3macboys

The last week has been busy though not necessarily a lot to show for our efforts around the place - the day after Labour Day we took off to go close up the cottage returning the next day bringing back the outboard motor and a few other things that can't be left to the world of -25 Celsius winter weather. At least with where I've managed to progress everything was put away quickly and is out of the way. My wife has been help to sort and pack up all of our treasures for the antique sale coming up on the 21st. We had bits and pieces all over the place and it is quickly getting localized to one area and ready to load when the time comes. Today I picked up a load of literature from a local auction sale. It is all GM products from 1931-1999 to what I've sorted so far. It was a full load for the back seat. I really wasn't looking to pick up another large lot at the moment but the prices were right so I couldn't afford to not buy it - I know it's hard to believe but most of this stuff does not duplicate what I already have in stock. And here's the reality of buying in lots and selling singles, this is what left the doors today Needless to say, it's going to take awhile to move along the newest lot. As a side note to those reading along if you have a large collection and you don't want to burden your family or you want to get them as much as you can, start selling now. I know where this lot came from and it was a case of I'll get to it someday and then the couple got stuck on watching retail prices and thinking that's what they could expect to get selling it wholesale style. The reality was that life caught up and some day never came and sadly the husband has passed and a good portion of his stuff ended up in this sale and I hate to tell you but estate sale prices are even lower than wholesale and the auction house takes 35% plus moving costs. This is one of many reasons why I am focused on getting the showroom and main shop cleaned up and well sorted so that what is there is only stuff that we really enjoy and is displayed in a way that we can enjoy it. I had a short chat with the auctioneer and we both agreed that world of automotive memorabilia really is an addition and there is no way to know how much is really out there and where it is. And this is coming from a guy who has been involved in auctions for many many years, including having been a ring man years ago at Barrett Jackson. So that being said, and I've also posted this in the memorabilia thread. I discovered this little item in a box lot of stuff that I had picked up to part out. From the online listing I thought that it just some sort of 6 inch ruler and then when I got my hands on it, it immediately became a keeper. I admit I've got a problem, but I'm not looking for the cure just quite yet.

I just picked this up today in a box lot from an auction. Admittedly, I had no idea that it was in there and I had picked up the lot to part out but this little piece is a keeper. In the pictures it just looked like some sort of 6 inch ruler of some sort as they only had one picture with the number side facing up. Once I got it in my hands it was instantly a keeper. It's a profit/pricing tool.

Very sad ending - hopefully, at some point someone will be able to provide the full story as to what was the cause. I suspect a minor fuel leak onto a hot surface after the car was loaded. Had it been a spark igniting vapors it would more than likely have been an explosion and the picture would have been entirely different with no framing left from the trailer. Who knows, it could have been something external to the car all together, maybe the trailer was the initial source and the car simply the unfortunate victim. At this point anything is really just speculation. Once we have the full story I'm sure there are lessons to be learned for all of us.

I thought the same thing when I saw that Highlander fabric picture. My parents had collected those pieces along with a metal picnic basket that they used to leave in the back of the 51 Plymouth or the Metropolitan. My father used to use the picnic basket to store his cleaning supplies for the car.

The bulk of the clutter is now gone from the showroom - or at least it's to the point that I can pick away at the rest and the room is somewhat presentable. I'm not sure if the testing equipment and spark plug cleaner will stay onto top of that cabinet but now they're cleaned up again and have at least a temporary home. I'm not in denial that there's still a lot of stuff in there but at least now you can reach it and you don't need to move 6 things to get to the one that you want. I did rediscover a couple of treasures along the way in cleaning up that are keepers. This Chrysler Outboard box and part came out of an obsolete lot of parts from Manley Motors in Lindsay, Ontario - they were a 3 generation dealership dating to 1936 I believe that just recently sold to a large dealer group. I didn't get inside the building but did get to talk a fair bit to the two brothers that owned it. The body shop was on the second floor with a ramp up the side of the building. This axle shaft came out of the old Boyd Bros Garage - a Ford dealership in Flesherton, Ont - that dealership dated to about 1908 or so. If I was a bit more tech savy I could figure out how to pull the image off Google maps but it was located at 2 Sydenham St. This is the way that I found it and it's the way that it will stay - I haven't pulled it out of the packaging for fear of destroying it. I believe it's a Model A shaft so it's not a rare part but I just think it's neat the way that it is.

Yesterday was moving day and my youngest helped me get the cabinet into the showroom. I was on a timeline as he leaves to go back to university on Tuesday. As I was moving the truck and trailer from the front of the shop and making a trip around the block I got flagged down by the previous owner of the dealership to show off his new truck - it really is true that we are just caretakers of all this stuff and it's the people that make the hobby. Once I made my way back to the shop I was met by another member of the AACA who did his best to empty a shelf of manuals and I did my best to fill the back of his car with them. It's always good to chat with other members in person. Today I started to turn my attention to another wall in the showroom Before I get carried away filling the new cabinet I was to finish cleaning out the surplus and only keeping the stuff that has a connection or interest to us in the showroom. This table and cabinet are another couple of things that we haven't been able to access for awhile just due to the shear quantity of stuff. There's a few treasures in that box but I'm looking at some of the stuff and questioning why we held onto it in the first place. BTW that coffee area was a Covid project of my youngest with a bit of guidance from me, but he did about 80% of the cutting and all of the assembly and finishing. All three of the boys are hands on when it comes to anything around the shop.

Any chance you can focus on the label on the front? Clearly a Canadian machine but likely a Canadian built version of a larger company. Being a fellow Canuk, where are you located, you never know when one of us might need that service. Don

The rule of thumb around here is if there's a modern black Chrysler product out front, the front door is normally open and visitors are always welcome. I do have plans to refocus what's on display. Kerry, it's funny you mention about just picking up whatever you can. There's what has become a high end auction house located close to us and when the brothers first got going they always had very good quality items but hadn't developed the following yet to always get big money on every item and there was always a few bargains in every sale in the first couple of years. This was pre-covid (I feel like life has become PC and AC for pre and after) and the sales were a combination of in person with online/phone bidding available. I couldn't make the sale date but had placed max bids on a few items and left my list with my father along with my high bid as he was going to go to the sale. He was proud as punch with the pieces he brought back and how he was the only live bidder on a couple of those pieces and that he had outbid the online bidder - I had to break it to him that he had bid me up and they would have really been a bargain! I didn't get quite as much time around the shop as I might have liked as it was off to the in-laws to help cut up a large hickory tree that they had taken down a couple of weeks ago - what the old line about firewood that it heats you three time...when you cut it, when you split it and when you burn it. I did get this accomplished in the morning so I now have room for the new old antique cabinet. And across the front window is much cleaner My wife stopped in with me when I dropped my saw off and after I explained my grand plan she added and now you need to paint the walls, ceiling and floor! I'm actually going to investigate polishing the floor instead if that is a DYI option. Of course I now have this to deal with, with more to be added to it This is actually the good part of having gotten as much of the shop squared away as I had - I actually had space to move stuff into on a temporary basis.

The great showroom clean out began in earnest today. You have to go back to the start to get an idea of where I was starting from but so far I've removed about 50 sq ft of flat surfaces but I feel like I'm firmly in the storm before the calm There was a lot of just stuff hanging around in here. There was three different pieces at the end of the couch that were there more or less because that's where they landed. Just getting rid of those has opened up the place but there's still a lot more to do. The other side has taken on some of this stuff on a temporary basis There's some pieces that we picked up over the years just because but I've decided that the time has come for the ones to go that we don't have a connection to between being Mopar related or related to one of the cars. Stuff the sake of stuff quickly turns to chaos so it's time to take control again.

Kerry - way back in our university days I did have a little run in with our campus security as I was wiring in a new AM/FM Cassette in my while waiting for my girlfriend now wife to finish a night class that finished at 10pm. Even I had to admit that seemed a bit suspicious at the time. Today finally marked a little bit of real shop time. The morning was off to Hamilton with a former coworker to pick up an antique store display cabinet that I had picked up for the right price. I had been undecided on what I was going to do with it, to keep it or resell it, but after seeing it in person, it is definitely a keeper. I do have the glass shelves and the glass top for it. Now keeping it also means that it's time to get a move on, on cleaning up the showroom which is not a bad thing. With any luck tomorrow I'll get out of the showroom the stuff that needs to go and then in the next couple of days get this cabinet into it. So in keeping with trying to get it all or at least mostly Mopar items it was out with the ice cream sundae And in with the Chrysler hockey poster There's more than a few flat surfaces that are going to be removed from that room and the "treasures" that are on them. Tonight was the monthly cruise night in the village and that only one that I can make this year but it gave me a reason to get a couple of the cars out and I decided that the new used car lot looks pretty good I took the Met over to the cruise night and parked it beside my parents Challenger and let them hold court for the evening while I wandered and talked. Apparently, I talked too much and didn't end up getting any pictures. This little cruise night really is a community event put on by the local Lions club and you pretty well know everyone there. It's the only cruise that I make a point of attending when I'm able to as the village treats us well. Getting the cars out also meant that I could get my father's 51 Plymouth over to the hoist Now to give it some air time and find out where that transmission leak is coming from!

I've had grand plans of getting more things completed around the shop but as you all know life happens and occasionally other things take priority over old cars such as going to watch your kid race for an afternoon. So no further behind but not making much headway at the moment. That doesn't mean that my hands have been idle mind you. My wife's daily driver had the touch screen glass delaminate which caused the radio to skip to random stations, from FM to AM and so on. So to give you a bit of a look into the future of automotive restoration we better start learning IT support as well. I will admit that YouTube can be your friend here - this turned out to only be about a 30 to 45 min repair and I spent more time waiting for the Amazon driver as they have started a new program to beat porch pirates on more expensive items. They send you a one time code that you have to provide to the driver in person - good thing I'm retired and could be around the house all afternoon. I also believe that it's a way to get people to use their drop off locations instead of delivering to individual houses. My wife's car is a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee and this is will the center stack bezel popped off. This actually came out without any fuss. And another 4 bolts and the screen head was out. From there it was simply unplugging those cables, take out 6 screws that hold the screen on and disconnect two ribbon connections. Reverse the process and we were back in operation I'll admit to being a little intimidated by newer vehicles but for the most part it's no different that tackling anything you haven't done before, research it, take your time, don't force anything and if you hit a road block, stop and reassess and you should be good. Now if I can just get back to the old stuff!

Now I never thought of using a hair dryer but I will have to give that try.

This has mostly been a week of catch up and cleaning up some of the mess that I had left before we had gone north for most of the summer. I have also been gathering together items for our next big antique sale in a month. While bidding on some items at an online auction a bunch of NOS parts in various lots starting popping up and it turns out that they had come out of a long closed Western Auto store. I'm a sucker for anything NOS and an even bigger on when they are cheap! For some reason I'm really drawn to spark plugs... I was a little bit disappointed when I picked them up that the auction company had tapped the boxes together with electrical tape which basically destroys any chance to use the boxes for display. There was also a full box of sealed beams and a couple of 60's Ford water pumps Some of the plugs will go into the shop inventory and other stuff will go for swap meets and online. Who knows maybe some of this stuff will find it's way to a members car?

This morning I dropped the tire off at the tire shop and picked it back up after lunch, I'm not sure it's a good thing to be on a first name basis with everyone at a tire shop but they are a good bunch to deal with. Long story short is that $30 later the tire was repaired properly with a patch on the inside and with the sun shining it was back on the truck in short order. I got the grass cut, though with the weather this year and the three weeks between cutting I feel like I should be bailing it. Tonight was dinner at the in-laws and this is the reason my wife puts up with the cars and the shop - these pictures are from the father in-laws shop His 1951 Pontiac - it's been modified with a SBC and what you would call a later model rear end, though it's probably 40 to 50 years old now that I think of it. In the poster in the background in the bottom left corner is his race car - a '69 Camaro. This is my boys' car - it's shared by all three of them and the MIS Racing is Michael, Ian, Sam. Right now it's my youngest's turn to run it, he's 19 and is trying to learn as much as he can about cars between his studies at university. The time on the windshield is for the 1/8th mile. I'm not sure if there's an unmodified 1980 Malibu out there. Not exactly AACA friendly but this is part of the reason why my kids have an interest in all of the cars, both original and modified, they can appreciate them all. All of the boys are hands on when it comes to them as well and there's times where my motivation to get things done is so that I can work on the cars with them.

We just got back home again late Friday night after having been north again for the last few weeks. It always takes the better part of a day to get caught up around the shop for Ebay things plus the time around the house getting things squared away as well. No complaints, but you do start making the mental list of what you need to start tackling and in what order. Once the rain stops around here, which should be tomorrow, first up will be getting the grass cut which doesn't seem to have taken a break this year at all. Today I hopped in the truck to go out to the shop and tire pressure system went off, the right front was reading low. The shop is only about 10 km/ 6 miles from the house so I figured I would just kept an eye on the pressure and deal with the issue when I got there - all the tools are there and I have CAA so if things went bad on the way it's just a phone call for a tow. Once to the shop this is the culprit Of course just after I got the lug nuts off it started to sprinkle And it didn't take long to turn into.... Geez, if I just had a shop that I could work on these things inside! The upside of always having lots to do is that I didn't wet and just moved on to something else until the shower passed. I couldn't have hit the screw any more on the centre - if only I was playing darts that would have to be a bullseye! It's a Canadian screw to boot - a #8 Robertson, the only thing I can't tell you at this point is the length, other than long enough I'll drop that one off at the tire shop in the morning. Once I got the spare on I noticed the wear marks on the sidewall - did make me wonder how long those tires are good under the bed and what damage, if any, is done to the sidewall. I will say that if you are going to get a screw in a tire that getting it near home is the best scenario - we had just driven about 550 km (a little over 300 miles) on Friday. Next up after the grass cutting will be taking this leak I had thrown some oil dry on it before we left and I don't believe my father drove the car while we were gone so the drip is definitely more than what I originally thought that it is. I suspect that it's coming from the speedo cable mount into the transmission but once get it back on the hoist I will be able to get a better look at it - you just know that it won't be as simple as replacing an O ring.