Red Clubman Estate aka "Rusty"

[94touring]

I've got dibs on that air fitting!

[MiniDave]

I'll add it to the stuff in the back.... 

[94touring]

Hey I put the battery in and it shifts like a charm.  Didn't drive it out of the yard but it seems to have power, though stumbling like it's out of fuel, which it probably is.  Needs floors bad. 

[MiniDave]

Well, Rusty is now home and safe in Dan's shop, by now I'm sure he's already unloaded him and is looking at him planning where to start the repairs.

(Edit - beat me to it!)

The trip from KC was a bit "eventfull", before we could go the had date changed several times as did our plans to meet up, but yesterday my friend John showed up with the trailer and we loaded Rusty on and tied him down - less that two miles later we had just entered the highway when we heard a strange noise and I told John I could not see the tailgate of the trailer, we pulled over and sure enough it had come undone from it's hinges and was dragging along the ground behind us. We tried to slide it back on it's pins but couldn't so we laid it on the back of he trailer and tied it down......we should have turned right back to my house and fixed it but we were on a schedule and needed to be at Dan's shop by a certain time - so we went on.

All was fine for the next 100 miles or so, when John went to pass a semi on a two lane road and all of a sudden the car went all weird.......he'd lost the power steering, and after a few seconds the temp gauge headed straight to the red zone and the alt light came on, so we both knew we'd lost the fan belt. In the middle of nowhere. With NO tools at all. (See why we should have gone back to my place when the tailgate fell off?) We opened the hood and that's exactly what had happened - John had replaced both belts and tensioners along with the water pump just a few months before, but the small A/C compressor belt had failed and when it came off it took the main serpentine with it.....both belts were still in the engine compartment but with no tools and an overheated engine, we weren't going to fix it there on the side of the road. After about a half hour's cool down we managed to limp into the next town and  at a tiny gas station borrowed a wrench, in two minutes we had the serpentine back on and all was well, we just had no A/C, but it was a 50* day so no worries.

The rest of the trip down was rather uneventful, except we were now late and as Dan had an appointment we quickly unloaded Rusty and loaded Buzz after getting some help reinstalling the tailgate from Dan and MtyMous. We all said our goodbyes  and John and I headed home, we decided to stop in Bartlesville for lunch - only about 20 miles up the road - and as we rolled up to a stop light heard a big thump from behind, I jumped out and found Buzz completely untethered, he'd rolled forward but hit the spare tire at the front of the trailer - we looked at each other in amazement as we knew we had him tied down solid when we left Dan's shop.

So, we tied him down solidly again, then continued on......instead of going to KC tho we went to Lawrence to drop the trailer. We unloaded Buzz (started right up, too. Yay!) and I drove him the last 40 miles home.....where he is now safely tucked back in the garage.

The roof looks terrific, in fact the paint is so much better than the rest of the car that it suffers by comparison, but till I actually win the Powerball he won't be getting repainted. Dan did a terrific job and I really appreciate all his hard work!

[94touring]

Glad you're happy!  Glad the car didn't roll off the trailer!  You'd have to drop it right back off here. 

[MiniDave]

Back at cha......since I didn't get to drive Rusty I had my fingers crossed that everything would work OK.

[94touring]

Pedal depressed so easy I was concerned at first but works great. 

[MiniDave]

Great news, and isn't that the way it's supposed to work?  :-)

Now we need to discuss this engine and transmission once I get into it and see what it needs.

[94touring]

Yes we do.  Again zero rush. 

[94touring]

Looked over it a bit before bed last night.  Can't wait to show pictures of the front left floor/door area. 

[MiniDave]

Yep, it reminded me of the first episode of Project Binky, where he was sticking a pink pen thru all the rust holes!  :-)

[94touring]

Well I thought...this side sure is flimsey.  Pulled the trim and carpet and the door frame on the bottom, door attach panel, and floor isn't even connected.  In fact the floor is just a big hole.  It looks really daunting at first glance.   I'm actually excited to repair it. 

[MiniDave]

It will be a challenge, but I know you're up for it......when I first saw this car at the local micro mini car show 3 years ago it was already this bad, the owner said he was just waiting on a few parts and he was going to fix it. The last year I saw it it was as it is now......guess he figured out it was more than he could handle.

When I first took the Jag apart, I found a floor panel had been bent up and tack welded in about three places, unfortunately, the rear suspension attached to this panel!

[94touring]

Some of the floor isn't rotten at all.  Other areas completely gone.  The rear load bed is in great shape, but there's a grape fruit sized hole randomly in it.  Kind of odd. 

[MiniDave]

For every bad panel I fixed on the Jag, I found three more that were worse......I wasn't sure I would ever find good metal again.

[94touring]

Well it's like this car for David in OKC.  Started as two door skins and A-panel and is slowly evolving into a full paint job

[MiniDave]

Don't know if you've tried to drive Rusty again since you have so much spare time these days but don't forget about that right front wheel bearing - you also need new boots on the axles.

In fact, what you could do is once you get the body all solid and ready for paint then send the car back to me and I could fix all the mechanical OBTW's......

You may need to invest in a trailer and tow vehicle, now that you have room to park them? Or at least a lightweight trailer, something that could be pulled behind a car or minivan or something?

[94touring]

There's a lot of new things it needs!  First up is floors, doors, and sub panels.  It will get tended to after Stan's car. 

[MiniDave]

So, a few months away yet? That's fine with me.......my next event is Mid-March where we'll be going either to Eureka again or Steelville, Mo. then the trip to Sandy Eggo in June.

[94touring]

Drove it out of the shop and under a car port this afternoon.  Still fires up.

[MiniDave]

Got your plans put together for this one yet?

Are you going to leave the engine in and redo it a bit at a time, or stick it on the spit and chop into it?

[94touring]

Well not really.  Stan is next in line then you, then this thing.  I'll probably collect panels in the meantime.  Plan to leave the engine alone for awhile then perhaps cam and that 940 head on it. 

[94touring]

Took it for a drive in the yard back into the shop.  The A panel wasn't even attached, pulled right off.  There are some new panels in place but not properly in or fully welded.   The floor is surprisingly well on the drivers side wwith the exception of a length of rotted out section.  The plus with that is I'll only need to patch it using a section of floor iI have handy.  The rear corner and subby attach panel is a nightmare.  Overall this side sshouldn't take me too terribly long.  The other side is worse. 

[94touring]

So I might have gotten carried away...I found 3 brand new panels somewhat installed.  2 are salvageable.  Probably should have braced it but I ddon't think it matters too much considering it was on the verge of splitting prior to me cutting out sections.

[MiniDave]

I'm glad to see you tearing into your own car for a change!

Wasn't a whole lot of actual metal holding this car together was there?

So was the car originally bright yellow?