No, I don't teach many of these thing to my students. The reason is simple. We throw so much at them in their two years they are almost overwhelmed as it is. There is a huge amount for them to learn, grasp, and understand. If we start throwing those things in, we would confuse them at what seems to be a contrast of what we have taught them. It's not a conflict, but when new and overloaded it can seem like it. They often feel like their brain will explode as it is. And we do need to get the other things in if they stand a chance. I do share some of them with some of the students when I see a need or when they are really on the ball.

As for road side service, there used to be a company in Akron OH that did only road side service. They had no garage. Everything was out of the back of their well equipped box truck. They mostly did the basic services and maintance. I always had the impression they were a very fancy fly by night outfit.

And now I have to claim guilty. Part of the time Dad and I loaded up the 58 Chevy pickup that was our service truck, and yours truly did more than my fair share of road service repairs. It was only for our good customers, and the guy in a real jamb. We tried to avoid it, Dad mostly did avoid it, but I found myself out in the truck once or twice a week.

We actually had a torch strapped by the back of the cab, in the corner of the bed. Just mount the regulators and go. It was actually mounted there for insurance reasons. The insurance went sky high if you had a torch in a gas station service bay. It wasn't in the bay. But pull the truck to the bay door, and long hoses went where you wanted.
If I had to use the torch on the side of the road, it was usually a temp repair until we could get the car in the shop. Hanging up a fallen exhaust would be an example. Not going to do a complete exhaust on the side of the road when it can go back to the shop and a rack.

If it was raining or snowing, it was a really quick job, or a tow truck. But I did get soggy and frozen more than I cared for. That stuff was over 30 years ago. Don't ask me to do it now. Only for family, close friends, or a stuck C3VR member.

I have a 74 / 454 4spd. Ever since I got it it ran around 210 to 220 w/o the AC on. I had all the hose's changed, t-stat, belts, and flushed the system. It got worse !
I checked everything, I even blew out the Evaporator with a high presure hose. To make a long story short, I bought a DeWitts alum. rad with twin elect fans, replaced the wp with an Edelbrock Vector. Now I can get caught in traffic with the AC on and the temp won't go over 200.
What I liked about DeWitts was that when I called him he asked me a lot of questions first to make sure that my problem may be fixable without buying the rad.
P.S. He sends the fans already mounted to the rad. Total cost around 875.00


|UPDATED|9/13/2004 4:54:29 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I ordered an aluminum radiator and fan set from Tod DeWitt yesterday afternoon and will post the results sometime soon.

Good luck,
Hopefully you'll have the same results I did. Now you can enjoy driving your toy.