Now that I’m just a bike ride away from work, I no longer depend on Studie for daily driving obligations. The transition from a 25-mile to a 2-mile commute has been a very welcome one, but at the same time it doesn’t come without certain sadness. I loved being woken up by her rumble on the drive to work and welcomed into home for my long journey back each day. I liked seeing her smiling at me from the parking structure at work. What I didn’t like were the pricey gasoline bills, daily time wasted, and inability to pay heed to nagging issues getting worse over time.

It’s been a year now since I compression tested Studie’s 383 Chevy engine, and it was no bueno. Cylinders 1 and 2 were way below what they should be (I think the intake gasket may be the culprit). She gets overheated very quickly in traffic – making getting any sort of distance in Los Angeles a harrowing outing. Although I now have the freedom to put her in the garage and do my first real engine-work on her – money, other projects, being a newlywed, and increased responsibilities at work have all kept her in a less-than-ideal state. (Did I also mention that my writing duties at work have also kept me from posting as much as I’d like here at GreaseGirl? Again, a welcome change of a career writing within the automotive realm…but an unwelcome one of not having the steam to come home and write for myself!)

Hopefully it won’t be much longer before Studie gets some good garage- lovin’ – but in the meantime, I recently pulled her in for some basic maintenance I’d been putting off. While maintenance is usually a “have-to” sort of thing, I was surprised by the enjoyable evening I had climbing under and around her.

First order of business was giving the upper control arms a good tightening. I’d discovered one of the bolts to be very “hand-loose” recently and wanted to thoroughly check the front suspension. The only clue I had to the loose suspension component was a slight catching feeling when making a tight right-hand turn. I first thought the extremely loose bolt meant that my front suspension could have fallen apart – but my mechanic husband assured me it wasn’t that dangerous, there are a number of things holding the suspension together…but no doubt, something important to fix and routinely check.

Speaking of things that should be done routinely, my friend Lori lubes all of her car’s zerk fittings each time she does an oil change. I hate to admit it…but I’ve *never* done this on my car (and I have the gall to call myself GreaseGirl!) It’s one of those things that every time I said to myself “I’m sure it’s fine”….but months turn into years and the last time these parts were greased would have been a few years ago, when I helped to rebuild my front suspension.

So I carefully poked around under Studie until I found each and every one of her zerk fittings and used a grease gun to get important lube into Studie’s “joints”. (If you don’t know what a zerk fitting is, one is pictured below. They’re also known as grease fittings and are essentially a small nipple valve that allows you to squeeze grease into it under pressure, and then is sealed.) Be sure to clean off the fittings before squeezing grease into them – this ensures you’re not putting crud internally and also enables you to see that the grease is actually going into the fitting. Of course, while I was greasing the near-dozen zerk fittings I was also letting the oil drain for her oil change.

Next, it had been too long since I’d checked the brakes and could feel she need a brake adjustment. Taking off the tires enabled me to get at the drums – and just as suspected, she doesn’t just need adjusting, she needs new brake pads – so that will be added to her near-future garage time as well.

But in the mean-time, a little adjusting was in order. Ethan showed me a good mechanic’s trick to secure the drum:  using a couple of closed-ended wrenches (or any similar item such as washers or a spare bushing) as shims, fit over the lug bolts and secure them with your wheel’s lug nuts (spread them out rather than putting them on adjacent bolts, you want to evenly spread out the pressure). Now you’ve got an open wheel well to work in, and also an evenly-tightened drum!

Brake adjustment was a bit of a hassle, as it always is for me – more practice will continue to make this job easier. If you’ve never done brake work on your car, I highly suggest shadowing an experienced mechanic your first time through – and then having someone watch you the second time…these aren’t things you want done incorrectly!

When everything was buttoned up, it was time to put the wheels back on. I’d always been a casual tire-putter-back-on-er, using a lug wrench and putting my weight into tightening each lug nut. Ethan says that’s unsafe though, so Mr. Husband has convinced me yet again to work safer and smarter Besides I have a fantastic Gearwrench electronic torque wrench in my garage!

Super easy to use, and extremely accurate, you electronically set how many foot-lbs of torque needed. Applying smootly-applied pressure to tighten with, you’ll get a read out of how many ft-lbs of pressure you’re currently at and then a red light with beep will let you know once your target-torque is reached.  Tires should always be tightened with a torque wrench, to insure safety as well as avoiding under- or over-tightening.

One more tip for those of you who might be beginning their wrenching journeys – if you find the weight of a tire is a challenge (or just to help keep your back protected) – use your legs instead of your upper-body to lift a tire back on your car. Sit on the ground and use your legs/feet to help get the tire re-positioned and lifted into place…although you should probably be wearing more protective shoes than my moccasins while you’re doing this!

After completing these few simple tasks, I felt like a much more responsible classic car owner and I know Studie benefited by this maintenance lovin’. Regularly scheduling some time to complete these more mundane tasks is an important part of owning any car – but particularly an old one. As much as I love working on my car, it’s the bigger and more exciting projects that have me rushing to do them. This evening of lovin’ on Studie helped remind me that routine car maintenance is a good opportunity for a relaxing few hours in the garage!

Car maintenance is the perfect chance for people who have an interest in working on cars to get started in turning  a wrench… so whether you have your dream classic or just a daily beater, schedule a little garage time and get to work!

…the dramatic, spine-tingling, and thrilling conclusion of “Grease Girl and the Hot Rod Bomb”!

If you missed the first two installments, see them here:

#1

#2

Thanks again to ABS Power Brake!

Keep up with further car-learning stories and adventures, click here to have GreaseGirl’s latest posts delivered via email!

Things are just getting interesting…

The suspense, the drama, the agony…will be continued in the next installment.

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If you’ve been reading Grease Girl for awhile, you know how much I love the “adventures” Stude gets me into – so when it came to retelling my brake loss story with reenactment pictures, I couldn’t think of a better way to do it then by creating a comic strip. After all, the story is quite comic (although it certainly wasn’t funny when it happened!)

DundunDUUN!!!! To be continued in the next installment…

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Not only is it a great day to celebrate love, but I just found a fantastic “Machinalia” series by artist Boris Artzybasheff that I absolutely <3! See the whole set at Retronaut.com.

I couldn’t be happier about a tiny, two-wheeled project that recently found its way into my garage. For years I’ve dreamt of exploring the open road on two wheels – with life and other garage projects taking up time and money, there just hasn’t yet been space to think of pursuing my two-wheeled dream. Which is part of the reason why I’m so thrilled that this 1977 Peugeot 103 Moped just fell into my lap!

Carted home by my husband via a friend-of-a-friend, this little 49cc little-sister-to-a-real-bike needs some tender loving care after sitting for years.

Perfectly suited for a motorcycle beginner, I’m looking forward to using my already learned skills and applying them to a slightly-different sort of engine and operating system. The simplicity of the Peugeot makes this a very accessible project.

I’ve begun by giving this bike a much-needed de-cob webbing and cleaning  - helped along by my good friend and huge motorcycle enthusiast, modobenny. She was the one who taught and gave me my first (and only) opportunity driving a two-wheeled beast, during a trip to El Mirage a couple years back.

The Internet has been a huge resource of information so far. I’ve found the Owner’s Manual and Peugeot 103 Service Manual available online as well as carburetor and wiring diagrams. I’ll be spending a little time studying up on the Peugeot before completely deciding which direction to take this project.

I know, I know – a 49 cc Peugeot is hardly going to bring me the “freedom of the open road”…but at least it’s a place to start. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in the garage, it’s that everyone has to start somewhere!

Have you followed GreaseGirl.com yet? Be sure to keep up on Project Pepe’s progress and my other adventures by doing so!

Stude in Motion

When a photographer friend of mine asked if Stude and I would be interested in doing a film-noir style shoot with him, it didn’t take a second thought! He’s been working on perfecting a new custom-built rig to shoot cars at speed and wanted to shoot Stude in a dark, industrial setting. I love the way it turned out! I like to think I’m racing away from a villain chasing behind me - write your own story in the comments below…or at least read the comments for The Gear Head Skeptic‘s fabulous fiction!

Check out more cars in motion from photographer Bo Struye (http://www.bostruyephotos.com/blog).

After our mad-dash 10-day Falcon project almost 2 months ago (has it really been that long!?), Falcon is now ready to roll! After a couple of minor glitches to work past and two very busy schedules between Ethan and I, we’ve finally gotten to a place in which we feel confident that the engine, brakes, and operating systems are up to par! After we can bankroll its registration, it will really be on the road. A more thorough update will be coming – if you want to hear it’s engine rev, head over to Grease Girl’s Facebook page for the video.

The 2013 National Studebaker Meet meet happens to be in Colorado Springs, CO this year. Usually held in Indiana, it’s closer proximity prompted me to look over the schedule. I was surprised when I saw “Drive Your Studebaker to the top of Pikes Peak” listed.

Pike’s Peak is famous for the Pike’s Peak Hill Climb race each year. The “Race to the Clouds” speeds up Pike’s 12.42 miles of narrow, twisting road – climbing 4,720 feet as it winds past 156 turns. I would love to drive this route – but the thought of driving my drum brake-equipped Studebaker here makes me shudder…

My first mountain drive was up to Big Bear, a summer or two after getting Stude. It wasn’t going up the mountain that was the problem (although I did have carburetor issues with the altitude)…it was coming DOWN! Careful not to ride my brakes, heating them up was unavoidable. I went as slow as possible and eventually had a line of traffic behind me. When a turn-out finally appeared, Stude rolled very slowly to a stop.

After this journey I vowed never to drive in the mountains again with Stude. But life always brings surprises, and I unknowingly piloted Stude to another mountainside.

When my husband and I were driving to our honeymoon destination – the last stretch of road dropped dramatically down a mountainside. Not exactly an ideal time to worry about barreling down a steep cliff! Luckily we made it without mishap – but it wasn’t the funnest part of the journey.

These experiences made me all the more surprised when I saw the Pike’s Peak drive on the schedule of the SDC Meet. I suppose a number of owners have upgraded to disc brakes, because I wouldn’t dare drive the peak – while my Stude wouldn’t have a problem getting UP the mountain, I fear she’d need to be air-lifted out of there!

Does anyone else have experience driving their classic to the mountains?

Tested and filled the cooling system. It initially leaked at the water pump gasket, so that had to be taken apart and re-gasketed. Ethan has this great pressure testing and filling tool which works like a charm.

Attempted to fix the brake light issue. A changed brake switch didn’t solve our problem, and we’ve only gotten the brake lights to go on a couple times – the rear running lights were a little more consistent but by test drive time weren’t coming on at all.

Adjusted the brakes. I’ve seen this done a couple times, but never have done adjustments myself. Since I learn by doing the best, this was good for me – especially since I need to do this on my Studebaker also. One adjuster was flipped incorrectly within the drum – so I got to take that apart for the second day in a row…another great way to learn things…repetition! Afterwards, we were ready to put on the tires and put Falcon back on the ground!

Put the valve cover on and finished connecting the last couple of lines. That’s when we took him out for the test drive.

Everything sounded good, temp and oil pressure was good (remember…we’ve never run this engine before). We planned on taking it out this morning for an alignment, making a few small adjustments, and hitting the road. However…we woke today to rain, and lots of it. The cards seem to be stacked against us – as testing out a car in the rain, across the desert, doesn’t make for the best situation!

So, Falcon has prowled around our neighborhood – but his true maiden voyage is going to wait for another weekend. Ethan and I are off for now in a different car…going to spend the holiday with family. Happy New Years…may 2013 bring plenty of completed projects!