The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ...

[Walt & Zoe Harrison]

Some days go to hell more quickly than others.  Today was one.

First, the good; the Sprite is 92% re-assembled.  Besides the usual
compliment of fluids, and you know what they are and where they go,
most of the shiny bits have been re-assembled.  Following the typical
manual instruction, assembly is the reverse of removal, most things
went well.  There were a few cantankerous parts, or moments, but by
and large it went together fairly easily.  The turn buttons and lift-the-dot
studs located within the body panels were time consuming, as expected.
But, the slave cylinder top bolt was not too difficult, at least I could get
a
one-face turn of the wrench for each pull.  The most frustrating was the
left front motor mount.  Because of the steering rack, mount and steering
column access was limited to just a 1/2-face turn of the wrench, which
meant I had to flip the wrench over for every pull.  (I have a mild case of
wrench wrist.)

Now, the bad.  Putting everything back together resulted in many, many
trips to the local hardware store.  Daily.  So, instead of breaking in the
rebuilt transmission in the Sprite, which would have been perfect with
lots of short, shifting trips, I drove the Jeep.  There are still a number of
items to re-assemble; notably, getting the carpet cleaned, testing the
electrical circuits, topping up all the fluids and starting the engine for
the
first time.

Finally, the ugly.  The radiator will not be ready until May 18th.  That only
allows three days to break in the transmission and get the Sprite fully road
worthy before the Van Dusen ABFM in Vancouver, BC starting May 21st.
Three days is pushing the limit to be road trustworthy before an inaugural
300 mile round trip.  Thus, it is quite likely we will NOT make the Van Dusen
ABFM this year!  (I'm just a little bummed.)  So, we'll see how everything
comes together next week.

Worst case is Zoe and I drive her VW Passat to Vancouver, BC.  We'll let
everyone know our plans.

Walt

PS: This Sprite, AN5L-39648, was assembled May 11-12, 1960.  So, we
       will miss getting it re-assembled in time to celebrate its 44th
birthday.
       (Did I say I'm just a little bummed?)