Leaderboard

12-11: Drove the Meadowbrook to work yesterday; first time this week. This morning the kids and I took off to visit my brother. It was a nice drive. Although my brother and I didn't go for a cruise this time, we discussed the Meadowbrook and many other cars we used to own. On the way home we stopped at Kwik Trip for lunch. Also, in the other pic is a sample of a cobblestone street here in Winona. There are a number of them left, and they seem to be holding up despite their age. I'm not certain, but I'm assuming they were laid in the 1920s or 30s. I'll have to research that.

It does look a lot more solid from that angle David, don't let the others get you down, I hope you can make it work for you?

Well,I was putting off the rebuild on my 37 Dodge 1.5 ton pu for as long as possible,and finally managed to put it off for so long I am now unable to do it myself,and had to hire a pro shop to do it for me. The first photo of the truck is what it looked like before it was torn down. It was originally sold new to the city of Newport News,Va as a fire truck. Had a pumper unit sitting in the bed. Still has the pumper tag riveted to the bed,but the pumper is long gone. It was pulled out of a junkyard and slopped together by the previous owner. The chassis was shot,so he put the body on a 72 F-250 4X4 chassis,complete with the 390 V-8,4 speed truck trans,and 4x4 running gear. It was a real hoot to drive,but only once it was moving because it did not have power steering. Didn't have power brakes either,which didn't make it a whole lot of fun to try to stop in a hurry if you were running at any speed. OOPS! Just discovered I don't have those old photos on this computer,so I will have to post them tomorrow. Below are 3 photos I took today. When we pulled the truck apart to redo it,we discovered the 72 F-250 chassis was shot. No real surprise given how the original 4x4 truck was probably ran on the beach for surf fishing. The chassis you see under it in these photos is the 78 Dodge 1/2 ton 4x4 chassis that is going under it now. The engine is a Mopar crate 318 that has never even been started. I am using the front and rear differentials from the F-250 because it is stouter,but using the disc brakes up front from the 78 Dodge. As you can see,the cab rear and floor had some rust issues once we blasted the plastic and paint away,so it was cut out and new panels made. Not finished yet,but on the way. As you can see,my attack cat Sylvia is on guard duty The stock bed is either 9 feet,or 9.5 feet long. I forgot which. Eventually,hopefully,the truck will end up painted the lime green you see on new Jeeps. It attracted a lot of attention while driving it around before we blew it apart,and with any luck at all it is going to look a lot nicer this time. I will try to copy and paste the photos of the truck before we took it apart from my shop computer to this page tomorrow sometime.

Well well, I actually did it! To celebrate, here is a bit of other information.

Well, I am not too savvy with uploads and downloads, but with a little luck I MAY be able to attach a few photos to this post and someone can put them where they belong. Here goes nothing!

Not to come off as callous - but 15 years ago you bought custom wheels that after a few years one started to crack and you had it repaired locally. Then after a few more years the rest started to crack, and again you had them repaired locally. Now 15 years after the initial purchase and much 3rd party welding, you are just now trying to contact the manufacturer? Why? As far as they are concerned there is nothing for them to do, except perhaps sell you a new set. You might have had something the first time you saw a crack, but after all the years and all the welding - they are free and clear.

Put it it the very back of a drawer for the next person to ask what it is. I would not use it.

Key words there are "up to"... May only add 0.0001 HP, but could potentially be 'up to' 50 in the perfect mythical application.

A JC Whitney spark booster....adds up to 50 HP! and.....radio suppression included for free.

The oil line with spring under the dash was probably installed to stop the noise and vibration transferring from the engine. The factory installed rubber hose prevents this issue. Trucks don't use the oil gauge flex hose.

I looked at the oil gauge tube again. The line coming from the engine does not have a fexible rubber section. just solid steel line the engine to the gauge. The spring set-up show above apparently provides enough give to keep the line from cracking. I have been driving it for 12 years with no problem. Still, I think that I will replace it wth a new linw with a flexible link.

They are original, 1942 Plymouth skirts. They will "fit" 40/41 Plymouths, but they look "off" when installed. BTW, I have the original MoPar literature on these from 1942 if you need to see for yourself.

I can't tell much about the structure past the engine, but the thing that struck me first is the lack of structure tieing the front 'frame' together. The radiator support is a major part of the stiffness in unibody cars. That would be my first objective. Those sawed off pieces in this pic: would need to be tied together and braced to the towers in my world. I'll be a jack under either of those gaping frame holes would result in a lot of chassis twist.

Just a little history. Mallory was made in Carson City, NV. I used to buy Ford V6 distributors from them converted to 4 cylinder for use on SAAB V4s which used the German Ford V4. The parts used to be interchangeable between all of their distributors then. The company owned a retail outfit called "The Chrome Barn" and sold products from all the performance manufacturers. Somehow management messed up and they went bankrupt. Edelbrock is said to have lost $3 million in the bankruptcy. The fellow who owns "Mr Gasket" bought Mallory from the court and liquidated the "Sig Erson" cam division and moved what wasn't sold to machinery dealers back to Cleveland, Ohio. Needless to say I was not able to maintain my business relationship with them. Selling ten distributors at a time of one part number wasn't good enough for the new owners. I am told they are winding down the brand. The last version of their dual point distributor was pretty long lived. Only one of the points tended to pit. You could leave the unworn points in place or move them to replace the worn ones. The really good news was how long they lasted. I put a Mallory in a 72 Capri and removed it 5 years later when it was traded in. I had well over 50,000 without a tune up! It's a shame what happened to the company and its employees. I think they were worth saving.

Update. You all know it takes a lot of time and work to get this far. Still have some trim to attach.

Maybe that's why they got rid of the ribs in the center of the dash? Or maybe the W series guys have better memories

NYLON, never heard of such a thing? Use brass and be done with it!

My experience with this particular topic is way too shallow to offer any advice about wheels. However....for the benefit of readers who may be just beginning their journey with an old vehicle, what James is experiencing is often the case when changes are made to a car's original design. One change requires another, which requires some more stuff to be changed, then more complications ($$$$$$'s) arise and pretty soon things get complicated. Customization is certainly one of our options, but we often see new owners with big dreams who don't realize the cascading nature of going down the custom path. James, hope you get something figured out that is practical and affordable.

Sunday, December 6: Sunny and near 40F today, so I took the kids out for a ride after I completed a modest amount of work on my '48 B1D. When filling up at Sinclair, a gentleman whom I guess to be in his 80s walked by on his way into the store and said "great car!" I was happy he noticed. We went for about a 50 mile drive. Gosh it was fun! I cycled the heater periodically. One of the pictures shows the BP gas station across the street from Sinclair; out of business for quite some time now.