Dateline - May 25 (Memorial Day!) - I decided that I wanted to bleed the brakes before I drove the car the first time. Seemed like a good idea since I did not know when the last time they had been done. So I started the task by sucking the oil out of the reservoir and cleaning all the junk that had built up there.
I then jacked up the right rear of the car, taking the wheel off and climbed under the car. The first think I noticed was that the new, non-stock exhaust was sitting right next to the brakes, which are inboard on these cars. It was a real pain working around everything under the car to get the brakes bled, but I succeeded. I also took the time to clean, polish the chrome and armor-all the wheels/tires.
The left side rear was even worse the the right. The exhaust was rubbing against the bleed valve waring it flat on one side! I managed to get this one bled, but it was a chore and took almost an hour to get it done.
Fortunately, both the front brakes were pretty easy, so they didn't take long. Now I had fully bled breaks and clean wheels!
I decided it was time for the car to move. I put the trailer battery back in and started the car. After a few tentative moves down the driveway, I turned her into the street and started down the road. I noticed two things, the steering seemed to have a real rough feeling (I had the same thing in the Spitfire and suspected it was some dry bushings) and the transmission would not shift out of 1st until I hit about 2500 RPM, even with little acceleration. This would require some research, since I knew nothing about the TH700R4 transmissions. But I did drive the car a bit and put it back into the driveway (Notice the picture of the car facing the other way!)
Now I just needed to get a new battery and I'd have a real driver. Hour count: 5
