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My name's Matt. I've been lurking around these forums for a few months, and finally decided it was time to go legit. This place has already been an exceptional tool for learning about my first classic car, a 1968 Ninety-Eight Holiday Coupe.
I'm lucky to have a bit of experience wrenching on much newer vehicles, but after owning the car for 6 months, I may finally have accepted that I'm in over my head!
When I bought it a half a year ago from the original owner, it had been sitting in a barn for about 30 years. She isn't much of a looker, but for a Pennsylvania car the rust isn't bad. The goal has always been to DD the car, and I've had reasonable success with that, baring the few times I've had to fix bigger issues.
I'm under the hood almost every day, and yet things still break, which is something I think I've come to accept when using a classic as a daily. Major issues insofar have been largely electrical, but I haven't yet dug deep into the block.
I'm about to pull the motor for a full clean and rebuild, and I'm terrified at what I might find!
The carb needs rebuilt or perhaps replaced; the oil smells of gas and is black from running way too rich. There are leaks at the heads on both the number 8 and 4 cylinders, potentially a slight compression issue (I believe I have C heads?), and recently it developed what I'm guessing is a loss of vacuum, so it's currently out of comish.
That being said, I love the car, including all these problems, and refuse to ever give up on it.
Glad to finally be a member and I look forward to some keen advice!
Welcome to the site, hail to the new boat capt. Fixing up these cars is like eating an elephant, one bite at a time, we've all been there. They really are quite simple to work on. Post individual questions in the respective forum, plenty of folks here to help.
