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Love those old straight 8 buicks. Maybe the best engine color ever used.
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Mar 26, 2022 00:59
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Get on that '42, man. Ms. LBX has an extremely good eye. drat.
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Mar 26, 2022 03:07
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i love this car also, I built a greenhouse for my wife  I bought some propellers from Texas -  they're about 4' each, my guess is that they're off something like a twin beech - something like this:  a friend is driving them out later this year, so we'll get to run the numbers at some point! speaking of driving..  This is at a friends place, my son doesn't look enthralled because all of a sudden now he's a shy guy. He saw this thing sitting there and ran over to it, got in and proceeded to sit there shyly pretending my friend and his family didn't notice him. This is a repop of a Murray pedal car, apparently there was an era in about 2010-2015 they made these things new under the name of "Comet", but now of course I cant find one to save my life - I'd really prefer a non firetruck variant so I could paint it up to look like my buick.. Also in my travels I picked up this bad rear end part:    pictured here with another insanely rare sparking device.. Thats right, its a magneto! and yes I did shock the everloving poo poo out of myself, so there's a good possibility it works. The coolest thing about these is that this was particularly made for the ford 4 banger. A lot of guys back when adapted 6 and 8 cyl mags to run 4 bangers, but this one is specifically designed to be a banger thing, aka tractor, or even airplanes (yes they used model a engines in airplanes) and or racing applications! - I'm going to try it out but I doubt this will be very streetable. the car is running so good right now, I really dont want to f with it.. speaking of running, my friend sent me a print of this awesome pic he took of me at one of the races a few years back  until the next time ill be in the 
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Apr 6, 2022 00:44
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Oh man, that's a cool green house, where's it from?
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Apr 6, 2022 00:48
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So did you get just blades, or the hubs too?
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Apr 6, 2022 00:54
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the spyder posted:Oh man, that's a cool green house, where's it from? believe it or not, Costco - I can say this was one of the most fiddley and frusterating builds of anything I've ever undertaken - it took me and my father in law 2 full days (spread out over a week) worth of work to get this thing together. Also, the packaging it came in was atrocious, the box was blown apart and parts were missing. They are made in Israel so when we called to order parts, there was about a week's wait for shipping. All in all, at least the wife is happy - and the thing was >$1200 - She's been expanding her rare plant collection and needed an overflow area, my man brain went directly to growing some ganja in there to offset the cost, but that talk didn't go over too well. I had this song playing when I revealed the finished structure to her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYQHqLuWuig MrYenko posted:So did you get just blades, or the hubs too? Just 3 of the 6 blades pictured, the non painted ones, and no hub. A friend of mine was browsing on his local fb marketplace and came across them - they were at a scrap/salvage yard on one of his routes - when he stopped in he said it sounded like at one time in the past this place was known for dismantling aircraft, and he said there were all kinds of gauges parts and other husks scattered around - I walked the yard with him on facetime, but didn't see too many true antique or military parts - mostly private aircraft type stuff. the only thing that could kinda correlate were these blades. my plan is to high polish them, get replacement stickers and paint the tips again. My dream is to find a full set of DC3 props, and I know someday I will - I was told by another friend he knows the whereabouts of "3 or 4 large piles of them" - I didn't ask too many questions, but the story on those is developing.
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Apr 6, 2022 04:05
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LobsterboyX posted:yes I did shock the everloving poo poo out of myself, I have to admit I laughed out loud at work when I read this.
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Apr 6, 2022 23:15
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Darchangel posted:I have to admit I laughed out loud at work when I read this. At the time I was pretty much the only one around who didn't find it funny. So my little fellas birthday is in a week, as I mentioned in the previous post I've really been wanting to get him his own pedal car like the fire truck pictured in the last post I made. LobsterboyX posted:
well the wife wakes me up in the middle of the night and shoves her phone in my face: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gwd-12611 So I called up this morning and spoke to a guy that was just as oblivious as I was about what I'm actually going to get - if you look at the pics in this ad, one shows silver wheels, one shows black, one shows an interior and one doesn't - also the graphics are completely different... SO - I guess I get what I get.. My plan is to get those stickers off it, paint the wheels red and put some real vintage emblems on it. My wife is probably more hyped about this than I am, she's already making me create some custom vinyl stickers for it. the goal is to make it match my 48 as much as possible but at the same time...  i mean....
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Apr 8, 2022 04:18
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LobsterboyX posted:At the time I was pretty much the only one around who didn't find it funny. I think the idea of you recreating your Buick is great, and as for that baby blue number... there's always Christmas for
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Apr 8, 2022 07:17
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LobsterboyX posted:At the time I was pretty much the only one around who didn't find it funny. I fully endorse slamming the kiddie car.
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Apr 8, 2022 13:40
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:I fully endorse slamming the kiddie car. Make the color scheme match yours, but do this. Maybe not *as* low, depending on how much that fouls up the pedal drive.
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Apr 8, 2022 22:05
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pretty impressed at the speed of the summit shipping..     the quality of this thing is... pretty bad.. the paint looks horrible and the stickers wont come off without a fight, looks like this thing's been on a boat for more than a few months. such is life these days But I'm still super happy. This whole thing came from the fact that I could probably find an original vintage one of these that may be cooler - but he's just a kid and inevitably he's going to smash, scrape, ding and ride this thing straight in to the ground, and to save me from biting my nails and raising my blood pressure that would come from him possibly destroying an old one. One of the hardest things about being an "older" parentis getting out of my comfort zone I've been in for 37 years So I hit up a friend thats a painter about maybe just getting the stickers off and touching it up, which I probably will do. I can add emblems, maybe make a custom interior, and now I'm looking for a cool personalized license plate that says his name. I looked more at the actual drivetrain of this thing and I'm not going to slam it.. at least not while he's a little one, maybe later.
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Apr 8, 2022 23:36
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LobsterboyX posted:pretty impressed at the speed of the summit shipping.. I had one of these when I was a kid:  and absolutely loved it. I still love it, even though it broke 50 years ago. Good job.
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Apr 8, 2022 23:47
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:I fully endorse slamming the kiddie car. 
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Apr 9, 2022 00:10
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I'm definitely here for the slammed, customized pedal car. It's great to see old grizzled car people turn super sweet when it's time to do something fun for a kid.
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Apr 9, 2022 00:16
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LobsterboyX posted:pretty impressed at the speed of the summit shipping..  Obviously your little dude's safety is priority one. Hopefully the car is big enough that he can keep it for a few years and then dad can start having fun with it.
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Apr 9, 2022 01:08
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Sweet pedal car project, I think every car-obsessed kid's dream is to have one of those. Also, in-case you missed it there's another classic car project thread in AI besides the Packard https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3996778
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Apr 11, 2022 06:54
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SO! I said it in the chat thread, but holy poo poo, driving an old car in LA traffic - sucks. I can't believe I did this for so long, or maybe I'm just getting soft, but this thing was a real handful. I go in to the office 3x per week, so I figured, hey, why not drive it one day, and due to some poo poo at home, I didn't want to leave it out where I usually leave it out on tuesdays (gardener day) so we went:  Brakes pulling hard left, car getting hot, chronic issue with my seat being uncomfy, bad shocks... geez. real winner. I think I'm getting soft, but this car was a real handful. I know what I have to do to fix it, but TIME is no longer my friend. I really miss the days when I could just wrench and do what I needed to do without getting approved by either wife or job. Anyway, I put a tach in my roadster..  boy, was I shocked when I wired it up and it came in green..  I realllllly love this. It's kinda pointless, but hey, it looks right, and this was the shortest sweep I could get- the valves start to float at about 4k.. so really im half of a half sweep. I didnt feel like dealing with a cable driven vintage unit, and they are expensive as all get out.. so this is a modern wired one, placement is eh, but without drilling in to the gas tank, its the best it gets. some super sweet cruise night photography..   dabois. just knockin around  ah, so I saw something for sale I really wanted on the ol 'gram and hopped on it, sadly someone beat me to the punch, but the seller did offer this as a stand in for the nicer, complete one I just missed.  oh cool.. wait a mintue...  um...  1, 2, 3, 4, 5.....  so yeah, thats going to be a no from me dogg. Long story short, yes, this is repairable, and no it wasn't cheap. in the past these quick changes have come and gone, but there are 2 sizes, one for the v8 cars and this, the Halibrand 101 for the model a 4 bangers.. Obviously the V8 ones are used and abused, but I've never seen a 101 this badly blown apart. my quest for a quick change has been a long one. I was almost resigned to the fact that I'd have to do a v8 version, until I discovered these fellas https://www.pacificquickchange.com.au/ once again, my friends from down under come thru in the clutch, remaking the iconic 101 with modern tech behind them. Spoke with the fella, seems really great, I think I'm going to do it. more on this coming soon. Got my power steering pump back from rebuild - looks really nice - Had some new hydraulic lines made up, really happy with the new look, best part is that this pump has a lifetime warranty so should last another 68 years. Just go the thing in and buttoned up tonight so I need to grab some power steering fluid tomorrow and come home and figure out how to bleed this thing properly.  also Easter was fun!  not every day you get to hunt Easter eggs next to some WW2 era warbirds and an active runway - he was a little bit grumpy because we woke him from his nap - yeah, the cardinal sin of waking a sleeping child - it was important, the Easter Bunny himself arrived via Bell Jet Ranger.
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Apr 21, 2022 07:38
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Pedal car - very cool! Can't wait to see what you create. Amazed they still make repo parts for most of the old ones. This place has '55 chev pedal car kits: https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Retro-Tri-Five-1955-Chevy-Steel-Metal-Pedal-Car-Customizable,227991.html
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Apr 21, 2022 11:47
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Holy crap! I rescued a pedal car (mostly just a chassis) from the trash about 20-years ago, with a plan to rebuild it. Figured I'd wind up restoring the body shell since rebuilding the running gear & finding correct wheels & bearings, etc would be impossible. Thank you, sir, for reviving this project!
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Apr 21, 2022 14:33
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Oh man I used to drive the International to work intermittently, back before I even knew how bad of a shape a lot of it was in. I can barely imagine doing it now down Denver traffic. And it's way more comfortable now, with the seat redone and a Bluetooth radio.
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Apr 21, 2022 14:54
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I enjoy it, but driving the '65 Econoline pickup is work. Like having A/C in a car or house, my rear end has gotten soft over the past 40-years. It's hard to believe that most of the motoring public drove vehicles that are not only Spartan by today's standards, but illegal to build. Neither the pickup nor my '65 Fury had seatbelts installed (I've since put them in the Econoline)
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Apr 21, 2022 15:10
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I think a lot of it is up to what traffic expects a vehicle to be capable of at this point. The front disc brakes that I put on my C10 22 years ago were functionally the same as the brakes that GM had been putting on trucks and SUVs up until the year prior. But add another couple decades of electronic controls and greatly increased rotor / pad / caliper sizes, and now even compact cars and SUVs come with more powerful brakes. All this adds up to if I'm driving anything but my Canyon, I'm more or less parking it in the right lane and letting traffic deal with it. The upside of driving so long with "adequate" brakes is that my driving style is very dependent on coasting down, so the brakes on the Canyon still look drat near new after nearly 60,000 miles 
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Apr 21, 2022 15:45
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LobsterboyX posted:
Hell, I'm grumpy when someone wakes me up from a nap, and I'm 52... PainterofCrap posted:I enjoy it, but driving the '65 Econoline pickup is work. I'm deathly afraid I will hate driving my '79 RX-7 when I get it functional again. I *know* I hate driving the AE86, but that's partially because it needs steering and suspension (and probably brake) work that I don't want to do. My Cutlass there are enough aftermarket bits available to make it at least competent compared to modern handling and braking.
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Apr 21, 2022 18:25
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Darchangel posted:
There needs to be a handicapping chart for old cars. Each year out of production is worth 1 hp. Each wave is worth .2 seconds on a slalom course Each time a day that looks like it's going to be bad day becomes a good day just because you drove the car to work is worth 10 feet shorter stopping distance. Each missing modern safety feature is worth .02 on the skidpad. The possibilities are endless
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Apr 21, 2022 20:43
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hey LBX, im tuning up my Y-block and i wonder - who makes good points these days? all the parts stores carry cheap stuff, but i have no idea if they're sloppy junk, or if they're perfectly fine and better than stock. there are of course aftermarket parts that cost 5x as much, but i have no idea if they're actually better. normally i would just get whatever napa has, cause they are usually one step better than O or AZ, but they're not super convenient to where i live now. who do you usually like?
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Apr 24, 2022 00:38
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That tach looks sweet! Gauges and the aeronautical bent of this thread reminded me of something I've had on a shelf for ages waiting for a project...   Bunch of Grimes aircraft instrument and cockpit lighting parts. I got them from the estate of a guy who'd been active in aviation in Alaska in the 50s-90s. Not sure exactly what the original application for any of it would've been but I'd guess military just because of what else came along with them in the lot of stuff I got. Anyway, doesn't really matter, they're cool as hell regardless! But I've been sitting on them for over a decade without finding a place to use them yet... If you can think of a spot any of this stuff would be useful in one of your projects shoot me a PM, I'd be happy to throw a few pieces in the mail.
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Apr 24, 2022 07:13
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Raluek posted:hey LBX, im tuning up my Y-block and i wonder - who makes good points these days? all the parts stores carry cheap stuff, but i have no idea if they're sloppy junk, or if they're perfectly fine and better than stock. there are of course aftermarket parts that cost 5x as much, but i have no idea if they're actually better. When I ran points I really liked the Blue Point brand, of all the tune up parts, they were the nicest - the only thing I couldnt stand was the color of the caps and coils. - but now im strictly pertronix. I've heard every argument in the book, but I've literally never had a failure of one of them in 20 years of old car driving. I even put one in my roadster, they made one that fits an old Mallory Dual point.
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Apr 26, 2022 01:43
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Seconding Pertronix. Replaced my points with the 'hidden' kit on my existing distributor on my 66 Bonneville's 389 in 2002 and have never looked back. Thinking of doing the Econoline 250-L6 with it.
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Apr 26, 2022 03:05
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LobsterboyX posted:When I ran points I really liked the Blue Point brand, of all the tune up parts, they were the nicest - the only thing I couldnt stand was the color of the caps and coils. - but now im strictly pertronix. I've heard every argument in the book, but I've literally never had a failure of one of them in 20 years of old car driving. I even put one in my roadster, they made one that fits an old Mallory Dual point. is that the same as blue streak (which is a Standard brand)? that was actually what i was planning on getting, based on apparent build quality from photos, so i am glad to see it get a +1 yeah i thought about pertronix, but this vehicle i want to remain entirely oldschool. the only transistor in the vehicle is in the radio, which does not work. happy to keep it that way. fiddling with the points once a decade seems good enough for me lol
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Apr 26, 2022 06:10
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To each his own, I was like that for a long time - I still have an NOS set of points in the glovebox, in their box, that hasn't been opened for most of these cars, they dont fail! Also, I'm pretty sure these are just a magnetic pickup, the tech in them was most likely available back then, in fact, I think the Roto-Faze brand distributors of the late 50s actually are these, and if you wanna get really subjective, Magnetos have been around since the dawn of the car.... I know where you're coming from, I was like that forever about generators vs alternators and original starters vs high-torques.. but what now... When I first started getting them, they were $90 for the kit - the last one I bought was $150 - Its honestly the first thing I order for a new car. What I really like about them is their customer service, its literally a call center with a few guys here in LA area, they know exactly whats up and are awesome to deal with. LobsterboyX fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Apr 27, 2022 |
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Apr 27, 2022 01:12
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im generally not anti-modernization; all my other classics have electronic ignition. my javelin has a modern mallory electronic distributor, my impala had an MSD setup, and my chevelle has nothing but will be getting an LS swap. but my truck i want to stay clunky and original, as long as that's feasible. it feels super weird taking this position opposite you, of all people, since you have lived the life much better than i ever could. i just want to keep this vehicle the same, and that's unique compared to my other ones. if it becomes a big hassle, i might change my mind, of course, lol
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Apr 27, 2022 04:19
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Darchangel posted:I'm deathly afraid I will hate driving my '79 RX-7 when I get it functional again. I *know* I hate driving the AE86, but that's partially because it needs steering and suspension (and probably brake) work that I don't want to do. My Cutlass there are enough aftermarket bits available to make it at least competent compared to modern handling and braking. I felt this way on my FB after getting used to the BMW, it was a terrible feeling. Fast forward a couple years and driving the FB brings me tons of joy again. Don't worry, the visceral fun of the rx will please you, if only on fun drives.
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Apr 27, 2022 05:24
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Raluek posted:im generally not anti-modernization; all my other classics have electronic ignition. my javelin has a modern mallory electronic distributor, my impala had an MSD setup, and my chevelle has nothing but will be getting an LS swap. but my truck i want to stay clunky and original, as long as that's feasible. Well the funny thing is, I was resistant to this kind of stuff for so drat long - it was almost militant - the phrase "well it worked fine back then, it should work fine now" passed my lips almost weekly in regards to my precious generators and starters and 6v systems - For the most part they worked, but I realized that I was making concessions about them - I do a weekly cruise night with friends and we creep all over LA, the bigger the cruise got, the slower we went, what happens when you drive a generator car slow? doesnt charge - so I got in to the manual and basically overclocked the generator - I didn't know this but they had a night driving setting, but you could easily over do it and cook your voltage regulator and battery, which I did, twice. I was really tired of getting jump started if I didn't keep the revs high while we were cruising slow - my driving style changed at night because I always had to be on the gas - I still refused to give up the look of the generator- I had known about the powermaster alternators that look like generators for a long time as well -- when I bought my 42 in 2020, I ordered a wiring harness from a company that makes super high quality reproduction wiring harness' for vintage cars - cloth covered, exacting reproduction fuse boards, really detailed instructions on a per car basis (I highly recomend these guys- Y 'n Z wiring harnesses) any way I get talking to the guy about what I want for the 42 and he says "you dont want to run an alternator on these" - "well you know they look goofy..." "you know we are a powermaster dealer" - so I had him explain it to me, and I really got sold on them, so I bought one and was super happy with the results - yeah, it doesnt look perfect, but it loving works perfect, they have great warranty too and it was explained to me that even if its out of the period, if you talk nice to them and plead your case, they will replace unless you obviously do something stupid - they back their product, they're made here and they want you to really like it - they told me they spent like $1m on R&D of these in the 90s - that sales pitch got me..    anyway, over a 2-3 month period I converted my entire fleet to them at a cost of just less than $1000 - but if I calculate all the money I spent on rebuilding original generators, finding NOS voltage regulators and condensers for my cars over the years, I was waaaay in the red - moving forward I will be putting these in every car I have. - I even have one in the model a - for a car with just a few wires and basically no accessories, I dont care, the car fires up before my finger is off the button The starters are another one, - the inline buicks were never 12v, so switching over meant you are really pushing these starters and solenoids - they have an aftermarket 12v solenoid conversion but it sucks and the linkage to the bendix was never quite right - big pain in the rear end. If the original solenoid is in good shape, I run them till they die then put in a high-torque - yes they sound stupid, but you dont see them and I dont care. the pertronix I've always gone hard for. It was like 02-03 and the points in my cadillac were starting to go out, the car would miss and chug and while I knew what it was, I didn't know the "tricks" of it - I read my manual bumped the motor over until they were open, feeler gauges, cap on, try - not right, start over... before that I had a Mallory distributor in my nova, because I had rebuilt the motor and an older friend helped me profile all that small block go fast stuff, so I knew what was up... kinda... at the time I had just graduated high school and was working for a vintage parts guy that specialized in cadillacs, there was an old man that would hang there all day, the guy smelled so bad, all his teeth were rotten, he looked homeless, because he was, he lived in his 70 eldorado in the hardware store parking lot - long story on this guy, but he had the most amazing car collection ever "found" - so much so that a friend of mine is still combing thru them this many years later- thats a story for another time, but old Rosey helped me set the points on my caddy, matchbook trick, how to open them at just the right point, how to file them - all that poo poo. The car ran great for a few months, then they burned up again. We got another set, did the same thing - he couldn't figure that out for the life of him - we only had access to the "standard" stuff which was really garbage - I rooted around and found a set of points that had the condenser built in the little snubber plastic part was phenolic material, not plastic, so I'm assuming it was some older unit - it was like a whole unit - unmarked, but that one lasted longer but after a year or so, and started acting up- at the time I was driving the car daily, and hard. Rosey said this was a common thing that I had to do and that the lobes of the distributor cam may have been worn, I wasn't about trying to track down a new distributor. I saw the pertronix in a catalog and called them - talked to the guy, and bought the kit - I put it in and the car ran just as good as it did the first time we set the points - super smooth, I had another set of points I threw in the glove box, but I never touched them, when I sold the car in 2020, they were still in the glove box, and now they are in Austria. Oh, have a hard time with that? try doing this:  can you tell theres a pertronix in here?  or here?  But there is something to really be said for originality, even if you dont see it - I just dont have the time anymore to fool with these cars and I really dont need to get jumped by friends come back on a tow truck every friday night. TMI straw that broke the camels back was one night it was super late, me and the guys were having a ball and the all you can eat korean bbq we ate earlier caught up with me - got in the car to go, dead battery - at no point was I going to make it home now - and honestly i wouldn't have made it home anyway, but at least I might have made it to a gas station bathroom - I'll leave it at that. LobsterboyX fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Apr 27, 2022 |
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Apr 27, 2022 06:44
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LobsterboyX posted:TMI straw that broke the camels back was one night it was super late, me and the guys were having a ball and the all you can eat korean bbq we ate earlier caught up with me - got in the car to go, dead battery - at no point was I going to make it home now - and honestly i wouldn't have made it home anyway, but at least I might have made it to a gas station bathroom - I'll leave it at that. haha that's a hell of a story. compelling, too what's weird is that i have had the polar opposite experience as you. my truck needs a set of points and a set of brushes in the generator about once a decade. the condenser tests fine but ill probably replace it anyway and keep this one as a spare, cause why not. i drive my truck like normal, no weird charging issues. well, i do have an experience with the charging light coming on at idle and barely keeping the battery charged, but that was when one of the brushes was consumed to a tiny nub that was basically making no contact. i put a new set in and don't have to think about it anymore i wonder if its just a matter of the late stuff having some of the corners filed off compared to the earlier stuff; mine's a '60, so probably a bit more developed than your 20s roadster of course, now that i say all that, im going to have a hell of a time getting the points set up this weekend because it's been a decade since i last touched em, so i dont have the touch, not that i ever did
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Apr 27, 2022 07:02
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Eh, get the points up on a lobe, get the feeler gauge in there, good contact but not too tight, crank the st screw down, should be fine. I converted to Pertronix kinda on a whim…was pleasantly surprised at how quick the 389 caught and the slightly smoother idle. I have several sets of points stocked up in case I get hit on the head with a frying pan & decide to go back. If you’re having no issues, stick with what you have. The Econoline is starting to act up at low RPMs, though that could be wires roasted in my tiny engine fire; we’ll see
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Apr 27, 2022 19:05
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I converted to HEI on my '70 Cutlass after the first time the points went bad somewhere that was not home. I think I was able to limp home after filing the points a bit (they were crusty) and regapping. I replaced those then hit the wrecking yards for an Olds V8 HEI, which at the time was easy. It's still on there - second coil and several sets of caps and rotors, of course. TBF, I kinda forgot it had points, and was not used to maintaining them. Also still a young college student at that point, so very much in learning away from home phase. It wasn't my first points car ('68 El Camino,) but the previous car was a '78 Monza that already had an HEI that I drove through the end of high school senior year and the first year of college.
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Apr 29, 2022 20:10
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The 320i was points and was just one of the things that fought us driving it across the country when I bought it. Converted it to a Crane Fireball XL shortly after finishing the trip, if we had known it was in the trunk we probably would have converted on the road. I used to like messing with things, tinkering and making the old stuff work but these days I just want things to work and not fight me every step of the way... but not enough to throw in the towel and drive modern stuff. Points can and do work well but on something you want to get in and not worry about it's worth converting IMO. Especially true if you can do it stealthy like LobsterboyX.
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Apr 30, 2022 10:45
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So immediately after contemplating a move to Sarasota, I thought of LobsterboyX… It’s certainly commitment to a theme. And what the hell else are you going to do with a snail-shell house.
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May 1, 2022 13:39
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| # ? May 20, 2024 16:08 |
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drat, thats cool - if that was in LA it would get bulldozed with everything in it. That house reminds me of my late friends home. When I was about 17, I was seeing a girl that lived across the street from an extremely interesting house. The house was "titty pink" and it was obviously a special house to the neighborhood, it was in the Streamline Moderne style and it was almost double the size of the rest of the houses on the block, there were a few cool/wacky cars parked out front, the house number was even vintage and extremely kitschy, there were pink flamingos, astro-turf, old croquet sets and fiberglass umbrellas in the front yard. It really resonated with me on a very PeeWee's playhouse level. As things got more heavy with the girl I was seeing, I'd head to her house more often. I was young and driving my pink 1958 Cadillac every day, this was about 2001-2002ish - One time I went over there and parked my caddy in front of her cool house and snapped a picture with my first ever digital camera. When I did, an older woman came out of the house, she was obviously the owner of the home, her style and personality matched the house, she saw me taking photos and came over to me and said "lemme see that" playfully. She loved the pics and she said "I just got one of these digital cameras too, I HAVE to try it out, pull your car in the driveway, we need this photo" - she shuffled back in the house and got her camera, I thought it was kinda weird, but I was in love with this house, and as soon as I saw the lady who owned it, I knew it was special - She came out and started taking pictures of the car in her driveway, the color of my car, and the color of her house were so similar she said "I can't even get the car to show up on this drat thing, its the same drat color" - I could tell this woman was a perfectionist. We were talking more and I told her I was kinda seeing the girl across the street, she said "oh her, shes gorgeous! shes lucky to have a big young man like you with a fabulous car like this in her life" - she showed me the pictures and I said I'd love a few copies of them, I was such a doofus and never took my own photo, and even if I had, I lost all the photos off that camera a few years later - I wish I had them now... we said our goodbyes and she said "you and your little girlfriend should come over sometime, I know her mother, I'll make it happen" and she shuffled back in the house, I pulled my car out and went on with my day.  for reference, this is the car - this photo was from around that era, taken a few years later. The next time I came over to see this girl, I got there and she said "hey my mom talked to our neighbor, she wants you to go over there, she wants to show you her house" - this girl was getting weirder each time we hung out - she was in to the performing arts and things were kinda getting weird, as they do when you are young... So I said "yeah lets go" and she just said "you can..." so I said gently caress it and walked across the street. I rang the bell and it was loving surreal electric multi tone doorbell, she opened the door and it was literally like walking in to the house you just posted, and peewees playhouse mixed together... there was curiously gold records everywhere.    I couldn't believe what I was seeing, I couldn't believe that I was in this place, there were pictures of this little quirky lady with just about every musician you could imagine- the house was filled to the brim with the wackiest stuff I'd ever seen. The back yard was beyond belief, giant neon signs, totally outrageous pool, terrazo everywhere. She could tell I was getting overwhelmed, I kept just saying "this is incredible" over and over again. I didn't even know what to say, and she was going on about so many different things to a 6'3" doofus kid that rolled up to her house in a 50s Cadillac. She kept asking me "how are you in to all this stuff so young? do your parents work in the biz? what are their names? its not every day you see a kid in a cool car like that" I just explained to her that I just loved that stuff and I didn't really know where it came from and "dont take this the wrong way, but this reminds me of PeeWees playhouse." "Oh honey.... come... sit...." it reminded me of peewees playhouse.... because it was peewees playhouse   Turns out this woman was Allee Willis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allee_Willis here's more info, in her words, about the house: http://alleewillis.com/williswonderland/ By the time I left there, I felt like I had been zapped of all my energy, I had forgotten about the weird girl I was dating, I was with Allee for about 3 hours, just talking about vintage stuff, why I loved it and really just having a really great deep talk with a complete stranger. I forgot all about the weird girl I was dating. I was on a really amazing high, the kind of high you get when you have a really deep conversation and life changing moment. We finished up our convo, exchanged phone numbers and she said "go on see that girl across the street, shes a hottie, you're welcome here anytime" She gave me a hug and a pat on the back and said "go getem tiger" I walked back across the street rang the bell the girl seemed kinda pissed, I said something like "I lost track of time, that house is amazing - thank your mom for me, I gotta go, wanna do something tomorrow?" we said our goodbyes, but I really never talked to her again after that But I did keep in touch with Allee - if I saw something cool out and about I'd text her - I'd stop by from time to time ring the bell, say hello and talk for a bit - It was always very nice, and she was genuinely happy to see me, but it was only a once-twice a year friendship. Sadly we lost Allee in 2019 very suddenly and by then I hadn't talked to her in about a year. I was pretty bummed. For all I know the house is still there, its not very far, I just haven't thought about stopping in, I don't know whats going on with it, but I would have heard if something happened. This place needs to be protected at all costs.
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May 2, 2022 08:22
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