Ruth Buzzi and an FI connection with Steve McQueen
 

For those who may not remember Ruth Buzzi, she was a common appearance on Laugh-In.
Yes, I'm going somewhere with this.
Ruth and her Husband, Kent Perkins, live on a ranch west of Ft, Worth.
At sometime in the past, they purchased some of Steve McQueen's car collection.
Several weeks ago, I got a call from a guy (mechanic for Kent's cars) in TX asking if I rebuilt FI units. In the process of locating someone who was FI knowledgeable, he talked to John DeGregory who is always a few months behind on FI rebuilds. John told him I was just up the road in Okla, and to contact me. So he did. When he called, he said he had an FI unit off of Steve McQueen's 57 Chevy convertible that needed rebuilding----------------------ya, right , maybe another BS story. Well, as it turned out, it seems to be well documented that it was an FI unit from McQueen's 57 Chevy conv.
He brought the unit to me, and immediately I recognized it as some kind of bubba cobbled hybrid. At first glance, it appeared to be a 4520 unit, BUUUUUUUUUT, it had some 4800 features. SOOOOOOOOOOO, I called John DeGregory. During our conversation and my description to him, suddenly, he said that was a trademark of John Marquardt's modified FI units (former FI guru in southern CA). So, we talked some more. Now, I AM NOT, and never have claimed to be a leading FI technician, but I have been working on, and rebuilding Rochester FI units for over 45yrs------------------AND I'M STILL LEARNING.
SO, I put the unit in my fixture and sat there and thoroughly studied what had been done by John Marquardt. ACTUALLY, for the day and time years ago in the heyday of Rochester FI, his modifications were somewhat ingenious and very practical. He added 2 skinner valves (elec solenoids) and did some fuel circuit re-routing and some added wiring (Marquardt's wiring was a little less than precision).
I did not change or remove any of Marquardt's mods. I felt it best left as he had modified everything for historical FI posterity. Marquartd's work was practical, NOT precision. So, I just cleaned up his mods, improved his wiring to make it more eye appealing (his wiring was certainly functional, just not pretty).

Several weeks later, after the FI unit was returned and installed on McQueen's 57, I got a call. The guy was stalled out on the road in west TX and could not restart the car. Long story short, I explained what to do with the position of the gas pedal for a hot restart. Lo and behold, it fired right up. Haven't heard a word now for a few weeks. So, I guess no news is good news.
End of story, Steve McQueen's red, factory fuel injected 57 Chevy convertible is alive and well with a working FI unit-----------------for those of you who are FI fans.
Most, if not all, these early day FI guys are now gone and recently, 2 more have left the game. Over the years, I have learned so much about FI from experience as well as from Bill Thomas, John Marquardt, Jim Lockwood, Gary Hodges, Jerry Bramlett, John DeGregory, John Eyestone, and others. As I mentioned, I'm not the ultimate FI guru, but I cannot help but wonder what owners of FI cars are going to do when the rest of us are gone.

Edited title for spelling.

Awesome story! [emoji1303]

Thanks for sharing, Tom! Great post.

"One ringie dingie.....Am I speaking to the party to whom I have reached?" :D

Maybe Ernestine (Lily Tomlin) :D

Hold on, I did mix up the two!!!:rofl: Had a few :cert: this evening! haha

You're entitled...............:D

Great story, Tom.

But I have one correction. You ARE “a leading FI technician”.

Steve

Great story, Tom.

I, too, wonder what'll become of all of the remaining Rochester FI-equipped cars when the last of the know-how is gone. I think it's going to lead to most of those FI units becoming door-stops when they begin to misbehave.

The depletion of the knowledge base and experienced technicians will present similar challenges relating to so many other aspects of these vintage Corvettes. There's a lot of esoteric knowledge required because of their unique construction. Body, birdcage, and IRS, in particular.

Before too many more years, few people will remain who understand carburetion and mechanical ignition systems.

I expect to see the resto-mod trend continuing to pick up steam in the years to come. Seems nearly inevitable.

Live well,

SJW

There will always be somebody, just fewer and fewer. When I was into model T Fords, I was lucky enough to have a semi-local wheelwright willing to make new wheels from scratch from shagbark hickory he sources from the south. Charged $195 per wheel, each wheel taking about 12 hours hand labor. He also was building a live steam train that you could ride around on ....from scratch. It was 95% done when I saw it. He was 72 then, and that was 12 years ago. He was trying to sell the business without luck. 30+ years ago, I had a room-mate who bought a nice looking but tired '55 Studebaker President Speedster. It had every whistle and bell you could imagine, including a weird, hydro-boost power brake system. I pointed it out to him (he was mechanically clueless) and stated "you'd better hope THAT thing never goes bad, because everybody who knows how to fix it is dead." A couple of months later, it failed. (of course). We found some guy back east and mailed it off and had it re-done for about $600 in 1990 dollars.
I know some old radio and clock guys too. There will always be eccentrics who are into old technology, but as time marches on, they are thinning out. When was the last time you saw a tinker at work mending a pot?

I just noticed this forum has an F/I group. It’s really dead over there (last post was 11 years ago) but maybe Tom and others interested in FI could bring it to life.

https://www.thevettebarn.com/forums/...splay.php?f=90

Take care,
Steve

Your points are well taken, Jeff. But, I think I see a difference between the base of knowledge and experience required to rebuild and tune up old clocks and radios, versus Rochester MFI units, in particular. I'm doubtful that, a decade or two down the road, there will be anybody alive who has deep experience with enough of those units to know all of the intricacies associated with them. The sheer number of design changes and parts differences that are to be found would seem to demand the amount of hands-on experience that younger guys would find very difficult to manage. How many of those units would a young guy likely ever have available to work with? Perhaps there is a trove of info out there about Rochester FI that can be located and absorbed by somebody who does a deep dive into the subject, but I doubt there's as much available as there is for clocks and radios.

Time will tell. Guys like Tom Parsons and Jim Lockwood would have a better perspective on this than I would. I have to wonder how much of the knowledge that exists, and that once did, ever made it into any sort of publication where it's been archived.

I'm not aware that Studebaker ever made the transition to vacuum-boosted power brakes. I'd have to research it, but I think they might have stuck with the hydraulic boost until the company tanked. You're right that it's yet another system that's gone the way of the buggy whip.

Live well,

SJW

I'm not finding the sub group GROUP FORUMS

The group doesn’t seem to be listed anywhere obvious. My link should take you there.

Don’t get your hopes up. Not much there. If the mods would list it with the other sub groups, that would help.

Steve

Agreed.

By the way, we need to get Jim Lockwood over here.

Tom Parsons

Men, like my dear friend Dick Robinson may he RIP have taken so much knowledge with them....Pete Lindahl and too many others......:sadangel:

I agree with you, SJW. There is a reason Wonderbar radios are being converted to bluetooth and hydraulic power windows are being replaced with plastic electric motors. And small block Chevy engines were installed in sleeve-valve Stearns-Knights....There is a point where the old technology is too arcane, parts are impossible, and the knowledge is lost to the sands of time. I have a good friend who is quite eccentric and works for a foundation that restores pre world war one race-cars. The solutions they have to come up with working on 110 year old machinery is nothing sort of fascinating. I have been able to glean information on this stuff from period repair manuals and copies of Horseless Age magazine from 120 years ago. I still have in my toolbox special tools for early Ford Escort timing belts, tie rod ends, and GM E2Se electronic carburetors. Haven't used them in 30+ years, as the cars to use them on are all gone. I do have my flathead wrenches and valve compressor because I'll likely own another one someday!

Agreed - I got tired of chasing the talent in a decreasing pool of experts to maintain complete originality and so, I started going for the original "fit and function" with internal modernizations. Going to a solid state radio inside the original 63 chassis eliminated ALL of those probelms and it still passed judging. Same with the voltage regulator and some other items...

I got raked over the coals for some of it by the "purists" and haters. Who strangely seemed to be OK with somebody dripping a modern AGM battery into and old Delco-Remey case to get by the judges. And so it goes.

I've never been tempted to pursue all of the original purity stuff, and can't imagine ever going down that road. There can be enough challenges and irritations associated with these hobby cars without biting that hook. I have no intention of modifying the bodies of any of my vehicles, but neither of my Corvettes is 100% stock. I'm more of a day-two guy, who has no qualms about aftermarket wheels, shifters, steering wheels, exhaust, etc, or electrical or mechanical parts that offer upgraded durability or reliability.

There's very little left on the blue one that was on it when it left St. Louis 59 years ago.

The red one is mostly stock mechanically, although I did replace the notorious optispark distributor 18 years ago with a superior Dynaspark unit from DynoTech. Sadly, they're no longer available, but I'll never need another. Of course, I've replaced plenty of other items as a matter of routine PM, such as belts, hoses, plugs, wires, radiator, brake pads, although they're nearly all AC Delco service parts. It is 28 years old, after all.

Live well,

SJW