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55 Fargo

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Everything posted by 55 Fargo

  1. Hey it's about -2 here right now with a viscious north wind, but its sunny crystal clear with amazing blue skies. The thing is when it's this cold, it gets very dry, it's almost like it's colder when you have say 25 degrees and damp humid weather as compared to a calm sunny day when it's -10f, at least that's my experience. Once its -15 to -40, it's cold no matter what.Fred
  2. I was talkin to my mother about the weather today, it' cold but not as bad as it used to be in the past thanx to global warming. My mother remembers one winter around 1944, when the snow drifts were as high as the tops of some of the smaller trees, maybe 12 feet or so. She even recalls the drifts along the old gravel country highway resembling a tunnel the snow was so high on each side of the road. My mother lived pretty close to school, about 1/2 mile, my dad was walikng 2 miles to a one room country school back in the 1940s. People were tougher and had tougher lives in those days, my parents both remember life before electricity in there homes, when the family radio ran on a battery, and at my grandparents country general store they had a generator and batteries to light up the store, the gasoline pump, was just that, it was the old style that you pumped up to allow it to free flow, wish I had that one now...........Fred
  3. In Manitoba as I write this, it's 1 above, with winds gusting at 20 to 38 miles per hour, the windchill factor is -12 f. In Calgary 800 miles to the west where Pat S resides it's -12 and -24 with the windchill. Supposed to be cold here for at least 5 days..........Frosty
  4. All the good old show stars are passing on to the big studio in the sky it seems. I loved this show, Herman's Hot Rod was a real cool George Barris creation, was it not? Ms. Decarlo was a Canadian by birth, born in Vancouver BC............Fred
  5. Hi all, just like to let some of you know how cold it's going to get here this weekend in case you think your weather is been cold. Friday night low of -27, Sat low -15, sun low of -17, and highs during those 3 days of only -10 to 10 above. Right now it's 10 and going up to 20, it's snowing gently up to 2 inches. Oh well we can expect this weather possibly up to 6 weeks in these parts. Good thing I have a heated garage, went out this morning to the garage, the heat was off and it was still 30 inside, it's a detached garage, so there even colder, it dropped down to 3 below at one point last night.........Cheers brrrrrrrrrrrrr its cold
  6. :Larry, I know a feind of mine is thinking of buying my 47 Chrys Parts coupe and turning it into a convertable, he has all the parts to perform this surgery if he feels so inclined. I think the plymouth could look sharp if this is done tastefully and the job is well done. The beauty of fixing up an old car is this, it's yours and you can have it anyway you want it to be, nothing is carved in stone, unless your a purist trying to create a concourse restoration, must of us have drivers, which IMHO its the most practical and fun..........Fred
  7. Hi all, about a year and a half ago I redone my whole brake system on my 48 Chrys. This is what I did, media blasted the M/C and all wheel cyls, then they were honed and new kits installed. There was some pitting in a few wheel cyls, I then honed them a little more and took my chances.The M/C turned out fine and does not leak, 2 wheel cyls are suspect, and have shown slight leakage when the boots have been pulled back, so far I see no leakage in the drums, but the car has not been driven all that much and is really not on the road yet. I also replaced all the steel lines, rubber hoses, had all the shoes re-lined, the front and rear drums machined, the the fronts are now out of spec. Here is my question, I didn't realize I had 10 inch brakes on the front and of course 11 on the back. 11 inch brakes are stock for 48 Chryslers, so someone has obviously jerry rigged the fronts with 10s along the way. My question is this, I want to replace all of the wheel cyls, I plan on buying from Kanters, are these a direct swap, as I have heard of replacement wheel cyls that had longer push pins or different pistons that caused problems, resulting in not being able to install the drums, until the push pins were modified. I also have a pair of 11 inch backing plates and shoes and the hardware from Pat S, should I install these to replace the 10 inch brakes, the drums I got from Pat are in good condition and have a lot of material on them, don't think they were machined much or at all. Now will these 11 inch backing plates bolt right back on to the spindles I now have on my car, if not I have a 47 Chrys parts car in my yard, I can get the necessary parts from it. Any thoughts on this from anyone. One other thing, I am using Dot 5 silicone brake fluid, I have had no problems, and it helps when a car sits a long time between rides, I know some people don't like the silicone, but there is always 2 schools of thought............thanx Fred
  8. Went down to 5 above last night, the garage temp was 32 this morning, the one heater is on low, I have not heard it come on, while in the garage,if it is coming on it's probably once per hour or so........Fred
  9. Jon, have you got any pics of your prep work from beginning to just before getting the car painted, so I can see where I need to be at before I take my car to be painted........Fred
  10. Yow are a very lucky man to have had your Grandad, with you to the age he was. Mine lived until 86, but he was sick off and on the last 10 years, he had a lot of stories to tell of the first world war, fishing as he was a commercial lake fisherman and just about the old days in general. His last vehicle was a 1950 GMC 1/2 ton, and apparently it supposed to be in a field not too far from where I live, I just might go and see if it's really there. If it is his, his name will still be on the side of it, as it was law to have your name on trucks here many years ago...Fred
  11. Hi all, heres a good one, tonight I went out to the garage just to putter and put a few things away, temp inside was 35. I decided to do a few welds on the 48, after I had finished my 4 year old son came in to the shop, I had all 6 lights on overhead and the heaters were shut off. I then noticed it was now 37 inside, my son and I were jawin a bit and he was ridin his bike around the garage. Now here is the answer, when working in the garage have a number of old car guys over, everyone tellin a story, some workin and as I had Alan Jackson singin "Midnight In Montgomery" on the CD player. The room warms up like a barn full of holsteins on a cold Manitoba night. All in fun.........Fred
  12. I was not going to go with a metallic, sounds like your friend got his money's worth, 10 years on a cheap Maaco sounds pretty good. I might paint it myself with a sponge roller techinique using enamel paint, have tried and have seen the results of others, the paint jobs are as good as or bettr than a Maaco enamel cheapie paint job, attached is a 48 Chrys dash, rolled 6 coats with Tremclad(canadian rustoleum), Wild Raspberry, its silky smooth, shiny and has no orange peel, it was wetsanded every 2nd coat and hand poilished at the end, it would be 10 times shinier if buffed with an electric buffer..........Fred
  13. Hi all, today I stopped by my nearest Maaco, we have 3 in Winnipeg. I wanted to see there $350.00 paint job. They had a newer Cavalier with a brand new Acrylic Enamel Paint job, it was a kind of Hunter dark green color, you know it looked real good, had minimal peel, no fish eyes or runs, and was darn shiny. Has this been others experience with maaco in the USA and Canada. Spoke with the lady running things in the office, she told me they use Sherwin Williams paint, and she had two staff members with 30 years experince painting cars, they were very professional and polite. I just may have my car painted there just as soon as I finish the prep work.......Fred
  14. Merle, I belong to a small 40s Canadian Mopar website, out of the 29 members only about 3 to 4 contribute, and maybe another 3 drop a line occasionally, I am it's number 2 member, so I try and contribute to it weekly, just to keep it's pulse rate going, as well as a couple of others, including the mod Ed P...........Fred Ps this is more than an Old Car website forum, it's a brotherhood of fine gentlemen
  15. Hi Larry 2 days ago it was 45 degrees here that is a record high for our area since 1894, the last 2 days it has been around 30 to 32, very mild for us, it is normally about 5 to 10 above during the day here this time of year and nighttime lows are normally -5 to -20.........Fred
  16. You can buy 4800 watt heaters here in my part of Canada for $79.00, these are 220 volt, Ihave 2 in my garage, they work great and heat adequately, they are safe, clean and no flame. But electricity is expensive in some locales, it's cheap here because we have many hydro dams in Manitoba, it's 5.5 cents per Kwh. You can buy these heaters at home depot, Rona, Canadian Tire etc...................Fred
  17. Don't forget running it w/o the t-stat will allow the coolant/water to flow faster thus having less time in the rad , which can also compromise the cooling ability, not trying to tell you what to do, but maybe also try it with a 160 or 180 t-stat, and see how it cools like that, also getting a run with operating temp for 20 miles should give you a bettter indication, than in the yard. Even though your in a southern state, don't think your breaking any heatwaves right now, so your ambient temps are probably in the neighbourhood of 60 degrees or so.........Fred
  18. They were either 4 or 7 pounds I believe, the first pressurized rads were 4 pounds for Mopar in 1951, by 1958 it could have been 7 or 10. Hey just to be on the safe side you could use a 4 or 7 pound cap, it would lower the pressure a bit, but would also lower your boil over point by 2 degrees per pound of pressure. I am sure your cooling would be just as good, the rad design is what is giving you the superior heat transfer, and probably better flow........Fred
  19. All the Best to you , the family and most importantly the new Baby Boy..........................Fred
  20. How about a portable blower type propane heater from Princess Auto ,it would boost your temp, then it could be shut off and you could then use the Salamander heaters. I find my Electric const heaters work very well, the floor is still cold, but if you have the heaters pointing downward and a ceiling fan driving down warm air, it makes a big difference. 2 weeks ago it was a cold -22 celisius day with a very cold north wind, I put both heaters on full blast and with in an hour or so it was 60 fahrenheit and very comfortable to work in. But as you say the floors are cold, if you have to work on the floor, try putting a piece of rigid foam board insulation and ly on top of it, this will keep the cold away from your body, you can even stand on a piece to keep your feet warm........................Fred
  21. Pat, this looks very interesting, right now my garage is heated with 2 -4800 watt construction heaters, the output for both is about 32000 btu. If I put both on the garage iheats up to 60+ degrees in no time at all. Even when it's off it's around 30 to 32 as long as it doesn't get colder than about 10fahrenheit. Today it's about 30 outside and I have the garage at 45, the heaters aren't running all that much. My shop has 8 foot ceilings and is 24 x 36, so that could be the difference, the walls are insulated with R20, and the ceiling is R32. Hydro is only about 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour, which is very cheap..............Fred
  22. Hey Don, is that the 40 pounder method, brakes look good though, might convert mine to disc also.......Fred
  23. I concur with Bob, go to the Old Plymouth website and there is a great article by the Moderator Bill Ward, he goes through a step by step process on how to re-wire and Old Plymouth for 6 volt. I would use 12 to 14 gauge for lights, 10 to 12 gauge for the wiper motor, horns, heater motor, 12 gauge for the head lights. You should also use heavy gauge wire for your battery cables, such as 1/0 or 2/0, but #1 at the very least. Unless you plan on converting it all to 12 volt, then you can use lighter wire, and you would require voltage reducers for the heater motor, wipers, radio. The starter from a 6 v can handle the intermiitent 12 volt use for a time..........Fred
  24. Rhode Island has wiring harnesses, but a lot of guys have got thewmselves a wiring schematic, wire in various colors and gauges and terminal clips, and make your own wiring harness. It's not that difficult with these cars, you can even buy cloth covered wire if you want the original look...good luck
  25. If you can find some decent used ones , you can then media blast them in a blasting cabinet, prime and paint, good as new..........Fred
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