Archive for May, 2010

Yesterday I had to use the Vette to get some things done in the city since the Suburban’s alternator was in repair. We were driving normally at 35 mph and suddenly I noticed that the GEN light went on and the voltmeter dropped to 12 volts. Car was still running fine and although my girlfriend told me before the GEN light came on that she heard a strange knock sound, we both thought it was probably a road bump or something. I decided to pull over to the next fuel station but Merlin suggested to drive to her father’s workplace which was also close, just in case something had to be repaired at location. When in the car, I thought that probably the generator plug disconnected or some wire went bad. However, when we finally stopped, I came out of the car and noticed smoke coming out under the hood. I immediately stopped the engine and pulled the hood open to see whether there is something burning under there. I immediately saw that it was actually the coolant boiling from the overflow tank and actually it had been dripping onto the road for a few hundred meters on our way to the destination. I really don’t know how I did’t look at the water temperature at all since I kept looking at the voltmeter all the time. I guess you just overlook certain things which are “always” so normal.

So, ofcourse, what had happened was that the alternator – water pump rubber belt had broken and didn’t pull things around anymore. We managed to get a new belt in a couple of hours and after replacing it, we were happy to see that the engine was still running fine and everything began behaving normally again. Had I driven it longer like that, the engine could have gotten hurt. So, next time you notice a voltage drop, CHECK THE OTHER GAUGES TOO!

Yesterday me and my girlfriend Merlin had a wonderful trip on our Corvette to Southern Estonia. We had a wonderful time and although the weather wasn’t sunny, it was at least not raining! I must say that it’s tiring so take a long trip in this car, especially as the driver, because it does not handle like a new car on the road, you constantly need to be prepared to make instant corrective actions with the steering wheel and there’s no cruise control on our Vette. The noise is enormous – I can say as a pilot that it’s at least the same as in a piston-engine aircraft. All the wind noise, engine noise and everything else is so loud that you really have to almost yell to speak to each other understandably. Nevertheless, it’s a C3 Corvette and that’s just the way it is. You just have to enjoy everything that comes with this experience and hope your ears forgive you one day. Will see what I will be writing 40 years afterwards, though. And, stopping at a gas station and coming out to the car seeing people walking around it with happy faces and taking photos – well, it’s something that just makes you care even more about the car – simply to show something nice and different to people who see such cars mostly only in the Internet.

The reason we took the long trip was not just about driving – it was to go and see our two months old horse baby who’s still with his mother and has to stay with her till the end of this Summer. Then we can bring him home. Our new horse is called Calvados and he will become a beautiful grey stallion.

We took a few photos and they are here for you to see:

So, just like every year, we had our driving season opening event for all hobby cars, but mostly American ones ofcourse. It took place at a freshly renovated quarter in Tallinn called Rotermann quarter. Personally I think that the idea to have the event there was very good and we can be satisfied with the event overall. There were some difficulties finding all the cars since they were parked randomly between the buildings and some locations were a bit hidden. We arrived pretty much at the beginning of the gathering so we managed to park the Corvette at one of the best possible locations – right in front of the stage where the bands played and people talked from. An uncountable number of  boys and girls took pictures with the two black C3 Corvettes next to them and it was a nice feeling to see how people like the work and money I put into my car. Even the American embassador in Estonia was there with his armored Cadillac Deville and he and his wife held a short speech about how they like our hobby and their 1968 Mustang they had when they were young. Certainly plausible to see their support. Below are some nice photos of the cars:

Hi all,

First of all I need to apologize for not posting anything new for a long time. Things have been really busy and in addition to my main job I have been working on pushing up the car stickers brand Red Rock Decals and we are also going to start a horse supplies and services business with my girlfriend which I will write about sometime later perhaps. Anyway, I promise I will be writing here a lot more often now and will keep you updated on what’s going on over here.

About the Corvette – what I haven’t told you about yet is that I I was somehow able to mess up both of the rear brake supports after rebuilding them. I simply over-tightened the ventilation screws on both calipers and they broke so easily nobody still believes me… So, I needed new brakes. I decided to buy the SSBC full brake package from Summit Racing and it was a good decision. The car works nicely now and I have no more issues with brakes. We have driven it for several hundred miles this Spring without any large issues. Just the Q-Jet carb needs a bit of tuning and perhaps a rebuild. I’ll try to do it within a month or so. Oh, and I need new front tires! Will be probably 235 width Cooper Cobras which I will order from Germany. They have good prices there compared to our local suppliers.

Suburban has been a bit of a tricky lady for us over the past few months. First of all, somebody decided to rob my laptop from the back seat when I was parking in front of a suburb house and it happened at about 10.30 AM!! What a stupid time to steal anything, but they managed to do it. They broke the left side middle row door window and got my laptop with ease. I know, I know… I was stupid to leave it there in the first place. But I’ve learned my lesson now as I’m typing this message from my brand new Dell Latitude E6400 series ;) The Suburban has got a state of the art alarm system now which lets me know of anything happening with the car on the alarm remote LCD. Then I can at least run out if I park in front of somebody’s house and some moron tries to steal the audio/video system.

I travelled to Israel for a week in March with my girlfriend and left the Suburban parked in my yard. When we came back and wanted to drive it, the starter just rotated the motor and the bendix didn’t hook to the engine at all. I removed the starter and cleaned the bendix which was simply a bit rusted and when I put the starter back, nothing worked properly. It did a horrible noise, didn’t rotate the engine and finally I had to pull the truck to service where they spent 3 days on it. After about 3 starters and a new flywheel, they also had to replace the distributor head and rotor. Somehow those were also dead. Now the truck is working perfectly and I just noticed an oil leak from some place near the steering wheel pump. Damn it! :)

I must tell you all about our Red Rock Decals stickers business which is now really becoming more and more popular both here locally in Estonia and also internationally.

Today I saw a strange sight at one of the fuel stations – only BMWs and nothing else. Nobody knows what are real cars, huh?