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You know how it is....gotta fill the tank with That Good Gulf Gasoline on the way back to the house.......price was only 19 cents/gallon...... The back story----several years ago the historical buffs in our town decided to save one of the oldest gas stations in the state of Alabama instead of seeing it demolished. It has been restored and is a favorite site for old car photos.

One of the things I ponder every so often is the history that an object like a car has seen. My 1952 Suburban was built during the Korean war and it’s chrome plating suffered for it. The metal in the fenders is thinner than my 1949. In the time that passed since there has been momentous technological change. America of 1952 is not the same place as America of 2019, nor are the people the same. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren can talk openly about being Socialists where as in 1952 that conversation would have occurred in hushed whispers listened to by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. The cars go on with a certain immortally, being passed from one generation to another. You begin to realize you don’t own your car, you merely have stewardship of it. If you are a good steward it will last much longer than you can even imagine.

Got my bed wood from Bedwoodandparts.com in pine and have cut, drilled and test fitted. Always a little nerve racking to make those first cuts! Thanks to many who have written about their install and helped answer my questions. Now I just need a couple of decent days to paint it black and do the final install. The wood is nice and came nicely sanded and grooved for the strips.

Brought it home today. Got the builder's name from the title. Located him via the interweb and gave him a call. Big surprise for both of us. He had purchased the truck as a partially complete project and got it to running and driving shape. Then he sold it to the man I bought it from who did nothing with it for 3 years. I learned that the donor car was a 74 Buick Skylark ( apologies to Frank The Elder}. Front clip with p/s and p/b. 350/auto trans. Tilt column, rear trailing arm suspension and gas tank. Not my choice for a donor but it is what it is. The work is well done and the truck runs well. Some minor issues from sitting, Brakes drag and a vibration around 60 mph. I will address these issues and put a decent seat in it. And drive the snot out of it as I make it mine.

Personally I use Sinclair

Here is my '51 pickup at the local Cars & Coffee; it was the only Dodge pick up of any era. Lots of people told me that they often see Ford or Chevy '50's pickups, but, never a Dodge. They were very complimentary.

Cheers here’s that and a link to a video I made playing with imovie

I know about that website.

If you need some info on the '33 Plymouth, this website might be useful - http://www.ply33.com/ ? Apparently he is a top bloke too.

I don't recall the particulars but I suspect there was some state historical grant money involved. Upkeep is by our local city employees. Our town is big on historical districts, lots of interest in this sort of thing. We still have a for-real downtown square with a 1900 courthouse that is the site of several events and a couple of big car shows. Here is another shot showing the entire building:

Wooo Hoooo IT WORKS and I have to say a big thankyou for the inspiration to have a go at this radio. I went through and changed out the old paper capacitors for new film type (some not the correct values as I cannot get them locally) removed the cover from the vibrator cleaned and reassembled it. You can hardly hear it now with no volume. There is still a lot to be done. Hopefully a better aerial than the screwdriver I have stuck in there now will clean up some of the static. A lot of wires still to be replaced. I replaced a few badly rotted ones on the way but I did not want to get to carried away if it did not work. I have had 3 or 4 hours listening to it while cleaning the head and cables with a bit of lube being applied where required. It all turns a lot smoother now. I am getting about 6 or 7 channels at the moment from reasonably clear to some real fuzzy ones but its about 2 am here so we will see how we go during the daylight hours. Its going to be a while before I can go Bluetooth, wifi or what ever it is, but I am going to try to cut in the wires and switch to get it ready. Will test it by taking feed from the computer if I can. Thanks again all Tony

Just a reminder. Don't forget to switch to winter air in your tires and anti freeze for your blinker fluid.

Also make sure to change the air in your tires from Summer air to Winter air to avoid flat tires in the cold weather. ?

...there's refrigerator magnates all over our fridge...

I have thought about this with my '49 P18 too. Being it saw so few miles in the past 30 years mine had to have spent much of its time in storage which is kind of sad to me. I've enjoyed having it out on the road quite a bit since I got it road worthy this summer. Someone commented to me over the weekend how they enjoy the fact that I actually drive the car. (He has a '51 Buick) My response was something like "if we don't drive them, then what's the point?!" It is better for the cars mechanically and physically for them to be driven! Obviously the proper maintenance and discretion is warranted. The main thing is that we enjoy them while we have them right?!

I am sending the cam off to Isky today. The engine came out of some large machine that needed a big engine driven hydraulic pump like a forklift. The hydraulic pump required a gear driven camshaft as it was driven off the cam gear. A gear driven cam turns the opposite direction than a chain driven cam. Chrysler making cams for both chain and gear drives enabled boat builders to have twin engine boats with counter rotating props. A gear drive cam assembled with a chain drive and a reverse turning starter would happily run backwards. An easy way to determine which way a cam turns is to look at cylinder number one’s exhaust lobe. The intake closely follows it. So looking on end if the exhaust lobe is to the top right and the intake is to the top left it is chain driven. A gear drive would be exhaust top left and intake top right. A fun factoid to impress your friends! Chrysler gear drive cams have the gear pressed on the cam and I am loath to remove it, so Isky gets the whole assembly. With the gear on it this is easily the heaviest cam I’ve ever handled! The presents of the hydraulic pump forced the relocation of the fuel pump (they moved the eccentric on the cam too) to the boss towards the flywheel and I am sure an upwards exhaust pipe. I asked for Isky’s Max #1 Flathead Ford V8 grind. Which should cause no dramatics as the V8 cam is gear driven too. After dealing with Flathead Fords there sure is a lot to like about this Chrysler! Like an extra 10 cubic inches over a Mercury.

Oh it was full service

Pretty cheap, in good condition and delivered right to the door.

A sense of History is one thing(of many) i admire about the South.

Nice shot, very artsy. Bet that would look great as a B&W photo.

All they did was grind a stock set of bolts to fit the existing hole. I will do what I did on the 251. Flatten the top and bottom and use the ARP 315C bolts. Worked so far for 40K plus miles...

And why are you hanging out with Fiends anyway.......lol.

Nov. 2: One more picture on our way out. The previous picture was when we got back. I had stopped for coffee and a donut on the way home. The coffee was glorious as I was kind of chilled after putting the car away. ?

Nov. 2: Pretty much all of the leaves from our trees are on the ground.

Nov 2: Mack likes to ride along. I had the heat going as it is only about 25 degrees and Mack hardly has any hair to keep him warm. ?

Halloween cruise 2019. Great nite for a ride. Heater is great! Headed home now to man the front door...

Just because someone put $16,000 into a project doesn't mean that it is worth anywhere near that amount. My rough rule of thumb when I was fixing up my old Plymouth was that for every dollar I put into it I was raising the value by 25 cents. And in many cases I think I was optimistic about that. I strongly believe that the cheapest way to have a nice vehicle is to buy it completed.