[Healeys] Healey Memories---more about the kindness of bygone days

[Michael Oritt]

I attended Conclave in Grand Rapids, MN in 2001 and the plan was for my
wife to fly into Duluth so we could come home to MD via the UP and possibly
Canada.  I met her at the airport, threw her bag in the boot, pushed the
"Start" button and BANG--followed by smoke and loud exhaust noise, etc.
Clearly a blown head gasket.  I had my membership book with me and
reached out to Bob Bell of Duluth who had just returned from the event with
car problems of his own. Nevertheless he met me and I was able to coax the
car to his house nearby.

Bob pretty much put his life on hold for a couple of days: We pulled the
head to find that the bridge between cylinders 1 and 2 was eroded.  Bob was
a welder and he carefully laid in some metal and built the bridge back up.
After a trip to the machine shop to make things flat we put the head back
on and voila--a running car again!  The repair lasted me back to MD and I
ultimately replaced the head with a DW AL model, but that's a different
story.

Bob and his wife put us up at their home and just couldn't do enough for
us. Fortunately I have had the opportunity to pay it forward to some other
Healey folks in mild distress--That's how it works!

On Tue, Dec 28, 2021 at 7:26 PM RCobb <rcobb at sonic.net> wrote:

> This is auto-related, but my AH didn't arrive in my life for another 15
> years:
>
> The Time: Midnight, Dec. 28, 1968
>
> The Place: Woodland, CA, USA  (aka..."The Twilight Zone")
>
> The scene: A rural highway stop light, waiting for it to turn green in
> order to complete the final 100 miles returning to my parents' home
> following a several-hundred-mile jaunt to visit a college friend over
> Christmas break.  Driving a borrowed '66 Mustang.
>
> Action: In the midst of heavy Central CA tule fog, while at the stop
> light, billowing steam begins coming from under the hood.
>
> I turned at the traffic light and ended up on the main drag of
> Woodland.  There was only one gas station open, with one employee
> present.  He was an over-the-road trucker, taking a week or two off,
> during the holidays.
>
> Being on the main drag, and being the only gas station open, cruisers
> were very visible in the street, making U-turns through the station, to
> head back up the street.  This of course, caused the gong to sound, each
> time a car passed over the pneumatic hoses laid-out to notify staff that
> a customer had pulled-in.
>
> At that point in my life, the most I had ever done, auto-mechanics-wise
> was change the oil in a car, so I was no help in diagnosing or
> correcting the problem, which most of you recognize as a bad water pump.
>
> The mechanic, being the only one on duty was having to divide his time
> between pumping gas and working on the Mustang...which seriously
> prolonged the experience.
>
> By this time it was at least 1 am.  Fortunately, for me, the mechanic
> knew how to reach the parts manager for the local Ford dealership and
> called him.  He came down to the dealership, picked up the water pump
> and delivered it to us!
>
> Within about another hour, I was on my way, marveling that a water pump
> was as readily available in this small town...in the middle of the night.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
> Suggested annual donation  $12.75
>
> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/healeys
> http://autox.team.net/archive
>
> Healeys at autox.team.net
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
>
> Unsubscribe/Manage:
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/michael.oritt@gmail.com
>
>

-- 
Best--Michael
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/healeys/attachments/20211228/66c70188/attachment.htm>