Big_John

Lamacchia is still in business, selling Hondas now. AF Ryan changed names and moved, is now Fayetteville Dodge, but I believe its still owned by Ryan (or his son). Bresee Chevy moved at least twice since then, once taking over Salina Chevy (across from my high school) and then moving to Liverpool.

My Ford Excursion. Dirty from a week of working out on the road. Its plugged in to make the diesel just a little easier to start on a cold morning. On a better day.

I gotta agree with you about Chop Cut Rebuild. It seems to be the only show where there's actual work being done without the drama. I will admit to liking My Classic Car though.

I decided that show "jumped the shark" about 5 minutes into it. Too bad, we could use a good car show.

I had 2001 Chevy Express work van with a 350 that got 13 to 16MPG depending mostly on who was driving it. Was still going strong at 250K miles when I traded it for my Ford Excursion.

As I get older, a little wiser and a lot more lazy, I'd rather start with something a bit more solid and complete. Some guys will rebuild just about anything though. I have a friend restoring a 69 Roadrunner convertible from this: That's a project not for the faint of heart.

And Edie Adams.... My Dad smoked Muriel cigars just because of her.

I like the pic. To make it look like it was in Miami, you'd need to include some art deco architecture in the background.

The Syracuse newspaper wasn't very big. Chances are they sold the patterns, collected the money and then had the people that printed the pattern (in NYC) ship the pattern directly to the customer. They used to sell stuff like this in their Sunday paper. I remember buying a wood pattern for some project I did as a kid from the Sub... er... I mean Post Standard.

I might be able to make that myself... I should have my car back together and running by then. A couple suggestions about Niagra Falls... On my "must do" list: See the falls. Go in the morning on the Canadian side and beat the crowds. On the American side, its a lot more park like and spread out. Its really more relaxing. Park the car near the Cave of the Winds. Take the trolley (or walk) to all the falls sites. Take your time and relax. Do the Maid of the Mist from either side. They give out raincoats, but you will still get a little wet. Cave of the Winds from the American side. Again raincoats and put all your stuff in the car (that's why I suggest parking near there). They also give you sandals to wear. You will get wet, but its worth it. The Canadian side has a similar tour, but no where near as good, Butterfly Conservatory on the Canadian side. 1000's of butterflies flying free in a big eco-dome. Skylon Tower in Canada (just don't eat in the restaurant). Observation Tower in the US. A couple things that are nice, but not on the "must do" list are Niagara on the Lake is a town north of the falls in Canada. Lots of shops and good places to eat. Try the ice wine.

I have that same vise!

Keep in mind that 2 bbl carbs are rated using 3.0 inHg pressure drop and 4 bbl carbs are rated using 1.5 inHg pressure drop. I'll bet that forumula is for 4bbl carbs. There's a formula to convert, I had to look it up. Divide the 2bbl rating by 1.414 to equal 4bbl rating.

I got take a short in drive a Dodge Electric Caravan back in 1993 like this one: http://www.qsl.net/ki7cx/TEVan.htm It belonged to New York Electric and Gas. A couple things stuck with me about the van. First it was heavy.. It even felt heavy to drive. There was a lot of batteries on board and if I remember right, it was over 5k lbs. Second it really labored to accelerate, although there was a 2 speed trans mission that helped a bit at low speed. One other thing... It had power steering and air conditioning! Both driven by seperate motors!. So... IMHO, an old Mopar could work out well. Its got a heavy enough chassis to handle some extra weight from the batteries and its simple, so you don't have to worry about things like power steering or other accessories. There's enough info out on the web about converted vehicles. The speed controller is probably the most complicated part. It would be an interesting project for sure.

There's still a few small dealerships around. My son worked at a small Ford dealership (Dave Pirro Ford) in Skaneatles, NY. About 5 cars in the showroom and 3 salesmen. That's about as small as they come these days. Across the street was a tiny Chevy dealership. It had a two bay service department. That was lost in the Goverment Motors dealership purge.

If you have the size, try McMaster Carr. They seem to have everything in their catalog.

I spend a lot of time driving for work, so I have a Satellite radio in my vehicles. Its great to not have to listen to commercials or really stupid DJ's. I do miss local news and weather sometimes, but then again, when I do tune in a local radio station, I get really sick of hearing the names of local towns mispronounced and a real generic weather forecast. Its pretty obvious that the forecast/news was recorded someplace else, who knows where, maybe hundreds or thousands of miles away. The Sat stations I listen to don't have commercials, although there are a few stations (especially talk and news) that do have them.

I've been using their (Rhode Island) wire to rewire my 53 Windsor. Good service and good quality. I didn't buy their complete harness for my car and saved some $$ by rebuilding the harness myself.

My '53 looks identical to yours and I would assume that a 54 would be the same.

Yes, the starter won't run if the generator is charging. I was told by Glenn at Ace Alternator to run a seperate starter button on my car. I don't know if that's the real solution though. I need to study the wiring just a little more to find what to change.

http://www.onlineconversion.com/ Any conversion you will ever need and many that you never will.

BeBop's is a '52. If you look at the pic he posted, the top pad is off the dash. The dash in my '53 looks like the same.

Did you have the whole dash out? How does the top pad come off?

Actually, with everything else the same, you'll make more power with a cast iron head.

Got one right here.

Here's my Windsor. No radio or clock.