E
Eric Mattlin
Guest
Yesterday I made the trip from Chicago to Mendotta to visit Dave the
Wave and Margie. Dave had just finished a major overhaul of my
transmission. The tranny had problems at the Racine meet and it
turned out the reverse gear had broken. While he was in there he
replaced some other parts (snchro's and such) and moved it into a new
case (I have an early '62 car and that case is hard to check and foll
the fluids).
Saturday was the test drive. The car has gone through a lot of
changes in the last few years. New interior, swap to negative ground
(with working gas guage!!! Yippeee!), alternator, new carb and
electronic ignition. It also has a nice cassete stereo with 10 disk
CD player.
The weather was great. Clear, sunny, slight breeze, not to hot. We
headed to Dixon which is 35 miles away and our favorite launch site
on the rock river. The car shifted and drove great. Transmission
was quieter than in the past although it was never very loud (David
Chapman gave it a proffesional listen at Celina in '00). It stayed
in first and shifted up and down better than ever.
We headed to River and launched. Top down, sitting on the door sills
we headed from Dixon downriver to a watering hole we went to at the
May Swim in. It was a very pleasant 2 hour cruise. Stopped to have
a bite and some refreshment, made some new friends like always.
We decided we were having such as great time we'd head further down.
Neither of us had been in that part of the river before. Went under
a great old trellis railroad bridge. Had our picture taken every
couple of minutes it seemed. Suddenly the weather changed, a cold
front moved in and the wing picked up. We were heading into
uncharted waters and getting about 1 foot chop. We put the up and
continued on.
At one point Dave and I saw what looked like the biggest Christmas
Tree we'd ever seen sitting in the middle of the river. We decided
this was too weird not to cruise over for a look. When we got there
the water was very shallow and I had to put it into first gear. It
turned out that some local kids had built a huge duck blind. The
wadded over to check out the car and asked all the questions underage
drucks ask about an amphi. They even thought Dave and I were police
officers (What a hoot!!!).
We headed further downstream and found the local Marina. The owner
was happy to see us and let us use ramp for no charge. We gave rides
to some boaters that had been waving to use and made more friends.
We headed back to Dixon on land, stopped at our favorite watering
hole for a break then took a final swim and headed home.
All told we were in the river for around 5 hours. Car ran great.
Temp was solid at the low end of the safe zone and it shifted and
braked great. It was a great way to spend the last Saturday of
summer and It is always great to have such plesant company.
Eric
'62 White
Wave and Margie. Dave had just finished a major overhaul of my
transmission. The tranny had problems at the Racine meet and it
turned out the reverse gear had broken. While he was in there he
replaced some other parts (snchro's and such) and moved it into a new
case (I have an early '62 car and that case is hard to check and foll
the fluids).
Saturday was the test drive. The car has gone through a lot of
changes in the last few years. New interior, swap to negative ground
(with working gas guage!!! Yippeee!), alternator, new carb and
electronic ignition. It also has a nice cassete stereo with 10 disk
CD player.
The weather was great. Clear, sunny, slight breeze, not to hot. We
headed to Dixon which is 35 miles away and our favorite launch site
on the rock river. The car shifted and drove great. Transmission
was quieter than in the past although it was never very loud (David
Chapman gave it a proffesional listen at Celina in '00). It stayed
in first and shifted up and down better than ever.
We headed to River and launched. Top down, sitting on the door sills
we headed from Dixon downriver to a watering hole we went to at the
May Swim in. It was a very pleasant 2 hour cruise. Stopped to have
a bite and some refreshment, made some new friends like always.
We decided we were having such as great time we'd head further down.
Neither of us had been in that part of the river before. Went under
a great old trellis railroad bridge. Had our picture taken every
couple of minutes it seemed. Suddenly the weather changed, a cold
front moved in and the wing picked up. We were heading into
uncharted waters and getting about 1 foot chop. We put the up and
continued on.
At one point Dave and I saw what looked like the biggest Christmas
Tree we'd ever seen sitting in the middle of the river. We decided
this was too weird not to cruise over for a look. When we got there
the water was very shallow and I had to put it into first gear. It
turned out that some local kids had built a huge duck blind. The
wadded over to check out the car and asked all the questions underage
drucks ask about an amphi. They even thought Dave and I were police
officers (What a hoot!!!).
We headed further downstream and found the local Marina. The owner
was happy to see us and let us use ramp for no charge. We gave rides
to some boaters that had been waving to use and made more friends.
We headed back to Dixon on land, stopped at our favorite watering
hole for a break then took a final swim and headed home.
All told we were in the river for around 5 hours. Car ran great.
Temp was solid at the low end of the safe zone and it shifted and
braked great. It was a great way to spend the last Saturday of
summer and It is always great to have such plesant company.
Eric
'62 White