46 woodie

One thing I noticed on you grandfathers tools, is that on the torque wrench is a certification sticker from Snap On Tools. I doubt that any of us has ever sent a torque wrench or other measuring tool in for re-certification. He must have thought very highly of his tools.

In 1946/47 and early '48 the State of Maine issued brass license plates because believe it or not steel was still in short supply because of the war and brass was cheaper. I would have thought that because of the amount of brass used for shells, it would have been scarcer.

It always surprised me that we give Columbus such acclaim when we know that the Norwegian Vikings really discovered America. In fact the U.S. Mint issued a commemorative coin in 2000 honoring Leif Erickson calling him the "Founder of the New World".

I saw the post on Lantern Flies and if you Google them you will see what a serious threat they are. The Penn Dept. of Agriculture is actually asking people to kill them whenever you see one. They came from China, (where else) and are decimating agriculture at an alarming rate and have no known natural predators.

The left hand emergency brake was discontinued in June of 1928, so it is a very early car. Please if you have any contact with these bozo's try to convince them to do the right thing and save it. If there is any way to get an engine number, we can get real close to a build date.

HERSHEY has it's own weather systems. I haven't missed a year since 1968 and have seen everything from snow flurries, torrential rain, 30 degree cold to 90 degree heat and some or the most perfect days for walking the flea market. I have framed on my garage wall, the weather map from the USA Today newspaper dated Friday, October 2nd 2011. The entire east cost was clear except a dime sized green dot over HERSHEY that did not move. There was 9.5 inches of rain in two days and made for a miserable HERSHEY. So prepare fore the worst and hope for the best of weather. It's the literature guy's that really take a beating when it rains.

You should also contact your insurance company. Many insurance companies will only offer liability insurance on a "Rebuilt/Salvage" title. Have an accident with the car and you are on your own.

Walt, I live in Glen Cove, so I can ask around for you. The only issue I see is by now, everyone that knew of a George Cook might not be around any longer. My son's neighbor is 99 and a retired postman so he might be a start.

Paul, I wish I could give you an answer, but with the requirements different in every state as far as Titles/Registrations and money transfers I can't. What I do know is that one member of our local car club purchased a car sight unseen from California. His rational for not having someone inspect the car for him was "It's a California car, how bad could it be". Well, he purchased a real piece of junk that he has so far spent many, many thousands to just get the car presentable. I'm told that the bondo was over 3/4" thick in places. You might want to just step back from this purchase of the vehicle until you can get all your answers. Once the seller has your money, you will never get it back if the car is mis-represented.

As Terry mentions in the second post that it's unusual to see anyone in his neighborhood with the hood up on their car. Well, my 16 year old grand daughter is taking Drivers Ed. Now, my grand daughter is no stranger to my cars and helps me when ever she can. Her Drivers Ed has about 24 kids in the class. The teacher asked "who knows what a dip stick is" and the only kid to raise her hand was my grand daughter. When he asked how she knew that, she showed the teacher a picture of my car's and he was stunned that she is allowed to work on those cars. When she gets her license I'll allow her to drive one of them to school and show him and if he want's, take him for a ride.

Yes they were Plymouth, I haven't missed a year since 1968. Sometimes we would get back to out hotel with mud up to our knee's. I remember the Calliope playing it's music, the Message Board, before cell phones, tractors towing out campers and watching the planes take off and land across the street. Lot's of mud, but easier on the feet and legs from walking on all blacktop.

I agree with Pete O, 100%. That's why we can not give 16 year olds the right to vote. If we do some rock star or some T.V. personality would be president. As for Sinatra, he was simply a mafia wana-be. I remember an interview with him once stating that he had trouble with five guys in an elevator once. He said it was tough, but he took care of all five. Give me a break, Sinatra was 5'6'' and about 140 lbs. soaking wet.

I can't beat the $10.00 price and I can't even take credit for "my" score. Back in the early '80s my wife and son were trailing me as we walked down one of the aisles. I kept walking and waited at the end of the aisle for them to catch up. After several minutes they came walking up with a big box in our wagon. My son was about 10 at the time, was into baseball card collecting. He came upon the box that contained several thousand baseball and football cards and purchased it for $15.00. I can't begin to tell you the cards that were in that box. Mantle, Mays, Williams, 18 Pete Rose rookie cards, Koufax and many thousand more.

We have had several "accidents" in my area where the driver has ran off, never to be seen again. The police theory is that they are probably back across the border by now and will resurface soon with a different name. It's the new America.

58L, I was also thinking along those lines. The car might have been a trade in and had damaged bumpers and the Ford dealer replaced them to make the car more presentable. What threw me off that line of thinking is the car is listed as "New Ford Roadster". What is also a little puzzling is that Henry Ford sent all his dealers a memo telling them not to use any what he called "Gyp" parts on Ford cars. Clearly, several items on the invoice are not Ford authorized accessories and Henry hated to see any of his cars with those type accessories. I'm sure the dealership would suffer the wrath of old Henry if he found out they were using "Gyp" parts. You are right about making money from accessories. Ford and his dealers pushed the sale of accessories so much that over 50% of all vehicles sold had at least one accessory.

On the day that the Model A Ford, December 1st 1927, was introduced, it shows the car with the early style bumpers. I purchased my first Model A in 1968 and have owned at least one since. I have been a member of both M.A.R.C. and M.A.R.C. and have been a judge on the national level. Never, have I seen or heard of a Model A Ford sold without bumpers. I probably own a couple of dozen books on the Model A and nowhere have I read that bumpers were an option. As for the date of manufacture, I have a hard time believing that a Model A that according to the engine number, was built in April of 1928, sat around a dealership until it was sold a year and one month later on May 4th of 1929. Something is not right with that invoice.

The Rumble Seat and Step Plates were a "Dealer Option". Some of the other accessories were "Ford Authorized Accessories", others were not authorized by Ford such as the Fryac Post Light and Driving Light. Also the Gear Shift Ball, T&M Oil Gauge and Automatic Windshield Wiper were not authorized. In looking at that invoice, something is wrong. First of all, every Model A came with bumpers. The earliest bumper print A-17758-A, is dated August 29 1927 and was similar to the Model T. A notation on the print states "only on the first 200 cars". Why this dealer charged him for bumpers is unknown. Second, engine number A-81081 as noted on the invoice, is an April 1928 motor, built a year and one month before the May 4, 1929 date on the invoice. I'm guessing that this car was really a 1928 and not a '29, because Light Niagara Blue paint was a 1928 Roadster color, not available in '29. Something doesn't add up.

I'm with JV on his suggestion. It looks like a "Cutlass" bearing from a boat prop shaft. The bearing has a rubber insert and the assembly is pressed into the housing.

Great! After a Doomsday event such as atomic bomb, biological attack, or word wide catastrophe, once I dig myself from the rubble the first thing I will look for is information on my antique cars.

I have owned my 1946 Ford Station Wagon for over 20 years. I have attended dozens of Woodie specific car show's including the biggest such as Wavecrest and Woodies on the Wharf. Most members of the Woodie community don't have an issue with modern engines and other upgrades, we all seem to get along well. One long time Woodie restorer once told me "it's not about the drivetrain, it's all about the wood". If you feel that replacing your engine and drivetrain will allow you to use your car more often, then do so. Remember anything you do can be reversed at some point. I do not recommend however doing anything to the wood such as "chopping" or making it into a two door. As long as you keep the body close to stock, I have no problem with an up grade. My '46 Woodie has a modern drivetrain but you cannot tell by looking at it, most people think that it is restored. I have found that life is way too short to not be able to use my cars. With my Station Wagon I can use it any time I want and travel safely at highway speeds. We drove our Woodie from Long Island to California 6600 miles for the Wavecrest show and had a ball.

I have a box dating back to the early '70's that I would like to give to some young person that is interested in the antique car hobby. I don't want to just throw them away.

Something everyone should be aware of about Rock Auto is that after 30 days you can not return a part for any reason, even if it's bad. I was installing a new exhaust system on my car. I stockpiled several "U" bends and straight pipe plus two Walker mufflers. It took a while to get down to the mufflers and when I opened the boxes I noticed that the mufflers were different, even though the part numbers were the same. I called Walker and they admitted that they had a problem with one of the mufflers and I should return it to where I purchased it. Well, I purchased them from Rock Auto and they absolutely refused to accept a return. I even asked the Walker people to call Rock Auto and explain that it was their fault, but Rock Auto would not budge.

Hello Pax, are you going to include the super rare, HERSHEY 2020 Wooden Nickel?

TAKerry, I have been in the service and am a 25 year retired firefighter. I have been in and saw some crazy stuff, but when a guy has a 10" Bowie knife raised over his head and is only about 10' feet from you, do what I did and run.

It also happened to me. Three years ago I was detailing my '46 Ford Station Wagon in my driveway. I was washing the drivers side wide whitewall when I heard someone screaming "help he is going to kill me". When I got up I saw a 13 year old kid bleeding from his mouth running up the road and when he saw me he ran into my garage and hid behind my '32 Ford. It was about that time when I saw a guy walking up my driveway with a huge Bowie knife in his hand. I told him to stop and not to come further onto my property and yelled for the boy to run into my house and tell my wife to call the police. With that the perpetrator said "this is what I think of the police" and drove the Bowie knife into the DS wide white, then smashed the DS windshield and worst of all snapped off an original cowl mount, swan neck mirror and in the process dented the cowl. The total for the damages was $3700. It turns out the guy hadn't taken his medication for three days and attacked the boy's when they were playing Lacrosse on the nearby school field. Grundy Insurance couldn't have been better. They had an adjuster at my home the next day and I had a check for the repairs in a week! Because of the lax New York laws, the perpetrator basically walked away without any consequences. The charges went from Attempted Murder down to Assault With a Deadly Weapon down to Menacing and finally the charges were dropped. Rumor has it that the perp has an uncle that is some sort of big deal in the police in the neighboring county and he pulled some strings to get his nephew off. P.S. I'm still looking for a cowl mounted swan neck mirror!