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| 2nd installment: | |
| june-july, 1999 The first thing I did was purchase John Jensen's Isetta Restoration book: a truly amazing document that takes you step-by-step for reviving a cracked egg (hopefully, 'All the king's horses and all the king's men' doesn't apply here...). It was kinda expensive ($80), but I'm told that he is almost out of them and that I was lucky to get one. The darn book even has plans for a seat and a trailer to haul that little car around. As an extra bonus, John provided a his list of parts sources and folks who rebuild various components. Purdy neat. After writing some of the folks who supply parts for the Isetta, I was amazed at the catalog from Hans Rothkegel in Germany. His well-designed catalog (in English for us English folk) has just about every part available for this car, and then some, at good prices (in American dollars for us American folk). He happily ships to the US and his prices includes shipping.
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| I'd been told these cars were easy to
work on, and them folks weren't pulling my leg. Within a week after bringing the car home,
I had the engine and gear box out of the car and miscellaneous body parts removed. Soon
after that, I loosened the body bolts (ok, ok, some had to be ground off...) and pulled
the body off the car: an easy two-man job (try that with a '57 Chevy). The car had been somebody's struggle to keep running as it seemed that nearly every bolt I turned had evidence of previous adventurers. Upon cleaning the gearbox I discovered that an errant bolt from the drive coupler had, sometime in the past, come loose and chewed heartily into the gearbox cover leaving a penny-long 2 mm gash. I took solace in that a previous weekend mechanic had siliconed the hole and that a healthy amount of grime and crud had covered the silicone seal (evidence that it continued to run, I hope). I've read horror stories about couplers letting loose and tearing up the gear box, the chain drive cover, and anything else within flailing distance. This mishap appeared to be a loose bolt (improperly tightened?) and the gearbox cover the only victim. Yep. I'll need a new gearbox cover. I'd worked on cars before (motorcycles and restoring a 1964 Buick Special. Why? I don't know...), but it was many years ago, with my dad's tools in my dad's garage. As my friend Tommy warned (as do a number of restoration books), it is important to be methodical and to focus on a single area of the car until it is completed before moving on to the next task. Otherwise, one risks burnout, frustration, and turning the car into a 'basketcase' (mysterious parts in various boxes, baskets, or forgotten places). In a sense, this is true for any big project one may undertake in life. My plan is to pluck the frame, sandblast and paint it, and start rebuilding the car from the ground up. I already have on order from Hans various brake parts, cables, and rubber pieces required to do this task. After that, I plan on working on the chaindrive followed by the engine, gearbox, carb, body, and interior. When the frame gives me fits, such as not having the proper tool (and needing to get it) or waiting on parts, I figure dabbling in another task down the line is fair game. The engine and carb make me nervous because I don't have many of the tools required to do the job. The carb is in pretty bad shape: the body's there but the spirit (such as some of the needles, etc.) is missing. Rather than handling the numerous teeny pieces with ten-thumbed hands, I just sent the darn thing to the manufacturer's office (Bing is still around!) in Nebraska (so that's what they do up there...). My bud Tommy is going to run off with the motor (he has a much better tool set that I do), crack it open, and see what we have to work with. I plan to work on the gearbox and chaindrive myself, sometime in the future... |
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the next installment... |
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