“All of life is a foreign country.”
— Jack Kerouac
Tag Archives: series
Swanky
Sometimes it’s good to splurge a little.
I saw these heated windscreens back in May or June, and knew I’d be buying the set at some point. In Fairbanks, anything involving heat tends to get your attention, and anything that can add more heat to a rolling aluminum box will get mine.
My Land Rover was originally imported into Canada. Due to this, it had the cold weather gear that was available to LR at the time. The black defroster plate, in the picture, is powered by the Kodiak Heater. At the time, the Kodiak was the bomb, but it lacks a little in the way of versatility. When you want heat down by the floor, you open the little door on the heater housing. When you want defrost, you close the little door.
Extreme simplicity.
Since the driver’s side glass had a serious crack, and the passenger side had a small crack, the heated replacement glass was an easy sell. Pulling the glass took very little time or effort. It’s held in by thin, aluminum angle channel. It took more time to remove the passenger side wiper motor for future R&R.
So the glass is out, and the windscreen frame is completely clean.
T-Statting
General Maintenance Addition:
The Rover needed a few normal procedures done, especially with the arrival of snow. The points & condenser had already been replaced, but I also wanted to install new spark plugs and wires.
More importantly, I needed to remove the “Texas” Thermostat, and replace it with one more appropriate for a Fairbanks winter.
Sadly, when I placed my order, I found out that the 190 degree “Fairbanks” T-stat was no longer available. When you live in the Arctic, words like that will put a chill into your heart.
I ordered the next best thing, and am fairly confident that the loss of 10 degrees or so, will barely be noticeable.
Sort of confident.
I’m hopeful.
So, I may not be feeling all warm & fuzzy about the news, but I’m kind of stuck with the “Minnesota” thermostat, so that’s what went into the truck.
All of which will lead me to the next project…
1924 Washington Senators
Several reels of old nitrate film were found in the rafters of a detached garage near Worcester, Massachusetts, when the owner had passed away.
Nitrate film is highly flammable, and it creates it’s own oxygen when it burns. The film reels had been in the garage during the heat of summer and the cold of winter for decades, so it was doubtful that the film would be in good condition.
Surprisingly, the film turned out to be in excellent condition. The oldest was from 1919, and the newest from 1926. One of them was a Kinograms newsreel of game seven of the 1924 World Series.
The New York Giants had gone into the fall classic heavily favored over the Washington Senators, but Washington had forced a game 7. New York led 3-1 in the eighth inning, when Bucky Harris hit a routine ground ball, which took a hard bounce over the third baseman. Two runs scored, and the game was tied. In the ninth inning, 36 year old Walter “Big Train” Johnson, a future Hall of Famer, came in to pitch on only one day’s rest. He held the Giants scoreless for four innings. In the bottom of the twelve inning, Muddy Ruel hit a double, then Earl McNeely followed with another single that bounced over the third baseman. The Washington Senators had their first World Series title. In fact, the 1924 Series win is the only World Series title for a team from the Nation’s capital.
1960 was the last year for the Griffith owned Washington Senators in DC. The team would move to Minneapolis-St Paul and became the Minnesota Twins for the 1961 season.
This wonderful newsreel is the only known footage of the 1924 World Series, and it comes courtesy of The Library of Congress.
Door Weatherstrip
A few years back, I was forced to replace the weatherstripping (as well as the glass and mirror) on the driver’s side door while parked in a driveway in the Twin Cities. I decided to replace the weatherstripping on the passenger door before I went back there and someone else decides that it is time for that weatherstripping to be replaced.
No more folded up pieces of cardboard between the glass panels to keep the rattle down to a minimum. These truly are strange times.
The Series door splits in half with two bolts. Overall, it came apart easily. The rivets holding the rubber seal between the two door panels had to be drilled out, as well as the lock mechanism and some of the screws holding the bottom track in place. I’m certain that the window track was original to the truck, so there were only remnants of sign that they once held weather-strip.
In some ways, working on an old vehicle, is like working an archeological dig.
HO HO HO
After an excruciating day of replacing “el baño del diablo”. I stopped by the post office to find 2 small packages and three additional package slips in my post office box. Upon turning in the yellow, pick-up slips, the clerk looked at me with suspicion. Ever since I received a cylinder head in the mail, the postal clerks seem to approach me with doubt mixed with a healthy dose of concern. Of course, it is possible that it was the complete exhaust system that ruined my reputation with USPS. At any rate, I did confirm to the clerk, “Yes, I believe it’s Rover parts”. She promptly grabbed a cart and ventured into the back.
Three boxes full of brand new Land Rover parts. The efficiency of Rover’s North amazes me sometimes.
There is a habitual planner out there lurking in the corn, who will be thrilled to know that I now have plans for the weekend.
Rover Repairs
Saturday, September 13, was Interior Rover Day in Alaska. It marks the day my Rover’s transmission escaped the transmission shop, after 11 weeks in captivity. 11 weeks!
With the Rover now mobile, I have so many things I want to do to the truck, so many parts to buy… and so few days before the snow flies…
My old Land Rover does not take well to sitting, and it’s been sitting for a while now. Tonight, I started out by replacing the rear axle shaft seals. I had replaced the passenger side axle shaft in a Minnesota driveway a while back.
The main gasket was fine, but I installed a new one.
The leak came from the felt seal at the end of the shaft. It was in poor shape when I pulled it out.
The driver’s side had only a minimal leak, but I replaced both the gasket and felt seal on that shaft too. I must be getting good at this: The job took 30 minutes per side to complete.
Mark my words, Interior Rover Day will catch on and go global.
Minneapolis hosts All Star Game
Target Field in Minneapolis is host to MLB’s All Star Game tonight. It is the third time the summer classic has been held in Minnesota.
Harmon Killebrew ties up the 1965 All Star Game with a shot over the fence.
The 1965 game was played at the Erector Set in Bloomington, officially known as Metropolitan Stadium. The Met saw what is arguably the best team ever to play a baseball game, in a National League team that had 11 future Hall of Famers. The American League had 7 future Hall of Famers on its roster that year.
Practically practical
I was at a fish fry tonight. Fresh caught halibut and salmon. One of the wonderful perks of an Alaskan summer. I was suppose to go on the trip out of Seward, but the recent rains had my schedule so out of whack, that I had to cancel.
At one point tonight, the conversation took a particularly nasty turn, and someone admitted that they were looking to sell their pickup truck to get a “more practical vehicle”. I shook my head at the absurdity of such a thought, and at the exact time when a friend of mine said, “Well, don’t look to him for advice on ‘practical'”, while pointing at me.
I would have been hurt, if it wasn’t so accurate.
Another friend said, “I don’t know… he has that old Land Rover and he drove it all across the country and down to Mexico and back. Seems pretty practical to me.”
I thanked him for the support, and admitted that a Series Rover and Practical go “almost hand in hand”.
The friend who knows me better then came up and quietly asked, “Has he ever been for a ride in that old Rover of yours?”
“No. He doesn’t have a clue.”
Creative Commons
Circle to Circle is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Like the Stories & Photos? Help Keep the Rover Rolling.
