Ford versus Chevy

Every car guy, or girl, has been involved in this debate in one form or another. Excepting of course the people who live on the mopar planet. I was always a Chevy guy. This loyalty began the day I got my first car. A Chevy. Immediately I began to feel superior to others less fortunate. I'm not really sure why as I look back at the reality that was. My car smoked badly and required an overhaul. The electric fuel pump worked poorly if it was working at all.

When everything was at last working properly, as the fine people at General Motors had intended, things started to break. Apparently my car was under engineered for the heavy foot of a sixteen year old. Fix or repair daily could have easily been applied to that little Chevy. No matter. I was a Chevy guy. Broken parts were nailed to the garage wall. Badges of honor. I was a Chevy guy.

Things are different now. I have two Chevys, two Fords. and an Eldorado I would like to unload. (I don't have a wall big enough to hang all the things that are about to break on that Eldorado.) They are what they are. Sure, you can make big power cheaper with a small block Chevy engine, and they will fit in about anything. (see most older Ford hot rods) I no longer consider myself a 'Chevy guy'. I'm a car guy. There are things to enjoy about all of them. And enjoy them I do.

Drive safe,

John

URGENT! RENEW NOW!

I read a lot of magazines. If I like a particular magazine I will subscribe for a year or two. When my subscription expires, I will renew it a couple of months ahead of time so as not to miss issues. Unless they piss me off. Lately, a lot of magazine peddlers have been pissing me off.

When the second or third issue of a two year subscription comes with a 'urgent renewal' notice, I first thought there was an error in their system. It isn't an error! It is a dishonest and deceptive marketing tactic designed to cheat their own customers.

One publication (CLASSIC TRUCKS) was so 'in my face' with urgent renewal notices I didn't renew. After writing twice, and calling once, they agreed to remove me from that particular marketing tactic. Too late though. They had already pissed me off.

Another thing that irritates me is the little cards inside all of the magazines. One? Fine. Four? What is the point? It must be effective for some or they wouldn't do it. It only irritates me.

I know I'm just an old dog sittin' on the porch barkin'. I don't bite, but if ya irritate me long enough, I'll cock my leg and piss on your magazine.

Drive safe... John

Perfection

We know it when we see it. Sure, it's different for everyone, but you know when you see the one that looks perfect to you. Everyone else sees a beautiful classic, but you see perfection. Is it available? Can you afford it? It really doesn't make any difference. It's perfect. It takes your breath away and makes your heart beat faster just thinking thinking about it.

I have seen perfection...

John

Sideways in second

I'm 62. Apparently, I'm going to have a hard time growing up. I'm a responsible adult most of the time, or at least part of the time if you talk to the people who know me best. I pay my bills, keep my grass mowed, and buy whatever the little neighbor kids are selling. However, somethings haven't changed since High School.

The small block and four speed are now in the '55 and when that gear reduction starter twists some life into it, It is 1965 again! The body lifts a little with the first stab of the throttle (totally unnecessary) and when the low rumble starts, the years start falling away. By the time it is warmed up enough to move, the white haired old man is a kid. Some wonder how I lived through my first childhood. I hope this one lasts forever. I hope I don't get sent to driving school again.

In 1966, the city of Eugene thought it would be a good idea if I attended their driving school. If I remember correctly, it wasn't an option. The judge mentioned something about 21 tickets in a year wasn't acceptable. The classes were given under city hall and we parked in the parking garage there. I went, I passed and was given the certificate that said I was now a responsible driver. As I was leaving the garage, to celebrate the completion their boring class, I laid a couple of long black marks most of the way up to the sidewalk. There I was met by one of Eugene's finest. He saw my driving certificate on the seat next to me and said something about "slow learner". He then wrote ticket number 22.

I can't remember when I got my last ticket. It has been over twenty ago, of that I'm sure. Maybe I have grown up a little. Maybe I have just gotten lucky. I am a better driver now than when I was in High School, but yesterday I got sideways in second.

John

Ya just gotta drive them!

When I first got my car four years ago, it spent most of its time locked in the garage, safe and out of the weather. I spent a lot of time polishing and buffing and admiring and worrying. What if I got a door ding? What if it started raining? What the hell was I thinking? I took the street out of my street rod!

This summer, the street is back in my street rod. We have been to Portland, Seattle, and most recently to Yountville (Napa Valley) to visit my son and his lady. We have been rained on, parked outside over night and dripped on by trees. We drove thru a herd of butterflies and painted the front yellow. Mostly yellow anyway. It all washes off and/or cleans up fine. The memories will last forever.

When my cars are handed down to my son, they may again need a frame off restoration. At best they will need tires and an oil change.

Drive safe, and often...

John

Al Gore is a moron

Al Gore's Ethanol is eating my fuel system. Global warming? Al, that's just the heat coming from all the people whose lawnmowers, chainsaws, and hot rods you have screwed (word substitution) up. If I am required to run alcohol on the street I'm going to drive a dragster. Hey Al, how about filling your Prius with nitromethane and see what happens!

Why the rant? I missed a cruze because of a plugged fuel system. I can fix it, and there will be other cruzes. This isn't the end of the world. I'm just pissed because this is so unnecessary.

Hey Al, kiss my tail pipe...

John

Smart car?

I saw one of those smart cars on the freeway yesterday. It was being followed closely by a UPS semi at freeway speed, and I gotta' say, that just didn't look very smart to me. It left me with an image burned into my brain of a bicycle trying to outrun an AMTRAK train. Look at this thing. It looks like it has been smacked a couple of times already.

Now I'm all for saving the planet. I recycle stuff. Junk mail. (unopened insurance/credit card/AARP crap) Beer cans. (see picture) I'm just not ready to risk my life for the cause.

In Oregon, we are forced to use a 10% mixture of alcohol in our gas. I have been told it takes approximately one gallon of fossil fuel to make one gallon of alcohol. Now consider one gallon of alcohol and nine gallons of gas will take you as far down the road as nine gallons of gas alone, what have we gained? Nothing! (net loss of approximately 10%) The damage to older cars done by this unnecessary mixture, can be expensive. It also separates and becomes useless, if allowed to set for any length of time, as it will in a collector car that is not driven frequently.

I'll do my part for the planet. However, you will never see this old baby boomer flying down the freeway in a beer can/bicycle. And I found a place to get good gas...

Drive safe

John

Temporary Hotrod

The big block project is on hold. I'm still waiting for my stimulus check from Obama. He may be a little pissed because I voted for McCain, however with out that check (or a job), no big block. I'll just be content with the six banger...





Well, I told myself that anyway. The old stovebolt was a good engine, it was just so slow. And quiet. Slow and quiet just don't do it for me. This little small block should be able to fill the neighborhood full of tire smoke. And the M21 four speed will be a lot more fun than the three on the tree.
John

The ones who didn't come home

We have all heard the story about the old lady who had an old car tucked away in the barn or garage. Under an old tarp and covered with dust and boxes, it is discovered by a friend of a friend who just happened to be passing by. Or the add in the paper for a '66 Chevrolet... $600.00. It always turns out to be a vette, or other highly desirable muscle car, and the old lady has no idea of the actual value of the vehicle. "It's pretty old, and it hasn't been started in years",she says, "but it was running when he parked it in there" It belonged to her son who never came home from the war.

This story is not about the car. Most of you knew that already. This story is about her son and all of the sons, and brothers, and fathers who didn't come home. Dreams parked under an old tarp by a young car guy who had another job to do first.

This weekend, we remember them. The ones who didn't come home, and all the young men and women who have served their country, and the ones who serve today. If you are at a show and hear "the story", remember, one of the cars you are admiring, may have belonged to a car guy who didn't come home.

John

Stealing Danny's hubcaps

We liked Danny. Everyone liked Danny because he was cool. He was older than us and had a car so he was real cool. He had a temper sometimes, and you could see it every time we stole his hubcaps. He had four bar flipper caps, kind of like the ones on Randy's car in the picture. I don't remember his car real well, but then I never had his car in my wall locker.

We never kept his caps very long. Just long enough for him to quit yelling about what he was going to do SOB's that stole his caps when he caught them. We never said anything, we would just put them back in his car when he wasn't around. One time we put them back on, but we put rocks under them. When I finally got a car my senior year, I didn't put hubcaps on it. Flippers were cool, but there were a lot of SOB's in that school.

Danny is gone now. He had a heart attack and died way too young. I hope it wasn't stress from high school. I miss you Danny,and if you're reading this, the rocks were Jim's idea.

John

The wreck of a porn star

Maybe I should explain. I'm not bragging, and it really wasn't much of a wreck. My brother started calling the Eldorado the "32 valve porn star" when I put the wheels on it and the name stuck. I don't even know any porn stars, all tho my second wife may have made career choices that I was not aware of at the time.

The wreck. Like I said, it really wasn't much of a wreck. I was stopped at a light when an old man in a one ton Ford pick-up failed to stop. He had at least a half of a mile of unobstructed dry pavement in broad daylight to get stopped, but apparently he required more than that. He was quite apologetic, and noted "that's a really nice car" I said "Crap, you should have seen it before you got here"

It is in the shop now getting fixed. I have been trying to sell it, and if he had hit it a little harder, I would now have a little red Corvette sitting in the garage. Maybe next time... Drive safe.

John

Garage tour

Every year the VALLEY CRUZERS hosts a garage tour and this year my shop was included. We had a good turnout. There were hot rods, street rods, and classics everywhere. Good people and hot rodders. (in my experience, usually the same thing) No better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I am humbled frequently by the skills and knowledge some of these people have. As I show someone a car I bought, I am shown a car they built. A quiet man who lives around the corner from me does it all. Motors, paint, chassis and interiors. No bragging, just building. I can learn a lot from this man. My friend from Brownsville who built his '56 Chevy himself and can fix anything. People who were building and racing hot rods long before I bent my first push-rod. (moms station wagon) This hobby is as much, if not more, about the people as it is the cars. Thanks for coming folks. Thanks for including me...

John

Crusin' for chicks...

Friday night, 1964. As usual we were downtown showin' off, street racin', and crusin' for chicks. This is a true story. I have only changed the name because I'm not sure how to spell Sterling Keminskie. This is the true American Graffiti, Eugene Oregon edition.

Every weekend was about the same. Run up and down the streets wastin' gas, chirpin' tires, and looking for girls that would like to jump in the car with a couple guys that just put their last two dollars in the gas tank. Girls like that were quite rare in Eugene. If Keminskie was here he could vouch for that. We never got lucky, except for that one night. Two unattended young ladies accepted our invitation to go for a ride. I'm going to skip the middle part of the story, from the pick up until we ended up parked at the rose garden because it really isn't very interesting, and get right to the good part.

The girls. One young lady was quite attractive, and sense it was my car and I was a year older than Keminskie, I got the cute chick. Sterling got the other one that could best be described as large. Quite large if I remember correctly. Things were starting to get interesting in the front seat when my new lady friend pointed out that nothing was happening in the back seat. She was reluctant to continue with our mutual exploration if we were the only ones fogging up the windows. I excused myself for a bathroom break and Sterling was eager to join me. I explained the situation to him and told him that with his cooperation, this could be my lucky night. Just talk to her if nothing else. "About what?" he said. Damn it Sterling! Just think of something!

We returned to the car and soon things were starting to cook in the front seat again, and then again my now eager partner noticed nothing happening in the back seat. I glared at Sterling over the seat and mouthed the word TALK! I was about to resume my exploration yet again when we heard Sterling ask, "Do you have much trouble with that wart on your lip?"

My memory is a little fuzzy after that. Sterling could finish the story better than I. He was a lot closer to the action. We dropped the girls off back downtown where we found them and went home. We were about out of gas anyway

John

Busted

Sometimes the simplest task turns into a project. Replacing worn studs in an exhaust manifold sounded simple. A little penetrating oil, a little heat, a little twist with the vice grips, a little SNAP. Crap! (similar to the word I used) Well, now I will have to drill and tap the hole. Not a big deal. I have all the stuff... First the pilot hole. SNAP! CRAP! Now I have a pilot bit busted off in the pilot hole! ( pilot error?) Have you ever tried to drill a drill bit with a drill bit?

After giving the matter some thought, I decided to try heating the manifold/stud/broken bit until it was cherry red and letting it cool slowly. It worked great! The now annealed pilot bit drilled out almost like the soft steel it was buried in. Life is good at Easy Street Rods.

John

The project

The front went on the engine today. I need to move the blower pulley and the tensioner pulley out 1/2"

Does any one know if Weiand makes different pulleys for a 177?

Sharing the road with bikes.

I'm a car guy. I've been a car guy since hi-school. Before I was a car guy, I was a bike guy. I went everywhere on my bike. I rode my bike just to be riding. I didn't really need a specific destination, I just liked the freedom of going wherever, whenever. I still have a bike... somewhere.
Tonight, I almost ran over one of the morons I'm sharing the road with. He was riding in traffic with no lights or reflectors of any kind on a major, unlit street. The outcome of this event was decided by inches. This time in his favor. As I continued home, I thought, could I live with myself if I had run over him and then sued his family to have his remains professionally removed from my undercarriage and any scratches and dings caused by his bike repaired? I think I could!
Let's turn things around for a minute. If we drove our cars, like some of these morons ride their bikes, it would be total chaos. What if we drove on the wrong side of the road, ignored stop signs and traffic lights, drove on the side walk when traffic didn't suit us, passed on the right so we didn't have to slow down for traffic stopped at a light, and didn't signal before we turned?
I just needed to vent a little and I feel better now. I'm glad I didn't run over the guy. Drive safe and watch out for morons.

1956 Chevrolet Delray coupe

This is my second '56 Delray. The first one was also my first car in high school. Same color inside and out. I payed $325.00 for the first one in 1963. This one cost a little more, and it will be taken better care of.

This car has factory air and a three speed on the column. It has the smooth frame, which I have heard called a 'NASCAR' frame, and a 'California' frame. It has about 10,000 miles on a frame off restoration, and is a numbers matching car. It has no modifications other than tires and wheels, gauges, and clipped front springs.

This car is not a trailer queen, and is driven to local car shows and frequently driven on Sunny days.