Beautiful Day!

[Marc Schlemmer]

What a wonderful Fall day......Sunny, nice breeze....upper 60's. Colors in
Northern Kentucky are at their peak. Elizabeth and I just got home from a
great day. Each year about this time a local car club holds a Road
Rally....you know, crazy riddles for directions...scavenger hunt along the
way....winding country roads. We've taken Amphi the past 4 years, and
really have a nice day. This year was no exception. The best thing is that
the organizers of the event always end the route at a park with a lake.
Perfect for swimming about entertaining the crowd while other cars trickle
in from their journey. Total driving today including to and from the event
was 140 miles...and Amphi performed great. The real highlight (and the
purpose of this email) is to tell that one night this past week I put new
rear shocks on the car from Gordon's. I've got to tell you.....they are
great! I have always thought that my Amphicar drove and rode pretty nice as
it was, withOUT radials....and when everyone starts complaining about the
handling and such, and wanting to try radials...I just keep quiet and think
that I must be missing something. But now with my new rear shocks, it's
even better. I can't wait until I see the front shocks appear in a Gordon's
sales flyer someday! All I can say is if anyone complains about the way
their Amphicar rides or handles...check the shocks, the alignment, the tire
pressure, etc... I'm convinced that these cars are not as bad as their
reputation would make you believe.
In any case....it was a wonderful day!

On an unrelated note.....you know, I've got something that bugs me. My
bilge pump switch works, and even the bulb would work, but the threads in
the bulb socket are bad and I can't seem to fix them. So, no bulb will
screw into it. Any chance anyone has an old rusted up junk switch that
doesn't work that maybe the post with the socket is good? Since my switch
is good, I think I can just replace the post/socket part. Please let me
know if you have some junk switch.

thanks,
Marc Schlemmer.

 

[John Friese]

Marc,
I'm working on an Amphi that I recently purchased and it was missing
the bilge switch bulb completely. I talked to Hugh about it and he
said that he had a bulb but that there was some debate about the
threads fitting the socket. Essentially he said "make it fit". I got
the bulb from him and sure enough it wouldn't screw in. The threads
aren't damaged on the socket but it appears that the bulb has the
wrong thread. Perhaps some metric something or other. Anyway, I
ground off most of the threads and made it work. So far, anyway.
It's a 24 volt 2 watt lamp, according to the manual, so it's not very
bright on 12 volts. I'm going to keep my eye open for something else
and will post it if I should find one.
If someone knows a shop that does instrument repairs, they might talk
to one of those folks. They seem pretty resourceful about coming up
with odd foreign "bits".

John Friese



--- In amphicar-lovers@y..., "Marc Schlemmer" <mschlem@a...> wrote:
> What a wonderful Fall day......Sunny, nice breeze....upper 60's.
Colors in
> Northern Kentucky are at their peak. Elizabeth and I just got home
from a
> great day. Each year about this time a local car club holds a Road
> Rally....you know, crazy riddles for directions...scavenger hunt
along the
> way....winding country roads. We've taken Amphi the past 4 years,
and
> really have a nice day. This year was no exception. The best thing
is that
> the organizers of the event always end the route at a park with a
lake.
> Perfect for swimming about entertaining the crowd while other cars
trickle
> in from their journey. Total driving today including to and from
the event
> was 140 miles...and Amphi performed great. The real highlight (and
the
> purpose of this email) is to tell that one night this past week I
put new
> rear shocks on the car from Gordon's. I've got to tell you.....they
are
> great! I have always thought that my Amphicar drove and rode pretty
nice as
> it was, withOUT radials....and when everyone starts complaining
about the
> handling and such, and wanting to try radials...I just keep quiet
and think
> that I must be missing something. But now with my new rear shocks,
it's
> even better. I can't wait until I see the front shocks appear in a
Gordon's
> sales flyer someday! All I can say is if anyone complains about
the way
> their Amphicar rides or handles...check the shocks, the alignment,
the tire
> pressure, etc... I'm convinced that these cars are not as bad as
their
> reputation would make you believe.
> In any case....it was a wonderful day!
>
> On an unrelated note.....you know, I've got something that bugs me.
My
> bilge pump switch works, and even the bulb would work, but the
threads in
> the bulb socket are bad and I can't seem to fix them. So, no bulb
will
> screw into it. Any chance anyone has an old rusted up junk switch
that
> doesn't work that maybe the post with the socket is good? Since my
switch
> is good, I think I can just replace the post/socket part. Please
let me
> know if you have some junk switch.
>
> thanks,
> Marc Schlemmer.