Morning coffee

[djfordmanjack]

Jake, - I mean, Jay.
that is a difficult story. One day that thing was on my property and couldn't move the pile because nothing was really working right on it.
Then I undid about half of what other mechanics did before. and when it was finished and driving and behaving nicely. it popped a hydraulic top cylinder. So I had no place to store it indoors and asked a good friend if I could park it at his place. has a fancy garage, but unmentionable cars there. Now I called him to ask about the DeSoto and hey says it's his and won't give it back to me until I repair the top hydraulics. i don't know. Some guys are really outrageous....

[hiball3985]

like this one Jim?  :003
(I had to put some FomoCo iron in this post as well, before I am getting kicked out of here....)

Yes but a hard top. I'm not sure if it was a 52 or 53? Had a flathead six cyclinder. It had a very comfortable ride.
Do you really expect us to believe the story you just told Jay?

[djfordmanjack]

Jim, are you calling me a liar...
as a matter of fact all above said holds true except for my friend being outrageous. I guess it is ok for him to keep HIS car in HIS garage....
now I am going to my shop and trying to fix his leaky hydro cylinder.

btw, that safety clutch fluid drive is very different to say the least. i am sure many people dislike it. It took me some time to get used to it, but honestly, I find it rather comfortable and not a bad drivetrain at all. of course it is nothing about performance, but the car rolls along the wider country roads, top down, between 50 and 70 mph all day long, and very comfortable in doing so. Not a Mopar fan at all, but this car is ok.

[hiball3985]

Jim, are you calling me a liar...
as a matter of fact all above said holds true except for my friend being outrageous. I guess it is ok for him to keep HIS car in HIS garage....
now I am going to my shop and trying to fix his leaky hydro cylinder.

btw, that safety clutch fluid drive is very different to say the least. i am sure many people dislike it. It took me some time to get used to it, but honestly, I find it rather comfortable and not a bad drivetrain at all. of course it is nothing about performance, but the car rolls along the wider country roads, top down, between 50 and 70 mph all day long, and very comfortable in doing so. Not a Mopar fan at all, but this car is ok.

I would never call you a liar Maybe just a story teller with a twist 
I always enjoyed watching my friend shift through the gears without using the clutch. I drove it a couple of times and enjoyed the oddity.
I can drive my OD trans the same way, Push the OD handle in so it's in free wheeling but not energize the solenoid which I have set up on a toggle switch and shift easily between the gears without the clutch

[hiball3985]

I just saw on the news the fender bender they had in Texas. 75 cars and trucks. You can't ride em cowboy on ice 

[RICH MUISE]

Some scary stuff there. Nothing worse than being on an icy road with hundreds of big rigs trying to make their schedules. They had to bring buses to the area to keep the people uninjured from getting frostbitten. Near as I can tell it was on 35W, not 35, somewhere not too far from the Texas motor speedway. We're getting some nasty stuff here this weekend. It's been in the teens and twenties for a few days, but not too much snow and ice yet.

[alvin stadel]

Rich, I thought we had it bad here last weekend when we had right at 19  big rigs  and about 20 cars and pickups get wiped out  As far as I know only 1 or 2 had to be taken to hospital.  You Texan's always have to have it bigger. To bad these knot heads can't slow down until it's to late. It seems like everyone is late these days. just know common since anymore.

[Ford Blue blood]

Big time discussions on the talk radio I listen to.  The host is from MN originally.  Many callers were talking about driving on snow and ice.  Being from "up nort" the big difference I found is those of us that were raised in those conditions slow down when encountered.  My experience living in the south is those inexperienced drivers do not understand momentum.......

Now having said that, the conditions were such that there was no way those folks could have known the bridge was an ice rink.  Add to that the posted speed limit signs in TX seam to be suggestions.....

[hiball3985]

We have our fill of morons that can't even drive in the rain 

[RICH MUISE]

Happy Valentines day!
It's 3 degrees here, windy, and snowing. URG!! my attached garage was down to 37 degrees this morning when I went out for my first cigarette. Suppose to be like this for 2 or 3 days. Glad I got Connie flowers yesterday.
So far, everything is falling into place for my road trip to Florida next month. I've heard back from Lynn, Bill, and James, and if all goes well, I'll be shaking hands with 3 more members, or actually 2 members and the owner. I'm so looking forward to this. I also found out a high school friend I was really close to, but haven't seen since my first wedding in '67, lives only 7 1/2 miles from where my son lives in the Tampa/ St. Pete area. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again. And, yes, my wife is ok with me seeing an old crush I had, lol. Derrick is going to take some time off, so that's cool too.
As of now, the Goodguys show in Fort Worth is still on, and as mentioned before, will be my kick-off point for the first leg of the trip. They have a full page on their website about prep work/planning they've done to keep things as safe as possible. I'll have to play that one as I see it, if things look to be safe (registration lines, etc), I'll carefully go for it. If lots of people crowded in inside areas, etc, I may just skip the whole show.....certainly don't want to pass anything along to friends and family.

[djfordmanjack]

Your plans sound great Rich ! also very clever to decide about the show there, concerning safety measures and all. Wishing you a great trip and please , ....pictures ! 

[Ford Blue blood]

We are holding our collective breath, sitting right on the edge of the ice/snow line.  A little south and we are hammered, stays on track and we have cold rain (lots of it) followed by below freezing temperatures.  Friends in Nashville are ready, John (KYBlueOval) is ready and we are ready for the worse.  Nashville and Louisville are projected to collect a butt load of freezing rain followed by 5 - 8 inches of snow!

Funny, people from the north that have snow all the time make fun of us that get some every two or so years.  You have to remember, we prepare by hitting the grocery store and stocking up on bread, milk and the ever needed beer!  We have ALL NINE of our sand spreading trucks ready to go!  They are loaded and the drivers are on call.  Yes, all nine!  They take care of the seven county metropolitan area that makes up the greater Birmingham, AL area.  They will be hitting the hills and streets feeding the hospitals before they work on the main roads.

[RICH MUISE]

Minus 3 degrees here this morning. My garage was down to 32, so I turned on the window AC/heat unit. We've got to get over to the VA for Connie's second shot..10 miles or so. Going to be slow on the surface roads, what I can see out my front window is surface streets packed, but the pre-treated interstate is moving nicely. Just saw on the news a million + out of electricity in Fort Worth area. Gotta go scrape windows on the Outback. LOL, my wife normally won't get in it because it reeks of cigarettes, but it is better in snow than the two Honda CRVs we have.

[Ford Blue blood]

Gotta be "Global Warming"!

[CobraJoe]

Not really morning coffee, more like afternoon cocktails for me; been helping my buddy who ended up buying a '65 Mustang Fastback that I had been trying to buy for the last 12 years.

I think I may have mentioned it before, but the 'Ole timer who had been promising it to me, approached me to buy it the week after I bought my '39. Apparently this car came off the road in 1969 and was taken apart to build a race car, but it never materialized. The old timer bought it, along with all the original parts a few years later and after that he decided he'd rebuild the original 289 and there it sat, for 40+ years in his garage.

Anyways, I introduced my buddy to him and he ended up buying it. Once we got it to his shop, he purchased  a pretty nice, brand new rotisserie for $1200 w/free shipping. So, last Saturday night after I left my shop, I went to his place to check it out and I ended up milling some brackets to attach it to the chassis and then turning down and center boring some "bushings" to fit in the rear leaf spring perches to support the body.
There was also a problem with one of the adjusting rods; it wouldn't fit through the square tubing because it was too short. He told me that he had called the company and they said they would send him a new one, but it wouldn't be here until the middle of next week. I checked it out and told him I could fix the one he had and we could get the car on the turntable. So, I did...it needed to be 4" long but was only 3", nothing a quick turn on the lathe to remove an inch of thread couldn't fix.