My 1959 Chevy 3200 long bed pickup is on the road again. The original 235 was blowing more smoke that a mosquito fogger. It seems fine now with a 235 from a 65 Chevy Pickup. Vince's Vintage Vehicles is a restoration shop near me here in Arkansas. I ran into him recently and he mentioned a client had pulled a good 235 in order to drop in a V8 and wanted to know if I wanted to buy it. I had Vince do the mechanical work since I am a novice mechanic and most things end up worse off after I "fix" them. In the process of towing the truck onto the trailer I had an issue with a locked rear drum. I have been warned before about leaving the parking brake on for months at a time. Well, Vince got into it and the brakes were all full of rust. The lines were bad and the cylinders all needed replacing. Doing the brakes, cylinders, lines and master turned out to be more expensive that the engine swap but it is probably more important to be able to stop than to be able to go.
I have been driving it to the post office fairly regularly now that it is registered and insured. By the way I have recently started using Grundy rather than my conventional insurer and that is a big savings. The truck was painted black with a bit of metal flake many years ago by a prior owner. It is so dull it looks like primer but it is polishing up very well. I'm doing a bit at a time. I have found out about power buffers. Wow, do they do a fine job. Too bad it was a work truck and someone splashed some white paint on the rear fender. Note the Roger's Chevrolet from Paris, Arkansas sign on the front. I thought it looked Classic so I got Bob Rogers to give me one when I visited his collection of cars. You can see the pictures and others from the tour at the Diamond State VCCA web site:
https://sites.google.com/site/diamondstatevcca/
The warm weather is gone here now so I have to find ways to occupy my time in the house and not the unheated work shop. Does anyone else have a fascination with past issue of car magazines? I have been picking up various back issues of all the popular magazines and have a bunch extra; mostly from Hot Rod and Antique Automobile. I will start a "group" and see if there is any interest in exchanging duplicate copies.
The fall is here and I have been traveling. I just downloaded my pictures from my phone and realized I never mentioned the success I had finding great stuff at the Ozark Swap Meet in Springfield, Missouri. It is always one of the hotted weekends in August but don't let that keep you away. Unlike other swaps where venders show up Saturday morning and start leaving Saturday at noon these venders are there for the long haul.
I always end up with more stuff than I could possibly need. One vender was selling everything on a flat bed trailer for 50 cents regardless of what it was. I picked up some Model A distributor caps and some Rochester Carbs. One collector bought about 100 NOS arm rest slip covers for mid 40's sedans. He ended up paying about 10 cents each.
The vendor saw my Model T hood in my stack of stuff I had already bought and offered a 28? Chevy? hood for $5. Do I need it? No. Did I buy it? Yes. I Was using a commercial windshield wiper display box as a table to show him my selection of 50 cent items and he asked if I wanted the box also. It was $5 and loaded with NOS wiper blades. Did I need it? No. Did I buy it? Yes.
That's the way the whole day went. Buying and hauling stuff back to the truck. By the way. The show is free and so is some parking but you want to pay $5 a day for a parking spot near one of the entry points because you will be hauling stuff back all day.
The signs pictured above were two of $25. Did I need them?......
I went to the Frontier Days Car Show in Paris, Arkansas this past Saturday. It was a good turnout for a rainy day. The show had a good variety of restorations, restorods and hotrods.
Well, I can't call the "rewiring" of the VW a success. I have headlights but no high beams, I have directionals. I have rear lights and brake lights, but the dash lights come on with the brake lights. I may have to start all over again after the Diamond State Chevrolet regional VCCA quarterly meeting this weekend in Paris. That's Paris, Arkansas at Bob Rogers Chevrolet dealership at 10 AM Saturday October 4. I think there is a car show in Paris the same day.
They are planning to meet at Bob's Chevy dealership and look at his old cars. Then take a short tour to Mt. Magazine state park and eat lunch at the lodge. The meeting will be after lunch. They are then planning a scenic drive to Charleston (Arkansas again) to look at more old cars of club members. If you come bring an old car if possible, but if not come anyway. This is a newly organized regional club afiliated with the VCCA ( Vintage Chevrolet Club of America).
If I can get it running I will take my "Good Humor" truck shown above. We call it the ice cream truck because of the colors. Maybe I will find an icebox for the back and give ice cream away at the meets.
I'm working on a 65 VW bug now. It is running but had no lights. I'm not surprised. It was a 6 volt origionally and it has been changed to a 12 volt by a shadetree mechanic (like me).
The tabs on the headlights are soldered to the wires. I guess he (I assume he but I bought it from a she) couldn't find a clip at the time. All the bulbs are rusted into the sockets so I am going through replacing them after pulling them out with pliers.
It was origionally an ivory color but changed to bronze and brown. When I got it it was a third primer. I went around it with rattle cans and covered the bare spots. I like the plastic "eyebrow" over the windshield. It was pop rivited it place.
