drove the Vedette to work the other night, 10% chance of rain the forecast said. It started raining at midnight and was still drizzling at 0600 when I knocked off. Off I went on the 50 km drive home, big clunk under the dash and wipers stopped working right in morning traffic. Got home and headlights would not turn off. On investigation it was simple, linkage fell off the back of the wiper motor and just needed a circlip. That's where it started........ Took dash out to access rear of wiper motor and replaced clip (I have my doubts if there was one there at all). Found a broken wire to the dimmer switch that was obviously hit by the linkage but couldn't find where it was from. Spent the better part of the day trying to trace the abortion of wiring under the dash and ended up completely rewiring the headlights. Problem solved? Went to put the dash back in and found a hot piece of wiring by chance. Traced it and discovered the thermo fan had been wired direct to power and a switch without a fuse or relay. Spent another half day rewiring that correctly....... Thought (what was I thinking ?) that I would take off the the wiper motor and have a look at it as it had a bit of slop in the shaft and I was curious as to how it had been adapted to the car. Found this setup.
Looked around for something similar size to make one out of and thought nylon would be better than rubber so the wife lost a cutting board That we will never speak of again.
Then I was looking for a spanner (storey of my life) and found this in one of my tool boxes. It's a radiator donut from a late model GM. Jigsaw and the wife's bread knife (shoooosh I did wash it and put it back) and came up with this. Works like a dream.
Anyway, to finish my tale of woe and unplanned fix its, I then noticed a few drops of coolant on the garage floor. Yep radiator has a small leak. Now saving for a new one as this ones aluminium core and can't be soldered. Has anyone else (most I guess) gone to fix a small issue and ended up fixing a lot more.. Post it up and make me feel better lol.
Been down that road many times! In my case, it started out simply enough, but then I said, well, as long as I'm at it...and a simple project took on larger-than-life proportions.
To borrow a phrase from a former boss, working on old cars is; "Like wiping your ass with a hoop. There's no end to it!""
That's how we end up with these cars... The owner gets tired of doing or runs out of money for these 'little fixes'.... LOL...
There are two aspects to this, the first is what happened to you. You fix one thing and as you do that you see something else that needs fixing. The other is the while I am at it I might as well add this such as adding A/C to the car while you are changing that radiator
Its happening........got the front panels off and in to it. Decided if I'm going to change the radiator I might as well make a shroud, new fan etc. lol
If that is all the bigger your snowball has grown, you need to come and hang around me for a few weeks, you obviously need more training.
Six weeks ago I went to put a new mech. fuel pump in... I've now got the car up on four jackstands and I'm re-doing the entire steering system, fixing some body rust, and painting the interior. Fuel pump's still not in...
Lol, I try to resist that. Every time I take the instrument panel out I have to stop myself from removing the whole dash and redoing it. I'm waiting for winter to do that, weathers too nice at the moment.
I love mission creep, as a remodeling contractor it made me a lot of money over the years, I loved to hear while we are at it might as well....
Yep, I know you even though we've never met. You're the guy I wouldn't leave my wife alone with after she and I had already agreed on a color for the dining room walls.
I have been guilty of doing it to myself. Went to move a light switch that was installed on the wrong side of the back door. To get at the wiring needed to cut an access hole in the ceiling. Discovered the previous owner had installed a 2nd ceiling over the original. Tore out both layers, discovered the wiring in the ceiling was knob and tube. Tore all that out and replaced it with new. Since ceiling was open put in 6 recessed lights for better lighting. Replaced ceiling and finally moved switch. Turned on lights, now the cabinets looked really shabby. Refaced cabinets and made new doors and drawer fronts. Now the counter top really looked bad, tore off and made new counter tops and backsplash. At this point the floor was starting to bug me - so I moved.
This is one reason that ordinary repair shops many times don't want to mess with older cars. Everybody wants a quote, and they can't do that. Everything takes longer, and they are never quite sure what they are going to find. Lots of customers try the "just fix what's broke, don't mess with anything else" routine, and that isn't always possible much less safe.
And to finish that statement, "just fix what is broke and nothing else" isn't what they want at all, its just what they want to pay for. They expect everything on the car to be perfect for 10 year after any repair you have done. I'm so happy I've retired and now only fix my junk. At least I know why I stopped when I did. Gene
And anything else that just happened to break or fail while in their shop, or shortly thereafter, is also your fault too, and should of course be replaced on your dime and time.
The Jalopy Journal
