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Not the movie A Christmas Story but still worthy of a repeat viewing. I last posted this in 2015 and in the two years since we have had such an increase in new members, well, time to introduce them to Louise....enjoy the story, the season, the time with friends and family. Christmas with Louise As a joke, my brother used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace before Christmas. He said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them. What they say about Santa checking the list twice must be true because every Christmas morning, although Jay's kids' stockings were overflowed his poor pantyhose hung sadly empty. One year I decided to make his dream come true. I put on sunglasses and went in search of an inflatable love doll. They don't sell those things at Wal-Mart. I had to go to an adult bookstore downtown. If you've never been in an X-rated store, don't go. You'll only confuse yourself. I was there an hour saying things like, "What does this do?" "You're kidding me!" "Who would buy that?" Finally, I made it to the inflatable doll section. I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also substitute as a passenger in my truck so I could use the car pool lane during rush hour. Finding what I wanted was difficult. "Love Dolls" come in many different models. The top of the line, according to the side of the box, could do things I'd only seen in a book on animal husbandry. I settled for "Lovable Louise." She was at the bottom of the price scale. To call Louise a "doll" took a huge leap of imagination. On Christmas Eve and with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to life. My sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning hours. Long after Santa had come and gone, I filled the dangling pantyhose with Louise's pliant legs and bottom. I also ate some cookies and drank what remained of a glass of milk on a nearby tray. I went home, and giggled for a couple of hours. The next morning my brother called to say that Santa had been to his house and left a present that had made him VERY happy but had left the dog confused. She would bark, start to walk away, then come back and bark some more. We all agreed that Louise should remain in the panty hose so the rest of the family could admire her when they came over for the traditional Christmas dinner. My grandmother noticed Louise the moment she walked in the door. "What the hell is that?" she asked. My brother quickly explained, "It's a doll." "Who would play with something like that?" Granny snapped. I had several candidates in mind, but kept my mouth shut. "Where are her clothes?" Granny noticed. "Boy, that turkey sure smells nice, Gran," Jay said to steer her into the dining room. But Granny was relentless. "Why doesn't she have any teeth?" Again, I could have answered, but why would I? It was Christmas and no one wanted to ride in the back of the ambulance saying, "Hang on Granny, hang on!" My grandfather, a delightful old man with poor eyesight, sidled up to me and said, "Hey, who's the naked gal by the fireplace?" I told him she was Jay's friend. A few minutes later I noticed Grandpa by the mantel, talking to Louise. Not just talking, but actually flirting. It was then that we realized this might be Grandpa's last Christmas at home. The dinner went well. We made the usual small talk about who had died, who was dying, and who should be killed, when suddenly Louise made a noise like my father in the bathroom in the morning. Then she lurched from the panty hose, flew around the room twice, and fell in a heap in front of the sofa. The cat screamed. I passed cranberry sauce through my nose, and Grandpa ran across the room, fell to his knees, and began administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. My brother fell back over his chair and wet his pants. Granny threw down her napkin, stomped out of the room, and sat in the car. It was indeed a Christmas to treasure and remember. Later in my brother's garage, we conducted a thorough examination to decide the cause of Louise's collapse. We discovered that Louise had suffered from a hot ember to the back of her right thigh. Fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct tape, we restored her to perfect health.

To be honest my post was an attempt at sarcasm. In regards to the high prices. 60-80k for a truck is ridiculous. They do get tremendous fuel mileage, engines last longer than ever but at the price they charge they better. I know the car makers are saddled with expenses from all the GOV agency's. And they have to meet all the crash tests safety, etc. I guess I'm just too tight to pay that kind of money for something that doesn't come with a mail box and a welcome mat.

a proper working passenger door side latch mechanism will not let you close the door if it is locked. If you can close the door while it is set in the "lock" position, you have worn parts that need attention. As for getting in: a wire passed up thru the floor boards by the pedals to pull the driver handle down to "unlock" works well...you just need 2 people to do it. A driver and a directions one.

Getting into my truck if I were to get lock out would be easy. The drivers door locks from the inside as it should but as it turns out the mechanism has just enough wear in it so that if I work the outside handle lightly 9 or 10 times just like I was going to open it normally it will unlock by itself. At first it drove me crazy. I always keep it locked... always ! Then every once in a while over a week or two I would check it out of habit and it would be unlocked. After a while I put two and two together and figured out that I was only finding it unlocked after I had been working some high spots and doing the bodywork the roof , left and right fender . So I did some light tapping on the door with the large smooth face body hammer as I watched and after a bit, little by little the inside door handle dropped from its locked position. Sure enough the blows of the hammer were unlocking it after a while. For while I thought I was losing my mind or it might have been possessed Anyway, You might give it a try, it couldn't hurt. John

Oh yea, I have done well at estate sales on good older USA made tools. Probably because a lot of us know how hard the good stuff is to come by and we will never sell.

Un-sprung good old quality USA clamps as found at swap meets and garage sales is the way to go at an affordable cost. Chinese Harbor Freight... no ... you will hurt your self with sometimes dangerous cheap tools .

yah what he said ^^^^

I look at flea markets and yard sales for old made in USA ones. I would pay more for a rusty one from the 60' s than a new one, they're better.

Or simply change the back plate on the pump to the one from your old waterpump. You'll see that there is one less hole on the plate from the old pump, and it will seal off the internal bypass passage. Be sure to use the gasket from the new pump so it will seal the passage to the back plate. Marty

Theory is the quality. Problem is even the one you may think was not made in China may now actually come from there. Raybestos vs. Dorman

I got this cowl rubber from Restoration Specialities to use on my 50 Ply wagon. I put mine on with an adhesive just for rubber to bond to metal. I welded the original holes shut and knew in advance that I would glue the piece on.

The problem with getting nearly 500 miles on a tank is that my bladder only has about 180 mile range so gotta stop either way, so no time gained in the equation. Our 2016 Accord gets just about 40 mpg on long highway runs. Drops about 3 mpg with the "winter blend" swill they start selling here end of August, beginning of Sept.

If I remember correctly, I’ve read something about this. I reviewed a tire chart, and the 600x16, and the 670x15, have a very similar diameter, and circumference. Further, they both have an aspect ratio somewhere between 80-90. When Chrysler went to smaller wheels, to keep the speedometer accurate, they just went to a larger diameter tire, to compensate for the smaller wheel. A 600x16 is equivalent to a contemporary 185/R70x15, while the 670x15 is equivalent to a contemporary 205/R75x15. Hope this is helpful. Regards . . .

Since I wasn’t performing a points-important restoration, I use what works, and is relatively inexpensive, rather than the exact restoration item. So, I used some generic stuff that I got from Wichita Trimming, Wichita, Kansas. It has a rectangular cross-section (no indentation in the center), and it was self-adhesive on the back, so installing was simple. It may, or may not, be acceptable for you, dependent upon the degree of originality you’re after. Regards . . . . .

Thanks for the information. I ordered all new shackles from DCM. I have been really happy with the parts I have gotten from them already. This truck was originally my father in laws and will eventually pass on to the kids (they are adults but not really into fixing and working on old things). I want to make it as maintenance free and safe to drive as I can while still retaining the spirit of the original truck.

yard art for my neighbor's 5 yr old a few years back

And we know something about "bumps" in the road in Iowa.

That's the original correct bumper for sure. 1951-52 Chrysler bumpers six and eight all models look the same except Imperial and Crown Imperial.

really nice custom manifolds. Well done!

I used Redline as well and am very satisfied with the service and the result.

Maybe,but I have heard a lot of good reports about the WD-40 Rust Inhibitor,too. Before discovering Kroil,my standard "unstick stuff" product was a home mixture of regular WD-40 and ATF. Anything that wouldn't free up and turn using a breaker bar after sitting for an hour got the valves closed and 150 psi or so of air pressure to push the oil past the rings. I would just sit in a chair next to the car and drink coffee and read a book until I could hear the air making "glub,glub,glub" noises out of the base. I would then move on to the next cylinder and repeat until they all had ATF/WD-40 forced past the rings,and would then turn the engine over using a breaker bar on the balancer nut. The DeSoto hemi was/is a special challenge. I bought it off a prison guard in Georgia that had been called up in the reserves and sent to the Muddle East. The kids in his neighborhood knew he was a prison guard,and they knew he was gone,so one or more of them pulled the plugs and packed the cylinders full of that red Georgia clay. I discovered this when I went to squirt oil in the cylinders before trying to turn it over. No way was I going to try to spin the engine without pulling the heads and cleaning everything up first. Standard bore with no ridges,too! I am confident that once I put the heads back on and put pressure on each cylinder that it will free up. There were a few cylinders already allowing the Kroil to seep past the rings using nothing but the force of gravity.

air foils up for cornering.....now you know the rest of the story for Midget racing ...lol