I inspected the underside of my '66, to track down some strange noises
since getting it a few months ago. I have it stored far away, so I haven't
driven it much. It seemed to float and bounce strangely on turns.
It turns out that the shock absorbers were missing half of the mounting
parts, and there was a couple inches of free play where the shocks were
bottoming out. That's where the noise was coming from. The shocks were
useless with that two inches of free travel. And the shock bolts were
gouging holes in the mounts. Seems the P.O. took the car to a shoddy
mechanic! He skipped installing most of the rubber mounts and washers.
I'm just making sure the car is road-worthy before taking it on a long
journey to Solvang. I'm glad I checked it out, and fixed the damage. I
can't stress enough how important it is to learn the basics about these
cars, so you don't have to blindly trust the work of others!
Fred - South San Francisco, CA
'66 1600 "Loosey"
'70 1600 "Blondee"
'68 2000 (no-name frame-off)
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