Worden18

Sept. 21 Wifey and I packed up the dogs and drove to the Nature Trail in Houston to take a walk. Earlier in the day I used a towel to wipe the dust off the car. Wipes easily off the Penetrol finish. Although some of the sheen has definitely faded, I can see maybe applying the Penetrol twice a year max. Maybe once a year will do. Since I applied it late in the season this year and it seems to be holding up well, I probably won't apply it again until next spring/summer. These 2 pictures were taken just ten seconds apart; funny how the light works sometimes. Its been hot here lately, with more on the way (this weekend calls for 3 days of 90+ degrees), but the car ran good and sure sounds better with that exhaust leak fixed. With the heat upon us, I probably won't drive it until later in the evenings when the sun goes down. Oh! I almost forgot. I sold a truck of mine today to a guy that was in his 60s. He had to take a look at the Meadowbrook since he's a big Dodge guy. He said his dad had a 49 or 50 Desoto. When I showed him the smashed up bumper on my car (the original owner's wife drove it into a stump back in the late 50s) it sparked a memory for him. He told me HIS mother did the same thing with his dad's Desoto. She didn't drive....smashed up the front bumper, his dad got pissed, and she NEVER drove again after that! Damn we had a good laugh over that one.

Okay I got the exhaust leak fixed. Thanks Andy Douglas, that indeed was the right size bolt for the manifold. Also, thanks YoungEd for the advice. Taking it out for a cruise in 20 minutes

Thanks for the advice Ed. I will double check it again tomorrow. I guess I'd be surprised that it would be broken off since all 4 bolts were new 5,000 miles ago. The other 3 were somewhat loose when I checked them, and I tightened them up. I stuck a smaller bolt up in there, and it went it deep. I guess that doesn't mean its not broken off high up in there. I'll keep you updated.

The other day we were driving through Winona, MN (just 35 min from my home) and my son spotted this Pilothouse truck in the alley behind a small car dealer. I swung the car around so we could take a closer look. Not sure if it is for sale or not as the area where it sat had other old cars/trucks there, including 2 pre-war Mopars (one was a Desoto). Don't ask me why I didn't take pics of those as well; I wasn't thinking. The lean-to where the pre-war cars were was attached to the dealership, so all the cars might be his personal stash, not sure. The last time the truck was licensed was 1990. Looked like it had the typical rust and wear and tear, but overall it has potential. I'm gonna try and get back there and find out the story behind it. Can anyone tell me what year it is? My first guess was 1949 but I'm still learning about the grill differences, etc. on these trucks. Also, is that bumper factory? I guess I was excited to see it because you just never see these trucks around here....

Sept. 17 Been a week since we had the Meadowbrook out, for a couple reasons I suppose. Been super busy cutting wood for the winter. Also, on the way home from the show last weekend the car developed a slight exhaust leak somewhere, and I hadn't time to look at it. Crawled under there today and saw that I am actually missing one of the bolts that holds the manifolds together. Not sure what size those bolts are....I'm debating whether I should take another one out to check the size; could I do that or would it damage the gasket? The car isn't too noisy, but its not quiet like it was. Plus, a number of other exhaust nuts were loose. Shame on me for not checking those over weeks ago. Lesson learned. We took the car out for a short cruise this afternoon to the trail head park in Houston, MN for the dedication of some new playground equipment for the kids, including an awesome zip-line. In the parking lot was a nicely restored Buick Century convertible. On the way home we stopped for a snack at the gas station. Later, wifey and I drove back into town for burgers and drinks at JT's Bar and Grill. Watched a little football on the big screen and enjoyed the food...

Keith, I'd be interested to know if there is any articles covering the 51 Dodges. If you have the time and feel like looking through more magazines and run across the 51s, please lmk. Thanks for posting

I couldn't find any markings on this car that told me the make or model. It only says 1928 on the front. The owner didn't have the show tag attached anywhere, either. Can anyone identify this for me?

We were excited to see so many station wagons there. I think this Edsel took the cake!

This '52 Plymouth Cranbrook was right up my alley...

I was surprised and happy to see this flat fender Power Wagon. I used to own one like this, except mine had the 8,000lb. winch. Like a damn fool I sold it about 20 years ago. Its hard for me to admit I did such an idiotic thing.

This Buick was pretty cool; its patina was handcrafted.

I think my favorite car was this 1930 Studebaker, which was amazingly all original. Even the musty interior was intact. The owner did have some type of tarp on the roof I'm assuming to help protect from rain, but the tarp/cover was kinda rough looking itself and I'm not sure it would do its job. It looked like it was glued to the roof. Such a rare treat though to see a car like this. The running boards were made of wood, I'm assuming the originals had rusted out long ago; the wood was old.

I was really diggin' the hood ornament on this Pontiac. The face had some serious patina to it!

Sept. 9 Today we attended the Mississippi Mayhem car show/swap meet in West Salem, WI. This was the 5th year for the event and our first. It was pretty big; lots of things going on. Here's a link to the website if you'd like to check it out: http://www.mississippimayhem.com/ I didn't get a chance to talk to anybody about my car because we were wandering around all day, and that was just fine. Wifey and my daughter dressed up a bit for the show like a lot of other women, but neither entered the contests. My wife looked a bit like Rosey the riveter which was awesome! It was a beautiful day, mid-70s with a light breeze.

Awesome truck! Thank you for sharing

Elmer's Auto Salvage, Fountain City, WI

Been busy lately cutting wood for the winter so I hadn't had the chance to cruise in the Meadowbrook for a few days. We took it out tonight to Spring Grove and back, a 35 mile round trip. It was rather cool this evening, so I kept the cowl vent closed for the first time in a long while. We stopped at Kwik Trip for gas...you can just about guess what happened next. This woman on the opposite side of my pump says "I like your car!" Then she came over to my side and started asking about it. I told her about the Penetrol shine, and then took the keys out of my pocket and gave her the whole story about the original owner. She walked around the car and checked everything out. She really liked the hood ornament, and the piston I attached to the "period" bumper hitch. My son showed her how the interior lights only come on when the passenger doors are opened. Turns out the woman is in her mid 50s and she graduated in 1979. She said when she got her license she didn't have a car of her own to drive, and asked her dad if she could use their old International stake bed dump truck (late 40s or early 50s; she wasn't sure) since by the late 70s they weren't using it anymore on the farm. Her dad got it running again and that's what she drove! She said she would pick up her friends and they would cruise around, always a number of them riding in the back (I remember riding in the back of my dad's truck quite often in the 70s). When she would drop her friends off at home she would "dump" them out of the bed LOL. There was also a rust hole in the floor that they would throw their garbage out of...guess it was more fun than chucking it out the window?! I also remember throwing garbage out the car window in the 70s. We'd just ask dad to roll the rear window down in the station wagon and whatever garbage we had would get sucked out once you got it close enough to the "draft". Anyway, she had her dad with her one day and he noticed that she had to keep her foot on the accelerator AND the brake at the same time to keep the truck running at a stop sign...it wouldn't idle on its own. He promised to fix it and took it to a friend whom totally messed it up AND THE TRUCK NEVER RAN AGAIN. Its still sitting on the home farm where they parked it in 1978. She has a huge framed picture of it in her office that her mom had made up for her. We chatted for about 20 minutes. I took this pic right before we took off. The moon is in the background.

65mph on the Interstate, otherwise 55-60. Passed the 5,000 mile mark on the engine rebuild.

Penetrol got a sunlight workout today.

Aug. 27: Wife and I took the Meadowbrook to dinner and a movie. We saw the film "Wind River" which is a murder mystery drama; right up my alley. Then we ate at Mangos Mexican Grill. The chimichangas were superb.

It did rain several times throughout the day, including on the way there and on the way home. The Penetrol held up really well. The rain didn't leave any dirty marks at all on the car, it just seemed to disappear leaving the same shine I started with. This pic is after all the day's rain. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to grab a few things. I had a great time sharing the story about my car with quite a few people who enjoyed looking at it. One guy recognized me (and the car of course) from a show back in June and asked me how I got the car so shiny. I laughed and told him about the Penetrol of course.

I talked to the folks that owned this 67 Dodge Van for probably the better part of an hour. The guy said it originally had a slant six in it, but he wanted to put a 273 in there. He didn't realize that the 273 would not bolt up to the torque-flight (don't ask me why) and ended up dropping a 1971 340 in it. It does burnouts quite well! He also told me that it did have some back seats in it that had a table in between them. I suppose you could fold the whole thing down for a bed?? Anyway, there were a lot of rough spots on it that a bodyman friend of his helped him fix, including the patch in the first picture on the one side of my son. Original paint on the van except for some spots they tried to match it up, which I wouldn't have noticed had he not pointed them out to me. They also let my son play in it LOL. They do use it to camp in; they have a home-made set of curtains that go all the way around on a small rope they strung up inside. The front bumper is a water ski.

The guy who owned this rat rod let my son play in it. He built it himself, including the frame, gas tanks, etc; he's a welder. He said he found the 32 Ford cab on top of a small barn (yard art) and asked the guy if it was for sale. They came to an agreement and took it down with his loader. The rod has a 402 BB Chevy in it. He also made the headers himself.

Next to me was this rodded out Plymouth, not sure of the year. I never realized before I snapped the pic that the emblem actually says "Chrysler Corp Product".

Aug. 26: Today my son and I drove down to the East Side Bar (Winona, MN) car show; more of a mini gathering as there was only about a dozen cars there. I think 5 of them were Mopars, though! What was nice about the small amount of cars was that each owner was never far from his car, making it easy to find whomever owned a particular car so we could ask questions. I didn't talk to everyone, but the people I did talk to were really cool. The bar had a potluck dinner going which they generously offered to us to even though we didn't bring anything. I offered to throw some money into the pot instead but they refused. The dinner was awesome, it included pulled pork sandwiches, 'lil smokies, fresh chopped fruit, deviled eggs, chips and dip, homemade pickles, brownies, and a few other things. One guy had his Ford Cabover (1940s) set up with a generator to run the big stage-like stereo system playing 50s-70s music all day.