It's HEMI time !!! Compliments of NJSteve

[njsteve]

He was not a happy camper!

But he's a good sport...especially when bribery is involved.

[Mr70]

Great pic Steve..
Is that the exact same driveway too..what,no Country Squire?

[njsteve]

Actually, it is a completely different house but the dimensions of the garage and driveway seem to be exactly the same. I must have subconsciously wanted to duplicate my Connecticut family home from the 1960's.

With 7 people in the family we had a fleet of Country Squires back in the 1960s. They'd all last about 2 years. Dad went to a Plymouth Satellite Suburban in 1972. It was Rallye Red with a black racing stripe - the same color as the Charger. Boy was that wagon a lemon. It was just as reliable as the Griswold's Wagon Queen Family Truckster. After that debacle, Dad bought Chevy Suburbans til the 1990's.

Here's a typical family vacation circa 1970. Note the conestoga wagon tarp covering the 2 years of supplies we needed for the 3-day weekend.



Gee, we all looked so happy. I just loved having to wear a cardigan in August.

[Mr70]

I can relate..verbatim of what when on in our family too.
Our Ford wagon was white/red gut.My Dad would pack enough items to wait out nuclear fallout.3/4 of the crap we never even used.Just needed a pair of shorts & T and see ya in the tent when the sun went down with smores smeared all over our faces.Then up at the crack o'dawn to do it all over again!
We would come home so sunburned,tired & smelling of Bactine on Sunday evenings,that nobody wanted to unpack the car.
My parents saying to us all,"DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING INTO THAT HOUSE EMPTY HANDED!".
Awwww..

[njsteve]

Remember: Tires Expire!

I was cleaning out the Charger to get ready for a show today and found these photos from a few years back, in the console. This tire was one of a set of BFG radials that were 14 years old with only about 500 miles on them.

I was driving to a cruise night one afternoon when all of a sudden the steering wheel ripped out of my hands and spun to the right. It would repeat this every 10 feet or so. I pulled over and found nothing. So I rolled along and it started doing it again. I stopped again and couldn't find anything wrong.

Thinking I was either hallucinating, or the poltergeists/gremlins in the car were trying to persuade me to go home, I ignored them and slowed down but kept heading to the cruise night.

Seeing that I ignored the two previous hints from the Almighty, He decides to use a more direct approach: As I kept rolling along slowly, out of nowhere a Minister, dressed in his black "going to church" suit drives up alongside my car and says: "Son, pull over there is something wrong with your left front tire."

So I pull over and he gets out of his car and says to keep rolling until he says stop. He yells out "STOP" and I stop right there. We both look under the car and the enormous bubble in the sidewall is wedged against the tie-rod end, at the bottom of the tire's travel.

It seemed that the internal failure of the tire would let air out into the sidewall when the flawed spot would hit the pavement. When the tire rotated, the air would suck back into the tire. (Kind of like the old Little Rascals episode with the cake that has the rubber glove in it that goes WEEE-WAAAH )

The bubble was so big it was hitting the suspension and forcing the wheel to turn right.

Here's the tire:





And the bubble:





When we dismounted the tire, the bubble stayed in the sidewall for about two weeks, slowly deflating back to its original shape. I drilled a hole in each tire's sidewall and threw them away (so no-one would try to reuse them).

So let that be a lesson. Don't ignore the hint when God sends you one (or three).

I think I read somewhere that the lifespan of a tire is 7 years and any tire older than that should be thrown away. That's pretty good advice.

[camarojoe]

Looks like taking a scrub brush and some wheel cleaner to the backsides of the rims wouldn't hurt every 7 years or so either...

[njsteve]

Hey that's not grime, it's patina: 16,000 miles and 38 years worth.

Actually those photos were from 2004, before I decided to be nice and spruce her up a bit. It took a gallon of the purple stuff and then a visit to a glass beading cabinet to clean them up properly. Rest assured, both sides are nice and shiny now.

[ss427copo]

I had 4 "loads of tread left" redline BFG's on my 427 Impala. They were the same typre of 215x65x15's that were used on the TR6's. Dated 7 15 98. Started pulling to the left...then REALLY started pulling to the left. Found out the cord broke on LF. So I replaced 2 with new Cokers and put the BFG's on the back to the front. 200 miles later, another pull to the left! Needless to say........the old ones are OUTTA HERE (said like Phillies announcer Harry Kalas)
Jeff x2

[njsteve]

OK. here's another one for the Haunted Car With a Million Stories file.

I was working on one of our work trucks today when one of the mechanics comes up and we start talking. He remembered that I had the red hemi charger and he starts talking about his family friend that bought one new, back in 1970 and always wondered where it went. I asked what his friend's name was and he says: "RICHIE WICKBERG."

I said: "Richie Wickberg, Sr, from Edison, New Jersey?"

And he says: "Yeah, how did you know he was a Sr?"

I say: "Sit down, I have a tale to tell..."

It turns out his family has been friends with the Wickbergs for years and the father always wondered what happened to his old car, that he bought new, that his son blew up and sold. He always wanted to see that car again.

I gave him my cel # and told him to call them NOW (which he did, and left a message) and have them call me so we can all get together.

Stay tuned for further episodes...