Well. It happened. I bought this car. It's the ugliest cute car I've ever seen, but it struck something in me that made me want to drive a slow car...slowly. Or not at all as the case may be for now, as it doesn't have brakes nor runs. And the tires are dry rotted. Oh, you've read this far and you haven't left yet due to lack of poorly lit crappy cell phone photos.
The "pièce de résistance":
I conned an old co-worker of mine to come along for the ride (he likes funky cars too) and we hit the road. Other than a 45 minute slowdown on the highway it was uneventful. Pulled into the closest U-haul rental place near the Renault and got an actual car trailer rather than a dolly. The owner said the tires weren't dry rotted but I didn't want to rely on that piece of information and be sitting on the side of the road with a mangled tire.
When we finally got there, this little crusty gem greeted us.
M-B 190D automatic!
He was selling it too but after my buddy (who owned a 240D) checked it out determined it was a little too worse for wear even at $1000 asking price.
Here's a couple other cool cars sitting around
Subaru 360 and a Saab
Another 360
This beetle's pan was rusted through and the guy's 6 year old son was very excite to show us the 'big hole'. Lol.
Renault Dauphine, the Renault 8 on the right and another Saab, IIRC. He had a handful of M-B 4 cylinder intake manifolds sitting there too. He said there was even more in the barn but we didn't have enough time to check those out. Then the obligatory old man on a tractor pulled up on an Allis Chalmers WD so we talked tractors for a second! (I have a Allis Chalmers D17)
Then we started to check out the "8". He was pretty honest about the condition after seeing the car so after a minimal amount of time checking it out, we rolled it out of the shed. Easy peasy. But hold on. The car doesn't run, and the driveway away from the shed is up an incline. Lucky for me, I bought a wire cable come-along and we ratched it up. I would advise on getting a come-along that has more than 6' of pull to it but after a couple rounds of different lengths of chains and tow straps, we had it on the trailer and loaded up. Frankly, it took longer than we thought but it was uneventful.
On the trailer!
The ride home was pretty easy too, but it was the first time I ever used the paddle shifters in my '14 Grand Cherokee (3.6 pentastar V6, 4x4, Limited, 8 Speed Auto, 6,200 tow capacity) in more than just a novelty fashion. I manually shifted it all the way home through some rather hilly country side. Well hilly for an area of the country where it was smooshed over by glaciers several times. I kept the rpms between 3-4k and upshifted on the down side of hills to make the trans spin slower and lessen the heat put into it. I also kept the transmission fluid gauge up on the console and it rarely hit more than 201°F. Usually upper 190s°F. I don't watch that particular gauge often as I usually keep the fuel economy one up on the screen, but after I dropped the trailer off after getting the car home, it seemed to stay pretty consistent with those numbers. I kept up with the slow lane of traffic on the interstate all the way back home and felt nice and solid. No tail wagging, but I was being careful. So I would say it was a successful tow home of a 1900lb car. Does anyone know what the Uhaul car trailer ways? I just assumed it was less than 4,300 lbs.
Back home in it's resting place!
Then I had to do some dad-ly duties like help feed the family and console my wife for having to clean up the dead chipmunk and the corresponding cat puke. An half hour of jumping on the trampoline with my 2.5 year old, and a quick tubby, the family was asleep. That's when I ran back down to take more photo and investigate my new prize!
An engine bay shot:
The radiator and shroud are still in the back of the Jeep, and I took the air cleaner assembly off for pictures.
The engine is only around 13" or so long.
The red mark showing on the tape near the ... "coil up part" is the 12" mark. It's so tiny!
A quick shot down the carb to see how bad it is.
Anyone recognize the type of carb?
Here we see the gas filler neck with a rag shoved in it and the vacant hose clamp
^^^And let's see who can figure out why I took this photo! I'll give a hint: There are two things in this photo that are important to each other. ^^^
The back parcel shelf must have seen some sunlight in Kansas, because the previous owner had it in his shed in Wisconsin for the last 26 years.
Front Passenger wheel well, aft portion.
And the passenger rocker panel. I have a welder and I'll need to practice!
The drivers side aft portion of the front wheel well.
And it's rocker.
The only side view mirror ever installed on this car as there are no holes for a passenger one.
The bit of front end damage; bent bumper and lower valance.
"Renault 8"
Plunger pedals!
Check out the locking mechanism on those seat belts! What other car has 4 three point seat belts in 1969.
The original radio will be staying. I HATE aftermarket head units, at least in the past few years that is.
Yeah that's miles per hour. Even if it were kilometers per hour that 100 is quite ambitious.
In Wisconsin, air conditioning is not as big of a deal as in ... say Texas.
The last time I had a health risk assessment, they told me that my wrist measurement indicated I was of a medium build. So it is a fact that my hands are a relatively normal size and the shifter is tiny.
The cockpit.
The rear door's glass only slides. The clasp is spring loaded and you pull on it to release it from the hole in the lower part of the trim.
Not sure what the red knob does (queue beavis and butthead laughter), but I'm guess it's the head lights.
The seats will need to be refinished. Can the upholsterer just stitch those back together or will it be new material? Oh, there's the rascal of a generator, always laying around the floor boards.
At first I didnt realize what the two thumb wheels on the valve cover were for until I realized thats all that holding it down. So I popped it off. Man, those are some spindley push rods. Is that an aluminum head?
