Good or Bad for the Jews

"Good or Bad for the Jews"

Many years ago, and for many years, I would travel to Morocco to visit uncles, cousins, and my paternal grandmother. Some lived in Tangiers;...

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Cars and Stuff . . .

Been taking a break from blogging. At times, I find the exercise too depressing. We are seeing the gravest crisis to face Western civilization at least since WWII, and perhaps much before that. We have no Churchill, no Thatcher, no Reagan to rally the West to bestir it to defend itself.

At times, I just can't keep going over the disaster, again and again. So, I retreat to other undertakings: my dogs, of course, who are an inexhaustible source of optimism, loyalty, and plain ol' fun, and, as I have bored my six or seven readers for some time, to old cars. Big, gleaming, noisy hunks of American chrome, glass, and steel. Cars with heart and soul from the nation that brought you rock-and-roll.

My latest acquisition arrived home yesterday from some six weeks of major surgery: 1973 Mach 1 Mustang with a 351 Cleveland, new four wheel disc brakes, rebuilt Holley four barrel carburetor, rebuilt transmission, all new hydraulic piston clutch, new Hurst four-speed shifter, new electronic ignition, new front and rear suspension, new exhaust system, new 17 inch rims and tires, new headlights, new differential, new steering wheel and new . . . oh, never mind.

Here she is:













I got her registered quickly thanks to a local car registration service which dealt with the despicable DMV; for a small fee, they got all the paperwork straightened out in a matter of minutes instead of the hours it would have taken me at the despicable DMV. Did I mention that the DMV is despicable?

I'd say the car is about 7/8's restored. It's got a few little things--e.g., non-working radio, clock, and tach--and, perhaps, a couple of bigger things--e.g., fuel injection, headers--I could have done had my budget and the Diplowife's patience held out. Considering, however, the near-death shape the beast was in when first acquired, I should call her Fenix, Lazarus, or Harold Stassen. Things that just do not give up and die.

Well, she looks pretty good, but can she run? That was the question the entire world was asking yesterday--OK, OK, I was asking. The answer came back a thunderous, gut-rumbling, "Yes!"

I fired up the Cleveland, shaking windows throughout the neighborhood, and getting thumbs-up and cheers from passing school kids, "Look at the fat old guy with the cool car!" Let's face it, fellow car-lovers, collecting and restoring old classic cars is largely about impressing the impressionable and boring everybody else to tears.

Under the terms of my insurance policy, I must keep her in a garage. I've run out of space at house number one, so I had to drive her some 70 miles to house number two where she will reside with my 2015 GT Mustang. Off we went onto the California freeways! She did great in our night-time run on the I-15. Hit 85 mph in no time before I backed off a bit just in case the CHP were around. This, after all, was a shake-out cruise, and, of course, since the enviros have declared us to be in a severe drought, it was raining heavily. Southern California drivers do not do well even in the most mild of drizzles. A little water on the road, and your life is in great peril!

Hard to believe we drove cars like this 40-60 years ago: no cup holders; no a/c; no concern for ergonomics with gauges and switches in odd, hard-to-see and hard-to-reach places; uncomfortable seats; smell of fuel; lots of vibration; and the noise! The Noise! THE NOISE! Still, a lot of fun. More fun than reading or writing about world events . . .

I promise to write something very depressing this week as penance.


29 comments:

  1. Please feel free to blog about your cars. Brings back many fond memories of my youth.

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  2. Congratulations. License plate should be DPLOMAD.

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  3. Well, unless you are planning on having the best gravestone in the graveyard (which impresses no one), spend it and enjoy it while you can >};o)

    Phil B

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  4. Very nice; I am always happy to read more about your cars, and the dogs too.

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  5. My personal motto: You don't see many hearses towing trailers.

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  6. Beautiful car! Takes me back (with happy reveries) to my '69 440 with a 4-speed Hurst, 4 barrel/double pumper, electronic fuel pump, and loudest headers/glasspacks I could buy.

    Keep up the happy posts - the others (while important and revealing) make us pay too much attention to what's at the end of the road. Let's enjoy the drive first...

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  7. "The Noise! THE NOISE! Still, a lot of fun." Perfect for snarling at imports, there is no substitute for a normally aspirated American V-8!
    James the Lesser

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  8. NICE 'Stang! My midlife crisis is a 1980 Triumph TR8, took the kids out in it after I brought it home and pointed out some of the things you mentioned (such as no cup holders) and ID'd other things lacking in a 35-year-old vehicle, such as cruise control, killer stereo complete with flashing display (the car has an appropriate 80s-era AM/FM/cassette). I also made sure they noticed that while fun, the car required full attention at all times: "You can NOT multi-task in one of these older cars!"

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    1. Love the TR8. It certainly did require full attention at all times.

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    2. Yes sir! Short wheelbase, reasonably powerful engine (we'll see what I can come up with after I pull off the smog gear), plenty of torque and a light rear end. Took it out in the rain the other night, uff-da!

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  9. Prettiest Mustang ever, IMHO. More power to your pocketbook.

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  10. I miss my 1953 Buick Skylark That was the only year they made that model and it had 28 coats of lacquer inMandarin Red.

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  11. Nice ride. I REALLY miss my ol beat ta heck explorer, she had no a/c for the last 10 years, only quit me twice, hauled as many feed sacks, bales of hay or grandkids as needed, drank fuel like a fish, and sounded terrible on her good days...

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  12. You have earned your..vacation from us...but, you can't stay away too long..and BTW..we have our Churchill or as close as we may get in our time..Ted Cruz!!!!

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  13. Easy to drive without the creature comforts... when you don't have to drive much.
    My impression is the aggregate fraction of time people spend driving has gone way way up since your darling was mfg'd.

    - reader #1482

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  14. Sweet ride, Lewis.

    FWIW, the world needs more stories about cool cars and great dogs.

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  15. DNomad
    That beast was best of breed I drove daily for a while and raced occasionaly all three generations of the Mustang 65/69/71
    The 71 is the one I would love to have back
    topped out at 185 on a strech of US 77 back in the day !tripple the nickles!
    3x the posted limit of the day
    enjoy the ride it was a nice road car, too.



    woerm/thr

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  16. Congratulations-- It's a beaut!

    Now I'm going to have "Diamonds Are Forever" going through my head for the rest of the day.

    -Joe the Cop, Reader #004

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  17. Oh and another thing. To the other commentators; quit encouraging him with your supportive comments and pictures of cool cars and such...

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    1. I for one would cheerfully welcome a parallel blog devoted to the diplo-dogs and and diplo-cars.

      -Joe the Cop, Reader #004

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  18. Dunno, but I'd toss my golden-bronze 1964 Plymouth Barracuda with the full race suspension pkg, giant Hurst shifter AND dealer instal AC into the ring--as well as our 1971 red-orange Dodge Challenger w. white vinyl roof and cream w.brown trim leather seats with factory air in as well..

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  19. PS to Sarge:

    I'll have to hit your place and regale you with tales of our Doberman Gretchen and Black Chow Tchoupitoulas (named after the street in my beloved New Orleans, itself named after both the Indian tribe and the street after the path by the river they used to travel to Bayou Tchoupitoulas to fish.)

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  20. PS to Sarge:

    I'll have to hit your place and regale you with tales of our Doberman Gretchen and Black Chow Tchoupitoulas (named after the street in my beloved New Orleans, itself named after both the Indian tribe and the street after the path by the river they used to travel to Bayou Tchoupitoulas to fish.)

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  21. My first car was a Nightmist Blue1967 Mustang Fastback, with a 289 HiPo. That thing could pass anything, but a gas station, faster than fast, but don't ask it to turn, because it wouldn't.

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  22. My first ride, a '72 Malibu wagon, gold in color. Someone had squeezed a 454 into the engine bay and put a Hurst 4 speed on the floor. Snapped it up for the lordly price of $2k which was most of my signup bonus from the Big Green Machine in '75. Hit 75-80 and the front end started floating. Never got any faster, obviously as I'm still here to type about it. Spanish Inquisition? Nobody expects 4 on de flo in a wagon bigger than a Vega.

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  23. My grandfather had this car now this car stay on my home home garage but really sexy car one of this.

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