1965 Clark Cortez

So, we've knocked another job off the list: Changing the transmission oil.

When we bought the Cortez there was no service history with it so it could have been the original 50+ year old oil. Reading the manual, it states that the oil should be changed after the first 6000 miles, ours has 'apparently' done just over 10,000. With no records we felt it was safest changing it out.

So, $140 lighter and 6 quarts of 70w-140 AMSOIL gear oil we set about the task, obviously L wanted to get stuck in. The rear drain plug was super tight so I had to help out a little. I did pre-warn her about the terrible smell of gear oil. It wasn't until she took the drain plug out she believed me! ha ha!



Oil dropped, magnets cleaned up, new copper washers added, drain plugs reinstalled, the fresh oil added and the fill plug tightened up we were done. A quick test drive up and down the farm told us two things.

1. The shifts are a little smoother
2. We haven't fixed our issue with getting it into gear when everything is cold... More research required!

Thanks!

Andy

james Thanks for the support! A liberal dose of spill-dry was applied over the oil, seemed to sort most of it out. The garage regularly see's vehicles coming in and out including a lot of farm equipment. I've not really heard / read of other people complaining about the difficulties we're having. I'm hoping it's just my inexperience of working on a 55 year old transaxle transmission. Further investigation is required! However, if the difficulties put it in the same company as an old Ferrari I may be happy with that! ha ha!

Our latest video has just been uploaded on YouTube, as you can see we had a minor mishap and wasted about $40 of oil but we got there in the end! It's not eliminated our issue but it (at least in my head) feels better! Please go check it out!



And commenting, liking and especially subscribing really helps our channel grow! We'd really appreciate it!

We've got loads more jobs coming up too including the removal of the rest of the interior and insulation (that'll be fun!), updated to the fuel system, an external oil cooler, some electrical work and new ball joints on the front passenger side!

Cheers!

Andy

(From dbgames.info/mousehunt/mice/Spider_Mouse )

I think if you found an old Los Alamos pass under the carpet you might want to start to worry

this just showed up on Barnfinds.com

barnfinds.com/one-of-3211-made-1968-clark-cortez/?utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Newsletter+(Daily)

leading to

www.ebay.com/itm/274297585186

Ripped more of the old heating, plumbing and electrics out at the weekend! It's great to be getting closer to a blank canvas!
The only thing we've discovered which has added to our "to do" list is the fact we've got a double layered floor with some area's having foam insulation, others having fiberglass insulation and others that are just full of stones, dirt and mouse curse word! lol. This means we're going to lift the inner floor, clean and re insulate.

We want to keep the upper floor, we were just wondering if we could drop it an inch or two to increase the space inside, I doubt we'll be able too.
We've used power tools when we've struggled but the reason I was using a saw was for 2 reasons.
1. My wire cutters are made of cheese. I've literally just bought a new pair that seem alot stronger.
2. Alot of the wiring was inside a metal sheath. I just went for the quick option of hacking through it all.

We're not concerned with the existing equipment or wiring because it's all going to get replaced.

I did wonder there those connectors came from, I'd not seen them before we started working on the Cortez. I guess that's what happens when a forklift truck company starts building RV's! ha ha!

Thanks for your message!

Great work. Your animated avatar is strangely disturbing ... any story? John/Connecticut

Nah not really. It was that, a cute monster licking the screen or Hitler messing up a knock-knock joke! Ha Ha!




Thanks mrbounce! I'm glad you're enjoying it! It's testing us but we're having fun with it! Ha Ha! Always find a positive right?
Let me know what you think!

For anyone else wanting to check out our videos click on the link:
www.youtube.com/c/soulofaseeker

Andy

Ey up!

It’s been a while. Due to the current situation with Corvid-19 and the fact that the Cortez is about a 40 minute drive from where we live progress has been limited. We have headed down there several times recently working on finding rust.

Armed with an angle grinder each and my weapon of choice been a wire wheel and L’s been an abrasive pad we’ve been removing the old underseal and exposing the original metal. We’re doing this as we want to make sure we find any rust – So far, I think the hole count is at 10 and the rusted-out rails is at 4! Our plan is to remove as much rust as possible, treat any remaining surface rust with Evaporust before repainting the metal to then sound-proof and insulate. We’re going to need several of the roof support rails cutting out and replacing along with several panels.

We’ve also been buying a range of other things including:

Fuel filter, fuel level sender and new fuel lines
Upper and lower ball joints for the front passenger side
Fuse board for the interior electrical systems we’ll be putting in – Fans, lights, etc.
Fuse board x2 to replace the original glass style fuses
Terminal block to replace the original – it’s right at the front of the engine bay and it’s all rusty and nasty
KC HiLiTES Apollo Pro 6” fog lights – Unnecessary really at this point but I got them on sale. We plan on doing a lot of backcountry driving eventually so these should help!
LED front indicators and adaptors
Hella Vision Plus 5 ¾” headlight x1 – The current headlights are sealed and light output is poor, I bought this to test fit and see if it would work.

Everyone loves photos so here are a selection of our progress through the underseal removal – It’s a horrible, messy and exhausting job! But so far it has been beneficial as we’ve found several rust patches hiding!








We’ve also removed the roof mounted AC unit – DEAR LORD! This thing weighed at least 150lbs!

I checked out the front roof mounted AC rad and motors. It’s a bit of a strange design with the radiator upright with two rear mount vertical fans to pull air through the boxed unit and out of the top. This all needs removing, refurbishing and reinstalling. Both motors however are working – When hardwired to the battery!



I’ve also dropped the black tank (This is the one for No.2’s and No. 1’s). Fortunately it came out relatively easily. Even MORE fortunately it is clean and dry inside. Whoever rinsed it out last did a good job – Whoever you are; Thank you! From the bottom of my squeamish heart!



Unfortunately to get the black tank out I had to drop the towing brace / rear bumper support. This thing is like a boat anchor and every bolt holding it in place sheared – What joy! It’ll get cleaned up, de-rusted and repainted once we’ve decided if we’re keeping the original fiberglass black tank or replacing it with a much lighter and new plastic one.



And here are the test fit photos of the Hella headlight. So far it’s all looking really promising with just two slight modifications required.
1. The headlight bucket is sealed, I will need to cut two holes in the back to allow for space for the blub and socket
2. The headlight mounting bracket is made to hold the light assembly locating it with three square tabs, the Hella light has two square locating tabs and one rectangular.





I now need to order three more and then work on creating a new relayed harness for them. This should see light output massively improved while remaining legal. If anyone is wondering why I didn’t go HID or LED. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of LED headlights – I don’t need to see into the future and HID’s aren’t really necessary for us. We’re never going to be travelling ‘that’ fast, infact I doubt we’ll ever get to 70mph! So, super long-range lighting isn’t critical. With Halogen’s it keeps things simple, legal and cheap while increasing our safety.
The KC fogs will help out when driving down less travelled roads or obviously… In foggy conditions.




Progress in the future may be limited… With the current pandemic jobs situations are getting sketchy, I’m safe at the moment but due to my visa it may present problems if I need to start looking for a new job any time soon so spending is going to be limited to make sure we have enough money to tide us over incase the worse happens!

In non- automotive related news I also wanted to introduce our new cat, Peach.



We’ve had her a couple of months now and she’s finally starting to settle in. She’s had a rough life having been abandoned, been a stray and then been in shelters for at least 2 to 3 years. We’ve got documents saying she was in at least 3. How no one saved her or how she managed to avoid being put to sleep blows my mind!
She’s certainly a character. She doesn’t meow, she kinda just croaks and screams at you… but in a cute way! There’s been the odd scuffle with our other cat Lysander but they’re starting to get on pretty well and Peach has boxed the shizznizz out of our dog, Paris a few times after she stood on Peach’s tail but they kind of just ignore each other.
I never had a cat or dog growing up so being able to finally pick out my own cat at the age of 33 has been incredible rewarding. Anyway,
Hope everyone is staying safe!

Andy