Tinkering with Deerslayer

DEERSLAYER LINKS including vendor sites for parts and tools as well as sites for old truck and hot rod organizations

TINKERING WITH DEERSLAYER chronicles the day-by-day maintenance and improvements episodes for Deerslayer, a '37 Chevy farm truck hot rod.

CRUISIN' WITH DEERSLAYER Roadtrips, cruise-in's and truck show stories and tall tales.

TONY'S DUNGEON Tony Pascarella's forum entries at OldGMCtrucks.com regarding Deerslayer, particularly the 302 GMC engine build in his farmhouse basement.

DEERSLAYER MAINTENANCE Ever changing detailing, oil change, lube, etc. maintenance routines specifically developed for Deerslayer, including required tools, materials and procedures.

PROJECT NAILHEAD Chronicles the rebuild of a 1954 Buick Roadmaster 322 nailhead engine as a future replacement for Deerslayer's Jimmy 302.

25. Catch 22

October 16^th 2012 It's still pretty quiet in the BillyBob Shop. I've been attending a few cruise-ins and shows a week but not much else. On the way back from last tuesday nite's cruise-in, I was almost to the shop when the lights went out. Deerslayer still had brake lights and turn signals but nothing else. The last time this happened, I thought it was the switch and replaced it with a generic third-party aftermarket switch, from Chevys of the 40's, I think. The problem actually turned out to be a loose wire at the fuse panel but I left the aftermarket switch in place.

I was to send the original headlight switch to Denny Graham. I got the mailer at the USPS but not any further and the switch and the mailer sat in my "to do" pile at the Krash Lab. When it comes to electrical concepts, my mind is like teflon. Nothing sticks. I used this new crisis to order a new shiny tool, a PowerProbe III. I drove the rest of the week on a Cinderella license, leaving after daybreak and getting back to the shop before dark. The PowerProbe III arrived at the Krash Lab on friday and I took it, along with the old switch, back to the shop.

On saturday, I spent some time looking for loose wires before removing the aftermarket switch and puting the original, 75 year old original switch back in. Eureka! We have lights again. I trashed the aftermarket switch (shown here) that hadn't quite lasted seventeen months. It came from a reputable supplier but, like the Cosmonaut in the Armageddon movie said "American Components... Russian Components... All made in Taiwan!". In this case, procrastination served me again . . . Sorry, Denny.

October 17^th 2012 Damnation! At the Delray cruise-in last nite, someone lifted my pack of Chesterfields that I leave on the seat of the Deerslayer. I hope they enjoy smoking worm-eaten cigs from 1953. I found another vintage pack on eBay and it should be here in a week or two.

October 22^nd 2012 Very little got done this past weekend in the shop. I lost one leg of my electrical service feed on friday nite. None of the circuits on the right side of the panel are providing enuf power. I took the panel cover off to check for loose connections. It was a visual inspection only as there is no master cutoff in my space, only over in the locked meter room a couple of hundred feet away. The main conductors are aluminium so there might be corrosion. There is enuf juice in the circuits to light low-voltage indicator lights of any device plugged in but not to power up the device. I cycled the breakers on the right side a couple of times before I gave up and made do the best I could. I have two good receptacles in the office, enuf to keep the shop refrigerator and the shaker a/c unit running. I have lights in the office and the shop. None of the receptacles in the shop work and neither lights or receptacles in the toilet are good. By sunday, I realized I was probably the only one affected and it wasn't a bad leg on the power company's transformer. This morning, I called my landlord.

October 28^th 2012 In other news, yesterday was the annual Halloween Rod Run in Fort Lauderdale put on by Keith's Rod and Custom Shop. On friday nite, there was a pre-show party at Keith's shop with a roast piglet and plenty of beer. I like the party more than the show and Deerslayer and I attended both.

I also got my replacement pack of Chesterfields from the ebay vendor. I don't carry the mason jar and sunglasses on the seat at shows anymore. The sunglasses got lifted by another ethically-challenged individual and the mason jar hooch is too messy. Now, I just keep the Chesterfields and an old ballpeen hammer and, of course, the old photograph of my parents.

October 29^th 2012 The power problems continue. It is a "Catch-22" situation. The meters in the meter room are "smart meters" that the power company installed about a year ago, I think. Since this is a warehouse district, my landlord keeps the meter room locked to keep vandals out. The power company will not call my landlord ahead of their pending arrival. They expect him to leave the meter room unlocked or sit on his thumbs all day awaiting their arrival. He won't do this and I agree with him. When I talk to the line crew dispatcher, I am told the line crews might not have access to a phone (I look to see if I just fell off a turnip truck). When I tell him, I'm not buying that explanation, he simply states that the meter room should not be locked! I'm suspecting that there is some silly-ass union work rule in play here. I may end up taking vacation days and sitting on my thumbs in front of the meter room if the landlord will entrust me with the key for awhile.

November 8^th 2012 I am gobsmacked and crestfallen! The takers outnumbered the makers in the election and we can look forward to at least four more years of this miserable economy and it is almost certain be much worse. I will have to tighten my belt some more. The clueless electorate voted for freebees over freedom and they guaranteed themselves neither. I mourn for my country. We are living in the twilight of the Republic.

November 9^th 2012 I asked my landlord to give me the key to the meter room so that I could take time off work and wait for the power company crew to show up. He didn't want to do that and told me I had to get tough with the power company. Okay, I see his point. It's not in my nature to get assertive with bureaucracy minions and I have to work myself up into a lather to do it. Takes awhile. My backup plan was to go to the Billybob Shop and wait for the crew so I could call my landlord when they arrived since they were refusing to do so. The landlord got antzy waiting for me to act so he took it upon himself to go up the power company chain of command, berating everyone along the way. He got results and I now have power again. I'm not sure of the particulars but one side of the connection between the meter and the main breaker was toasted. I don't know if they replaced the "smart meter" but I hope so.

November 12^th 2012 On saturday, with the power back on, I spent the day up until mid-afternoon in the BillyBob Shop, tinkering around. Then, Deerslayer and I cruised up to West Palm Beach with a few other fellas to a car show. The latch that holds the gas filler door down keeps breaking off. I'm tired of replacing it only to have that one break off somewhere down the road. Tony made the door out of aluminium sheet stock and it is pretty light. At speed, air blows up from under the truck and blows it open. I rummaged around BillyBob's roadtrip supplies and found a spare front spring shackle. I superglued a shackle side to the underside of the gas filler door. I was in the lead going to the car show and hitting between seventy and seventy-five the whole way. The door does not blow open anymore but I think the extra weight of the shackle brought my elapsed time down a thousandth of a second or so.