Hey, car fans

[TC Chris]

Spring finally arrived in Michigan today--temps reached 70s. Monday was another vacation day for me, making another 3-day weekend. I've made good progress on the boat prep, so today I extracted the Chevy from its storage facility so I could maybe drive it to Saginaw for its new top and some upholstery repairs. Thing is, starting up an old car and then driving it all over is a bit of a gamble. My plan had been to get the car out and drive it around some and then take it to the top shop on Monday. But the storage guy didn't get my phone message until this a.m. I lined up a ride out there. After some social chit-chat and a check of the '65 Olds Starfire (the storage owner has been placing charcoal and soda in it to reduce moldy smell), I unhooked the battery maintainer and jumped in the Chevy. Turn the key and crank once. Pause slightly. Turn the key and crank the second time, and bang, she fired up right way. Not bad for a car that's been sitting for 6 months!! Let's hear it for ethanol-free rec gas!!

So I drove around a bit and figured what the heck, let's try for Saginaw. My sister knew a back route. Off we went. Once in Saginaw, we passed the Saginaw Grey Iron Foundry where the Chevy's engine was cast (for that matter, just about any GM iron engine block or head).

Saginaw was even more of a GM city than Bay City, where I grew up, GM guys will remember Saginaw Steering Gear. Half my friends had parents who worked for "the Chevrolet" in Bay City. 1/4 had parents who drove to Saginaw to work for GM. In any event, the Grey Iron Foundry was responsible for the Zilwaukee Bridge (note the "Z"). Zilwaukee was a name made up to confuse German farmers, hoping they'd emigrate to the Saginaw area to grow sugar beets while thinking they were headed toward their cousins in Milwaukee (note the "M"). It worked, sort of, and families of German extraction grow huge piles of sugar beets in central Michigan still. The bridge is a high-rise affair created to replace the only drawbridge in the U.s. Interstate Highway system. The GM foundry used casting sand from Saginaw Bay (hold up your right hand, palm toward you--your thumb is Michigan's Thumb region and to its left is Saginaw Bay). The casting sand came up the Saginaw River via an elderly freighter, built in Bay City about 1894, and later converted to a sandsucker. The boat would head out into Saginaw Bay, suck up a load of sand, and then chug back upriver to the foundry. It would require the drawbridge to raise each time it passed up or down. Imagine a red light on a major expressway. The backups were legendary on holiday weekends. But boat traffic has priority over cars, so the car traffic stopped. Then they built a big high rise bridge at great expense, and shortly thereafter the foundry ended its contract with the Erie Sand Steamship Company so the problem was solved anyway. The Zilwaukee Bridge has a Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilwaukee_Bridge

Not only did the Chevy start right up, it ran just fine with a minor exception. My sister missed a turn on her back route and we had to turn around. I saw a truck coming down the road in the distance and did a semi-U-turn. And because of the abrupt stop, the Chevy stalled. I flipped it into neutral and turned the key and nothing happened. Oh s__t, here comes the truck. Then I remembered that the neutral position is very approximate these days. GM had a thing about plastic bushings back in the day. Ask me about the 4-speed shift pattern in my '62 Corvair. So I wiggled the shift lever and the starter engaged and the Chevy started and the truck driver was patient. One great thing about old cars is that they make people smile. But apart from that the Chevy ran flawlessly after her 6-month slumber.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

There's only 1 bascule bridge in VT, the one in the "Islands" of Lake Champlain, on the way to N Hero. It's there strictly for sailboats in the summer, and been under construction for going on 3 years now, we go over the temp bridge every time we go to my wife's sister's lake place in Alburg. Any construction project in VT takes forever!


One thing I have found over 40+ years of being a "curbsider" vintage car dealer is that cars don't like to sit. When in winter storage, 1/2 the year here, the battery is maintained by a trickle charger and cars are started and run to fully warmed at least 15 minutes every 4 weeks at least, or whenever temps moderate above freezing. Shifted into Fwd and Rev several times, and moved at least few feet to keep drums or discs from sticking, brake fluid pumped into the MC and WCs, trans fluid circulating, and tires from flat spotting. I found this routine hard to keep up with when the "fleet" was 3-4 cars or more, cars were becoming neglected. Keeping them closed up too long and in a storage bldg led to smells and mildew. Now I find 2 non-driver cars to be my limit, one of them fairly modern being an '07, so easier to deal with in a way. We are stewards of these machines, and proper stewardship of a machine requires regular attention, as I've found the hard way over the years.

[hermitcrab]

I remember the big overhead signs on I-75 warning of the drawbridge was up 5 miles before you got there... and then sitting for 15 mins easy before there was a glimmer of hope that you would start rolling again...curious what back roads from TC did you take?...

[William]

The drawbridge in Spring Lake has been under overhaul for at least two years now. It makes it very difficult to get to Grand Haven during rush hour, and believe it or not weekends.

Bill

[TC Chris]

I remember the big overhead signs on I-75 warning of the drawbridge was up 5 miles before you got there... and then sitting for 15 mins easy before there was a glimmer of hope that you would start rolling again...curious what back roads from TC did you take?...

The trip was much less dramatic. It was from Bay City, where the car lives, to Saginaw. My sister knows the county-road route because she drove her kids to a regional magnet school there every day. She was saddened to see that the old green house where the man was in the window shaving every day is now vacant and abandoned. When I lived in Lansing, my route to and from Bay City took me through downtown Saginaw so I saw some familiar sights again too. The top shop is in "Old Town," an older commercial district that's Saginaw's urban vibe district.

Chris Campbell

[walyfd]

Now THIS is a drawbridge

[Firedome]

LOL yes, quite the drawbridge span!

Here's Vermonts little bascule bridge, now. in it's 3rd yr replacement project. You can see what a beautiful setting this one is in!

https://nhgi.vtransprojects.vermont.gov

[walyfd]

I waited for it to open but had to dash... found a few audio guys over here but not big into consoles... flats must be tiny.

[Firedome]

Odd, after I posted it I tried to open the link and it just sat there, but when I tried it just now it loaded all 4 gorgeous pics in just 5 seconds... go figure!
We'll probably see the new bridge in person tomorrow, if we go to wife's sister's place we'll go that route as it's just beautiful with the Lake on both sides of the road in places. We're setting record temps here in Vermont right now and boats are coming out of the woodwork, it's unusual to see a good number of boats in the water here in mid-May!

[TC Chris]

In Bay City, where the Chevy lives, we had the Third Street Bridge for almost 90 years. Then a boat bumped it whiled passing, and the next day when it opened for another boat, bad news.

14.jpg (78.94 KiB) Viewed 2429 times

Oops.

More photos here. http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2 ... river.html

Traverse City, where I am, has a river running through it, and a bunch of fixed bridges as it snakes through. There is a big replacement project (road salt is not the friend of steel or of concrete) so there are detours all over town. Not so good for the bike commuter....

Chris Campbell