JerseyHarold

I sold new cars for a few years and the rule at many dealerships is not to let a customer leave knowing your bottom line price. The theory is that you've spent time with the prospect, and if you give them a price you're making it easy for the next dealer to say "If I can save you $100.00 off that price, would you buy the car now?" Actually, you should fear the after-sale person (aka business manager, delivery coordinator, etc) much more than you fear the salesperson. The after-sale folks are the real sharks and make the dealerships and themselves lots of money with extended warrranties, add-on accessories, and the like.

I went looking for the announcement and couldn't find it. Can somebody post a link?

Good to hear the day went well. Sorry I couldn't make it yesterday. Our activities lasted much longer than we anticipated.

Great looking Plymouth. We're busy until early afternoon but if we get done quicker I'll take a ride out there.

I've registered a few'paperless' cars and changed engine number titles to VIN tiles with very little hassle. My experience with DMV is that you get much better results in person. As a last resort, if you have documentation showing the engine number, you can title the car that way and amend the paperwork later.

I've heard that old-time battery rebuilders would dump the old acid and then wash the battery out with water several times to get the crud off the plates. The fresh acid would then have clean plates to react with.

I wonder how much they sold it for when it got auctioned off.....

We upgraded to AAA Premier and have five free 100-mile tows per person per year, with one 'wild card' tow of 200 miles. With four of us on the membership, it is really 19 hundred-mile tows plus one 200-mile tow per year. There are other benefits to the Premier plan and I think we get our money's worth every year. Enjoy the trip!

Are you keeping the original brake system and steering?

One quick way to see if the voltage regulator is acting up is to whack it with the palm of your hand while the engine is running. If the ammeter shows charging after that, it's your regulator.

First car was a '64 Mercury Comet Caliente. My cousin's friend was ready to junk it,but gave it to me instead. I had it running and drivng about a half hour after pushing it home.

Might be an air pocket in the cooling system or defective thermostat. Most newer engines have a coolant bleeding procedure and bleed ports to get this done.

In the past, when I've responded to generic or vague Craigslist replies, I received an obvious scam email shortly afterwards. I suspect the replies I got were automatically generated in hopes of collecting email addresses when sellers respond. If the reply I get to an ad isn't worded like someone actually read the ad, I don't bother replying. It just bothered me to get the same bogus reply to each ad I placed yesterday.

Just thought i'd pass this along: I posted a bunch of stuff on Craigslist today and was pleased to see I received replies. However, each reply was the first few words of my posting followed by a question mark. Needless to say, they all got dumped.

Dodges have bigger bodies than Plymouths so the flooring is different. I'd try Bill Hirsch. He has been in business for a long time and has a good reputation.

I wouldn't start cutting or waxing before washing the car to avoid grinding dirt into the paint. One point I picked-up a few years ago is to use two buckets for your washing. Dunk your sponge in a bucket full of clean suds and wring out the dirty stuff in a second bucket. This way, you're not washing fresh areas of the car with dirty suds. My cars come out much better since I've gone over to that system.

One popular method is the home-made bank check for much more than the selling price. You are then asked to refund the difference. You find out much later that you got fake money after you've refunded real money. The giveaway in all these scams is that the buyer is ready to send your full asking price without having seen, or expressing a desire to see, the item being sold. Another red flag is the generic nature of the communication. The email could have been written in response to just about anything for sale. 'Caveat emptor' means 'buyer beware'. These days, 'caveat vendor' are words to heed as well.

It's a scam. I've gotten this type of response to Craigslist ads several times. I guess the scammers figure that if they send out enough emails, someone will eventually bite.

Check your lug bolts on all 4 wheels and rear axle center bolts (by brake drum) also. Maybe you sheared a key off one of the rear axles. Can somebody work clutch while you watch and listen outside of car?

Thanks for the links, Bob. That was a lot of good reading. I 've wondered how long it took for graphic artists to do the renderings used in the ads.

In one episode of You Bet Your Life Groucho said 'Your DeSoto dealer stands behind every car he sells....to help you push'. Hilarious. Are there any videos of this show available that include the commercials? I'd be real interested in seeing TV ads for the 1951 and 1952 Plymouths.

I did and found it very interesting. My Plymouths aren't exactly increasing in value like a rocket, and I have a better idea of what insurance company reality is. Thanks for the heads-up.

Thanks for the link. That's the info I was looking for.

I just renewed my antique auto insurance and realized the 'stated values' I used originally are now way too low. The insurance company phone rep suggested the NADA website but I thought their categories are too vague. I'm looking for a 'grade 1-6' type of pricing but haven't been able to find a website that works that way. Any suggestions appreciated.

Based on the suggestions I got here, we did some filling and flushing of the gas in the tank. I got the fuel to be just slightly more golden than fresh gas, decided that was close enough, and put the plugs back in and reconnected the fuel line. After a bunch of cranking the engine chugged into life. It ran a little rough, seemed to smooth out, then died while running at fast idle. I started the engine several times and each time it would run a few minutes and then die. At one point it backfired a little bit through the carb when trying to restart, then started and ran. At that point I got frustrated so we quit for the day. There a few issues that need to be addressed. The car steams out the exhaust and where the manifold attaches to the block. When I put the engine in back in the '90's, I switched manifolds because the donor engine was set-up differently. I didn't use sealer on any of the bolts or studs (some studs unscrewed from the block along with their nuts when I removed the original manifold). I later learned this was not a clever thing to do. I have some questions: 1. I'm trying to avoid pulling the manifolds off the engine if I can. Can I drain the radiator, un-do one fastener at a time, put sealer on it, then reinstall and go to the next one? 2. What sealer should I use? 3. I'm thinking that the stalling issue is carb related because the engine also stumbles when I try to give it gas (accelerator pump). How can I pin it down? On the positive side, I'm very pleased that the engine started today. The oil guage went right up to 40 PSI and the generator is charging real well. When I think about it, the engine behaved the same way the last time I ran it back in 1998. All ideas appreciated. Sorry for the long-winded post.