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| Convertibles of all makes/models becoming rarer; Never thought about it but realized I don't see them like used to! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 30 2016, 11:11 PM (1,097 Views) | |
| Old Man | Apr 2 2016, 12:24 PM Post #16 |
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Guess I am a convertible ‘nut’. Among the ones I have owned during the course of 60+years: ‘39 Cadillac LaSalle, ‘46 Ford, ‘49 Ford, ‘53 Ford, ‘57 Ford, ‘59 Ford (retractable), '55 Chevy, '57 Chevy, '65 Chevy ‘59 Cadillac, ‘72 Sunbeam alpine, ‘72 Sunbeam Tiger, ‘73 MGBGT, ‘67 Jaguar XKE, and lastly ‘91 Geo Metro. Along with an “honorable mention” ‘53 Plymouth 4dr station wagon used for a beach buggy that we got a little ‘tipsy’ one Saturday and used a hatchet and hacksaw to remove the top. Probably missed a few…….. |
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| t3ragtop | Apr 2 2016, 01:45 PM Post #17 |
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Turbo3 and Twincam Tweaker
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having suffered the throes of indignity as an owner of rootes group automobilia myself...... you have my condolences.
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| Old Man | Apr 3 2016, 01:23 AM Post #18 |
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Only one that ran more than it was worked on was the Tiger, course it was different tho...........
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| t3ragtop | Apr 3 2016, 09:07 AM Post #19 |
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Turbo3 and Twincam Tweaker
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the tiger, with the ford 260 v8 engine was known for breaking axles. the inline 4L engines were junk. one alpine i owned needed a crank shaft. it had eaten the main bearings. i ordered a brand new crank and when it came in it had a bunch of little holes in the machined journals. when i went back to the dealer he claimed that they were all like that, he told me that in england, the steel plants tried to save money by replacing coke, which is used in the foundry process of smelting to draw impurities out from the molten steel, with "stable sweepings." the organic materials created little bubbles in the castings and when the journals were machined it would open up the little bubbles which became tiny razor blades that would gouge babbit from the bearings which would eventually fill the voids in the crank journals. he went on to tell me that when they repaired that sort of damage under warranty that they would re-use the cranks, voids already filled with the bearing material, and just replace the main bearings as all the available crank shafts had the same issues. typical marvelous british engineering! that put sunbeam and rootes group right on my list of cars to avoid.
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| suzukitom | Apr 3 2016, 03:46 PM Post #20 |
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Tom
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T3, one of my earliest memories of working on a car was helping my Dad replace the Woodruf key on the crankshaft of our Sunbeam Minx. It was an annual ritual it seemed as well as replacing the fuel pump. As a kid I always wondered why all the other kids did not have to help their dad's with these kinds of tasks. 😅 I have kept one of the old fuel pumps in the basement just in case... Edited by suzukitom, Apr 3 2016, 03:48 PM.
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Only one that ran more than it was worked on was the Tiger, course it was different tho...........

7:11 PM Jul 10