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The only emissions choice these cars had to deal with was whether the occupants were smoking Camels or Lucky Strikes....... ?

Looking great. I love driving my '38 Dodge. Radial tires and 3.23 rear end and she drives like a dream.

I ran to a local auto parts store this evening. Getting parts for my son’s car. Walking back out, a local kid (20-ish) was doing a walk-around inspection on my Plymouth. I walk up and say hi. “Nice car!”, he says. “Holy smokes. How old is it?”, he asks. I like to say, “82 years old”. That shocks ‘em...Then tell them its a 1938. Big grins. The kid says “Ya sure don’t see many of those around, hey?” “Nope. Not around here. Just the one here in Kamloops that I know of.”, I reply. Just a typical day out in the old girl. Not much new to share. Just letting you know were having fun over here. She’s running spectacular. Engine doesn’t spin over 1 full revolution and its running. Smooth as silk. Just rolled to 98,500 miles on the odometer. Can’t hardly wait to roll it over to zero.

Thanks I put a deposit on this today. 1942 Fargo

I was out cruising this afternoon and stopped at an acreage that is a bit shaded. I went up to the road and took this picture. Once I got home and looked at the picture more closely, I was struck by the contrast of greens varying from the lighter green of the car to the darker mature summer green of the trees, with other shades in between. After blue, green is my next favourite colour.

Try your meter on 6 volts. Just be careful to get the polarity correct. It will probably work fine on 6volts, my 70's vintage Sears meter does even though it is labelled for 12 V neg ground.

Back in 1987 I was on a camping/trekking trip to the Tibetan Autonomous Region of the Szechwan Provence in China. On the way to the mountains we were taken to see a the “Temple of Three Kings” which was built to commemorate the completion of some waterworks (canals, etc.). The waterworks themselves were built over 2000 years ago and were still in use. But it wasn't clear to me how old the temple/monument was. So I asked and the answer was, “Not very old, only 500 years”. The elementary school mnemonic of “in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” immediately popped into my head and I started to realize how new everything of European origin in North America is.

Piston speed is a major factor in how fast an engine can be operated safely. Our engines are long-stroke designs which drive up piston speed in comparison to modern short-stroke engines. The problem with high piston speed is not only accelerated wear in the cylinder bore but much higher stress on rod and crank bearings as the piston reverses travel at each end of the stroke. Just for grins I ran the numbers comparing my P15's 218 with my F-150's 3.5 Ecoboost V6. Smaller modern engines will have strokes even shorter than the 3.5 V6 and that is why they often have high redlines. I used the piston speed calculator here: 218 (3.6 L) stroke 4.375" rpm 3600 piston speed 2625 ft/min 3.5 Ecoboost (3.5 L) stroke 3.4" rpm 4700 piston speed 2663 ft/min It is evident that at 3600rpm the 218 is generating the same piston speed as the modern V6 does at 4700 rpm which is close to its 5000 rpm redline. Let's rework the numbers to where many have stated is a sustainable rpm for the 218: 218 rpm 3200 piston speed 2333 ft/min 3.5 Ecoboost rpm 4100 piston speed 2323 I don't think any F-150 owner would want to run their 3.5 at 4100 rpm for an extended period of time. Yet this is the same piston speed that is advocated for our 218's by those who say 80-85% of rated rpm is safe for an extended time. Everyone is free to do as they wish but my P15 (no overdrive, 3.91)is operated between 55-60 mph on the highway in order to keep piston speed (1860 ft/min) in a range that I think is conducive to good engine life.

LSMFT

Typical non OD standard shift transmissions both 3 and 4 speeds are 1 to 1 high gears. The old Machinist that did my engine work told me that cruising rpm that is 85 % of peak HP rpm is sustainable assuming good working condition of the engine. So if your engine developed peak HP is 3600, 85% is around 3200 3300 rpm. You can not compare the noise of these engines to what you are used too with your modern cars. To test this, roll you window down, find a gear in your dd where 3300 rpm at 60 mph. Then drive it for a half hour. Today's cars are geared to go 65 mph at 1200 rpm, barely off idle speed, with all kinds of sound deadening, and electric fans. 2/3 of your old cars roaring at speed is fan noise.

My temp gauge stopped working this past winter when I rewired my 51 Dodge truck. I installed a temporary underdash unit until I find an original replacement. This unit was $10 US and free shipping to Canada. Sender was a direct screw into my 218 and is an electrical sensor, 2 inch gauge with mount. This is the one I got but there are lots similar on Ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/163820684124

...I'm still closer to you than anyone else on the Forum who lives in the U.S.

I always take off in 3rdin my M-5/M-6 Chryslers. ..no acceleration problem...as long as your not trying to race a Tercel off the line.

The risk of removing material from a drum is twofold: these drums have been out of production for decades, so great care has to be exercised to keep them usable...too much material removed from the drum might not be seen from a performance standpoint with new shoes, but as those shoes wear, the wheel cylinder pistons may travel too far in the bore and may get jammed or blow out, causing total brake failure from the ensuing brake fluid loss ? These are not self adjusting brakes, so every 5-10k miles, the brakes have to be measured and adjusted, which is a tedious task but necessary to optimize braking performance. With brake shoe wear, the distance between the shoes and the drums grows, increasing brake engagement time which ultimately lengthens braking distance. A few years ago, I replaced some suspension parts on The Blue Bomber, which amplified the vibration in the rear rotors...when I had them turned, they were under the min.thickness, but I had new brake pads so I ran those old rotors for another 30k without any problems...probably could have put another 10k on them, but had a break in my schedule and replaced them rotors which had 200k on them at that point...this budgetary approach to brake maintenance is kinda in between the lines in the shop manual for our old one tons, with the listing of only the gap between the shoes and the drum and not the maximum diameter

Say .005 was taken off the drum. Doesn't sound like much however I believe some hydraulic and mechanical advantage is lost. Not much I suspect. I need an engineer to help me there! However I have seen the brake pins from the wheel cylinder to the shoes are available in different lengths. Perhaps a slightly longer pin could gain back any possible lost braking force? A friend with a machine shop could prove invaluable! I too like the truck. It's a beauty. Additionally great is to see your son out there showing interest and helping. Hopefully his help is rewarded with driving lessons on that dirt road out in the country side. Set the hook and you've got a gear-head helper for life! I fear my '38 will never see MN. Otherwise I'd surely let him drive it!

This is a meter that I still use. I bought it at a farm auction some years ago, cost was $7.00...

Mom mentioned something about scraping him once he's worn out?

I was given this T shirt in the last few weeks.

charm is only a descriptor for an ugly item that takes way too much time effort and money to change...character is used when the avenue to tweak that charm gets botched.

That's confusing. On a positive ground setup the positive terminal of the coil goes to the points. On a positive ground setup the negative terminal of the coil goes to the ignition switch (should have switched voltage on it).

Reminds me of a story... Several years ago I was riding my Gold Wing down in Tennessee, coming up US441 into Gatlinburg. We were slowly catching a group of Harley riders and I soon realized that we would catch up to them right at the entrance to a tunnel. You can probably guess what they started doing. Well... I happened to have a set of air horns on my Wing, so I thumbed the horn button and held it until I came out the other end of the tunnel. When I exited the tunnel I let off the horns and keyed up the CB mic to say, to my riding buddy behind me, “I can make noise too.” He was laughing so hard he could hardly talk, but he managed to let me know those Harley guys got off the throttles and were looking around trying to figure out where the truck was. He had the same thought as we approached the other riders, and the tunnel, and he knew what I was going to do.

I could use a couple new shirts, my dogs are like my children and off topic. I feed my dogs the same food I eat, I just fix a lil extra for them .... I then feed them ice cream 3 or 4 nights a week to be certain they are to fat to get out of the fenced yard. I know I am cruel, they never turn down ice cream. .... Ice cream for all!

let the speeding commence........complaints will continue, only in another form...