Stories
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
He was of the type that would rather
be in pain the rest of his life than try a chiropractor. He took great pride in that.
This car I got cheap as well. It had a very loud knock in one of the pistons and would just stall after it got warmed-up. Happened to me down on Valencia and Army. After it cooled down it was fine again accept for the noise.
I pulled the head in the driveway at Winfield. Somebody had dropped a screw
down the carburetor and it was bouncing around in there so that the top or the piston and the valves looked like a cheese grater. The valves seemed OK.
I pulled the pan, left the crankshaft in place, removed the bearings from that one damaged piston, and pushed it out the top. I rented a cylinder borer to take out the carbonized ring at the top of the cylinder. This was done so that the new rings did not get broken by the ridge. I roughed the cylinder walls with a drum sander and put in a new piston with rings, put it all back together and had my car. It lasted many years. The really great thing about the Opal was that it was simple to repair and parts were really cheap.
I was in my last year of funded college and I had to start thinking of how to
make a living. I got it into my head that I would be a car mechanic. Under the
house there on Powers Street was a garage. It has a steep and short driveway down and under the building, with a small garage door opening made maybe for the Model A with no top.
(28 of 32)
Next Page
