Morning coffee

[RICH MUISE]

Got my car back yesterday. All is good, alignment tomorrow. Kip sent the rotors out for turning, they called and sent him a video of it running out on their rotor lathe. They said it was warped too bad to do a clean up cut. Kip said he's been having trouble finding parts houses that have someone who knows what their doing turning rotors. He showed me the video and said notice their spindle is running out! WTF? We talked about sending them around to find someone else to clean them up, but he needed to have them back that day so he could move the car to get another one out. I decided not to screw around and found some new ones. So, new ball joints, rotor/hubs,brake pads, wheel bearings, seals, and shocks.
My brake pedal was smooth as silk, btw, no pulsating from a warped rotor but time is money, and I didn't want to tie Kip's shop up trying to figure out if we in fact had a problem or just operator error on parts house.
The KYB shocks that were in it for 39k miles were still in really good shape, but I told him to put the ones in I had already bought anyway.
I decided to install the ball joints I got from Concours with the rubber boots that came on it, and not
The "talking to me" the car was doing that I thought was the ball joints turned out to be a loose upper control arm!! This is the second time that has happened. Guess I need to check them for tightness once in a while, and particularly after alignments. It's the bolt/nut that goes thru the control arm shaft where the shims are added that keeps loosening.
Also, from the week before, my A/C has been working great .
I checked on the car show/cruise in Mena Ark., I was hoping to do next weekend. It's been cancelled!! . I did watch a video of last year's and it's deffinetly a show I've added to my bucket list. Beautiful little mountain town that goes all out for their once a year event. Several hundred cars.

[RICH MUISE]

I've noticed an increase in local car shows going on around here. Unlike California, all the big shows in Tx, OK, and NM have been cancelled, but at the cruise ins last Saturday I picked up a 1/2 dozen flyers for local stuff going on in the next few weeks. How about your areas?
I was planning on doing a car show in Lubbock this weekend, but last week we found out my wife needs surgery and it's been sceduled for tomorrow, so that's obviously out. Pat Fleishman stopped by my house for a few minutes last week and mentioned Cook's Garage in Lubbock does a first Saturday cars and coffee, so knowing this weekend's trip there wasn't going to happen, I went down for that. I was pleasantly surprised, when I got there the parking lot was full of cars.probably a hundred or more. Only downside to that was having to make sure my butt was out of bed by 5:30 for the 2 hour drive down. Later that day was the Amarillo first Saturday meet, and once again there were tons of cars.
Amarillo had a festival going on that day as well in the old rt 66 historic district I wasn't aware of, and our every Saturday meeting spot was full of street rods, customs and about 15 lowriders. The weinermobile was parked on the street in front of our parking lot. Got a little bit of info on the history and build of it from the gorgeous blond gal who was part of the crew. Those things are now built on a UPS truck chasis, and the fiberglass body refurbished and reset on a new chasis as needed. She pointed out large eyebolts that protrude from the top used for that purpose. They've been around since 1931, the one I saw was built in '03 I think she said. Paint looked new.
Anyway, my point was there were tons of car guys out Saturday, probably antsy from not much going on this summer and winter not to far down the road. It got down to 37 the night before last, so winter may be sooner than later. Suppose to be back i the 90's this weekend, but still only 44 as I type.

[lalessi1]

I am seeing more activity as well. not many shows have happened but the cruise ins are starting up. the governor announced this morning we are going into "stage three". Personally I am a little cautious and may hold out for a vaccine... Cold front stalled and isn't gonna get here, still in the '90's.

[abe_lugo]

We been seeing shows through people postings, there seems to be a few smaller shows in So-Cal. We are bit frustrated staying home. but it is what it is. I've gotten a lot more done and knocked out most of the Honey Do list throughout the summer.

Then I got my old '57 back, we have a long skinny drive way with hardly an area to Tetris the running cars out.  So the challenge is to get this '57 mobile and them we get out other rides out.  I also gave me a chance to get rid of extra parts and some motorcycles I lost interest in.

Either way even though you are supposed have masks on outside, we constantly see pics of people without masks at shows.

We see people that never went into the stay at home, like we were supposed to do. I guess they dont have actual responsibilities??, so it creates a bit of frustration and alienation for me. Anyhow here goes to another week.

I still need to get exhaust done on my Caddy and my wife is itching to dive her Plymouth.. maybe this week it will happen.

[RICH MUISE]

Leaving early afternoon for Oklahoma City and tomorrow's 100 mile rod run. There should be 150+ cars there, maybe over 200. They're meeting in Arcadia and doing 100 miles of old 66. Should be interesting, I'm really stoked. Everybody will have a map, and they are encouraging guys not to bunch up too much so as to not disrupt traffic.
If another guy from Amarillo shows up, I may lose out on the "long distance" award......he lives 6 miles further from OKC than me, lol. I don't know him, I'll be watching for a '46 2 door on my way there.

[FiveSevenLiter]

Let me know if you need a Co-Pilot.

[RICH MUISE]

A co-pilot would have been nice! Had a great weekend. Drove about 750 miles total. There were 220 cars on the 124 mile cruise! Met some wonderful people. Got to shake hands with a Hamb forum member I've been in many conversations with. Oklahoma is a beautiful state. Not too much of the cruise was on old 66. RoyBoy productions was there and posted some great pics on his website. I'll post a link to that. Also, make sure you look at the last 10 or so pics. They are of some of the neat restorations Steve's Wrecker service has done, including an Art Deco styled vintage car carrier.
The weather was perfect for a cruise, low 70's mostly. I was runner-up for the long distance award. Another guy from the west side of Amarillo beat me out by 6 miles!

https://royboyproductions.smugmug.com/Cars/2020/2020-OKC-Hot-Rod-Hundred/i-8VpRHXx

[djfordmanjack]

WOW, Rich ! that must have been a fantastic weekend ! and great weather ! your 57 looks so good on the road, as usual!
I can't even start on the participants rides. so many sweet cars, but that white 63ish F100 must be my favorite. along with the blue 36 cpe and the golden 442. maybe even that Packard 2dr sedan....too much fun really! it makes me want to get back on the road asap.

[RICH MUISE]

The red and white Ranchero you may have noticed is owned by a pro restoration guy from Mustang, Ok. He's restored a dozen of them if I remember the number correctly. He's also known as the GTO Guru in OK, has restored 30 of them! Hopefully he'll be joining our group, I gave him all the info. That Ranchero is a beautifully done car. He's running a 302 in it.

[RICH MUISE]

Anybody heard anything from Jim / Highball lately? Last active Sept 8........very unusual for Jim. Hoping everything is ok with him. Is Tujunga one of the fire areas?

[RICH MUISE]

ttt

[hiball3985]

Anybody heard anything from Jim / Highball lately? Last active Sept 8........very unusual for Jim. Hoping everything is ok with him. Is Tujunga one of the fire areas?

Hi Rich and all you guys. Between the heat wave we had, the smoke from the fires which was really bad in our area and some major medical problems right now.  I haven't had the Ranchero out of the garage in over a month. I don't mean to preach Rich but you and others like me who smoke it does catch up with you eventually. I don't have much to say right now until I get the results from all the testing I've been through the last two weeks..

[CobraJoe]

Glad to hear you are okay, hopefully your test results come back positive.

[RICH MUISE]

Sorry to hear about your medical issues, but glad to hear from you. You're absolutely correct...the smoking does catch up, it did for me a few years ago, and is getting worse. I've been cleaning gutters out for 2 days...takes that long when you come down from the ladder, move it 4 feet, and have to go rest  (and have a smoke) for 10 minutes.
I think the smoke from the Ca fires has reached all the way to Texas........last week the sky was just hazy, don't know of anything else it would be from.
Keep us up to date, and thanks for the reply.
Rich

[Ford Blue blood]

Yup, that smoking thing is a tuff nut to crack!  I have been on again - off again for most of my life.  Been off for over 15 years now but do buy a pack of cigars every once in a while when I just plain ol miss it.  Just really like the taste of tobacco and find dipping and chewing a little off the charts for me.  Mt doc tells me the fhlem build up I get in my upper respiratory is "old man" stuff.  My TN buddy has the same issue/thing going on and his doc says the same thing?  Both of us have clean xrays and decent stress test going for us so I guess we survived to this point.

Jim sorry to hear of the medical issues!  Will be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers and trust you will have a positive outcome.