> -----Original Message-----
> From: Haroldande [SMTP:Haroldande@aol.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 8:20 AM
> To: scottolson@cascon.com; Bricklin@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: My entertaining weekend.
>
> Regarding the Bricklin, if you don't mind, What do you find are the
> quirks and
> peculiarities of the car?
>
[SRO] I have noticed in my two months of owning the bricklin
and and with my roomate owning a corvette that the only quirks that are
unique are with the acrylic body, the doors, or finding parts. Owning a
Pantera, I would assume you are used to the small source of parts and
information that are associated with low production old vehicles.
> I have heard that some had a rust problem???
>
[SRO] It's interesting that my doors and sills do not appear to
be rusted, but a good portion of the undercarriage has some problems.
Fortunately Fiberglass doesn't rust or I would have rust there as well.
Again without a large availability of NOS parts, the only difficulty
with the rust is the off chance something would have to be fabricated.
(Like motor cradles I have heard are no longer available)
> Badly fitted body panels???
>
[SRO] The body panels that don't fit well as mentioned are
usually only the door skins (aligning the doors is a challenge) and the
hood/headlight covers. Everything else on my car fits well. The rear
hatch is an all fiberglass frame around the rear window. This has
cracked at all four stress points so opening the rear hatch on my car is
a careful process.
> Are they particularly difficult to do body work on?
>
[SRO] My only experience with body work on any vehicle is
taking a hammer to the rear quarterpanel of my Mustang. Needless to say
the body looked as bad as when I started. I am not the one to talk to
about that. My car #466 is still all acrylic, no paint. From my
listening on the mailing list, there appears to be few acrylic fixes
that do not include replacing the panel or repainting it. If body
panels fail on my car (which they are close to doing) I am going to
replace with fiberglass.
> I was actually leaning towards the 351 models because of my
> familiarity, but the
> HP difference you've mentioned could give me pause to reconsider.
>
[SRO] I have never owned an AMC / Chrysler whatever engine
before and I am rather impressed with the simplicity and beauty of the
engine. The power difference was something I heard on the list. If you
intend to make modifications to engine (performance upgrades) I am sure
there are many more and cheaper performance solution for the 351W than
the AMC360. I noticed a rough 75% price adder for parts for the AMC
engine over Chevy and ford. But the AMC is a powerful beautiful engine
"out of the box"
> Are the transmissions reliable?
>
[SRO] I haven't broken my transmission yet. Again the car is
only two months into my possesion but given my previous experience it is
holding up fine. Some things that bother me are the shifter for at least
the 74 is a cheesy plastic box with a lame excuse for a lockout. I was
thinking of replacing it with a Hurst shifter till I realized that it
came with a cheezy plastic box as well, although the shifting plate and
mechanism were much prettier. I cannot imagine a car that does not come
with a stock cigarrette lighter (although easily remedied). The carpet
is gross (I think it is stock). There is a significant headroom/legroom
situation and the line of sight is obstructed by crud when the
windshield wipers are on (I shouldn't be driving it in the rain
anyways). The engine can be more difficult to work on than others
because about 4-5 inches are sunkbeneath the windshield sill. This is
not major though. The car has cool windshield wipers though. Again the
early years emissions stuff is annoying, and the abundance of hoses
drives me crazy. The doors are more than cool, and although mine don't
work properly, It is my understanding that most bricklin air doors DO
work properly.
> And finally (phew.!!) , could you recommend any good
> reading material I might want to consider to help me in my search?
[SRO] I would read the entire Bricklin web page and all the
articles. Most Bricklin books are about the comapny and the guy himself
or the city in wich it was built. Follow the list and read the website
and you'll know more thna I do (which isn't saying much I guess)
> PS.........Sorry to bombard you with questions like this but you're
> the first
> Bricklin owner I've spoken to. Thanks.
> Harold Anderson
> Brooklyn NY
>
[SRO] No problem. Maybe some of the other guys on the list can
help you more than I. but you are the first Pantera owner I have talked
to so I will bombard you with questions. but off the list.
|