The early morning sunshine gave false promise of warmth as the bitter, howling wind worked quickly to freeze my bare hands. The chromium tools nearly induced frostbite as I leaned over the stil corpse of the 216 Stovebolt six. As the wrench was pulled on a creaking rusted bolt, the shrill wind forced bitter cold air across the open top of the manifold where the carb had once performed it's duties. The rushing air created a chilling howl that seemed to come from deep inside of the earth itself...with the open spark plug holes whistling in at various pitches for an eerie chorus. It was as if the engine were trying to speak...shreiking out a warning...a curse...or a token of gratitude???? Time will tell!!! Ha Ha...I thought it was kinda cool! One of those rewarding private moments you share with your car as you brave the elements and ignore the numbing sting in your tired, frozen fingers! The old manifolds came off without a problem, and the car inched one faint notch closer to ressuection! The discarded parts pile is growing in the back corner of my garage...and the car seems to enjoy it's newly found attention!!! If anyone needs any stock engine parts or random old rear brake parts for a 49-54 Chevy...speak up and they're YOURS...passing on skeletal artifacts to other HAMBers is part of what helps us keep our old machines OUT of the graveyards!!! (Wish I woulda had a tape recorder handy...that eerie wail was pretty freakin cool!! )
How cold is it up there? Hasn't been bad in Missouri yet, but then we don't get snow 'til near Christmas either...
The WD40 helped there too, eh? Are ya gonna keep that generator? The one on the floorboard? Or ya goin' one wire alternator?... Jay
The Jalopy Journal
