60FlatTop

The Super Sedan came about 30 years later. I had mine out this morning. Those Okie HP's with the Crown Vic's couldn't pronounce SS right. They kept adding and H; sounded like Sh, sh, sh, sh sh,.... Bernie

The pistons in the nailheads break. I lost number 4 under extreme conditions and replaced the long block with a fresh rebuilt. A friend lost #7 in a similar instance. You may have the beginning of a crack in yours. Take the rocker arm assembly off that side first and see how much the valve stems rattle around in the guides as you could just one poorly seating valve. If it's not a valve dig deeper. Here is my #4 from the bottom of the pan. I know my car had a roughness that I had not been able to pinpoint prior to the failure. Hindsight says it was a crack in the piston. If the untenable roughness came back I'd pull the pistons, visually check them , and probably Magnaflux all eight. It is certainly worth the preventive effort. That said, it is a possible mechanical issue, not really a torque characteristic or modification issue. The Riviera is a pleasure for me to drive because it doesn't have overdrive so it is greatly more responsive in the 40-50 MPH range than my newer 4 speed automatic cars. With the newer ones, a lot of times I drop them out of overdrive for the 5 miles between the end of the expressway and the village just to bring up the R's and make it feel as good as the Riviera Bernie

It's probably best to get out of the cerebral experience. Find someone with a good 401 or 425 and drive one. When you are feeling it on the seat of your pants it all becomes real. I JUST came in the door from a 10 mile exercise of my LT1 Impala. Believe me, the thought of horsepower or torque never entered my mind. I've only seen horsepower and torque on paper in black and white, putting your foot into it is color. Bernie

A little humor is hard to get across in a digital world. Are we both failing? I have half a mind to pick one up to test the theories. One RROC member told me I don't even need that much. Today I'm going to stop by and check the progress on a P V that came into a local shop last week. Bernie

Purchasing a collector type car, as opposed to the utilitarian type, is one of the big three decisions; an old car, a wife, and a dog. The better selection is such a mixture of subjectivity and objectivity that it's a hard and personal task. In my case, the more objectivity, the less I have liked the decision. The Chevy was selected as a car I could run across the state with if I didn't want to take my work truck. Of the three the car is the easiest decision to reverse. I may sell the Chevy this year. I have really developed a fondness for the mid-1990's Bentley Continental R. Luckily my wife would let me get one if I wanted and I wouldn't mind the dog riding in it. I've had lots of cars, a few dogs, and one wife. Seems to be working pretty good. Bernie

Common: Bernie

So POS must mean it's not like this one. Bernie I should start by saying that if you are looking for a “Pajama party Barbie Jeep” you my friend, should keep looking. If you are looking for a short description of to the beast before you, I can offer you two words “MEAT & POTATOES”. This is the All American chariot of the free world. You are not dealing with any ordinary, cookie cutter Jeep son. This thing was forged from a single block of all American Tungsten Steel. Real sturdy! From that day forward my life has never been the same. Winch yourself off that couch and see if you can handle this Jeep Wrangler Sahara. So if you are looking for a rice burning hatch back, a solar powered liberal mobile, or even a Hyundai crossover keep on looking my friend this thing is a piece of red white and blue Americana Machinery. This baby’s pulse is pumping 4.0 liters of uncensored raw fuel through her straight six nuclear power plant. And rest assured this is no metro feminine automatic. . .you command her to obey, with your calloused hand planted firmly on the shifter. And she will obey, the first time, every time. If you can’t handle your stick shifter, or reach the clutch pedal, you better not ferry skip over here wanting to test drive her. If you stall her out, you can count on getting hit in the face with a piece of re-bar and sent back where you came from. It has A/C but are you kidding me….Really! If you want to blow the sweat off your brow, you do it the old fashioned way: doors off, top down. “What if it rains?”. . .You whiney bitch! I told you to stop reading. . . Any man who drives this beast doesn’t give a damn about rain. Not even skin melting acid rain, Cause he’s already dripping wet in blood, sweat, dip spit, and fish guts. If you are looking for the kind of jeep that has to be pansy parked in the garage, so the “carpet doesn’t get wet and soggy” Then you should plant your Obama sticker on some Japanese piece of s***. Cause this thing has drain holes in the floor and rhino lined to let the blood drain out from the buffalo you just killed, with your bare hands. Because you are William Wallace from Braveheart and when you get home you can leave your “sissy sponge glove car wash kit” in the pink bucket it came in. Go ahead and spark up your 6000 psi heated pressure washer on the dually trailer in your man cave, cause you are Tim Gillespie and you can pressure wash your truck on the inside. She’s got rhino lined floors with a full roll cage in case that buffalo comes back to life while you’re doing 80 over some mountain pass or flooded river. If you’re thinking about Mexican chrome bumpers for her, think again. The bumper bashers come hand forged in a blacksmith shop in Franklin County over a wood burnin fire, out of 4 inch well casing, and railroad tracks and then I welded em to the damn chassis. That way if you get deployed you can piggy back this war wagon on a deuce and a half and chain her down tight from the four corners, so you don’t lose her when your convoy gets hit by a taliband roadside suicide bomber. And forget about putting one of those “It’s a Jeep Thing. . .You wouldn’t understand” stickers on this machine cause when you’re spotted in this American Classic there will be no questions, no further explanation required, people will understand and get out of your way. . …real quick. If you think you’re ready to park this panty hauler on your tract of land. If you buy this jeep you better go get your old lady ready for some damn changes around your lair, cause this s** will be happening. What will be Happening? Glad you asked…. 1. More chest hair. 2. You’re growing a beard. 3. Meat Only Diet. 4. T-Rex for a pet. 5. You’re taking a job at the lumber mill. 6. Your car carries five kegs. 7. [Expletive Deleted] 8. Catch more fish. 9. Wire bristled toothbrush. 10. Sex in the yard. 11. Sex in the garage. 12. All male offspring. 13. Chiseled jaw line. 14. Not giving a damn. 15. Flesh turning to steel. 16. Higher salary 17. Promotions. 18. Better looking wives. 19. Better looking mistresses. 20. More golfing 21. More killing stuff. 22. More dead animals in the KITCHEN freezer. 23. More tools in your garage. 24. Bigger TV 25. Wife takes out the trash 26. Four Wheel Drive 27. Wife brings trash can in from road. 28. Wife stops bitching about clothes on floor. 29. Wife stocks fridge with beer. 30. Chuck Norris. 31. John McCain 32. Steaks for dinner. 33. Winning the Lottery. 34. Women on the side. 35. Wrestling with bea 36. Building sh** out of stone. 37. Riding Lawn Mower. 38. Bon Fires in cul-de-sac. 39. Bar Fights. 40. Wife picks you up from Thee Gentlemen’s Club. 41. Craftsman Tools. 42. Jay Bisset. 43. Welding stuff. 44. Digging holes. 45. Huge Piece of meat. Put your GPS back in your purse. Sounds good doesn’t it? This jeep has carried me through 155,000 miles of battlefield twice as gruesome as the second half of the movie “300″. . ..And just like a trusty steed this juggernaut has never left me stranded. If you think you’ve worn her out you drag this beast back to me in any condition. And Ill handle the rest. But if you think you’re going to get to whip this mule you better pony up Sixty Five Hundred Dollars. . .American Cash. I’m not selling you this car unless you are clearly a pure blooded American Species, so don’t even think about it.

I drive by the old Northeast Electric plant building quite often. That's where they made those 24 V generators and dynamos. The closed DELCO plant is right down the street. When they closed Northeast in the early 1950's the sold a hard rubber tired, tiller steer, electric crane to Railway Signal Corp, a few blocks over. I used to drive that crane through the plant to pick up the slag bucket from the Wheel-a-Brator in the foundry. The battery salesman talked the car manufacturers out of 24V to save money when copper was cheap. Then, during WWII they built military equipment with 24V to save copper. Cars continued with 6V after WWII. Then there was a copper shortage most obvious in poor quality chrome plating of 1952-1955. They saved a lot of money switching to smaller gauge wire with the 12V systems. Bernie

I have some pretty intimate knowledge of the workings of the RR&B (that ain't music) cars from the 20/25's and PI's through the Spirit-Spur (the short name has the long wheelbase). Five years ago when I was looking for a personal driver for myself I seriously considered an early 1990's Spur. They are a pretty durable car and not hugely trouble prone. I figure the average cost to own one for 10 years would be about $6,000 per year not including the purchase price. There are some very good examples available in the $15-20 K range. The better choice would be to join the RROC and ante up another $10,000 so one could buy a member's car. I may still do that. My membership lapsed and I was looking at renewing it this week. Membership is your only link to survival if you own one of these cars. Anyway, having automotive attention deficit disorder, I ended up choosing the best 1994 Impala SS I could find. It's a long way away from the technical level of the Spirit. Late last summer my friend who is one of the best known Silver Cloud and general RR mechanics in the country stopped by and we took the Chevy out for lunch. As we pulled out of the driveway I said "You know I chose this over a Spur." He replied "You are a very smart man." HE is a very good teacher. Bernie

We used to have a counter guy at our NAPA store that we called Two Trips. Take a guess how he got that name. Back to that 56S; only 200 miles, that's hardly time enough to get warm enough to open the choke. Get that car out and run it. That light driving will just aggravate little mysterious stuff. You meed to shoot for 1,000 miles a year and break things. It makes it more obvious to fix. I get 1,000 miles or more on my '60 per year. Last year I made a commitment to put 1,000 miles on the Park Ave convert. I bought it in Spring 2011, rebuilt everything mechanical and wasn't happy. Last year I swore I'd break it to find the problem. Funny thing, a guy stood next to it in a parking lot and called the problem as casual as ordering a burger. I ended up putting 1200 happy miles on it last year. This year I plan to give the '48 Packard a thousand mile shakedown. I bought it two years ago and have only put, maybe, 50 miles on it. When you have more cars than a sane person it really takes work to rack up some miles. But when you do all those mysteries and quirks just go away. It is hard to do. Just about anywhere you go the average speed from pulling out of the garage to putting it back in averages something like 35 MPH. That means you have to find 30 hours per car for driving. It's not as easy as it sounds. But if you don't the weird stuff starts complicating matters. Get them out and drive them. It is the best way to maintain their reliability and maintain their highest value. Bernie

After 15 years on top of that hot engine the spark plug wires are the first suspect. So you can get an early start, avoid the terms "my mechanic" and "my mechanic said" search the forum and you will find those phrases in the longest and most entertaining threads. Be a stickler for details. The correct sentence should read "The local mechanic did a compression test and found two adjacent cylinders low on compression. Then he pressurized the cooling system cold and warm. The pressure bled off in just a couple minutes." Tools and test equipment; you gotta have it.People have always looked for divine inspiration for troubleshooting and "the laying of hands" for repair. You know, 8 hours of labor and no parts, if that doesn't work bring it back. My wife is a young adult librarian, the kind that works with Middle School and High School readers. They always give an award of a dictionary to students who volunteer and attend programs in their Senior HS year. She thought that was kind of lame in the age of spell checker and asked my help in picking an award book for a young man. He got this at the awards: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/automotive-mechanics-william-h-crouse/1101458599/2688929024925?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+Textbooks_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP20456&k_clickid=3x20456 He was a happy gearhead! Another caution, many large shops pay the service manager a base salary and a bonus based on the added work beyond the initial service request. Mechanics can be penalized for not giving the bill enough bump. Watch out. Hey! 1991 cars are 25 years old now and eligible as antique cars. It goes by fast. Bernie

I like that wooden triangulated rotisserie. My Google search didn't come up with one that looked as good. Do you had some pictures or plans? Thanks, Bernie

Sometimes you just glance at a modified car and know what it is. Had to share it. Not mine; no, no no. Bernie

A September birthday or 90th anniversary reenactment? On September 20, 1926, the North Side Gang used a ploy outside the Capone headquarters at the Hawthorne Inn, aimed at drawing him to the windows. Gunmen in several cars then opened fire with Thompson submachine guns and shotguns at the windows of the first-floor restaurant. Capone was unhurt and called for a truce, but the negotiations fell through. Bernie

I always figured a modern car was one that didn't have running boards. Bernie

I look at the forum in the same vein as meeting a few guys at the diner for coffee. I showed up in my old car with a 6 volt system, biased tires, and drum brakes. What were you asking my opinion of? Bernie

"I know nothing about cars and even less about project cars." We have a local university that offers post graduate courses toward an MBA at $3,000 per credit hour. I've taken a few hours worth of home schooling at that rate. Just remember what you learn. The Ford could be worth more than the mineral oil Rolls-Royce. Bernie

I used to lay down spoons by the coffee pot in disarray if I knew Bill O'Brien was coming in for the next shift just to watch him straighten them out. I'm a pragmatist. Everything is organized according to its sequence of usage and designated location. Even the task bar; Outlook is always first, then browsers, etc. However! a couple of years ago I had to ride about 100 miles in a 1941 Cadillac and all the Philips head screws that held the windshield molding in place were in total disarray; drove me nuts! I was close to an anxiety attack from wanting to correct the axis. Bernie

Well, here's the observation that I should have kept secret. Until the years 1000 to 1200 the occupational propensity for a person was based on family ties, tradition, and genetics. It was probably based on the inherent skills of these key people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Daughters_of_Eve. At the beginning of the second millennium that tradition was broken by the rise of universities in Europe and the fitting of "square pegs into round holes". Anyone can be anything, just take the study. With a millennium of that mixing tossed into the human experience we end up with a lot of dissatisfied people doing jobs they passed the test for but are not suited for. Frustrated doctors who should have been mechanics and bumbling mechanics who may have been better doctors. When you question your work satisfaction or venture into a new field it may be advisable to follow your family tree back to 400 to 800 CE and get an idea of what you are supposed to be doing. I bet you get a response from the health world educator with that. And that's just the concept, not the details. Bernie

I have a friend who was a welder on a tunneling "mole" that bored a waste water tunnel under Rochester, NY. His job was to work the night shift and build up the worn cutting teeth on the mole. I would probably take that gear to him and we'd repair it by building it up with weld. I would probably anneal it and its mate to make it a little more forgiving in the future. Moles are kind of big but I think the welding would apply. Bernie

If it was in my garage this morning I'd take a short brass rod and an 8 or 10 oz. hammer to just loosely rap around the at the center of the hub gingerly, like trying to ring a bell. Patience and it will come off. Taper fits don't like brute force. Bernie

I don't think there have been many years in my life that I did not own a 401 or 425 Buick. That goes back to the days when juice came in cans, big ones. And if you are used to driving cars with pistons the size of juice cans torque is what you expect, right at the tip of you toe with just a nudge. Last year I went out shopping for a car for my wife. I thought a Cadillac STS would be nice... until I drove one. No torque compared to the old Buicks I am used to, or even my Chevy truck for work. It had a 4.6 engine. What the heck is that, around 270 cubic inches? To feel any power I had to put my foot deep into it and in normal driving it seemed to shift every time I took a breath. I had an Enclave a few years ago. That was a 3,6 and weighed 5,000 pounds. You don't need torque to maintain 70 MPH on a freeway, but coming home on a secondary road in New York with rolling hills from east to west made me livid with the gutless thing. Torque is pretty much a thing of the past. Horsepower at high RPM and 6 to 8 speed transmissions are what you find today. I'll keep my 4" pistons for the same reason 4 door trucks are so popular today. My wife's car? After trying out a lot of stuff and being real disappointed in the concessions made in the name of technology, she got this: There's 100 years worth of pretty good stuff out there and the most recent ain't necessarily the pride and joy. 4.6 liters, whoopee, I know it's 270 cubic inches, about the volume of a good flush on a urinal. Bernie

Be careful about exceptions, They can divert you from basic concepts and details that give you a secure foundation. Bernie

We didn't have the internet and forums back when I was first learning. And a lot of the old timers were full of crap..... actually, most of them. It didn't take me long to buy the 1959 edition of William H. Crouse's mechanic's books. They are on the shelf above me now. Develop your own logical steps of diagnosis and NEVER deviate from using them. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: We all have at least three reversible ratchets. Always be conscious of the clicker position when you pick one up. It should be in the tighten position every time. If it is not that means whatever you worked on last time was not put back together. If you find that most of the time you take stuff apart and don't put things back together you probably won't be much of a mechanic. And that unfinished business probably spills over into the rest of your life, as well. When I pick up a ratchet I am conscious to the position I find it in and quite satisfied to find it in the tighten position. If it is not I immediately question what I did last time I used it. That's very rare. Do you know how your ratchets are set? Bernie

I picked up the steer horns nand he said " I shot that deer myself." He didn't think he shot a deer, he KNEW he shot a deer. Now, that's the next county over, but if you don't know your way around New York it's a bit like Minnesota in places: Three Minnesota hunters drove into a farm yard, and one went up to ask the farmer's permission to hunt his fields. The farmer approved, on the condition that the hunters shoot an old bull that he had been planning to get rid of. The hunter went back to the car and pulled a little gag on his buddies. He told them that the farmer was a rotten old coot who refused them permission to hunt. Then he had the driver stop when they passed the old bull. He climbed out, very deliberately took aim and shot the bull, then said, "That'll take care of the rotten old coot." Whereupon his two companions each shot a cow, commenting, "That'll REALLY take care of that rotten old coot." Bernie