In my last post, I mentioned an issue I had with Midget-San’s oil pressure. The replacement oil pump I ordered came from RockAuto on Tuesday afternoon. I’d been in touch with Bill Masquellier about doing the work at his place in El Cajon. I met Bill when he was working at British Auto Repair and replaced the rear hub/axle seal on the Midget. I later found out he was only filling in there temporarily while another mechanic was on an extended vacation. Bill is very knowledgeable on British cars and also has experience with engine swaps. He knows the Datsun/Nissan line of engines.
I was to meet Bill at the Gillespie Field Cafe – a small cafe at the airport in El Cajon – at 10am on Thursday. I arrived early as I had made allowances for traffic but managed to have smooth sailing eastbound on CA52. I parked in front of the cafe at 9:30am and took a walk. I saw an interesting car in front of a hangar and met the guy working on it. It was an Intermeccanica Omega – an Italian car made in the late ’60s with a Ford 289 V8 engine. They only made 33 of these. While I was talking to the guy, I saw Bill drive his Austin-Healey Sprite in. Bill phoned me and directed me to another hangar on the west side of the airport.
He opened one of the hangar doors and I parked Midget-San inside. I immediately noticed a number of covered cars along with and airplane and lots of parts in the hangar. We opened the hood (bonnet) on Midget-San and while the engine cooled, Bill gave a me a tour. First off, he showed me a 1928 Hudson. He explained that the hangar and the cars inside belonged to his brother-in-law, John. John bought the Hudson when he was in high school and it was his daily driver in the 1960s.
John has a fascination with cars designed and built by Ettore Bugatti. Bugatti’s first design was a small car. He drew up plans for every piece of the car and the engine as well. But he didn’t have the money to actually build the car. So, he sold the plans to Peugeot who then manufactured the car from 1905 to 1916 and called it Bebe. There were two 1913 Bebes in the hangar. Then Bill pulled back a car cover to reveal a mint condition 1935 Bugatti. It’s one of the top examples in the world and has to be valued around a million bucks!
There was another Bugatti – an all-aluminum 1938 that was in pieces being restored. This car only weighed around 2,200 lbs and had 200 horsepower making it one the fastest cars on the road at that time. Cool stuff.
Bill quickly pulled the alternator and oil pump from the Nissan A15 engine in Midget-San. I remarked how surprised I was to find the pump in stock at RockAuto. Bill told me this oil pump is used in at least three Nissan engine families and is a fairly common part. That made sense. We primed the pump and reassembled everything with a new oil filter and fired it up. The oil pressure came up within a couple of seconds. Much better!
Bill put a volt meter on the battery to make sure nothing went awry when the alternator was removed and discovered it was over-charging. The alternator was supplying over 15.5 volts. It has an internal regulator that must be bad. This will eventually fry the battery – the charging voltage should never exceed 15-volts and ideally would be around 14.2 to 14.4-volts. I’ll have to replace that next. This is what happens when you have a 48-year-old car with a 39-year-old engine.
Across from the hangar is the Allen Airways Flying Museum. The museum is owned by Bill Allen – a good friend of Bill M. Bill asked me if I was interested in a private tour of the museum. He had the keys and we entered the closed museum. There are a lot of interesting pieces of aeronautical history there. I saw a couple of Stearman Biplanes in the museum hangar and told Bill I frequently see two Stearmans fly over Mission Bay Park, almost daily. I described them and he told me one of them was in the corner of the hangar and the other – a orange-yellow one was a rental plane that sees almost daily use.
The other Boeing Stearman in the hangar was a beautifully restored silver plane with a blue stripe down the side and blue wing bottoms. It had tail number N-3188. This was the last plane owned and flown by Steve McQueen!
Steve McQueen requested number 3188 – it was his ID number when he was at reform school in Chino. Bill Allen bought the plane and completely restored it.
On Friday, Donna and I drove up to Sun City and cleared some items from Ken’s house. I also met with a realtor and we discussed marketing the property and a realistic valuation. The realtor is Sherry Dodson and she has a track record for the gated community Ken’s house is in. She’s sold around 10 homes per year there for several years. She had good comps to establish a realistic value. Setting the price too high could result in problems with a buyer obtaining financing. We needed a number that would appraise without leaving money on the table. After an hour or so, we came up with a price and a plan.
Saturday was a fine day. Donna and I rode our bikes along the Bayside Walk to Mission Beach. Along the way at Crown Point, we saw a large number of row boats for crew racing. It appeared to be a large event for mostly junior rowers. The crew teams looked to be high school age or maybe college. I’m not very good at guessing ages anymore – they all look young.
We made a loop from Mission Beach to Pacific Beach Drive and back to Mission Bay RV Resort.
Saturday night, Donna marinated a flank steak and served it with baked potato and roasted brussels sprouts. Delicious!
Monday was Veterans Day and another fine day. We took a drive in Midget-San out to Cabrillo Monument on Point Loma. We made a stop at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
Last night, Donna tried a new recipe for a baked pasta dish with Italian sausage crumbles and broccolini. She’s used garbanzo bean rotini which has more protein than regular pastas. It was very good, though not something we would have often because of all the cheese and cream!
This morning I finalized a counter-offer on Ken’s house and it looks like we are moving forward on the sale. We ended up within $2,000 of the asking price and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we get a favorable inspection result and appraisal.
The weather forecast for the week ahead looks great. It might be slightly cooler with highs in the upper 60s to low 70s and overnight lows in the mid 50s. That’s November in San Diego!