I’m staying busy here in San Diego. In my last post I mentioned dropping the Midget off for repairs at British Auto Repair near the Sports Arena. I also had ordered new wheels and tires on Monday. The current tires had good tread but they were five years old and seemed like the rubber had hardened.
I was also getting a vibration that was worse at 55-58 MPH. Usually when you feel a vibration at a speed in 50 – 60 MPH range, it indicates a wheel balance problem. But this vibration would be more pronounced intermittently. It seemed like an imbalance or out-of-round condition of two or more wheels would align in phase at times and the steering wheel and shift lever would shake. The wheels on Midget-San are the original Rostyle stamped steel wheels – nearly 40 years old. Cosmetically they looked brand new, but I had no idea if they had suffered previous damage and had been straightened.
Back in the 1960s and early 70s, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) had a number of classes to race British cars in. Back then it seemed like every British race car was shod with eight-spoke cast alloy wheels called minilites. When I was a teenager driving an Austin-Healey Sprite I lusted after a set of minilites, but they were out of my budget. Those wheels not only looked sharp, they were also lightweight. Wheel weight is an important factor in a vehicles handling characteristics. Wheels are what auto engineers call “unsprung” weight. Unsprung weight is any weight that’s not supported by the vehicles suspension, such as wheels, brake discs and axles. These components are more or less hung from the suspension springs and shocks.
Nowadays minilite style wheels are available from a few manufacturers. I ordered a set of Minator minilite style alloy wheels from Moss Motors with free shipping on Monday. I also ordered a set of Toyo tires from Amazon Prime to mount on the new wheels. I was pleasantly surprised when the wheels and tires were delivered together from UPS Wednesday afternoon!
Wednesday evening Donna took a flight to Albany, New York enroute to her parents house in Bennington, Vermont. She’ll be there for a week helping her dad rehab from a broken hip. So, I’m a bachelor for the week.
Thursday morning I called Discount Tire to see how much they would charge to mount and balance the new tires and find out when they could it. When I told the guy I had the new wheels and tires already, he put me on hold and didn’t pick up in the next five minutes. Obviously they weren’t interested in doing the job. I hung up. Next I called Victor’s Tire and Auto Detail shop up the hill from here on Clairemont Drive. They said they would do it for a total of $60 out-the-door and to come in anytime. I drove up there – two guys on two tire machines mounted the tires then balanced them and I was on my way within 15 minutes!
I put the wheels away in the trailer, then my phone rang. It was British Auto Repair. They had finished the axle/hub seal repair. I wasn’t expecting it for another day or two. They also told me that the gasket and O-ring was all that was needed – I had caught the leak early enough to avoid damage to the brake shoes and there was no hub damage. So a repair that could have cost as much as $600 only came to $200. Good news indeed.
I took an Uber to the shop and drove Midget-San back to Mission Bay RV Resort and parked next to the trailer in the overflow lot. I was able to change the wheels and had the car ready to go in no time.
I took a test drive up to Torrey Pines and back. Smooth. No sign of the vibration I could feel before. The car drives better and I think it looks better too!
Friday I drove Ken’s car up to Hemet to visit him and check on his progress at Ramona Rehab Center. It’s a little over a 90-minute drive without any traffic tie-ups. He seemed to be doing better and was in fine spirits. But, they had taken another chest x-ray that morning and were waiting for the results. The doctor thinks he’s getting fluid in his lungs again. I still haven’t heard anything but I intend to follow-up this afternoon.
At happy hour at the Offshore Tavern and Grill last night I heard about a surfing contest at La Jolla Shores this morning. I headed up there at 10am to check it out. The Windansea Surf Club had their Menehune Juniors contest. I hung out on the beach and watched for a while – some of the kids are pretty good!
An ensemble with two guitars and a bass played surf music. They had a van with their amps and a generator in the parking behind an EZ-up canopy. They sounded good and played a lot of surf classics from the 60s.
The weather has been fantastic and we can expect more of the same in the coming week. Today will be the last day I can say I’m 62 years old. My 63rd birthday is tomorrow.