Norm's Coupe

Dennis, I heard the same thing on the news the other day about Pontiac. But........not long after that GM came out and said they had no plans to do away with the marque. They said it was just speculation on the behalf of the news media.

There's also a site called Old Stove Bolt something or another, in addition to the others mentioned. That said, if the motor and tranny is already gone, I'd drop in a 350 crate motor with a 350 turbo in it. Or, a good 283 with power glide tranny.

Eric, I really wouldn't know what Shakey's put on their pizza's, never had one. I always ate the fried chicken. That said guys, around here you can order hors d'oeuvres with your pizza. Things like Italian garlic bread, cheese sticks, salad, etc. Chicken fingers are also on menu's as hors d'oeuvres in a lot of places. I think Don may have either ordered two meals or pizza with the hors d'oeuvres. What I want to know is how Don ate all that stuff.

Actually, sometimes the instructions for tools like this will say you should not wear gloves or loose fitting clothing that could get caught in the wheels and pull you into it. I don't normally wear gloves either when using the grinder or buffer, unless the metal piece I'm working with is very sharp. If I do wear gloves I will wear tight fitting leather work gloves. I have hit the wire wheel a few times with bare fingers and that's a little smarts when it happens. When I hit the wire wheel while wearing gloves, the wheel will dig into the glove and jerk my hand. Either way, I always wear a dust mask, safety glasses and a face shield when using either the buffer, wire wheel, or grinder.

If you want to make the body look new again (except for scratches & dents) on the cheap try the K-Mart brand white paste polishing compound. Keep a bucket of water next to you to constantly rinse the rag you use out close by. Wet the rag, wring it out, then apply a small amount of polish on your rag. Rub that into the paint using small circular motion over one section of the car (like a door or hood). After that has dried rinse the same application rag again and rub that section in again without adding more polish to the rag. Keep repeating that until there is hardly any polish film left on the car at all. You'll see the paint start to shine through the film as you go. After the very light film is dry, then use a clean soft cotton rag to clean off the film. You will probably need to rub a section at least 4 or 5 times to get it rubbed in that good. You should also constantly be rinsing the rag and wringing it out as you rub those sections in. Then move on to another section of the car. When finished the good paint will look like new again, without using any other type of wax. There are pictures of my coupe on my website of before and after I waxed it that way. It does take a while to do that though. Think I spent a couple of hours each day for about a week or so doing mine in small sections like that. That was back in 1995 and it still looks good but could stand a wax job now. But.........can't move my wrist that well anymore to do it like that, so have to find a good buffer to wax it now. I doubt if I can do it that nice with one of those.

Ed, When you cut that bookshelf down be sure to flare the bottom of it like the picture you posted of the shelf stand. That flare is what will help stabilize the stand when you use the buffer.

That would work too. Then you'd have a shelf to keep your bricks of polish. Just a little hint though. Don't go out and buy the bricks of polish like I did at a swap meet years ago. Bought a large brick (about the size a brick of gold or aluminum), forgot the weight but they are about 8 inches long by about 2 1/2 inches thick, top to sides at a swap meet. Have one brick that size for each type of metal. I haven't even scratched the surface on those for years. You don't need much polish so stick to the little sticks. That is, unless you plan on doing it as a business. I would keep the extra wheels either in a plastic bag, or put a door on that shelf to keep the wheels clean. Buffing makes a lot of dust.

Ed, I didn't do much to make the black one found sitting on the street for trash. That one was actually a support stand for an old industrial drum sander that was also sitting in the street for pickup. Took them both. The guy throwing them away said they use to be in the basement of his house. The sander weighed a ton (both all cast iron), don't know how he got it out of his basement. Had to get my son over to help me move that thing and it really sat the back of my van down to the ground. Luckily I only had a few blocks to get home with it. I gave the sander to a guy who owns SeaDog Boats who builds custom wooden boats http://www.seadogboats.com/ because it was too big to keep around the house. But.........kept the support stand to make my buffer stand. On the buffer stand I did not use steel to mount the top mounting plate. Just a piece of 1 x 6, then spray painted the whole thing with black automotive primer. That's what you see there and it worked out great. That stand is actually heavier than the grinder/buffer stands you buy, but it rolls easily when you tilt it on one leg. I would think you could build a stand out of a 4 x 4 anchored in a pail of cement, then just screw a wooden base on top for the buffer. You really don't want to put a buffer or grinder on a bench in my opinion because if you do, it limits the radius you can move things around the wheel. I had my grinder on the bench at one time, and that didn't work out too well because I kept hitting things on the bench when I used it. Especially long or large items. The stand just needs to have a heavy enough stability to keep it from walking or tilting on you. Keep in mind you don't need to put a lot of pressure on an item to grind or buff it. Just lightly hold it up to the wheel and let the wheels do the work. A point of interest for the quality of that stand and drum sander. I looked it up and that brand name went out of business in the 1920's. That's how old that thing was and it still worked.

I've been using SOS pads for years on the stainless and chrome parts of cars. What's nice about it, it's not only abrasive but it's full of soap. The soap is what really does the cleaning and also keeps it from scratching. Trick is to keep a soapy pad with lots of water in it, and it'll clean it like Radioguy said.

Has anyone ever heard of Shakey's Pizza? Don't think they are around anymore. But........back in the 70's and 80's they were a large chain all around the country. They had one of the best "All You Can Eat" bars for lunch that I know of. Well........on that bar was fried chicken and pizza, and, fries. I'm not that much of a Pizza eater myself, but their chicken was great so use to eat lunch there a lot of times. So..........there are some Pizza places that do sell fries with pizza.

Don, Sounds like you got what you ordered. Chicken fingers are just as you described and are not wings. Up here you can get a dinner with just chicken fingers and fries or onion rings. Then they usually give you a little side of sauce to dip the fingers into.

Ed, I made both of my stands. The black one is a cast iron stand someone put out in the street for the garbage men to pick up, so it didn't cost anything. The red one has my grinder on it. That one is made from a 2" diameter piece of galvanized pipe. Set and braced the pipe in a 5 gallon pail, then filled it a little over half full of cement. Cut a piece of heavy flat steel and welded it to a 2" pipe floor flange, then welded that to the pipe for the stand top. Don't know my actual cost. The pipe was scrap pipe. The only thing I had to buy was the cement and the floor flange. The 5 gallon pail was plastic so cut it off after the cement cured. I can just tilt either one of the stands to roll them away from the wall if I need the room to grind, wire brush or buff something.

You see this type of project car at swap meets almost all the time. Some really strange looking ones out there. If you saw the thread mentioning the Jefferson swap meet here, that's a very large meet twice a year. There is at least one project (both finished and unfinished) out there each time. The last one I saw, three of us just stood there and looked at it. It was finished but.......who knew with what. Was a real "What's it". Looked like it had parts from just about every car and maybe a tractor or two. We gave up on trying to figure it out. Would have ask but the owner wasn't around at the time. It was for sale though.

Tim, That's exactly what I was talking about. You are evidently doing it right by putting everything down on paper. But.........you see so many modified cars out there that don't have that info written down some place. Then when the new owner gets it and it needs repair, he's lost. I just thought I'd mention that because I don't believe I've ever seen anyone mention that before.

Even if you had gone today, it would be a repeat of yesterday. Still pouring down here. That place has to be a real mud hole by now. Friday was the only good day and that was short, only from 1 PM to 6 or 7 PM.

Was just skimming through some of the post made in the thread started by "New Guy". Looked like he was getting the usual responses, pro and con to the modifications he wants to do, and that's fine. And, as usual people telling him to bag and label all parts removed as soon as removed, in addition to before pictures being taken. All good advise. But............. There's one thing I've never seen anyone mention about modifying any car, new or old. That's making a list of each part used in the modification and what kind of car that part came from, and how it was installed. Now, to the builder, that's not a problem because he built it. But...........if you ever decide to sell that car, the new owner would have nothing to go by when it needed some repair. I would not consider buying a modified car at all for any price without that kind of information, and some others won't either because it could turn out to be a nightmare trying to figure out what someone else did otherwise.

Actually a project like that could be neat. Don't have to worry about restoring something. Just do your own thing with it, and that's fun. That said, seems the person asking the question is as bad as the seller. Neither know how to spell the word "Dumb".

Greg gave the answer for getting the pin or clip off. Now.........to help prevent flying hammers while trying to kill a bee, maybe invest in a fly swatter to hang in the garage. If it flies off, it won't hurt anything. You can even swat the bee or fly while it's on the glass.

Actually, to do that you would need a larger scanner than most people have at home. Most people in an office or at home can only scan things that are 8.5" wide x 14 inches long max. because that's as large as those scanners go. To make one larger you'd have to go to a graphic arts or printing place to have something like the transmission gasket scanned at full size.

I haven't looked for signs lately, but they are out there. As Tim mentioned just type in "metal sign lucky strike" in an ebay search. If none there, just keep going back and one will probably show up eventually. Also, a lot of people sell metal signs like that on various web sites. Try googling the the same search and you'll probably come up with some site.

Dave, Didn't mean that old trucks should be retired from driving. Just from hauling stuff that will mess it up. It seems a shame to go through all the trouble and expense of restoring an old car or truck just to haul stuff around. Granted hauling dirt, wood chips etc. is not going to scratch or dent the bed. But.......when you have to dig it out of the bed is when the scratches and dents happen. Even carrying around clean lumber etc., you could dent and scratch the bed up. Even if I owned a brand new pickup I wouldn't do that unless I had a liner in the bed. If I wanted a truck to haul stuff, I'd buy an old junker truck to do it with so I wouldn't have to worry about messing up the bed, etc. in it. Guess you'd have to know me like my first wife did. She would always be upset with me when getting in the car. Would complain because she said she had to wipe her feet to get in the car. My current wife has never said that. She keeps her car neater than mine. One speck of mud on the floor and it's off to the car wash. In my van is an old blanket laying in the back and a tarp, both folded up. When I put something back there, I cover the carpet, even if the box is clean that I'm hauling. My van is 14 years old and it's seen a lot of old dirty, greasy parts picked up at swap meets, and stuff from the lumber yard etc, yet there is not a speck of grease on that carpet. The carpet still looks new back there. In my wife's car we have plastic sheeting for her to use when she goes to the garden center, etc. to pick up plants, etc. My coupe does not go to shows because I don't do shows. It will be at various cruise ins and out for pleasure as it was Friday afternoon. Don just thinks it goes nowhere because I don't publicize it and carry a camera to take pictures each time I drive it as he does. Plus, I don't keep score each time it leaves the driveway. It only leaves the driveway when I feel like taking it out of the driveway. Not looking to see if I can put more mileage on it than anyone else does. It's not that important to me.

Adam, That's a nice looking convertible you have in your profile. I've been thinking about trying to get some old car people together maybe once a month. Not so much to form a car club, but just to get together for either a late breakfast (8:30 to 9 AM or so) on either a weekday or weekend morning, or for just a quick lunch someplace. A place where there is a nice parking lot where you could see the cars from inside, if we drove them. Breakfast would probably be better because there is less traffic in the morning. I know of at least one good breakfast place near me that has such a setup with the parking lot. Then another place is out on Appleton Ave. in Menomonee Falls for possible lunches. The one in Menomonee Falls is the B52 next to the old K-Mart/Sears shopping center. That shopping center is not all that active so the parking lot is nice. Not only that, someone mentioned just Friday night you can buy a sandwich, cup of soup and your drink for about 5.25 to $6.00 at the B52. Said he goes there about once a week with a group of volunteers he works with. Even though he doesn't own an old car, he is interested in them and would probably join in the group as well. Since he lives one street over, he would probably ride with me in the coupe. I know there are a few in the near Milwaukee area on the forum. If anyone is interested in doing something like this, PM me and we can maybe get a little group going. It doesn't have to be one of those places mentioned. I was just pointing them out as an example. By the way, if anyone is looking for a P15, there's one listed in the Journal for $995 under "Classic Cars For Sale".

Well..........unless you like being cold and soaked to the bone, you probably didn't miss much. Seems like that's the weather for all the Jefferson meets, and sometimes you can even throw in a little snow to go with it. I use to go to Jefferson twice a year but stopped last year just for that reason. Plus, really don't need anything. That said, here's the report from Jefferson. Brother in law and a couple of other guys we know went. He called when he got home and dried off. Said it was 60 degrees when they arrived around 6:30 or 7 AM. Started pouring rain around 8:30 or 9 AM and a good portion of the vendors covered everything and took cover from the thunderstorms. Then at the same time the temperature went from about 60 degrees to about 38 degrees within about 15 minutes or so. Said it was terrible just like every other year and this was his last trip too. They were on their way home by 9 AM and it rained just about all day since, all three soaked to the bone. So.............unless you are like a Canadian goose with web feet and feathers to keep you warm, you probably didn't miss anything.

Tim, you have nothing to apologize to me about. The yellow brick road we each follow is up to us as individuals. That road also changes for most of us as life goes by. Sometimes it's a change in the road we do ourselves, and sometimes that road changes due to circumstances beyond our control. I've seen it happen to a lot of people I know. Then they are stuck having to get rid of all the things they spent years accumulating so they'd have something to do when they retired. Not necessarily old cars, but other things they had intended to do for fun. As for sitting around and watching life go by, I don't do that either. Besides traveling with the wife, doing shows (live theater), socializing etc., the wife and I have several other hobbies and interest. About 30 of us got together just last night for a fish fry dinner at the Elks Club and had a great time. One of those 30 is also interested in old cars. He ask if I had the Plymouth out yet this year. Just so happened I did have it out yesterday afternoon for a ride since it was about 80 degrees and sunny. Then another woman that I've known for about 25 to 30 years said she didn't know I had an old car. Like I said I've known her and her husband for at least that long. We were both very active back then helping the kids with running the 4-H group, with another couple that we were also active in being cub scout, boy scouts, brownie and girl leaders. Said her father had a pair of the odd shaped old car headlights on each side of the garage side door as regular lights wired to house current. But.........they sold that house, and did keep the lights, but the wiring looks too bad to use. So........told her to give them to me and I'd see if they could be rewired. She wants to put them on their garage. Then, we got off the subject of old cars. There's lots more interesting stuff to talk about, especially when not around old car people. That's probably why some people we've known for years that live nearby don't even know I have an old car. That woman, another one and my wife all take walks together at least twice a week. I just don't talk about my hobbies with other people, unless the subject comes up and neither does my wife. Anyway, that's my yellow brick road for now. Of course, with time, there may be a detour I'll need to take for some reason beyond my control, or that I may change on my own. I've always had a motto of being flexible, both at work and play. By doing so with the hobbies, I don't want to over supply myself with stuff one particular hobby, then get stuck trying to unload that stuff.

Kick, Kick. Really Tim, what would you do with that car if you had it? Put it in that new shelter you built last year? How many cars do you have in there now to work on. I know you say they are future projects. But........you're also doing extensive remodeling on your house, plus working on the 1940 Dodge or Plymouth, and at the same time keeping up with your daily drivers, plus ordinary work around the house like mowing etc, and working full time. With all that to do, even if you worked yourself to the bone for the rest of your life, you'll probably never get all the cars you have now up and running, and looking good.