rocketraider

Years ago I was changing a 64 Olds waterpump. Car was at my parents' place. Now, to Oldsmobile's credit, they had engineered a notch in the harmonic balancer to get to the w/p bottom bolt, but I didn't have the thinwall 3/8 socket needed to get in there with me. I was turning the air blue. Mama and her neighbor were having tea in the back yard and I heard her say "he's working on his old car, you might hear him say something" ☺️

They walk among us, and they're breeding...😬 I'm a firm believer in stands but suspicious of newer ones. Buddy has a collection of old Simplex and Swett screw jacks that we use a lot.

What a marvelous topic!😁 Walt, as long as you can dig up information like this, you don't have too much stuff. There weren't many chauffeurs here, but a great-great uncle was groundskeeper and chauffeur to the Carlton family of Imperial Leaf Tobacco Company. Daresay Kenneth may have been outfitted at Dornan as he drove the Carltons to NYC a couple times a year, in Packards at first and later in Cadillacs. My mother and her cousin Louise spent a lot of time at the Carlbrook house and both often said the wealthy but childless Carltons were the epitome of class and kindness, as wealthy people should be.

Reminds me of the kid I saw at Home Depot trying to load 4x8 plywood into a four-door short bed Ram 2500 pickup. The short bed had a tool box riding in it which took up more room. Even with gate down 2 feet of the plywood panel hung out past the tailgate. Kid says to me "sometimes I hate this truck". 😺

Applies to us all. It's gotten me thru life this far... and I got my first touch of grey in my late 30s.

I stand corrected.☺️ But thet still don't look like nare station wagon in my experience!😺 Guess I drove the big ones for too long. I'd like to have another GM Clamshell wagon, particularly Olds or Chevrolet. Totally ridiculous size-wise and about as efficient as a brick, but I really liked the two I owned. Trouble is the demo derby crowd really liked them too.

Steve, look at it this way. When the time comes your A will have a good caretaker. Take the boy under your wing and expose him to as much old iron and as many like-minded people as possible, and above all teach him how to drive it. Kids like him are the true future of this hobby, not the guys rewriting their insecure youth by cashing in their 401k and driving the price of entry slam out of reason.

Matt- can you lay a 4x8 panel in there? Crossover utility vehicle. Not enough room inside to call it a true wagon. Did GM market it as such?

As a long time wagon owner I have trouble calling that a station wagon.

Sounds like an irate ex or grandparent is involved. Story would be better mit ein Kubelwagen, ja? Another Nader victim in the US.

I used the last of my Glass Wax around 2010. Miss it. I haven't found anything else that cleans glass as well as that pink stuff did. Microfiber towels do a good job and are easy to use but don't leave anything to deter smears and buildup. Yes, it's discontinued. After a series of mergers and acquisitions production ceased in 2002. I used to enjoy Colman's Mustard, but its parent company is the one that deep-sixed Glass Wax after acquiring the brand. Yet they didn't come up with anything to replace it.😠 Proof that anything that works either gets discontinued or outlawed.

They were set up at a Carlisle show a few years back. Interesting product line but as you say, VERY expensive. To me, Adams and Griot's Garage products are like Snap-On tools. You can justify the expense if you're using them to earn a living.

I've never looked. Can you fold down a modern 'Burban's second row seat to gain load floor room, or do you have to take the thing completely out like the older ones? Real station wagon seats fold flat!😏

1996.

Along with 91-92 Olds Custom Cruiser, I think so. Ford abandoned big passenger car based wagons in 1992 and Chrysler in 1990. Ford built Taurus wagons up thru 2005. I guess you could technically say Dodge Magnums and Ford Flexes are station wagons. I get amused at people who drive Suburbans and Expeditions and get bent when someone like me points out that their big SUV is just an outsized station wagon (it IS!😠). Like my buddy's wife they see a stigma to owning a station wagon. Since my Custom Cruiser's demise a 'Burban is about the only option available. Wagons didn't survive all that well and a nice older one would be tough for me to use as a hauler. Some foreign makes still have them but can't lay a 4x8 plywood sheet in them.

No good deed goes unpunished!😄

Not a K. Ed's wagon is Diplomat/Gran Fury/5th Avenue platform. Though Chrysler did put "Town and Country" moniker on the high-line K wagons and even MINIVANS! 😫 What an insult to a proud name. At least a wagon has a wood-bodied heritage. Friend has a 77 LeSabre Estate. He and his 14yo daughter love it. His wife refuses to even ride in it much less drive it. "IT'S A STATION WAGON!" Yet she will happily drive her T&C minivan anywhere. She's on her third. For a stylish woman she has no sense of style in vehicles! When I point that out she says "you and Tim just keep driving your old Griswold-mobiles!"

Was AstroVentilation a forced air (blower) system on Corvette? Know the other carlines used high pressure air from the cowl area. Some 69-71 cars had optional blowers for the upper level vents. I remember thinking how cool 1968 GM cars were with "AstroVentilation" etched onto front door glass. I also remember my parents grumbling there were no vent windows to draw their ever-present cigarette smoke out of the car.

The whole 20 years I drove my 78 Olds Custom Cruiser to work, it was known thruout the plant as "the Griswold machine". I like those big 90s GM wagons but hard to find nice ones here.

I'm not familiar enough with the "tanker" Corvettes to know how/where the oversized fuel tank was installed. Anyone have pictures?

Wouldn't a dogbowl be smaller diameter? I also think an original by the way it's engineered. It's notched for a valve stem and not sure what the hole in the retainer ring is for, unless the Cad wheel had some type of locator pin for correct orientation or to keep the cap from spinning on the wheel. *edit* I see there are two holes 180° out on the retainer so they're probably drain holes.

It's odd for sure. Answer is probably in road tests from the time. I guess there's enough scavenging effect from undercar airflow that it wouldn't suck exhaust fumes back into the cabin. Awful close to the tailpipe.

Gotta love clear-channel high-powered AM radio at night! Farthest away I've picked up here on the VA/NC border are WBZ Boston, WGN Chicago, CFZM Toronto and WSB Atlanta. And dozens more in between! The daily driver Fords' radios have good AM sections as does my 1963 transistor Zenith TransOceanic. Can listen to a lot of other worlds on those, though the TO will never live in the garage! I have some cheap Walmart special AM-FM-CD in there...

Sometimes classical, sometimes jazz, sometimes rock. Or whatever station is strongest at the time. Occasionally I dig out some 70s funk. After being forced to listen to country as a child, there is no room for mainstream country in my life now. Red dirt, outlaw and Nashvegas, yes. I have a 70s CD that I put on sometimes when the Pontiac bud is here. Has "Kung Fu Fighting" and Blue Swede version of "Hooked on a Feeling". Hoogah chakah y'all!

What happens is the sun dries the soap on the car finish before rinsing, or can also burn paint thru magnifying effect of water beads. Good idea to wash cars early or late in the day when sun is at a low angle.