Gas, tires, oil.

I rented a 2005 Impala to go to the airport (cheaper than paying long term parking) and snapped a couple pics. My ‘55 is a little worse for wear after 50 years, but where will that Impala be in 2055?

This pic was forwarded to me by a friend. It was taken by one of those motion activated trail cameras that hunters use to see what wildlife is using a trail.

So, did the flash ruin dinner or not?

Most american screws (non-metric) under 1/4″ are named by their number and thread pitch (thread per inch). So a 10-32 and a 10-24 are the same diameter (#10), one is fine thread and one is coarse. To calculate the diameter you multiply the number by .013″ and add .060″. A #10 is therefore .060 + (10*.013) or .190″ (about 3/16″). I plugged the formula into a spreadsheet and calculated some common sizes.

Sure, you can look it up online or in Machinery’s Handbook, but if you know the formula (and even a lot of machinists don’t) you can calculate the screw diameter anytime.

In order to use the NP 833 4 speed OD trans in my ‘55, I had to switch driveshaft yokes (its the same length as the old 3 spd.). My trans np833 used a 350 turbo sized yoke, but others used the bigger 400 turbo one. I went to the junkyard and got a yoke (and driveshaft) for $15.

I got one with outside clips on the u-joints, like the ones in my ‘55. The same u-joint fit both my old drive shaft and new yoke. I have an interesting (and I think, superior) method for changing u-joints. First I use pliers or a screw driver to remove the clips. Everything else is done with a bronze (or deadblow) hammer and a couple pieces of scrap wood.

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I put about 40 miles a day on my sportster, and even at 53-55 mpg the stock 2.25 gallon tank (pic below) would only last 2 1/2 days before refueling.

So I bought a Paughco “Fat Axed” tank from Jireh Cycles (~$97), it was the biggest and cheapest bolt on tank for sportster I could find (4.2 gallons).

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I needed a picnic table for, well, a picnic. I had no money and not a lot of time, but I did have pile of used random length 2x4s. So I cut the short ones in half, and the long ones in thirds. I then lined them up from biggest to smallest, then nailed them to a couple long 2x4s to make a randomly tapered table top.

Making legs is the hardest part, so I just left them off and suspended it from a tree.

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Went camping last weekend at Henry Cowell state park with our ‘73 Wilderness Camper.

The site was very nice, and we hiked up to an observation tower in the morning. Got to give the propane refridgerator a workout and even ran the furnace for a few minutes in the morning. The only thing wanting was 12V lighting. I don’t have an inverter hooked up and most of the lights are 110V. I think I’m going to try and use some LEDs for DC lighting. Guess I’ll start checking prices at Mouser, Digikey and Electronics Goldmine.

With plenty of evidence from my rigged up volt meter that I needed a new regulator (that, and my headllight blew out, again, for the 6th time in 18 months) I finally installed it last weekend. First I unbolted it.

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The front fender on my trike was the stock front found on most narrow glides. The chrome bracket was rusted and the rivets were loose. I bead blasted the bracket and replaced the rivets with plug welds. I also welded up the gap between the bractet and the fender, making it look one-piece.

Some Dupont sand-n-fill primer and some acrylic spot putty brought it to this point (you can also see where I was working on smoothing the neck on the frame). Now its just a lot of block sanding, repriming, spot putty, repeat until perfect. After all, it going to be black. For those who don’t know, perfect means that when you look across it, in bright sunlight, with your eye down near the surface, you cannot see any waves, ripples or other imperfections. The darker the color and the better the shine, the more mistakes show.

Here is a prime example of a car I wish I hadn’t sold. Out of high school I had a ‘68 Tempest (OHC 6 and 2-spd. auto) and then a ‘68 Lemans. GTO’s were out of my price range (I paid $100 each for those first two ‘68 Pontiacs). There was a local guy named Tony Monzo who restored GTOs and his own car, a “phantom” ‘68 Judge Convertible (the Judge didn’t start til ‘69) was an amazing car. Compared with my own low option cars, this thing had everything, actually, this car proabably had more options than any authentic GTO. Some years later, he moved cross-country (anyone know where he is?) and I bought the car.

I just love the look of hide-aways and the enduro bumper. At the time, the judge wing was off the car, but lets look at some of the other options. Those aren’t side markers on the front fenders, but rare cornering lights. The front valance is a ‘69, but you can still tell its a ‘68 from the vent windows and the rear side markers.

On the interior, we can see a dual-gate his’n hers shifter, with a ‘67 vacuum gauge. The tilt-steering column is especially rare because the cornering lights use their own column. Power convertible top and air-conditioning. Power windows (including vent windows) and power (vacuum for ‘68) locks (including truck release). You can’t see from this pic, but it had a map-light built into the rear view mirror. The front seats were both power and reclining, from the factory, only the driver’s seat was availible as power and the only the passenger as reclining. But Tony took 2 sets of extremely rare ‘68 seats (2 power driver’s lower sections and 2 upper passenger’s reclining) and put them together.
I had the car for a couple years, but then it was my turn to move cross-country and I sold it. I think the guy had a dry-wall business in Anapolis, MD (Phoneix Drywall, maybe?), if anyone has seen the car, I’d love to hear about it.