Folks seem to like this segment so let’s continue with 1950.
19 major car makers existed back then and Chevy topped the production totals with 1,498,590 units followed closely by Ford with 1, 208,912. The rest of the field were all less than have that.
So you’ve read my review and I promised to drop a note as to the “Long Lasting” part of Griot’s Garage’s – Long Lasting Tire Dressing.
Now is has rained nearly every day since I applied the dressing.
So take a look at the tires with 2 applications and 3 applications.
Tires with 2 applications of tire dressing
Here is the tire with 3 applications of tire dressing
Here is what I think as a wrap up. Long lasting to me doesn’t necessarily mean just duration, but can it stand up to everyday driving – oh—yeah…just in case I failed to mention, the Vette is my daily driver. It lived up to the Griot promise. I’ll continue using this product.
From Michael Woodword – hey, I just got a 1993 thunderbird with a 5.0 HO. every time I come to a stop, the oil pressure drops dramatically. I was wanting to know if you would have any idea what could cause this. Thank You
But when I get back up to speed its fine.
It would be nice to get an opinion from an expert which ar
nt easy to find
ANSWER: Michael. The pressure should drop when you stop, dramatic swings in the gauge could be a problem with the gauge or you need replace your oil sending unit.
I recent attended a showing of the latest Transformers movie (“Dark Side of the Moon“) and if you know anything about this series or of the cartoon of years gone by, you’ll know that the main characters are machines that turn in to robots. Most of these are vehicles, cars, trucks, semis and even military aircraft.
The car group included a lot of chevys this time, a Camaro which is one of the main stairs, an Impala and a Corvette (actually a representation of a prototype Corvette). The Corvette transformed into a rollerblading robot – which I thought unfitting of my favorite car.
There is the human hero and of course a hot model as his object of desire.
When the hot model was threatened or in harm’s way you could hear the audience get involved. But when an evil robot was about to execute the Camaro character the audience got really vocal. Kids cried at that images, thinking that the Camaro was about to get wacked, forget about the girl….just don’t hurt the car!!!
Yes we love your cars. Oh and the good cars – the Chevy‘s– saved the world again.
But that’s movies and you can just enjoy it with no lasting harmful effects..unless you are me or maybe it wasn’t me but the subliminal messages. I left wanting a Camaro, but not just any 2012 Camaro, but a yellow with black striped bumble bee Camaro.
It must be subliminal messages, I had the same desire after watching Will Smith zip through the empty streets of New York City in the 2007 Shelby GT500 Mustang in his move ‘I Am Legend’ yes the red with white stripes.
Let’s jump up 13 years from 1926 to 1939 and see what the numbers look like.
1939 shows Chevy in the lead for production numbers with 577,278 units produced. Ford is about 100k behind at 487,031 (half of what they were producing in 1926). The rest of the makers finished up like this:
OK after all these years, after the car was gone. I stopped by the house. I was met by Al, short for Albert, not Alan, as Al informed me.
I told him that I had always wanted to check on the Grande and he informed I was a bit late. He said he didn’t mind answers a few questions.
So I asked Al how got the car and he said he bought it back in 1972 from some guy. “It was a nice car with an automatic.” Of course my next question was what was under the hood and he said ‘nothing’. “Took it out about 10 years ago and parked on the side of the house.” He told me he never got the engine fixed, ” ’cause it ‘cost too much.” He ended up letting the guy that did some work on it keep. “Ya know, it might have been a 302.” He said he didn’t really know want to do with the body and just ended up hanging on to it.
So I asked him where the car end up, hoping it was sent out to be restored. He said there was this guy from Texas that would stop by every now and then and ask if it was for sale. He drives large pick up and always has an empty trailer attached. This same guy that has stopped by a co-worker of mine, who has her son’s 70 Monte Carlo and her daughter’s 1969 Camaro sitting under her car port – waiting for some TLC and try’s to convince her that she should sell them to him. She chases him off each time, but he’ll swing by a few months later.
A couple of weeks ago, Texas dude, stops by Al’s home and Al decided to get the Grande out of the yard and sold the man from Texas.
We talked a bit longer about my 1970 Mustang coupe and I showed him a couple of pics on my phone and then thanked him for his time.
For the Mustang the studs pass through the track and the nuts are under the car so a little space is need. Since most average guy’s don’t have a lift in their home garage, so I pull out the trusty 2 ton floor jack and a jack stand.
As most Mustang owners know, they were built with subframes. When jacking up the car with a floor jack place it on the frame, or use the standard scissor jack that attached to the seam at the rocker panel. Either way once it’s in the air, DO NOT FORGET to put the jack stand under the car. Yes it actually takes longer to do the set up then to remove the bolts…but take the time to be save.
2 Ton Floor Jack
Floor pan plug that protect the bolts and studs.
These plugs pry out very easily. I was able to get them out with just my fingers. Once they are removed you’ll have access to the nut. The distance between the opening and the nut requires an extension and the length of the stud requires a deep socket. These were 1/2″. The Mustang was raised in Arizona (get it? First reader to drop a comment explaining “get it” wins a DVD.) and all the plugs are in place. This kept all the road grime and what not off the studs and nuts, they separated easily.
When you are done you should have this many parts.
When I purchased the Mustang I was told that the upholstery was replaced at some point. (Keep that in mind for later as well.)
As you can see in the video I wasn’t able to get the seat out of the car. I initially I figured it was because I couldn’t pull out level enough for the studs to clear the holes due to the fact that I was holding the camera. However, after putting it down I still shouldn’t get the seat out. So I climbed back under the car and found that there was a second nut on the right rear stud. I’m guess it was doubled up, when the last installer wasn’t sure whether they already but one on? And of course you can see by the previous picture that those two nuts not the same as the others.
Part III will be coming up in a day or so.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
I know, I have a lot of work scheduled for the Mustang. This includes interior work and yes maybe doing it all at once would be a good idea. But I drive it a couple of times a week and the seat is getting worse. So I decided it needed to be fixed.
The kit is from TMI and I think I purchased it from a Mustang parts dealer, but I don’t recall which one. Here’s a couple of videos on it.
What I noticed is the black piping. I know that the car was re-upholstered before I purchased it, so I’m guessing that this was not original, at least they don’t make them in the reproduction world.
I was ready an article in one of the many auto related magazines (can’t recall which one…I’m behind on my reading….a bit <<>>>) and the author was stating that it’s no longer the Mopar guys vs. Ford guys or vs Chevy, but now it’s just tuner vs. tuner.
I first realized that, he was indeed correct and secondly that it really extended into many more areas of life. But for now, I’ll stick with why I’m writing this.
When I was a kid (60’s and 70’s) there were clean lines. My Dad was a GM guy or more specifically a Chevy guy, his Dad had Mopars (but really anything that got him to a store for a ‘soda’ was fine with him). On other side of the family (Mom’s side) there wasn’t much going on there with my uncles (except one who introduced me to Corvettes at the age of about 4 or 5), except my grandfather who always seemed to have a Ford – actually they were always the huge Mercury Marques or similar Merc model.
So there were many discussion on which brand lasted longer, ran better, had more power and a very important are for ‘way’ upstate New York State, which one rusted slower (seems there were two types of cars no matter what brand – those with rust holes and those about to have rust holes). Now school was where things got hyped. Even as far back as grade school there were discussions about which car brand was better….I recall even then the full name of F.O.R.D – “Found On (side of) Road Dead”.
That was the core of a car guy’s or gal’s life back then. Even those that made a living working on them had preferences.
But that is all being lost. It’s hard to tag the exact cause or point in time this happened. However, I’m going to blame racing. Yup straight up, drag racing and oval track racing. The thought that a funny car is really a Mustang or the template fitted oval track car is a Camaro or a Camry, is merely an illusion. When the running of “real” cars stopped, the rivalry began to die.
Funny Car “Mustang” This is John Forces car…no offense intended
Not a Mustang
Camry Funny Car
Looks like the stang.
Ford Mustang
NASCAR Camry
NASCAR CAMARO
Coming up next: So where does the lack rivalry lead us?
Like you, I grew up in a GM only family. My dad bought Chevy Station Wagons (stripper Biscaynes) for family hauler duty and Buick LeSabres for his personal daily drivers. Each and every car he bought faithfully lasted 100K miles with only minor repairs and service.
Then, in the 1980s several things happened that destroyed car loyalty. One, all GM cars were exactly alike both in appearance and crappy reliability. My dad was devastated that his 1982 Buick with Olds 305 V8 was in the shop 100 days per year, each and every year of the 36 months he owned that car, then his 1989 Beretta was the same in reliability. Second, the Japanese, or rather JAPAN, INC, realized that turning cars into ‘appliances’ was exactly what America needed and wanted. Styling is not as important as 200K reliability and 60% re-sale value. Finally, Detroit failed the American consumer by trying to make big profits on SUVs rather than compete on quality car products. All of this contributed to the errosin of car loyalty.
I read an article awhile back that stated that the Asian brand cars have loyalty among themselves in that Honda people buy Toyotas and Toyota people buy Hondas, and some people only consider all Asain brands both Japanese and Korean, but American loyalty has boiled down to the large truck market only. Pick Up truck owners are loyal to only GM, Ford, or Chrysler. In fact, the article mentioned that MOST F150 owners are likely to own Toyota products as their car product.
For me, I was a “MOPAR, or NO CAR” loyal Chrysler buyer for all of my driving life. My first car was a 1969 Dodge Coronet 440 that ruled the street of my neighborhood (less the occasional MACH1 that would beat me). My second car was a Road Runner that never lost a race. Then I matured into a Plymouth Horizon, a Plymouth Laser, followed by a Shelby Charger, a Shelby Lancer, and the present day LeBaron Convertible. I bought Chrysler products because they were the underdog of the Big 3, because Lee Iacoccoa needed our support, because they were the most patriotic brand, and because they were the biggest bang for the buck.
The Daimler takeover ended that loyalty. The FIAT ownership makes permanent that I will not buy another MOPAR.
Today, I am not loyal to any car manufacturer. I can pretty much guarentee you that I won’t buy foreign in that I ‘follow the money’; in other words, Ford and GM money do come home no matter where the assembly point, or source of the car. I lean towards Ford products in that they did not take a bail out, Bill Ford is a family owner of the company, Alan Mullay is an engineer that realizes crappy cars do not sell, and the Mustang is still the very best Muscle Car for the money. Always has been, and I hope will always will be!
Submitting my rant for the day, Bill
RT @JERZEEBABY1: Auto racing returns to Trenton, NJ this weekend! http://t.co/j5p8i8dltS
RT @dustinlong: Covered Auto Racing RT @APSE_sportmedia: Retiring Bill Center 1 of a kind. Nobody outworked him. http://t.co/vasTGbmbY2 vi…
