Eneto-55

There were a number of fiberglass bodied Model T's at the 1973 Hot Rod Nationals (Tulsa), some being really wild customs. That was, I think, my first car show. I was just 17, getting close to 18. I remember that we thought the fiberglass bodied ones were "second class" to the real ones. I wish I had been more interested in the post-war cars then - the salvages around north Tulsa were full of them. I wanted something older, something from before the headlights were incorporated into the fenders. I didn't get my first P15 until nearly 7 years later. EDIT: I just looked it up. The next time it was held in Tulsa was 76. I was living in Nebraska that Summer, so I didn't attend.

I'm a lot more open to changes now than I used to be, but I'm reminded of what Tevya (in Fiddler on the Roof) says when his youngest daughter marries a Russian Orthodox guy. For the older daughters, he bent his Jewish traditions to increasing degrees, out of love for his girls, and a changing attitude toward romantic love itself. He went though his process of "On the one hand", and "On the other hand" wrangling with himself, but in that last case, he ended with "There IS no other hand!" It all just went too far. That's where I am with some really drastic changes to antique vehicles. Others can do it, fine by me - It's their vehicle, but for myself - my own vehicle - "There is no other hand." (Now if someone builds a complete custom body, I'm "all eyes", watching with interest and intrigue.)

That's been my mind-set as well. But I got my 46 back when the the federal speed limit was 55, and who would have thought that it would be changed back? (I started driving before that change to 55 MPH, but I don't recall when it was instituted.) But I'm becoming more and more challenged on that idea that it should be reversible (to be able to go back to strict stock). It already wasn't original, as I got a 55 model 230 engine with it (the original block was not included). But here's where it relates to the speed limit. Not really related to my own top speed, but back then there was still such a thing as "the wide open highway" (without traveling hundreds of miles to get there). So I start thinking more about turn-signals, because how many drivers on the roads today know about hand signals? And the tail lights and the single brake light aren't very bright. So now I'm thinking of designing a custom combined tail/brake/turn/backup light bezel that would look as much like the original as possible (to still not look out of place), but one that would allow for an actual reflector inside of it. (There's a shop near here that does aluminum casting, some guys I have known for 10 years or more.) To do that w/o having it stick way out in the back like a "premature Forward Look light assembly" the reflector needs to extend into the trunk compartment, which means cutting larger holes in the rear quarter. (Not that I don't like the Forward Look MoPars, but those are two different design concepts. A car's lines have got to 'flow' for me to like the appearance.)

Yes, for the preservationist it can be a "bitter-sweet moment" - get the now un-wanted parts to complete or improve one's own vehicle, while "mourning the loss" of another "original".

I'm curious if anyone here has both the F1 shock mount, and one off of a 37 Dodge, and how close they are to the same shape. (I think that's the right year - from pictures I've seen the Ford mount looks like a copy of the much older Dodge one.)

Is the determining difference that the new pumps have sealed bearings?

So would you say that these old engines would do fine running at higher temps? (You sort of "anticipated" my first question - about if one could not just use a modern heater core, and run a pressurized system.) But I also wonder about the water pump - can it stand higher pressure? (I'm not challenging what you said - it just sounds interesting to me.)

I have wondered about this as well, because when I was doing the body work on my 46 Plymouth, I removed the seam sealer in the rain gutter. (The car had been repainted twice before I got it, once by brush (and not a good job, which some brush coats actually were), then sprayed heavily on top of that. So I will need a seam sealer that can be used on the outside of the vehicle, can be painted, and will still look nice. The original stuff that was over the seams in the floor boards was very thick, and not for appearance sake. It was a long time ago when I did the body work, so I do not remember what the stuff in the rain gutter seam looked like. I just know I took it all out, and didn't think about needing to redo that at the time I was prepping for paint.

I know that it was probably a waste of time, but off and on over the last several days I sorted all of the 1987 edition DonRuss baseball cards. (The last performance records are for the 1986 season.) There were a total of 660 cards in that year's issue, and I'm missing 39 to make a complete set. (First I sorted them by hundreds, making 7 piles; then by tens, and finally put them into order, and separated out the duplicates.) The first 27 cards are 26 of what they call the Diamond Kings and the checklist is # 27. Five of the 39 missing cards are in this set. I haven't kept track of any baseball teams since the 60's, so only a couple of the missing names are familiar to me: Pete Rose (#186) & Reggie Jackson (#210). (I must have hear their names some place or the other, because I don't reckon they were playing back in the 60's....) Some people say (on-line) that the valuable cards are from the upper numbers (like those in the 600's in this set) but others say to look for players who were new to the game in that period. I didn't check all of them, but saw a couple that only had data for 1986, so I checked on-line for those cards. People on epay were asking 30 for one of them, and 20 for the other. This whole deal has reminded me how it was back when I was a kid, saving up money to buy a 5 cent package of baseball cards, hoping that I didn't just get cards I already had. Whoever invested in these cards had probably over 2,000 total, of just this one year and brand. There are up to 7 or 8 duplicates for some players. There are also cards from other year sets from DonRuss, and for a few other brands of cards. That's just the baseball cards. I never had more than a small stack of cards, but now I kinda' wish I had all of those nickels back I spent as a kid. But it was fun at the time. Sucker. My 2nd oldest brother was the one who was really into baseball. Tulsa had a team back then, the Tulsa Oilers, a farm team for the St Louis Cardinals. So that's who we rooted for. But my brother listened to every game he could, recording each play, so that he had accurate up-to-date records of each player's performance. Then he devised a game based on the odds of each player's chance of hitting the ball, what kind of run they would make, etc. He recorded each play for these make-believe games - He had piles of papers from that. (Then he & our oldest brother would get into arguments about which sport was the most dangerous, auto racing or baseball. I was the third kid, so I stayed out of all of that.)

I thought the same thing when I saw it, but copied the photo because he showed how to construct the entire piece in separate parts, which might be more doable for those without a full range of shaping tools. (I don't have any except for body hammers and a few dollies, some home-made. No English wheel, although that would really help, especially with forming the piece he showed in black.) I think that the doubled areas could perhaps be eliminated by just doing a continuous weld at the seams. But there ARE in fact areas in car bodies which are joined in a very similar way, although in the long run, body seam sealer gives out, and you end up with the rust problem you mention. I know that there have been discussions here about where the deck lid weather strip SHOULD go, in the trough, or on the bottom edge of the deck lid, but even though it would seem that on the lid is the better approach, both of my P15's had it in the trough. I think that gluing it the the lid would allow the owner to more carefully monitor and correct any failures in the seam sealer application. (I haven't gotten that far yet, so would appreciate all input, whether just ideas, or from experience.)

Here's how a guy on Rat Rods Rule did it.

My brothers & I also collected both stamps (used) and coins back when we were kids. We picked up pop bottles along the highway, and once we had a dollar we would stop in at the bank when Mom was grocery shopping, and buy a roll of pennies. Then we looked through them, and kept the wheat pennies. Then we would save up again until we could make a whole dollar again, and do it over and over like that. (This was in the early 60's. I never did find a 1955 S, which I wanted because I was born that year, and also in California. It was kinda' valuable already then. We never bought any pennies at more than face value. Never found any Indian Head pennies, either. Did you ever get back there to get the rest of your tools and stuff? (We still have stuff in two states in Brazil, if someone hasn't carried it off by now. I also still have a car in Oklahoma, but it's at my brother's place. Oh well, it's just stuff. We'll leave it all behind eventually anyway.) Oh, by a rough estimate, I'd say there are around 1,000 cards for each of the three sports.

My wife's family owns a few rental apartments, and a renter left boo-koos of sports cards - baseball, basketball, & football. Are those cards worth anything, or do you have to look up every player to see if it's just recycle paper, or of some value? There appear to be some from the late 80's, but mostly from 90 and up to 92. I collected baseball cards when I was a kid - the ones that had a sheet of that hard bubblegum with it. That was in the early through around the mid 60's, and I suppose I had had some that might be of value now, except we played with them, and I gave all I had to my older brother. (They were all stolen years later when someone broke into his apartment while he was in college.) Some cereal boxes also had baseball cards on them, and we cut those out and kept them, too. Seems to me that this is an example of a child's collector/'toy' item that was ruined when adults got involved. There must be thousands of these cards from this guy's apartment after he moved out. I just wonder if I should just throw them out, or what. (I have already spent quite a bit of time straightening them out, as they were all thrown together in huge garbage bags. Some are still in the 'collector boxes' they were sold in. But all are pretty much in new condition.)

You have done a tremendous boat load of repair work on that frame. I'm curious if, in hind sight, you might wish you had just built an entirely new frame. (I have never worked on a VW, or even been under one, so I don't know how complicated that might be.)

Consider some general conditions: All paved roads or lots of dirt roads (The latter was pretty much assumed during that era, for sure where I came from, rural Oklahoma. It is also the case here in Holmes County Ohio, especially due to the type of places I go in my work - mostly gravel or dirt-gravel back roads, with some chip & seal, very little actual paved road ways) Time intervals (as others have already mentioned) I look at the oil, and evaluate the viscosity of the oil. When it starts to get really black, I change it. Or if it doesn't hold a sort of web between my fingers. (But our current family car takes 0 - 20 weight oil, and it feels almost as thin as ATF.) Of course I also track the mileage, and consider the time span since the last change. (Just my thoughts - no warranty involved. )