FRED Z

I am restoring a 1953 Skylark with V8 engine and had the transmission rebuilt, but the rebuilder said he never heard of the new style rear torque seal. I am wondering if I should purchase the new type seal and install it on the rebuilt transmission prior to installing it on the engine? Also where is a good source on this part?

I doubt if this is possible, but will say that his wife is the Postmaster (Postmistress?) of Jeannette, PA (a small town near Pittsburgh), and he receives and ships many small and medium size items by the U.S. Postal System. If you have a small part that needs plated, you might try this route some day. Sometimes we hand-carry our parts as we are only about 70 miles away and other times we use UPS from work or the postal system. However, one time UPS broke a top grille part of my 1957 Buick in half and it took a long time to resolve. (Luckily I insured the part for $600). Thanks to Mr. Earl, a good friend of Mr. Earl, and other members of this forum, i was able to locate a very good replacement piece and had it shipped to Bill in a wooden carton for plating and all ended up well. After the replacement part was plated, we picked it up, as didn't want any more broken parts, although the wooden crate would have probably survived almost anything. I can also say that Bill is very dependable and reliable and having his wife in charge of the local post office is a plus. Check out the '57 Buick. Fred

I am one of a bunch of happy customers of Bills Chrome, and he continues to do the highest of quality work. Just recently I sent a set of hubcaps that had numerous dents. Since these were the type with an inner and outer metal surface, I didn't expect too much. However they came back looking like factory new! I also sent a vintage hood ornament with the same results. Bill knew I was in need of these parts and got them out for me sooner than promised. I have too many cars, so have dealt with many platers, but none can compare to Bill's Chrome. His price is always fair too. Contact Information: Bill's Chrome 819 Clay Ave. Jeannette, PA 15644 (Pittsburgh area) 15644 Phone 724-527-5119

FREE: I have a 1960 Lincoln front bumper free of charge if you pick up in Canfield, Ohio (midway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh 20 minutes off the Ohio Turnpike). We will load in your pickup, but are unable to ship due to excessive crating costs and high freight costs. Call three three zero / five three three /3384 Monday through Thursday afternoons from 12:30 to 5:30 PM and ask for Fred at Extension 99. Bumper has been in dry storage for 40 years and is complete and suitable for replating - nice and solid with a few small dents and includes bumper mounting brackets. (Platers remove such dents as part of their service when plating a bumper). Hope I can help someone out. Fred

Looking for a 1948 Cadillac Convertible Hood Ornament - the "V" in center of hood - 1949 might fit. I am not sure of the correct part number for both the hood and trunk on a 1948 Cadillac Convertible, so if anyone can supply this, it will help. I can use both the hood v ornament and/or the trunk v hood ornament, as long as they can be replated. NO LONGER NEEDED - FOUND AT McVey's, who had both in stock (new in box and plated for $126 each) Thanks, Fred

[quote Let me ask you. with the 3rd light inside the tail light assembly, is the turn signal still well seen when the brake lights are on? This was my original concern. BTW, great looking car you have! I had to play around with different bulbs a bit and finally got it so that it displays as intended. On my LaSalle, the original housing is quite small, so had to do some real work to make a double-socket housing. I probably spent 6-8 hours to make these and the first version did not fit when I was all finished. Attached are pictures of my very extensive wiring diagram that is mounted on the firewall above and to the left of the steering column. This runs my fog lights, new turn signal circuits, flashers, flasher buzzer and electric fuel pump. I have a 50 amp on-off switch to shut off everything for safety, as am always especially concerned about the auxiliary electric fuel pump. The large round red junction box is a dedicated ground supply. I have wired all of my lights with dedicated grounds, as often a bad ground can cause all kinds of headaches. To keep the judges happy, I made a black plastic housing that snaps into place and covers everything except the handle of the 50-amp switch that extends out just slightly to the right. When I park the car, I always turn off this switch for less excitement later. I have many, many hours in developing all of this and keep printed wiring diagrams for the next guy some day. (I put one of these diagrams in a plastic pouch behind the trunk lining as an extra bonus to someone years from now). I also have all of this stored on my computer at home. I like precision and I like to document things so that I can help others. So that you and others do not worry about adding turn signals and flashers, want to say that my LaSalle won a Senior at the 2008 Grand Nationals in NJ. However, as others have mentioned, the work must be professionally done. Most of the time, I use modern wiring, but am very careful that it is concealed in loom if it is an area that can be seen. Fred

Here is another view of the front turn signals and a picture of my steering wheel and dash. You can see the 1940 Cadillac turn signal control in that picture. Fred

When I restored my 1939 LaSalle convertible 2 years ago, I rigged up front turn signals from a 1947 Cadillac backup light, which is stainless and seems to be period correct. I did not install amber bulbs, but when activated they look a pale yellow or light amber anyhow. I made stainless steel brackets to hold these lights in place. For the rear, I added an extra socket inside the existing tail light housings and everything works just fine. When I first purchased the car, it had nicely chromed motorcycle turn signals, which functioned well and did the job, but seemed out of place on such a fine car. I added a turn-signal control on the steering column from a 1940 Cadillac, as this feature was not available in 1939. This also looks period correct and works well. That control is the non-cancel type, but has a flashing red light to remind me to turn it off and I wired in a very small buzzer from Radio Shack into the circuit under the dash as a further reminder. This buzzer was 12-volts, but still works on 6-volts, at a lower volume, which is what I want. Fred

Jim made a new (correct and perfect) convertible top for my 1939 La Salle Convertible coupe. Not only was he one of the best, he took a genuine interest in the car and did the necessary research so that the finished product was exactly the same as the day the car rolled off the assembly line. Here is a picture of Jim in front of his shop that was taken in June of 2008 after he completed my car. May he rest in peace. We will miss you Jim. Fred Zwicker

Ryan's story (Caveat Emptor - Saleen Mustang S) referred to in the previous post is very interesting and he is indeed fortunate that he handled the matter so quickly and so well that he was able to get some help. Regarding my issue with someone selling my 1955 Pontiac Savari, in two emails to eBay, I asked about the "eBay Protection Plan" - there is no such plan and I wish that eBay would publish this information for everyone's advantage. eBay sent only 2 identical generic letters to me. They sent no specific answers, talking about "taking appropriate action based on their findings", going on to say that this could involve a "warning, temporary or indefinite suspension, or account termination". They also said "for the protection of all members, eBay can't provide details on any individual investigation or account", hoping that I would understand. eBay also said to forward questionable emails from eBay to spoof@ebay.com and not to reply or click on any of the links. In other words, we are on our own when dealing on the Internet. There are many legitimate offers on eBay and I have purchased 2 cars as a result of eBay posts and 2 cars through this AACA Forum, but in each case, went to the seller's location, viewed the cars and title and compared the vin number to the number on the title. Asking for a pencil tracing was mentioned earlier in this thread and is a GOOD IDEA. With my '55 Pontiac described in this thread, I opted not to ask for this, as already knew that the seller has lifted pictures of my car from the eBay seller back about a year ago and did not want to waste any more time with the seller. Remember that if you have a gut feeling that things don't seem right, they probably are not right and if the deal is too good to be true . . . you know the story. In buying some of my other cars, I first call the seller and ask about the car, asking for more pictures and a fax copy of the title. Asking for a picture or tracing of the vin number is good too. I usually ask seller how long he or she has owned the car and where purchased previously. I later check Google to see if his/her address is listed and see if any other information. Dealing with an AACA or other car club member that has been in the club for some years is helpful. In other words, the goal is to buy the car, but not to get scammed. There is very little protection on eBay purchases, so "buyer beware" (also seller beware in some circumstances). If the seller is legitimate, he or she won't mind furnishing whatever a buyer asks for. I once was interested in a very valuable car and drove a couple of hours to see it. First the seller couldn't find his glasses, so could not find the title to show it to me. Two days later he found his glasses, but said he couldn't find the title, but it was somewhere. We tentatively agreed on the price, but the seller wanted cash (greenbacks). I explained that I am retired and do not deal in cash. Finally I realized that there were too many red flags, so did not buy the car. It just isn't worth all of the hassle and the worst thing would be to do a one or two year restoration and then no title. About that time the real owner might show up and get a fully restored car. This could possibly happen. Fred

I feel that anything advertised in a catalog, Internet or eBay should have clear dimensions - Length, width and thickness and in some cases the weight. I have had to ask this of sellers more times than I can count. Once the seller gives exact dimensions, he or she should be totally responsible for the measurements. (Measurements taken by the guy's wife count too). One thing I found out the hard way is that when you contact the seller, be sure to do it through the eBay process, as they reference this if any disputes. Fred

I didn't post the 24 pictures that the seller in Croatia sent to me this AM with his email, which confirms even more that he is representing (directly or indirectly) that the car he is selling is my car. (Read his words to me in my earlier post - if this doesn't look like an attempted fraud, what is?). I can assure you that every one of his 24 pictures is of my car - even the exact same wrinkles in the upholstery and the odometer reading. I don't have to prove anything, but if he is selling a car on eBay and sending 24 pictures to a prospective buyer as being the car that he is selling (when the pictures are definitely not of a car owned by seller), something is wrong. The reason why I posted all of this info was to alert others of what can happen on eBay and other venues. While I would like very much to ask for a pencil tracing of the serial number, am no longer willing to waste any more time with this guy. Fred

Thanks Roger. I will need a pencil tracing of the metal plaque that is attached to the bridge and then we can go from there. What is your best price and will you accept a second-party post-dated personal check Number 101? Fred

I forgot to mention that the eBay seller forwarded 24 pictures of MY CAR to me with his email that I received this AM. I don't need a pencil tracing, and unless he is able to get inside my locked and alarmed garage in Ohio, he will be unable to provide it. The pictures that he sent show all of my very rare accessories (Pontiac compass, under the hood portable light, other features). He evidently pirated these photos from an eBay auction of about a year ago, prior to my purchase of the car last summer from the real owner. The only thing that he did was to black out the 1955 North Carolina plates in all exterior photos. I just sent his email and attached pictures to spoof@ebay.com for their information, but doubt if they will provide any information to me in return. I also asked eBay about their "protection plan" that seller mentioned. I do not intend to further correspond with the seller, as have already wasted too much time on this, in exposing this fraudulent attempt to sell my car on eBay. Fred

I mentioned that I had asked a few questions of the seller of this car and here is an email that I received this morning (car was listed as being in MN, but must have been air-lifted to Europe this week, as is now in Croatia). Here is the email: Hello, Thank you for your email, and sorry for my late reply. First of all the car belonged to my father, he was the first and only owner, and after he passed away 7 moths ago, he left the car to me. I do not now much about this car. I can let you know that it has a clean US title, it has no scratches or dents, it has 75700 miles and it runs perfectly, I've took it for a drive before I left US, and I didn't drove it since then. Anyway I have all the receipts and for all the work that has been made on it. The car is now in Zagreb, Croatia with me, and it is crated as I received it, when I've moved here 1 moth ago, because I found a better job. I've tried to register it here but the odometer is in miles, and to make it street legal, I'll have to pay around $4000 US money that I cannot afford because I want to buy a house, so I've decided to sell it. The total price that you'll have to pay for this car is $14000 US, price that includes shipping taxes and insurance. All of my transactions until now were made under eBay's protection, and for that I wish that we make this deal also with eBay's protection. If you agree with moving forward with the deal through eBay please email me your full name and shipping address. As soon as I receive these information from you I will forward them to eBay along with the rest of the details in order for them to open a case regarding our deal and they will contact you in the shortest time with all the details of the transaction.I am waiting for your email as soon as possible. Thanks Jeffrey Fisher Does anyone on this forum care to comment? I would certainly be interested in this car at this great price, but since it is already my car, will have to pass on his very generous offer! Could you imagine trying to sell a car on eBay to the owner of the same car? I will be forwarding a copy of his email to eBay shortly. Fred

Hi Jim, You are right and I am wrong. I just couldn't resist and won't do it again. Fred

Thanks Dave and others, I have just sent to eBay a "Report this item", plus last night sent two emails to spoof@ebay.com, going into more details. I keep hoping that seller will answer my questions, as I told him that I was ready to buy. Maybe I should ask what kind of a deposit is required if we can make a deal quickly. It sure is a nice car (it should be, as it is definitely my car). Will the real owner stand up? (I'm standing). See the actual car, or other pictures of this same car at the TP Car Museum in Canfield, Ohio Check out this car and others in my collection at Home Page Attached are two more pictures of MY CAR that I took at work last summer with my own camera, although these two pictures show the original NC license plates. It sure looks like the same car to me! Fred

Looking at eBay last night, noticed 4 pictures of MY 1955 Pontiac Safari on a car being sold on eBay by a seller from MN with zero (0) Positives. Pontiac : eBay Motors (item 330396488616 end time Jan-22-10 16:24:14 PST) If above link does not work, just enter item 330396488616 in an eBay search. There are 17 bids already and I notified spoof@ebay.com about the fact that the pictures shown are of MY Pontiac. In fact I have the exact same pictures on my hard drive from early last year. The only change is that the seller blacked out the North Carolina license plates. Interior details in his picture are identical to MY CAR - yellow key hang tag, factory air ducts (very rare), wrong skirting around front seat, wrong top door trim in ivory (should be metallic). Even the POCI sticker on left rear passenger window is the same, as are other features that I noticed. I sent some questions to the seller through eBay, but no answer so far. One of my questions was "where were the pictures taken - it sure doesn't look like MN in the winter". I also mentioned the similarities between what I called, "my friend's car" and asked if the pictures were of the seller's car or not, as I was ready to bid once clarified. So that everyone can understand my dilema, I am attaching pictures (saved on my hard drive) from about a year ago when my car was on eBay, showing North Carolina 1955 license plates that were on the car when purchased last year, and are still in my possession in my car. Someone has either lifted the pictures from eBay and is pulling a scam, or is selling another '55 Safari of the same exact color combination, and is using the same pictures to save the time and trouble of taking his or her own pictures. However what are the odds of another 55 Pontiac having very rare factory air-conditioning ducts and "vintage air" which seller says "cools great". I checked the properties of seller's 4 pictures and all said "Pontiac". Something doesn't seem right here. Attached are 4 pictures from my hard drive that were taken of my car in about 2008. Compare with the same 4 pictures posted by seller on eBay at the link above. Any ideas on how all of this happened? Also how will seller get any financial gain if selling a car that probably does not exist? Fred

My radio man called me today and said that he had the 55 Pontiac original radio working, after I brought in the speaker & power supply. He even played it for me over the phone. He said the vibrator was almost new, but he still cleaned up the points. It was missing one tube, which he can get, but the radio plays even with the one tube missing ! He is going to get the missing tube and replace a couple of capacitors and maybe something else. The original speaker is not perfect, so we are in hopes that we can connect either two or four of the speakers from the Pioneer radio, but he wants to check the impedence or something. I am bringing in those speakers to him on Monday, as we have a lot of snow in Ohio this weekend. If all works out as planned, I will soon have an original 1955 Pontiac Delco radio in my car, with working push buttons. So far the quoted price was $125, not including whatever it takes to figure out how to connect my extra speakers in place of the original speaker. This seems reasonable to me, plus very fast service and able to have this done locally is a big plus. Attached is a picture of my radio after removal from the car. Fred

Thanks 28 Chrysler - but what about my missing speaker and power supply? See my earlier post. Without this, my radio technician cannot fix the original radio. Fred

I took the original radio to a local technician, who called me this afternoon to let me know that the radio was intact, but the power supply and speaker combination were missing (and this was definitely not in the car), so I guess now that my only option is to send it to be converted to an AM-FM setup, even though most on this forum feel that the sound is not as good. I will be picking up the radio on Thursday and making arrangements to have it converted. Any other recommendations? Thanks a lot for everyone's help in all of this. Fred

'Thanks a lot John - and others who have responded, I never thought about such an issue, but the radio in question is for my modified 1955 Pontiac Safari that has an alternator, so maybe not a problem. We plan to connect the original radio on Monday to see if it works (as the original radio has never been connected since I bought the car last year). If it works, I will probably stay with that radio. If not working, I will then try to figure out my best option and go from there. I am hoping that I can find someone locally who is familiar with the old tube radios who can advise me accordingly. I have a second 1955 Pontiac Safari that is 100% original, including an original working radio, but has a "Vintage Air" system routed through the original air conditioning ducts and the air conditioning works real good - however with one exception that I noticed last summer: With the air conditioning on and the original radio on, at an idle at a traffic light, my turn signals failed to work properly (very slow, sometimes stopping altogether). At the time, at first I thought they were malfunctioning until I shut off the air conditioning and they worked just fine. I never thought to turn off the radio, as with both radio and air conditioning on at the same time, this may have caused the turn signal problem. Now after reading your post, am anxious to test this in the spring (car is stored for the winter). Thanks again, Fred

Thanks a lot Jim. (Food for thought, although I enjoy talk radio, so may still check other options). I see you have a 1949 Crosley Station Wagon. In 1949 I graduated from high school and in July of 1949 a friend and I hitch-hiked to Miami to visit my uncle. Getting a ride in the south was not as easy as the first part of the trip, so I hid in the woods while my friend tried to get a ride. This was in Georgia. Finally a guy driving a 1949 Crosley Station Wagon stopped and I ran out of the woods to share the ride. He wasn't too happy about all 3 of us in the small Crosley, but said OK. My friend sat up front and I in the back. The driver liked country music and sang loudly along with the radio most of the trip. He drove us all the way to Miami and dropped us off at my uncle's real estate office. I will say that it was a long ride, but the Crosley never missed a beat and we arrived safely. For all I know, it could have been your wagon! Fred P.S. Check our restored 1951 Ford Stake Truck with only 23,000 original miles.

Thanks for the info Jeff, I have two 1955 Pontiac Safaris - one is original and has the originial radio, which is working. A picture of that car was included in my original post. The second Safari was modified and has a Pioneer Radio built into the console and has 4 speakers (1 on each side of the console and 1 on each side in the rear). There was a larger round speaker in the rear of the console that was also being used. The sound was good, but the problem with the Pioneer Radio (digital) is that it runs down the battery after a couple of weeks for reasons unknown, so I have to shut off the battery when car sits for a week or so. Then the radio loses its memory and has to be reprogrammed to find the stations. This takes forever and in bright sunlight, is hard to accomplish. There is a remote control for this radio, but once the memory is lost, you have to start from scratch again. Bottom line - I don't like the Pioneer Radio and never have. My first thought was to find a replacement (new) radio that could be used that would not run down the battery and also have push buttons that would not have to be reprogrammed all the time. Then I started considering having the original radio reworked into an AM/FM conversion and operate with my existing four smaller speakers with no more need to reprogram anything and would simply turn on and off and stations could be selected with push buttons or by turning the dial. Having FM would be a bonus. I would have the look and operation of the original radio and the benefit of having new technology. Everything sounded good until I just read your very informative post. You make some good points. Now I don't know what to do. My original radio is now out of the car and looks to be very clean and complete. It was installed, but not hooked up when I bought the car, so I do not know if it works, but it might. I will hook it up to a 12v power supply next week to find out. However if it does work , or can be made to work, but without the original speaker, what next?? Could the radio be hooked into my existing 4 smaller speakers? (not the large speaker). I know nothing about adding an amplifier and/or equalizer, per your link. Since I have no knowledge of radio hookups, possibly my best bet might be to find a local radio expert to see what options would be best for me. I will say that the original Pontiac radios were really good ones, as had a 1951 Pontiac for many years (in the 1950s) and loved the radio. Any other ideas or options will be greatly appreciated, as I have a few weeks before reassembling the interior, as have the seats out now for new carpet and have the original radio out of the car for repair or rework once I figure out my best options. Attached is a picture of my interior, showing the original radio mounted in the dash and the Pioneer Radio mounted in the console One of the front speakers can be seen on the side of the console up towards the dash. If I get the original radio working, will it run the 4 existing smaller speakers, since my original speaker behind the dasn on right side is missing? Thanks again, Fred

Thanks for the help. What was the lead time and did they stay close to what was first promised on lead time? Thanks, Fred