Ulu

You're forgetting that the insurance industry practically runs the country, ever since the laws that made insurance mandatory.

Oh you will pay a good fine here, to get re-registered and/or to be caught driving un-registered & It's all electronic. They give you paper, but it's a joke. I can print a better insurance card than the one they give out. At inspections, they plug your car right into the DMV computer network. Big brother has your number...They don't bother to take the plates because fake plates are too easy to make/fake/buy/steal.

A lapse is no problem here until registration time. Then they want to see insurance. But my Plymouth is on a "non-op" registration. It stays in the system, but you don't pay any fees until you want to drive it. Then you just get insurance & renew the registration. I was busted for bluedots in 1986 & they've been in the closet ever since. In Calif you must be an LEO or emergency vehicle to have blue lights visible from outside the vehicle.

Um....no thanks. ;-) I was just curious about under what conditions your state allows them. Are they considered legitimate historical accessories or some such?

That policy is lapsed as I haven't needed insurance on this car in a while. But I did go through this at the time, and there were restrictions on cashing in on the stated value. For one thing, if the value of the car on the open market goes down, they can reduce the payout.

Huh! I never heard of that one. They're strictly verbotten here.

In California I was easily able to get antique car insurance with ordinary plates, no photos, and no inspection. The insurer did issue me a "stated value" policy without an appraisal. The agent looked at the car, said "That's nice." Took two photos and that was it. Calif plates are now white & my 1947 car should have a "black plate," but has a "blue plate" issued in the early 70's when it was originally restored. You can get a "red plate" for horseless carriages made before 1922 or certain other cars up to '65. You can get a white "historical vehicle" plate for cars made after '22 but over 25 years old. There are some restrictions.

This is strange, but my car was the same way. One door check bumper was still installed (driver's) and one was loose in the bottom of the door (passenger side.) The little retainer pin had just worn through I suppose, or the door had been removed & not reattached there. I didn't find the pin but maybe it fell out a weep hole.

$180 / ton? Interestingly, that's actually cheaper than the chicken manure, which is about $200 / ton. So we know where the long-term business goals should actually lie.

It wont work. No matter how long you leave them alone together, they never breed in captivity.

Great, thanks! She's in good shape and a quick polish on the seal surface will do it. No grooves here.

Hey my internet has been flaky and I never got to post that I went to see Pflaming's new shop Friday. As metal buildings go, I was favorably impressed. And jealous. I don't have enough space for something that big. We got to play with the 'Burban and the Dodge truck and the computer, and eat cheeseburgers at the Foster Freeze, which my wife always calls "the Frosty Freeze". It was too. their heater was out and we ate in our hats & coats. LOL

I've been working inside on cleaning up the Mancave, as it's been rather cold for bodywork outside. Just a few shots for posterity. The Mancave now has a PC with wireless internet and my favorite retro video games. The sound system was a bit weak though. Here I'm installing a 120 watt stereo: This pic celebrates my history of minor shop injuries:

I was cleaning up the mancave and I finally found the damper that came on Edith's 218 when I bought her. This is a rivited unit, and still absolutely solid, so I intend to use it on the 230 Dodge engine. Originally I was concerned that it looked different than the one posted above, but I don't think it'll matter.

If you have a lot of pictures & things to save, just take the hard drive out and put it right into the new PC. (If the BIOS is set to "AUTO" it will probably show up in windows on the first boot, as D: or E: (unless you have other drives and devices you've plugged in.) Anyhow, then you can just transfer everything directly without slooooow thumb drives. Any PC tech could do this in about 30 mins half asleep, not counting data transfer. (That depends on how much data you have.) Then go put a couple slugs through that Dell (Yuck!)

I've got some 19ga I scavenged from 20 year old computer cases. It's .042" thick. Newer cases are thinner, and harder. Or at least they work harden easier. I don't know the alloy etc, but it welds fine. (I'm only gas welding. MIG may turn out to be a different story.)

I'm sure if you can zoom in, that thing has "ACME" on the nameplate. Yikes!.

The motherboards are all crap. Fast, but have cheap Chinese condensers. This one will work until another condenser blows. Unless you can solder circuit boards, it's hopeless to own one. There's over a dozen (though normally only certain ones blow.) If I was being thrifty, I'd get a used off-lease business computer from tigerdirect.com with Win7 on it. Much cheaper than new, and better quality than lots of consumer PCs. A new bare motherboard with processor from them is very cheap if it's not the latest and greatest stuff. Win8 turns your PC into a big smartphone. It's not attractive at all, and some chores rely too much on cascading menus. It works great so far, though I think it's a throwback aesthetically.

Well Fiat bought Chrysler from Benz so any crazy thing might be possible in this world. It wouldn't surprise me if some outfit like Penske started buying up all the old parts distributors. I don't see an end to Chinese parts and tools, but slowly their stuff is getting better on the average, and nearly top notch in some categories. Anyhow, once rapid prototyping in metal becomes reality, lots of obsolete parts can be created on a short run basis, & even one-off pieces will become practical. If you can print a plastic buck in 3D, then literally spray it with metal, even fenders and such might soon be created from a digital scan, without die sets. Hell, us old farts might even live to see that happen.

I believe P15 clocks are cheaper because thay made 4 times as many as any other model. From mid-45 to mid-49 they built P15's That's an epic production run. Manufacturing engineers dream of such a run. Every part should be more available and cheaper for a P15.

When you have to shovel snow first, driving the car becomes a more engaging experience. It's so much easier to drive somewhere here, than most places I've lived. It's not such an adventure. The car becomes an appliance. Everybody has one. Ho Hum... In Duluth, winter driving was for the brave! Baudette Mn was easier, but lonely driving out on the Muskeg. The Wassatch Front was insane. I'm no longer into insanity. I live in the free-parking capitol of California. Gas is high, but it's still heaven.

My grandkids were all born into a world with broadband internet and appliances built by robots. They won't bother doing what we do, for the most part. Some things they simply won't be allowed to do. Add in the EPA, and the future picture becomes quite a different world from ours.

We have 2 big dogs & 10 grandkids. Nothing I own stays clean.

No! It don't rain here anyhow. I drove this car over 60k with a flathead 6, when my intention was to swap in a V8 from the beginning. Also I didn't buy this car because I liked lowriders. It was drivable, it was cheap enough and it could be hopped up, and didn't need smog inspections. The truth is I don't know what mods I'll do to this car. I love the torch, & if I get started with it there's no telling where it might end. Because the floor needs a little work, i was going to channel it over the frame "just because". It won't have bags or hydraulics though. The car will be light (within reason) without too many geegaws. And without the roses. (Sorry Rubin, wherever you are...everybody here loved the roses except me.) But it may have a visor & flush skirts, and they may be built from old computer cases which are 19 ga mild steel. And they may not. At one point I was just going to turn the shell into a roadster body & mount it on a full roll cage frame. Big tires, new suspension, big engine, big expense. Instead I put the $ into a new motorcycle, repainted my boat, did home improvements, and let the Plymouth rust. At this point I'm putting cash into my computer network, my house, padding my retirement account, and the Plymouth is back on, but it's a budget project, not a billet project. All these project photos so far are from 1 to 6 months ago, and not all in the right order or contiguous. When i recover from Christmas I'll get back on it in earnest.

I suspected that ownership had changed more than once over the years from seeing the ads. My paper Bernbaum catalog is from '86. I always called them to get the latest info on parts as the catalog is just sorta general info (though still very helpful for interchange & reference purposes, which is why I have kept it.) I was still happily buying a few bits there up until I put my P15 aside, about 2003 I believe. Cups and boots, clinder kits for the brake...that kind of thing. I still have those unused, in boxes & it's all US quality stuff. One thing i know fore sure, customer service is king, and every good business knows and practices that. They're not all equally successful, but please do give them a chance. Remember that not too many outfits are servicing this hobby as in the old days. We don't want to run them all off if we can help it.