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

Lot's of Mopars and other fun stuff. A couple of boring bits, but worth watching all the way through. Be sure to start it at the beginning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COon-l5PM3Q&t=215s

My worst breakdown happened on a club tour a few years ago. We were about 3 hours from home up in Vermont's Champlain Lake islands. The cotter pin and bushing failed in the shift linkage and fell out somewhere along the way. No way to get it out of neutral. Stopped at a very busy intersection. Not a popular thing to do. I made a temporary fix by using the ring from from my car keys to replace the lost cotter pin. I finished the tour and made it home. I now always carry spare bushings and cotter pins in my toolbox. Pete

My '39 Plymouth does not have an oiling wick on the speedometer. I just lube the cable with graphite. Pete

The last batteries I bought from both NAPA and O'Reilly's were manufactured by East Penn. Pete

Yep, that's what I use in my oil bath air cleaners. Works well. If you drive in winter conditions you may want to use a lighter oil, then switch back to 50wt for the summer. Pete

I agree with Wallytoo. I've had two Optima 6 volt batteries. Both went bad. One because a mechanic hooked the battery cables backwards, another because the battery was apparently drained and charged too many times. In the second case I followed the charging instructions on the Optima website to bring it back, but it didn't matter. These situations have never happened with a lead acid battery in my experience, so I'm done with Optimas after two expensive lessons. I've read that their quality really suffered when they moved production to Mexico. Pete

I've used Vic's a number of times, and have spoken to them on the phone. They are very helpful and knowledgeable. My experience has been positive. I would use them again. I have not however bought interior parts from them. Pete

I had an issue convincing Danielle that I did indeed own my car because the North Carolina DMV assigned a new "VIN" to it. She is a real stickler, but it all worked out and I got the build info. Pete

I used SEM paint on my QuietRide ABS firewall cover and it's held up well. No complaints. Pete

I finally got my 1939 Plymouth out for a decently long ride. I had a long painful time getting new window glass for my rear vent windows. Lots of problems getting the tinted glass and rubber that wasn't a horrible fit. Didn't want to take it out without the glass in except for short local drives on sunny days. I started that job last January and just finished on Friday. Yesterday I drove it to a car club meeting. All back roads in Vermont. Very hilly and lots of curves. About 2 hours each way. The temperature was in the mid-90s. The temp gauge went up and down like it's supposed to, and never went over 190 degrees even on the long uphills in third gear. The car drove like a dream. I'm a happy boy. One of the club members drove his 1931 Chrysler dual cowl phaeton. A beautiful car. Pete