Anybody Remember Back When?

[k0ua]

Reminds me of my brief...but exciting...barefoot days on the farm.

Stepped in a "fresh one" huh?

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Stepped in a "fresh one" huh?

Yep, I think we all did. However, I was so clumsy that almost every time I took off my shoes something bad happened...I would lose a toenail, or run something in my foot. Once I ran a sewing needle in my big toe, believe it or not! Mom pulled it out with the pliers!

 

[Ken]

Any help with this? At the morning coffee meeting things of old time trivia (as in this thread) came up. One member swears he had a 49 chev with one of those gas heaters. I am positive those were gone by at least the mid 30s. I drove 36, 37,38, 2 chevs and they all had the now normal water heaters. I can't even imagine after market gas heaters in cars. I had heard of gas heaters in volkswagons and I think they were also available in the old cars (pre 1935)

I had mentioned a gas Southwind heater for '29 Oldsmobile , my older brother and I drove a '28 chevy. delivered newspaper on rural route also a Southwind heater had to be careful no papers getting close to the bottom/ back of firewall mounted device. This car had a vacuum fuel pump and if sitting on incline at idle waiting for a train to pass would lose the vacuum to small tank under the hood . had to remove about 8 screw on container fill with jug of gas kept for this purpose then retighten the screws and restart the engine. This car also had vacuum windshield wipers slow driving or going up hill lost vacuum and had to reach to top of windshield and press lever forward and back to be able to see out the glass.
bought a '40 Plymouth and it came with water heated standred heater . the '39 Ford also had a water heated heater standred. a '62 VW had the exhaust covered pipe the came into the car for heat and carbon monoxide.

Any one ever adjusted the brake rods on fords before Henry became convinced brake fluid would work. ?

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I had mentioned a gas Southwind heater for '29 Oldsmobile , my older brother and I drove a '28 chevy. delivered newspaper on rural route also a Southwind heater had to be careful no papers getting close to the bottom/ back of firewall mounted device. This car had a vacuum fuel pump and if sitting on incline at idle waiting for a train to pass would lose the vacuum to small tank under the hood . had to remove about 8 screw on container fill with jug of gas kept for this purpose then retighten the screws and restart the engine. This car also had vacuum windshield wipers slow driving or going up hill lost vacuum and had to reach to top of windshield and press lever forward and back to be able to see out the glass.
bought a '40 Plymouth and it came with water heated standred heater . the '39 Ford also had a water heated heater standred. a '62 VW had the exhaust covered pipe the came into the car for heat and carbon monoxide.

Any one ever adjusted the brake rods on fords before Henry became convinced brake fluid would work. ?

No, but I have a "fish" hook made from one of those rods. During WWII, my Dad was Superintendent of an aggregate plant in Pawhuska Oklahoma, and he had a genuine blacksmith who worked for him. This guy made all sorts of things for my Dad, like a nice Bowie knife. My Grand Dad had a cabin on Grand lake, and the blacksmith made him some hay-hook size fish hooks and I have one that belonged to my Dad. Sorry, no picture.

 

[MossRoad]

We had probably 4-5 VW buses from early 60's through 1980. They had the heater boxes around the exhaust manifolds. When the heat tube from the rear to the front would rot out, dad "fixed" it with dryer vent pipe! :laughing: I remember in winter we had to scrape the INSIDE of the windows from the breath condensation. We had to drive with the wing windows open to blow on the inside.

Dad also had a bug, and it had a gasoline heater. Instant heat!

 

[oosik]

I specifically remember when my dad ordered his new '49 Chevy. The cabin heater - circulating hot water - had to be specially ordered. My '65 VW had a hot air heater - heat from around the exhaust.

Not really the best of plans for the year we lived in Glennallen, AK. It never got really warm in the VW in Glennallen. Never went far enough in the winter. I remember - driving down the road and great clouds of "breath fog" inside the VW.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Reminds me of my brief...but exciting...barefoot days on the farm.

Lol, me to. Step in mud and let it ooz between your toes.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Remember when restaurant vestibules used to have a cigarette machine, candy machine and a wooden writing pen vending machine? And of course a pay phone with phone book!

 

[ultrarunner]

Any one ever adjusted the brake rods on fords before Henry became convinced brake fluid would work. ?

Yes... it is my specialty and did hundreds of them mostly Model A's...

Adjusted properly they are very effective...

I also have a Barret Brake Doctor. It is a machine that arcs the brake shoes on the car so they fit perfect from the get-go... lots of brake dust flying around!..

Quite a story about my finding a brand new Brake Doctor too.

 

[turnkey4099]

Gas heaters in Volkswagen's make sense. No radiator, no water jacket, no heater. But it doesn't' make sense in a 1949 Chevy to me. I can imagine having it installed as an option though.

I did a quick search in google. I did find a used one but it didn't say what it came out of. I told the guy this morning that if that car had a gas heater it had to have been an after market install. He insisted it was factory with chev emblem on it. Since he is almost as old as I am, memory problems is most likely.

New one to me. guy showed up and asked me to sell him a cord of willow. He was driving a 69 ford 150. After loading it he said he had something to show me. Lifted the hood and in the right front quarter was a full generator with 1 lunger motor fed from the gas tank. He said it was an option from 69-72 but they discontinued it as hardly anyone bought one.

 

[turnkey4099]

I believe that a heater was a factory option in 1949, and perhaps much later than that. I recall that when I was a kid, advertisements for used cars often said "Radio and Heater". There was an after market gasoline heater called a "South Wind". Although not hugely popular, I recall seeing them in a lot of old Chevys. I think it is extremely likely that an old 49 Chevy had a South Wind. Not unusual to buy a car in those days without a heater or a radio and to install an aftermarket unit.

Possibly during the war years but not as late as 48. All the older kids in HS had old cars (mid/late 30s and into the 40s) all were factory heater and radio.

 

[turnkey4099]

I had mentioned a gas Southwind heater for '29 Oldsmobile , my older brother and I drove a '28 chevy. delivered newspaper on rural route also a Southwind heater had to be careful no papers getting close to the bottom/ back of firewall mounted device. This car had a vacuum fuel pump and if sitting on incline at idle waiting for a train to pass would lose the vacuum to small tank under the hood . had to remove about 8 screw on container fill with jug of gas kept for this purpose then retighten the screws and restart the engine. This car also had vacuum windshield wipers slow driving or going up hill lost vacuum and had to reach to top of windshield and press lever forward and back to be able to see out the glass.
bought a '40 Plymouth and it came with water heated standred heater . the '39 Ford also had a water heated heater standred. a '62 VW had the exhaust covered pipe the came into the car for heat and carbon monoxide.

Any one ever adjusted the brake rods on fords before Henry became convinced brake fluid would work. ?

I am old enough to remember dad doing it. That was ona car all the way through WWII.

 

[dragoneggs]

Dad also had a bug, and it had a gasoline heater. Instant heat!

I remember having to roll the window down a bit to close the door in my buddy's bug. So air tight and the pressure needed relief. If you tried slamming it shut it would just bounce back open and my ears didn't like it either!

 

[Streetcar]

I remember having to roll the window down a bit to close the door in my buddy's bug. So air tight and the pressure needed relief. If you tried slamming it shut it would just bounce back open and my ears didn't like it either!

Thebold bugs were very air tight,I have seen pictures of bugs floating during floods

 

[Industrial Toys]

I had a dune buggy but never realized until I saw a video recently that showed how the warm air was sent down pasages on each side of the body. No wonder the heat was lost! We had a 69 bug, I think, with the gas heater which served my mother well in the winter waiting to pick me up from school.

 

[Looking4new]

How many of you all drove a 5x4 truck. 5 speed main transmission and a 4 speed auxiliary?
If you could keep it straight you had 4 speeds in reverse.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[Industrial Toys]

We had the beetle and a Delta 88. I would just hate when my Dad would pick the Beetle to go to the farm. Sometimes he would take out the passenger seat (just like Ted Bundy)! Oh the shame!

 

[MossRoad]

Back in the early 70's they were doing urban renewal in our town (that means moving poor people out of prime real estate against their will). They were tearing up brick streets. My dad would go down there at night in our VW bus with the middle seat removed and pick up loads of street bricks to build patios and such at our house. He'd also pick up broken sidewalk concrete to make retaining walls. Looks very similar to stone with the jagged edges. Anyhow, he overloaded the bus and it sagged down and he couldn't slide the door shut. So he drove it home with the door open and unloaded it. Still couldn't shut the door. He'd bent the floor! :laughing:

As I recall, he took it to a mechanic and it came back the next day with the door working again. I'd love to know how they bent it back. :confused3:

 

[MossRoad]

I also recall besides having the VW buses, and that one beetle, dad came home with a vw karmann ghia. We didn't have it very long, and it went away and the beetle came back. I was too young to know at the time, but I think mom wasn't happy with the two-seater as we had 5 kids in the family. I was actually surprised we had the beetle, looking back on it.

Thinking back, though, it was pretty common for dads to have a "car" and moms to have a station wagon, so the beetle, karmann ghia, mid 60's Mustangs, 70 Nova were probably in line with the times.

The Nova at least had bench seats and could sit 6.