balthazar

I've watched one of those shows about the family (mouth hanging open the whole while) & I can tell you one thing - those 17 kids are far more productive & responsible than a 1000 average American kids. They aren't laying around the house, eating Cheetos, texting & playing video games all damned day, like most waste their lives doing. Guaranteed the kids will be a lot better adjusted to what a productive member of society SHOULD be doing than the average whiner/slacker hybrid. Let 'em pump out an even 24 if they want; if they're not on welfare, who gives a $h!?

I do find Glau intriquing, but I determined it's her dead-eyes monotone portrayal that's a factor - the episode where she meets her original human version... all that emotion & 'natural' appearance from her human version killed a lot of the attraction for me. But her 'combat chassis' is most excellent.

>>"Bob Menendez. It's hard to make Dick Shelby look august, but this Senator from New Jersey was a tightly wound, boiling cauldron of mediocrity from the time he first opened his mouth. Hello, New Jersey, you actually voted for this guy? Wow."<< This, the "Soprano State", is so F'ed up politically, it's hopeless. I didn't vote for this clown; every sound bite I hear/see of him makes me blurt out "IDIOT!", but the 'blue' hardliners keep pulling those levers overwhelmingly....

>>""Of course, Yugo was never a BMW or a Cadillac, but I think most Americans did not know how to appreciate it,""<< As usual, it's the damned American's fault.

Ms. Balthazar's annalysis: "It sounds like what you are really asking is- is it too early to ask him to commit to you - is that correct? If so she says yes; 3 weeks is too soon.

>>"His dad ran American Motors? GOOD GRIEF. That explains a lot. "<< His father George W Romney oversaw AMC when it was created via the merger of Nash & Hudson in 1954, thru 1962. Note that under his leadership, Rambler did reach #3 in sales in the U.S. market in '61 and held as least as high as #6 thru '59-62. By '67, AMC was running in the #12 spot. Romney left AMC to enter politics. Romney was the protege' of his boss, George Mason, who's vision was to create a 'Big 4th' AMC : Rambler, Studebaker, Nash, Hudson, Packard, to line up with GM, but Packard boss James Nance turned down the proposed merger, perhaps unwisely, since 3 of the 5 were dead by '58. Ironically, George Romney ran for President in '68, but lost the Republican nomination to Nixon.

>>"We have a firebox heatalator with forced air circulation, so it's not just a regular fireplace."<< No doubt that's an improvement, but you still have an open flue going straight up. Try laying on the floor in the doorway of the fireplace room when it's going good; see if you feel a cool draft at the floor. That's the net heat loss: the rising heat is sucking air in from the rest of the house, pulling it in around windows & cracks and into that room. Rest of the house is getting colder because it's drawing from the outside. If there's a window near the fireplace, make sure it's cracked open as an air source, and compare the floor draft. Might let the heatalator push the heat farther thru the house.

This is the funniest thread I've ever read on here. Bravo! Jeez, WMJ; "Anti-boner"? Fantastic. But if smk is on the board, I'll be hanging usurpers out the window over at Chrysler.....

I have to wonder if the honeycomb aspect was in truth decided upon merely to obtain patent rights, as the heavy equipment field has had numerous airless tires for many years now. I've driven on them (at HE speeds), and those too, offered pneumatic "ride feel"...

Guy called back- he has about 10 projects going currently. The Buicks for sale soon are a '58 Limited 4-dr, '62 Chrysler, '57 Chrysler... and he has 2 B-59 coupes, an Invicta and an Electra with full power. All these cars are restoration candidates. He's going to resto the Electra, but the 'victa is suppoised to go up on eBay in the 1st or 2nd week of Dec. Says he's likely going to start the bidding @ $2500. He's also going to check the 'victa out tomm, I think he's going to call me back... tho I cannot say I was a 'fish on the hook' (I am NOT in the market for anything other than an absolute screaming deal). I've bookmarked his Lancia- I'll post if/when any real steel hits eBay from his stable, esp the B-59.

Cool- source I have distressingly has almost no Chevy truck totals except overalls. 22K is not bad at all, inline with the Ranchero.... unless that still wasn't enough for Chevy- I still don't get why the Camino went on that vacation...

She cleaned up real nice. Surprised a Series 75 in TX didn't have factory air, even if this is the 1st year (IIRC). Funky replacement dash material- looks like ostrich skin or something - not factory there, either. Lovely old girl, enticing project.

There was a '60 SD at an auction this summer, all there but hurt. Very seldom seen. Not sure if it was saved, but I believe so. I'd surely love to own a '60 CdV some day- luv those lines...

So weird to see a panel seam running around the backlight of a '50s car. One of these near me, in FAR worse shape, met the hammer this summer. It had a lot more wood in the cargo area, on the sides too, made me think it would look really awesome restored... but these cars need to be lowered. This one is really complete for a car almost universally ignored after, say 1958.

I don't get that either: '59-60 is an X-frame... there is little less appropriate for a cargo-based vehicle than that. Not sure what frame design Chevy used starting in '61- Pontiac went to a perimeter (NOT the same frame at all). Everything I ever heard was that sales just weren't that great- but Chevy apaprently never released those exact totals. Another probable factor was that Ford's Ranchero moved to the Falcon line for '60 and sold 21K units. Perhaps the 'chassis not suitable' referred to the intention to move the Camino to an intermediate, yet the Chevy II (tested) did not lend itself to the conversion, and the Chevelle was a few years away. Read this fascinating tidbit: >>"According to Skowronski, the planning team initially flirted with a somewhat El Camino-like concept featuring dual Corvair engines. Called the Trailblazer -- a name that would return at Chevrolet decades later -- it quickly came to naught."<< God; to be inside GM in the '50s & '60s......

Got a number back tonight.... no answer on my few questions....... & no answer @ the number. Will try again tomm.

Problem as I see it from here, Chris, is that design progression is pretty much dead. Everything's flush, shrink-wrapped and downsized; where else stylistically is there to go ??? We're left with reshuffled taillight/headlight elements and a crease or edge here or there. Car design has been pretty stagnant since the mid '80s...

>>"As have other states, Georgia laid out a boatload of incentives to land its auto plant, worth an estimated $415 million. But that’s not the same thing, the Georgia congressman said. “I don’t think we were doing that because of bad business decisions Kia was making,” Westmoreland said. “We did that to get them in here, to create the jobs, to create the taxes, to put economic development into the area.”"<< So assisting the 'MoTown 3' to continue existing would somehow NOT create taxes, NOT avoid unemployment, NOT create economic stability & development ?????? Oh, and who in their right mind would pay $38 grand for a kia ?????????????????

>>"...we're officially one step closer to being morbidly obese lethargic blobs like the people in Wall-E..."<< Nailed it.

>>"It's about 31 degrees here. Can't wait to get home and try out the fireplace again!"<< 31 degrees + fireplace = leaving a window fully open all night. Air-tight wood stove, baby; only way to burn. Right now it's 36 outside, with a good 7 MPH breeze. I've had the stove running since 3PM, and here at the machine, about as far away from the stove as I can get in my ranch house, it's about 70. It's 76 in the living room right now. On occasion I've had it up to 84 (too hot- open the window!) Stock the box, go to sleep, furnace stays off 'til 6AM. No; you can't smell the fire and any crackling is pretty muted, but giving the middle finger to the furnace in this temp is priceless. That, and I never pay for wood. I just computed last year's heating cost: $865 running the stove about every weekend and the occasional weeknight. Going to try and better that this winter. National average is around $975. I need a bumper sticker: I (heart) my wood stove.

Once I 'shopped' a full set of hubcaps off a '58 Coupe deVille at night. No worries; it went to the scrap heap soon after...

>>"even still I can make a case as to why Toyota is better."<< 'In better shape financially'? There's no arguing that at the moment. 'Having a better portfolio' is another kumquat entirely.

Damn- that phantom '62 'Camino is hot! The proportions are top-shelf / factory-looking; what a fantastic job. Why there weren't sibling 'Caminos back in the '60s... I do not know.

That's a lot of pidgeon sh!t... The Lancia is actually sort of cute, reminds me of a same year American from the front. I have issues with that MoPar-esque B-pillar, tho- lot of balancing tension there. I'd rather have a slammed American. Hmmm, Englewood is maybe an hour from me. I guess an inquiry into the B-59's situation is in order. EDIT : question sent....

>>"The same was said about seatbelts, emissions regs, CAFE et al....."<< No; the same was NOT said about seatbelts. As far as CAFE goes, we have a 35/2020 already on the table. Jumping to 50, another 50% bump, in the same time span ??? How about 35/2010 and 45/2020? >>"It's difficult to get 50 MPG, but far from impossible."<< Sure it's possible to build a car that gets 50 MPG, but this is not a suggestion to build a single car that does so, but a full product line that does so on a sales-weighted average. >>"...Europe already has fun cars that get 50 or more..."<< Any European brands with a 50 MPG fleet average, or anything close to it?