Steve Jelf- southern KS

"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." ~Abraham Lincoln

Just interrupting to pick a nit. Except for my 17-year-old daily driver, all my vehicles are from 38 to 96 years old. None of them is a classic. I love my T's, but classic Ford is an oxymoron. So is classic Chevy. Even my Packard isn't a classic. Vintage, veteran, old, antique and so on would apply to my aged vehicles, but not classic. Yeah, I know, all tissues came to be called kleenex and all cameras became kodaks and that didn't bring about the collapse of western civilization, but sometimes I like to get picky about proper terms. A couple of my non-classics:

The answer is no. I recently replaced the tires on my '51 Dodge pickup. They were a little over twenty years old, and had virtually no wear. The treads looked new. But the tires were deteriorated to the point where the truck would get flats just sitting. I didn't worry about hauling yard waste or firewood here on the place, going 5 or 10 mph, but I was afraid to drive it out on the road.

A saying often heard among Model T folks is They're original only once. It's rare to find a ninety-year-old car well preserved, but sometimes it happens and the new owner assumes he should take it all apart and do a ground-up restoration. But for restoration purposes there are lots of old cars of unknown history and in bad shape. If I were lucky enough to find a well preserved prewar car at a price I could afford, I'd make sure all the mechanical things like suspension, drive line, and brakes were up to snuff, clean it and polish it, and drive and enjoy it. And if I drove it to cruise night at the local burger joint, especially if it were from the twenties or before and had a crank on the front, guess which car would draw the crowd.

Correct. The eight volt battery is just a Band aid for some usually minor problem. Use proper six volt cables, not twelve, and be sure all connections are clean and tight. If a six volt battery in good condition still won't get the engine turning enough to start, fix the starter. I have no trouble starting a 1923 Model T, a 1946 Allis Chalmers Model B, and a 1951 Dodge pickup on six volts.

Of course, if the starter bogs down there's another way to start:

Yep, it has antique plates. I'm going to start shopping at swap meets for some 1973 plates to put on it with a YOM registration.

This is my late model Suburban. Well, at least it's postwar. My second newest vehicle. (My daily driver is a '94 Camry.) The Chebby doesn't get much use because it's a gas hog, but it still pulls the trailer when I need to haul home some ancient treasure.

I'll pass on this one due to the up front expense, but I'm glad they're setting up some security. At the recent Edmiston sale some desirable items "walked off" between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Most folks in the old car hobby are upstanding, but unfortunately, as in other human activities, there are a few weasels.

Yep, I had a scare recently when I almost hit a cycle that was coming up from behind in my blind spot. I signaled and looked before I changed lanes, and didn't see him. If you're riding one of those it's smart to assume people don't see you, because sometimes they don't.

When I drive to town in the Camry, which I consider a very good car, there are intersections where I have to creep through the dips to keep from bottoming out. But when I drive one of these cars, I can take the same dips at 15 to 20 mph with no trouble. One of the advantages of life in the slow lane.

I know it wasn't, but that first picture looks like it could have been taken on one of those old three lane concrete highways with a suicide lane in the center. Pretty neat.

I prefer a real 1939 car.

To enjoy life in the slow lane, I find that a rural area with a lot of country roads is a great advantage. I was raised in L.A. County, so traffic doesn't bother me when I'm driving a modern car made after 1930. But when I'm driving a T I count it a blessing to be here in Podunk. There are incompetent drivers to watch out for here too, but a lot fewer of them.

I looked for the new drive shaft bushing I bought and put away in a "safe place" where I'd be able to find it easily. So far no luck.

Some jurisdictions will not accept reproduction plates. Some will not even accept restored plates. What I wonder is: How do they know whether it's reproduction, restored, or NOS?

1915. Measure the distance across the outsides of the lamp brackets. Should be 39" across.

This one?

Do you have the Packard parts book? (It's been reprinted.) It sure is handy for finding out which parts are common to various years and models. I used it a lot when I was working on my 1700.

Mark, when I saw what you're working on I thought you might like to see this picture from the summer of 1946. I'm the guy in the striped shirt. I rode many miles in that sedan, and one vivid memory is those bad vacuum wipers. Even fully repaired, like the ones on my Packard, they make driving in the rain an "exciting" adventure.

The eight volt battery is used in place of fixing what's wrong. If the starter is in good shape, the cables are big enough, and all connections are tight, six volts is plenty of juice. I start a '51 Dodge truck and a '23 Ford touring on six volts with no trouble.

The Buick slogan on the garage recalls the late twenties, when Buick came out with a very Packard-looking car. Some wag said, "When better automobiles are built, Buick will copy them."

At a recent auction I bought a pile of Model T tools that had a few other brands mixed in. I plan to keep some and sell some. Before I sell anything, I'd like to know something about what I have. Cadillac: are these brass era, or later? Approximate value? EMF: I know the dates, 1908-1912. Value? Mitchell: 1923 or before. Value?

I vote against buyer's premiums with my feet. They exist only because people tolerate it.

Trying it out. Exactly what I wanted to know. Thanx!