udpated pictures

added 8 new pics to book of morris. this time they actually show the whole car :O

-steve

What doesn't hurt it...

Kind of a whacky post today. Yesterday, Steve and I had to drive out to Chase and pick up his Focus. The night before that Steve had to work a graveyard, and with no Focus, it seems like Morris would have to suffice. The next morning at 6:30 AM Steve shows up at my place, where I jump in my Echo and back out of the driveway... And right into Morris! Seems to me that hitting cars with cars is actually a lot of fun! So anyways, I am definately going to get a shit car so Morris has a playmate. Like I said, it is kind of a whacky post and a bit silly but oh well!

-Mitch

fuel light bingo!

well it'd help a lot if we had one, a fuel light. we don't. remember before i said we were running rich? well we thought we fixed it. the car went 150km and the needle went from nearly full to nearly empty, then after some tinkering we went another 200km until it ran out of gas.

so we had to push it out of the a/w parking lot to the safeway gas bar and hilariously realised neither of us were in the car to apply the brakes.

put in another $15 and it should have given us nearly half a tank, but the needle didn't move. so keeping track of km we set out driving thinking we should get at least 300km. well i was going up columbia today with mitch off to his house and after 150km morris started sputtering to a hault. some fancy driving we made it to mitch's house thinking it was something much worse than running out of gas.

car ran completely out of fuel right outside his door, and we ended up coasting down the parking lot and down summit to springhill, hit a red and mitch pushed it the next 2 blocks to the supersave gas station.

put in another $15 and the needle didn't move. also nearly impossible to start the car running. the attendants were looking at us like the car was totally broke, and after about 15 minutes of trying to start the thing, about the same time i think they were getting fed up, mitch roared it to life and we spun out of there.

it was pretty awesome seeing what we thought was a compeltely dead morris triumphantly rocket back to life in front of a small crowd of gas station workers that gathered to see what was up.

-steve

My Bright Idea...

Well... It seems that I have come up with a new hair-brained idea. In my line of work (delivering pizzas), I seem to burn a decent share of fuel trying to speed through traffic. So here is my idea, I'll keep this post short because it is only slightly relevant, but why not fill up my car at the Canadian Mafuka? If I were to fill up my Echo there, Steve were to fill up his Focus there, and we were to put gas in Morris there, the Canadian Mafucka "Money" would add up quickly, leading to better stuff for Morris! Like I said, just a hair-brained idea, but it may be useful!

-Mitch

cost analysis

below is a chart that shows my best estimate as to the costs for the car so far. our initial expected cost was $500 for a vehicle, so buying morris at 200 gave us roughly 300 for repairs. i included the cost of paint in this even though technically it wasnt needed to get the car in a reliable driving state but its on the chart because everyone agrees racing paint makes the car faster.

as you can see we have currently used roughly $545 dollars to date to get the car in the position it's in. subtracting the paint we are at $505, very close to our budgeted amount. further breaking this down we get to roughly $465 by subtracting the cost of oil, and subtracting $40 for the cost of some tools, putty, cleaners and bits of pipe gives us $425- the cost at which the car was perfectly drivable.

how do our costs so far compare to our self-set challenge of simply flying south? let's take a look:

rundown of costs from air canada. click for big.

we can see a return trip for 2 adults lands us at $1,546 simply for air fare! so then, we are now left approximately $1,000 to drive us to mexico and back before it is more economical to fly. this money will have to be used to gas, food and shelter along the road. it may also be used for more repairs, it's really up to us. what i wont include in the final tally is the extra days it takes to drive that need to be taken off work, because i think that is just getting too silly. after all, i think myself and mitch both consider the time on the road to be part of the vacation as well. so sure by flying you get more prime time in mexico, but if you enjoy it just as much travelling there by car then that shouldn't be considered an addition expense in the form of time taken.

and yes i'm aware there are the usual travel packages people can buy, say about $799 for a week at an all inclusive mexican resort somewhere. i think i could argue this fairly strongly into my favour but would you believe with the outbreak of swine flu i can't find a single resource around town that is stocking a mexican travel package?

but regardless, considering the journey part of the adventure is what swings things to heavily in our favour in my opinion. added benefit of the ability to sell the car upon return further reduces total cost.

mind you it might not make it....

-steve

Quick Update

Not a tonne to post about lately mainly cause the car is getting better and there is just less work to do. Well its got a really rough idle now, when it does idle, and for awhile we were running really rich so we need to play around with some bits under the hood to try and get things right, but it will take a lot of trial and error.

Setting the idle there are some hoses under the hood that have to be disconnected and capped off and turns out the perfect tool for the job is the cap from a Dr. Pepper!

Also found out we are running very much the wrong oil so will be changing that today and we put in a new thermostat last night about 1030 and got the car running just in time to go to the bar. Awesome!

-steve

Pulled over... Again...

Well, Steve and I were concerned about the condition of our carburetor because whenever we put the clutch in, it would stall out at red lights, so we decided to put some fuel additives in the fuel tank. With the fuel additive in, we needed to run the car to let the additive clean out our carb. A few minutes later, we hopped in the car and went for a burn around the city. Heading downtown, we attracted a little bit of unexpected attention. Driving down Seymour St. there was a red and blue flash followed by a chirp of a siren. "COCK!" I exclaimed, thinking I had done something wrong... Long story short, the officer thought it a little suspicious to have my window rolled down. It has now been determined, police keep stopping us because they just want to see Morris, and the awesomeness that the car projects onto its surroundings...

-Mitch

Timing should be good

rolled out of bed today and under the car. rented a light from walmart to do the timing with and im pretty sure i got it right. car pulls a lot better, starts on the first try and i can ride 2nd gear over 5000rpm which is about 80kph.

when we first got the car 2nd topped out at about 40kph around 3500rpm. but now with timing and valve issues fixed we've got a lot of power back. just need to fix the idle now since it was adjusted when there was bad timing by the old owner and now it runs perfect when the engine is cold but once it heats up the idle drops to about 500 which is about 250 too low and the engine almost stalls.

i ghetto fixed this just recently by turning on the rear defroster which jumps the idle back up to 1000rpm lol. that worked for about 25 min though and its still rough but not as bad. there is an idle screw, i just dont know where it is : (

also had to add a new alternator belt to the list of things to pick up.

-steve

Valve Clearance & Timing Issues

Since we bought the car we knew we had to reduce the valve clearance since everything about the car sucked and the lifters were very loud. In fact I didn't notice how loud they were until we fixed them and the car is a lot quieter now. Cool. I knew we'd need a feeler gauge so I picked one up for about 7 bucks at Canadian mafacka, of course.

After taking off the intake and valve cover Mitch asked me if I've ever done this before. Never in fact have I ever done something like this but it ended up being really easy once we discovered some things. We took out the spark plugs which we will likely replace in the future but with the plugs out and battery disconnected we were pretty safe I assume to turn the engine by hand from the crank shaft pulley. Interesting to note it appeared as if our 4th spark plug wire wasn't connected properly, and possibly the car was only firing on 3 cylinders. Mitch jacked up the car and took off the front passenger wheel to access the crank shaft pulley. Some cars use special tools to turn it but we just grabbed a 3/4" socket and a little bit of man power.


Since we don't have a timing light we sort of guessed where top dead center was on our numbers 1 and 4 pistons for adjusting the valve clearances. We carefully just placed a long screwdriver where the spark plug was, turned the engine by hand and watched it go up and down. When it was all the way up and both the valves were closed we knew we had the TDC of the compression stroke. (I think, if you know this is wrong drop me a line).

Lucky for us we only had 8 valves to do since our engine is so small and old. We almost very easily could have had a car with 24. We also had 2 replacement valve cover gaskets that came with the car, so we made sure to throw another one on when we sealed it up, greasing it in oil first. Closed everything up, reinstalled the intake and we also changed out the fuel filter. Our fav. Lordco was surprised to find they had one in stock, and it was only $5 or so.

As you can see from Mitch cutting open the old fuel filter, it was very much clogged up.

First starting up the car we found we had no need to prime it anymore and the engine was of course much quieter. Our idle was still very poor however and so was our fuel economy and performance, so we decided to start messing carefully with our timing. Again since we don't have a timing light we were just guessing by rotating the distributer. We started getting close to what we want, but I think we will need to go get ourselves a light and do things properly.



Lots of updates to the Book of Morris!

-steve

well I'm blind and mitch is glued to the car

Sort of. I'm not really blind but I did have to go to the ER for 2 hours 'cause I got paint thinner in my eye when I was cleaning up the paint on the ceiling of the car. We tried to spray paint it white but it didn't look that great and the paint never dried since I guess it wont stick to vinyl. So it was easy to clean but yea, I had to go to the hospital and a doctor put strange things into my face. Found out I lost or got 5 vision points or whatever and now I'm rocking some 20/25 not bad though considering the intense burning of my eyeball at the time.

Got some tea + a newspaper when I was waiting so that was pretty good. Got out and fixed the neons with some krazy-glue I found at a truckstop and Mitch constantly warning me I'd go back to the hospital with my face glued to the steering wheel ended up with his finger glued to the dashboard.

Also, not wanting to fuck around with our fuel gauge anymore since no matter what we put in, it never went past 1/4 tank, we topped it right up and found out it works very poorly and we're only getting like 32mpg which is garbage so we need to try and fix that otherwise are gas bill to Mexico just doubled.

-steve

Too Legit

Officer: Can you step out of the car please? May I search your vehicle?
Steve: Uh yea, sure- nothin' to hide.
Officer: You guys goin' for the Herby look eh?
Steve: Actually it's painted like a '66 GT40.
Officer: Can you open the trunk please?
Mitch: Yea here ya go.
Officer: And the glove box?
Mitch: Okay, yes. BUT for the love of GOD just don't laugh at our MC Hammer tapes.
Officer (shines light): Hmm... that's okay, I can't touch this.

Suspects in a drive-by!

-steve

More painting...

I figured, since we have painted the dash white, why stop there? The idea was I would paint the cargo cover for the hatch, and the other little bits that go with it white as well. After a quick stop at the Dollar Store, I had some men's razors, then off to the Canadian Mafucka for some white enamel paint. This is where it goes wrong... I bought the rust paint and went over to Steve's, to get started.

After removing the cargo cover from the boot, and the other remaining bits that go with it, I went to the laundry room in Steve's basement. The cargo cover, after having most of the fluffy stuff shaved off with the razors was ready to paint. After the first coat of paint it was more of a light grey than white, but no big deal right? I started on the other bits and once I was done the first piece, I had a slight problem.

As I walked out of the laundry room in a haze, due to the lack of proper ventilation I was getting a little silly. After the ordeal, Steve decided to take a whack at it, realizing the paint he used on the dash in the laundry room was enamel, which was much faster drying and had WAAAAY less fumes. And after a slight buzz the final bits were finally coated and we were able to get out of the basement and sit outside for a while. We really needed the fresh air.

I realize this was kind of a whacky post, but I figured since we could have died, it was worth putting up. I also have more pictures to add, and I am thinking about starting up a YouTube channel to further catalouge our follies and other whacky adventures. But for now, everyone will just have to imagine us all whacked out on paint fumes.

-Mitch

Great new dash and awesome old tapes

Today we replaced a few bulbs and tore out the dashboard and painted it white. Used a can of Armor Coat enamel that was $3.99 at Canadian mafacka's and it took Mitch about 15 minutes to paint all the parts really well and another 5 to dry. The result is simply stunning the picture simply cannot do it any justice. I also reran the oil pressure gauge and Mitch made some holes and I wired it up to power so it lights up when we turn on the neon's with a toggle by the steering wheel.

What sucks though is that we screwed up the vents and our vent-selector is caught somewhere so I plan on ripping it all out tomorrow and fixing that, and since a lot of this grease and dirt from off our hands is hard to wash off I'm thinking another coat of white paint which will look great. Also planning to tidy up all the wiring because it's a total wirey reach-around at the moment...

We also shampooed a bunch of carpet with some Head and Shoulders and it looks FANTASTIC that was the best idea ever. Looks brand new in spots and smells great without any dandruff. What is also fantastic is my dads old tape collection which super awesome cause we got a tape deck in the glove box. Seriously look at this list:

• CCR's greatest hits
• Dire Straits greatest hits
• The Doors
• Rolling Stones
• Nirvana
• Gun's 'n Roses
• NWA - Strait Outta Compton (HAHAHAHAHA)
• Pantera
• The Beatles
• Deep Purple
• etc....
  

Gonna have a riot rockin' these tapes in this 60's GT style Micra. We sort of plan on doing the seats up too but can't find the right way to go about it yet.

Mitch actually lost the dashboard today.


ps- more pic's of dash deconstruction added in Book of Morris
-steve

Our True Colours...

FINALLY!!!!!! Painting is done!!! Steve put the finishing touches on the paint today (Wipers, 2nd coat on bumper etc.). Before that, we took the exhaust to my step-dad and he brazed the pipe for us, brazing is a lot easier than welding it seems. Well, the car seems to be nearing completion, we hit up the junkyard and picked up a set of headrests for $5 (because a broken neck is a sad neck). Later on, disaster almost struck, Steve found a transmission leak but fixed it immediately, so no harm done. There will be more pics up SOON! Stay tuned...

-Mitch