WUP, WUP, WUP! NEAR MISS!!

This blog post may be a little disjointed due to so many pieces to cover in any kind of accurate time line. It includes: The beginning of the pandemic, numerous vendor delays, international trade, supply, labor issues, hurricanes, negotiations, irony and international car show participation.

Something called Covid-19 was starting to come into all our collective lives in early spring!

Well, the weather was great for early March 2020! The engine, rebuilt for the second time, is running GREAT SO FAR!. Temperature is mid 70s and bright sun. Time to roll the car out and start breaking it in with a slow cruise getting ready for the car show season. I get about twelve (12) miles from home, light traffic, never over 35 mph. Get stopped in traffic at a light. As I roll up I hear a very light wup, wup. I don't think too much about it. Was it the music or probably that slammed Civic pulling up behind me, fart can and all? Light changes and we all move. Oil pressure, oil temperature and cooling ALL OK. Move on, go a couple of blocks no noise. The Civic passes and at the next light wup, wup,wup a little louder. What the hey! 

As the light changes and we all move, the Civic is in front of me now and I hear the wup, wup multiple times. The sound is behind me and coming from the car! I AM CONCERNED! Gauges ALL OK. Growing concerned I start thinking about the quickest way home.  More lights, now I need to turn. WUPWUP WUP! as I turn. I am in a cold sweat as my mind races. I need to find a place to pull off and check things.

I find a flat and open space, get out with the engine running, (car has no parking brake). Everything looks and sounds ok. I open the hood, look and listen, pull the throttle cable to rev a little. Nothing. I shut it off. What next? I grab each of the wheels pull and shake them. Nothing! What else? I slide under the car, grab and shake anything not hot. Nothing. Visually, nothing loose or hanging everything is straight. OK what do I do? I've got about eight (8) miles to go to get home. I plot the best way with the fewest turns and slow speeds without causing traffic problems.

Those eight (8) or so miles were some of the most increasingly stressful I have ever driven. The WUPWUPWUP was increasing in frequency, noise and now shaking the entire car! Should I stop? Call a tow truck? The further I went the worse it got! My mind was racing! It felt like something in the driveline. If I threw in the clutch everything seemed ok. That lead me to think something in the engine or transmission was not right. The noise was from the middle or rear of the car. Clutch? Throw out bearing?  Remember in MO MO POWER DEUX the entire drive train was out for rebuild for the second time. When the car came home I had gone over it and did find a few loose items which I easily corrected. 

The closer I got to home and with each turn or curve the VIBRATION and WUPWUPWUP got worse. The shift lever was swinging back and forth wildly. I was staying in second gear (2nd) accelerating to maybe 30 mph, clutch in, coast, accelerate, clutch, coast to cut down on the vibration. Putting in the clutch seemed to help the most! The last two (2) miles were the worst! Pull over and park it or continue?

I got it home SWEATING BULLETS!! I knew then and there it was going to the shop on the hook!

The following day I called the shop that had done the rebuild and shipped the car on a flatbed. Needless to say they were shocked. They told me due to the new state rules for Covid, it would be a short while and they were short a few people. They did call a day later with a very definite diagnosis. Have you figured it out? After they told me light bulbs went on all over the place! It brought back a vivid memory from my teen years.

They told me they had put the car on a lift inspected and run it without finding anything. The next logical step was to drive it. They left their shop and got about a mile down the road and aborted the drive and headed back to the shop! 

They have a a football field length driveway. About three quarters of the way back in the drivers side rear wheel tore off; ripped off the wheel spacer, gashed the tire, dropped the car and crushed the brake caliper, elongated the brake rotor bolt holes, bent the backing plate, shearing off the lug bolts, brake line, damaging the last few inches of the rocker panel and inner wheel body flange and bent the mag wheel. Their driver was not hurt but he said it was a REAL SHOCK!

Had this happened to me or their tech on the road, at any speed, it could have been a DISASTER to us or others! A NEAR MISS!!!!

My teen memory involved towing a boat; getting a flat, leaving the boat on the side of the road, fixing it in a rush, not tightening the lug bolts properly, having them pull loose and shaking the trailer, car and me silly until I got it stopped and figured out what I had done.. 

Before I go further, THERE IS A RAY OF SUNSHINE in this tale of woe and dark clouds. I will reveal it at the end.

Now my story devolves back to that shop that cost me an engine rebuild. If you remember in the blog     MO MO POWER the Dana 60 rear end had to be modified to fit the alignment of the DeSoto drive line position. The "moto head" repeatedly made mistakes and caused delays to the point that I finally cut ties with it: but not soon enough as it turned out!       

I  had given the shop a very detailed drawing of the original DeSoto rear end. The owner claimed he "lost" it. I gave him another one, and as I did, he found the original in a pile of papers on his desk. It took over a year to complete the work with numerous mistakes. The spring perches were put on wrong. Couldn't tell until I was trying to install it. That required a removal, rework and reinstall. The housing offset was done wrong with the old wheels rubbing the springs. He just cut the housing down without adding anything. Another rework including axles and bearings! The new axles had the wrong splines, a mistake made by the shop and Curry Axle Co. The third set of axles came with extra long lug bolts. Not knowing what lay ahead you can see a picture of them in the blog MO MO POWER.

 I knew the extra long stud bolts would be incompatible with any mag wheel that I was thinking about. I asked that they be replaced. The shop response was a sharp NO! He said use wheel spacers, he was tried of it. As I have since learned the hard way, wheels put over spacers are a NO NO. If they are used, check the lug nuts before every drive and they must mount  absolutely flat against the wheel and brake/axle! 

                                                Below you can see the remains of the spacer.

You can see here what's left of the wheel studs and a piece of the brake caliper. Not readily visible is the axle bend and backing plate being bent.

Remember the paragraph above? Currey Axle did the splines wrong. Well, eight (8) years later they did it again! Gave the shop a bunch of grief over the number of splines in the rear end and wanted to charge for another set of axles. Caused a  six (6) week delay.

Now lets insert international business and trade. The shop informed me that they, and other known builders and dealers, had been invited to Saudi Arabia to show a couple of their creations and possibly auction them off in early summer. It was supposed to be a huge all expenses paid affair! Everything the shop was doing was focused in that direction; therefore my car would be dealt with as time permitted. I said ok. For them the show turned out to be a disaster. No auction, cars damaged, refusal to reimburse, late return shipments. 

Here I back up 8 years and look at wheels as they play a part in this blog. During the original build I had to figure out how big a wheel and tire package I could put on the car. The original DeSoto tire/wheel set up was a fifteen (15) inch by five point five (5.5) inch wheel and an F series tire. That equates to about a 75 or 80 series tire height and a 195 width in todays dimensions. Tall and skinny! Standard Chrysler and Ford five by five and a quarter inch bolt pattern wheel bolt pattern.  (15 X 5.5 wheel, 5 X 5 1/4  bolt pattern). 

I researched wheel offset, backspace and width. Offset is where the backside of wheel touches the brake or axle. Backspace can be either positive, zero or negative in relation to the center of the wheel/rim width. 

After I installed the brake system, pictures which can be seen in my WHOA! blog.  I made a "wheel disc" using two sticks; one cut for wheel size and one nailed on top, a ruler which I could rotate for tire width and wheel offset. I placed the disc on the brake rotor/studs and allowing for the 3/4 inch wheel spacers in the rear due to the long studs I arrived at 17 X 8 inch wheel size with a positive offset of roughly two (2) inches.

  At the time the wheel market had many 17s as very common and lots of "wagon" wheels. 18s , 19s and 20s were just starting to appear on new cars, trucks and for the after market. Same with tires. Remember from the blog FRAMED the front suspension is a Dodge Dakota. Dakotas used 6" x 5 1/4" inch bolt patterns. That limited my choices for bigger wheels as I needed two 6 x 5 1/4 and two 5 x 5  1/4 wheels for the rear.  Limited by the Dakota bolt pattern my first choice was a Millani wheel in chrome but I found it was no longer made. My final choice was Millani Stellar 17 x 8 with 2.5 inch positive offset. They can be seen in the ITS DONE OR IS IT blog pictures.

During the course of damage assessment it was determined that the wheel was bent beyond repair. It gets worse! The wheels were no longer made and NONE AVAILABLE internationally! That meant I was stuck with one 5 bolt wheel and two 6 bolt wheels. My choices were severely limited.. Run with two different wheel sets, use the bent one, or change all four wheels. It gets worse 17 inch wheels are no longer common, and 6 bolt patterns no longer made in 17s. 

The upper picture shows the cuts and gouges on the offset face and back side of the wheel.The lower picture shows the elongation of the bolt holes. Not visible to the eye is the rim and center distortion.

In the original selection process I chose General Grabber HTS 275 x 55 x 17 v rated tires.  I felt their load rating, speed rating, wear rating and size were appropriate for a two (2) ton car. That and nothing bigger would clear. I had found they were used on big Mercedes SUVs as factory equipment. Piling on, tires evolved the same way wheels did. The 275 x 55  x 17 tires made by General are no longer made and there are only one or two major brands making V rated tires.

SOOOO.... 

Decisions decisions! In searching for replacement wheels I found a small company in the deep south, 1320 Wheels, that converts Dakota and some Chevy hubs and rotors from six (6) bolt to five (5) bolt 5 x 5 1/4 inch bolt patterns. That opened up a world of wheel options IF I wanted to spend $$$ for the conversion and labor or do it my self. After a lot of thought and a government assistance check coming for Covid relief to nearly everyone I decided to make the purchase. 

More problems in the works! Two (2) hurricanes and major flooding hitting Louisiana and Covid restrictions in the workplace would delay the modified hubs and rotors for three (3) months.  

I chose a 17 x 8 wheel made by MHT with a near zero (0) offset/backspace. They own or hold over 2,000 brands, most made in China. A picture of the car on the new wheels will be at the end of this blog. I thought the Milanni wheels looked "rich" on the car. The new wheels give the car a more 50-60s hot rod contemporary retro look. It think they better match the overall look of the car!

It is recommended that you never use mismatched tires. The tire on the damaged wheel had an eight (8) inch gash to the cord. That meant a new tire or two (2). The brands available were unheard of Chinese, Hankok, Kumho, Michelin and Nitto. I went with the Nitto NT 421 Qs as there were a lot of negative comments about Hankok and Kumhos being noisy and wearing out prematurely. 

For those not familiar with Nittos they are a division of Toyo Tire and come on some high performance new cars. Covid played a role and foreign trade raised its head here too. The major local and national distribution tire centers had none! Factories shutdown! Lucked out and found 'em at Tire America and had them in two (2) days.   A picture of the damaged tire is below.

The driver side caliper was basically smashed to bits. The rear axle picture posted above shows part of it. It had been part of a Ford Racing brake conversion kit. The only way it could be replaced was to buy another full kit. Anything else would have required reworking mounting brackets AND there was parts availability issues. As it was, the kit is made in Brazil and took a month to get through the Ford supply system.

                  Bits of the caliper are seen the center and center bottom of the following picture.

Now the body work. The torn inner wheel flange surprisingly was able to be bent back into position using a pair of 2" (2) inch wide jaw pliers, a body hammer and dolly. The break was ground and spot welded to full width of the tear.  In the course of bending the lip and the welding the "dent" on the rocker panel popped back. Grinding, light filling and painting the panel followed using standard procedures. The paint was mine, basecoat, pearl clear coat so it is a "perfect" match.

                    A picture of the tear is below. It is difficult to see the lip bent down 90 degrees, 

Remember near the beginning I said there was a ray of hope? I have classic car insurance.

Not the usual Haggerty. They are twice as expensive. I have American Modern Insurance. I thought what have I got to loose? I called and they gave me a claim number and said a field agent would call in a few days.  At first the agent wanted to sue the old shop. After ALOT of EXPLAINING and REXPLAINING he understood the time frame involved. He took the new shop number and after roughly of three (3) months of back and forth, vacations, trips, quotes, and invoice exchanges the insurance actually covered most of the expenses. I had to pay for the front hubs and rotors, one (1) tire, three (3) wheels and some labor. 

I got the car back on 9/21/20. Since then I have been able to run it about 300 mikes with no problems. KNOCK ON WOOD. It's now in storage for the winter. You can see the car with the new wheels below. What do you think?

NO "EXPERT" ADVICE! DUEX

 You remember in my last post I had said it was a battle between me and the car as to whether it would get done, or the car would beat me. That comment was meant as a joke. Well, the winner is, STILL UP IN THE AIR!

 2019 started pretty smoothly. We, my wife, kids, and other family attended roughly 30+ car shows over the spring, summer and fall! As I mentioned in other posts, shows that give awards are heavily prejudiced towards 60's Chevys and pro-builds. The number of cars at the shows attended varied from roughly 50 to over 3,000. I actually WON AWARDS at two (2) shows! Second Place for Best of 1950 - 1965 Class and Best in Show for Resto-Mods! As I mentioned earlier in "OK, ITS DONE" was rather humbling and at the same time, I felt as justly deserved. The car went about 1,000 miles in '19, after the rebuild, with the only "problem", OR SO I THOUGHT,  running hot when stuck in traffic, at lights in 90 degree plus temperatures.  

I wasn't really concerned as I had learned Vipers run hot by design. Generation 2 Vipers, which my engine is, came from the factory with a 190 degree thermostat! Most cars have a 180 degree thermostat and start warning about overheating at 190 degrees.  I found Vipers run at a track, often ran at 210 plus! The factory service book said 240 was acceptable under racing conditions! Viper owners in the south and southwest often switched to a 180 or even a 170 degree thermostat. To do that means pulling the entire air and intake manifold on a Gen 2 engine  I wasn't going to attempt that. So my solution was to shut it off at lights and when stuck in heavy traffic on 90 degree days. Rarely went to 220.

Remember in the post titled "MO MO POWER" I mentioned that I had removed the oil pump plugs for an oil cooler and added an engine cooler? That was done at the end of the show season at about a 1,000 miles. During the early course of the build, a number of people recommended that I consult and have any engine and mechanical work done by "motor heads", a local shop, run by an "expert" on hemi and other engines. As part of his work and advice he said that I WOULD NOT NEED AN ENGINE OIL COOLER when I asked.

By late summer 2019, at about 1,600 miles on the engine since the rebuild (the first one) and 600 miles since adding the oil cooler I started hearing a light "Tap". Somewhere down deep and near the rear of the engine or transmission. At first it was at startup only. As time progressed and miles driven rose, it became more progressive and I could feel it through the gas pedal. Then hear it too. I tried everything to isolate it. I used a stethoscope across the engine, valve train and on the transmission. Nothing. The sound was intermittent. I started asking questions and researching. For a while I thought it was valve train. I did a compression test. All OK. As it got worse and more steady I finally drained the oil and cut the filter. The FILTER and OIL WERE FULL OF BEARING MATERIAL! AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! You could actually see it in the oil.

More bad advice or lack of knowledge to ask the right questions? As I said in "Mo Mo Power" the local auto repair shop I found to pull the engine; and engine machine shop, newly staffed by the son of the deceased owner, to pull and rebuild the engine failed mention or recommend the need to boil or flush the block to remove bearing material as part of the necessary rebuilt.. He also failed to tell me that the hydraulic lifters should be replaced as the camshaft had been replaced. The cleaning and flushing of the heads and oil cooler lines should have been recommended as well. I had never blown an engine and knew none of this. MY BAD for proceeding without knowing or asking what I should do.

At the very beginning of the restoration in "I SMELL A RAT" I said get advice before you jump in. I didn't follow my own advice! In retrospect, I questioned myself a number of times for the need of a cooler as the project continued. As I found, even supposed "experts" don't know everything! The more exotic or different your project is, the more you need to find someone qualified on the subject/problem you are working on. In hind-site, I should have let Arrow Racing do the work. Their cost would have been the same as local shops. NEGATING THE NEED FOR A SECOND REBUILD.  Remember that old Fram oil filter ad? PAY ME NOW OR PAY ME LATER! In this case I did in fact talk to the original factory engineers and shop that did development work for the Viper; AFTER IT WAS TOO LATE!

After all the above I had a choice. Either let it sit, or buy a rare, new factory short block, various and sundry pieces, parts, labor and shipping plus $$$$.$$. I just couldn't let it sit. I bit the bullet. But this time the shop that did the rebuilt is known locally and nationally for reliable work on exotics, restorations and custom work. I  requested a 170 thermostat as part of the rebuild. I also changed a homemade pipe fitting that was a restriction in the cooling system. Due to delays and schedules I got the car back in an unusual, rare early March 2020 mild spell. I parked it until late March. Using the nice weather started breaking it in. By that time the early car shows were starting to be cancelled due to Covid 19. In the 300 miles driven  since the rebuild, the car has run much cooler and even tolerated long traffic lights in 80+ temperatures without too much temperature rise. 

The only good to come out of all this was having the car back and ready to show and go. But it very quickly became a NO SHOW SEASON due to COVID 19. Like the TV commercials "BUT THERE'S MORE" on my blog! See "WUP WUP WUP".