Jaguar 10 Mile drive

 

Nice sunny day for a drive down some back country roads near home.

Easter Sunday Jag

Beautiful Easter Sunday. I took my daughter, Evelyn, for a Jag ride around Lake Apopka. We ended up, like most Jaguar joy rides, in Mount Dora at Jeramiah's for lunch. We joined  one of Evelyn's teacher friends from grade school, that just happened to be there, for lunch.

As we were leaving, some bikers who were also enjoying the wonderful afternoon, were also getting ready to leave.

One of them yelled, "What year is it?"
I replied, "2012".
Then he asked, "Is that a Porche?"
So I backed up a bit so he could see the front of the car, and said, "No, it is a 1952 Jaguar XK120!"

Front plate and slalom helmet.

During the previous week, Gizmo and I went to a bunch of auto stores looking for a front licence mounting bracket. They were all out except the last place we visited. They had one, but it was plastic, five dollars and would not serve my purpose.
We ended up at Lowes and found some heavy duty straps for rafters that were just the thing to weld together and drill some holes for mounting the Jaguar plate. People will no longer have to stalk me to find out what marque the car is. But, I am afraid they still will to get a close up look and more details.

On the road

On the road and finding little things to fix.
Installed Hellwig helper springs to stiffen the ride a bit and raise the rear an inch.
Took off the left rear tire and had a nail removed and repaired.
Removed the radiator and had a small leak fixed.
The fan belt (actually the fan is electric and belt only connects the crankshaft pulley to the water pump and alternator) decided to shred itself and wrap a bit around the alternator pulley. I ended up removing the belt tension pulley, as it was redundant and weighs about 2 pounds. I found the shorter the belt, the cheaper it is.

I had taken this picture while the radiator was out for repair.

On one of my exploration jags around central Florida on an unpaved country road I heard a strange noise. Stopping to check it out, I found the clutch cable was intermittently dipping into the dirt. I had to cut a piece of wire from license plate light to tie it up to get it up and not get damaged.

Shady spot to make a quick repair.

 Another problem I finally found was once in awhile pushing the clutch all the way down the engine would stop. Not just the engine, but everything, gauges, radio, GPS. The clutch pedal was hitting the battery cable to the starter and had worn through the insulation, shorting out the battery, but not blowing any fuses. It is the only non-fused circuit on the car.

Photo take by John Falco during JCOF rally in January.

I replaced the wire I had borrowed from the licence plate light, and re-routed the clutch cable to get it above the frame.
So I have been having fun driving and playing McGiver.

Winter rally

First in class

Beautiful day for a drive with the Jaguar Club of Florida.

Leaving Cracker Barrel after getting directions.

Speedometer check, coffee and donuts at Orlando Jaguar dealer.

Icecream break in Windemere.

Waiting for everyone to finish their icecream.

Ginger's V12 in resting mode.

Stop at C.A.R.E to view the animals.

 

 

 

Route 46 restaurant in Sanford for late lunch and awards.

 Actually came in 2nd from last. There were only 2 cars in the class.

January Jaguar

 By lake Apopka.

 By lake Apopka.

 By lake Apopka.

 By lake Apopka.

By Shepard Lake.

I lowered the front end by adjusting the torsion bars. The front was about 3/4" higher than the rear. Now 1-1/2" lower. That should keep the front end from lifting at high speeds.

 By lake Apopka.

Day tripping AKA Jagging

Weather has been beautiful so I have been out exploring almost every day this last week.

Abandoned old cottage between Mt. Dora and Jem Lake.

Abandoned old cottage between Mt. Dora and Jem Lake.

Abandoned old cottage between Mt. Dora and Jem Lake.

Orange grove west side of Lake Apopka

Orange grove west side of Lake Apopka

Orange grove west side of Lake Apopka

Orange grove west side of Lake Apopka

Orange grove west side of Lake Apopka

Put on about 320 miles this week close to 25MPG.

Sunday Dec 11 country ride.

My daughter, Evelyn, and I went for a nice little country ride this afternoon and ended up for lunch in Mount Dora at Jeramiah's. After lunch we went looking for the old steam engine and found it in Tavares, but no good photo angles or places to park. So we continued on and found this in a vacant lot.

 

The world famous pallet fort in Tavares, Florida

 

Kid built tough.

 

Some future architects.

Continuing on along Lake Dora, we stopped at the old hotel for a photo.

 

In front of the old lake side hotel in Mt. Dora.

 

At the park and boat ramp in Mt. Dora.

 

Some of the majestic beauty that can be found in Florida in December. 

I let Evelyn drive home from here.

Evening drive.

Old train station in Apopka.

Old train station in Apopka. 

Old train station in Apopka. 

Lake Apopka, Magnolia park.

 This is my trip around the block.

Just before sunset.

Very nice evening for a drive. Cooling down.

Ronald Reagan Museum

Went to the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library and Museum yesterday. Very impressive new display of Air Force One. This is a panoramic stitched together with 3 separate hand-held pictures. http://papitopaul.us/Kpic/pano/AirforceOne.jpg