Running Bear's May 2023 Coffee Shop.


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OK, for all of you car peeps... A friend of mine from Indiana (now in West Virginia) worked on this beauty while I was out in California. He married the daughter of the gent who taught him body shop work... and in Dad's last few years they built... Morpheus together. They wanted to have one car they rebuilt from the metal up they could take to shows:

Morpheus.jpg


Here's a write up on it... which tells you waaaaaaay more than I know about cars in general.

fuelcurve.com

1963 Buick Riviera – A Ruby Red Restoration

This smooth 1963 Buick Riviera dripping in PPG ruby red paint had a magical aura at the Goodguys 1st Kentucky Nationals in Lexington. It pulled us in for a closer look and a photo shoot. Besides the slick jewel color, low stance, original nailhead 401 and a custom grill, your eye catches a hint of c
fuelcurve.com fuelcurve.com

His first show with it was the World of Wheels in Indianapolis, and they won the award he was after. The "local" judges' pick named after a long-term local car guy.
 
TLOC said:
Is that the same as the one out of Dallas?
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Tom: There are 2 out of Dallas on the 30 - first is a franchise on the South side of the hiway, original is an old barn type thing on the North side. There is a truck stop to the East somewhat so if the BBQ parking lot is full of 70 footers, you can still find a spot. We tried one of the franchise's ONCE, never again. Well that is probably automatic as I suspect we won't be going around the country anymo. Ya never know.

Later
 
troyphoto said:
OK, for all of you car peeps... A friend of mine from Indiana (now in West Virginia) worked on this beauty while I was out in California. He married the daughter of the gent who taught him body shop work... and in Dad's last few years they built... Morpheus together. They wanted to have one car they rebuilt from the metal up they could take to shows:

View attachment 168997

Here's a write up on it... which tells you waaaaaaay more than I know about cars in general.

fuelcurve.com

1963 Buick Riviera – A Ruby Red Restoration

This smooth 1963 Buick Riviera dripping in PPG ruby red paint had a magical aura at the Goodguys 1st Kentucky Nationals in Lexington. It pulled us in for a closer look and a photo shoot. Besides the slick jewel color, low stance, original nailhead 401 and a custom grill, your eye catches a hint of c
fuelcurve.com fuelcurve.com

His first show with it was the World of Wheels in Indianapolis, and they won the award he was after. The "local" judges' pick named after a long-term local car guy.
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It's hard to take my eyes off of it! Fabulous!
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Cloudy and 64°. We had rain overnight but it wasn't enough to register in my rain gauge. Weather Underground guy around the corner shows 0.05". NWS says heavy rain around noon with the high today around 80°.

I'll be out in the garden in a few minutes ensuring that it's ready in case there is a deluge. Other plans for today include preserving Broccoli and preparing Baby Back Ribs for supper.

Out in the train shed yesterday, it was another low activity day. Trees are on hold for a while until I get some more planted. I've switched over to figures at the workbench. I'm reworking some Chinese ones, sorting through and in some cases touching up some of the ones I got from Chet, and painting some unpainted Preiser from the stash. I could easily add 100 to the layout right now even though there are over 1000 already on it. I just wish that I had a proportionate quantity of vehicles to add.
So I didn't take any pictures yesterday which means back to the archives. Not sure if I ever posted pictures of Walther's Water Street Freight Terminal before.
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A view down Main Street in Gainesville.
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Woody's Country Mart in Graham.
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Karl - Your spline layout looks real good. I admire your skill in pulling it off. I have chosen to have no grades, so I just use 1/2" plywood for everything. Easier for me. I model flatland American prairies, so grades are not necessary.
Swal - Good luck with the ceiling. It should keep everything more dust-free.
Tom O - Last time I went to Oklahoma City, there was construction north of Thackerville on IH35. While I believe that it has been completed, be aware. Using IH35W through Ft Worth instead of IH35E through Dallas is a shorter and much faster route. Just don't be in either city during rush hour.
Have a safe trip and I will wave back.

Today is Denny’s Endless Breakfast Day, if that's your thing and there is one close by. I noted that sausage or bacon is an extra 99¢ per serving though. Otherwise it's just pancakes, scrambled eggs and hash browns, for $6.99.
It's also Bob Dylan's 82nd birthday.

Everyone have a wonderful day.
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I particularly like the street scene.
 
Good Morning All!

53F @ 75% and partly

Thanks for all the tire/wheel size answers. I suspect that if I do the change, I will keep the same tire width, if possible. Don't want to go skinnier though. The F150 4x4 has a 302 in it and I just wanted to lower the RPM at hiway speed. I figured that the now ~12MPG would get a tad better at lower RPM. I guess we will see. I don't care how fast it thinks it is going but just was curious about MPG stuff.

When I took the 32 inchers off the Blazer and went with 17", I lost about 15MPH at a specific RPM. That thing with the 32's would only do 60 MPH at just under 3 grand. Diff ratios are 4:10 and 4:11 with a Turbo 350 ( 3 speed ) of which I have been looking for a 700R4 or swapping it to a 4 speed manual. 3 grand is just to fast for a 454 for extended periods.

Off to Home Depot in a few minutes to pick up new refer and 32 boxes of Lam flooring so I guess we will find out how the truck does.

Later
 
Todd, I used to have a '73 Mustang 'vert that came with an FMX transmission. I swapped that out and installed a wide ratio AOD. The AOD transmission housing is very similar in size to the FMX (had to shorten the drive shaft by an inch or so) , but it is a 4-speed instead of the 3-speed FMX.

The AOD transmission housing will also accept the more aggressive gear sets from the 4R70W. I had that mated to a 3.55 rear end. The result was a stump pulling first gear, and an overdrive that kept the engine just below 3,000 RPMs at 70 MPH. The only issue I had was that the person who built the transmission (SilverFox) insisted on an aggressive torque converter, which ended up being way too harsh when shifting. He always leans toward street racing rather than comfort.
 
Afternoon All,

Started out the day with a walk at 72F and humid (big surprise). It has been raining on and off since last night and we've received about an inch of rain since then. I'll probably have to drain the pool again tomorrow. I did several small chores then finished off the last 19 trees and planted them. I'll probably start on the new box of Super Trees tomorrow.

Karl- Very clean looking benchwork.

Troy- I read it but didn't comment because I also recycled what I could from the last layout.

Todd- Not a clue. Sounds like an algebra question.

Joe- I'm sure you walked more than 1/2 mile if you also went to the grocery store and BJ's. Congrats on the new rail cars.

Louis- Great Shark photo.

rgeiter- Very nice-looking house.

Jeff- Great looking truck. I love the 1948 Ford.

Willie- More nice-looking scenes.

20230524_102536.jpg

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Funny thing about trucks, MPGs and torque. My 76 F150 had a 360 with a 4 speed manual and (get this) 2:72 rear gears.

L70 15 tires the engine loafed at 1900 RPM at 65 mph, and averaged about 20 MPG as long as it wasn't towing. Even towing 10,000 pounds, the mileage dropped to about 14. I hated it when the old girl dissolved into a pile of rust after 300k
 
Evening all,

Gotta get the boy's pup from the vet after work, in for some minor surgery.

TomO: I work about 5 miles from the main Spirit plant. Have a safe trip!

My Colorado averages a little over 23mpg. Even with the taller\wider tires. You sure can tell a difference between a cheap tire meant for an import car and a true SUV tire. Especially when I put a bobcat scoop of chat or topsoil in the machine. I don't have tire sidewall wiggle.
 
Good afternoon, everyone!

Another picture-perfect day in Northern Illinois. High was 81 degrees with a light wind. Very pleasant to be out this afternoon doing some yard work.

Looks like Summer hits next week with 90s in the forecast.

Have a safe evening everyone.
 
PRR Modeler said:
I'm sure you walked more than 1/2 mile if you also went to the grocery store and BJ's. Congrats on the new rail cars.
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Curt: You're right, but when pushing the cart, the "smart" phone doesn't register the steps, only when the arm is swinging free. I only count what is measured.

Just as I was going to post this reply, the power went off for the second time this afternoon. Guess the "Rust Belt Electric Utility Holding Company" is preparing us for brownouts this summer. This one only lasted about 10" the first about 2 hours.
 
@ post #1,155: I have it on good authority those long hotdog and short hotdog openings just below the center walkway and above the tanks are where the body mounting tabs stick out from the locomotive's frame. But when the body is dropped down over the prime mover again, the entire shell just snaps over the tabs and back into place. I know this because my old Athearn blue-box Geep 7s-9s did the same thing, although with a styrene shell instead of the real metal shroud. EMD did avail themselves of model railroading techniques and design ideas...right? :p

I also have it on good authority the fuel tanks were actually solid metal, rather than hollow (which does beg the question: Where did they actually KEEP the diesel fuel)...but I digress.

It's always important to keep up on real-world specs and methods, I say.

:D
 
Good Morning All!

52F @ 70% with bright stars.

Ran outa sleep about 0100, so I caught up on the forums.

Trip to HD was a PITA. Well, guess the trip was not bad as the truck did not miss a beat. Went through about a tank and a quarter to go 190 miles; which is around 16 gallons. Thank the powers that be for dual tanks - gas was $0.75 higher in Kalispell than Libby.

Anyway, waiting for HD to find then bring our orders out was more than an hour. Loader guy came out and told us that they did not have the flooring. Showed him the order they sent last week confirming that both the refer and the flooring was ready to be picked up. He did more keyboard work and found that the flooring was supposed to come out of store stock; of which they showed a negative 36 boxes. He then wanted us to do a 'special order' then come back again to pick that up. Maria called BS; then we showed him the 'special order' paper we did when we ordered the stove, refer and flooring. Asked for his direct manager. We know he was not at fault, but was the one standing there. Manager listened to our tail of woe. Maria and manager went to the flooring section so she could choose some with enough stock to complete our order. There was nothing in the same line we originally ordered. Manager told her to look at a different line. Well, that was $10 box more ( we needed 32 boxes ) and Maria almost came un-glued ( her words ) and started with the 'bait and switch' routine. Manager told her to pick a color/pattern and they would give it to us for the same price. So we ended up with 32 boxes of 'Pergo' ( not sure of the spelling ) and headed out.

Went to 5 Guys for a quick burger and drink, then to Harbor Freight as she wanted to look at roll around tool caddies. Hmmm, thought I - I can use that for the train cave and picked one that I wanted; called a Detail Tool Caddy. Seat with places underneath for tools, not just the flat tray/panel that most are but with actual cup holder type pockets. Ya, well guess what? That was out of stock. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things and I should have known stuff was gonna go sideways! HF told us that they should be re-stocked come Sunday morning, so give us a call as we will hold it for ya. Maria wanted to do CostCo as she wants more dirt. They were selling very large bags of potting soil for $8.75; 50 quarts each of which you could barely lift. There is/was no weight on the bags! She has three 16"x8'x12" planter boxes she wanted to fill. Talked her outa of the CostCo trip as the truck was pretty much at the weight limit with 32 boxes of flooring ( 42 pounds each ) and a 350 pound refer. Adding another 24 bags of 50Lb stuff would probably do us in. So, I guess we are back to Kalispell come Sunday.

Got home, backed the truck up to the deck and let it sit for the AM. We climbed into our recliners and immediately took a short nap. Don't know why we were that tired as we didn't do any work. Maybe the upstairs redo is catching up with us?

Today is getting the refer's switched out and putting the flooring under the coffee table - no room in the house as some of the upstairs crap is spread around everywhere. Oh, the joy of it all, but we will have a really tall coffee table. Just maybe more upstairs work too.

Later
 
I'm up. Probably had one of our last two chilly nights here in NE Indiana for a few months. it's 43 F-degrees now. Lows are climbing back into the 50s in F-degrees through the weekend. By Tues we'll be back to lows in the 60s and creeping humidity at night.

I picked up a small fan to keep on at night. Since we sleep on the 2nd floor (in this part of the US, ground floor = 1st floor), even with increased attic insulation, and new high-efficiency windows, it's about 5 degrees warmer up there at night. And the humidity eventually gets the better of the AC as the outside temp drops. The wife sleeps with one going (helps with her hot flashes). Figured it wouldn't hurt for me to have one on my side.

Finished up the 4 hours director's cut of Gettysburg last night. It was milder on the Lost Cause propaganda than I expected, but not by much. No, I won't be watching Of Gods and Generals for that very reason. While I do want to get to the battlefield sometime soon, it probably won't be this year since they're working on the paths to and around Devils Den, and have part of that section shut off.

Out of the cast, Martin Sheen was boxed in as General Lee. There are a LOT of wonderings why Lee's genius deserted him at Gettysburg. So close to victory on day 2, and pulls back. Then into an idiotic plan that actually began the end of the South's side of the war.

Jeff Daniels was the real star of the show. Along with Sam Elliot. I see why Tom Berrenger got top billing. It was hard for me to wrap my head around the tough guy from Platoon as thoughtful and brooding Gen Longstreet (took me a while to see behind his fake beard and remember where else I'd seen Berenger).

I gotta get my ears lowered later today.

After that, I'm packing to head to Detroit for a game convention tomorrow morning. I'll be helping to run the WWII tourneys. Which means I'll probably have to play 6 games. I will be WW-gamed out for the rest of the summer.
 
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