GrayCav56

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Anyone in the Harrisburg PA area know of anyone who uses their unique cars to give kids rides to their prom location? My grand nephew wants to impress and a regular limo just ain’t his style. My cars just don’t fit the bill because they are two seaters and they need dropped off. Just be a short ride from the house to the prom location. School is Central Dauphin East. Date is 26 April. Drop off at Best Western on East Park Drive. Thanks for for your consideration! Tony

I found the following photo in a box that belonged to a Great Aunt who passed away some time ago. She was born in 1900. While I am not certain this is her in the passenger seat, there is a resemblence. Can anybody ID the car? It has a lot of Model T in it to me, but the radiator shell looks a bit different. Tony Gray York PA

Pete, The National Corvette Restorers Society (NCRS) has a pretty good network to link owners with cars. You may want to try there. Guys are always trying to find original owners for vehicles they now own. Do you have any of the original paperwork for the car? That is a huge plus.

One of these days I have to get one of those cars.

I just used my Griots Rubber Prep for the first time. I am usually not one to offer massive platitudes but GOLLY this stuff works GREAT! It's a clear substance and I used them on some very old tires with that brown goo that you usually see on tires that have sat for a while. This stuff, applied with a small sponge, melted that away, and left a nice base that I followed up with a low gloss tire dressing. Surely a LOT easier than attacking them with a brush and comet! Here's the link if you are interested. And NO I don't have stock in Griot's Garage... http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/car+care/wheels+%26+tires/wheel+tire+cleaners/rubber+prep%2C+16+ounces.do

I never had any issues with paint on my Chevy Orange blocks, but I tell ya, this 66 GTO just loves to burn off the paint on the center intake runners and the center exhaust port. I have to constantly touch them up, and even bring a rattle can with me to shows!

In Johnstown PA we had quite an array of drive-in theaters. The Richland (the site of a shopping center since the early 70's), the Family (I think now closed) and the Silver (still operating!). For drive in restaurants, I remember Stuver's, a family owned place famous for its chicken sandwiches.

Yeah, I try to reuse the factory stuff where I can, unless the results of my (usually pretty lame) efforts won't meet my showroom fresh standards, then I go for a replacement part, either nice used or repop. As most of the guys above have said, if you can fix the original stuff then you KNOW it fit..at least before you played with it! Some stuff (rubber, felts, wiring, etc) you are mostly better off not even wasting the time to fix if a factory correct replacement is available.

A couple of '70s cars come to my mind. 76 Chrysler Cordoba. Because my first girlfriend owned one.... 77 Pontiac Can-Am. Limited production, 400 engine, shaker hood scoop. 77-79 Pontiac Trans-Am. Starting to perk up a bit now, after years in obscurity. Not only the "Bandit" SE versions, but the nice blue ones as well. WS6 equipped of course.

Took the Vette out last night for the first time all winter. Started right up (well, not RIGHT up as those of you with carbs and mechanical fuel pumps know)! Drove the Mrs. down to local Ford dealer for a test drive in a new Fusion Hybrid. I turned down their offer of an even exchange.....

43 out of 48. Blew the one Dodge/DeSoto/Plymouth page. Like my friend above, not bad for a guy born in '60!

Love: Aston Martin DB anything; Ferrari 308 GTSi QV, BMW 635CSi Hate: Datsun F10, Suzuki X90, First nose on Subaru Tribeca

Kinda reminds me of the way the Soviets used to "detail" the tanks they would parade around East Berlin after they saw the American Berlin Brigade put shiny tire black on their jeep tires.... They'd paint the outer rims and center caps of each road wheel white and put bright colors on their vehicles identification numbers. Some were even painted with high gloss green paint. Ours were clean and well maintained, but after we discarded the bright white stars for subdued black ones we couldn't compete for pizzaz. Even the Russians quit after a while..but in the May Day parades in Red Square they still put on the Ritz sometimes!

Well you have to hand it to Dennis. At least he takes responsibility for his show, can articulate his vision for it, and responded quickly. While I said earlier that I wish he'd dial back the restomods a bit, and I hope he does, I still enjoy those shows where he takes the rare classic out for a spin. And yeah, I usually zip through the commercials. As for Classic Car Restoration...I loved that show. If they had a telethon to raise money to bring it back I would contribute..as long as I got a CCR workshirt for my donation!

Even Year One, a company that I respect and have done a lot of business with, has gone the restomod route with some of the things they promote. Recall the Burt Reynolds Edition Bandit Trans-Ams where instead of strict restorations they made significant upgrades all around. Were the upgrades improvements? Its in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

Hope I am not hijacking the thread, but I see some problems with casting too wide a net in an effort to catch many fish for just a scant few minutes of attention. This was even brought up by Peter DeLorenzo in a recent Autoline After Hours program. He sees the future where MORE specialized publications and shows will be more successful as people's time crunches keep increasing. For example. Amos used to have several "Enthusiast" publications that catered to a narrow audience such as Corvettes, Pontiacs, Mopars, etc. They recently combined these into an all encompassing Auto Enthusiast that apparently pleases no one...at least by the comments on the members of the boards I read. Single Marque Clubs can handle variations on a theme, with stock, concours driven, mild modified, etc classes. My 69 Chevelle SS started in the mild modified and moved into the stock restored as I continued to work on it. I just don't know if this would work with AACA. It would be a dilution of purpose, of charter and of vision. Getting back to TV shows, I have to agree that there aren't many left that I enjoy...so I spend more time in my garage LIVING, rather than WATCHING!!! I really wish Dennis would dial back a bit on the modifieds though...but he has been successful at this for quite some time.

It just seems to me that while no era is immune, this "Christmas Tree" phenomena seems most prevalent on late 50's machines. If you add on this amount of options and accessories you can easily push a Bel Air into Buick territory! I don't think I ever saw, in real life, a Tri-Five Chevy with a tissue dispenser, but they appear to be almost compulsory these days. Sort of like the opposite I am seeing with some muscle cars. There seem to be many more cars running around with heater delete or radio delete block off plates than I ever recall seeing back then.

Looking for a set for a friend's convertible project. Fenders should be good used originals. Color unimportant but condition is. Tony Gray 717-586-6335

I would float the idea of temporary insanity...however I believe the initial feeling was that increased federal safety standards with regards to rollover protection mandated stronger roof structures. Of course, that particular mandate did not come to pass, but the die had been cast. What DID come around were the requirements for drastically increased bumper protection, which were NOT designed into the cars, thus the ungainly "railroad ties" strapped to the front and rear of each of the GM A Bodies starting in 1973. Interesting how they would have looked if they had been introduced in their original target year of 1972...with the smaller bumpers.

I have to agree that I was one of them confusing things. As for 70's GM products, I think they handled the round to square headlight transition VERY well in the 76 to 77 Firebird, but not so much with the 75 to 76 Chevelle or Monte Carlo. The dual squares looked great with the waterfall grilles of the Olds Cutlass as well. I kind of disagree with you saying the 80s were ALL better than the 77-79s. I thought the 2 door Impala/Caprice with its wrap around backlight was quite fetching.

Wow, Paul Zazzarine and now David E. Davis Jr. We are losing good ones at an alarming rate.

Which car are you looking to repro the window sticker for? (Please forgive the offensive syntax and/or grammar issues...) There are tons of scanned stickers available on the internet where you can import into a graphics program and insert your own data and print it. Here is one I got for my 64.5 Mustang: http://www.metropartsmarket.com/catalog/image_classicmustang_c8_3812.html

With newer cars, the first refresh of the Ford Taurus was very well done. The second redo, that Ovoid mess, was IMHO THE worst of all time.

Would the Pace Car decals on a 78 Corvette be considered a dealer installed factory item? The cars were delivered from the factory with the decals in a box, to be stuck on by the owner or the dealer at the owner's request at no charge. I think NCRS deducts for the decals if they are installed or out of their original boxes.