Me and the Meadowbrook

[Worden18]

Last night we had planned on taking the Meadowbrook for a cruise, but it rained so we wimped out.  Instead we got this glorious rainbow that touched the ground on both ends in the field across the road from us.  I couldn't capture the entire thing with my phone.  The second pic is looking down the road past our little granary at the beautiful sky.  

[greg g]

I just noticed the "I" &"T" marked on the key. Since both heads were shaped the same those marks probably came in handy at least during daylight hours.

Edited August 23, 2017 by greg g

[Worden18]

Tonight (Aug. 22) wifey, the dogs and I took a cruise over to Spring Grove and back, about a 35 mile round trip.  So this would be the first real trip out and about after applying the Penetrol, which is really dry and seems to be pretty solid.  I don't think it got put to the test tonight though, as there was no rain or wind, and the sun was going down.  I suppose it will take a few weeks to see just how well it will hold up.  

[Worden18]

Final shot after we returned home.  No change in the Penetrol finish.  

After having the Rotella 15w-40 in the car for a bit now, I'm not happy to report that the engine is still using oil, maybe even more than when I had the Castrol 10w-30 running in it.  I'll just keep going and see what happens....

[Worden18]

Packed up the family and drove into town for the weekly concert in the park.  A 5 piece brass band played a wide variety of music including pieces from the 1600s and TV show themes from the 50s and 60s.  The dogs enjoyed the show, too.  

The kids' school principal inquired about my car when I went back to it to grab my wife's vest and caught him looking it over.  He found my stories very interesting and commented on how shiny the car looked.   Its a good 20 footer in the right light LOL.  In the wrong light you can see all the streaks left in the finish from the brush strokes.  

[Worden18]

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. 

[Worden18]

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".

[Worden18]

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.

[Worden18]

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.

[Worden18]

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.  

[Mike36]

13 hours ago, Worden18 said:

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".

1937 Plymmouth

[Worden18]

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. 

[Worden18]

Penetrol got a sunlight workout today. 

[Worden18]

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

[Worden18]

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.

[medium_jon]

Neat story of the truck

[Worden18]

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. 

[Worden18]

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

[Worden18]

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.

Edited September 10, 2017 by Worden18

[Worden18]

This Buick was pretty cool; its patina was handcrafted. 

[Worden18]

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. 

[Worden18]

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

[Worden18]

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

[Worden18]

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?

[wldavis3]

I think Chrysler, but don't know model.