Old cars

[w1vtp]

Some of you might find this interesting viewing

http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/

[kb3ouk]

I like the brochure for the Dodge Red Ram engines, some of the first V8 hemi engines Chrysler made, along with the Chrysler Firepower and the DeSoto Fire Dome.

[W6TOM]

 Until 5 years ago my vehicle was a 1966 Ford F-100, owned it for 17 years, the guy Ii bought it from bought it second hand in 1970. The truck came with the original Ford shop manual which I still have, may it rust in peace! When you live where it doesn't snow vehicles last a long time. I called it "The Beast"

[AJ1G]

When you live where it doesn't snow vehicles last a long time.

When you live where they don't salt the roads vehicles last a long time.

Last year when I was looking for a reasonably priced used pickup, I wasted a lot of time chasing down low mileage Ford Rangers that were about ten years old that looked great in the AutoTrader ads but when I looked under them they were all rotten to the core.  The CARFAX reports on them showed they all had come out of northern Vermont and northern New Hampshire.

Thanks for the link Al, another place on the Internet were you can get lost for hours..right up there with the Radio News archive site!

[kb3ouk]

When you live where it doesn't snow vehicles last a long time.

When you live where they don't salt the roads vehicles last a long time.

Last year when I was looking for a reasonably priced used pickup, I wasted a lot of time chasing down low mileage Ford Rangers that were about ten years old that looked great in the AutoTrader ads but when I looked under them they were all rotten to the core.  The CARFAX reports on them showed they all had come out of northern Vermont and northern New Hampshire.

Thanks for the link Al, another place on the Internet were you can get lost for hours..right up there with the Radio News archive site!

That sounds a lot like my 1992 Dodge Dakota that I was driving to college every day from August 2012 till this December, the body was great with hardly any rust, just don't crawl underneath. That truck was rusted to the point that there were chunks of metal flaking off. Ended up parking it a few weeks ago and buying a 2003 Dodge Neon. the truck gets used around the farm some now.

[W3GMS]

Very cool Al.  Will have to show it to Martha when she gets home from work.  

Here is a picture of her 73 Mach 1.  This is the one that she and I worked on for years and its finally on the road.  Runs great and its fun to take to the shows.

We had relatives over from the Netherlands.  He was ogling over the car so Martha gave us the keys so we could take a ride down to the local ice cream stand!  Not many 73 Mach 1's in Holland. 
   
Joe, GMS  

[W6TOM]

When you live where they don't salt the roads vehicles last a long time

 I grew up in Massachusetts, my attitudes towards vehicles are very Uncalifornian, when you come from a place where vehicles rust away before your eyes it gives you a different perspective. Prior to owning the 1966 F-100 I had a 1965 F-100 I owned for 16 years. I bought it in 1976, sold it in 1992, it needed a complete front end rebuild and brakes.

 The 1966 F-100 belong to a friend, he had the front end rebuilt and the brakes too plus I had helped him work on that truck over the years and knew it. I decided to sell the latest F-100 for a number of reasons. The weak link was the carburetor, when the last one crapped out it took me days to find a replacement, renting a car was expensive! Also, I was getting to the age when crawling under vehicles was getting to be difficult. Gas was also up $4 a gallon here in the PRK (Peoples Republik of Kalifornia), no car payment did  offset that a bit.

 I had hoped to get closer to retirement before I bought a new vehicle but decided it was time. I bought a Toyota Tacoma, gets 25 MPG on the road, my 1966 F-100 got 13 MPG with a tail wind, going down hill and the engine shut off!! I drive more, probably 25% more, I also am more likely to go places. It was worth it, what I like the best is having Air Conditioning!!

 The pictures were taken on the way to the N7RCA Swap Meet in Minden, NV a few years ago. We had a wet winter that year, lots of snow, skiing in the Sierras into late June.

[AJ1G]

We eneded up getting a Tacoma also - 4WD with the 2.7 4 banger and auto transmission, access cab with full size bed.  Really happy with it, although I'm a little disappointed with the gas mileage - the best I have gotten so far on extended highway driving is only 22  MPG.  The all PVC bed is way better  than any of the steel or coated steel beds on the competition's trucks, and the  tie down rails with adjustable cleats are the best i've seen on any pickup.  And the rear jump seats with the seat bottoms folded up  are great for mounting things like my AN/GRC-9!

[W6TOM]

  I wish I had gotten the access cab, I could use the room which is my main complaint about the truck. I also wish the placement of the wheel wells were such I could use a standard lock box, the lock box I have was made specifically for the Toyota bed. I have no need for 4 wheel drive, mine has the automatic transmission and 2.7 liter 4 banger. I supposed the difference in mileage is due to the different drive trains. My sister works a nurse, she drive 20 miles of 2 lane Ma roads to work and doesn't get snow days. She has a 4 wheel drive jeep. Lot of people here have 4 wheel drives because they're cool, I have no intention of ever driving in the snow again!

 As for GRC-9 radios, picture is at Morro Bay State Park, San Luis Obispo County at the annual West Coast Military Radio Collectors Meet in 2012.

[AJ1G]

Nice setup Tom....I am very glad we got the access cab, you can put a lot of stuff in there.  Still not as good as a station wagon or even a sedan though.   I have yet to figure out the function of those rectangular recesses above those wheel wells that you can see in your picture of the GRC 9 field setup.  The notches in the wheel wells to drop in  2X6s across the bed to support carrying 4X8 panels on the level over the wheel wells is a nice design feature.  Also like the stowage boxes in the fender wells just inside the bed by the tailgate, great for storing tie down straps and line for securing loads.

Keep an eye out for the small old Master Mobile antenna  ball mounts that are mounted on an L bracket.  The hole spacing on the bracket is amazingly, perfect to bolt them on the inside of the bed with the ball mount base flush with the top of the fender lip using the two bolts on the tops of the frames just forward of the tailgate.  I picked up a pair of them at NearFest last fall and could not believe I could just bolt them right on there without any rework.

The GRC-9 has been strapped in the back for well over a year now and keeps on truckin, with nary a hiccup so far, although I usually just play on 40 CW with my Elecraft K1 doing QRP CW mobile.  Amazing how well 5 watts  of CW will do on that band mobile.  I played around a bit in the CW SS for about 8 hours, worked 43 sections including Pacific (KH6).  All my QSOs were made parked, there's no way you can do  the CW SS exchange and logging underway!

[W6TOM]

   I went to Nearfest in October, I've been coming back in October for the last several years to visit my sisters. I like to do some type of a local attraction when I'm there. The last two years I went to the Yankee Steam Up at the New England Wireless and Steam Museum in East Greenwich, RI. I also spent the day at Battle Ship Cove in Fall River the year before.

   I went to Nearfest on the Friday, took a non ham friend from high school, he was nice enough to drive and had a good time. The swaps are done a bit different than here in the Bay Area, we have monthly swap at De Anza College in Cupertino from March to October, guys get there when it's still dark. These are a few other swaps in Northern California, Sacramento and Lincoln, people are there at the crack of dawn too.

[K9PNP]

Nice reference.  Got to spend some time on that site and look up some of the MOPARs I have owned.  Sure miss the big iron;  also miss the fuel prices of those days.

[WU2D]

I miss my old cars and how a full sized transceiver like an NCX-5 would fit in between the driver and passenger with ease and how sexy a full sized Hustler whip looked on the rear bumper of my 66 Belair- but I do not miss the manual steering and brakes and constantly working on the rust, holes, brakes, muffler, points, distributor, gaskets, shocks, master cylinder,carb, leaking radiator fluid and oil in the driveway....Dunno I guess car repair was a kid thing for me. Maybe this attitude will change as I retire in a few years and I will wake up one morning and just have to get a 1960 Tempest Wagon.   

[W2VW]

Very cool Al.  Will have to show it to Martha when she gets home from work.  

Here is a picture of her 73 Mach 1.  This is the one that she and I worked on for years and its finally on the road.  Runs great and its fun to take to the shows.

We had relatives over from the Netherlands.  He was ogling over the car so Martha gave us the keys so we could take a ride down to the local ice cream stand!  Not many 73 Mach 1's in Holland. 
   
Joe, GMS  

The ports on that Cleveland engine are the size of Holland.

Nice pic.

[W3GMS]

Very cool Al.  Will have to show it to Martha when she gets home from work.  
Here is a picture of her 73 Mach 1.  This is the one that she and I worked on for years and its finally on the road.  Runs great and its fun to take to the shows.
We had relatives over from the Netherlands.  He was ogling over the car so Martha gave us the keys so we could take a ride down to the local ice cream stand!  Not many 73 Mach 1's in Holland. 
Joe, GMS  

The ports on that Cleveland engine are the size of Holland.

Nice pic.

Your right about that Dave!  We sure get into a lot of conversations when we take the Mach 1 to the ice cream stand.  At times, its almost a mini car show when some other classics show up. 

Happy New Year OM.....

Joe, GMS

[VE3LYX]

I have a couple myself plus the very first V10 ram ever sold , order # ..26B0001 .Had it 20 years. waited 7 months for it to be built and imported. The 63 Dodge has a MAX WEDGE 426 with a pushbutton Torkflite and uses the rare Nascar REV3 single 4 manifold. The dragster on the matching trailer is called the SR Dragster (cause old people need to have fun too!)  It has a 1962 slant six valiant engine bored out to 246 cubes (huge overbore)and was completely built in house car and engine (cause that was my career, (engines) and brings a lot of joy to this ol grey-haired ham when I take it out to the Picton Airport drags twice a year so it can gobble a couple of V8s and scare my self silly one more time. .:>)
Cars in the summer and ham radio the rest of the time. Like Hooked on Phoenics it worked for me.
Don

[KI4YAN]

My daily is a 1972 Datsun 240Z, I bought it out of high school and did the rust-o-ration. But you can't keep a Datsun from rusting...already got rust in the rear fender lips again. Dang road salt eats cars.

I honestly think road salting ought to be banned...it really doesn't fix things in the area I live in, if it's cold enough to ice up it's too cold for the salt to do it's job. (and it only ever gets that cold one or two days a year!) That, and it really tears up the roads and the plants near the roads. This spring they'll have to re-sod a LOT of peoples front yards from salt damage...already been on the news about that!

[AJ1G]

Never heard of a town putting down sod for correction of salt damage up north.  Our towm is pretty good for replacing knocked down mail boxes and repairing curbing and even regrading and reseeding edges of lawns ripped up by plows.  In fact, I never have had a problem with salt damage to the lawn here.  They use calcium chloride vs sodium chloride.

I don't like road salt for what is does to vehicles though.  I have to have the rocker panels replaced on an otherwise pristine 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix, but that is mostly GM's fault due to a bad design for the W bodies back then.  Rusted from the inside out,  I didn't realize how bad it was until they perforated and I started breaking off huge amounts of rotten chunks.  The inners are still solid at least.

[KL7OF]

love that  63 dodge...I had its cousin...63 Sport Fury....factory powered with 383 dual point wedge and hurst shifted 4 speed.I later powered it with a 426 wedge and It had a 426 Hemi in it when I sold it..I still have the 383 wedge engine stored in the barn....wish I still had the car...

[w3jn]

It has a 1962 slant six valiant engine bored out to 246 cubes (huge overbore)and was completely built in house car and engine (cause that was my career, (engines) and brings a lot of joy to this ol grey-haired ham when I take it out to the Picton Airport drags twice a year so it can gobble a couple of V8s and scare my self silly one more time. .:>)
Cars in the summer and ham radio the rest of the time. Like Hooked on Phoenics it worked for me.
Don

Now THAT is cool!  Gotta love a slant-6 dragster, if only for its sheer audacity.

BTW those of you with Tacomas in rust belt states need to watch frame rust very carefully...

[K9PNP]

Nice 63.  Had a 62 Plymouth which originally came out of Chrysler police sales.  318 4BBL, Torgue Flite with pushbutton drive, limited slip differential,beefed up suspension.  Apparently built originally for a small town department.  Used to run against 396's with some success; the TorqueFlite didn't miss shifts like some of them with the manual 4-speeds.  And a 9' steel whip loaded nicely with a homebrew remote matching system.  Even had a Saturn 6 Halo on it for a while.  That got some looks.

[M1ECY]

Lots of wonderful cars!

I have wanted a 1955 Cheverolet hard top, with something like a 350 motor for as long as I can remember, but with fuel over here at about $15 a gallon I think that might be wishful thinking...

In the meantime, a piccy of one of my cars, some what more fuel efficient, and a lot of fun to drive...

Oh and a couple of my past vehicles, both at off road courses.

[kb3ouk]

I honestly think road salting ought to be banned...it really doesn't fix things in the area I live in, if it's cold enough to ice up it's too cold for the salt to do it's job. (and it only ever gets that cold one or two days a year!) That, and it really tears up the roads and the plants near the roads. This spring they'll have to re-sod a LOT of peoples front yards from salt damage...already been on the news about that!

PennDOT is trying out beet juice mixed with salt in the western part of the state, supposed to be able to melt ice down to about 0 degrees F. Plain salt only works down to about 20.

Never heard of a town putting down sod for correction of salt damage up north.  Our towm is pretty good for replacing knocked down mail boxes and repairing curbing and even regrading and reseeding edges of lawns ripped up by plows.  In fact, I never have had a problem with salt damage to the lawn here.  They use calcium chloride vs sodium chloride.

From what I've saw, calcium chloride does more damage, my family collects old tractors in addition to old cars, and on any of them that had fluid filled tires (calcium chloride mixed with water) the rims are rotted through completely. My Bolens Ridemaster is like that, so is my dad's Ferguson TO-20. That mixture seems to eat metal quicker than sodium chloride and water does.


Love the old Mopars, the whole family here does too. I have a 1992 Dodge Dakota and a 2003 Dodge Neon, brother has a 1997 Dakota, there's a 1968 Dodge Dart in the barn, my great-grandfather's 1970 Plymouth Fury III is in another shed. There's also a Ford Falcon and Ranchero in there with it. Bunch of Fords sitting around here too, 3 1963 Falcon convertibles in the garage, all 3 are 260 V8s with 3 speed manuals (1963 was the first year for a convertible and a V8 in a Falcon), couple more Falcons sitting in the trees along with an old Galaxie 500. Most of them are still restorable, my brother and I were talking about fixing a few of them up some day, he really wants to fix the Galaxie and the Dart in the barn up, I want to get the Fury fixed up. I think the Fury is a 4 door hardtop, I'll have to check some of the pictures of it that I found, I know it has a 383 in it with an automatic. Dad has a Mustang and a Falcon, I think the Falcon is a 1964 or 65 and the mustang is a 1965, I'm not sure though. The Mustang is a 200 straight 6 with an automatic, the Falcon was originally a 6 and auto I think, he repowered it with a 289 and a 4 speed. Dad built a Shelby Cobra kit car, has a 302 in it, hasn't been out in over 20 years, says he might get it out and finish it (still needs the interior finished). I think its only been started once.

[KI4YAN]

I'd love to have an 1970/1971 Galaxie 500 LTD two-door, need somethin' to put my ford 300-6 in...

On last assembly it put down 426HP to the wheels...621ft-lbs...YeeHaw!

[kb3ouk]

What kind of work did you do to it to get that much power from that 300? Those are some tough engines though, and unlike the earlier 144, 170, 200, and 250, the 300 and 240 had a removeable intake manifold, the others had the intake cast into the head. My dad put 3 single barrel carbs on the 200 in his Mustang, I was thinking he told me he drilled holes in the factory intake to mount them directly to it, but my brother says it was a kit with a manifold that bolts where the original carb was (on top of the factory manifold), and then the 3 carbs bolt to the manifold piece from the kit.