29 Jun 09 10:04, Roger Nelson wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> It was a fuel injected 283 w/4spd, 150 tudor...I think it could have
 RW>> been driven on the street.

 RN> Yeah, but wasn't that a Delco distributor?  Mine was a Mallory.

The factory distributor was the same Delco they used in the Corvette, a
dual point, mechanical advance, no window distributor. I had one of those
in my 65 Malibu.

 RW>> No, that was because of the 52 models changing body styles. The 51
 RW>> got to looking too much like the Lincoln.

 RN> I didn't notice Ford products back then, but I did try to keep up
 RN> with the variety of cars on the street and after a time, I could name
 RN> them all.

In 52, Ford and Mercury shared the same body style, while the Lincoln did
too, it was bigger.

 RW>> I don't usually watch ads. That's why they make remote controls,
 RW>> don'tcha know.

 RN> From memory, it will brake or slow down if you get to close to an
 RN> object and even stop if you fall asleep at the wheel.  There were
 RN> probably more, but I can't remember the other features.  I saw that
 RN> ad only one time.

Interesting.

 RW>> I'll never forget the day or the place. That showroom later became
 RW>> the local Chevy dealership and where I bought my first new car.

 RN> After a used Jeep Station Wagon with 4WD, ny first was the '57 Bel
 RN> Air 283.

My first would have been a 63 Ford Fairlane or a Chevy II with a 283
installed by the dealer...one thing led to another and I didn't get to buy
either. Things got better and I eventually bought a 65 Malibu SS...

 RW>> More than likely a turbo and not a blower.

 RN> Maybe so.  I'll get to it one day.

 RW>> RN> Then I would have been soundly spanked by my mother for
 RW>> disobediance.

 RW>> Mine too.

 RN> We must have been raised the same way.

I fought back when I felt that the punishment wasn't justified.

 RW>> You know back in those days, they recommended that you torque them
 RW>> twice. Once before you start it and once after it's run a while. The
 RW>> other thing I recall doing was painting the head gaskets with copper
 RW>> or silver paint.

 RN> Aha!  That's good advice, but the gaskets blew on the trial run.

It really was a PITA, since you had to remove the exhaust manifolds to get
to the lower head bolts. And the valve covers had to come off too. I did
it just once.

 RN> We didn't have to do that with the high performance gaskets
 RN> unavailable from GM.

Different gasket design, which Chevrolet probably picked up on later.

 RN> At one time we were going to double up the steel OEM head
 RN> gaskets, but we figured that would end up being the same as when we
 RN> tried using collapsed hydraulic lifters.

Not to mention, it would lower your CR...

 RN> We didn't want to create any additional problems after that.

I watched Harry rebuild a Toyota V6 from a Forrunner. That's a great
design, if you're a glutten for shimming cylinder heads. If you shave the
head (and most are warped from day one), you can't just put it back on,
you have to shim it the same amount that you removed. I didn't know that
when I was looking for a small SUV, but I'm glad I decided to buy the
Rodeo instead.

 RW>> Andrew stopped by after work and said that it was too hot for the
 RW>> rain to make it to the ground. It'd evaporate before. The next day I
 RW>> showed him the front page of the local rag which had a picture of a
 RW>> guy in that area sawing up the tree that was blown down by that
 RW>> storm...he said it rained in sheets before the tree went down.

 RN> It hasn't hit the 100 mark since last Wednesday, but it has been in
 RN> the low-to-mid Nineties with lots of humidity.  We're supposed to get
 RN> thunderstorms today and I suspect they'll appear this afternoon.
 RN> High tomorrow is forecast at 88F.  A cool front?

I'll take it! It's 97 here, just after noon. We're forcast rain too,
today, tomorrow and Wednesday and then again on Saturday. We could sure
use it. The Edwards aquifier is at 642ft above sea level. Stage IV water
restrictions set in at 640ft. Temp is now 99...

 RW>> I just let the dogs in about half an hour ago. It was 97 then. It's
 RW>> now 99 and climbing.

 RN> Jeez!  Is this ever gonna end?

Another record day here. I'm assured that this isn't global warming, it
was just as hot and was the same here in 98...

 RW>> Well, well. They forcast 20% chance of rain for Tuesday and
 RW>> Wednesday. Bet that feels like Houston.

 RN> I don't know about you, but the heat is starting to affect me and I
 RN> haven't been out of the house but twice since last Wednesday.

It doesn't bother me since I take care of business in the mornings, when
it's cool.

 RW>> RW>> Rack that up to live and learn.

 RW>> RN> Or act in haste, repent at leisure.

 RW>> Another new one.

 RN> LOL!  That's an old new one.  I've been hearing that since childhood.

It must be a regional thing. Probably used here too, but I haven't heard
it yet.

 RW>> We don't have one here either. The closest one is in Schertz, about
 RW>> 15 miles toward SA...There's been rumor that the 'Family Kitchen'
 RW>> that went out of business is supposed to become a Denny's, but I've
 RW>> seen no progress toward that yet.

 RN> When I lived across the lake, there was a Shoney's in Covington.  One
 RN> day I went there for breakfast and found the place padlocked.  There
 RN> was a rumor going around afterward that a Hooters was going to open
 RN> there.  Imagine the surprise on the faces of those expectant,
 RN> prospective patrons when it turned out to be an IHOP.  (-:  Methinks
 RN> the city fathers deemed a Hooters bad for the area and would cause
 RN> all kinds of problems that they neither wanted or needed.

We have a Hooters down the road, closer to SA...The Classic Chevy club
used to meet at a Shoney's in SA...it was still there when I passed it on
Saturday.

 RW>> That's happened to him and others quite often over the years. John
 RW>> has the wherewithall to drive thru it more successfully than any of
 RW>> the others.

 RN> I suppose you're right.  I probably wasn't paying all that much
 RN> attention to it and that was because someone he was racing had
 RN> mechanical problems along the way which distracted me.  Lots of blown
 RN> cylinders and such.

Yesterday, Ashley beat Capps in the first round. She was going sideways
with the nose pointed at the center line, ass end almost up against the
wall, when she recovered the car and went on to win, because Capps was
peddling' his car. I was channel hopping between NASCAR and NHRA when John
ran, but apparently he went out first round.

 RW>> That 1/2 mile dirt track is still being used, although the property
 RW>> is now leased from the county, since it's been anexed to the fair
 RW>> grounds.

 RN> And they'll do that as long as they can make money with it.

No doubt. There isn't much else to do around there, so they'll always have
a crowd.

 RW>> The only time I ever believed them was when I actually saw
 RW>> mechanical failures.

 RN> Same here.

 RW>> You wouldn't have any choice with a Chevy engine. Pontiac
 RW>> distributors were mounted to the block behind the manifold and the
 RW>> thermostat housing and the front crossover can be seperated from the
 RW>> intake manifold with a bandsaw. Remove 6 bolts and the intake
 RW>> manifold is off the engine.

 RN> Huh?  I might have lost a little coolant when the thermostat housing
 RN> was removed, but nothing else.

If it was a Pontiac, you wouldn't have lost a drop, nor would you have to
drain the block.

 RN> The real problem was getting the distributor back in correctly
 RN> oriented.  We finally used chalk marks.

If you havn't cranked the engine over during this process, the distributor
should drop right in where it came from. It can only go in two ways, the
right way and 180 degrees out.

 RW>> Cheap. They're over $100 in California.

 RN> "Whatever the market will allow."

Right.

 RW>> RW>> It might fit that too.

 RW>> Ford products use dual cats, so that can make it easy to have true
 RW>> duals. GM uses one cat and you have to buy another one to have true
 RW>> duals.

 RN> True.  When I did that to my '57, I had to buy and weld an expansion
 RN> plug to the crossover outlet on the left exhaust pipe.  Then I could
 RN> install the right-hand exhaust pipe, muffler and tailpipe and have
 RN> true dual exhaust. A friend helped me do that in his front yard and
 RN> in the dark, too.

In my younger years, I would have driven the car to a muffler shop. When
it came time for the 56, I trailered it to a muffler shop and drove it
home afterwards.

                R\%/itt

Joy lives in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in
the victory itself.

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