Morning coffee

[mustang6984]

Agreed. I HATE dummy parts...be they spots or pipes. Not a big fan of Lakes Pipes anyhow...less so when they don't work.
Was a nice blue though.

[Tom S]

Agreed. I HATE dummy parts...

Yup, dummy parts = useless bolt on junk.
The recessed radio antennas was a nice custom touch though.
But two of 'em?
I'm afraid that it's white interior would be a pain to keep clean if it was driven often.

[mustang6984]

Yup, dummy parts = useless bolt on junk.
The recessed radio antennas was a nice custom touch though.
But two of 'em?
I'm afraid that it's white interior would be a pain to keep clean if it was driven often.

I have heard that 2 antennas actually can ruin your reception...they fight one another. If that is so then one would have to be a dummy antenna. If not...still why 2?

As for the white interior...my Saleen has white...and you nailed it. No kids allowed! And some adults I can think of as well!

[hiball3985]

Do they actually make enough ammo to deal with the stupid people of this world?

I'm sure they do, but now in Calif it's almost impossible to buy. More great legislation by the stupid people.

[mustang6984]

I'm sure they do, but now in Calif it's almost impossible to buy. More great legislation by the stupid people.

And thus the reason I am leaving the west coast and moving to Missouri. The entire west coast has become California...socially,economically and worst of all morally. You have my sympathy.

[RICH MUISE]

Leaving for Albuquerque later this evening. Hope the heat is bearable there. Shouldn't be too bad Friday as it's suppose to be overcast most the day, but Saturday is sunny with 97* forcast. LOL, gotta spend some time today cleaning a few pounds of dog hair out of my interior. I'm hoping to pick up some  under-the-dash A/C vents while I'm there. I finally got around to doing some  makeshift duct temporary mountings and it's making a huge difference as far as moving air inside the car. Now, if I could just get it colder. I really didn't want the under dash vents, but I finally gave up trying to do 2 more vents coming thru the dash......just no room behind for the ducting.

[gasman826]

vents do make a difference.  I have not found a aftermarket vent that works with the '57s curved dash.  I modified one dash to get vents in the right height.  I have them under the dash in the Raunch Wagon.  Works but I would like them up higher.

[SkylinerRon]

With AM radio the more antenna the better. FM requires a certain length for best reception.

Ron.

[mustang6984]

With AM radio the more antenna the better. FM requires a certain length for best reception.

Ron.

I knew that, but I had been told that two antennas, especially side by side, actually fought one another and ruined the reception overall. Is that true or not? I know that the folks over in the land of the bow-tie used to mount one on each rear quarter for a few years. Don't know if it was for looks or functionality or both.

[Ford Blue blood]

To get in the weeds a little, no, the wave length for AM is so long there would be no chance of any interference on a car.  FM wave length (1/4) is close to 33" in the mid range.  There are many ways to "fake" antenna length, that is make the receiver think it has a perfect length antenna but at the cost of sensitivity.

[RICH MUISE]

My last weekend's roadtrip..........The long version, so it is turning out:
NSRA had it's first annual show in Alberquerque. Wasn't sure I was gonna go because of the 95 and 98 temps projected for Fri and Sat., but decided to anyways. I was wrong about thinking it was in a huge parking lot with no trees. They directed us right thru that expanse of concrete to a nice little tree lined village at the n. end of the fairgrounds. Not sure how many cars were there on Friday, I was number 726. Pretty much filled up that area though, so when the show gets bigger they'll have to expand into the big parking lots. Definetly gonna be a get there early show to get a nice space. I was under two trees, and Friday was pretty much overcast all day, so it was a great day weather-wise. I did not stay for Saturday because, well, as they say all good things have to come to an end..........
My actual roadtrip....... Amarillo to Albur. is 285 miles, I 40 all the way. During the preceeding days, I fiddled with my A/C vents a little and greatly improved the airflow, but still cool, definetly not cold air. I decided on Thurs. before I left to try and add a little freon to make it cooler. I apparently overfilled it, because the compressor began starting and stopping. Car started overheating, cooling fans not coming on at all in any mode. WTH? I finally figured out the trinary switch is not letting power to the cooling fans if it is shutdown mode due to high pressure. Once I bled off some of the excess, everything went back to normal, almost. Not even cool air now, I bled too much off. Left it alone. An hour later I was on the road, stopped and filled it up, got ice for the cooler, dinner to go, and hit the ATM machine. A few miles out of town, a semi came up behind me flashing his lights. Did that for a while, couldn't figure out what was going on, then he passed me. As he was passing, I smelled fumes. I assumed it was his truck and I was right behind him for about 10 miles. I was checking my gages and saw the fuel was below 3/4. My first thought was the auto shutoff didn't fill it, but I kept watching and I could actually see the needle moving. By the time the next exit came up so I could pull off the highway, I was at 1/2.
I pulled into a vacant lot, popped the hood and immediatly saw one of the Ford Springlock fittings on the fuel log had come undone. Gas everywhere. But also I noticed a black oily substance everywhere as well. Couldn't figure out what that was, compressor oil isn't black but nothing else made sense. I decided that maybe I had blown the A/C compressor or a line, and the oil was black because the compressor overheated and burnt it.
I had 4 guys stop in the 15 minutes or so I was there asking if I needed help. Lol, one was actually a Ford classics guy and had his shop 1/4 mile from where we were. I was having a tough time getting the springlock fitting to seat fully with my loss of hand strength, but one of the guys just snapped it together for me. So, decision time, do I go home or keep going. I decided traditional hotrodding is patching your ride together on the side of the road, and keep forging on. The blown A/C would not be an issue as long as I didn't turn the system on. I stopped at a car wash in Tuchemcari and tried to wash the "oil" off, but it had dried and the wash wasn't touching it. I was doing that in the middle of a thunderstorm. People were probably thinking............."look at that crazy guy in the car wash, it's raining like heck out".
to be continued

[RICH MUISE]

cont.
So, car ran great to Albuquerque, got in about 10 pm. I had figured I'd get some wax and grease remover to get the black stuff, whatever it was, off the fenders, windshiel, hood, grille, etc. As I said it was everywhere. The engine compartment was a mess. Went to O'reillys for the cleaner first thing in the morning. As I pulled in, I noticed my voltmeter was bottomed out!! What's going on? I had the guy check the alternator with their testers and he told me the internal voltage regulator was bad. Crap. They didn't have one, but could have it there in an hour. By the time the delivery truck arrived, I had the old one out. Installed the new one and the voltmeter looked good @ 13, but had him recheck. The alternator now looked good, but he rechecked my battery because he had also told me that had "failed". Same failure the second time, but since I had never had any issue whatsoever with the 5 year old Optima, I passed on the 250. replacement.
Went on to the show, checked in, found a shady spot and started cleaning the black stuff. The wax and grease remover was barely touching it...3 hours of elbow grease to get the front end cleaned off, but not the engine. Still never found for certain where it came from on Friday.
My back up credit card wasn't approving anything because I had forgot to call them before I left to tell them I may be using it out of state. It's a security thing with them. Any usage out of our home state requires prenotification. sheeeeeet! Then my Iphone locked up. Couldn't make any calls. I had told my wife I'd let her know if I was staying or heading home after Friday's show. I borrowed a phone from the guy I was parked next to and let her know I was alright, but wouldn't have a phone on the way home. No A/C, short of money since I was 4 days away from payday, unexpectedly no back up credit card, 98* temps for Saturday with NO clouds. I decided to head home.

[RICH MUISE]

cont.
Saturday morning I checked my A/C system, and it was still pressurized! I obviously hadn't blown the compressor or a line. A 1/2 hour's looking, and I realized the black stuff wasn't any type of oil at all. All the holes in my hood inner support has signs of the black stuff running out, mostly over my A/C lines and stuff. What had happened was the gas line was shooting lots of fuel into the hood support/bracing and the fuel was dissolving the insulation stuff in there from the factory! Then I found out I definetly was using the wrong stuff to clean it off. WD40 dissolved it instantly.
I checked my battery the O'Reilly's guy told me had failed. After driving the last 4 hours home in the dark with the headlights on, the battery read 12.99 volts with my meter the next morning! I had also realized that apparently my alternator had been going bad for a while, because my power windows that had slowed to a crawl I thought because they needed servicing/lube, etc. were zipping up and down like new.
My Iphone7 is at Apple being (probably) replaced with a new one. As soon as Best Buy saw the "no service" message, they knew it was a common problem with my model phone and told me Apple would replace it with a new one. 7-10 days
So, all in all, not too bad. A loosened springlock fitting and a bad alternator......sure seemed overwhelming at the time. BTW, when I replaced my engine, I had one springlock fitting I couldn't get undone, so I just unscrewed it at the AN end. I suspect I had actually pulled it loose from the spring, just didn't give it that last needed tug to unseat it.

[djfordmanjack]

Rich, your stories are as good as ever ! ....honestly, if this your latest trip was to be put on film and TV show, probably everybody would call it staged. hahaha.... anyways, glad you hung on and didn't give in early! small problems happen and they need solved on the side of the road. glad you are home safely and what a cool story !!!

[hiball3985]

All the fun of a good road trip Just think, a new car would have been on a tow truck..