balthazar

My buddy offered to buy the rear tires & rims off my B-59 (I never got around to buying the fronts, and since; I've decided to change the rim design). There's a particular style of aftermarket rim I like/want- the old Hallibrand type kidney beans. A number of different companies make similar versions. But try and go online to look up these other company's versions without knowing the name; there's like 800 billion rims out there. It's impossible online. Bu-uuuut, if you have a Summit or Jegs paper catalog handy; BOOM! there's like 4 pages of 6 or 8 companies, and a couple versions right there. A good example of where catalogs still overrule digital.

Don't see all that many of this generation Firebird anymore: The cover has been slipping off this rounded beauty for a few years, it's in tatters now. Curious how rotted it may be. '53 Special hardtop coupe :

It strikes me; even tho we're in an age where information is instantaneous and everywhere, presidential candidates somehow apparently still need $250 million or $500 million "to get their message out". Like there's really any new messages. This was my uncle, who passed in '96. This account likely refers to the 1970s-80s : I want a nation-level cap on campaign donations/spending. If you can't get your message out and do some traveling/staffing on $10 million (limited to 365 days before election day), you're not qualified to hold a national office. [* $10 million is a random figure, but I don't think -again; in the Information Age- that's it's too far from the possible.]

My issue with Wiki is their criteria (and I may have stated this before, but it's come to the forefront in writing a book)- they only use published sources but ANY published source is technically OK, even if it's factual garbage. Plus, depending on when you may happen to check an entry vs. when it may have been purposefully vandalized or erroneously edited, once again there's little assurance you're getting hard factual data. I started one page on an automaker and sourced my data from a published book, but it was a 'university press' publication without an ISBN. Subsequent edits deleted my information because of that irrelevant fact (they couldn't look the book up I assume). Yet who looks up the facts in the books they can look up? No money for Wiki from me.

I don't know how/if that system was modified / damaged, but it sounds lousy. If it's factory.... wow. ?

^ Agreed; and I have it’s sister car, the Comet, posted earlier.

Hard to grasp how wealthy Henry Ford I was. A few years ago I calculated his worth in today’s dollars and it was about $180 billion. At one point he owned 3 million acres of land, almost the size of the state of Connecticut.

? I like the original "N.J." and "GARDEN STATE" when the plates first went 'black on straw' in '59. Keep it straightforward, all caps... the plate looked a lot tougher. Then they went to 'straw on blue' in the '80s, now back to 'black on straw' but the background is actually graduated, reflectorized, and they stopped stamping the plates; they're now flat with "easier to read" upper & lower case IDs. 3 different fonts on 1 plate; it's a mess graphically. Plus; we still can't use YOM plates or have more than 7 characters.

I like the design/body on the last Riv (including the nose), but with 2 caveats: 1. Generally speaking; I tend to not prefer designs that radically narrow the front/rear fascias- I like cars to 'be proud of their width'. 2. the Riv simply rides too high. Drop it 2 inches and I think it would look noticeably sleeker. RE the 'cove question", tho there's some delineation there, the sides are open and there's no concave profile. My vote disqualifies it.

But '58 is another 'blurred' example. While there certainly was a pointed effort to offer contrasting paint, technically (as defined here) the rear fascia lacks the side delineation, and the color bleeds down both quarter panels. I'm inclined to include it as 'official' (another 'special dispensation' case) :

Also need to add the '60 Ford big cars to the Cove Party (never painted differently tho) : - - - - - Over at Edsel, there was plenty going on. In '60 there was a cove, but I don't see any pics with it painted : '59 didn't have a delineated cove except on the wagons, where it did get optional contrast paint:

Special dispensation :: I strongly feel it's appropriate to put the Merc Marauder and the Rambler Marlin in the same box. The Merc has a true cove panel, but it 'bleeds over' that deliniation to include the entire decklid AND ring the rear glass. The '65-67 Marlin does something quite similar; it lacks a true cove panel, but still AMC contrast-painted a huge swath of the Marlin extending down into the rear fascia.

From wikipedia : "Chrysler discs were "self energizing," in that some of the braking energy itself contributed to the braking effort. This was accomplished by small balls set into oval holes leading to the brake surface. When the disc made initial contact with the friction surface, the balls would be forced up the holes forcing the discs further apart and augmenting the braking energy. This made for lighter braking pressure than with calipers, avoided brake fade, promoted cooler running, and provided one-third more friction surface than standard Chrysler twelve-inch drums. Today's owners consider the Ausco-Lambert very reliable and powerful, but admit its grabbiness and sensitivity." They did offer about 5 times the braking surface of a conventional disc, and it's pretty unlikely an Imperial would ever see spirited driving akin to competition usage. Still laudable as the first mass-production disc (despite perhaps not being the pinnacle of the concept).

I have NO USE for any of the Star Wars movies. That is all.

I know- I started it 2 days early. Sue me. - - - - - Super straight/original '70 Mustang, I-6 / auto. No rot/ rust/ dents. For sale : 4K. - - - - - This also showed up @ my buddy's (for sale) :

Its the pic- angle was fine. We loaded it by backing 2 trailers together & winching it from one to the other. ?

This went bye-bye today; horribly rotted but new owner was happy. $3K.

Pretty clean (10K/year). Can't at all say I'm a fan of the styling tho. But wow- assuming the dealership made some money on the trade, the owner may have gotten only $25K; 4 years cost him $84,000 in depreciation. What an idiot.

Reading The Last Days of Henry Ford. HF is easily the most well-documented auto industrialist, and much of it is quite interesting.

Whew; survived another one!

Good catch on those early ‘60s coved Fords. I started looking at pics in '65-66 for some reason. Ford is an interesting study RE their big cars. For a while they really spiced them up; circa ‘57-66... but for some reason they pulled back from that. - - - - - Merc was as prolific in using contrasting cove panels as Dodge was for MoPar. Of course, the '69-70 Marauder option took the practice into it's own, unique arena. Merc's senior cars ran coves (seemingly merely copying Pontiac rears from roughly 3 years earlier) but did not extend the painted contrast treatment to the big cars: The '66 Merc is the image of a '63 Pontiac and the tan (I believe it's a '67) is not far off a '64 Pontiac.