first month

So, first month with my baby. There has been little bit trouble when I was travelling to Jyväskylä. Blew intake gasket and oil leakaged over transmission and exhaust pipe, which lead to blueish smoke on my rear-view mirror. I took her to JMT-autopalvelu where they fixed the intake gasket, but noticed that #3 cylinder wasn't firing constant. They said that I could drive her back to Helsinki, but there were a risk that the trip could make things worse, so I deciced to leave her Jyväskylä, with JMT-guys. A week later they called and told me that also the head gasket was blown too and there was a hairline crack on the head's waterchannel between combustion chambers. So I told them to look for a set of used heads. Yesterday I called them again to see what was the situation with my baby, and they were busy, so I didn't get my baby for the weekend. So, monday or tuesday I'll have my baby back.

1970 El Camino

It's 1970. I can only wish.