Ulu

PG&E is our power co. Dad had a Desert water bag, when I was a kid. They work well. It hung from the front of this : Nooo...Look under the skateboard.

I converted it to air cooled.

Here's a couple better photos to replace the fuzzy ones.

Well you can jack up a wheel and turn it, then watch the driveshaft & count the turns. It can be hard to tell a 3.90 from a 4.10, but if you turn the wheel more times it becomes evident. If you turn the wheel 10 times and the driveshaft spins 39 times its 3.90:1 If it spins 41 times you have a 4.10:1 Simple as pie.

Yup. I was 13 when we got there from Phoenix. In February. I delivered the Duluth Tribune, often with a toboggan. I had the whole Air Force base as my route, and it was the largest in Duluth, or so I was told. I went to Endion Elementary for about 3 mos, then Woodland Jr, then out to Hermantown High, then on to Lake of the Woods in Baudette. The USAF moved us around a lot.

You'll know it's me when I roll through your town.... I didn't need a lunchbox though. I trucked it out the door on a dolly. The truth is everybody at work has been wondering if I'd ever throw out the stuff. I still couldn't bear to part with the PS2 or the PC-AT. Nearly antiques now....

Wow! In '69 was only 14. We had a wooden go-kart with 3 official soap box derby wheels from the garbage and a stolen lawn mower engine. I still have a scar from that machine where it tried to drag me around Duluth with a rusty nail. Hmmm...Is there a Briggs & Stratton class at Bonneville?

None of that stuff weighs 600+ lbs though, even if you throw in a radio & heater. Bill's P15 must be somewhat heavier than stock. OK, the weights are all on the forum here. http://p15-d24.com/page/p15d24/reference/p15_reference.html The Bus coupes were about 3000# & the clubs were about the same. I think Greg G's car is 2977, not 2797 the '48 Special Deluxe Bus Coupe was 15 lbs more than the Club Coupe

(oops...)

I'll probably never make it to Pendine, but Bonneville is just 12 hours by car from here. Maybe this year I'll get back out there. I haven't seen the salt flats since the 70's.

There were really cool. I'd like to see some more.

I got a used Timex-Sinclair if you really want a challenge. Dang, I'm sorry but some of my pics are too fuzzy! I didn't look at them closely enough & my eyes suck anyhow. Anyhow, this was an easy build. Partly because I had so many parts to choose from, but also because I've been messing with computers a long time. It's much like building cars. You read the manuals and buy the parts. Or scrounge them in this case. The parts sure weigh a lot less than car parts. (Of course when I build a virtual machine, the parts are practically massless. No heavy lifting at all. )

It ain't noticed because the cars here often outlive the people. Not like the rust belt, where the weather tries to kill you, but it still kills the cars faster. See, there's Desert rust and then there's Minnesota rust. If you've been there you know the difference. I own a 7 year old Tacoma. Toyota is having fits back east because of Tacoma frames rusting out. They're scrapping lo-mileage trucks because it's too expensive to change the frames. I park outdoors 24/7/365 and you could almost eat off my undercarriage. ...ummm...my Tacoma's undercarriage that is.

You miss the point. Plymouths don't rust here either. A rising tide lifts all boats.

...or going out, we stayed home & I built a new computer. I'm posting from it now. I wanted something to sit in the living room by my La-Z-Boy that didn't look like a computer & I had this little oak phone stand (or replica antique ice box), and a pile of used PC's I've been scrapping out from work. Anyhow, she's got a Gigabyte mainboard & dual-core Athlon A64x2 64 bit processor, 500 watt PSU, 4 GB Kingston 800mhz DDR, Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS video w/ 500MB, plus onboard video & sound. It has a 120 GB Adata SSD and dual WD Caviar 500 GB HDDs. The parts, boards, & peripherals came from 5 old PCs & the steel chassis bits were carved off of 2 other PC cases, and trimmed, bent, drilled, hemmed, etc. to house the drives and boards. The drive cage clamps in with one screw, and the back comes off for service. It's not the most modern thing but it's powerful, has AutoCAD and Revit plus MS Office, it all works, and it didn't cost a dime. It did take me about 4x as long as a normal PC to build though. I designed everything on the fly & there was some metal work, mostly tin snips, dremel & drill. Some fluting pliers might have come in handy when I took the oil-can out of the chassis. All told the metal work was a success. Cutouts in the cabinet back Power supply bracket: Drive cage assembly with 5 drives: The chassis goes in: The guts: Booting Win 8.1 Pro 64 Dual boots to Win XP Pro 64

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving, but for the first time in 25 years Judy & I ate alone. All our relatives went to their various in-laws at the same time. The probability of that is of a very low order indeed, and this is the first ime I didn't cook a holiday meal for the whole clan in so long I can't recall. I'm thankful for the break!

Since we moved into the 'burbs, I haven't seen possum nor Yugo. I do see 240Z's running around here still. It's one of the perks of desert life. Tin worms can't stand the desert.

BTW, I didn't believe the Buiness Coupe was over 600# lighter! I knew those seats were heavy, but.....???

Don, the stock car has much the same weight distribution, which is one reason why the P15 handles so well. I was always pleased with the overall handling of the car, except the tendancy to pogo (under severe discomposure) and bumpsteer a bit. It could only get better IMO, with a slight weight reduction, mostly in the front. Thanks for the chart and photo.

Being originally a native of Kentucky, I take all of these hillbilly jokes with a certain grim humor and humble resignation. OK, maybe not so humble... How many of you have actually picked up a live possum by the tail, wound up like Sandy Koufax, and pitched her over the fence? The little critter had been saving up nuts for winter, and had crawled into my Mom's dryer vent, and stored them in the squirrel-cage blower. I can't tell you how crazy that sounds when you start the dryer. I actually started it up while the possum was inside the dryer, & when I pulled the vent pipe off the back, all that was visible was the end of the tail. I thought mom had cooked her to death, so I just pulled 'er out by the tail. I made it 30 yards across the lot before the little bugger quit playing possum and came to life with a very sore attutude about the indignity of her situation. She showed all her teeth and claws with an angry hiss, as I carried her at arm's length, and at that point I launched her over the fence faster than any possum will ever travel willingly.

California doesn't weigh non-commercial vehicles. I don't have a clue what it really weighs, and no way to tell as it's currently in 1000 pieces.

Hell, by that philosophy, I should just buy a Ford. Nah...this is sorta run whatcha brung here. What ever I do, I do to this car.

Thanks for the suggestions folks. And Don, I'll certainly run an alternator, but I'm probably not going to cut off the roof. At one point I was wanting to build a shaved roadster with a Duval-style windscreen, but I've totally chickened out. I certainly want to lighten the brakes and wheels. Unsprung mass is just more work for the antique suspension. Frankly certain people may find themselves upset by reading this; but since I can afford a new Tacoma, I'm considering parting out my lo-mileage '09 and filling the Plymouth with Mexican-made Japanese aluminum and computers. Anti-traditional at its extreme! I don't give a hoot about what engine goes in what car myself. See, I'm not in love with the things. It's just machinery. But the complication of all that conversion is very off-putting; even if it would net me a weight drop plus an extra 130 HP.

Plymouthy, you are a real card. Ummm....That makes one of us..... Actually, most of my stripping has been ZipStrip, DA sander, wire brush & scotchbrite so far. But there's been lots of sparks & there's serious body work that'll require sanding for sure. ...but WTH is Tiara trim? The backlite garnish? I got no clue there. Re making the car lighter: Any racer will tell you that reducing weight is the cheapest performance improvement you can make. Once I started doing it, it was far more effective than I'd previously imagined. I can't stop now! Re time: Time is no issue. I already drove this car 65,000 miles so it's not like I'm wetting my pants because I can't wait to drive it again. This is my hobby and I do it to occupy my time (and for exercise.) It'll take whatever time I let it take & that's fine. While some folks maintain that there's no substitute for cubic inches, I suspect this car will never wind up with some porky elephant engine in it. I'm leaning toward modern aluminum under the hood if I can bring myself to spend the money required.

It's been "restored" before so the body has been sanded & is getting sanded some more. I suspect it'll mostly be rather thinner than stock before I'm through. I've considered paying to dip the body, but I'd hate to get acid into all the creases and seams. It's hard to get back out of the old dirty seams. What I'm really thinking about is lightening the frame a little. This car has a very stout frame. Of course in the old days I'd just throw away the hood too, but that's not in the cards.