List,
Since there was a request for this -- how 'bout 4 examples and my role in
each?
1.) When in high school, one of my friends was trying to sell his '58 Dodge
Panel. It looked great and ran well but the rear end was on its way out and
was making quite a noise. My friend, Tim, and his group of friends had
acquired the label of "stoners" at school and they had worked quite hard at
maintaining the image. Tim and his group one day after school set out to
solve the problem. I opted out since I really didn't enjoy being around
Tim's other friends. Anyway I was with Tim when he sold his panel -- Tim
was acting quite strangely until he had his money and the guy had driven
off. Tim then told me that during the evening when his group was trying to
fix the rear end things weren't going to well so they starting drinking beer
and smoking some illegal substance. The group's solution after brew and
weed was to partially drain the rear end and then add sawdust and --
hotdogs! I never knew whether this was true or not but whenever I saw that
old '58 Dodge Panel I certainly did smile and chuckle.
2.) In '75, I bought a '60 Comet 2 door that a friend had installed a 289, 4
speed and a homemade straight axle. This was a very wicked handling car, a
full time job just to go in a straight line @ 30 mph. This is also the car
where I learned about panic stops -- every stop was a panic stop. Seems the
straight axle wasn't and the way it was attached to the unibody was a bit
"flexy". I replaced the straight axle with the front suspension from a '63
Falcon Sprint, rebuilt the 289 (warmed up a bit). I was able to surprise a
lot of people with this car -- my first sleeper.
3.) I was the PO. In '78 I worked as a partsman in a Datsun dealership in
Spokane (Jaremko's). I bought my first '69 2000 from a repair shop that had
rebuilt the engine and trans for their customer. The shop's customer had
the car stolen and when he got it back it was minus the softtop, headlight
rings, grille, bumpers and the seats. The customer just didn't want to
piece it back together, so I bought it. At that time Datsun was trying to
get rid of roadster pieces. At the same time a friend at a body shop needed
the front end sheet metal for a roadster so I sold the front end pieces to
him. The price I got from the body shop for the used front end actually
paid for all the pieces I needed for the roadster (each fender was less that
$25 and the softtop frame and top was $150). Anyway I opted for the
cheapest fenders and the roadster ended up with one wide flare and one
narrow flare. I just kinda rationalized that it was difficult to see both
sides of the car at the same time and if someone noticed it probably wasn't
a person I would like talking to anyway. So if there is someone out there
with a black '69 2000 with fenders that have two different flares I may be
to blame
4.) On my current project car (Alfa Romeo GTV6), a PO had installed a car
alarm and evidently had two criteria: 1.) the alarm would have sufficient
power and 2:) there would be some form of restraint to keep the wires
supplying the alarm from being pulled apart. The PO used 10 gauge wire and
as a restraint wrapped the wire around the main wiring harness. This wire
was not fused -- if it had shorted it would have required a new main
harness.
Jerry
'69 2000
'86 GTV6
> Anybody else have some goodies to add?
>
> Bob Porter
> Harrisburg PA
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