8/20/98-Well, the car is NOT painted. What has occurred since March is:

The alternator failed 7 times!!! The first one lasted 6 weeks, thereafter between 5 minutes and a week. Unit #7 is now in and working for a couple of weeks. What was happening was the diodes were cooking. Then the contact points were unsoldering. I did some research and found other companies making units. The big deal is 200-volt diodes and lots of them. A standard unit has 6, Powerline has 12, and a unit from Texas has 24! Unit #6 failed in 5 minutes when the installer shorted the charging wire against the case.

AIS is searching for a Powerline core, but no luck so far. I did NOT pay for any repairs from the first unit on.

During this saga, Jeff suggested I get a second battery. I did, bought an isolator, which was dead out of the box. They NEVER have had one do that! What else is new?

POWER STEERING-YES!! Norm Robichau replaced a pump about 4 weeks ago, no difference. Later, he had Pacific replace both the rack and pump, and demanded the rack NOT be the same unit. Bingo!! HOWEVER, a week later, no power. A hose had developed two leaks. It took a week to get the right hose (Ford twice gave the wrong unit), so they just rebuilt the existing one.

So for the moment, the car starts, it steers, it charges, it cools!!! What a concept.

I came within a hair of having a high-density four-core radiator built, but the car actually doesn't overheat. It does run a bit warm with the air on over a 100 degrees. So far, workable.

SHOCKS-The car started ballooning on bumps, and I thought the shocks might have gone bad after 15 months. I checked tire pressures, and most were way down. It appears that was most of the problem. If not, Jeff at Progressive Auto will exchange the shocks on warranty. I'll just have to supply the labor.

AC-Because the fans are manual, I have occasionally forgotten to turn the switch immediately, and the AC has blown off some head pressure on half a dozen occasions. It still cools, but it's certainly got to be a little down on freon.

Dave Kubert around the corner has sold his business to a nice kid named Greg, who is going to do mostly smog. His dyno is due in a week or so. Greg also does AC. It turns out Dave will NOT be doing the dually swap for free, and is moving to Montana in a couple of weeks.

MISC-I have installed yet another relay, this one for the hifi, so that the amps can't be on with the fan switch being on. It's also a way to remind me to turn on the fans!

The car appears to finally be at a point of driveability. I will visit Powerdyne superchargers in Lancaster soon, just to let them scope out a possible install.

I've also gotten the smog pamphlet from DMV, and it appears there is no chance my swap can be legalized, unless I call it a 302, and make it look just like one with injection, computer, cats, etc. There MAY be someone who will smog it (hopefully). Otherwise, come Dec 99, I'll have to find some other rural area to register the car.

PAINT, ETC-Given that I get the monies due me on several jobs, I will give the car to Nick for the paint, and get the interior refurbed.

Of course, IF Millie would make good on her promise to buy me a new car to get me to sell the SC, I might consider a used BMW 850.

9/10/98

BMW-Talked to Riggo, who advises strongly against the Beemer, saying it was a high-maintenance (oh, perfect!), pushy car,not the equal of my SC. He feels the ZO7 WILL be available, probably around $60K-actually, BMW quotes $120K!!.

MORE SHOCKS-Took the car to Tru Line for 4 wheel alignment, to determine if some suspension component other than shocks could be the problem. The starter apparently failed!! What else is new? Alignment and new tires cured the handling.