Dan Hiebert

Assuming your talking about the panels between the body and bumper (everyone calls them something different), I just bought some from Steele Rubber. 1/4" hole x 3/16" high.

I'll echo; put #1 piston at top-dead-center and your distributor rotor will be pointed at #1, too. Then just run your plug wires clockwise in the 153624 firing order. You have to get the #1 lined up per the distributor, you can't always rely on where it "should" be.

New seals will stop leaks as long as the parts are still true. I'd echo avoiding leather, but I'm guessing new kits/seals are all made with neoprene or similar rubber anyway. I don't know how "thin" corn head grease is, but after seeing what regular grease will do (or rather not do) to the worm and sector shaft gears first hand I'd highly recommend the manufacturer's recommended gear oil. But whatever you decide to use needs to get between the moving parts and stay there. The type of lubricant you use shouldn't be based on stopping leaks or convenience.

They were useful in the desert, too. No hood to get in the way of spotting tracks out the windshield.....

Back before my days in the outfit, the Border Patrol wouldn't even order cars with air conditioning. When it started coming standard, a lot of the sector Chief's would order the mechanics to pull the A/C - and the "good time" radios if they came with them. Reasoning was supposed to be to ensure the agents were out of the cars working. "Good time" radios were no biggie, since most of the places we work didn't have good radio for the longest time anyway. A couple sectors still removed the AC into the 1980's, and we were still doing the "post delivery radio delete" into the early '90s in some places. Vinyl seats were the norm, and cool cushions were a commodity.

I didn't even think of looking it up on line, I thought it was an out dated term that hadn't made it into the computer age. Just goes to show you can find anything on the internet I like the "stylish" seat covers, too. I imagine the upholstery was getting pretty long in the tooth by the time the photo was taken.

Greetings all! I was perusing some historical photos and came across this photo of a U.S. Border Patrol auto maintenance garage in Yuma, AZ, taken in 1946. Unless I am mistaken, those are 1942 Plymouths. Early models I'm assuming because they have bright trim. They'd have been patrol cars, our vehicles were black and without any markings until the 50's. They were referred to by or quarry as "Black Marias", but I haven't found anyone that can explain why - other than the obvious, they were painted black, but "Maria" - I don't know. Cars built specifically for police use didn't come out until 1957 (Chevrolet claims to be first). Until then law enforcement agencies just bought the most reliable reasonably priced cars - with what the Border Patrol put cars through - kudos to Plymouth here. (A Border Patrolman could break and anvil with a rubber mallet.) You'll probably wonder about the Jeep - USBP was considered important enough to national security during WW2 that we got new Jeeps during the war. Anyway, thought some would find the photo interesting, especially the 42 Plymouth owners out there.

My car will start that quick if its been run "recently" - within a week or two - and will always start that quick once its warmed up. Getting it to wake up after a long slumber is a different story, that usually takes a few sessions of 3-5 seconds of cranking. The colder it is, and the longer it sat, the more sessions it takes. (It's still running 6v.)

They shouldn't flicker at all, but it's nothing to panic about. Most likely grounds and/or connections in the headlight circuit if nothing else flickers. 6v systems are picky if your car is still 6v. I'd start with the low hanging fruit and check the grounds first and make sure they have good clean metal to metal contact, then go through the connections and check same.

Asbestos is certainly dangerous, but you have to take a lot of the response to it with a grain of salt. Some people can breath it all day and not have problems, some will get mesothelioma with just one exposure - thats why all the precaution. Overdone? Probably. I put that in the same category of radioactive waste disposal. The stuff they pour billions of dollars into "disposing" gives off less radiation than if you were to stand outside for few hours, but people say the sky is falling because if it, and there you have it. Panic and expensive mitigation, and lawyers lining up to sue some one on your behalf because of it. I have a 6" x 6" patch of asbestos on one of the floor joists in my house, had something to do with the old furnace. Here in NY, it'll cost $3-5,000 to remove it. In Texas they'd just laugh at you and tell you to do it yourself.

Uncle Sam is very paranoid about cyber attacks, we have procedures in place that may seem overly simple, but are known to work as long as you ALWAYS follow them. One being to simply delete suspect emails right out of your inbox. Anything that opens them, to include previews, can damage your computer with viruses or allow spyware or malware to be downloaded without your knowing it. So just delete suspect emails, that's the best and safest bet. I, too, was detained overseas pending a bond. I didn't get the email, but my In-laws did. (Sadly, before they found out it was a hoax, I don't think there was much of a rush to find the money ) The lengths that cyber criminals will go to is, for want of a better description, impressive. They have such things as programs that do nothing but run number sequences 24/7/365 until they hit a valid credit card number and PIN, then the program automatically either withdraws the cash limit from your account, or purchases stuff. (My agency actually arrested some Iraqis near Detroit a few years ago, who had a laptop set up to do that.) You'll get a bill for some wierd thing you bought two states away. Latest trend is to buy small dollar items so you "won't notice".

He was a genuinely nice guy. We didn't even talk about our "jobs", we talked about the history of the area (such as; a young Lieutenant George S.Patton was the XO of the Army unit posted there before he shipped out to WW1). Zipping along I-10 one tends to miss Ft Hancock, but out of all the places I've been, I ran into more "famous" people there because it was a convenient whistle-stop where the celebrities didn't have to deal with throngs of adoring fans - that and Angie's being a salsa mecca for a few years didn't hurt.

Cool. I watched that. I have BB King's autograph on the bill of one of my Border Patrol ball caps. I was sitting in Angie's Restaurant (the only one) in Fort Hancock, Texas along I-10 many years ago having some iced tea in the middle of my shift, when his tour bus pulled up. He and his crew came into the restaurant for lunch (Angie's was listed at the time in Texas Monthly as having the best salsa in the state). We were the only ones in the restaurant so we struck up a conversation. Mr. King asked for my ball cap, autographed the bill, and gave my cap back. I'm not an autograph collector by any means - his is the only one I have - but I haven't worn that cap since. Folks wonder why I have a plain old BP cap in my bookshelf here at work, so I have that neat story to tell.

I always liked Cosmo's DeSoto....

Elk City, OK is on Interstate 40, about 40 miles east of the Texas state line. In our travels from west Texas and New Mexico to visit family in New Jersey over the years we always saw the signs for the Rt 66 Museum, but always thought it would be too cheesy to stop in, or were in a rush to get to the east coast. We always seemed to reach Elk City at the point of the trip where we didn't feel like stopping yet. Don't know what I was thinking, since "cheesy" places along the road are usually always a hoot! On the move from NM to MI we finally stopped, and promptly lamented not having stopped before. The Rt 66 Museum is certainly not "cheesy" and I would encourage anyone traveling the old Mother Road through Oklahoma to stop and visit.

3 inches (supposedly) in western New York, too. But the wind was howling so much over the weekend that it couldn't pile up, even in drifts. Sun out today and on the way into the 40's again later in the week.

The "shelf" you describe is indeed a foot rest for back-seat passengers. From what I've seen, all the vehicles with a back seat have that foot rest. The lack of that foot rest would probably indicate that the vehicle that particular seat came out of did not have a back seat - such as a business coupe. But, I don't know if the MoPaR convertible products were available with or without a back seat. In short, I'd use the foot rest version if my car had a back seat.

I was figuring that's how most swap meets go, and I really don't mind looking through unorganized stuff and asking the vendors about their wares - that's half the fun, but to find what you want you have to hit 100% of the spaces. I just suspect I'm borderline OCD with organizing MY stuff. This one being indoors made it REALLY crowded, I've a couple co-workers that left without seeing the whole thing because they were fed up with the crowd. I also found two things I needed for my daughter's Falcon. Almost like looking for bugs in your garden, you have to look past all the pretty things (unless your looking for something pretty). Anyway, I'd still recommend this swap meet - much better than sitting around the house waiting for spring.

Something simple - like the red P15-D24 square at the top of the page. That would look great on a coffee cup, ballcap, or window decal. On anything, actually.

Greetings all! Went to the 10th annual "Snow Buster Indoor Automotive Swap Meet" yesterday at the Erie County Fairgrounds in Hamburg, NY. Sponsored by the Niagara Frontier chapter of the Model A restorer's club. Well worth the trip, couple hundred vendors, but you could barely move through the venue (it was indoors - proper for February around here although it was nice out - for here). The crowd was tapering off about mid-day, I've never attended a swap meet before, so I guess everyone tries to get there early to find what they want before someone else does - that and "prepping" for the Superbowl. Really have to know what your looking for because there is LOTS of stuff and didn't seem too well organized to find anything in particular- in my mind anyway - it was probably status quo for a swap meet. I'll just have to go to more to figure that out. Anyway, there wasn't much in the MoPaR realm, and I only found one item for P15-D24, which I dutifully snapped up - finally have an owner's manual after 20 years

The Troopers in Texas were pretty hard on "obstructed vision" everywhere I was back in my formative days, and readily pulled you over for stuff hanging on the rearview mirror or too much motor sticking up out of the hood. Anything hanging in the windshield in south and west Texas doesn't last very long anyway. That and my Dad always preached about "winder hangins" being a distraction. I've got the B&C's garter from our wedding hanging on the ol' Dodge's mirror, otherwise I prefer not to have anything in the middle of the windshield. Probably kind of silly since that division bar is there.....

It is a Diamond T. They dabbled in the "light" truck market, but they didn't offer any 1/2 tons, I think all of their pick-ups were heavy duty 3/4 or 1 ton.

...and besides which - they're "bubs"....

North 54 Auto Salvage in Alamorgordo, NM has several of these in its yard when it comes tome to look for bits and pieces. I used to wander through that yard quite a bit, and was always drawn to these old postal trucks, thought they were too cool!