other dog

I took the yellow Zinamobile down to the guy's shop yesterday so he could take a look. Seems very doable, he's going to start tracking down the parts he needs now. He has quite a collection of vehicles there himself that he's working on. He had a 50-something Chevrolet pickup, a 70 Nova, 70 Chevelle, Buick 87 Grand National, 53 Ford pickup, 48 Ford pickup, and probably something I forgot. I got the impression that he knows what he's doing anyway. He also spotted an oil leak at the back of the intake manifold. He thought it was the intake gasket but the the sending unit for the oil pressure gauge was right there too, so I said maybe the oil line is leaking. We wiped it off with a rag and sure enough, the fitting was leaking where the plastic line went in. That's way better than having the manifold gasket leaking. He offered to try to tighten it but I said "no, I'll do it at home so when I break it it'll be at home". So when I got home I took the line loose, and it was crimped and crushed where the ferrule goes over it. I just cut the end off with my Old Timer and went to NAPA. Told them I just needed the ferrule but to "give me 3 or 4 because we know I'm going to drop 2 or 3 of them and lose them". Turns out I only dropped 1 and lost it, it's either in the driveway or on the truck somewhere. But I re-attached the oil line and it appears to be ok now.

When is the first race? Maybe we should get started on a "go fund me" so you can afford some fuel for the truck and some gas for the race car.

I saw some memory pictures today of when Zina was still Zina from Florida. She went to the truck show in Leesburg by herself and took some pictures. Here's a couple of dignitaries that she happened to run across there. This was in 2019.

A visor sure does change the looks of an F model. Or any truck for that matter. Some trucks, like a Transtar, look fine without one but a K100 for instance just didn't look right to me unless it had a visor. I drove a '77 F model with no visor but when I was driving the '79 Leonardo Da Caprio invented visors for F models. I thought they just looked great, so I asked H.H. if I could put a visor on it and he got one for me. Really changed the looks of the truck. I used to see a lot of good stuff being scrapped down at the steel mill in Petersburg, but one time I saw an F model with a visor that looked perfect and I wished I could have saved it, but that was out of the question of course.

It was pretty nice yesterday so we drove the yellow Zinamobile around the loop. We found a guy right here in Appomattox who said he could put power steering on it and I'm going to take it by his shop this week so he can take a look and see what he needs. These car guys- most are just great people. I had asked a couple of people long before Christmas about doing it and they both said they would get back to me after the first of the year. I called one of them back a couple of weeks ago and he said he was still really busy, but "I'll get back to you in a few days". Next thing you know, it's the middle of February and nobody has gotten back to me about anything. So I messaged a local person who goes to a lot of car shows locally and is big into the cars and coffee thing and asked her if she knew of anybody. And she absolutely did. So I called the guy she recommended, the only one she lets work on her Mustang or her parent's '69 Camaro. Turns out he was too busy too, but he called me back about it- the same day. And he told me about this other guy, and said if he couldn't do it to call him back, and he'd find somebody that could. I think she could drive it anyway, it drives great on the road but when you get in a tight spot or try to turn around it's a little hard to turn.I'm sure she'll enjoy it more with power steering anyway. Lots of melting going on here this week. The igloo went from a 3 bedroom split level to a 1 bedroom, one bathroom apartment. I predicted that it would be here on the first of March, but I don't know now, it's not looking too good for it. 🤣

I have a DM 600 that I bought at Hobby Lobby in Macungie about 7 or 8 years ago, but I've never even opened the box. I see all the models you guys build, and the detail, time, and effort is just amazing to me. I could never do it justice and it's too intimidating to try, especially with the arthritis in my hands, so I just leave it on the shelf.

That reminds me of a story Buddy Baker once told. When he first became an owner-driver and had his own race team instead of driving somebody else's cars he was pricing something, seems to me it was connecting rods. The parts man told him the price and he said "oh, that's not too bad for a set". Or he might have thought "wow, that's expensive for a set of rods!" It''s been a while since I heard the story. Anyhow, he was thinking he was getting a set of 8, but the parts guy said "no, that's EACH". He said it was then that he realized just how expensive it was to go racing.

OK, how about this one?

This is good!

I think this is more her area of expertise.

Happy birthday!

As we all know, I'm not an expert on anything but I'll put my 2 cents in anyway. Here's what the Google machine says- Now, I'm not an expert in anything, but a resident is someone who lives in a place. If I'm visiting Chicago, or let's say Mexico City, that doesn't make me a resident of either place so I should not be counted in any kind of official census there. That's how I see it anyway. Illegal immigrants should not be considered permanent or long term residents.