Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 This post marks quite a landmark!

A different kind of 501!
These aren't mine!
photo from the web.

This marks my 501st. post, who would have thought that I'd last this long as a blogger! My first post was on August 15, 2017, almost twelve years ago. In the earliest years my posting was kind of sporadic, but after a time, I fell into my current routine of weekly posts. I found my way in how I was going to present my material, and I have cycled through the ownership of several vehicles within this period, which of course has provided much of my content.

I hope that my writing style has improved over the years, and my ultimate goal is just to be entertaining as I share my experiences with my hobby cars. I hope that I have provided some encouragement to others to take the leap into hobby car ownership, and to give DIY repairs a try. 

Recently I changed the format of the blog by structuring it with a teaser photo and a few sentences, plus the "read more" link. I hope that this makes it easier and more pleasant to read, and it makes searching for earlier posts much easier.

While I don't have many subscribers, I have a satisfactory number of page views per day, which is how I measure my success. Currently my site has recorded  82,787 page views, it has taken over a decade to achieve this, but readership has been increasing over time. This has become a very satisfying hobby for me, and a good way to improve my writing ability. There is no monetary reward for this, I do it just for the fun of it. I've contributed articles to another, much better known automotive website, just to gain a bit of exposure for my writing. I have also worked on writing a series of short stories and even an actual book. I will admit that I often dream of becoming a real author of short stories and novels, but I don't know if I have the talent for that. There's no telling how that will all turn out, but I'm very happy here. Producing this blog has become a very satisfying automotive hobby, and best of all, it doesn't cost me anything, or leak any oil on my kitchen floor! 

With all that said, I plan to keep on producing this blog until I run out of things to say. Thanks to everyone that bothers to take a few minutes out of their day to read about my experiences, memories, and opinions. 

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The purchase of my '46 Plymouth also marks a new chapter in my hobby car experience. It is the oldest vehicle that I've ever bought, It is also my first, already restored car, instead of being one of my usual projects. The car was owned by the previous owner for 37 years, that's a long time, and as the PO got older he let some things slide on the car's condition, but he appears to have kept up the needed maintenance and service. He also kept the car in steady regular use, this car was never a garage queen, which made it very attractive to me. Like with any old car, there are lot's of little things that will need some attention. 

My intention with the Plymouth is to maintain it's originality. I have no interest whatsoever in making it into a hot rod, Low Rider, or Custom. If I had bought a car in rough condition then maybe I would be going in that direction, but the car is such a time capsule. I want to experience what driving a car like this was back in the 1940's. 

This car will be a good showcase for my preserve, maintain, and improve mantra. I will maintain the car and do whatever service and repairs it will need, but I don't anticipate a new paint job or an engine refresh (hopefully) any time in the near future. 

I will be posting my progress with the car here, and on the AACA forum, but I will give priority to this site.

After I got the car home I wanted to start driving it right away. After transferring it into my name, and calling my insurance agent, I started to drive it around the immediate area. The car is missing the glove box. Open the door and it's just blank space. The hardboard box itself is made as a repop, but it's quite pricey, almost a hundred bucks, and the ones that I found online were only made to order. I wasn't too keen on having to wait for it to be built and shipped to me. There wasn't any place to put the registration and proof of insurance, I didn't like laying the papers on the rear seat, so I thought of an alternative. I remembered that I had a couple of glove boxes left in my Datsun car parts stash. I dug out a 280Z glove box and mocked it up to see how it would fit,

Space, the final frontier.

Surprisingly, it fit pretty well,  only requiring a bit of trimming. I decided that I could attach it under the glove box door hinge.

I made up a bracket from some scrap aluminum sheet that I had lying around. Pop rivets secured it nicely.

I positioned the new glove box in place and re-installed the glovebox door.

Now I had a place for the paperwork, as well as my cell phone, camera, or other necessities.   It is obviously plastic, but it's not really visible, so who will know? It also didn't cost me anything but time!

I still need a small brace in the upper left area. 

The latch/lock mechanism is also missing, so I needed something to hold onto while opening the door. I got tired of sticking my pinky in the hole. 

My Wife had a selection of porcelain and metal drawer pulls, I found one that matched the window crank knob. I used a piece of Velcro on the door and frame to hold it closed for now.

You can also see that it's also missing the rubber grommet
for the fuel filler pipe.

I noticed that tail lamp housings were missing their circular reflectors. I wanted as much illumination as possible in the rear, so I decided to make some replacements.

I bought a couple of flat, stick on universal reflectors at the local Auto Zone. I chucked up a one inch hole saw in my drill press and easily cut a couple of circular pieces out of one of them. I sanded the edges smooth and glued them in place with some E6000 craft glue.  

You can't tell my work from the original, and it only cost me a few bucks. These are the kind of improvements that I enjoy making!

It was now time to turn my attention to the car's finish. What could I do about all those oxidized gray patches, the "sunburned" areas of the paint. Could I do something to improve those without repainting the car? I'll get into this with my next post.