Shop Rat

Just sent a reply.

Post deleted by Peter J Heizmann

Never ask how bad it can get. It can always get worse.

Thanks for the additional info. Bill was a Union Carbide/Dow chemical process engineer until two years ago and I am sure would love to check all this out. We do use the anti-gel in cold weather. This is our first diesel vehicle. He used to work on them back in New Jersey when he was younger and still in college. It was a couple of his summer jobs.

Wow. Thanks for tracking that so quickly. Kingwood is north of us. I will have to run a map and see how far. We are fourteen miles west of Charleston.

We have a 2004 Dodge Ram Cummins Diesel 4X4. I will have Bill to check into this. I doubt we have a source near here, but it would pay to check it out. Thanks for the links.

I am so sorry to hear this. Please post an address where cards can be sent.

I am so happy for you and your family. Glad that your sleepless nights are because they are home and not due to sadness. I have a friend that in less than a weeks time found out she was pregnant with her second child and then misscarried. She is fine and understands that it happens more than people realize. Hopefully you will post photos of the two little blessings.

How awful. Now you know why I won't double knot shoe strings like some people do to shorten them. There is no "give" at all in them when they are tied with double knots.

From an e-mail I just received it seems that we are both wrong. What I found out was that "The new cars begin at the beginning of the AACA calendar year. This is generally the first week of February at the AACA annual meeting in Philadelphia. It is possible that in the unlikely event of a Florida National meet prior to that time but AFTER Jan. 1 that the date could move up a bit. Techincally though it is done by calendar year and at each Hershey Board Meeting when the VP Class Judging presents the motion to amend the classes to take in the next model year it is slated to be effective when the calendar year changes." I had asked Bill about this after you raised the issue about it being Jan. 1 and he said that he had also heard that at, or after, the Hershey show the new year was accepted. He couldn't remember which it was. And since we usually judge in the 38-39 and 62-63 eras we did not pay that much attention to what the last year listed in the book was. Not sure where the rumor of it changing at or after Hershey got started, but we both understood it to be that way. So it is usually about a month after Jan. 1 rather than at or right after Hershey. I don't mind being wrong in this case. It was an honest mistake fueled by misinformation given to Bill and I, and I am sure many others, as fact. But you need to learn to be more pleasant when you tell people that they are incorrect. There was only one person who never made a mistake and they put him on a cross.

Ron, Thanks for clarifying that racecars do not have to have been street legal to be eligible to show at AACA events when they are twenty-five years old. I may just make Bill keep the Legends another fifteen years and it can be my vehicle to show. Not sure which should retired from racing first, the car or Bill. If he raced it until it could be shown he would be 75 years old.

Not a problem with the documentation as we are the only owners of the car and we have race results and photos of it racing. My question was based on Ron's answer and it mentioned highway ready or something like that. Legends cars are not street legal, but are true racecars.

I-VAN is a licensed appraisal outfit with strong ties to AACA. They have people who can do a professional job for these folks.

Like it, or not, any car that is twenty-five years or older as of the Hershey show is eligible as an AACA antique. People who feel the way that you do, and you are more than welcome to as it is your right, almost killed our region. Too many of the older people do not want the newer cars, or their owners, and that is not an attitude that will keep a region going. They feel that if it is not a Model T or Model A it is scrap. Lots of people get the car they couln't afford when it first came out. If the AACA as a whole and regions in general are to be viable they have to adapt to newer cars and younger owners. And with all the new seltbelt/child seat laws it is easier for a family to comply with a more modern "antique". And I just read where some states have passed laws that children as old as eight will have to be in booster seats with standard seatbelts. The laws do not allow kids loose in antique cars any more than they do in modern cars.

An additional question. As far as racecars go, do they have to have been "street legal" to qualify to be shown under the AACA rules? Racecars such as our Legends car have never been street legal as they are produced strictly for racing.

These sure sound like they are from the guy I sent you to.

OOPS!! Sorry, correction. Bill was speaking to my dad about a cleaner that my dad had that should not be used on stainless steel and I thought he was talking about the Bissell cleaner. I know that there are brushes out there that are made for cleaning spokes. Have you tried one of them? Wonder if a Swiffer Duster, the one with the handle, dipped in water or cleaner would work? They have two different kinds of materials in them. Some super soft fuzzy fibers and the slightly stiffer woven/felted material. If you didn't want the stiffer stuff you could easily trim it off. I may just try that on our station wagon wheels.

I will pass that on to Bill. We found something unusual that does a great job of cleaning chrome wheels or hubcaps, but don't use it on stainless steel. Bissell spray foaming bathtub cleaner. Wet the wheels/hubcaps down with water, spray with the cleaner and let it sit a couple minutes and most times you don't even have to use a brush or cloth, you can just use water to rinse it off and they are clean. We get it at Big Lots for 99 cents a can.

Would Tide have to be used or would some cheap generic work as well?

Cheap kitty litter is better for oil spills.

A very interesting question. Can't wait to see the answer on this one.

What was it about the new format that the three did not like? Not asking who, that is private, just what it was that they did not like.

Good pun Skyking. I will say this, when I got home the GoJo took off most of the stain.

Oh, okay. Now I get the picture. Guess it isn't just cattle that get "branded".

We were at Wal*Mart one evening and I was helping Bill look for the red paint that we wanted in a spray can. They had just stocked the shelves and there was very little room to lift a can of paint out. So I grabbed the cap thinking it would be safe to pick it up that way since most of them you have to take a screwdriver to pop the lid off. NOT!! The can dropped loose from the lid, the nozzle hit and flew off and the red paint started oozing out. I grabbed up the can and held it trying to catch as much of the paint in my hands as I could. Luckily the guy at the automotive counter saw me and grabbed a trash can to put the can and paint in. My hands were dripping with blood red paint, I looked like I had murdered someone. I wiped off as much as I could but my hands still looked like a dye-pack had exploded in them. The stain is still on the floor at Wal*Mart and there is still some red paint in a pinkie ring that hasn't come off. It has been a couple years and the paint is still in that ring.