balthazar

I don't know why:

Check to see it's been thru the roster of applicable recalls for it, otherwise, good luck!

Wowsers; yep they did. Fu-ullllly loaded, too. Its gonna maker a sweet, ateention-grabber on the show scene when done.

I was in a neat ex-cattle barn Tuesday night, it housed a late model Corvette, a real solid '56 Buick Century coupe, a '54 Packard Super Clipper coupe, a '59 Olds Delta 88 4-dr flattop, a pair of '30-31 Ford coupes, (2) '62 Tempest LeMans. The '54, '56, '59, and the '30s have been there for decades (which the dust coating confirms), the owner stores them there and pays his rental fee quarterly, without fail. They are reportedly not for sale. The one '30 was last on the road in 1975. The Super Clipper was really tugging my coat sleeve hard.

Saw a '90s Taurus, driving down a 4-lane road at about 40, with the hood up & a battery strapped to the core support with bungies.

My buddy has an '02 with 149K on it, and he reports the brake lines are past due, too. My B-59 blew out what I believe was an original brake line, tho it had about the same miles as my truck (105K) it was 36 yrs old. If indeed this brine scenario is at fault, the safety issue is monstrous.

That lil' 'nick' in the line is the original blow-out point: IMO, this is pretty sad for an 8-yr old truck (107K).

Truck is done. Got all 4 bleeders out & replaced this morning. I was wondering if the ABS module would add more drama to bleeding the brakes, but it went very well. Pedal is excellent and the truck went about 55 miles today. So from the dealer-discount quote of $2000, doing it myself cost me right about $330 (lines, bleeders, fluid). As a bonus, I also got to rotate my tires for free; gee a lift makes that easy!

Soaked the bleeders end of day Wed, and I sprayed them down this morning with Seafoam DeepCreep, which was getting good reviews online. I was looking for a product called Kroil, but it's rarely available retail, apparently, and I didn't have the time to wait for an amazon box. My buddy said he got one loose; we're going to hit it tomm morning early. I hope to hell I don't have to buy new calipers. My mind is already spinning with alternative means of extracting them if they stay tight.

Lines got here today, I will say they are definitely a quality product. Some of the longer pieces are sent with what they term 'shipping bends', which are gentle radius bends they bracket with tags telling you to straighten it between the tags. That worked out fine. I & my buddy's mechanic got all the old lines out, and snaked the new lines in- it really wasn't as bad as I thought. Initially, I was thinking I'd have to drop the fuel tank, but no. Fitment was very good, just a little twiddling to get the lines mated up at the MC, not enough room twixt the MC & the fuse box. I think it took us about 3.5 hrs. Issue left on the table tho is, the factory bleeders look like they came off the Titanic. Soaked them down real good and going to carefully try & get them out tomm. Everybody say a little prayer to the Twin Gods of Chrome & Horsepower on that one, please. These are YET MORE components the next Silverados should have installed at the factory in STAINLESS.

With it's inset headlights & Art Deco grillework, the '40-41 Olds' certainly are stylistically intriguing. With Cadillac, I'd be all over a suitcase-fendered '41, but the '40s don't do nearly as much for me. Guess in cars I would boil it down to Olds, Buick or Cadillac. None is jumping out at me over the others. If we open it to trucks (not in step with the Turnpike scenario), it'd only be Ford.

Yea, I get annoyed at the 'flubbing' of car sounds in movies. Hickman doesn't look like he aged well between the 2 movies. RE the Bullitt sounds- those were distinctly manual-trans noises, something the Ventura obviously wasn't. More balthazar grumbling.

^ Interesting- never saw that one. After watching some of the above, I had to check out the Bullitt scene- sure sounds like they lifted Mustang soundtrack from there for the Ventura here.

Looks like the bottom of the grille is V'd like the Malibu's, for example. Sketch looks very good IMO, but the ride height & those tires (which look to be about 35"ers) is not going to match production.

^ agreed EDIT :: just ordered the lines, full set of 7 pieces, in stainless, with shipping: $299. Will be here either tom or Wed the latest.

Since my last post the only notable payload was 11 sheets of drywall for the above job. Oh, I also carried a container box roll-up door & tension spring assembly (plus a dozen milk crates/spackle buckets).... which turned out doesn't fit my container. Oh, and the other day I had 2 kitchen cabinets and one of these vintage metal upright cabinets in back, plus a small pile of paver blocks. I really could not LIVE without a truck. I find this funny, because at heart I am a car person and never imagined I would have a truck. Until I got one.

Working out of a W-body GP is a killer. Still, I'm sort of surprised the 4-ft ladder fit in it (back seat- not the truck). Cleaned out a finished job that had been supplied by my truck over numerous days- the GP is packed to the gunwales. $279 for stainless (plus $17 shipping) is a decent price, I'm going to order them. I can finagle around my lift time in my buddy's shop until they get here. Thanks Camino. BTW, I did call LMC today and they sided with me; in that the 2500HD CC was NOT listed, they believed the lines were different and they didn't have them.

How come there's only 1 CC model, and its the 1500HD? At $330, I'll bend my own. Gee I'm cheap.

Had to make a hard stop on the highway @ a light this morning, and blew out a brake line. I drove it back home (about 4 miles); I've had more than one experience piloting brake-compromised vehicles home. Seems like a simple enough repair; drop the fuel tank, the line goes from whatever the mid-cab distribution block back to the axle- maybe 7-ft (I didn't measure it).... but as a matter of course, I should just replace them all. Twin lines running forward are looking crusty, too. For the F of it, I called the dealer. It's less than 2 miles from me, and I'm on a first-name basis with the service guy via regular service on the Malibu. He told me he replaced all the lines on his '02 Tahoe, and it was $2000. With his employee discount. This puts me in the same boat I was with my F-150: when it's brakes went out, the dealer wanted $1400, so I had them put whatever they had taken off back together, they made me sign a waiver, and I drove it back home. I did all the brake work there (MC, lines, rear cylinders) for about $350 in parts. If the dealer today could've gotten it in today and done the one line for -say- $400, I would've gone for it out of convenience. As it is, he ballparked me at $700 for the one line. Amazingly, there are no pre-bent lines from GM- they bend them in the shop. Weird. I just cannot pay the overhead in dealership rates- I refuse. The price here is really quite outrageous IMO. Anyway, my buddy has a shop with 3 lifts, so Monday it's Brake Line City. Wish me well.

No; I'm fine with the 'slip-in', and I love the show. I would love that sort of lifestyle! I was just pointing out for anyone who would whine about 229 Chargers mashed, that it was out of 185,000 cars. Yes, Daisy then had a killer combo of looks & personality that is very tough to eclipse.

Yeah, sorry for omitting the link : http://www.pickupspecialties.com/Bestop/trekstep_truck_bed_step_bestop.html

IIRC, the grand total used in the show was 229. For context, Dodge built 89K Chargers in '69, and 96K in '68 (yep a few '68s snuck into the show too).

The Pep Boys near me went way downhill. They used to have a decent selection of Grade 5/8 hardware, but then they ditched it. I see plenty of neon wiper blades covers & floor mats, tho. There were 2 NAPAs near me, the one did close, the other is in a major urban area 10 minutes away- they're still rolling along. Also have the AA & AZ twins, plus a National, a couple auto body supply houses, a Peskoe (dont kno if thats a chain or not), a Strauss, a Fastenal outlet, a truck parts supplier, jeez... quite a bit it seems.

The Ford tailgate 'man step' does look pretty ill-thought-out & flimsy. I don't believe the handle on the gate will last long under heavy use, and frankly the setup should be located to one side rather than in the center. Not sure what the better solution here is, but I like this much better: But... I do want the bedside step on both sides (ahead of the rear wheel). Like this: Unfortunately, it's $250 per step here.

I would really like to, tho work has been crushing lately. I already had to pass on Carlisle. I'll have to see...