Me and the American

[Worden18]

9-4:

Had the American up on a friend's hoist today.  Inspected rear brakes, tightened up transmission pan bolts, bled the brakes, and took care of the pesky tail/brake light ground problem.  Got to see my two friends that I hadn't seen for a while.  Had lunch with them as well. 

Grill shot for you Plymouthy! ?

Edited September 5, 2021 by Worden18

[Worden18]

9-10:

Changed oil.  Whomever did it last cranked the pan bolt so tight I had to link 3 large wrenches to get the lever action needed to break it loose.  Wow ?

Anyway, the screw-on filter is up top by the radiator.  Not one drop of oil spilled.  I was happy about that.  I never saw an oil filter up top like that before.  The car is liking the fresh oil. Five quarts with the filter in the "Flying Scotsman". ?

Out for a quick test drive. going to Mississippi Mayhem in West Salem, Wisconsin tomorrow (9-11).  Maybe we'll see some of you guys there.  

 

[Worden18]

9-11:

Mississippi Mayhem today.  Show, swap, games, contests, races, food, etc.  Events will go on even after midnight; but we are gone for the day now.  It was a good time!  

Some of my favorite pics of the day.  Sure was a lot of cool original cars.  I like to see those.  My American was a hit.  ?

[Worden18]

9-11:

Out for a night cruise with my two older kids.  Just around town, kinda random.  Wherever we felt like driving.  Lots of people migrating from bar to bar.  I had 3 "I like your car!" compliments and a ton of waves and looks.  My daughter wished that downtown would turn into a street scene from "American Graffiti".  I couldn't have agreed more.  I'd love to organize some night cruises around town.  Even if it was only a few cars, imagine how fun it would be! ?

Pic is right after I backed in for the night.  The little American ran perfect ?

[Worden18]

9-12:

Out for some heavy cruising with the kids.

Pic 1: In front of our house before we left.

Pic 2: By Lake Winona

Pic 3: Right before turning onto the highway.

 

I tell ya, the American is cheap entertainment!  

This week I need to get the heater fan hooked up.  I'll be teaching my son how to change plugs, too. 

 

[Worden18]

9-13:

To work in the American this morning.  

 

[Worden18]

9-14:

The American doing it's job... getting me to work again ?

 

[JerseyHarold]

The Meadowbrook must be getting lonely.....

[keithb7]

There is indeed something appealing about the simple dash and compact gauges design.  Ya just don’t see many dashes looking so unique.  New  vehicles are so dull by comparison. 

[Worden18]

5 hours ago, JerseyHarold said:

The Meadowbrook must be getting lonely.....

It can't be, it's parked next to my B1C! ?

[Worden18]

3 hours ago, keithb7 said:

There is indeed something appealing about the simple dash and compact gauges design.  Ya just don’t see many dashes looking so unique.  New  vehicles are so dull by comparison. 

I read somewhere that the overall simplicity of the car appealed to those that were "less mechanically inclined".  Yeah, that's right up my alley ?

[Worden18]

9-16:

Out for a night ride again. It was breezy with a hint of fall in the air.  My kind of night ?

[Worden18]

9-17:

  Showed my son how to change spark plugs.  He's done it before, but not on the American.

  After that I tackled the heater fan switch.  PO did not hook it up because the car was missing the original switch.  I bought an aftermarket one.  I had to use the wiring diagram for the car to figure out which wire was the ignition switch.  I thought it'd be red, it was yellow.  Spliced an inline fuse between the ignition switch and fan switch.  Bam!  We have heat!  It has a good heater.  Not much square footage to get hot.  I'll still have to fabricate a bracket for the temperature lever, which is connected directly to the heater core of course.  The PO connected it to the heater hose itself, which absolutely does not work when you pull the lever.  

  Put 10 gallons in at Sinclair.  Judging by my gas gauge I used about 8 gallons of gas in the past week, which is pretty amazing since I drove all over kingdom come.  

 

[Worden18]

9-18:

Attended the Apple Fest car show (LaCrescent, MN) at the personal grounds of Mark's paint and repair.  This was the best show I've been to yet.  The entry fee was a non-perishable item for the food shelf, and Free Will donations were accepted for food and the band.  My son and I got there a little after noon and stayed until about 5:30.  They had brats, ham salad, apple crisp, beer and water.  The band was amazing!  Just sitting there listening to them made my day!  They also had a bouncy house for the kids.  I got to talk to lots of people about their cars and lots of other people about my car.  Speaking of which, the little American won the people's choice award!  Imagine that ?

People really loved it, and at the very end when we were going to take off, a group of about six people came running up to ask me questions before I left because I wasn't always by the car and they didn't know who the owner was.  So I chatted another 15 minutes to that group.  There was probably 50 cars there, and everyone was really fun to talk to.  The car up on the pole was an interesting story. Someone had that old Chevy stored in one of the landowners sheds and called one day and said they're not going to pay storage anymore and that they could have the car.  So the owner slapped some paint on it and stuck it up on a pole just because!

[Worden18]

9-18:

The guy singing looked right out of ZZ Top.  He later played bass with a 4-man band that was spectacular.  He was awesome by himself though. 

The Cushman was a '47 and ran good.  The owner drove it around the grounds.  I liked the smell of it.

 

[Worden18]

9-18:

Not sure what that engine was, but with 6 two barrels it was quite radical.

The station wagon is a 1960 Edsel Villager.  Spectacularly restored.  1 of 216 built.

 

[Worden18]

9-18:

The gray bearded guy in the picture was the owner of this Ford thing. I talked to him for about 20 minutes. He bought this thing in 1973 and drug it home where it sat in the woods on his property for 45 years until he decided to do something with it.  The engine is a 1945 flathead V8 that took him a while to get unstuck, but he never had to put piston rings in it and it doesn't smoke.  He made his own seat, his own wooden steering wheel, and part of the bed in the back is made from pieces of a windmill, and the rear fenders are made from basement window wells.  The picture of the tail light shows bullet holes. Of course it shattered the plastic lens, which he replaced when he found a pair of 53 Ford tail lenses at an antique shop for 10 bucks.  Lying in the bed of the thing was a brake shoe that came off it when he dragged it out of the woods. No fixing that!  He sure was an interesting fellow. With no shocks and a wooden seat he said it doesn't ride very good but it gets him where he wants to go!

 

Edited September 19, 2021 by Worden18

[greg g]

My aunt had that Cushman in orange.  She used it 2x a day to get to the school bus garage about 3 miles from her house. She rode in most any weather except when school was closed. In the summer she made doughnuts at the local mom and pop grocery  the scooter was her only transportation for three years.  She saved up enough money riding the Cushman to buy a 7 year old 55 chevy 6 that came with a teardrop camper. 

 

I don't think the scoot went more than about 30.

[Plymouthy Adams]

The Cushman is not but anything a total annoyance on any road....the average 49 cc scooter will leave them in the dust on the average.  While we all know they are but a mini bike on steroids....many place these in company with motorcycles along with the Mustangs bikes.  The one great thing the mini bike finds favor in my eye over these is the fact they don't aspire to motorcycle acclaim.  I just bought this for a putz around to town and back...all back roads....It will accelerate to 60 with no issues with my big butt on it.   Internet pic but for all account could be mine...it is same year color and shape/shine.

 

 

 

 

[Bbdakota]

17 hours ago, Worden18 said:

The guy singing looked right out of ZZ Top.  He later played bass with a 4-man band that was spectacular

Nothing beats live music and old cars! Sounds like somebody put on an awesome event! Congrats on the people's choice! 

[greg g]

What's the scoot Tim?

[Plymouthy Adams]

Greg, I purchased a clean 2013 Honda PCX150  I did not want a traditional cycle....the scoot is all I wanted and also did not want a chinese knockoff....Tao-Tao/Peacesport etc...was looking for a higher end brand name unit...this fits the bill nicely.  

[greg g]

Been thinking of one of the 550 to 750 cc units.  Not sure I can handle 400#s anymore, but they all seem to have a lower c of g than same weight and cc. motorcycles.  Honda, BMW, Suzuki, Yamaha,  Aprilia, and a Kymko, who provides the BMW engines are also in the marketplace.  Three to 5 year old ones are reasonable prices these days.

[Worden18]

9-20:

Was scanning eBay for a cool front plate.  (MN only requires the rear plate on a car 20 years or older).  My Meadowbrook has an awesome Veterans of Foreign Wars plate.  I went with a perfectly patinaed 1960 Iowa plate.  A strange thing happened when I was searching for bolts to mount it.  One bolt I picked out of the bin has an "R" (for Rambler!) on the face.  There's just no way that can happen.  It was literally the second bolt I grabbed, and it fit the hole!?

Edited September 21, 2021 by Worden18

[Merle Coggins]

What is local law enforcement going to think about an Iowa plate on the front of a Minnesota registered vehicle?