Dream67Olds442

Mike - Here are the only 2 pics of the Valiant I could find quickly. That's me in the 2nd pic, guessing I'm around 3 or 4.

slantflat

Ah, right. Thats a 62. Would have been push buttons on the left side of the dash. So now you can tell everyone you had a pet Toad when you were 4.

Jamesbo

Chris, I wasn't speaking about me I was referring to the High school boys gifts from young lasses. Kinda like the ghost from Christmas past

Dream67Olds442

Thanks Mike! Our family drove that car from Michigan out through the Badlands and Black Hills and then out to Yellowstone in the summer of 1965. I remember my Dad having to pull over and stop several times going over the highest parts of the Grand Tetons to try and adjust the carb due to the altitude. Toad huh, I can see the nickname!

Dream67Olds442

Jim - I knew what you were saying from the get-go, I just wanted to try and inject some levity.

slantflat

I heard that term, the Road Toad, on some TV show years ago and thought it was funny. And fitting. Found out some time later that everyone calls it that. I like Toads. I have a 60. But mine is a 3 speed manual on the floor.

Good news at the eye doctor today. No problems and my prescription didn't change. I was there a little less than 3 years ago. Glad that's taken care of for awhile.

So Raquel Welch died. I met her son briefly, probably 20 years ago. I had gone out to LA to see my best friend and we went to pick up a gal from his church group to go out, and she was rooming with him. We shook hands, nice to meet you, yada yada, then we left. That was that. He could walk up to me and say boo I wouldn't know him.

Two more to go. I've heard conflicting weather reports for the weekend. Guess we play it by ear.

Dream67Olds442

Mike - Funny (odd) that you're into Valiants and Corvairs and my Dad owned one of each when I was young. I don't know what year his Corvair was either and I don't have any pictures of that one. All I really remember about it was it was blue, a 4-door, and it too had an unusual gear selection lever on the dash to the right of the steering wheel. You slid the lever up/down to access the various gears. Oh, and I remember we always had to ride with the windows at least cracked because of the fumes. It's one saving grace was it did well on the snowy winter roads in Michigan. I'm blaming that car on my diminished mental capacity!

Vintage Chief

Neither my Mom nor my brother two years younger than me knew how to check the oil on Mom's 1963 Corvair. My brother was out driving it, brought it home, parked it in the garage & the next day told us he thought something was wrong w/ the car since smoke was coming out of the heating vents. They ran it dry - no oil - cracked block. When attempting to start it that 'next morning' it sounded Gawd awful - like someone hitting pots & pans w/ a hammer.

Vintage Chief

I used to play that tape in H.S. w/ Dad's '64 Buick Wildcat convertible (white top/crimson lower body) - after dropping two drive shafts out of the car (reverse>slam into Drive) Dad said it was time for me to get my own car. He actually picked out the 1967 4-4-2 for me - thanks Dad!

Dream67Olds442

Other than the fumes, the Corvair my Dad had seemed to be pretty reliable and ran well. The one exception being that I know he had to replace the bearings more than once in the cooling fan on top of the engine. I used to enjoy riding in that car because it seemed like you were riding very low like a sports car.

Vintage Chief

I drove that Corvair a couple times. It is NOT the car you want to be driving in snow or on icy roadways. Snow wasn't so bad "if" you were going straight with the weight in the rear - but what fun is that.

Dream67Olds442

I was pretty young when we had ours. I just remember him saying on more than one occasion how well it went in the snow. Everything's relative right, compared to a '67 Cutlass or a '69 Lemans, I'm sure it did go well in the snow. We never had any 4×4 vehicles growing up.

Dream67Olds442

Ugh! I had absolutely no intention of getting up at 0500 when I went to bed about Midnight. Heavy thunderstorms rolled in about 0230 and Monty had one of his usual freakouts and I didn't get him settled down until about 0430. No sooner than I got him settled down, Maggie walks over to my side of the bed and lays her head on mine, her sign she needs to go out. Double ugh! All this while my wife's sawing logs. Well, by 0500 I was wide awake and ready to get up and away from the chaos. I don't usually take mid-day naps, but this might be a day for one.

Hope you all have a great day!

Greg Rogers

Yep somehow people got around in the snow/ice with regular old RWD cars. Course everyone had a set of "snowbites" in the garage ready to put on in November. Those big Ford Galaxies Olds 88's, Impalas, whatever, with big heavy V-8's in the front were terrible. But that was what everyone was used to. I never drove a Corvair or Toronado in those days. I do remember when I bought a used 1980 Pontiac Phoenix (FWD) and how great it would get around!!

Greg Rogers

We are sposta get 4-5 inches of wet snow today. I wonder if the storm you got is the same one that they say is coming up here? Is Maggie alot better?

Dream67Olds442

Greg - I haven't looked at the radar to see how that storm we got is tracking, but I wouldn't doubt it's the same one headed your way.

Thanks for asking about Maggie. She is still gimpy, but we believe we are seeing some progress each day. She is definitely putting some weight on the bad leg now, but you can still see her favoring it. If we didn't think we were seeing some improvement each day my wife would have a Vet appointment set up for her in a heartbeat. Hope you guys are doing well!

slantflat

Good morning everyone.

Another slow start to the day. What's weird is, there's lots of activity but no wheels getting signed. I like my wall guy, but I'll be glad when I get a new guy next week.

Norm it's too bad you didn't have a good experience with one of the greatest winter-driving cars of all time. I drove a Corvair through a couple winters, and it was excellent at all times. Even on ice. Okay not really. Nothing is good on ice. The long and short of the fumes inside was because GM used an inferior rubber compound in the O rings sealing the pushrod tubes which then cracked, and oil got onto the tin, which of course is the basis for the heat. The blower bearings crack me up when they go bad. At idle, it's like they are singing to you. Woo-woooo-woo-woooo!

Speaking of winter, it's going to get up to 74 today, and then torrential downpours tonight. Maybe we will get rained out and it won't rain all summer. One can only hope.

Okay my first wheel should be forthcoming any time now. Hope everyone has a good day.

Jamesbo

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=...AAAAAdAAAAABARI think Ralph Nadar should have left the poor Corvair alone and spent his time on the real death trap The VW bug. Talk about roll over and burn

slantflat

I've always heard that Ralphie started with the VW and they told him to pound sand. The biggest thing about the Corvair was that GM had him tailed to dig up dirt on him, and that's what he squawked most about, and oh ya, since they did that I must be right. As crazy as I drove when I was a kid, I never came close to tipping over my VW. Of course mine was a 70 so it had IRS. But it did catch on fire once. My fault, mostly.

Chris was your house just built in that picture? Why did Dad park to the side of the driveway? Didn't want oil spots on the new driveway?

Jamesbo

Mike, I never liked the idea of the gas tank being betwix you and a front end collision

slantflat

Don't worry, Jamesbo, it's only 10 gallons.

Dream67Olds442

Mike - Yes, my parents had just had that house built (1963) in that picture, that is why there is no landscaping yet and the grass hasn't filled in. I don't know why the car is parked off the driveway, it could be because he didn't want to get oil on it, or maybe because the concrete had not had enough time to cure yet. We may have not even moved in yet? Funny thing, when my Sister came along only 4-years later, we moved to a larger home kitty-corner across the street not more than 25-yds away. The house we moved to is the one that is on a small lake and is where my Sister still lives.

You may find this hard to believe, but my Dad also owned a Beetle. He bought a new 1974 Beetle to commute to/from his new teaching job 50-miles round trip, which was a long commute where we lived. I probably drove that car more than my own during Highschool because my '65 Mustang was broke down more than it was running. That Beetle was the cheapest plain Jane model you could buy, not even a radio. It was definitely the most reliable car my family ever had. I abused the hell out of it, taking it off roading all the time and always driving it with my foot to the floor. We could not make that thing quit running. The only thing that ever went bad on it was you'd have to replace the muffler every 3 or 4-years because of the salt.

Jamesbo

]]My ex s father bought a VW bug after the war [with flapper turn signals]and drove it until the floors rotted out then bought another newer one put several engine in it when he passed away he had driven 3 bugs his entire life.I once decide to do the math and see what he saved buy not buying a new car every 3/4 years AMAZING

Greg Rogers

Oh yeah, we're getting it now.

Buddy likes it!


This was after just a few minutes.

oh boy, oh boy!!!

Such fun!!

slantflat

Well Jamesbo you gonna tell us how much he saved? I'm guessing he wasn't much of a car person, not minding driving the same car for years on end.

Greg that's making me twitch. I read once that one inch of rain equals 10 inches of snow. If that were true, the snow would be over our rooftops.

Fasten your seat belts, we're starting at 4 tomorrow. Who would have guessed it I know. Well, it's supposed to be nice tomorrow so maybe I'll get something done.

Hope everyone has a good evening.

Dream67Olds442

Greg - Buddy's a super cute pup, looks like you were both having a great time! Thanks for sharing the pics!

Jamesbo

Mike at the risk of being banned from CO, I can remember driving my sixty nine H/O and thinking this is really nothing but a Cutlass with a bunch of stuff on it [like side mirrors that you cant use use unless you're a crane and a big front scoop that you cant see over ] Don't get me wrong I love cars BUT that is all they REALLY are cars

Koda

My least favorite view of the OAI hood is from the driver's seat.

Also, non-convex passenger mirrors are within 2 degrees of useless.

Koda

Got plenty pissed off today when I was working on things in order and this Japanese woman engineer, who thinks she gets to boss the department around, was chewing me out for not going faster. I'm about the fourth engineer she has pissed off to the point of not working with her. If I wouldn't be fired, calling the INS and having her sent home would be considered.

So, I am spending all my Papa Dough, and ordering pizza. FIVE MUDDAHFUGGIN DOLLARS for a delivery fee! Is it coming via Bentley?

otto72

Simply instruct the "boss around the department" person to communicate any concerns, through the union rep for the work group. Concerns or questions about safety and speed and or pace issues can be discussed as they present themselves.
Done. Calm and to the point.

Vintage Chief

Saw an albino (leucistic) Robin this morning. About one in 30,000 display some form of leucism.

Koda

Toyota is not unionized in the USA, and, if we were, it would probably be for the line workers anyway, like most UAW joints are.

The good part was that she missed the "you're about to get punched in the face" tone I had when responding to her, but the Americans picked up on it. 17 years in corporate America has made me able to make "well, thank you for letting me set my own schedule" sound like a threat.

If it gets bad enough, I'll just ignore her and she can communicate through my boss.

Koda

Bird is the word. I can't imagine that being an advantage.

Vintage Chief

Certainly don't believe any advantage is bestowed on a maverick individual. This bird was w/ a flock of normal Robins digging worms in the backyard. I watched it for some time & it appeared to fit in just fine w/ the rest of the Robins. There are plenty of hawks & owls around here and I would think it would stick out like a sore thumb.

Fun71

WTH? I feel as if I’m a car person and I’ve been driving one of my cars for 32 years, one for 19 years, and the newest one for 16 years.

Am I really not much of a car person after all?

Vintage Chief

Yeah, I wasn't quite certain where Mike was heading w/ his comment.

slantflat

Good morning everyone.

Oh boy. That was one of those comments I didn't think all the way through. I'm sorry Kenneth, it wasn't meant to insult anyone. I was only assuming the father in law was being frugal, by keeping his Volkswagens for such extended amounts of time.

Jamesbo do you want some company in the CO soup line? At the end of the day, they are all just cars, that have heaters and wipers and are meant to drive in the snow and salt and rain and cold weather. I doubt very seriously any car designer is worried about what enthusiasts will be thinking 40 years later.

Another 4am day. It started raining on my way in, but is supposed to stop by noon. I'd love to get something done today but I already know Mom wants to go to the laundromat today. That leaves me tomorrow to do something because Sunday is taken up with Walmart.

John as I approach middle age I find it increasingly difficult to not say something wise to people who are irritating me. I'd probably find some very American phrase that she wouldn't understand and use it on her. Petty. Unprofessional. Deer in the headlights look, priceless.

Okay have a good day everyone.

Vintage Chief

Appears folks in the Big Peach are having their asses pummeled from this storm front right about now. It looks like the majority of the rain associated w/ the front may dissipate as it gets closer to the Right Coast late this afternoon. The winds won't abate however - Southwest winds 25 to 35 kt with gusts up to 45 kt, becoming northwest tonight. Seas 6 to 11 ft expected. Tee time 8:16am - it will be challenging.

Jamesbo

Yes Mike, He was frugal but a really nice guy, He d give you the shirt off his back. His main problem was he couldn't say NO to any woman Mother, wife daughter neighbor didn't matter He actually had a stroke and passed away cutting his widow neighbor's yard in 100 degree heat in Peninsula. He had something you would have loved . His storage building was a POW hut he bought from Uncle Sugar after the war Really well constructed. Not sure how he got it moved onto his property

Greg Rogers

Got about 8-10 inches- now work begins.....