Sebring, Howland Ohio

[killnjuggalo]

I just picked up the Sebring last night. I knew it was in bad condition but i didnt know it was this bad. the canapy is twisted, and not closing on the correctly. the valve covers leak oil. the u can smell the belt rubbing as soon as you get it started. there is a gas station about a mile down the road so i was going to attempt to go get gas. it kept stalling out at take off. at first i thought it was me not being used to stick shift anymore but about a half a mile down the road even flooring the accelerator it would still try to stall, getting it down there and after filling it up. the f***g thing wouldnt start. tried to push start her but she wouldnt even to get going. while having touble with it i still get people that want to talk about it. would of been nice for some help... lol now its sitting in my driveway. also whoever had it before chopped alot of the fiberglass around the wheels and under the hood. there is no truck because of the radiator and air conditioner laying flat in it. feel kinda sick to my stomach paying 3000 for it and spending about 500 getting it to my house but it will be an awesome ride when im done. cant wait to get it runnin good. pics up tomorrow

 

[tc-sterling]

I just picked up the Sebring last night. I knew it was in bad condition but i didnt know it was this bad. the canapy is twisted, and not closing on the correctly. the valve covers leak oil. the u can smell the belt rubbing as soon as you get it started. there is a gas station about a mile down the road so i was going to attempt to go get gas. it kept stalling out at take off. at first i thought it was me not being used to stick shift anymore but about a half a mile down the road even flooring the accelerator it would still try to stall, getting it down there and after filling it up. the fucking thing wouldnt start. tried to push start her but she wouldnt even to get going. while having touble with it i still get people that want to talk about it. would of been nice for some help... lol now its sitting in my driveway. also whoever had it before chopped alot of the fiberglass around the wheels and under the hood. there is no truck because of the radiator and air conditioner laying flat in it. feel kinda sick to my stomach paying 3000 for it and spending about 500 getting it to my house but it will be an awesome ride when im done. cant wait to get it runnin good. pics up tomorrow

Re: the stalling out at take off - that's very symptomatic of bad fuel and/or a clogged fuel filter. If it's been sitting for a while water may have gotten in the tank either through a pressure relief valve or simple condensation. It could also be sediment from the tank is being pulled up into the line and clogging the fuel line (bad) or fuel filter (good because it's easy to replace).

If at all possible, drain the fuel tank and fill it with fresh gas. If not possible, add 2-3 gallons of fresh high-detergent (i.e. name brand like Exxon or Shell) gas and some HEET fuel-line anti-freeze. The HEET is an alcohol based additive that will bind with the water and keep it from interfering with combustion quite so much.

Also, of course, replace the fuel filter. The fuel pump could also be partly to blame. It it's a mechanical fuel pump, the diaphrams eventually get brittle and don't draw fuel as efficiently, and electric ones (although less often) can lose efficiency as well.

Lastly, it could be spark - if the distributor is mechanical, it may need to a tune-up kit (about $30), or it may need a new coil if the spark is too weak. Heck, even the spark plug wires could be the problem.

The list of things that could be wrong is long, but thankfully many of the fixes are relatively cheap. You can run a few of your questions by the mechanics in the DIY section of my website - 10w30.com Since the Sebring is not a run-of-the-mill car, you'll need to include the manufacturer (GM, Ford, Etc) and size (3.2 liter, etc), and if at all possible the year of the engine itself. They'll be lost if you just say it's a Sebring (or even think it's a late-model Chrysler!)

Good Luck - TC

 

[letterman7]

Ooof... that's the problem with buying stuff sight unseen. The mechanical end of things is usually something simple as TC mentioned. The more serious item is the twisted canopy. First check to see if the lifting arms aren't binding somewhere or damaged, or indeed, even closing all the way. If that isn't the case, and the fiberglass really is warped (unlikely), there is a way to get it to settle back, but it takes lots of time: Put the canopy down and strap it as tight as you dare. Don't take the side windows out - they'll help settle the twist. Put the car somewhere hot - sit it in the sun for a week in the summer, or in a garage with a salamander heater going full steam (not aimed at the car). Do that for about a week, then tighten the straps a little more, trying to seat the canopy all the way around. Heat for another week or so. If the canopy settles, let it cool off for a couple days and back the straps off little by little. Hopefully it should be much closer than before.

 

[killnjuggalo]

last night i found that there is no vacuum to the engine. this is the reason that the car kept stalling. the belt is too lose and too thin of a belt causing the battery not to charge. also found that the air conditioning unit was jerry rigged and not even hooked up. lol. the canapy is bowed toward the middle of the car, as seen by a picture taken at the seem of the trunk as soon as i get a camera. also the two sides of the canapy are off a different distance from being dead on the body. the distributer was horribly loose. and the belt had 3 adjustments on it, where it should only have one. the good news is that it rained like crazy here in ohio and the canopy does not leak anywhere. i think im gonna bondo or something like that to build up the body and canapy to make the panels line up while keeping the overall shape. on another note, the car is titled a sebring 300, i have never heard of a 300 model-confused*, can anybody explain this to me? it was factory built by bremen. with the deal of the car i got a few old titles. one title shows that howard hues bought it. and another title that shows somebody paid 25000$-confused* for the car at one point (just interesting pieces of history).

 

[letterman7]

Start posting photos when you can. Bondo isn't the way to go to eliminate the sag - let's make that determination when everyone sees the photos. Titles can be funny things... I doubt the Howard Hughes himself owned it - he died in '76, before these cars were built. And $25K? There's a sucker born every minute. As for the Sebring 300? Dunno - sounds like someone got their cars mixed up. There is a Chrysler Sebring and a Chrysler 300... maybe they combined the two.

Keep at it - some of the previous owner modifications are part of the kit car "charm" *laugh*

 

[killnjuggalo]

Start posting photos when you can. Bondo isn't the way to go to eliminate the sag - let's make that determination when everyone sees the photos. Titles can be funny things... I doubt the Howard Hughes himself owned it - he died in '76, before these cars were built. And $25K? There's a sucker born every minute. As for the Sebring 300? Dunno - sounds like someone got their cars mixed up. There is a Chrysler Sebring and a Chrysler 300... maybe they combined the two.

Keep at it - some of the previous owner modifications are part of the kit car "charm" *laugh*

i figured it wasnt but i thought it was funny to see the name. and yes 25k... lmao. im going to try to get a camera tomorrow or borrow someones to get some pics up here. i also knew it wasnt him because its an 82. can i post pics straight from my pc or do i have to upload on flickr or something like that

 

[letterman7]

Yep, just post from your pc. Click the little paperclip above when you are entering your text, and a pop-up window will show with the upload section. Then you can add the photos by clicking the paperclip again and dropping a window with your file attachments.

 

[killnjuggalo]

finally got some pics of the deformation in the fiberglass. the top seals good and dont leak at all which is a plus. wiring went crazy on me and i was locked in my car for a small amount of time... good thing for cellphones and friends right? the arms are fine they both have the same degree bend in them toward the back, and from side to side they are as straight as an arrow. strapping it down wont help the warp that is in the front of the car right before the trunk. running wise the car is running amazingly. i still have to replace the valve cover gaskets, which are leaking oil. and now i have to tear apart the carb to see y fuel was overflowing out of it. thinking it was the float and shouldnt be a big deal to rebuild. biggest problem is wiring the car. im going to completely gut it and rewire it so i know its done right and i wont get stuck in it again. unfortunately this means i most likely will not be able to make the kit show in pa. atleast not with the car. I might take the ninja out for a ride up to the show if the weathers nice and me and my girlfriend will walk around gathering ideas

 

[letterman7]

*hmmm* Hmm.. that doesn't look kosher. It appears that both sides are affected to varying degrees? The hood "droop" is somewhat normal, even for a Sebring, but having those gaps on the sides certainly isn't. At first glance I would have said the canopy isn't sitting straight, but since it's appearing on both sides, that doesn't seem to be the case. Unfortunately there's no good answer to this. What I would do first is unbolt the hinges and the actuators, remove everything that might affect the fit (including those pins that are visible at the back of the canopy seal in the one photo) and set the canopy on the body just to see if you can finagle the thing to where it's supposed to be or at least closer than it is now. From there you can experiment somewhat with the lift arm setup to see if you can maintain the shut line. It's really unusual to have that much deformation in the fiberglass - unless it came out of the factory that way. Unfortunately, you'll never know!

 

[Brett Proctor]

It looks like the canopy was installed at a skew or the lifting arm brackets might be installed at a skew. You might want to remove the lifting brackets and see if you can get the top to sit square or at least better like Rick said.

Looking at the pictures it appears that the right side looks to have the rear section of the canopy sticking out while the left side front looks to be sticking out hence my guess that the canopy is installed at a skew.

Brett

 

[killnjuggalo]

that could be some of the problem, being installed skew, but the amount the sides are off is way different on both sides. and they are also off at a different angle so it is deformed somewhere. i cant get too deep into it right now because i have no garage space. i dont think my dad would like it if i kicked is 1907 olds and his bmw out of the garage... lol i know someone who has a bodyshop who is good with fiberglass, when i get it running and wired correctly im going to take it down to him to see what he can do with it. all the lifting arms and supports are straight, im going to take a look around where it goes into the body to see if there is an adjustment, or something of that nature. im going to take a trip to mcmaster-carr today to get lift off hinges for the windows but the window hole in my sebring and sterling are different i believe so it might take some modifying to make it working. the sag right before the trunk im goin to try to heat it up and take a floor jack to it. after a few days it should be good again. if you have any other ideas on how to get that little bit of sag out let me know. constant pressure seems to be the best idea with a small amount of heat over days just keep jacking up the jack little by little.