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I think smiles per gallon is a more worthy goal

GPS says turn left

Another good few hours this morning. Got the aluminum grill surround complete rough in. Final tweaks and some polishing is next. And....started knocking the loose rust off the grill sections to see if there is enough metal left to restore or if not, replace. So far, the DS grill looks good and solid. After knocking off as much loose rust as I can get to (probably still need to soak both shells in a rust remover) I knocked the unavoidable scuffs off the stainless steel bright work on each grill bar and then polished the top one. Looks like this 80 year old stainless will come back to life pretty well.

This photo show a Fruit Fly Roadblock on the border at Wodonga (where I live) of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. The border is defined by the Murray River. In Queensland (further north) there is a pesky fly that lays its eggs in fruit, particularly tomatoes, citrus etc. When the eggs "hatch" the maggots begin eating the flesh inside the fruit. Trust me when I say it is disgusting to cut into an apparently okay looking tomatoe to find it riddled with horrible little white maggots. In an attempt to prevent the spread of this pest from the northern state of Queensland to Victoria, the Victorian Government set up these road blocks on the main highways and no fruit of any type, no matter where it originally came from, was allowed in. Each car was stopped by the officers and asked if they had fruit to declare. If you said "No Officer" and you looked honest and maybe not the type to have fruit on board, then you were waived through. Or they may just decide to search the vehicle anyway, particularly if you were a family. If you said "yes officer" and handed over fruit, they may waive you through or decide to search your vehicle further anyway. It was quite common to see families parked there with everyone devouring fruit rather than hand it over, where is was just destroyed. Even if we brought some fruit with us when we left home to go on a day trip to NSW, and then return, we had to declare any uneaten fruit and hand it over. The theory was those sneaky Queensland Fruit Fly my have flown in through our car window and laid eggs in our previously pure Victorian fruit. Unfortunately those clever Queensland Fruit Fly spread further south into NSW and on reaching the Murray River at the border to Victoria, realised they could just keep flying and enter Victoria wherever they liked, thus making the road blocks somewhat useless. Now the fruit fly are a permanent menace here and the reason I stopped growing tomatoes. I do not know the make of any of the cars in the photo.

Here's my truck in front of Luckenbach General Store (bar in the back). The bust on the granite is of Hondo. The dancehall (Engel's Hall) is to the left, behind my truck.

This may or may not help with thermal efficiency. Several years ago I built a Harley Shovelhead engine trying to up the performance a bit. I used Keith Black hyperutectic pistons, they are made from a low expansion alloy that allows the piston to be fit at a closer tolerance therefore sealing the cylinder off better from the combustion process and sending the heat out the exhaust. I was skeptical of this claim until I took the bike on it's first long ride. I could tell a big difference in the amount of heat coming from the cylinders. Don't know how much or if it would help a Mopar flat 6, don't know if they make a hyperutectic piston for the Mopar flat 6 but I know pistons can sometimes be retrofitted from one application to the next. It's a thought anyway.

In a former life I did gage calibration and tool repair. I used a tool similar to this to pull the hands off of dial calipers and gages.

Do you already have a title,bill of sale,or registration for it? If it has already been registered/titled in your home state,don't fight gravity. Use what is already on your title or registration,even if it is just the body number. Some states have the engine number and the car serial number on the title,and those are the best ones because some states insist on using the engine number and some use the serial number. Never mind that some cars and trucks never had engine numbers even when they were new. If you already have it registered and have a matching title or registration,you have no problems if the numbers on your car match the numbers on the title. If your car still has the original engine in it,try to get it registered and a new title for it with both numbers on the title if that is possible. That way if you have to change engines 5 years from now you won't be driving around in a car with no valid registration numbers on the title.

Oooops, sorry ‘bout that, I missed that point. Thx.

I also think that 30mpg is an unrealistic goal. However, we routinely get in the low-20’s on the hiways around here, but one must keep in mind that the speed limits here where we are is only 50mph (and we have a 9mph “grace margin”), we unofficially drive 56-57mph (but I deny that officially…). Thx.

Axle Wheel & Alignment Company, 126 North Washington Street, Wichita, Kansas 67202, 316.263.0213. When I lived there, I damaged a Cragar wheel, and they repaired it almost as good as new (the chrome was compromised, and they don’t do chroming – for that I took it the wheel to Wichita Bumper, and that turned out great, too, but that’s another story for another time...). I haven’t lived there for many years, so I don’t know if they still service wheels, but it’s worth a phone call, and if they don’t, maybe they can refer you to someone who can. Just an idea . . . Thx.

BTW,you might also consider going to a place that specializes in tires and wheels. Changing backspaces or rim widths by just removing the center and moving it in or out for clearance is no big deal. I once had 16 inch 39 Ford wide wheel centers like these cut out and mounted in 8 inch wide 15 inch Ford outer rims to put on a 36 Ford convertible I used to own back in the 60's.

One solution is to just drill a hole for rim locator pin in your new wheels. When i got to Ga to pick up the 55 DeSoto parts car I bought that was supposedly ready to roll on my trailer,I discovered it was sitting in a goat pen in a back yard,and had been there long enough the rims had settled into the dirt and the bottoms were rusted off. Since it would have taken more time and money to pull off the rotten tires,wire brush the rusty wheels,but new tubes,and hope it worked than to just replace them all,I went to a junkyard and bought 4 15 inch wheels with tires already mounted and holding air. Had no idea what they were taken off of,but they were 15 inch,5x4.5 inch bolt pattern,and the center hole was big enough to allow the axle ends to fit. IIRC,I paid 10 bucks each for them. Went back to where the car was sitting,jacked it up one tire at a time,and used my battery drill to drill locator holes in each wheel as I put it on. Don't know what to tell you about backspacing. All I can say is that this has never been a problem for me in all my years of swapping tires and rims unless I was putting a old rim on a modern vehicle with disc brakes. Also,I never tired to put any tire on a old one that was bigger than 2.35 x 75 or 78 x15. Lookf for rims that came off of mid-sized cars or regular half-ton pu's,and the tires should be short and narrow enough to clear. Maybe go to a junkyard with a tape measure and a flat bar and measure the backspace on the wheels there to make sure you have enough room to keep the tires you are buying from rubbing the wheelwell or the fender?

Stockton Wheel would have been my best bet but I understand that there are new owners as of several years ago, too bad if the quality is no longer there. Had a long and Good rep. I might say try a phone call to have new rims built to your specs? Either Wheel Vintiques (if they do that) or maybe- http://www.petepaulsen.com/catalog/oem.html. Located in Lodi Ca. and have also been around quite a few years, a call to see if they can build what you want! Do not think they will redo yours? but their web page does not say either way. DJ

Attached is a picture of a 1949 Westcraft travel trailer. It looks like the Chrysler in the pic with the old couple could have been towing the trailer. (The picture came from the Tin CAn Tourists web site.)

If you lubricate the metal a little and slip the new seal in place , you might be able to get an idea if there is enough pressure from the rubber to make a good seal when you smooth out the existing surface . Just thinking out loud .

Time in the stand even if not successful is to be cherished. Even more so when shared with a younster.

I use one just like in Reg's photo with the my fresh air equipped heater. Btw Mark just wanted to let you know that the heater I got from you has actually been getting some use here the last few weeks. It has been raining quite a bit and I have been using the defroster with the heat off to keep my windshield from fogging up. Works pretty darn good with the blower cranked up. This was the main reason I installed a heater so I am very happy with the results. Jeff

Speedi -sleeve makes thousands and thousands of sizes of these repair sleeves. My local bearing supply house had all the measurements on-line . Take your part and seal to them and they can look them up. Perhaps the manufacturer makes another sleeve with the correct dimensions needed -ID and OD , but also wider on width? Seals have a "best" tightness ( range) for fit on sealing lip to seal surface and it is listed in their specs area, book or online. Good luck, DJ

Another great blog entry Tim. It make so much sense when you explain the intake and intake ports technology in lay terms. I know in the early 60s I built and engine and put the competitions valves in the engine hoping to get more fuel. It seemed to hold the engine back. I then carved away at the block trying to improve the flow. That was marginally successful. I then got a triple carb log intake from an old stock car racer and the engine seemed to come alive. I don't even think all of the carbs were identical although I can see the benefits there. The engine idled better. You just had to touch the throttle and it was amazing. I think this was asked before; do you make triple intakes for the 230 ci Plymouth Motors ? Super fan of the AoK boys. Thanks for everything you guys do for the hobby! Paul

I just drilled a hole in the center divider and installed it there. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/olddodges1/Pilot%20House%20Trucks/MVC-002F.jpg[/IMG]