Hello again, I know I never post but I wanted to honor Mommy's request that I tell this story and so here it is.This is a picture of a 1970 Monte Carlo. It looks almost exactly like one I bought a few years ago from a guy just down the road from us. The rest of the family likes it okay, but it is the same car Larisa's granddad had. It reminds me of a 1969 Buick Le Sabre I got for taking care of Alf, the Doberman Pinscher when I had just gotten off my mission. When I saw that it was for sale down the road I bought it. It runs pretty well and it is in physically good condition. However, only about 5 months after I bought it, I was driving down the road at 50 mph and hit a big buck and smashed the right fender and front end. Now, the car barely hesitated when I hit the deer, because it is a massive car. I drove it home, but it was still pretty damaged. It needed a new fender, a new grill, a new headlight socket and headlight, a new fender liner. As amazing as it sounds, we found all the parts and I fixed it myself and had the whole car repainted with the insurance money that I saved since I did all the body work myself - I just put it all back together. Anyway, one part that was damaged that I could not find was a shroud for the fan. Unlike new cars, this car has literally feet of clearance around the engine in the engine compartment.
My car is black but it has the same set up as this picture. The thing in the middle is the fan shroud and it covers the fan and keeps air flowing through the radiator to the fan. This piece is plastic and it is from the 1970s, so I could not find a replacement. Anyway, I fixed it with fiberglass at the time of the repairs and since then it has fallen apart again, so again I looked for a replacement and found a way to fix it. Part of the fix-it job made the fan shroud not reach around the fan and the car was over heating so I thought the fix would be to lengthen the fan shroud with a metal extension.
I called up a sheet metal shop called Duck's and asked if they could help me fashion a piece of metal in a cylinder shape to extend the round fan shroud. They said I could come over and they could look at it. I drove over and went in to this raggedy building with all sorts of metal parts. There were these two old guys in there, both over 60 and I told them I needed to have someone look at my car to see if they could help me lengthen the fan shroud on my car. The one guy said, "Can't you measure it yourself?" and I told him that was why I was there--to get some expert help. He good-naturedly came out and looked with his friend at the car. He said, "You don't need an extension of the fan shroud. You need a fan extender" which is a piece of metal that goes between the existing fan and the engine. They then said, "Just go to Big A's up the street and they can help you." I wondered if they just did not want to help me or if there was such a thing, but I trusted their wisdom and went up the street to Big A's.
I talked to the first guy in there and sure enough, he showed me the fan extender and it came with long bolts and viola, I had what I needed to fix the problem. So, I went out, unbolted the fan and tried to attach it, However, due to the length of the new bolts, I could not attach the fan to the fan extender to the engine. What was I to do? I did what I aways do when I do not know what to do--I went back in and asked the Big A's guys. They had a possible solution--get a bolt with no head on it and I could screw that into the engine, then put the fan extender over the bolts, then put the fan on and finally get some nuts, and screw those on over the fan and da da, done. Well, it just so happend that right near by was Fastenal, a bolt and screw warehouse! Yes, they have those in the world. I walked over and told them what I needed. Well, they did not have it. However, they did have a piece of metal, with threads all the way along it like a super long bolt. I would just have to cut it into the right-sized pieces to make my bolts and then I could do what I needed. So, they gave me some nuts, the super bolt and I went back to my old car, I cut the bolts from the super bolt with a hacksaw I bought for 5 dollars at Big A's and screwed them into the engine, put the fan extender over them, put the fan over that and screwed on the nuts and now viola, my old car does not overheat.
Thanks to the Duck's machine shop guys and the helpful Big A's guys for helping me fix my car myself for about 30 dollars. I can guarantee if I had taken it to someone else they would have charged me at least one or two hundred dollars, and it would have taken two weeks go get it in to the shop. Thanks Ypsi High Automotive repair class and Bill Burnett for letting me work in his auto body shop as a kid. :-)
I called up a sheet metal shop called Duck's and asked if they could help me fashion a piece of metal in a cylinder shape to extend the round fan shroud. They said I could come over and they could look at it. I drove over and went in to this raggedy building with all sorts of metal parts. There were these two old guys in there, both over 60 and I told them I needed to have someone look at my car to see if they could help me lengthen the fan shroud on my car. The one guy said, "Can't you measure it yourself?" and I told him that was why I was there--to get some expert help. He good-naturedly came out and looked with his friend at the car. He said, "You don't need an extension of the fan shroud. You need a fan extender" which is a piece of metal that goes between the existing fan and the engine. They then said, "Just go to Big A's up the street and they can help you." I wondered if they just did not want to help me or if there was such a thing, but I trusted their wisdom and went up the street to Big A's.
I talked to the first guy in there and sure enough, he showed me the fan extender and it came with long bolts and viola, I had what I needed to fix the problem. So, I went out, unbolted the fan and tried to attach it, However, due to the length of the new bolts, I could not attach the fan to the fan extender to the engine. What was I to do? I did what I aways do when I do not know what to do--I went back in and asked the Big A's guys. They had a possible solution--get a bolt with no head on it and I could screw that into the engine, then put the fan extender over the bolts, then put the fan on and finally get some nuts, and screw those on over the fan and da da, done. Well, it just so happend that right near by was Fastenal, a bolt and screw warehouse! Yes, they have those in the world. I walked over and told them what I needed. Well, they did not have it. However, they did have a piece of metal, with threads all the way along it like a super long bolt. I would just have to cut it into the right-sized pieces to make my bolts and then I could do what I needed. So, they gave me some nuts, the super bolt and I went back to my old car, I cut the bolts from the super bolt with a hacksaw I bought for 5 dollars at Big A's and screwed them into the engine, put the fan extender over them, put the fan over that and screwed on the nuts and now viola, my old car does not overheat. Thanks to the Duck's machine shop guys and the helpful Big A's guys for helping me fix my car myself for about 30 dollars. I can guarantee if I had taken it to someone else they would have charged me at least one or two hundred dollars, and it would have taken two weeks go get it in to the shop. Thanks Ypsi High Automotive repair class and Bill Burnett for letting me work in his auto body shop as a kid. :-)
I don't know how you do it, Daddy. Maybe you look at cars in the same way that I look at genealogy--it's a puzzle to be solved, and you need to take several detours along the way to figure it all out :-)
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