"Something in the Orange"

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Near the end of '14, Orange car spent more time in Economy Lot 2 at JAX than nearly anywhere else. I have a lot of memories opening it up in the pre-dawn- sneaking up on the airport from the Callahan side. Funny there was kinda a group of us with old iron that parked together in that lot. Never the same cars twice, very strange. I've done it since and I think some folks use those lots for storage (in Houston). I put about 6,000 miles on the car that year.

A lady from work bought me/Orange car a glove box for Christmas. More about her later.
 
I always had a rule about dating anyone from work.... Well I broke it. She got transferred to Texas somewhere in 2014. About May of 2015 I got another gig with a competing timber company (with an office in the same town in Texas) and I chased her down.

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Love the little orange fish, little Nemo. Even better that you did all the work yourself and drive it on the regular.

I moved from Las Vegas to Missouri 2 years ago, sold my daily driver and towed my Dart behind the uhaul just like you. Slept horribly with it being outside behind the uhaul.
 
DentalDart said:
Love the little orange fish, little Nemo. Even better that you did all the work yourself and drive it on the regular.

I moved from Las Vegas to Missouri 2 years ago, sold my daily driver and towed my Dart behind the uhaul just like you. Slept horribly with it being outside behind the uhaul.
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lol! I've lurked around in some of your posts and threads for a few years now. We've got many similar experiences.

We had to stay a night in Mobile and yeah that's pretty rough but mine's not as nice as yours!
Worse part about my move, was that my father (who had had a mild stroke not long before this) drove that uhaul to help me out. I got bit by a pigmy rattler while packing the truck up. and had spent the day before in the ER!!

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The lady I was seeing actually was working back in Florida but had my truck so I had to take orange car (aka Nemo) to the hospital. Met a paramedic in route and they took me the rest of the way. We left the car in a gas station parking lot all day... long story but it was a dry bite, the car wasn't messed with, and dad, made me nuts, but did fine. I was at wits end when it was all said and done. I can't make this **** up lol!
 
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@like_A_pike that sucks about the foot and the snake bite! I haven’t had to leave my car anywhere yet, unless going to the hospital like you I’d sleep in it first haha.

You’re in Texas now though? My sister lives in Austin but I can never get her to go buy car parts there for me lol.
 
I did make the ambulance wait while I spoke with the gal working there. Lol what can you do?

No sir we moved back out west.

You know I was fixin’ to reach out to maybe meet up at some point. I had work stuff on the Mark Twain just after you mentioned moving to Missouri. But I figured y’all were pretty busy settling in.
All going well sounds like!
 
I had an hour commute to my new job before we bought a house in Diboll and I took orange car at least two times a month. It didn't take long to learn that I had a leaky windshield or cowl during an east Texas spring downpour.

The house we bought had a large garage with plenty of room to work on stuff and turn out to be about 5 miles from Pine Valley Raceway !!!
 
I keep reading a few posts from this thread but haven't read it all, lifes journeys are great sometmes even with the sideways trips we endure. I still haven't figured out for sure if your back in western wa but if so, once the blue mutt is ready to get out of the garage again maybe we can catch up one weekend, Im in Puyallup
 
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I hate to think that I spent a heck of a lot of time at the office but there's orange car in Livingston Texas.

My notes suggest that I installed new leaf springs with a 2+ lift and changed the ride height in August 2015. I was experimenting with PVC valves (edit: PCV that is), an inline oil separator, chasing down oil leaks, and a hot fuseable link. There are references to the heat but not under the hood!! hah


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like_A_pike said:
@DentalDart : I remember now, I was going to try to be one of your first patients- Hah! I hadn't been in a coon's age!
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Should have come on by.

I own my own office now in a smaller city about 35 minutes from where I live. We are looking for a house there now, but haven’t gotten one yet.
 
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September '15 was the first time that I got to test out my combo. It was hot! I don't think I did very well. After that I tried to avoid the hottest months of the year. Test and Tune nights were tough too because they would let everyone on the track. Sometimes woods trucks would launch and leave half of Polk Co. soil in the lanes! I never went on actual race nights though because t n t time was so limited and while i never had much trouble getting through tech, I'd hate to leave a drop of anything on the track and hurt somebody.

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I often ripped the exhaust out to put my drive shaft loop on (if I didn't drive to the track that way). Did I mention it was hot? But some of the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
 
Notice in the last post that there are missing trim around the rear window, badging, and no antennae.


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Back to the track in February '16. 13.3's- turned out to be the best runs ever on the Florida combo. I went back that following October to run in that cool, drier air but on the way back home some guy hit a huge buck about a mile from the track. Turned out that the deer rut was well underway by then and I spent the rest of my Texas Octobers in tree stands! That "lady from work" will be referred to as my wife from this point forward! If I go back through my old FABO posts, things get pretty thin in here for a spell.
 
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A Borgeson steering box shows up in 2017. Mostly to replace the leaky original but I was looking for more room around that header and reducing weight too. I had trouble getting a hole drilled all the way through the shaft. It was enough to seat about 3/4 of the spring pin but it bothered me until I got another change to make it right.
 
billsdartgt said:
I keep reading a few posts from this thread but haven't read it all, lifes journeys are great sometmes even with the sideways trips we endure. I still haven't figured out for sure if your back in western wa but if so, once the blue mutt is ready to get out of the garage again maybe we can catch up one weekend, Im in Puyallup
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We lived in Graham for years! Driving down the gauntlet (Meridian) home is enough to send ya outa state!
 
Sublime one said:
Bridge picture sure looks like the long bridge over the Columbia coming out of Astoria heading to Washington? Great looking car!
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That’s the Sidney Lanier bridge between Jekyll Island and St Simons in Georgia. I’ll have to get down to Astoria to get a new bridge picture. They are kinda a theme in here! My favorite has always been the one to the UP in Michigan.
 
Notes from this period:

  • finally replaced that bent strut with a new set of adjustable ones from RMS.
  • replace oil pressure gauge
  • looks like I was retarding the timing a little on track days so i scored the base of the distributer to get back to the right spot on the street
  • shift lever came loose and the car would not stay in park, took console apart and tightened it up
  • replaced the little light in the shifter selector window, painted and polished console, tighten carpet up under there too
  • bought a set of old school Cragar SS wheels (kept slicks on my old aluminum wheels since the new ones weighed A LOT)
  • bought some wheel spacers and a chin spoiler mounted under the valance
  • replaced my old Mickey Thomson radials. one had a growing split in the sidewall (went w/ Hoosiers)
  • first attempt at straightening and polishing stainless on the trunk lid. Mine had been banged on the tip a few times.
  • took the bulkhead connector apart, cleaned up connections, got rid of some splices and soldered some bad connections
  • learned a lot about the carburetor by using the wrong Teflon tape on a gas line leak
Yeah the first time I got Teflon in the needle, I was heading to work and it just plum died in rush hour traffic. I learned how to clean that out in the Jack in the Box parking lot as the sun was coming up. I cleaned everything up in the gas line the best I could and used the yellow stuff but I had old stuff getting into the carb for a while after that until I took everything apart and clean it out real good. grr

Looks like I was taking the car to the Houston airport often, my remote offices in Louisiana and Arkansas a couple times. I drove it to Birmingham once to meet up with the boss. He was a Mustang guy. He had 3 60's vintage cars in the garage in various states but none on the road. I was trying to get him motivated maybe. We got along pretty good.
 
I'm impressed with how much you accomplished! Kudos!! However, I'm having trouble getting a mental image of some of what you describe. How about some pictures to help me out??
 
mpgmike said:
I'm impressed with how much you accomplished! Kudos!! However, I'm having trouble getting a mental image of some of what you describe. How about some pictures to help me out??
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So much of this material was accomplished some time ago. I can take pictures of an item that you want more detail on. Is there anything you need to see in particular?
 
That was my way of simply asking for pics. Most folks use the phrase "This is worthless without pics" or something similar. I just wanted to be different (and by posting, I'm now subscribed!!). I'm enjoying your work and your car.
 
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