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'73 New Yorker

So, an update on the barge.. I went out to the site today with the intention of freeing up some stuck calipers, and starting the motor. I pulled the distributor and primed the pump, turned the motor in between, yada yada.. Reinstall distributor, try and start.. Inevitable backfiring through carb, switch all wires 180 on cap, because I can never put the damned distributor back in the right way the first time. Try and start it again, fires right up and settles to an idle. After mosquito fogging four lanes of Rt 50 for ten minutes, tried a gear. Idle drops, car tries to move. I eventually get it out of the ruts it's sitting in, and the damned thing not only has a brake pedal, but the brakes work great.. They even fully release. So, throw all of my shit in the New Yorker, and drive it ten miles home. It sits in traffic and doesn't overheat, the tires don't feel flat spotted until you hit seventy.. All the gauges work, it's even got a half a tank of gas that doesn't smell like total varnish that it runs well on. I'm definitely going through the brakes and fuel system, but this is a win. Nobody's done any maintenance to this thing in at least seven years, and I doubt it's seen forty miles in that time. Certainly hasn't been moved in two or three.. I'm the proud owner of more ugly junk that even brand devotees (including myself) didn't even want.
 
ive run many a mopar on TOTAL varnish..so that doesnt suprise me...it tends to smell REALLY foul burnt out the pipe tho ..but the ole mopars tend to not really care so long as it can make it thru the carb and youve got good enuf spark

and id swear mopar brakes are the last ones to sieze up....so long as they arnt KH 4 pots..the fact you had good pedal however is more suprising...

course i a1quired a 76 diplomatII motorhome 7 years ago..that was last tagged in 98?.....38k miles...440 tweaked beefed and hotrodded out...i put fuel in it and a battery..bottle fed the carb and fired it..and drove it around under its own power and brakes 7 years ago...a couple weeks ago i did the same thing again...this time around the fuel pumps shot..and i think the rear brakes arnt working(but the ebrake does)..and the shift cable snapped..but...it still roars happily...soon..ile be smashing it to bits for the axles(dana 70 i beilive and a disc brake i beam front), 440, 727, sway bars, msd, and a bunch of other chassis goodies....all to put on my 70 dodge ramp truck..which sat for a MINIMUM of 25+ years..and fired up for the first time and moved under its own power also a week or so ago..no master but the e brake works and the manul trans does too(bottle fed fuel pump)
 
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I picked up a 71 300 4dr parts car many years ago. It sat under a tree and had not moved, for at least 10 years that I knew about it, and probably many more before that. I told the guy I would give him $500 for it "IF" it ran. Tossed in a fresh battery, some WD40 down the carb, crank crank crank...and fired right up. That fuel in teh tank smelled foul...but it still started and ran fine. Filled the tires with air and drove it onto the trailer. That 440/auto is powering my 68 T/C wagon now. ;)

Glad you got it going, and everything seems to be working...can't ask for better then that!
 
Similar story with my $50 '70 Super Bee. 13 years since it had run, the odd part robbed here and there, and a stuck carb. I swapped the carb and ran fuel hose to a can (the line was gone). It fired up and drove out on four flat tires. Banana'd every pushrod in the engine, but it ran well and I drove it the 50+ miles home. It never even occurred to me to look at the brakes. :shifty:

Awesome that it went so smoothly for you! Who doesn't love more yard clutter? No one here!
 
Dr.Jass said:
..... It never even occurred to me to look at the brakes. :shifty:

Awesome that it went so smoothly for you! Who doesn't love more yard clutter? No one here!
Click to expand...

Where's the fun and challenge if you don't drive home on unknown, or questionable brakes. :)

Heck if I had more yard....I'd have a ton more clutter.
 
At one point I had 7 cars and 3 trailers in about 1/3 of my back yard, now I'm in the process of removing clutter, down to a rotted through '70 300 2 door, unfortunately not enough metal between the rust holes to weld new metal to, and a '71 Charger 500 with some number problems, too much to get into here, but there isn't a usable piece left on either. Both will end up sliced and diced so they can be removed. I did find a place that will dispose of them as long as they are cut into multiple pieces. Then I need to build a shed so I can store my tons of spare C body parts presently in the garage and out in the weather. The wagon is on deck, need to relocate the junk in the garage so I can get it inside.

Hunting season is upon us, bow season opens Saturday, so...
 
71ChargerRT said:
At one point I had 7 cars and 3 trailers in about 1/3 of my back yard, now I'm in the process of removing clutter, down to a rotted through '70 300 2 door, unfortunately not enough metal between the rust holes to weld new metal to, and a '71 Charger 500 with some number problems, too much to get into here, but there isn't a usable piece left on either. Both will end up sliced and diced so they can be removed. I did find a place that will dispose of them as long as they are cut into multiple pieces. Then I need to build a shed so I can store my tons of spare C body parts presently in the garage and out in the weather. The wagon is on deck, need to relocate the junk in the garage so I can get it inside.

Hunting season is upon us, bow season opens Saturday, so...
Click to expand...


will that uber long sumbitch even fit in the garage?
 
My garage is the depth of the house too, and if I'd remove the the shelving, cabinets and refrigerators I could get 2 cars in there with enough room to walk around both. I had my big Ford in there, when I owned it, and the garage door cleared the roof by about 3" or so.

I would like to build a nice garage in my back yard, with a covered space for my big enclosed trailer, with a nice wide concrete driveway and powered gate openers and...


One day I guess.
 
I really need a warehouse.. I've got enough customers who keep their cars in the city parking garage. They pay $50 per car per month for the privilege. I figure I can charge a little more to rent them a space in my 24 hr access warehouse, and keep their cars maintained in the service bay I'd have at the back. Problem is, in order for this to work, I'd need it located in the city limits for convenience.. Rent is a little out of reach for that. Mostly, I want to find a way to make them pay to store my seven antiques. I've currently got three sitting in the parking garage at work (a university). I move them around to keep people from noticing. While the '86 Dodge W-150, and the '81 Volvo wagon can go unnoticed to the average eye, the bright orange and yellow Volvos, and the Fury, the Valiant, and the New Yorker all tend to stick out like turds in a punchbowl.. Especially the 19 plus foot long Chrysler. Right now those who have noticed are slightly bemused, and joke about "Moffitt's classic car show in the garage". If the garage ever gets full, I'm sure the other shoe will drop. My house is just as bad. I share a driveway with my bitchy neighbor, who isn't amused by the classic hulks of moving scrap that I call my beater fleet.. The driveway fits three on my side, two in my "garage" behind the house which is an open structure that's 20' wide, and 27' deep, and has a midrise lift with a Porsche 914 stuck on it, (the back 7' is walled off with two doors, where I keep the bulk of my daily service tools). There's room for one more to the right of the garage as you look at it where my wife parks. If I park my truck sideways in the garage, I can lower and raise motors, transmissions, and axles into the basement for rebuilding or storing into the celler via the winch and a ramp down the back stairs. The backyard is fenced off, and is deep, but if I park anything back there, it visibly deteriorates in the grass, and under all the trees. I really need a shop. However, that seems to require a leap from my steady job with benefits into being a full time mechanic. I'm all for it, but I'm currently expected to keep contributing to the lifestyle that I've allowed my darling wife to grow accustomed to.
 
She's pretty awesome actually. The implied meaning obfuscated by levity, was that I've got somebody else to think about. While I'd be happy moving back to my studio apartment with the clanging radiators, and the clawfoot tub, We've got an awesome 90 year old house. It still has a clawfoot tub, but it's got shower curtains on it, and somehow the word "mortgage" draws more water than "rent".
 
Many years ago I considered building a structure kind of similar to what you're considering. Actually, there was a large, concrete "mini storage" building for sale on the north end of town. I thought to myself, "Self, what if a guy, a regular Joe such as myself, were to buy such a building and have power and heat available to the renters, and maybe a fully-equipped tool crib with your more-common air and power tools available for rent?"

My self responded, "Insurance," and there went that idea. :doh: Having grown up in a family rife with people involved in law, I realized I'd need a disclaimer and contract drawn up by a 30-foot-tall attorney with bionic testicles to keep my ass out of court.

The bitch of it is, with 7-8 months of weather not suitable for working in a non-heated garage the idea could potentially take off. This is a permanently-recessed area financially and there are tons of DIY guys with no place to DI. When I was unemployed I thought about renting out my heated garage for extra income but I didn't want someone else trashing my personal garage at which I'm quite adept at trashing myself. And again, the "what ifs" followed, such as how my homeowner's insurance would react to some other asshole burning it to the foundation. People are people, though, and ultimately it comes back on you if you try to do something to benefit others. No good deed goes unpunished, I'm told.
 
As far as the wife commentary, I think I may have found the perfect woman. I've actually known her for 30 years, but for much of that time she lived elsewhere. She's an attractive redhead that's my age (45) but looks years younger, with no kids and no failed marriages, fails to see the point in marriage or even living together at this stage of the game, and has a master's degree and is totally self-sufficient and works from home. Amazingly, she's neither a lesbian nor a hermaphrodite. I'm still waiting for a third eye or lack of a belly button to make itself known, but being a redhead those revelations can only happen after they're approved by her alien controllers... so for the time being, things are good.

20 years later, I'm still pretty gun-shy after Tyrannosaurus Ex. Most of my friends that know her and were around back then will universally agree I was married to possibly the most-evil woman that ever lived. Aileen Wournos was a fucking preschool teacher by comparison.
 
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