I told my boss that I needed three days off with my buddy last week to go to OR and haul back a car. He managed to get the schedule changed to acomodate us. My buddy known here as monzaman77 is a fellow H body enthusiast who got me started on these cars again. I somehow managed to convice him that this car was worth the trip to OR and that I needed his help. Not really that hard. He never gets on this site though as he is too busy helping me with my projects.
So our trip got off to a horrible start. We decided to stop at Subway for lunch before heading south. Knowing that my buddy has a sweet tooth, I grabbed several cookies for a treat. OOOPS I forgot he was allergic to nuts and did not know the cookies contained nuts. Thank God it was only a minor reaction that he had but it delayed us at least 2 hours. Next stop the border. The usual questions about where are you going? Why all the tools, jacks and jackstands in the back of his Monza and such. Oops they didnt like the package of parts I had in the car that I was going to ship while in the USA. So a minor car search and 1 hour later, they decided we were harmless nuts and let us head on our way. And they allowed me to keep the package of car parts and not charge anything to import them.
So now 3+ hours behind schedule we roll into Portland around 11pm and looked for our hotel. Oh boy I picked a hotel in the rough part of town. I dont recommend the Value hotel in Portland guys. The only good part was the funky little bar close by where I was paying $1.50 a bottle of Miller. Maybe should have stopped after the third or fourth one. $30.00 for something we ate and a bunch of beers wow that was about the cheapest thing we did this whole trip.
So Thursday morning, we head out. We stopped for lunch about 30 minutes west of Portland and I realized that I had left a almost brand new set of tools at the hotel. So we turned around and went back again. Amazingly enough the tools were still there. They were turned into the office by the cleaning staff
Oops realized that I had never gotten directions to this guys place and call him for directions. Hmmmm after his directions, we should have quit and just headed for the coast for a couple of relaxing days off. Nice directions, exit the highway at exit 61, turn left then right and just look for the property with all the vehicles on it and the big orange fire truck.
So we finally arrive at his property and yep he has a whole bunch of vehicles on his property, everything from the fire truck to boats and 4x4 Scout for sale to just about everything in between. Oh yeah several shops and a huge selection of car parts. No H-body stuff though.
We did score 2 very nice aluminum 4 barrel intakes, a nice Quadrajet carb and several Chev manuals from the 70's. ALl for $110.00.
Oh yeah the wagon, yep it was just as described but hey even better, its a Safari wagon. Rust only in two places on the body and it was just surface rust. More on this topic later. The interior needs carpets, the drivers seat is torn, the interior smells like a paint factory as they were storing paint in it at some point. And yep it dont run unless you keep cranking it and keep your foot on the gas pedal. When it does run, it keeps backfiring out the carb and making these weird popping noises. Hmmmm. So he says ok are you interested and holds out his hand for the money. Stupid me, I go yep its my car and hand $500.00. First piece of paper he has me sign says AS IS all over it. Oh boy, I should have asked for my money back right there and then.
So we call up the local NAPA and order a whole bunch of parts. I start working on the car and get nowhere. The seller asks how its going and I tell him and he comes out and starts helping out. Quickly we realize the distributor is hooped. The rotor has way way too much play in it. He works on it for a bit and we get some improvement. The car is a little closer to starting. Next we pulled the chrome valve cover gasket off the motor and find about half the rockers/lifters move around something like the distributor was doing. The area around the lifters is all clean with no sludge. Hmmm the engine did not look that bad. He adjusts all the lifters and says some if not all should be replaced.
Well the engine still did not start and run properly. He decided the Distributor was still having problems and as it was getting late, it would need to wait until the morning. He gave us directions to the nearest restaurant and we had some excellent Mexican food for dinner. And better yet as I was trying to find a local hotel for the night, he told us to just crash at his place for the night. Myself working night shift and used to staying up late and he informed me that he was always up at 530am. He said he would start on the distributor first thing in the morning.
Next morning Friday morning. The day we were supposed to start for home by the way of an easy trip to Tacoma to pick up parts and wheels that we had shipped to a friends place there and then home Saturday morning. Started cold and foggy at yep 530am. He informed me that he was going to be heading for breakfast and would be back soon.
Well he was back at 10 and ready to start work. The distributor was pulled out and the worn out pin replaced. The distributor went back in nice and easy and wow the car FINALLY started. Wooohooo. It actually ran not too badly, little loud though. Ooops no taillights or signal lights though. Well the signal light flasher was located and replaced. Why is it that GM/Chev has two flashers in their cars????? Every other car I've owned only had one.
Oops but thats just working front signal lights and no still no brake lights or rear signals. He said he would figure out what the problem there was, we could head into town for a trip permit, a thermostat and a gasket. I figured that those should be changed after sitting for so long.
Ooopsie we kinda got lost in town and finally found our way back about 2 hours later. Did get the permit and the parts though.
Oh yeah they kinda warned me that the permit was only good in OR and as soon as I crossed the border, I could have the car towed. Considering we were supposed to be in Tacoma by the afternoon and it was now like 3 pm, this was not good. The only good thing was that I had bought insurance for the car in BC just in case before I left home. Otherwise OR would not have given me a permit.
When we finally got back, he had fixed the taillights and rear signals. Oh but the fuse kept blowing every few minutes and viola no more taillights or rear signal lights. A new 30 amp fuse later fixed that problem. Never blew again.
So after selling the car to me AS IS and spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-6 hours working on it, he asked me for $85.00 for his time. Pretty cheap labor rates considering he could have just walked away and said fix it myself.
Ok so I got the oil changed and after some more misadventures later, I got the antifreeze and thermostat changed.
After packing and everything, at 7pm we headed for the nearest gas station and more Mexican food. We hit the road for Tacoma at 8pm. I immediately started having tranny problems. It would shift up ok to second or third and then it seemed to think it had another gear and would shift again. But then the car would immediately start slowing down and if I applied gas, it would down shift again. The car seemed to be able to handle 60-65 miles an hour fine so we continued on our way.
Somewhere near the WA border, my buddy who was closely following me informed me that I had sparks coming out from underneath my car. As I had just tried pushing the car to 70 MPH, this was not a good sign. We pulled into a gas station and I checked things out. The rad overflow hose, which is too long, came into contact with the alternator fan which cut a hole in it. These chunks of hose flying out from under the car seemed to be the cause of the sparks.
Oh and while in the gas station, I discovered that I no longer had reverse in the tranny.
Put the shifter in reverse and it does nothing. Great just what I need, another car needing a new tranny.
Well we finally made it to Tacoma about 12am and got a hotel room. Yes we never got stopped by WA police on the way to Tacoma. We went to Hooters next door to the hotel for a snack and beer. After two visits to the Tacoma Hooters, I strongly DO NOT recommend their food. Beer is standard but man oh man their food is well quite simply awful. I mean who ever made up their recipes should be run over
CHEEZ whiz on Nachos and gross cheez whiz YUCK. Never again will we stop there for food.
Saturday morning started at 9am. We found a WA DMV and got the needed permit and then picked up the wheels and parts from our friends. I asked the front desk person where she recommended for breakfast, when she responded Hooters I just looked at her and said you have to be kidding right. She quickly directed us to a nearby IHOP.
So around Everret we decided that a gas stop was required. I was turning to do a U turn to head to the gas station we chose when the car died completely. I managed to get it to run long enough to make into the parking lot and out of the middle of the road but it would not run....... The low fuel light never came on but it was acting like it had no fuel
So I headed to the gas station and bought a small gas can at a terrible price, filled it and went back to the car. Dumped the gas in it and nothing, would not start. So out come the tools. Oops I forgot to mention that this 151 has a mechanical fuel pump mounted on the engine. No other pump that I can find. I bought the new pump that was on Ebay Friday as soon as I saw what kind of pump it had. So I started disconnecting gas lines and found no gas anywhere. Great did the pump pack it in?. So I sent my buddy back to the gas station with the can for more gas and changed the fuel filter. I discovered that the old filter was full of metal chunks and junk. Guess I need to drop the tank and clean it out.
So after adding more gas and dumping a bunch down the carb, we got it running. It now did not want idle very well. It was idling too high earlier, about 1000 rpm roughly and now seemed to be idling about 400-600. I tried to locate the idle screw on the Carb without luck but at least it was running.
So we gassed up and ran for the border. We made it into Blaine and to the storage place I had found around 5pm. We then headed for the border to find the line up around 5 cars. I keep hearing about these 2+ hour border line ups but with at least 8 border crossings recently, we have not had to wait more than 30 minutes. And even better yet, the lady at the booth looked at our receipts for the car parts and wheels that we were hauling back and just waved us through the border. I thought we would be paying taxes on some of it but nope. YES someone must like me somewhere.
So I finally got back to my buddies place around 6pm and made it to work for 7pm. Oops I was supposed to be at work at 630. Oh well.
Ok the car
The good
Origional car 151/TH350
Good compression in all 4 cylinders 120+
Straight body little rust. Surface rust around the passenger side taillight and on the front Facia. Underneath and the fenders look good.
Origional paint in decent shape.
Odometer showing 74000 miles, might be correct.
The bad
The interior.
The tires
The Terrible
Battery tray, what battery tray, there is some flimsy metal left where the battery tray used to be but I drove home over 500 miles with the battery held in by bailing wire.
Front suspension, going to need tie rods, ball joints and the whole nine yards.
The tranny or what gears there are
Overall, the car looks like it will be a nice car when finished but where's the money going to come from?????
The whole story involved a tractor, a tow-dolly, then a flatbed tow truck, a wal-mart and a family of mice. I am also proud to say that I too have the hi-performance wooden battery tray with the ghetto-riffic bungee tie-down.
Good Luck with your project. I'd like to see how it turns out. -Shawn