vermontboy
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Posts posted by vermontboy
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1 hour ago, 1935Packard said:
When I looked into this, it turned out that this isn't how it works. The Tesla charger is designed to be programmed so it draws power late night when electricity is in least demand, and therefore is the cheapest. It's a really cool technology.
Hopefully one can override that feature on the off chance you need to charge it during the day, or early evening if you are planning on leaving at midnight. When machines are allowed to override people bad things happen.
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Looks to me like Connecticut has a few dozen towns still served by train - gave up counting
http://www.hartfordline.com/route_stations/
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It's sometimes hard to put a price tag on catharsis ......
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One attribute that is required to enjoy the antique car hobby is patience, There is no catalog of Maxwell parts to order from - but the search is a lot easier today than it used to be.
Back in the early 60's when many of us got our start parts for early Fords were abundant - even Sears carried them in a separate catalog. Others were JC Whitney, Montgomery Wards, Obsolete Ford Parts, and the list goes on. There was a large junkyard in Pennsylvania that had hundred of Model "A"'s - you could buy parts or a whole car.
Other cars were much harder to source parts for back then. Remember - everything was done by letter. Daytime long distance phone calls were a luxury - night rates were more reasonable but not cheap. We had a 1933 Pierce Arrow - our local source of parts was Elmer Bassage. He had very few Pierce Arrow parts but he knew people and would use the teletype to try to find things for us. When the headgasket blew the best he could do was one that was "nearly identical" between the cylinders and could be used to patch our existing head gasket. We kept it under the back seat and it came in useful when it blew once again coming back from the Pierce Arrow meet in NH in 1961. Yes - we milled the head after that.
You will have to do your own legwork for a lot of parts, that goes beyond just asking questions on forums. It will be time consuming - for many of us that is part of the "experience" .... but it does require patience and work.
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1 hour ago, TerryB said:
Model A with standard 4 cyl will never do freeway speeds, the non modified cars have mechanical brakes too. Most all autos after 1940 have hydraulic brakes that are much better at stopping.
Why do people insist that hydraulic brakes are an improvement.
A Model "A" with mechanical brakes can easily lock up all 4 wheels. even 16 inch wheels with 600-16 tires on them. Can hydraulics do better ?
And with mechanical brakes you never experience that sick feeling you get in a 5000 pound vehicle when the brake pedal hits the floor (64 Chrysler Imperial).
I'm going to be seriously looking for a Model "A" next spring and wouldn't even consider one converted to 12V or with hydraulic brakes
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I would be very cautious grinding around those pinholes - you may end up like a guy trying to pinch off a radiator leak with needle nosed pliers - chasing each new leak .
This is a non pressurized system and contemporary anecdotal reports suggest temporary repairs (some of which became permanent) could be effected by everything from breaking an egg into the radiator to paper mache. If it were mine I would buy some two part ribbon epoxy (make sure it is water and gasoline proof). I used it to seal an active leak of a small stream of gas from a gas tank that had "oil canned" due to a plugged fuel cap vent hole and it held for the three years I owned the car.
Might I suggest that you purchase it at a regular auto parts store (NAPA, Plus 4, etc) rather than a chain and ask them what would work best - you know - one of those stores that still stocks 6V bulbs and sell them by the each for under half a buck rather than 2 on a card for $5.
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13 hours ago, Frank DuVal said:
Something new is in town, Drive Share by Hagerty!
My friend rents out his Corvair convertible with this. All Hagerty insurance sponsored!
Read the fine print - ALL of it. Carefully. What could go wrong ?
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Buying and selling in a volatile market depends on turnover. I'm most familiar with the stamp business. In the 1980's a popular set of stamps (US airmail zeppelins) soared from around $800 to 1200 to around the $10,000 mark on pure speculation. Dealers could do no wrong. Easy money - everyone was an expert. Dealers made a lot of money.
Then the descent started - a rapid falloff at first, then a gradual decline to todays price of around $1000 to $1200. There was a less dramatic rise and fall of all stamps at the same time. A lot of dealers disappeared over the years - and yet some seemed totally unaffected even though moving a lot of merchandise. It is difficult to explain but call it forward pricing, or whatever you want to, it's basing your selling price on replacement cost.You have to accept occasional losses in a downward market, but the key is quick turnover. That is a gross oversimplification but it is the underlying principle,
Hope that somewhat helps - yes, a lot of antique shops have closed there doors because they stubbornly refused to believe that the market was going to collapse. Those that cut their losses and replaced their stock by selling based on replacement cost saw sales increases and weathered the storm.......
Hope that I was clear enough you got the gist.....
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58 minutes ago, mrcvs said:
When a business makes lots of money and sales are great, my hat off to you. Not sure how that works. I have always worked for someone else. I now understand how 1/3 of businesses fail in the first 5 years. Not a business venture, but a lot of work for a few dollars!
Me too. I do OK on Ebay for a few dollars - not for my livelihood. I had an antique shop that failed back in the 90's because I under-capitalized it. I knew better - but it is awfully hard to spend your last dime on something that HAS to sell. I have a friend who thinks nothing of writing a 5 figure check post dated two weeks. He has a customer base and knows what their likes and purchase thresholds are. - He doesn't use the internet ... his checks never bounce ... it's called a lot of hard work, a good eye, good customers, and a belief that he can make it happen........
Sounds simple - it isn't .....
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Pictures, rough location and title (or other proof of ownership) status would be a help...my guess is that value would be consistent with other old teens trucks advertised in like condition.
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None of the Model "A" oil pans currently listed as such on Ebay include free shipping. Shipping is an add of between $19 and $42 except for one Canadian vendor who simply lists cost as "freight" and offers to get a quote.
I've sold thousands of non-car related things on Ebay and have always added a shipping cost. Currently my sell through is over 50%. Please do not drink the Ebay kool-aid - everything they tell you that will increase sales are only to increase their bottom line - everything.
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Thanks - I stayed in Arcadia across from the racetrack and the mountains looked familiar .
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I spent a few months in Los Angeles back in 1994 and just wonder if this is taken from up in the hills - looks familiar but memories fade.
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I think the biggest fear in carrying large amounts of cash is the risk of civil forfeiture. No criminal charges need be brought and although you can get your money back (usually by hiring a lawyer) it can put someone in quite a bind for awhile. There are some parts of the country where it is more prevalent than others.
Just my two cents, and yes - the odds are against it but it does happen.
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We were 25 miles SE of Syracuse NY (with 3 modern hospitals) all 2 lane rural 55 mph lightly traveled roads. Our Fire Rescue was less than a mile from the house. Our volunteer ambulance service was 6 miles away and was always staffed and backup called when one ambulance went out. They had 2 full life support ambulances. When I had my heart attack in 2003 at 3 in the morning a neighbor (volunteer FD) was at my door in 3 minutes followed by the rescue truck less than a minute later. The life support ambulance ETA was 8 minutes after my call. ETA at the hospital was 45 minutes after my call.
I now live in a large suburb of Rochester NY. I live about 10 miles from a large modern hospital. The last time I called an ambulance it took over 20 minutes to arrive. That 20 minutes would be pretty critical with no medical personnel in the event of a heart attack..
Small town does not have to be remote in the Northeast. One mile to the East of us there are no suburbs - only farms, vineyards and open lands.......
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Personally I always felt small rural towns were best (say 300 to 800 people). Everyone knows each other, houses are close enough you can watch out for each other, a strange car is unusual, and it avoids the problems related to being "too remote".
We lived in such a town in upstate NY for over 25 years. When we closed on the house the sellers couldn't produce a key - they said they never locked their doors. Come to find out none of the locals ever locked their doors. If you ran into the local store in the wintertime you left the motor running to keep the car warm. People coming to the house would knock and enter asking "Anybody home".
People would let you know if your kid smoked, drank or was getting into trouble without being judgemental - everyone remembered when they were kids. In the summer kids left the house after breakfast, might be back for lunch (or eat at someone else's house) and always came home for supper (or called).
To me, that is the kind of place to retire to..
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I have never seen any study that comes close to being accurate - all things considered. New York should be split upstate and downstate. Also the difference in taxing retirees with government pensions and 401K's (TSP for example) is totally different than taxes on working people. Social Security income is not taxed.
I live in a suburb of Rochester NY. I live in an established tract of custom built houses on acre lots built by a custom builder in 1964. Sale prices range from $150 to $225 or so. My 1750 sf saltbox would fetch around $175. Total taxes would be figured at $5500. Because I am over 65 there is a pretty much automatic $1500 reduction (unless you make a lot of money). That brings taxes down to $4000. Because our town keeps tax increases under 2% we get a rebate check from the state - this year mine was around $500. Total taxes of $3500 in a snow state is not high - snow removal is about half of most towns taxes...
Any type of government pension is not taxable in New York. Social Security is not taxed. FERS or Civil Service is not taxed. The first $20000 you withdraw from your TSP (401K) is not taxed. My total NYS income is -0-.
So take studies with a grain of salt - do your own research rather than depending on some statistician compiling raw data with no clue as to how to interpret it..
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Part of it was created by the responses to the Anthrax scare where all mail had to be photographed. That is what now allows you to know what mail you are going to receive. What that means is that if I send a letter to the house next door and mail it at the post office it cannot just be placed back out in the mail stream but must go to a distribution station where everything gets sorted and photographed and then sent back to our post office and then put out for delivery.
Sort of like taking your shoes off at the airport because a terrorist once put some plastic explosive in his shoe........we tend to over react...
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It took 9 days for a package sent Fedex to go from Long Island to Rochester via Philadelphia (3 days of sitting), to Pittsburgh ( 3 more days), to Ohio and finally back to Rochester .......
I remember the days you could take a package to Fedex at 7 o'clock at night for early AM delivery (in one case an 11 AM public bid opening) and you knew it would be there. One of our salesmen had no trouble meeting a Fedex truck on the shoulder of the LI Expressway to make a bid opening....
those days are gone forever ......
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Motor Trend came up with 0-60 mph: 5.4 sec, quarter mile: 13.9 sec @ 107 mph with a 1962 Catalina 421. Keep in mind that both the Pontiac 421 and Dodge 413 Wedge were race motors - they were not meant for the street. They would not idle at a steady rpm, they took forever to warm up, loose clearances meant adding oil at every fill up - sooner if you got on it.
Motor Trend tested a stock Ramcharger in 1962 - 0-60 in 5.8 sec; 1/4 mile in 14.4@ 101 - that was with stock 3.91 gears and the factory exhaust capped (see pix below). Uncapping exhause adds 70 HP. Yes, that is 3 inch tubing for headers from the factory. Whole package available for only $374.40 over stock but production was very limited.
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Thanks to everyone - so much I had forgotten. Mu own favorite magazine cover to dream about as a kid .......
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It was great to see the Ralph Stein thread brought back. There were so many others I remember saving up for to buy in the 50's and 60's - even into the young adulthood in the 70's.
Some I remember off the top of my head ...
Early - Floyd Clymer books - both the small softcovers and the later hardcover books. The Fawcett and Trend book series in the early 50's full of great sepia tone pictures of early cars. Tom McCahill - the man who probably influenced more actual car purchases back in the 50's and 60's than any other writer. Who could forget his comment on the -1955 Chrysler 300 - "As solid as Grant's Tomb, and 130 times as fast" ..
Later - the late 50's and early 70's Car and Driver editorials by wordsmiths Brock Yates, Jean Shepherd, Warren Weith and so many others... and the plethora of coffee table books soon deeply discounted as while the pictures were great there was no useful verbiage.
That's my short list - how about sharing yours ...
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48 minutes ago, mrcvs said:
Facebook scares me. I had NEVER been on Facebook before, created an account, and it knew more about me than it should. As in, connect with these people, folks I had casual contact with or hadn't seen since high school. Not just scary but VERY scary!
Facebook only associates your information with the information of others. Google, on the other hand, actively mines substantial information on your likes and dislikes based on your activity on the internet. Notice that if you look at a tool on Home Depot that same tool shows up when viewing different websites. Get an adblocker and you won't see them.
But if you really want to know how much information someone can find out about you go to one of the public record sites and pay a few bucks and you will learn just how much of your life is an open book. Jobs, salaries, liens, any arrest records, past addresses, value of your home, etc. When applying for loans, financial aid, etc you will be asked multiple choice options like your mortgage balance, what year monthly car payment on your 2004 Impala was, who held the note on that car, etc. etc. All of that information is in "public records". A lot of information that you used to have to pay a private investigator to get you can now get from the comfort of your home for a few bucks...... Scary but the toothpaste is out of the tube and you can't put it back in....
If you never post on Facebook no one can get any more information. If you post when you go to a restaurant, when you go on vacation, who you are with then yes, it can be dangerous. But nobody makes you post anything - I never have and I've been on for over 10 years.
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16 hours ago, daddymott1 said:
i think that was really absent minded of Buick .
I wouldn't be too quick to judge. Back in the 50's there was little in the way of ambient night lighting. For the most part street lights were only in the cities and the rest of the country was DARK at night.. Sort of like driving on country roads at 3 in the morning now. Under these conditions your eyes pick up a lot of detail you don't see in todays normal driving with steady traffic and substantial background lighting. Try driving the car late at night on a road with no street lights and see if it isn't pretty easy after a few minutes to see what gear you are in just from the light provided by the instrument cluster. You may be surprised (or I may have selective memory - it's possible).
Dealer-installed tracking devices
in General Discussion
Posted
So I am safe with my flip phone, eh. If it's good enough or Warren Buffett, it's good enough for me.