Bay to Birdwood Day 2015

My absolute favourite day of the year! Bay to Birdwood day!

Early start in the cool air down to West Beach, we met and cruised with a light green RT40 that I found lives about 5 minutes away from us.

The breakfast at West beach is my favourite part of the day to chat cars and so on.

The route this year was great, A slight modification from previous years, and way better than the disaster of 2013 where it went up the freeway. 

Today's probably the longest drive we've had in the Corona and it's starting to make me realise that the vehicle is pretty... well... boring to drive. Low on power, you really have to think about traffic gaps and hill starts, AM only radio, and compared to my other classics, quite pedestrian. A real shame as the renovation has been a real labour of love and I'm ecstatic by how it turned out, but I'm considering now that it's done a show, a cruise and the Bay to Birdwood I may move it on to another loving family.

Thanks to Epsom Road Studio for the photos.

Rundle Street Bay to Birdwood Display

Some weeks back a post went out on the Bay to Birdwood page Facebook page asking for submissions of interest to participate in a display on Rundle Street for Sunday September 13 to promote the upcoming Classic Run.

To my knowledge this was the first time. I sent an email in explaining the story of the Corona, and a little anecdote about my wife's interest in the car with a couple of photos. Lo-and behold The Corona was selected to participate. No mean feat as the cars selected were of supreme quality and a real cross section of society. Cars (like ours) that everyday people owned, up to the mayor's Jensen Interceptor and everything in between.

So tickled with our story ABC 891 called for an on-air interview about the event and our little car! Probably the highlight of my year!

They blocked off the entire bottom half of Rundle Street for the whole day and had local bands play era-appropriate music. There were around 100 vehicles in total. Awesome to be included!

Thanks to Car Runs of Adelaide for this pic.

Shovelnose Corona Club cruise

Some months back I'd joined the Shovelnose Corona Restorers and modifiers Facebook group. A worldwide group, there are a lot of Australians, and more than a handful of Adelaidians on it.

A meet and greet and cruise was organised for September 6 starting at the Scenic Hotel in Norton Summit. Hilly area for such gutless cars, but would make for some interesting drives. Alas the weather turned sour pretty soon and it was a wet and woolly day.

I caught up to this one on the way up to Norton Summit. Knew I was in the right place.

The early arrivals including an RT80

The full crew at Lobethal

Fuel issues?

Th previous post mentioned the odd misfire, which I had put down to old dirty fuel, which is partly correct. What I hadn't noticed was the sealant used on the fuel lines when I reinstalled them had reacted with the fuel and little blobs had made there way into the fuel system.

I had rebuilt the fuel pump, the fuel filter bowl and redid all the lines and was still having problems to the point where the Corona died going up North East Road, and not in the three lane area, but  up past the Fox n Firkin where there was nowhere to pull off! Managed to swing across into a driveway before in totally died.

Assuming still fuel pump I pulled the original off and took it down to be rebuilt. Alas no kits are available! Gah! Managed to procure an aftermarket one, which I'm not happy about, given how original the rest of the engine bay presents.

Anyway after this, the problem was still not cured! I totally stripped down the carburettor to find tiny blue particles of sealant inside. After a thorough blow out and clean, resintalled the carby and we were purring! So good, it hadn't run that well before. Hooray. And not a day too soon as tomorrow is the inaugural RT40 Corona Adelaide cruise!