This fantastic car sold for $225,500.00. See pic and video blow.
Year: 1957
Make: DESOTO
Model: ADVENTURER
Style: CONVERTIBLE
VIN: 50417567
Exterior Color: GOLD
Interior Color:
Cylinders: 8
Engine Size: 345
The 345
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There has been a lot of parking garage incidents lately but I think this one takes the cake. This isn’t some guy losing control on the nearby road and landing IN the parking garage. Not this time. This time the driver apparently went through the concrete wall of the third story of the parking garage in Lugano, Switzerland, and fell all the way down upon some parked mopeds and a tree. The 24-year old driver was only injured slightly after flying off of the third floor. You can say that this brand new 5.0 suffered a tragic death, though.
If you look up into the parking garage, you see exactly where he fell from as there is a guy looking down and a nice chunk of wall missing. It gives you a good perspective of how far this car actually fell!
Checking the vacuum on your old car is an important part of a thorough, but most of the average guys don’t bother, or don’t have the gauge. Most often if you do have the gauge, you might not be exactly sure what the reading might be. For the recorded I’ve never had a car where the readings were stable. Normally you’ll get a fluctuating reading that move around. Below are a few ‘ranges’ and what they may indicate.
Standard Vacuum Gauge
These are for V8’s only:
– A good reading will be between 15 and 22 in. hg (a steady needle). Closing the throttle you should see a 5 notch drop and reopening it should settle back previous span (15-20).
– If you get a reading where the needle has a swing 4-5 in. hg ethier side of normal, you are looking at a possible simple carb adjustment.
– If the reading is higher than normal you need look at replacing your air filter or check to ensure your choke is not stuck.
– Low reading would be fairly steady reading around 5 hg will have you looking for a vacuum leak on the intake/carb area. Look for poor connections at the carb or any “T” or “Y” or straight though connection. Baring that look for cracked hose. You know I hate vacuum leaks. I recently restored a 1984 corvette with the Crossfire injection set up. Rather than chase down a single spot, I just replaced them all. That was a lot of vacuum hose and tucked in some stuff spots. But you are working on something bit older, like my 1970 Mustang, replace it all, it’s going to go back sooner or later, especially with the kind of temps we have out here in the Southwest.
– If you get a reading that between 8 and 14 you are looking at a timing issue at the least to leaking piston rings at the worse. Do a compression check for the leak and use your timing light before you tear it apart.
– If the needle is swinging (unsteady) between 14 and 19 hg that indicates valve guide problems. That going to be a valve guide problem.
Thanks for reading
Tim
I thought I’d take a minute finish up the write-up on the very first upholstery job. I finished it up a two weeks ago and really missed driving the Mustang, but that’s what happens when you do your own work and you can only fit it between all the normal life stuff that needs to get done.
Yes, as I was reminded twice by a couple of car acquaintances, I used a kit, some say they aren’t much different from slip covers, but as you can see in my shots here that’s a bit of an understatement.
Now these next two videos are not all that great but I think you can see the removal of the back and the fasteners. I’ve worked with these type of fasteners before in my father’s body shop (back in the early ’70s) nearly all door panels and seat back were fastened in that way. They work really well but bend them (and they do bend easy of they aren’t aligned with the hole and pressure is applied) and you’ll have to spend sometime reshaping them, even then they might not hold properly, or replace them.
Check out the videos:
Here are a few more photos and the finished product. Not to bad for my first one. I have the passenger’s side to do.
With the plastic seatback removed.
Needed to remove the back release
2 piece
release removed.
Helpful hint: All the hardware and fasteners have to pass through upholstery. Rather than try to cut holes, I made X cuts and pressed the screw or hardware through. This made it as tight as possible.
Markings on the Foam
Good shot of the cloth sleeve with the wire passed through.
Here you would pass the hog wire while in the hog-nose pliers through the cloth between the upholstery and the wire. You then have to shove this down between the two pieces of foam and grab a spring.
Finished product.
Replacing the seat track was done before I married the bottom and back. Placing it back in the car was a little tricky..until I figured out that moving the set on the track was the way to get the studs to drop back in to holes in the floor board.
Over all this was not as tough as I thought it would be. The passenger side will be quicker. I’ll post the final product on that side.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
I was recently talking to a coworker of mine who own a 1949 Pontiac Silver Streak Delivery Van (link – http://wp.me/pKHNM-Bx ) and we were discussing his 6 volt system and the troubles with low amperage.
Well I just ran across a couple of interesting articles dealing with that subject. Now I will tell you I am not “the guy” for electrical work – nope not me (I had a bad experience – ok – a couple of bad ones). But even this one I can understand.
Increasing the power supply often means that you need to convert to 12 volt and maybe 15 years ago yes, but now 6 volts are readily available. So here is what you do (sorry no pics)
Take two 6 volt batters and link them in parallel by connecting the two negative terminals to each other and the two positive to each other. The main positive cable goes from the positive terminal of the first battery to ground and the main negative cable is connected to the negative terminal of the second battery. Of course in some case you may have to modify the batter shelf, but it will sure help kick up the cold cranking amps.
Thanks for reading
Tim
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.
Thanks for reading
Tim
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.
At the entrance. Here are two of the cars that are up for raffling. There is also the a vette you can “try on”. In this clip I stated that the vettes at the end of the building were there for customer to sit. No true. That is where the code R is fulfilled. Code R is for delivery at the NCM. You can view a 1984 C4 in the window.
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