Hey, car fans
Posted: Tue May 10, 2022 3:14 am
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
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