keithb7

To clarify my statement above: "My ‘38 Chrysler with OD cruises along nicely at 60-65. It’ll probably go faster too. Yet for whatever reason, I have no desire to do so." That does not imply that I am driving at 45-50 mph on the interstate. I have yet to drive my '38 on multi-lane high speed, hi-ways. I drive it in town and on single lane country roads. I have no desire to drive it on interstate roads or be in anyone's way. My car offers great feel and road feedback at up to 50 mph. Beyond that, it starts to feel a little less stable. Getting progressively worse as speed increases. Having about an 8" square contact patch between the tire and the road likely contributes to that. Sure it'll go faster. Higher rates of speed is not exciting to me. Nor is the sudden stop if a crash occurs. So I stay away from dangerous driving conditions with my stock car. I drive it how it was engineered to be driven. I stay out of the way of others and happily cruise up to 55 or so MPH whenever I am comfortable. If I wanted something that travelled better at higher speeds and stopped on a dime, I'd have considered a different car than my '38 Chrysler.

Are we turning on each other? A song lyric comes to mind. Live and let die.

My ‘38 Chysler with OD cruises along nicely at 60-65. It’ll probably go faster too. Yet for whatever reason, I have no desire to do so. I many cases as the miles pass, you have a lot more in the rear view mirror. Things you have passed. It alters your perspective about what you want to see coming at you thru the windshield.

This one here looks like a good option to me: https://www.brakelighter.com/brakelighter-6v-antique-car-3rd-light-p/tl-6.htm I keep trying to order one and have it shipped to Canada. Seems they have no interest. They must be flat out trying to keep up with orders within the USA alone.

A 1940 Desoto is a very cool car. I can't image the engineers ever had any intentions of it seeing Dallas Hi-way speeds in 2021. I am not sure what you are working with there now. Thinking about Dallas freeway travel: Have you thought about brakes? Suspension? Steering? The need to keep your body in one piece when travelling at 70+ MPH? These are not things the engineers had in mind when the car was designed. It can be done. It won't be cheap. My advice is to consider all the areas that need improvment. Not just engine power and speed. Maybe tell us a little more about the current state of the car . Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

I look at it this way: (It helps my little pea brain grasp the subject of inflation) In 1940, say you spent a $1,000 on a brand new Desoto car. Good choice! What if you put that $1000 in an envelope in 1940? You hid it under a mattress, and you pulled it out today, it's still only $1000. You wont get much for it compared to 1940. Suppose for example, back in 1940 you put that $1000 into the hands of a trusted investor. He worked that money buying stocks and bonds. Mutual funds. Whatever. Even if some years you saw a lousy rate of investment growth, that original $1000 should now be worth the price of a brand new car today. Give or take a little. In the original example the 1950 truck was $1400. Can you get a new truck today for $60,000? The value that was pegged as today's fuel prices in post 1 above. I'd say yes, you can get a new truck for $60,000. 2 wheel drive. Basic truck with few options. Still, it's going to be way more plush than a 1950. Hiding cash in a mattress, does little good. Unless the apocalypse arrives. So far that hasn't happened.

After a week here of breaking all-time heat records, last night we had 29,000 lightening strikes recorded in BC. I hear choppers are out this morning with water baskets mopping up small fires. We still have 2 more months of forest fire season to deal with! The RV will stay packed and ready to go. There is just the two of us here. I opted to close the garage doors on my classics and leave them to fate. My wife can't get to work every day in a '38 Mopar. Our big diesel truck and RV were priority #1. So we could reside somewhere, somehow, if the house was torched to the ground. Wife took her newer car and we headed out. It was the right, practical decision. Shelters and hotels are already full from displaced local residents from other fires in the area. We at least had a place prepared, on wheels to shelter, eat, and sleep. How they managed to knock this fire down last night is amazing.

This shows the situation last night. We reside near the top right of this photo.

Interesting night. Out for a brief cruise with my wife in our ‘38 Chrysler. At 8pm a Thunderstorm develops. Lightning hits the ground. A fire quickly ignites. Entire neighborhoods werev quickly evacuated. Many fire trucks attended and were able to get it extinguished. Lightning all around us all evening. We’re all loaded up now. I Hooked the RV up to the truck and grabbed irreplaceable items. Ready to leave at a moment’s notice if we need to. With so much lightning strikes still occurring another fire may ignite tonight. Its a weird feeling to park your old car in the garage. All the good times, the memories run through your head. I was thinking as I turned out the light, it may be the last time I see the car and my garage. Thankfully that didn’t happen tonight. Scary times out west here. Keith

-Leaves the Nissan 370z home and takes the ‘47 Plymouth. Were you adopted by chance? We could be siblings. Glad to see you are building confidence in the car. I’ve been through the same. I’m still reluctant to go over 100 miles or so from home. Not sure why. I put 2200 good miles on my old ‘38 Plymouth last summer. Was feeling pretty good with it.

I bought some of these stacking cases branded as Milwaukee. They lock together. They have parts bins in them. I am quite happy with them. All my hardware is sorted. Smaller spare parts, spare ignition points and rotors. Caps. Condensers. Light bulbs. Switches. Gaskets, shims. Etc. A good system that I recommend!

I am very diligent about putting things back in their assigned spots, 99% of the time. The other 1%? Darn I can waste time searching. Seems like 99% of the time I am looking for 1% of my missing tools. What gets under my skin is when someone else in this house (my lovely wife) "borrows" a tool unbeknownst to me. Then it does not get returned. "By accident", she claims. “I meant to put it back”....Of course dear, I understand. The result is I am wasting 15 minutes trying to find it. Tools that "forgot" to get put back I swear, are akin to driving deck screws into my skull. Wasted time searching, for nothing,

Mighty fine! Looking fantastic.

Well that escalated fast. Lytton is no more, burned out. This photo is my town this morning. Lightly snowing ash too. Same situation in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and several other summers I can recall. Seems to stick around most of the summer. We have a problem. The prairies are starting to look favorable.

Help me understand this shim thing....So a crank main journal may be worn .003 or so. Bearing may be knocking. Oil pressure down etc. Yet for some reason someone does want to pull crank and turn it down to .010 and buy new correct sized bearings. So they stick a 0.003 shim up behind the bearing. Maybe use a new stock size bearing again. Torque everything down? Cause the bearing to deflect in the bore and re-shape itself to the main journal? That really sounds like a recipe for disaster. Low speed cruising around town maybe ok for years. Extended hi-way travel? Sounds like a hail-mary fix to me. Is it odd that only one cap would have this. Dirty oil, lack of maintenance, sludge build up would likely affect all mains and rods. No? Maybe the port that feeds that particular main bearing was sludged up bad. Worse than all the others. I think an align bore would likely fix up all the main caps. Mill 'em down. Then bore everything back to straight, thru the mains. Would this move the crank up to the center of the block .002 or so? Whatever was milled off. Lowering your compression ratio a teeny amount? Mill your head and split the difference!

Give ‘er. Best way to sort it out. Find the issues by driving it. Get AAA coverage! I’m good for 200 or so miles, a tow home.

I have a good supply of old Mopar hardware. I salvage all I can. Nuts, bolts, washers, springs, clips. Everything. I have them separated into divided bins by size. Excellent quality. As mentioned you may not readily find better today.

@RobertKBSpeaking of Lytton and Forest Fires. This just in. Lytton may be leveled by the morning. https://www.castanetkamloops.net/news/BC/338719/Reports-coming-in-of-a-massive-fire-in-the-village-of-Lytton?fbclid=IwAR3jSJNThVQBPgdkMmIQoEEI1gyfXZlt5spxOQ0noI-0blcLMfvPk86BCkU#338719

Typical summer here over the past 3-4 years. Last year was half decent. Did not get smoky ‘till the end of August

Lytton. A 1.5 hr drive from here. I’d say there ia a bit of spill over. Lol. They put their weather station in the hottest possible place. It gets the sleepy little town in the media all the time Inside my home tonight. Well past the so called comfort zone. 40 cel (104F) in the living room. Actually everywhere in the house. Good times!

The entire drive home from work this afternoon the car thermometer never budged off 118 F. We’ve migrated to the basement to sleep. The AC quit on my work commuter car. Too hot to troubleshoot it. The forest fires have now started. One is burning completely out of control 10 miles from my city. Smoke is now settling in the valley here. The last several years summer have been feeling like the apocalypse. Forest fire Smoke. Relentless each summer it seems. Its extremely hot and dry here now. Thunderstorms are possible tomorrow.

Awesome, I did not know you had a 39 Plym. Which body style? Any pics shared in another thread that I somehow missed? I'd love to hear more about it. Thanks.

I agree with Richard’s thought process. I just wanted to confirm that in my example, the balls weren’t mixed up. The two balls were the same size. They should not have been. Someone somehow put the incorrect diameter ball in one of the ports.

It is. Seems 90% of the folks here are in the USA. I factored that in and converted. 43 C. Ooh. We just rose to 110F.

I lied. I backed my ‘38 out of my garage at 5am. I Grabbed a coffee and went for a cruise. Quiet roads. It was about 73F. Today we reached the highest temp ever recorded here in my town. It may climb higher yet. Its 4:09 pm local time.