Pete

When my '38 Dodge pickup came into our family forty some years ago, it had a old brass doorknob for a shift knob that's shaped much like Keith's aluminum one. It's been on there ever since. It's just part of that truck. Pete

If the '38 Dodge truck has the original drive train, the engine would be the 25" long block, and the tranny would be a non-syncro crash box. Pete

I had American Honeycomb work on my '39 Plymouth radiator a few years ago. I'm very pleased with his work. Pete

Sniper, do you have a link for that laptop scope adapter? Pete

I had my '39 Plymouth out the past two days. Drove a total of about 80 miles to shake it down. Car started and drove like it was parked last week. We're in Vermont and I have to wait until the snow pile in front of the garage door melted. Today I'll drive it about 3 hours through the Green Mountains to a car club meeting and back. Gotta love it! Pete

I tried LED headlight bulbs in my P8. They were very bright, but also very unfocused. They did not play well with the reflector shape at all. They were useless and dangerous for night driving. I'm currently running halogen bulbs with the original reflectors which work much better than either the tungsten or LED bulbs. Also running an alternator to handle the increased current load. Pete

Sam, I got my front vent window rubber for my '39 from AB. It fit well and was easy to work with. Your mileage may vary. You should be able to return if you don't make any cuts. I tried the Steele product in my rear vent windows. It as a terrible fit. For one thing, it as was too thick. I actually cracked the rear vent window glass when I pushed it closed. This was at the beginning of the pandemic. My local glass place couldn't get the correct tinted glass. That never happened before. I ordered it online. I took months to receive it, and right at the beginning of the summer driving season. Pete

For what it's worth, I could not find rear vent window rubber that fit well on my '39 sedan. I tried rubber from 3 different vendors. Steele was the worst. I finally went with rubber from AB. Not perfect, but better than the others. Pete

Posted in error.

Eneto, We don't have a separate meter on the barn's mini-splits. Our house is all electric except fuel oil heat and a wood stove. We bought 4 cords of wood last spring before the prices went way up. We burn a lot of wood and are using a lot less fuel oil than in the past. To be clear the furnace and the wood stove are in the house, not in the barn. In the barn we have two separate heat pumps / mini-splits, one for each side. That way when when of us is using their half we're not paying to boost the heat on the other side, which we leave set to 50. If I'm out there for only an hour or so, I don't turn the heat up. The mini-splits are also air conditioners, but I only use that once or twice during the summer. We only wanted the heat, but when we bought it there was only heat and a/c. We also have a solar tracker and a big battery backup, which is another reason it's hard to calculate how much it costs to heat the barn. The battery backup is useful as we get a number of power outages here in Vermont. No going out in a blizzard to start a generator. Pete

Los & Merle, You guys are right.There is no bushing on the '38 clutch pedal. The is no exploded diagram in the parts manual, and no such listing there either. The clutch pedal on my truck is incredibly worn -- it looked like there was a missing bushing. Also, since the brake pedal has one I figured the clutch pedal must have have one too. My mechanic is really good at machining bushings. I'll see what he can do with it. Pete

I'm in Vermont. It can get cold here. Once about 15 years ago it got down to -35 Fahrenheit. About 5 years ago we put up an outbuilding, we call it our "barn." One side is my wife's studio, the bigger side in for my old cars. We insulated the heck out of it and installed a heat pump and mini-splits. We keep it at 50 degrees F when we not using it, as that is its lowest setting. So far it's also been rodent proof (knock on wood). Makes working out there in the winter a lot better than when I had a nylon Quonset hut with a gravel floor. Also makes winter car storage quick and easy. I'm not ever moving. Pete

For years I lived with a wobbly clutch pedal on my '38 Dodge half ton. It was so loose that when depressed it would hit the contacts on the dimmer switch, with caused the fuse in the headlight relay I installed to blow. Temp fix was to put a lot of electrical tape on the dimmer switch. This past year I'm disassembling the truck for the rebuild/restore. Pulled the pedals. The clutch pedal had absolutely no bushing in it. None. It appears a PO removed the bushing and stuck the pedal back in. Yeeesh! Pete

Optima has a very specific method on their web site for charging/saving one of their completely discharged batteries. Ask me how I know. Pete