Well I have finally done it! I am now the proud owner of a Series III GT,
serial
number B900634. After several months of research, searching and help from
you
folks I located my car in a barn in Mass. It has been in storage since
around 1979
or so and is in fairly good shape. The body has almost no rust and only a
few dings
as far as I can tell. The frame is solid, the interior has a few cracks. The
engine
needs a new head gasket that will probably escalate into a full rebuild. It
even came
with a friend, a Series II basketcase parts car, a few transmissions, a set
of wires
wheels, two sets of regular wheels and various strange pieces of metal
covered with
about two inches of dirt and grease. Near the end I think he was just trying
to clean
out his garage. The Series III GT didn't have three eight-track tape players,
did it?
It was quite a feat to get them home. Everything started off well. I bought
a class 3
hitch for my truck as well as one for my friend's truck as it was cheaper
than a truck
rental (He will of course now be hearing me say "Hey I bought you the hitch
didn't I?"
for the next two or three years.). We left Sunday morning so we could get
there early
and check out the car. The drive went great, we made it there by 10:00 AM
and started
checking out the car. It looked great no rust in the usual spots and it
actually lived
up to the phone description. So we decided to head over to U-Haul to pick up
the two
auto transports. After a few wrong turns and several sets of seemingly
conflicting
directions we rolled into U-Haul, our shiny new class 3 hitches just itching
to pull
something around.
Then the nightmare started. I introduced myself to the guy behind the
counter and he
immediately got a pained look on his face and started explaining that even
though I
had made a reservation and they had taken my credit card number and charged
me $100
in deposits, that in no way guaranteed, implied, hinted at or promised that
the
aforementioned auto transports were necessarily in the state or even in New
England
for that matter. As a matter of fact, after he thought about it he wasn't
sure that
there even was a such thing as an auto transport and anyone who wanted to
drag two
cars around on trailers was pretty silly anyway. After he was finished with
this story
I responded with a well thought out "Huh?".
After a long discussion that seemed to revolve around the central idea that
I should
just go home and forget the whole idea, I convinced them that I had a large
amount of
time on my hands that I had planned on using to work on my cool Alpine. This
time
could very easily be spent calling places like the State's Attorney General,
the Better
Business Bureau, a lawyer, the president of U-Haul, the clerks mother, and
the Pope.
With this in mind, they consented to start looking for the alleged auto
transports in
the surrounding area. My friend and I decided to go back and start loading
car parts
into my truck and start digging out the basketcase parts car. After several
hours of
this fun I called U-Haul back. As soon as the guy found out who I was, he
attempted to
change his voice and pretend that it was a pizza place. I told him to knock
it off and
tell me where my auto transports were. He had know clue. I had no choice but
to rent
a hotel room and attempt to help explain to my friends fiancee that we were
not trying
to get him out of helping with the seating arrangements, and if we were,
Worcester, MA
not the place that we would go. That night we went to see Braveheart a
really cool gory
battlefest. There was a scene in the movie where the Scots were smashing
down the door
to a castle that had me thinking of several interesting ways to approach U-
Haul in the
morning.
The next morning we got up and enjoyed our complimentary continental
breakfast and
headed over to U-Haul. Surprise! No auto transports but they were looking
for them. As
a matter of fact he had just barely finished looking under the counter. I
decided it
was time to start talking to someone who had some clout. I got the number of
the office
of the president of U-Haul. I called them and explained my situation (with a
few minor
enhancements). In response they asked me how I had gotten their number and
promptly
transferred me to there complaint desk (the number was busy). I once again
explained my
situation with even more enhancements. In response they transferred me to
the regional
office. I once again explained my situation with even more enhancements. In
response they
transferred me back to the guy I had been talking too all along. He tried
the pizza dodge
again.
Around 1:00 PM on Monday, I finally got the first auto transport. The other
was leaving
from Boston in a few minutes and was due in about 45 minutes. It finally
arrived at 4:45
that afternoon. We were now home free and the rest of the trip went without
a problem.
Now all I have to do is figure out how to get the parts car off the auto
transport.
Now I have a bunch of questions.
This III GT has twin Zeniths. I thought the III GT had a single Solex. The
guy insists
that the Zeniths are the original setup. Is this possible?
I got a set of wire wheels that the guy said I should avoid. They have a lot
of offset and
he said that they go out of true very quickly. Do the stock wire wheels have
a lot of
offset? The hub is almost even with the outside of the wheel.
He said that this car has thrown three rods. He said if the car is driven at
around 70 MPH
for any length of time, I will make it four. He suggested driving by oil
pressure. If this
is true, what is the best remedy? He suggested an oil cooler. How about
retrofitting an
overdrive unit?
That's all for now (As if this wasn't enough)
Thanks,
Kurt
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