Fellow fiends:
Well, yesterday was Old Whiteside's first trip out in a really heavy rain
(since its restoration last fall). Those of you who live in the Great Lakes
region will agree that we haven't had a whole heck of a lot of sunshine this
past month. Who cares (!), I took the car in to work yesterday, a day of
steady rain, punctuated by the occasional cloud-burst.
Bear in mind here that I saved the old (Amco) top. It passes the 20 foot
cosmetic inspection test, and the rear window is remarkably clear, but in
fact the thing is very loosly fitted (stretched from all that high speed
driving?). I decided to keep the top because; (1) heck, I'm going to have
the top down most of the time anyway (duh...) so who cares how it looks, and
(2) I was looking (in vain) to control costs. Well, it is *so* loosly
fitting that it sags in the middle and large puddles of rain can collect.
Yesterday evening the car started on first crank. On my hard left hand turn
out of my parking space I got about a half a bucket's worth in the passenger
window, on the seat, door, and carpets. What a thrill! Glad my wife wasn't
with me.
Otherwise (touch wood) the car ran fine (my now gone A had trouble even on
days of high humidity so this all in all is still a magnificent victory). I
even got the windshield wipers to work. They didn't do much good, but they
did go back and forth nicely.
God, I love this car.
Will "April showers" Zehring
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