Chasing Shadows and such.

This was Honda's copy of the Harley Wide Glide.
My bike looked like this, at first.

Back several years ago, I modified my Honda 1100 Shadow to resemble  a Harley Wide Glide. I wish that I could find some pictures. I removed the passenger seat and sissy bar, attached a pair of leather bags, and bolted on a set of high bars. To top it off I added a flame graphic to the tank sides, I've always wanted a vehicle with flames. It did look pretty good.

 Surprising to me, my old Plymouth had never had seat belts added to it by the previous long term owner.

I found this very nice set of burgundy colored belts at RetroBelt. The color really harmonizes with the exterior maroon. 

 I noticed that the Mayflower was showing signs of a rough life lived on the seas.

I don't know how long this hood ornament had been in place, but I would bet that it was there from the time of the car's restoration. It has held up pretty well, though the plastic had crystallized, crazed. and finally crumbled at the front end.

 The ugly truth about messing around with old cars.

It's always a roll of the dice!
photo source unsplash.com

Maybe not ugly, but unfortunate.

But that doesn't make it any less true.

 What to do about my car's sunburned areas?

Too late for Coppertone!

I need an effective, easy, and cheap, DIY solution. So...

I looked for ideas online.

 Locating a spare wheel and tire for my vintage Plymouth.

This was the 30 dollar wheel that would fit a larger Chrysler product.

My Plymouth was missing a spare tire/wheel when I bought it. That wasn't a deal breaker considering the overall condition of the car. I figured that I could source another wheel somewhere. But...

Where was I going to find a 1946 Plymouth wheel? It's not like I could go to the local Pick and Pull yard and find one. 

But I want to find the proper wheel, as I want to keep the original look of my car.

I figured that I' have to hit up some antique car swap meets or search the web.

 Thinking about a higher level of the car hobby, Part Two.

"Somebody Save Me!"

Preservation and not restoration. This relates to the topic of stewardship.

I'm going to reuse images from my previous post, because this discussion concerns cars like that '31 Cadillac discussed in the previous post. An intact, complete, original car, or older restoration that has fallen upon hard times. Due to the lack of proper storage the car has suffered a fair amount of deterioration. It appears that at one time it was a nicely restored vehicle.