Ulu

It'l turn that thin trim into a pretzel real quick and wrap it around the shaft too. Beware!

Ralph, I have one of those inherited from my dad, but it didn't come with the wooden box. It's still under the seat of our Scout. I remember using it once, out at Topaz Mountain, to pump up a tire and it worked but seemed to take a long time. Then again they were 15x11.00 floatation tires, so they took some air to fill, yet I might have done it faster with a bicycle pump, The 4-cyl Scout wasn't that happy running on 3 cylinders, but it survived.

I like the skirts way more than mine because they are much taller. I think my skirts are too short, and in fact barely cover the opening. I imagine that's because they're some kind of universal/aftermarket types.

hmmm...I never posted here? OK, I'm a professional computer bum & I engineer various stuff. I wanted to be an architect. Mom wanted me to go to the Baptist Bible College & become Oral Roberts or something. Dad sent me to engineering school to become Werner Von Braun instead. An engineering professor told me that engineers who could not program computers would have a hard time finding work in the future, so I studied FORTRAN and BASIC, and started into COBOL; then I got a real job programming computers (!) and I left engineering school just before the senior year. We were making pre-fab trusses and walls for tract houses on a semi-CNC production line. I wrote code, did calcs, programmed our Sharp microcomputer, and drew trusses. So I ended up being an engineer anyhow, later doing tool design, programming, and manufacturing engineering at Manlift. I designed aluminum extrusions at Kawneer and did product and application engineering, I was a project coordinator for a big construction co, and later I ran the prototype shop for a big machine shop (a local job shop) , and also did prototyping and CNC programming at Vendo. I got sick of big companies too. Dad taught me to fix cars as a kid. We did engine swaps and swapped bodies & did various re-builds of cars and bikes. I worked for some pro shops while in college, building engines and doing brake jobs and electrical work. I was also a Teamster for a couple years when all the engineers got laid off here in the 80's. I ran heavy equipment, serviced it, and managed the yard activities. For the past 20 years I've been working for a small (10 man) consulting structural engineering firm (Advanced Structural Design) where we design mostly schools and public buildings, plus a few random stadiums and churches. I draw buildings, check drawings, do informal calcs (no state license, so I can't stamp & sign anything) and handle all their computer issues.

Yeah, and I should have painted out the back braces in black. This is my first attempt at holiday ornament welding.

Perhaps next year I'll get to dress it up some more. It's been raining and wet, so no time to get on the roof stringing more lights. Also I kept the round points, as the wires were already bent that way, but I think I should have straightened the wires then bent them acutely pointy. Originally I figured the lights themselves would appear to be in a pointy array, regardless of the round ends, but it didn't work out that way. Also I attached the lights with zip ties, and some of them have slipped out of position badly due to Imported Chinese Zip Tie Failure Syndrome. Next time I ask wife Judy to pick me up some zip ties, I'll have to be more specific.

A night time shot. Am I the only one that thinks it needs more lights?

Well, whaddya know? My axle has square-headed plugs in the pumpkin and housing. They're evidently not stock. They look to be 9/16" or 5/8" under the dirt. Any monkey wrench will work for me.

So regarding flower cars, did any of the big mfrs produce one on the line?...or were these always custom conversions? I've never seen many in person & they were all Cadds from '59 & later.

I recall that being a 3/8". It's probably just swelled with rust and paint and dirt. Or my memory is getting worse. My axle is siting on the patio, so I'll have to look at it tonight.

Typically, a spring raises the throttle if vacuum falls too low, to prevent a stall. The spring may be weak.

WELDING! Yay! an excuse to break out the torch! Actually I think I've kept the torch under wraps because I secretly fear I'll just tell myself "screw waiting for the TIG welder!" And just start patching Edith with a torch. This was a matter of me letting off that pressure, plus using up a bunch of random junk just laying around. So I made a big star to clamp up on the outrigger beam on my Dutch gable roof. The wire is from the paper delivery chute of an old plotter. Parts are from random steel rods and tiny square tubing from a lamp. We even had a box of new lights left over, a can of white paint, and a big bag of zip ties. Essentially I spent nothing, but my wife is as happy as if I'd dropped $100 on decorations. The basic weldment: The welding is easy, but the setup is everything. The clamp still red hot. Prepping for paint: Zipping the lights on: Daytime shot on the house:

I'm not surprised at all. My desire for modern running gear is slowly being deflated.

Here, turn signals aren't required, if they weren't required as original equipment. Nor are seatbelts, air bags, or 5mph bumpers. We respect the right to keep things original. BTW, I've always thought cars with the aftermarket SignalStat type turn signal on the column looked jerry-rigged. I refused to buy one for the Plymouth, even though I found a NOS unit for $20 chromed. It's just so utilitarian, and Edith is so stylish. Doesn't match at all IMO.

"raised" is a relative term... Some are raised, and some are just left to fend however they can.

They're OK but kinda bulky IMO. At one point I was going to just make a simple bent signal lever, that ran alongside the column and through the floor, to a turn signal switch hidden below the floorboards. Not hard to do, but once I installed the toggle switch, that was good enough for then.

The smog laws are different in different counties here. Counties with heavy smog have strict inspection schedules, but new cars are exempt for the first 5 years in our county. Counties with little smog usually have no inspections. BTW I meant that (except for commercial trucks) only Special construction vehicles get safety checks, & just when first registered; but not that they were the only vehicles to avoid smog checks. Diesels don't get smog checks. Motorcycles don't, nor do boats. Electrics don't of course.

Mine was made in Mexico. I didn't know that when I bought it. I might go trade it for a Dodge someday, but it'll probably be from Mexico too, or worse. Where are Dodge pickups built nowadays? I'm sure west-coast ones are from Mexico.

There's my signal switch: a three-way toggle. Left, off, right & manually canceled. Not fancy, but I drove it with that switch for years.

Here cars get inspected for air pollution and that's it. (Unless you have a "special construction" vehicle.) Cars older than 30 years are not inspected at all. We have no inspection stickers. Lots of cars are running around with taped lights and cracked glass & all sorts of other defects. BUT this gives the cops all kinds of excuses to stop suspicious people to check them out. Yeah, not exactly in the spirit of our legal system, but sometimes you just do what works. Almost all accidents are not due to mechanical issues anyhow, but fatigue, inattention/distraction, drinking, bad weather, or operator error. This is as true here as in states with rigid inspections. We do have more mechanical failure related accidents, but as a percentage of the whole they rate as trivial.

What year is that Taco? I think most of the probs were pre-05, but only time will tell. If I lived in snow country I might put a manual cutout on the A/C clutch. Or remember to turn the defroster off. If the defroster kicks the compressor on while you're braking gently on a frozen road, particularly downhill, the truck surges (overpowering the brakes because on ice you're braking ever so gently) and you could easily run right through a stop sign. This phenomenon is posted on the Tacoma forums & I've experienced it myself on dry roads when the A/C kicks in during slow stop & go traffic. (Did anyone suspect there was a Jap truck at the bottom of this rabbit hole?)

LOL... When I took possession of Dad's old Scout after he passed on, the engine compartment had been home to possum. It was packed full of leaves and possum poop. Like rats, they're not particular where they leave it. Anyhow, it took me hours to clean out with tools and a garden hose.

I just think every new driver should have the experience of spinning out uncontrollably, on a closed course where nobody gets hurt. I don't think most drivers here have any clue how fast a car can swap ends, when traction changes suddenly in a turn. Our driver's ed instructor made us do surprise panic stops, on frozen roads, going down hill.

Awwww...it's not just the HAMB. MOPAR's the read-headed stepchild of the Big Three. Always has been. The looks I got back in the day, when I went into some hotrod shops & they found out I had a Plymouth And the comments too! Nowadays things are way more politically correct than 30 or 40 years ago. At least IMO.

Make sure you have the right gasket kit before you start assembly. I've had ones where everything fit until I got to the valve cover. (I had the '59 Ford kit but my '59 Edsel had the Mercury head.)