Ulu

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.)

That's mighty purty,...and way outta my price range. Maybe the top mechanism might have a worn/loose hinge though. Seems like it should lie flatter above the side windows.

My serial number on the '47 is on outer face of the driver's side frame rail, (hidden by the left rear tire,) just behind the rear axle. It matches my title, but not my engine. Never had the original engine for this car.

Oh yeah! But then I build computers for fun. YMMV

I'd check all the coils with a good quality ohm meter & see if they're ok. If the ohm reading is lower than stock, (or zero!) they're burnt (shorted within the coil). If burnt they can read higher than stock as well. No, I don't know, offhand, the correct figures. I'd have to look them up somewhere.

Mine's supposed to be a '47 Special Deluxe. It's easy for me because the dash is sitting on a bench.

Actually, no they don't. The stock speaker is 7" and it's offset toward the top of the dash, so the bolt pattern on the basket isn't symmetrical. They did exactly what I did. They put in a 6" speaker with an adaptor (of steel instead of masonite.) That's not to say the have a bad speaker. It looks quite adequate. The thing to consider if you substitute a speaker is that it should be 8 ohm impedance and should have adequate power handling. Most any good quality speaker of 6" or 7" will be adequate, as the power handling has generally improved over the years. If the power handling is adequate, you can put two 4 ohm speakers in series, and that makes the impedance 8 ohms. Many other combinations are possible. Using less than 8 ohms will let the amplifier overheat. Using a bit more, like a 10 ohm is OK, & will run cooler, but the radio may sound slightly less powerful at full volume. But 8 ohms is the most common by far & you can find all types in that spec.

..and the mechanic as well.

BTW, speaker selection has nothing to do with the car being 6v or 12 v or pos ground. The speaker won't know any of that. The radio will care a lot though... A stock speaker is an odd shape witn an asymmetrical screw pattern. I traced the pattern on masonite, painted the face black & cut a hole for this 6", 8 ohm speaker from RadioShack. I screwed the speaker to the masonite and screwed the masonite behind the dash. If this looks a bit worse for wear, it's been in there for 30 years.

My filthy, 1972 model, 30 gal, one-lung, long stroke, cast iron Quincy compressor, bought new but as surplus from the Kawneer Co, about 1983. These were sold to open hotel doors etc & designed to run 24/7/365. It's never overheated or anything & I've run it continuously for hours on end. I've used this for over 30 years now. Only 1/2 HP and does maybe 4cfm @ 90psi, but works on 110 or 220 with minor re-wiring. This will not run a DA sander for very long before it must re-charge, yet I sanded & painted a truck and a boat with it, plus a million other chores. Air cleaner came from a Kawasaki 1500.

Make sure your oil pump is primed. On a car where it's internal, you can't prime it once the pan is on. Except, you can put about 12 quarts in the pan until the pump is totally covered, crank the engine slowly, then drain the excess oil once it's primed. Messy but it works. On the Mopar flat 6 or any external pump engine, you can do it later, but it's a pain to do after the fact. Prime it at installation.

It's here. http://p15-d24.com/topic/22985-im-back/ I just looked at your profile & clicked "find content", then went down the list a way.