April Update

Sorry about the dearth of posting on this blog. Not much has happened since February, except for a couple items that will improve Blackie a great deal.

However, someone left a question on the 'comments' page which I would like to address. The question was about the curb weight of these cars. Simple answer: I have no idea. Although I have seen some weights on other Chrysler cars of the same model year running around 4300-4500lbs. I hope that answers the question.

Now for the improvements. My dad has been taking care of Blackie (and Red) over the winter, and since spring has come around, he has more opportunity to work on it. The two areas that I wanted him to address before I flew back to Texas to pick up Blackie for the drive back to DC were: 1. The power steering issue and 2. The carburetor problem.

Dad has a local mechanic that he trusts, and evidently this guy knows his way around older cars. The mechanic has identified the power steering problem (it wasn't leaky seals in the power steering resevoir), and is replacing some of the steering related parts for better handling. There is a ton of improvement needed as far as handling goes in this car. That is great news! It will feel less like a boat.

For the carb, it was running rather rich, as there is black soot coming out of the tail pipe. No flooding or other problems as such, but it's not a good sign when you start the car, and one minute later, there is black soot on the concrete driveway. I am hoping dad's mechanic can find and adjust/fix that problem soonest.

I fly to Texas on May 5th, and will start drving back to DC around May 10th or so. I am very excited. I have missed tooling around DC in Blackie, as this car is a great Sunday cruiser. I will also bring back the leather seats I bought in Nebraska, and will start dying the leather to match the current interior (black)(please see the below post "Nebraska or Bust"). Also, Bob from Nebraska sent my dad the parts needed to convert the current manual door locks to power locks. Hopefully, I will get those installed while still in Texas.

This will be a great summer project for me, and I have thoroughly enjoyed finding most of the pieces to make it a better car. There is still lots to do, but that's kinda the point with a project car: you're never quite finished with it!!

Enjoy!