The End

This weekend we made up our mind to sell the little Corona.

A great project, that turned out awesome, I hope I did the original owners proud. I know they'll be a little disappointed that it's gone, as am I but the new owners seem like good people. They're not too cluey about classic cars, but are really keen for an easy low-maintenance vehicle so they can participate in car shows and runs.

I put the car on Gumtree at around 9am in the morning. By 5.30pm it was gone!

Goodbye little mate, be good for your new owners :)

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!

Birdwood trial run

The Bay to Birdwood Classic is next month, and although I'd already entered with another vehicle, I'm considering changing my entry vehicle to the Corona. In order to do that, I thought I'd better check that it would get there ok as the road to Birdwood is extremely windy and hilly.

I needn't have worried, apart for the odd misfire, which I still think is residual dirty or contaminated fuel on steep ascents, and the lack of power when reaching the peaks, it performed very well and the handling was excellent. I'm not surprised they raced them back in the day (well the manuals anyway).

I quickly stopped for a photo at the Big Rocking Horse on the way back.

Seems the cold weld on the radiator has blocked that pinhole too, which is good.

Gawler trip

Following the wheel alignment, The Corona was ready for it's first longer-distance trip. So far I'd not travelled more than 10km from home, mainly as I wasn't too confident on the reliability and I didn't want to scrub out the tyres until properly aligned.

Weather was reasonable so I decided to visit my parents in Gawler which is a 70 km round trip with patches of 90kph along the way. I'd not had it over 70 at that stage.

Trip up was generally trouble free, although at times I noticed a bit of a haze emanating from the front of the car when I stopped. I did investigate but came up with nothing. It managed to keep up with traffic, generally, bit slow off the lights but 90kph seemed quite doable. It did rev quite high by then so I'd not think 100 would be advisable for long periods if even possible.

Here we are after arrival: 

Back to the odd mist, I checked around and found a tiny pinhole in the top radiator tank. Quite vexing given I had that radiator totally rebuilt. Alas that was maybe 4 years ago so warranty would no longer be valid. It hadn't lost much coolant at all so I left it at this stage.

The trip home was pretty uneventful except for a number of misfires along the way. Might need to investigate that. I have since pulled the plugs and leads and so on to find all are perfect. I hope it's not a burnt valve. I used some cold weld on the radiator so I'll see if that holds pressure, before pulling it out for a pro to solder it.

I've also been considering entering it in the Bay to Birdwood this year. Back in 2010 I posted about maybe making it to the 2011 B2B Classic - totally daft in hindsight, only now 4 years later is that even slightly possible. I'm going to do a test run to Birdwood and back on Saturday morning before deciding.