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Magazine, April 1, 1996
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February 24, 1996 - First Outing of the Year (in a "0cc" MKIV Sprite)
My first outing of the year was behind a tow-rope, going to the car wash in Waverly, Nebraska. My newly overhauled 1275cc motor was sitting on an engine stand, waiting for me to finish painting all the odds 'n ends before installation but Puddles still had a very nasty looking engine compartment. At some time in the past a leaking battery had taken the paint off behind the heater core box and lower firewall areas, and a previous owner had poured baking soda solution all over, turning them white. Furthermore, 29 years of grease still covered the rest of the engine compartment, and frankly I was tired of getting greasy every time I worked on it. With the engine installation impending, I decided to try to do something about the mess.
After removal of the heater core box, a lot of scraping, and after installing the new PDLJMPR tags I was ready to go to the car wash. I live 6 miles from the nearest car wash and I selected my 1980 Pontiac Sunbird as a tow car since I figured my 3/4 ton pickup would treat Puddles like a tinker toy and I wanted to be able to slow the tow car down and keep the nylon tow rope tight by braking with the Sprite. I coerced my wife, Nancy into being "tow-car driver" and down the highway we went. (You can get away with things like this in Nebraska).
A late-model Cadillac followed us all the way to Waverly and pulled up along-side as we stopped for the stop sign. Lo-and behold it was my wife's ex-husband with mother, father, and my two step-daughters. He was grinning from ear-to-ear and waved as he passed me to pull along-side my wife for further visitation arrangements. The word now is that he has decided to start working on a '39 Plymouth he has had in mothballs since 1976 - I guess the Sprite must have inspired him or something. You be the judge!!
We motored through Waverly, subject to many curious stares and arrived at the car wash, along with a biker (Harley, jacket, hair, the works) who followed us into the bay and wanted to talk about the Sprite. We spoke for a couple of minutes about Puddles before I convinced him I needed to get at the washing chore. Needless to say, 15 quarters later the engine compartment looked as good as it was going to get. We dried the car down and the trip home was eneventful. Still we had fun with the "0cc" Sprite.
I have now sprayed rubberized undercoating over the acid-affected areas and the engine compartment won't turn me into a grease-ball. It looks a lot better but won't win any concours awards - this Sprite is for driving.