Maiden voyage!!!

With the weather not cooperating last week, I had to wait for the weekend to install the driver’s side striker plate. I found out that the battery charger was hooked up wrong so I took the battery out of the car and tried again.. The battery did fully charge up after all. After it was put back in the car, Old Biddy was driven outside where there was plenty of room to move around.

Since I kind of knew what I was doing this time, this striker plate went on in only an hour, a third of the time! And it works perfectly!

 

After triple checking to make sure the door closed smoothly, stayed shut, and opened with both the interior and exterior handles, I called my wife outside and said, “I’m going for a ride!” “Are you sure?”, she replied. Then I said, “Here’s the camera…I’m going. Document this!” I did a quick pre-flight test to make sure all the instruments were reading correctly and everything was sounding as it should.

 

Then I released the handbrake, shifted into 1st gear, and released the clutch pedal as I gently pressed the accelerator. With that, we began the slow taxi up our steep driveway.

 

I took off up the hill to our nearest neighbor about 850 feet away with a top speed of 28mph and turned around in their driveway. I would have gone further but her tires are cracked and very unsafe.

 

Then we headed back down the hill towards home.

 

Everything worked well! I was so excited I had to stop at the top of our driveway to give my wife the thumbs up!!

 

Then we slowly drove back down the driveway to park and have a post-flight inspection.

 

Notes: The hydrolastic suspension is amazing! Our road is very bumpy. I am used to riding in my Midget and Fiat 500 and feeling every bump in the road. It felt as if I was riding in a boat, everything was smooth.

Shifting is like it was my brother’s old VW Rabbit or stirring a pot of spaghetti. Eventually you will connect with the gear, be patient!! I only used 1st, 2nd, and reverse.

The brakes worked great, the drivetrain worked great, all the electrics worked great, the suspension worked great. Next, the post-flight fiddling and finishing so she can become an official vehicle again.

There is still a punch list of things that need to be done before she can be taken through the State of Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicle (CT DMV) inspection (or as the folks in Britain say "MOT"). Connecticut is the strictest and most expensive in the US!! I hope to have her registered and insured before she gets put to bed for winter. I ordered new tires and they should be arriving today, so that can be taken care of. The next big thing is to have her color-sanded by Al, who did her bodywork and painting.

 

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy