JerseyHarold

I had my gas tank done by Gas Tank Renu in the mid-nineties. It's a franchise operation offered through radiator and gas-tank shops. My tank had huge rusted holes and their process fixed them.They cut open the tank, yanked the Oilite filter, and coated it inside and out with a baked-on mystery material. The process has a lifetime warranty. Pricey but worth it. Harold

Here's another way that's somewhat complicated but has worked for others; you need the cylinder head fully installed to try it. Take an old spark plug that fits the head, then remove the ceramic and center electrode. Get a nut with the same threads as a zerk fitting, weld the nut to the gutted spark plug, and install the zerk fitting. Screw this contraption into the cylinder head on a cylinder where both valves are closed. Attach a hand grease gun to the zerk, then pump the cylinder full of grease. The grease gun puts out a couple of hundred PSI, which should then uniformly push on the piston to get it to move. I've never done this, but I've been told it works. Let us know your results. Harold

I finally found a business coupe in worse shape than mine! Same seller is advertising a completely rebuilt flathead six (presumably for the Dodge) for $1800. in another ad. Check it out: http://www.thepartstrader.com/details.php?id=99

Never knew that the interior garnish screws in '51-52's were special. I got curious and did a search for Jackson head screws on Google. There were a whole list of results. This is the first one I clicked on: http://www.msc-stainless-fasteners.com/materialsearch/mscproducts/specificproducts/jackson-screws.html Live and learn!

You got real lucky, Ed. When we moved to New Jersey from New York, I had a 1974 New York transferable registration, signed over to me from the former owner, for my '51 business coupe, with the motor number (long gone) as the vehicle ID. I wanted to title the car in NJ with the VIN, but got nowhere with my local (Freehold) DMV. I called Trenton (main DMV) and still got nowhere. They suggested I register the car in New York and amend the registation at the same time, then use the amended NY registration (with the VIN on it) to get a NJ title. This what I ended-up doing. What a hassle! Like I say, you got off lucky.....

The '52 strip is narrower than the '51 strip due to differences in the hood ornament. The year of the strip has to match the year of the 'boat'.

The windshield wipers in those Lincolns were hydraulic and ran off the power steering pump. One bright sunny day ours came on and wouldn't turn off. Looked pretty dumb going down the street! Then there's the time the brake line coming off the master cylinder sprung a leak and I hit the back of one of our other cars at about 2 MPH while parking. Pedal went right to the floor. No damage to either car, luckily. The crowning glory is, when I finally sold the thing, the clip from the gas pedal to the linkage, conveniently located INSIDE the chassis crossmember under the car, fell off. It was January, cold and snowy. I rigged-up a coat hanger to the carburetor, and ran it through the firewall (lots of grommet holes made it easy). When the new owner came to pick it up, he drove away using my new hand throttle. He actually restored the car like he said he would, then I lost track of it. Sometimes I wonder why I got rid of it......

62rebelp23, I had a '63 Lincoln....one of the most unreliable cars I ever had, but loved those suicide doors. The exhausts were prone to rusting out because the resonators were mounted at an angle and held condensation in the ends, leading to early failure. I, too, got hooked on the Midas merry-go-round with resonators and pipes every couple of years. In our area, we couldn't find a shop that would replace the water pump when it quit (too difficult a job, they all said), so my father and I had to repair it ourselves.

David, Go back to Midas and put your complaint in writing. The shop has a garageman's insurance policy for screw-ups like this. Engines are expensive! CYA. For what it's worth, I worked at a Saturn dealer several years back when the 'L' series came out. The Wix catalog that year listed the wrong oil filter number for the 6-cylinder car, and we put several new engines into cars that had their engines destroyed at local garages because of it.

If the high bidder was a shill, the next-highest bidder will get a 'second-chance offer' from the seller to buy it at his highest bid. Isn't eBay wonderful?

Not for vehicles.

My biggest issue with a personal check, besides having to wait for it to clear, is that the sender can see my signature and bank account number on the back of it. The bigger Flat Rate box is news to me. When will it be available?

I read recently that eBay is revamping the 'Motors' site and that might include a new fee structure. Usually it is $40. to list, with a $50. additional charge if the car sells. The 'special' makes it $1. to list and $89. if sold. It still adds up to $90. if you sell the car.

Wow! My lovely state of New Jersey makes it very complicated to get a title without paperwork. I spoke to a local Tow Company operator a few years ago who made it sound like getting a title (in his case for impounds that were never claimed) was easy as pie. When I lived in New York, I got papers for a few cars that didn't have any with hardly any trouble at all.

Looks like a nice car for someone. How hard is it to get a title in situation like this?

Shel, I appreciate how aggravating it can be to collect payment from some bidders, and even more so when for a small amount of money. I sold a pair of New York license plates several weeks ago. My listings always say that payment is expected within a week after auction ending, and that I don't accept personal checks. There were three bidders on it, and the winner didn't pay so last week I sent an eBay 'reminder' letter as the first step in the Non-Paying Bidder process so I could recover the commission. This morning, I received a personal check from the guy. That means further delay until I deposit the check and know it has cleared. All of this for an $18.00 item! Tim, I recycle boxes and use Priority Mail boxes as often as I can. Sometimes the item is a large or odd size and that's when it gets tricky to scrounge-up a box. EBay used to advocate starting an item at $1.00 with no reserve, and people would magically get auction fever and bid it to the moon. That strategy may not be applicable any more, because from my perspective eBay has lost a lot of its luster and prices are lower nowadays. I try to structure the listing so people will look at the item and bid on it, but I don't want to end-up losing money if it sells to a 'one-bid wonder'.

My two cents on shipping and handling: I sell occasionally on eBay. My position is that the true cost of shipping and handling is more than just the postage on the package, and the buyer should reasonably expect to pay for it. The envelope or box costs money, packaging tape is expensive and adds-up quickly, and if I'm making a special trip to the Post Office to mail one item (which happens a lot if you only sell one or two items at a time) the price of gas enters into the equation as well. Then comes the PayPal fee. If the buyer pays by PayPal, as most of them do, they don't have to go to the store, buy a money order, and spend money on postage. Since I usually sell low-dollar items, the PayPal fee is a substantial percentage of the cost, and I don't think I should bear the expense of it. So, that's where the 'handling' part of Shipping and Handling comes from. Like I said, just my 2 cents' worth....

Registered and running: 2001 Taurus sedan 1998 Lumina sedan 1994 Villager minivan Sleeping in garage: 1951 Concord business coupe 1952 Cambridge 4-door 1966 Sport Fury convertible

I don't think Plymouth had carpeting in 1952. I don't recall seeing it in any of the cars I've ever looked at or owned.

This area of New Jersey is about $2.90 a gallon. Harold

I called my friend and he said his San Leandro-built Cranbrook has the dark-color trunk (the exterior body color is light gray). He doesn't think his car has the red oval firewall plate and believes it never had one because there aren't any extra holes in the firewall for fasteners. This would make sense because I think the red plates had 'Detroit, USA' on them and that wouldn't apply to cars built in other plants. I'm wondering whether the bodies were imported from another Briggs plant for assembly in San Leandro. The Cranbrook is in winter storage but he said he'd take a closer look at the body serial plate next time he visits the car.

P23's have a different style radiator brace without shrouds.

A couple of years ago the trunk color question came up on the POC board. One member has an original '51 Cambridge, in the family since nearly new, with a body-color trunk interior. The car was built in Evansville. This surprised me because I had only seen the dark gray/green color trunks in the many '51-'52 Plymouths I've looked at, but these were all in the northeast and presumably built in Detroit. I started checking the trunks in eBay ads and online photos of P23's (my specialty/affliction) and comparing them to the posted VINs. The Evansville cars were showing-up with body-color trunks and Detroit cars were not. I didn't find enough info on California cars to draw any conclusions about them, but my friend recently bought a '52 Cranbrook that was built in San Leandro, California which has completely original paint. I'll call him tomorrow (it's too late tonight) and ask him about the trunk color in that car.

I don't think they made a P19-coded engine. If you had a P19 Deluxe it got an engine stamped P20.

Johnny S: Have you decoded the VIN's on your cars to see where they were built? Alternately, I think that if the body number plate has a letter next to the number it wasn't built in Detroit. My guess is that your green car came from Evansville or Los Angeles and the blue one was built in Detroit. All based on what I've observed about trunk color over the years. If you get the chance, could you check it out? Thanks. Harold