Author Topic: FYI: I'm getting one assertive billy-goat station wagon!!  (Read 129461 times)

elagache

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Not for a . . . . . *STAR*!! (Re: Billy-goat station wagon!!)
« Reply #240 on: March 17, 2019, 09:44:41 PM »
Dear Felix and WeatherCat users who have "stars" in the family . . . .

Emergency roadside assistance call & flatbed haul to shop will be an expensive thermostat replacement. Plus a new radiator hose & coolant refill.

The shop time is definitely on my dime.  However the emergency roadside assistance was - FREE!  After all the effort I put into this car, I have Hagerty's insurance and roadside assistance.  Okay, it wasn't free but part of my premiums, still the transportation to Orinda Classic Car didn't cost me anything extra.

Then again, it might be the electric fan or coolant temp sensor but I'm betting it's merely a stuck thermostat, normally about a $7 part but probably many times that for the engine you have in it.

A stuck thermostat was also the best hunch on the 65GS.com forum where I "hang out" with car guys.  Obviously it is possible, but it would be something of a disappointment.  The thermostat is probably quite old going all the way back to 2013.  However, the vast majority of the time it has simply sat there waiting.  There are very few hours on this engine even after all those years.  I suppose all that idle time could have damaged the thermostat even if these are really simple devices.  When I sent the engine to TA-Performance a second time, I very carefully drained the gas tank.  However, that didn't help either the EFI fuel pump or the gas sending unit.  The fuel pump died almost immediately after the engine was installed once more.  The fuel sending unit is definitely not working properly.

My trusty wagon spent the weekend at Orinda Classic Car Center and I'm sure they will be looking the situation over early Monday Morning.  I'll definitely report what they discover.

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Blicj11

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Re: FYI: I'm getting one assertive billy-goat station wagon!!
« Reply #241 on: March 18, 2019, 02:46:43 PM »
Let us know what they find. It's only money so cheer up.
Blick


elagache

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And the answer is . . . . .(Re: Billy-goat station wagon!!)
« Reply #242 on: March 18, 2019, 09:25:20 PM »
Dear Blick and WeatherCat automobile enthusiasts,

Let us know what they find. It's only money so cheer up.

I got a call from Greg at Orinda Classic Car and the culprit turns out to be more subtle.  I was right the radiator fans had stopped working.  The reason is unexpected.  The fuse block protecting the fans had been banged up somehow and that prevented the fuses from lining up properly.  That didn't allow enough current to the fans.

A heavy-duty fuse block is on order to replace the one that failed.  They will install it when it arrives.  My trusty wagon should be back home sometime this week.

All in all, not to bad an outcome.

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

elagache

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Biquette and spring trees. (Re: Billy-goat station wagon!!)
« Reply #243 on: March 20, 2019, 08:40:36 PM »
Dear WeatherCat users who enjoy combining their interests,

For the classic Buick forums I try to get some pictures of my trusty wagon with a suitable seasonal background.  Plum trees are the most common flowering trees in our region and they bloom early.  So you have to be ready to take pictures when the opportunity arises.  I took this picture over two weeks ago on the 4th:



I took this photo last Friday on my way to my infamous freeway run:



I had planned two more photos with suitable flowering backgrounds, but that wasn't going to be.

My wagon is supposed to come up today, but she will need some serious cleaning before she can go back into normal operation.  In the meantime, most of the plum trees are losing their pedals and growing their leaves.  So these will be the only photos of Biquette and at least the plum trees for this year.

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

elagache

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Finally cleaned up the engine bay. (Re: Billy-goat station wagon!!)
« Reply #244 on: April 20, 2019, 12:25:18 AM »
Dear WeatherCat fans of a certain rascally wagon,

We last left our heroin presumably safe in the garage after her harrowing ordeal of the radiator fans failing.  However, as frequently happens with respect to my trusty wagon - da' plot thickens.  The very next day I planned to clean the engine bay as much as possible of coolant residue so I could put the car back into normal service. 

Just one small problem with that plan.  When I tried to start Biquette - she refused!  I tried 3 times over 45 minutes.  All she would do is crank.  I even went so far as to connect my laptop to see if the electronic fuel injection has any system errors.  Of course with my luck no errors were reported.

Life ambushed me again I wasn't able to look into the problem until the following week.  At that point I found that a key component (the E6 Ignition Box) would produce a glowing LED light if it passed a self-test.  So I ran the test and sure enough the LED gave the "thumb's up" sign.  Baffled, I tried starting Biquette again - she started right up as usual! . . .    Once more I was swamped so I couldn't pursue the matter for a few days.  Finally I repeated the experiment after cleaning the radiator and front part of the engine.  Once more the engine started up as it always has.

Still, i wasn't happy about the whole situation.  So this past Tuesday I brought her over to Orinda Classic Car Center to have them make sure everything looked okay.  They didn't find anything out of place.

So today I finally was able to complete that engine bay cleaning that I was trying to accomplish almost a full month ago.  Even if I only used steam, hot water, and a gentle application of elbow grease, the engine bay turned out nice:



I had to get Biquette out to warm the engine up to make sure everything was dry.  While I was at it I took these two pictures with what is left of Spring flowers.  Here is a tree with a some blooms along with the green leaves:



Here is Biquette next to some wisteria:



However, yesterday I put the cap back on the rain gauge.  It is definitely feeling like summer already.  So these are last pictures I'm likely to take of Spring.

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Steve

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Re: Finally cleaned up the engine bay. (Re: Billy-goat station wagon!!)
« Reply #245 on: April 20, 2019, 04:21:11 PM »

We last left our heroin presumably safe in the garage

I knew California has some liberal drug laws, but didn't know you just leave your stash in the garage and tell folks about it.  ThU32:-)

One little "e" can make a big difference.  ThU5:-)
Steve - Avon, Ohio, USA


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Blicj11

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Re: FYI: I'm getting one assertive billy-goat station wagon!!
« Reply #246 on: April 21, 2019, 04:39:19 AM »
Hahaha. I knew he was high on something, but I just thought it was Buick engine fumes.

Seriously though, I love this thread, Edouard. Keep 'em coming.
Blick


elagache

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*Sigh* . . . . (Was: Billy-goat station wagon . . . )
« Reply #247 on: April 21, 2019, 10:50:04 PM »
Dear Steve, Blick, and WeatherCat automotive enthusiasts,

I knew California has some liberal drug laws, but didn't know you just leave your stash in the garage and tell folks about it.  ThU32:-)

One little "e" can make a big difference.  ThU5:-)

What can I say but touch?!

I suppose in my defense I can point out that I'm continuing to struggle my speller solution.  Sadly, Spell Catcher no longer works properly under Mojave.  I have installed Grammarian as a replacement, but it isn't nearly as easy to use as Spell Catcher and at the moment has some errors of its own.  I had disabled but not uninstalled Spell Catcher because it includes some useful utilities.  I'll probably have bite the bullet and see if removing all of Spell Catcher gives me a working spelling solution.

Oh well, . . . . Edouard

elagache

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Spring wash and wax. (Re: Assertive billy-goat station wagon!!)
« Reply #248 on: May 24, 2019, 11:40:27 PM »
Dear WeatherCat automotive enthusiasts,

With the unusually late wet weather, I've had a hard time giving all our 3 cars their springtime wash and wax.  I didn't finish up Biquette until this past Tuesday.  On Wednesday, we needed a grocery run and Biquette got a chance to show off her fresh detailing.  Here is a photo taken at a curious building called the Moraga barn:



I am known to have a soft spot for California Poppies and a neighbor has a group growing in front of their house.  What better backdrop for Biquette:



I had taken some tailgate pictures on Wednesday, but I misjudged the sunlight and they didn't turn out.  We needed a CVS run this afternoon and that offered an opportunity for some "makeup" photos:



Here is one more with an overall view of the Moraga Barn:



No, they don't simply keep this building up as a backdrop for classic cars.  It actually is something special in the region:

http://www.moragabarn.com/

There is even a write-up on the history of the building:

http://www.moragabarn.com/about-the-barn.html

They even explain how it got the curious title "barn"  Certainly an interesting tale!

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

P.S. The Memorial Day weekend must also be the unofficial start of classic car season.  I saw 4 other classics in just a 7 mile local round trip!

Blicj11

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Re: FYI: I'm getting one assertive billy-goat station wagon!!
« Reply #249 on: May 31, 2019, 02:40:19 PM »
The Buick is looking good!
Blick


elagache

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Second-opinion on this Biquette website? (Re: Billy-goat station wagon!!)
« Reply #250 on: July 16, 2019, 10:46:19 PM »
Dear WeatherCat automotive enthusiasts,

The Orinda Classic Car show is having a special exhibition on station wagons this year.  Take a wild guess as to who was immediately drafted for that exhibit!  Like all events like this, tickling the press is part of the process to get the word out.  An Orinda paper decided to run a story on the wagon exhibit and once more the suggestion went out that Biquette be part of that.

Ever since Biquette has been in car shows, I have had posters telling her story with our family.  At the same time I made the poster, I converted the word processing file into a simple web page.  However, i was always bit nervous to share this website with the general public.  It really represents the story of my life and Biquette's.

I did share the website with the reporter writing up the story on the wagon exhibit and she enthusiastically wanted to include the website link as part of the story.  So finally I'm stuck, I'm going to have to clean up this website and make it presentable to the public.  Before I do the work of "making it pretty," I need to decide what parts I prefer not to include after all.  I've gone over it a few times and I don't see anything really of concern, but I would appreciate a second-opinion.  Could you folks go over this website and see what you think:

http://www.canebas.org/Biquette/

Please let me know what you recommend I remove to keep my privacy and that of the family.

Thanks for your support!!  [tup]

Cheers, Edouard   [cheers1]

jennajon

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Dear WeatherCat automotive enthusiasts,

Before I do the work of "making it pretty," I need to decide what parts I prefer not to include after all.  I've gone over it a few times and I don't see anything really of concern, but I would appreciate a second-opinion.  Could you folks go over this website and see what you think:

http://www.canebas.org/Biquette/

Please let me know what you recommend I remove to keep my privacy and that of the family.

Thanks for your support!!  [tup]

Cheers, Edouard   [cheers1]



Edouard:
On first glance....I LOVE IT!!!   [tup]

Then I realized it might need some cosmetic cleanups, but I am not enough of an HTML/CSS geek to know much more than that.
I see a lot of blank space, so perhaps tightening up the spacing??

It was a great read...and I can remember an OLDS Vista-Cruiser from my past...so thanks for the memories too!

Jenna   ThU5:-)

Blicj11

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Re: FYI: I'm getting one assertive billy-goat station wagon!!
« Reply #252 on: July 17, 2019, 02:33:55 PM »
Edouard:

You shared this link with me a few years ago. This time, I read through with an eye on privacy. I really don't think there is anything there that is a privacy concern. You don't use names and the photos of your family members are either old or blurred so I don't see that anyone could easily identify any of you. The read is great.

If you are looking to simplify it a bit, since the story is about the Buick, I don't think you would lose anything essential to that story if you remove the post-PHD trauma of looking for work and the reference to your health.
Blick


xairbusdriver

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Re: FYI: I'm getting one assertive billy-goat station wagon!!
« Reply #253 on: July 17, 2019, 04:49:06 PM »
You did say you would be "cleaning up the code" later. I think you may know that Word is a horrible web editor, but for some indication:Current Word to html translation:
Quote
<p style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif; font-weight:
      bold; font-style: italic; text-align: center;" class="p1"><font
        style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+3">The
        extraordinary adventures of a most loyal "Billy-Goat" Wagon!</font><br>
    </p>
Normal html would use one of the Headline tags; h1, h2, h3, h4, h5. That will take care of the inline css which will be much simpler to edit later on, of course. Since this is the main title of the site, I'd suggest using:
Quote
<h1 text-align: center;>The extraordinary adventures of a most loyal "Billy-Goat" Wagon!</h1>
If you really want italics, you can also add "font-style: italic;". "h1 will automagically take care of "font-weight" and "size". "font-family" is used twice and your readers may want to use whatever their browser uses, anyway. "<font... >...</font>" and "<br>" are simply redundant. [banghead] You get the idea... [lol]

Noticed lots of:
Quote
<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>
Why? "&nbsp;" works just fine. It's simply inserting a non-breaking space, assuming that's what you really want.

Word does seem to define a very few css classes for paragraphs, but they may not be what you really want. And who knows what rules/style they are actually based on? ::)

You don't even need any kind of specialized editor, html (and even css) is nothing more than plain text which can be generated by TextEdit. However, BBEdit[/b] can now be used in free mode. BBEdit will make it much easier to see what is html or actual content. It will also make it very easy to use 'real' and correct quotation (single or double) marks and apostrophes and lots of other professional 'printing' characters... all for the same price; FREE! ThU5:-)

I also suggest breaking the site in to sections based on what you probably already have in an outline. Currently, the "page" is extremely long, requiring quite a lot of vertical scrolling. Why not use your current outline (of major events for the Buick) as a different page. That way folks can pick and choose what parts might be most interesting to them. They would not have to guess at what might be where, if at all.

You've got a lot to work with and I'm sure lots of automobile enthusiasts will enjoy your travails as well as you successes! [cheer]

Lastly, although this may not be a continuing topic, it might be handy to have it as a separate thread. I know the name of a great forum Admin who can handle that task... lol(1)
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


elagache

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Thanks everyone! (Re: Second-opinion on this Biquette website?)
« Reply #254 on: July 17, 2019, 10:26:41 PM »
Dear Jenna, Blick, X-Air, and WeatherCat automotive enthusiasts,

On first glance....I LOVE IT!!!   [tup]

Then I realized it might need some cosmetic cleanups, but I am not enough of an HTML/CSS geek to know much more than that.
I see a lot of blank space, so perhaps tightening up the spacing??

It was a great read...and I can remember an OLDS Vista-Cruiser from my past...so thanks for the memories too!

Glad you enjoyed it and that it brought back memories of your own family wagon!  :)

If you are looking to simplify it a bit, since the story is about the Buick, I don't think you would lose anything essential to that story if you remove the post-PHD trauma of looking for work and the reference to your health.

Good point!  I'm starting to clean up the text right now so I'll make sure that stuff gets "lost!"  ;D

You did say you would be "cleaning up the code" later. I think you may know that Word is a horrible web editor
. . . .

For the moment I'm making absolutely no point of getting the HTML to be decent.  I need to create 3 different things: text for the website, a poster to display at the show, and a "booklet" that people can thumb through.  So for now I'll keep all the text in MS-Word.  Once I have the overall content in decent shape, I'll start looking how I can convert MS-Word HTML "gibberish" into something that isn't too hostile to web browser.

Thanks again everybody!  [tup]

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

P.S. BBEdit is already getting some "business" and that will only increase as the deadline looms.  I need the website to be up and decent by August 1st.  I'll post updates as I make progress.