Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023
My wife woke me early this morning so I could be ready to wash and load the Plymouth in preparation for today’s Whiskey City Cruise event. With her help, we got the car washed and were on the road by just after 12 noon.
The Plymouth — on its maiden Summer 2023 voyage — behaved well and drove great. I stopped at Creek Mart to get 5 gallons of gas to insure that we didn’t run out of fuel somewhere along the way. Now that Elijah is back at WKU, we can’t depend on him to bring us a gallon can of fuel if we run out.
I expected to feel the “thumpity-thump” of the flat spots on the tires as we drove to town, but I never really felt them. The brakes actually had a better, firmer pedal than they have had since I’ve owned the car. Having sufficient brake fluid is a big help, eh??
When my wife and I got to town, we made the turn onto West John Rowan and looking ahead to the Tractor Supply parking lot, we saw — nary a classic car. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. What gives??
We pulled on in the TSC lot and stopped while my wife checked Facebook. Due to the chance of rain today, the cruise was canceled and rescheduled for tomorrow, Sunday, Aug. 28th. It pays to check social media first is the lesson learned today.
But the trip wasn’t a loss at all — I took my wife to Freddy’s for lunch, then we returned to TSC to buy a new pellet stove.
At Freddy’s, the parking lot is compact and so are the parking spaces. There were a couple of open spaces, but nothing very easy to access in a big, long 1956 Plymouth. There were two empty parking spots side-by-side –Telsa charging stations. I backed one of the parking spots like I belonged there.
The car got lots of attention from restaurant patrons anyway, but a couple of guys asked me “Where do you plug your car in?” Still looking for that, bud, still looking! My wife wanted to get a photo of me trying to figure out where to plug in the Tesla charger, but I wanted to get out of there.
On the way back into town on East John Rowan, we crossed the railroad tracks and it rattled the car so hard that it sounded like something fell, like a ratchet or tool that I might have left under the hood. I watched the rearview mirror and saw nothing on the ground behind us. so we think (emphasis on “think”) it was the chairs in the trunk shifting around.
The Plymouth ran fine during the trip home. The brakes were absolutely solid. I gave traffic ahead of me plenty of space; I worked to avoid a panic stop. I’m still afraid that one of the brake hoses will “let go” in a high-pressure situation. I’ve considered buying a kit and replacing every flexible hose, just for peace of mind.
Its funny when I think about it, on the 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe I owned, I never worried about the brakes and never replaced a brake line. But it too had a single master cylinder, and if I line had busted, it would have been all over for any braking power. A project I started but never finished was to install a dual master cylinder so I would still have brakes if a line burst under pressure. That wouldn’t be a bad upgrade for the Plymouth, either.
SATURDAY EVENING UPDATE. I just got back inside after quickie waxing the Plymouth… well, all but the main part of the hood and the top of the deck lid. I don’t have a lot of light at the rear of the garage, so I figured i would wait until tomorrow to finish that. And as for the hood, I just got hot and tired. Won’t take long to finish that before we leave for town.
Tomorrow will be much, much cooler, looking forward to that.
Nothing looked amiss in the trunk, though I’m not sure how the chairs were positioned originally. I’m not sure the noise was in the trunk. The more I think about it, the more I think a tool got bumped off the engine, and rattled its way to the roadway there at the railroad tracks. Guess I’ll find out later what tool it was.
ON A DISTRESSING NOTE. While waxing the Plymouth, I noticed that the headliner is torn at the top of the rear window on the driver’s side. Not sure how long its been that way, and not sure it just isn’t dry rot. I’m going to have try to tape it up with clear tape before we hit the road, the wind will make that rip larger in short order. I DO need a new headliner, but didn’t want to get it right now, lol.
TOMORROW WE CRUISE. Looks like there won’t be worries of any rain, and that’s a good thing! Washing and waxing the Plymouth is a good reminder of just how much panel patching I’m going to have to do. Probably one or both lower rear fender corners … the lower part of both door panels. The front part of the quarter panel is between the door and wheel opening. Not impossible, just a good bit of work. I’m going to borrow a technique I saw on YouTube … I will make templates of the curve of the lower quarter, so I can better duplicate it when I weld in patch panels. That’s the theory, anyway.