Nice! Good luck with getting the engine working. I love working turbines but recips I don't know from nothing >^_^<

lol considering I'm not well versed in either since this is my first repair, you've already got a leg up on me! But thank you for the well wishes! I'll get her going again!!

Dive right in! You'll have a blast working on it! >^_^< She'll be purring in no time.

lol sooner thank you may think! I'm looking to have her engine making noise by the end of March!

Sweat, looks like a nice simple little carburetor, that'll make our job easier for sure. Lol I think I trusted into the deep end from the get go with Pinky er.. I mean Mitzi.. of COURSE I'd choose to get the car that has one of the most notoriously crazy designs in the world. Just to put it into perspective, I brought it into my COLLEGE shop class to be rebuilt because the instructor said he could help me no problem. Then when I brought it in he literally told me he'd never seen one like it before...great. https://scontent.fmkc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13043280_10154209583223701_6282646741872661305_n.jpg?oh=5e562d740869a52c68e26ed080c74b62&oe=592D20C7

Have you guys tried the throttle to see if the carburetor operates at all? Like that it's not all frozen up?

We might be able to hold off on that drip-feed system at first at least until she's running consistently. That little straw at the top should lead right to the bowl letting us fill it from the outside, should work nice.

I've also been looking at ways to engage the ignition system without an ignition switch just in case you don't get one. Seems pretty easy, just run a jumper from the + switch connector of the coil to the positive on the battery and that's it. Bypasses the whole system.

lol yep! And simple is good!! And you don't say! lol so wonder Merv had such a hard time working on Pinky! And yikes, that's quite the beastie! It looks rather imposing in its own right by size alone! Thankfully Cassandra seems simplified and streamlined when it comes to her mechanisms.

And yep! I had at it with WD-40 when I was restoring the pulley wheels in the front to get them to spin better. The flap moves as you adjust and move the throttle or the little arm on the spring beside it.

I'd be careful with that personally. Carbs are the most likely pace for the car to backfire and to catch fire. If you ever see a car with a burn spot on the hood that's why. It's the Carb catching fire and burping back on you. Anything we do around the carb until we can assess the condition of her motor I'll be very cautious of. I've already managed to learn she has an issue with her oil since she seems to burn through so much if all the bottles in the trunk are any indication.

lol well hopefully this Saturday it will no longer be an issue as we're going to drill it out and hit the pin to release it manually so I can put in the new one and have that whole system ready for prime time by the time you get here. Which also means I still need to get a battery.

Simple is indeed good. Hey feel free to order yourself up a carb rebuild kit before I get there. Just in case the magic of Cassandra shines through and we get her started the first day lol.. we'll need more stuff to work on. Her carb will need to be rebuilt regardless if you want her to run reliably after sitting so long so it wouldn't hurt doing it now. But it's your choice obviously. Lol I keep forgetting you gave Violet's dad a name, Merv is short for Marvin right? Maybe not.. never heard just the name Merv before. With that name in mind why do I keep seeing her mom as a Helen?

That's a 4-barrel Holley on Mitzi. Kinda makes me wonder if Pinky was a 2 or 4 barrel. 9.^ hmmph.. *daydreams* Do you think Merv spared no expense on Pinky? I mean if he was getting a convertible Victoria already why not right go all the way right? Get the whole power-pack V8 with 4-barrel carb and the Tunderbird 292 Yblock. I guess my comic at least has it canonical with Pinky being a V8. Because they did still make it optional to have a straight-6 if you were a cheapo. XP

Sweet, moving throttle, sounds like we're all set. : 3

True true and I'm glad that you're aware and cautious of that. We'll indeed be careful for sure. But if you ever watch some of those real rednecky mechanics getting old cars started, a carburetor fire ain't really no thing, just blow on it and it usually goes out like a candle. It's all metal in there so there's nothing to burn. Filling the float bowl would be something we'd do before we even crank her over. It'd basically get her a nice full bowl to drink while she idles, or a bowl to sip out of while trying to start.. but look who I'm patronizing here, you've rebuilt carbs you know all this. ^^ You won't be getting any back-firing while the engine is just sitting there, it's while you're cranking you have to be cautious. That's why you see people in youtube comments saying "ooh you shouldn't be pouring gas down the carb while it's cranking!" It's pour, crank, pour, crank.. not the two steps at once.. that's the main rule.

Have you asked Buddy about that oil by the way? I dunno I'd be suspect. I mean if she's leaking oil why have a bunch of oil cans in your trunk at once? I can't see having more then two at any one time. And what's the levels in those cans? Were they all full? All empty? That alone can be telling. I mean who knows.. if they're empty maybe he just used them to empty old oil into for disposing after her did oil changes.. I dunno.. I'm just saying you should get the answers from the guy himself. By the way have you checked her dip stick?? Does she have any oil inside her?

Sounds sick, nice dude. : 3

I'll try to with whatever money I've got, but things are a little tight. lol and I'm sure we can find other things to work on while you're here. Believe me there's no shortage of things to work on. And on the Merv topic, I'm not sure, but I remember you had names planned out for them both and I believe you mentioned the wife's name before. You'll forgive me but I don't recall it off hand. Though I'm sure a quick survey through your DA will correct that!

Based on how attached his daughter was I'm sure he gave it his best shot. But as I recall he wasn't a very capable handyman. lol you know looking back on it I remember working out a neighbor of theirs and coming up with their car as this foul tempered, near mute, overly aggressive car that was frequently running off the road named Bullstrode!

Indeed we are! Hopefully everything works out well!! Getting that Marvel's Mystery Oil into her system should also do a WORLD of good.

Well we'll be pouring MMO into it and that stuff IS Flammable so whatever the case may be I want a Fire Extinguisher on standby. lol and hey even if I know what I'm talking about there's no harm going over that stuff ahead of time to be sure!!

I've not had the chance to sadly, no. Heck I've not even gotten to talk to him about this job he offered me. All but one of the cans is empty, and there's only a little bit, like 1/4 or 1/3 of the large one left. I'm thinking she just had a problem with burning oil or leaking so he just loaded her up as needed. But when I get the chance I'll ask him. And yes I have, she does and it's all bad.

That's gonna be a lot of DA sifting there lol hope you cleared a whole evening for that. XD

I dunno, I mean it's obvious Merv worked hard, you could see him sweaty to death in a fricken under-shirt and shorts.. I've been there and god that's not a fun scenario to be working on a car in. But yeah it's pretty obvious he didn't know what he was doing. Though I've wondered how much he did it for Violet though. I've never come to a concrete conclusion on this but sometimes I wonder if in the back of his head he saw Pinky not running anymore as a good thing, that hopefully his nutty daughter would then stop her obsessing over the car. Its obviously something he didn't really like when she started getting 'too old' for 'imaginary friends.' BUT... then again by the time Pinky broke down I guess you could say Pinky and Violets relationship was already strained one way since Violet stopped having 'object sight' and all..

Oh yeah Bullstrode, I remember you talking about that character actually.. not in detail though..

Hmph.. I dunno if Cass would appreciate having MMO forced down her throat right away.. I don't think the stuff is as flammable as gasoline.. in fact I've heard it's basically hydraulic fluid on a forum, more of a cleaner then a fuel. When poor Cassy is trying to start the thing she'll want most is a potent fuel and a good spark. That means high octane clean fuel and cleaned ignition points, New sparkplugs too in a perfect world. She's your baby so you can decide. But I'd recommend personally that you get her running and idling, then while she's idling let her drink it straight down the carburetor. What I'd do to avoid the stuck valve bent pushrod problem I had with Mitzi. Would be to remove her valve covers, check if the valves are stuck, and maybe slather the valves and push-rods in MMO before trying to start her. Get them nice and lubricated and freed up. Then of course the whole oil in the spark-plug holes.. then just try starting her.

Cool, yeah it's a good idea to have a fire extinguisher. Please promise me you'll use it as a last resort though right? I think the last thing you want is that extinguisher crap going down the carburetor. Honestly with a backfire carb fire I doubt you'd need anything more then a towel to snuff the flame with.

But yeah remember what I said about pour, crank, pour, crank? This bumkin shows perfectly why you don't pour gas into the engine while its running. The vast majority of that fire is because the backfire ignited the fuel in his bottle and then he threw the bottle and splashed burning gas everywhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ20Mvgqf9A

Well I wouldn't jump to conclusions. Even if she is loosing oil, from how you described him Buddy doesn't seem like the most.. lets say.. proactive guy in the world. So she may just have a leak somewhere he never bothered to fix and decided just to keep pouring oil into her instead. Or if she was owned by his mom, well.. you know how most women are with cars.. they don't give a crap as long as the run. If we get her going we'll look for leaks you and I. :)

lol Oh I see how it is! I gotta go looking for it!

Well that is true, but I don't think it would be too odd for the parents. They might find her personifying "The Car" too much, I think in all honesty it might've come across more as their little girl was interested in the car and for Merv it could've been something he wanted to pass down. In that time, girls played with dolls and personified objects like that more often and if she liked the car like one of her dolls it might've been read that way. I'm sure he gave it his best shot though. I remember and liked the scene you did where she found the picture and talked to Pinky, even if she thought she wasn't talking to anyone at all.

lol a stark black 1940 Chrysler New Yorker Sedan with a winged front left fender and a bad habit of backfiring threateningly at others, growling, and dumping himself to the side of the road in the attempts to threaten off other cars (whom he didn't like, especially if they were newer than he was)

Well of course not, we've got to get her running before we start feeding that into her. SPEAKING OF CASSANDRA, I just got back from up there. The trunk situation is pretty bad. The rust is so bad there's only one side where it's solid and the rest is just a crumbly mess. And in it's state of affairs, it collapsed under its own weight and is now laying on top of the gas tank; which itself has a hole in it. Tomorrow Dad and I are going to drill out the old ignition switch, replace it, take out the front and back seats, get the back doors open, and cut out that old head liner to be replaced. The Trunk is by far the WORST spot I've seen, but Mr Daniel, despite all of the strokes, came outside and walked over to look her over, gave me his encouraging words, shared a laugh with my dad, and offered us to use his welder and other tools. And before we can tackle the trunk we're going to have to have her towed out of there. So that's the Cassandra situation thus far. OH and we discovered air shock lines, so someone had put Cassandra on a California Tilt when she was running.

Of course! I don't want all that junk in there making our job any harder. That is ONLY for if things get BAD. I don't mind punching out a flame with a towel. I've seen some of those Jim Bob Billy Frank Redneck Repair Garages where they just swat it out with a towel.

lol oooooooh boy, well let's take a look ..... SWEET LORD THE GUT ON THAT MAN IS GARGANTUAN!!! He almost puts me in mind of Mr. Creosote from Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life. And Yeah that could've been awfully bad had they not been so fast on the hose.

lol and it was Buddy, not the mother, the mother was never involved. That was what Daniel remembered but it was incorrect. But yeah, we'll play it by ear. I'm just trying to get a list of possible or likely issues just to have a general plan of attack for the restoration.

Well YEAH, I'm not going to go looking for it! : P

Her mom pretty much gave the canon back story though. Little Violet was going a bit above and beyond what most parents would be comfortable with. Spending long hours outside just hanging around it talking to it, not to mention the mornings she'd be found sleeping in Pinky's front seat after her parents were scared silly not knowing where she was. Pinky may have just been dealt a bad hand not being born a doll instead. Because I think the key differences are is that when your little girl plays with dolls its 1: Seen a common and 2: Not outside ... I wouldn't be surprised her parents finding it a little stressful being outside into the late hours or even sneaking out a night.. I dunno. I am applying modern parenting though.. apparently parents were a lot less babying back then too lol.

Kinda sounds like Bullstrode later went on to inspire the old coot Camaro that our Camaro Zedd meets at the car-lot and turned him into an asshole.

OH.. well, glad we're on the same page with that then. Lol Oh Cassandra? Been awhile since we talked about her. : 3 Lol well who needs a truck anyway right? It'll be alright man, we'll take a look at it together and come up with a plan. Sounds like you guys are making a lot of progress, or at least have it planned, that's great! I'm glad Mr. Daniel was able to lighten the mood. Towed, or if she can move on her own power... I haven't given up on bringing that dream of yours a reality. I JUST recently came into possession of a motorized air compressor. If her old tires are as quality as Mitzi's old tires were.. even covered in cracks and rot they'll still hold air like a champ. Here's how I see it:

-Get her to fire up with simple pouring gas in the carb, letting her run for moments at a time.
-Rig up a drip-feed system with a tank to get her running for a prolonged period. Obviously filling up the cooling system first too.
-Find out what transmission fluid she takes and fill it up, then cross your fingers and just see what happens when you put her in drive.

Air shock lines? Never heard of that, nor a "California Tilt." lol

lol spank that fire..

Lol yeah that guy is quite the hoot. Oh man I remember that stomach explosion skit! God how disgusting!

Good to be prepared. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT09O3tqaT4

lol alright I'll start looking.

lol oh yeah, parenting back then produced ADULTS, not like now adays where people'll riot and throw fits for a Klondike bar!! But I can see your points man. Though, in fairness girls are sort of allowed if not encouraged to like stuffed animals and stuff like that well into their 20s. The idea of "Daddy's little girl" has always been a thing.

I think I made him up sometime around the same time actually! lol though he's less vocal than that old timer! But I remember that little comic well! Bullstrode's just nasty for the sake of being nasty because somewhere in his chrome he's deeply insecure and resentful that time kept moving without him and he's no longer top of the line.

Dude, I spent like FOUR hours up there with my dad and his work friend and my friend Paul. We took a radio up there and jammed out while we worked. I drilled out that Ignition switch (WHICH TOOK THREE OR FOUR HOURS), Paul skinned the driver's side door and took the handle and arm rest off of the passenger's side, we tore out that old hanging headliner, and after I started EARLY in the morning up there with a bicycle pump, my dad took out air compressor up there and filled up the tires upon my discover that despite being 22 year old tires they still held air. The Rear right tire has a bad leak but the others have slow leaks. According to Paul since he used to work on tires all the time, the sealing glue stuff that they put between the tube, the tire, and the rim had degraded over time and if we redid it (which is MUCH cheaper than buying new tires) they should still be fine. Heck most of them still have decent treads!! AND on top of that her rear Driver's side tire hasn't lost a single OUNCE of air. I accidentally nicked the Ignition Cylinder, but the new switch is in and works and it was GREAT to finally turn the key and get the feeling of her being ready to stick. She hitches a bit and slips just a little turning her back to "ACCESSORY" but where it counts, like for starting, it turns like a dream!! She also had interior lights I discovered while we were gutting out the old ruined interior. And despite having torn out the interior, it looks much nicer and in better shape without all that stuff hanging down inside. We did so much Gij actually wanted to go up there a bit ago and look at it and was impressed. After that we both hopped up on a Fender and laid back and joked around looking at the evening sky. So you were absolutely right about the tires! Some new glue stuff, maybe some stop a flat for good measure and I think they're road worthy! With the Bike pump along she lifted 13 inches up off of the ground when they were inflated. It was nice seeing her stand all tall and proud. AND inside the driver's side door we found a lot of broken glass verifying Buddy's story about her shooting her original window in at the Secretary. And on the Mr, Daniel notes I was happy to see him out there too. He's had a lot of strokes and he is rather slow moving so I wasn't expecting him to come over to look, but being the old tough as Nails Navyman he was he toughed it out and walked over to Cassandra to inspect my progress with... what's left of the trunk. That's not going to be that hard of a fix though. We've got a brand new steel one bookmarked for 40 bucks so we're good. And I've not given up on that either!! I just need to get a battery and get her a new belt and we're all set to test her when you get here.

Her Radiator is still good, though the line's full of crud, so that should be a doable goal if she starts up. Let's track down her fluid, get her prepped and ready, then cross our fingers and hope that if nothing else she can hobble her way down here. Though dad want's me to get a new hood before we move her down here so we can park her in a way so they can't see the rougher shape of the back.

lol the shocks in the back, they have airlines in them to raise her butt up higher than normal since she has a tow hitch and apparently was used to haul loads. When a car's sloped like that and the back end is raised up it's called a California Tilt. I'm sure the guys at the Classic Car show (the owner of the closest one invited me personally when I could get Cassandra going) get a gander at it they'll get a hoot out of it!

XD I showed it to Colby when she last came over and she seemed both aghast and disgusted by it!!

>.> If that's that god awful goat's song from Hoodwinked... OH GOD THIS STUFF XDD

Lol only if you want to buddy lol no big.

Hmmm well you make some good points too. Well that's the best part of stories though. I should take a cue from the movie I based it off of and relish leaving details vague.. it lets you create your own head canons and realities inside the very story itself. :)

Hmmm sounds like the magnet needs to come around and settle him down a little bit eh? I'm sure she wouldn't mind teaching him a little respect for his own life would she? *she zzzz's*

Awesome man! It sounds like you had quite the Sunday, a lot better Sunday then me anyway. I spent most of it in bed with a migraine all friggin day. >.<; See I told you to trust those old tires, I think you'll find it impressive just how much of the stuff actually does hold up amazingly. It's true what they say, they just don't make them like that anymore. If Paul is a tire guy and gave the official go ahead then I guess you can take his word for it. It's not so much how much tread she has is how cracked up the rubber is. We'll see if we can get her to move at all while I'm down there what the bottoms of her tires look like that have been sitting in dirt all those years. Don't get me wrong I'm still hopeful, I just don't want you to get a blow out on the road. ^^ What did I say too? I told you trimming up all that falling down junk would look better. It sounds like you guys kinda went crazy with it, at least how you described it like.. lol did you tear her down all the way to the metal? lol How about the seats did you manage to get them out? How hard was that to do? Hopefully you can get the drivers seat back in without too much trouble just in case we happen to get her drive-able.. it'd be nice to be able to take a seat and maybe drive some little circles around the yard or up the road and back wouldn't it? :) I've actually got an air compressor I'll bring, just in case we need to top them up again. Lil' Lilly will be there when we're trying to get Cass started, keeping the battery charged for us, or supplying power for the air compressor.. it'll really be a group effort! So you guys brought a battery huh? That's great to hear that her starter is turning, the engine isn't froze, and that the starter sounds like it's in good condition. Mitzi wouldn't even turn over the starter was so bad when I got her. Just make sure not to turn it anymore then you need to especially if the battery is low you'll burn it out. We'll just have to be extra gentle on the starter since we have no idea how good a shape it's in.. just listen to it I mean. :) That's awesome Mr. Danial game out, I bet he's starting to feel pretty proud he got you set up to get her.. I bet right about now he's seeing what a loving owner she's going to. I think my proudest moment when I'm down there will be the look on Buddy's face when he sees her running again. ;) We can help Cassandra say to him "and you thought I'd never run again.. silly boy."


Oh really now? Did you guys take the hoses off and clean them out then? I wonder if her thermostat is good or if it's rusted open/shut. Or if she has one.. I think some people choose to not have one as silly as that sounds. We'll know when she's running if the radiator gets hot. Lol I can already see it dude, us running her down the road hehe.. I imagine I'll be holding a two litter bottle up out the passenger window full of gas with a line dong down under the hood. XD That or maybe just run her without the hood and set up some sort of wire-holder to create a sort of IV-drip thing there in her hood. https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/iv-.....ip-8806814.jpg Alright well check the Pick and Pulls and all the places and see if you can get a used hood.

Lol I've never heard of that system on a car before.. is there like a switch on her dash? A... raise ass switch? Oh? How'd you get in contact with a classic car show organizer? I guess he'll just let her come as is?

Understandably!

lol!

lol well I'm going to just to make sure we have the accurate names XD

And that does always work! As much as I love to work out every little detail, sometimes it just works better to leave it open to see what the other person thinks.

lol if I recall correctly I think I have him eventually crash one too many times and the family just has him hauled away shattering his idea that he could crash and me as mean as he wanted and they'd never get rid of him. A lesson sadly that is learned too late.

lol Saturday actually. Sorry to hear you were laid up man! I hope that headache's eased off by now. And indeed you did! That's actually the reason I took the pump up there to begin with and pumped up all those tires. Only the back driver's side has kept the air though. The two front ones leak very slowly, and the back right is leaking too quickly to inflate. But again Paul just seemed to think it needed a new layer of seal around it and they'd all work in a jiffy! I'd very much enjoy getting her to move even in the slightest during your visit! I didn't see any real cracks in the tires but I may need to inspect them closer. And yes it looks worlds better, I even discovered she has interior lighting!! I could track and follow all the old wiring afterwards too because yes we did strip the interior ceiling down to the metal. All the old foam was just crumbling and falling out anyway. No we didn't manage to get the seats out yet but I am hopeful to get that done yet before you get down here so in the long run we have more room to move about to get those back doors open. lol it's fine, we have an air compressor and so does Mr. Daniel. lol and no we don't have a battery, I just run a very very long extension cord over to Mr. Daniel's house. I still need to get that battery before you get down here AND a belt. And I have no idea about the starter, I meant I have the ignition turning now. lol so I think you might've gotten a few details jumbled there. lol and that's IF I can get a hold of Buddy while you're down here!!

We didn't do any under the hood work on that day, I'm just noting stuff we observed over the time I've had her so far. And we just looked over the body of the radiator and down into it. lol and that'll be without the hood. It's no longer attached. That was the first thing my dad and I removed just so we could get to work under the hood and take a look at the engine.

lol do I think the moment she turns on the air intake starts and just raises it up to haul. Or maybe it's once you turn her to Overdrive or something. I'm not entirely sure. lol and I just met him in a parking lot. He was driving an unusual and neat looking car and I struck up a conversation as I normally do, and one thing led to another and presto. So long as she can get there I'm invited!

Yes, lets settle this dispute once and for all!

Yeah. That was an unintentional appeal of DooM. Because of all the vagueness I ended up creating this whole head-canon timeline/backstory for the game. The creators simply left out a story because they didn't think it was necessary... not the best intentions but oh well.

Damn now you have me feeling sorry for him. : (

Oh? Well Saturday IS the best day off of the two. Thanks man, yeah it's better now, just in time to go back to work. : P Hmm.. you know they make self-done tire repair kits, if you can find the hole we can probably patch it well enough to get her on the road. :) It's like 15-20 minutes to do. An extension cord huh? What, you just ran it straight to the solenoid or something? Wait but you said she turned over like a dream in the last message. Are you meaning you just managed to turn the engine over by hand? How?

Because I remember there was some inspiration for Merv's wife's name, like it was based off of someone you knew or had met so it held some kind of significance.

lol they did what a lot of classic games did at the time. They left what story there was in the manual for you to choose to read it or not.

Sometimes through pride or stubbornness some people refuse to learn until it's too late, thus they learn the hard way.

lol no I meant the ignition switch turned like a dream when I put the new one in XD It just slips a little when I throw it into Accessory. Like, the key part on the dash? Not the Starter or Solenoid. I run the cord over for the use of power tools. Anything involving testing or starting the engine I've held off on because I know you want to be there for that! I'm going to try to pick up a battery this weekend and if I can a belt to get her ready to start. OH I don't know if I told you but I found shards of glass inside of her Driver's side door validating the explosion story AND I had found the remains of a belt up near her windshield confirming her whipping that belt at the Secretary.