On
28-29 July the Chapter offered a tour of the Santa Ynez Valley
including a tour of the newly renovated La Purisima Mission in
Lompoc, some really great back road scenic touring, a great BBQ
in Sherry and Carlo’s Corvette Museum/Garage and an overnight
stay in Santa Maria at the very nice Radisson Hotel with sleep #
beds.
First
the “good news”! All of the above came to pass plus some great
meals at Emma’s in Buellton and Kay’s Country kitchen in Orcutt.
The weather was perfect, about 85 degrees with a nice ocean
breeze.
Seven C-1’s, one C-5 and one C-6 left Ventura
headed north on 101.
Now the
“bad news”! In Goleta,
John Costales asked to stop since he lost his tach, ammeter and
the engine was starting to heat up. Obviously a fan belt, right?
True, however, the reason was the harmonic balancer came off the
crankshaft. All parts were still in the engine compartment but
no way to reinstall without major work and it could come off
again. The ’57 had no retaining washer and screw. So, a call to
AAA and now there were six C-1’s.
Fast
forward to Sunday AM at the Radisson. Vic Colello asked for a
starting delay since he smelled strong gas fumes. A quick check
confirmed the problem. The accelerator pump in his Holley
carburetor was pumping all the gas onto the intake manifold
rather than into the intake manifold! So, where do you find a
Holley carburetor overhaul kit on a Sunday morning at 9:00 in
Santa Maria? Ask the native Corvette guru Carlos Vivas! He got
on his cell phone and not only found one but had it delivered to
the Radisson for the tailgate overhaul party (see photo). At
11:30 we were on our way to breakfast in Orcutt.
After a
stop in Los Olivas for Antique shopping and lunch, we continued
on towards Santa Barbara over 154 and Lake Cachuma. To avoid the
traffic on 101 in Santa Barbara we chose route 192 along the
foothills in Santa Barbara. This is a great Corvette road with
lots of turns and small hills and valley’s. It required a lot of
shifting and Ray Kings ’58 lost the lock key in his 4th gear
linkage and was stuck in 4th gear. So, the resident gear heads
sprang into action again on a narrow road at a stop sign and
went to work (see photo). It took several try’s to jack the car
in a safe location and align the linkage before it was up and
running again. We continued on 192 and onto the 101 and home
without any more “events”.
It was
a fun weekend and we all got to know each other and hope to do
another event with the same new friends. Full credit goes to the
wives and friends of all the “gear heads” for being so patient
with us as we diagnosed and repaired our aging true loves (editor
comment…Bruce did not elaborate on the phrase “aging true loves”).
It takes a special person to be a gear head mate!
Gear head Roster;
Andy / Sigrid Bressler – ‘57
Vic / Anita Colello- ‘61
John / Judy Costales-‘57
(DNF)
Bruce / Janice Fuhrman- ‘54
Greg / Helia Gomez-‘07
Ray / Chris King- '58
Larry Pearson-’60
(Navigator Darold Shirow)
Randy / Diane Solle - '02
Tom / Pat Souza ‘57
Carlos / Sherry Vivas- '58
During this overnight tour several C1 related
Incident's occurred which are outlined below.
