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Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:14 am

The inaugural drive to of the '79 vert is complete. After finishing the complete break system replacement and starting to change the front suspension busihings, I decided to take the car on its inaugural drive. The car easily made the 54 mile round trip commute to work, but it did run how and chewed through 1/2 a tank of gas. Looks like I will be lifting the back end of the ground today to do a full tune up and timing adjustment...

Seeing that the PO parked the car 7 years ago and left it for dead, I am surprised how easy this trip was....surprising what a little TLC, oil change and a completely new brake system can do...

Woohoo.
Greg

Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:50 am

Greg-Bug wrote: The car easily made the 54 mile round trip commute to work, but it did run how and chewed through 1/2 a tank of gas. Looks like I will be lifting the back end of the ground today to do a full tune up and timing adjustment...

You did WHAT? :shock: First of all, congratulations on putting the car together and you first drive.

But huh? You drove the car 54 miles and didn't check the valves or the timing? You're lucky that it only got hot, which is what I assume you meant. You could have easily burned the engine up. We presume you did clean and adjust the carb?

Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:36 pm

Its fuel injected....I've run the engine a few times around the neighborhood with no issues....

And, yes...it was a carzy thing to do....:shock:

Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:07 pm

First congradulations. Second, treat her right and do the full tuneup. Treat her well and she will treat you good.

Sat Oct 31, 2009 7:35 pm

Congrats on the vert, typical mileage on a '79 is in the 20-25 range, less with the top down. Where in Jersey are you?

-jeffrey

Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:00 am

We live in Teaneck (north NJ)...been looking for a group of locals to hang/chat with regarding bugs but haven't been too lucky with the northern crowd.

Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:00 am

Well, you can check out our website http://www.cjvws.com/ or you can come to one of our monthly meetings. The November meeting is on the 16th. You can get more details and directions by visiting the website. Just click on the "Meetings" tab. We generally have 30+ members at our meetings. We are a pretty active club, I hope you can make it.

-jeffrey

Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:09 am

Do the valves and what-not, but be aware these fuel guages are not the most accurate. If I fill mine full, the fuel guage needle will stay buried beyond full for 50-70 miles, then will jump down to 1/2 tank at a light. You may want to carry a 1 gallon can of gas with you and figure out exactly how far you can drive with a full tank.

Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:59 pm

Paul,

I guess that is why the car had a "post-it" note on the dash board when I bought the car....the Post it read "remember, always fill tank before 1/4 tank"...

I actually just bought a new fuel gauge& sender for inside the fuel tank...should make for a "fun" project one of these cold Sat/Sun.