No Lien!

Got my California title back from DMV today. No more lien holder listed on it. It's all mine and the state knows it. Should get Bob added as an "or" owner sometime but he wasn't available when I went over to AAA to get this done.

Title Released

Awhile back I paid off the loan on this car and they sent me the released title. I took it over to AAA today and submitted it for a new title sans lien holder since I had to get some notarizations done anyway. Should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Go for a ride?

Maiden Voyage #2: The first was a quick trip to AAA to verify the VIN, but today was purely for seeing how everything works. I took the Chief over to the gas station and fueled him up. I kept looking under the car to see if there were any leaks as the tank was filling... shades of the first time I filled the tank on Lucille. But nothing like that happened.

Brakes seem stiffer than they should be for power assisted brakes, even if they are drums. After all, my '49 and '58 Cads both have drums. The '49er's brakes are manual and they don't feel this stiff to me. I think a full brake system go-through is in order. I may need to send the vacuum booster out for service. I do have a set of ScareBird brackets to convert to front discs... not sure if I want to use them yet.

Suspension seems stiff in back, as I noticed before. When I was changing the mufflers I found the rear springs look dicey and they had some kind of air bag booster nonsense bolted on, probably added when the springs started sagging. The combination is restricting movement and making the ride stiff. New springs are on their way already.

Steering is generally good for a manual setup. I don't mind it until I go to make a sharp turn at slow speed, of course. Then you quite suddenly get the news that this really is a manual gearbox. When the car is moving, it's quite effortless and reasonably responsive.

Noise... from the front of the engine, as noted earlier. It sounds like it could be a water pump or generator bearing, maybe a noisy timing chain, or perhaps a bolt for the water pump that sticks in too far and is hitting something moving internally... hard to say. It doesn't seem to affect performance, and it doesn't seem to be getting worse, but it's unsettling. You just know it can't be good. I hope it is something in the generator... that would be an easy fix.

Engine seems to have a little blue smoke from the exhaust, especially the left pipe. Seems like it was less after driving it a bit. I am betting the car just needs to be driven. If he really only has 27K on the clock, he hasn't been driven enough. Not that I want to add tons of miles, but cars don't stay in good mechanical condition when they sit.

Transmission seems like a typical pre-'56 Hydra-Matic. It has the clunky shift points you expect but the TV rod adjustment is off. I use the trial-and-error method of adjusting it. Eventually it will get there.

Plates on!

Got a nice little mounting pad for the front plate from Pep Boys so that the plate could be centered on the bumper instead of sticking up into the grille opening. That and a nice chrome frame and the front plate is mounted. The rear plate is going to use the St. Louis Museum frame, at least for now. But the plate light wasn't working. The center contact had corroded so I got a new pigtail at Pep Boys and now the plate is properly lit.

Breaking News...

The license plates have arrived! The place that handed the registration actually overnighted them to me!

Test Drive

Took the first real drive in the Chief when I went over to AAA in Burbank to get the VIN verified this morning. She is a little rough. I think the exhaust being so loud is a major part of this. Gonna have to get a fresh exhaust system in there soon. The pipes are OK, but the little short cherry bomb-type mufflers are extremely loud.

It's actually a  bit surprising how small the car is too. Considering it is a "full size" Pontiac, it is much shorter and narrower than Helen, the '76 Buick. When I finished at AAA I drove home and swapped the Chief for Helen to go to work in... It felt like Helen was the Queen Mary in comparison!

Overall the car drives more like the '49er than Lucille, the '58. I think the manual steering has got to go, just as it did on the '49er.

After AAA, I put together all the paperwork to go to the title officer at Woodside and dropped them in the FedEx box at work.