Dan Hiebert

And some more photos. Gonna see how many I can squeeze into one post here... '27 Hudson Nice to see this '56 Buick. It used to belong to a friend up here who died a couple years ago. It has supposedly been featured in at least one magazine. Some observations: Don't know if it's a northeast / Maine thing or not, but I've noticed at several shows up here that entries pick their own class. This is the first place I've been where they do that. A trend in owners setting their chairs up in front of their cars. Makes it hard for spectators and other participants to check out the line-up. I also noticed that the ones sitting behind their cars tend to be the most talkative. As PA noted, an increasing number of vermin. There were at least 20 rat rods at this show. A lot of pick-up trucks. Our show up here had twice as many as last year. At least 1/3 of this show's entries were trucks. Still, infinitely better than sitting at home watching cartoons...or mowing the lawn.

More photos: This show had a Mopar Row. A couple of Darts showed up later. Engine in the above brown Dodge. Obligatory Lil Red Express truck. And this show had two! "Dubbed" Plymouth There quite a few rat rods. My wife doesn't get this style. I don't particularly care for it but like to check out the amount of work and ingenuity that goes into some of them. This one was the only Mopar, a "Dodge".

Last Sunday we went down to Brewer, ME to hang-out with some friends at the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1, annual car show. Great day, although a tad warm for Mainers (mid-80's, but no shade and no breeze). Talked with a bunch of car people, and hopefully made some new friends. Even met a Forum haunter, said he frequents the Forum a lot, but doesn't post. I'll leave him anonymous, he'll probably see this if he wants to volunteer his info. Anyway, cut to the chase - photos! Keeping it close to our preferred make. This was my favorite, an immaculate Packard. Flawless "Packard Maroon" paint. The fellow's car I mentioned above. In the family for a couple generations. Really nice guy. This P15 was at our show a couple of weeks ago, too. Although the blue P15 has a shaved exterior, he had this really neat feature added to the pinstriping.

"Many" years ago, Texas was going to go to the State run drive-through mega-inspection station method. Early to mid '90s. I don't remember what the reasoning was. (I'm thinking a la NJ, but don't know if they still do it that way, but they did back then.) Passed legislation, stations built, solicitation to hire State employed inspectors, etc. No consideration for small towns that didn't have the population to deem them worthy of a State inspection station, other than reducing the number of licensed garages. Not only did the places that had been doing inspections raise a stink, but the general public fought it tooth and nail from the get-go. In part due to the ambiance Los Control notes that we did not want to lose. There were a couple of garages I enjoyed taking our vehicles to for their inspection. The stations sat unused for a year or two while the issue was debated (in court, I think, don't remember what the death knell was exactly) then the project was abandoned all together. Back to my favorite garages for entertainment by the quirky proprietors and their cats and/or dogs. One had a parrot.

I've got a decrepit set of port-a-walls on the ol' Terraplane. They probably looked pretty good when new but now only look OK when the car is going down the road and you're watching from behind the dirty windows of your house. I've no idea how old they are, a good guess would be about 50 years old.

Hang in there...just a couple more weeks until autumn. Leaves are turning up here.

I've seen it and heard of it occasionally. Last few times was folks on this Forum trying to make sense of it. When I saw it, it was usually an "old hand" at a garage. Only answer to "why?" I can remember was to tell if the oil was burnt. When I heard about it, it was usually - again - and old hand that was trying to get the new guy to taste oil so they could make fun of him.

Welcome! Nice '34. I like the original patina. I also like Mr. Chrysler's prewar styling with the long hood. To echo Marc's query, do you know the story on that green building? Looks similar to a prefab gas station I saw in a salvage yard in NM many years ago.

Our '48 D24 does not have those. My only assumption would be that a PO added them for what was to them a solution for something we can only guess at.

Along the lines of olddoge41's favored trap, up here the camp owners use "camp traps". Most camps out in the willywags are vacant for months at a time, so resetting one-mouse-at-a-time traps is not feasible or effective. Below is a photo of a camp trap set up in the Maine Warden Service cabin at Daaquam. Pop can coated with peanut butter in this case. Critter scurries (that's what mice do - scurry) up the plank, hops onto the can, can spins, critter plunges into the depths of the bucket into usually just water. Drowns. Repeat. This particular trap was quite gross, had about a year's worth of mouse soup in it. I've discovered quite by accident (left a bucket of anti-freeze that I had drained from the Terraplane out and uncovered for a couple weeks) that putting anti-freeze in the bucket will kill the mice pretty quick and preserves them to a degree that they don't stink. (I know folks in the southwest that tan snake hides with anti-freeze.)

Yes, good rule to follow, if there is/was one, plan for more. Rodents are abundant up here, I always plan for a battle every fall when they're looking for a pace to winter, and through winter since I keep my shop heated. Little buggers got into my VW Beetle a couple years ago, destroyed the glove box to make their nest, I still get puffs of carboard shavings once in a while when I open vents, but I got them out in time to avoid more serious damage or even any odor. It was only a few days between parking it and finding that they had infiltrated it. All the service shops up here do a nest removal routine in the spring for folks who park their cars outside. Mothballs, dryer sheets, and such don't really keep rodents out of cars, but they do keep them from nesting in them. I've never tried those sonic repellent devices, don't know anyone who has.

I dunno, "heat wave" here this week, too. Got up to 87 yesterday!

Awesome show (for these parts). Perfect weather, mid 70's, gentle breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. Canadians were well represented as we had hoped, but current inflation kept many away since it's an overnighter for a lot of folks - One of the downfalls of doing a show this far from "civilization". Two "new" P15s made it, one well restored to original, one nicely hot-rodded. A smattering of other MoPars. Didn't take any of our cars, and I didn't get any photos, although I'll try to dig a couple up from other folks later this week. Too busy helping run the show this year. Although I did get to partake in my favorite part of car shows, talking to other owners, making new friends, and talking-up our hobby with folks that think we're mostly nuts for doing this stuff.

If I do, it'll have to be a day trip. I've been following along but have two things stacked against me; 1) the ol' D24 is still 10-7 (out of service) without a radiator; and 2) current gas prices and inflation vs. my income. Burned our spare change up on that trip to New Mexico.

The companies that cater mostly to racers, (Summit, Jegs, ETC.), sell various methods of insulation for fuel lines. A couple of our local auto parts houses up here sell it too, but with limited options. I'm with BryanG, ethanol improves the vaporization of gasoline, which means it also improves the potential for vapor lock. Finding straight gas, and/or anything that keeps the fuel system cooler will help. Electric fuel pumps help immensely.

One of those pearls of wisdom about the engines in our cars - hardened valve seats. Engineered in part to extend the life of Chrysler product engines, not because of unleaded fuel, which probably wasn't much of a thought at the time. Higher octane fuel is to reduce or eliminate pinging in higher compression engines than what we have. They'll run a little hotter, but other than that, it won't hurt them, but it isn't at all necessary.

Annual Show & Shine weekend is August 27-28. Rain or shine. Located at the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum in Littleton, ME. Right off US-1 (also the location of Pluto in the University of Maine Presque Isle's scale model of the solar system that runs along US-1...if you're into that). Registration is free, donations accepted, and although I'm VP of the North Country Cruisers Car Club, I'm still a little foggy on how many classes we have, either 20, 21, or 22, the crew keeps waffling on that during meetings when I'm not present. Pre-registration starts at 0800 on Saturday, with an ice cream run (Houlton Farms Dairy, mmmm!) starting at 1400 from the Museum. Bonfire at one of the member's house that night (gotta show up to find out who.) Registration begins at 0800 Sunday, awards at 1400. Judged by owners and spectators, NCC members' cars aren't judged. A little over 160 cars last year, this year the border is open, and we usually get another 50-60 really nice cars from Canada (we've traditionally had right around 200 cars each show, pretty good for northern Maine). Food trailer, Silent Auction, teeter-totter, DJ, give-aways, Blind-man's Bluff ATV course. Lots of fun. I know it's a haul for everyone, but if you find yourself in the vicinity of the northern beginning / end of I-95 that weekend, it would be worth a visit.

Ha! Didn't get over 65 here yesterday. Won't get over that again today. Won't get over 80 the rest of the week. But - it did reach 90 Monday for the first time this year, for maybe five or ten minutes. We missed a week of mid to upper 80's with high humidity. Not as humid here as one would think, usually in the 30-50% range, a week or two of being miserable in late July, early August. Drove through all that 100+ heat in NM, TX, OK, and AR last week. 90's everywhere else. Not so bad in "dry" NM and TX, (my Dad was complaining about how humid it was in NM - I scoffed - it was no more than 20% due to "monsoon season") started moistening up in OK...ugh!

Not a former Marine myself, but I've been surrounded by them for a very long time. I know former Marines that would be offended by you flying the USMC flag if you were not one yourself. Those tend to be of a younger, more selfish generation. None of the "older" former Marines I know would be offended, but they would want to know if you served, then be appreciative of you honoring your relatives' service. As those young'uns age, their attitudes tend to change to that of the older Vets.

Hi all! Just returned to Maine from New Mexico. A bit of a road trip taking (formerly) our Jeep Patriot to our daughter in Ruidoso and returning with her '63 Falcon (Futura 2-dr hardtop). It's the same car I posted about "completing" back in 2014. Gonna do a better restoration on it, there's a few things I wanted to do, but either didn't know how at the time, or didn't have time to do. As if I needed another project. Anyway, it was a really good trip, visited my Dad in Caballo, mountain hikes, time with family, etc. And, no, I didn't dare look to see if that Plymouth pick-up was still for sale in Ruidoso. Depressing part was that I finally had time to visit the salvage yards I used to haunt when we lived in the area 20 years ago, a couple of which yielded significant parts for the D24 and her stablemates. Every single one of them (7) have gotten rid of their older inventory to make room for newer vehicles. Most changed ownership as well. One (my favorite due to the amount and variety of old inventory) at least sent most of their good stuff to Desert Valley Auto Parts in Arizona. Two just aren't there any more. Even the VW Beetle place was cleared out. I'd get a glazed look once I mentioned the years I was interested in to the counter guys. Apparently, there's such a huge used car parts market in Mexico that all of the yards in southern NM and west TX cater to that they can barely keep up with, which is surprising once you see the size of the yards outside of El Paso. I imagine you'uns have seen the caravans of auction cars going southbound to slaughter on the Interstates. They're heading for those yards along the border. Customs duties for whole cars going into Mexico tend to prohibit establishing salvage yards there, but parts are easy to import. Just makes finding what we need that much more difficult, as well as eliminating casual junkyard strolls.

I like the Samba forum, just as helpful with my old Beetle as this Forum is with our D24. For a while there, you had to get around the go-to remedy for everything wrong with your VW, that being timing and valve adjustment. Headlights quit? Check your timing and valves - but at one point I think they were being a bit facetious with it. Ulu is right, they are very quick to point out flaws, but they are just as quick to help.

Yep, the bane of working on old cars...dealing with a PO's "repairs".

I've been using a brand named "Starting Line". Wife found a set on-line after I casually mentioned that my old pressure pot gun wasn't up to snuff any more. Not that it wasn't, I just didn't want to use it. I don't remember the vendor, but we bought an HVLP set with three gravity feed guns, one for primer, one for finish, and a smaller one for touch-up work. All three work very well for my skill level. Don't recall the price, but it was under $100 for the set. I'm persnickety with cleaning and maintenance on them, so I just had to dust them off for this last job after they had been unused for about 5 years. I keep them in an airtight 20mm ammo box, which probably helps.

Personally, I like the Bombardier Blue more than the Strato Blue. To me, it just looks more in sync with the styling of these cars. Nice color, but the Strato is just too blue.

I am not familiar with California's VOC laws by any means, but I don't have any difficulty getting acrylic enamel here in Maine. And, if you taught high school kids to paint cars, you know what you're doing both equipment and safety wise, so you won't hear any of that from me. I looked into Auto Color Library when I painted my daughter's car several years ago, I was impressed by what colors are available, but ended up using NAPA's Martin Senour acrylic enamel for the color coat, on top of their Acme branded urethane primer. More to do with time to obtain the paint than anything else. I did not paint the car an original color but could have obtained something really close from NAPA had I chosen to. I did use the system ("CrossFire") with a hardener and am happy with the results, I did not need to polish it. I just finished the color coat on my brother-in-law's car Sunday, used NAPA's Omni (it's a PPG paint, I think) acrylic enamel (Ford black, easy to match), but did not use a hardener. And, yes, I'm still waiting for the paint to cure enough to cut and polish. I only need to polish where I blended on a couple panels. I only bought a quart, but it would have come out to a bit over $200 for a gallon. I already had primer. When I painted our D24 thirty or so years ago, I used acrylic enamel, did not use a hardener, did not need to polish it, and that paint is still holding up, albeit starting to look like a 30-year old paint job. That was a PPG paint, but I don't remember if it had a specific name. Drawn out way of saying I like acrylic enamel but am on the fence with hardeners.