keithb7

See this this old photo of the Firetruck. 1930's I believe. I am extremely fortunate as I still get to drive it today. The frame was shortened, however it is still is on the road and takes part in many local vintage car events. Attached is a photo of my wife helping me get it ready for a parade last Nov. 2019. I believe it's stayed local here in Kamloops its entire life since it was new. Currently it is in the hands of the Kamloops Vintage Car Club. Which I am a member of. We own and take care of it (we baby it). We bring it out for everyone to see whenever we can. Several times a year.

OK, I'll keep posting too...I love these old cars and often dream of earlier times before cell phones. LOL.

I'll be 49 this spring. I got into my first old Mopar in 2017. I bought another one in 2019. Now I have two cars! In the past 2 years I have began locating and stashing old Mopar parts. I think it's a natural process as we know we drive old cars. We love them, and we want to look after them. So we see deals, we buy and store the parts. I plan to drive and enjoy my old Mopars for many years. However I am aligned with the idea of selling this stuff before we become too old, or too bothered to deal with it. I am not a hoarder. Any earlier hobbies in my life that I was "really into" at the time, and have since moved on, the stuff is sold. I am not keeping stuff for my heirs to have to deal with. It's all junk to everyone else, as many have mentioned here in earlier posts. My old car parts? Well if one of my sons shows interest, has the space, time and money, he can have all he wants. I'll drive until they pull my license. By then I won't be able to get under my old Mopars so hopefully the cars will have changed hands by then. Best case scenario, my sons take me out for a drive in their (my old) Mopars. Alas, life often brings other plans that we had not planned on. It is what it is. I'll deal with the deck of cards dealt to me as the cards turn over. One at a time. Back to the topic: Pre-war parts. I suppose your perspective depends on the make and model of car you are trying to support. I have a 1938 Plymouth sedan. There's gotta be 100,000 of these rusting in farmer fields still. Seems that way. They keep turning up. Best part is, it's a 4-door. Nobody wants a 4 door. Why would I pour too much money into restoring 4 door? At this point I'm not. I have 2 old cars that I consider drivers, that I love to work on and drive. As the memories stack up, and the work to be done comes to an end, I may someday be inclined to do a real nice job of paint and bodywork. We'll see....I keep wandering. Back to the topic. I am having little trouble sourcing parts for my old Mopars. My '38 is pre-war I suppose. I work on it. I drive it. I work on it some more. I drive it. It's been awesome and I enjoy every minute that my any of my 5 senses interact with it. (yes you can taste that old upholstery when you get in it). They made so many old sedans, parts for me are pretty easy to source. Other guys with rare cars...I get it. I bet you have a heck of a time when you turn a tool too hard and break something. The language flows out... I am not so sure I'd enjoy that old rare pre-war car. Sure I'd like to look at it and drive it. However source parts?...Hmmm. I'll certainly pause before jumping in to ownership.

I can't say why, but I am enamoured by this 34 Chev. I keep coming back to this thread to look at the photos and admire it. Yet I'm an old Mopar guy! The worn paint and body looks just right. Just as you might expect it to look for an 86 year old car. Is that a rumble seat in the back or just a trunk? It appears that the spare tire may prevent it from opening.

Year unknown. Kamloops, BC Canada. Cars seen?

Brand new Coker bias 6.00-16 tires arrive next week. So right now I am media-blasting rims. Getting ready to prime and paint. Sure gonna be purdy!

Perhaps this parts interchange book available here for download may offer some clues? http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=107

As promised here are a few photos of my fabricated concentric brake measuring tool. Be sure to leave the rod long enough, and enough threads for 10” and 12” Lockheed brakes. Both sizes are used on old Mopars. This tool will allow you to set the shoes up, precisely concentric to the centre of the axle or spindle. Often referred to as a “Major Adjustment” in old Mopar service manuals. I have achieved very good results with it.

I’ll post a few close up pics of the custom tool later this evening.

I am currently rebuilding a 1938 Plymouth. I am interested in parts. PM please if you are interested in selling some small, easily shippable parts. Thanks. Keith

Good news. Modern $250,000 motorhome at 6 mpg. You only spent $200,000 preparing your '48 NY'r!...Just kidding! Laugh... The thing is, he only has a modern P.O.S. You have post war era steel and Mopar class!

@Tinindianand @Rusty_OToole it sounds like you guys may share borders with me up in Canada. Here in BC the Govt has agreements in place with certain companies so they are obliged to take back used oil. Mr Lube is one fo them. There is no charge for taking used oil there. If I recall you pay a small enviro fee up front when you buy new oil. That is a tax to help fund the oil recycling program in BC. You can find a place near you, (in BC) by searching here: https://bcusedoil.com/ I use synthetic oil in my Cummins diesel truck only. Why? For a couple of reasons. The truck only sees about 5,000 miles per year of use. I change the oil once per year. Right before winter in about late October. The diesel engine will be harder to start in cold weather due to reciprocating weight and high compression ratio. Cold batteries too. Synthetic oil maintains a thinner viscosity at lower temps. Synthetic oil helps to allow the starter to turn the engine over faster. Also, synthetic oil maintains a thicker viscosity at higher temps. We see -25C some times here in the interior of BC. We also see +40C here in the summer. A good 5W40 synthetic oil gives me good wide viscosity coverage, all year through that wide range of temperatures. Conventional oil would not. I'd need a 15W40 in the summer and a 5W20 in the winter for example. In my opinion it would be a waste to be changing the oil 2X a year with such low milage on it. Not all synthetic oils are of the same quality. My understanding is Poly Alpha Olefin is the base oil that is used when synthetic oil is manufactured. The actual amount of PAO used varies, and partially determines how good the synthetic oil actually is. Synthetic oil benefits over conventional oil in extreme environments. Like arctic weather cold starts, and Sahara desert type environments. Let's say for example your engine was in an environment where every day it ran up a long steep hill in Death Valley type summer temperatures. Synthetic oil will hold together longer and measure less oxidation when tested in a lab. Synthetic oil would also really help an air cooled engine. Imagine a 1976 VW Westphalia loaded up to go camping. Climbing a mountain pass in the summer. I'd definitely be running synthetic oil! Old engines are built to lower tolerances than modern engines. Exhaust gas emissions were not even a consideration. Direct vent crankcase engines could be considered sloppy and loose compared to today's engine standards. Most of our cars are driven during cruising season only in mild, comfortable temperatures. I'd surmise that 98% of our cars would not benefit from using synthetic oil in our vintage car engines. I change my vintage car oil 1x per year also. It too sees low milage. Spring, summer, fall only. So I run a conventional detergent summer oil. 15W40 maybe. I' have rounded up two 20L pails with lids that I hold used oil in. The buckets have spouts and vent holes in the lids. I wait until they are both full and take them to the oil recycling facility. I do not leave my buckets with them. I drain and then take them back home. I've been reusing the same 2 buckets for at least 10 years so far. Works well for me.

In this next video I talk about NOS parts, and show the state of my pinion (input shaft) bearing in my 1938 tranny:

For future people who may read this forum here is a video explaining the inner workings of these transmissions. I also talk about the symptoms I had with my 3 speed tranny, and what I found.

For the rookies....Watch here. For the experienced people, check out my home made brake adjusting tool at the 6:00 mark.

This car is fantastic. If it were in my area I’d have a hard time not giving my wife $15K, and telling her to go buy whatever she wanted. Then the next day I show up on this and beg for forgiveness.

The foot starter and gas pedal were not feeling that great. A bit sloppy feeling, not a great return rate, and not great feedback. So I found some springs in my spare parts stash and came up with this. I lubed up all linkage and put a dab of wheel bearing grease on connections and pivots. Much, much better feel and return. Giddy with the results when I started it up after the initial install.

Craig I am interested in a MC for my 1938 Plymouth P6. I don’t have an international calling plan. Can we communicate another way? Personal message here or email or text? Thanks. Keith

Tweaking a few things in driveway last night. The opportunity to test drive the car between repairs is a real benefit. It brings rewards and breeds motivation. The engine is running quite good. I’m not happy with the reproduction motor mounts I used.

Sorry to go on about this, I am on some sort of mission here to accomplish nothing but vent: Today I bought a nice 6 volume set of Automotive Engineering books from 1931 on Ebay. I am having them shipped to a location inside the USA. I will walk across the border and pick them up there myself. Here is what we are fighting up here in Canada. Option 1 USPS to location inside USA. Price for shipping $7.60 US funds. Option 2 ship to my door in Canada via USPS: $71.45 US dollars. x 1.35 exch rate equals $96.47 Canadian. Why? Does this not seem ridiculous for a box with 6 books in it? Absolute BS. This has nothing to do with tax or duties. Just dropping it in the mail. You can see how quickly it makes sense for me to ship all my stuff to a USA drop box, and drive 3 plus hours each way to go retrieve everything every couple of months.

About 4-6 times a year I drive 3.5 hours one way to pick up all my parts that are held a shipping company right beside the Can/USA border. I literally park on the CDN side, talk a dolly with me and walk into the USA. I pick up all my parcels and walk back through the border into Canada. Sometimes I pay GST, sometimes I do not. The USA customs guards give me a hard time. They shake their head and actually give me attitude asking why the h e l l would anyone drive 3.5 hours from the interior of BC to pick up vintage auto parts? I've yet to go into the little room for a glove test, but it seems to be getting closer with each passing year. I save a lot of cash in freight and related charges. Easily paying for my fuel, time and wear and tear. I have family in the area too so we visit and I often spend the night and have too many libations. It works, but waiting 3 months for my next trip to pick up parts is not always ideal. However I do, do that and it keeps more money in my pocket for other things for my cars.