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August
2005: Due to weather and family commitments, I only managed to
attend a couple of shows this month. Iten Chev hosted an evening
show on July 30th and around 200 cars showed up. Despite being
heavily outnumbered by Brand Xers, a few Mopars were awarded
"Top 25" trophies. One was a Sublime Challenger T/A,
another went to my friend Warren and his '67
'Cuda. The 3rd Mopar to garner a "Top 25" was my
GTX. A week later was the White Bear Dodge Show on
August 5th. My GTX always seems to do well at White Bear Dodge,
for the 3rd year in a row it earned a "Top 25" award.
Of course, cruisin' North St. Paul and Porky's is always a good
time.
| July
2005: July's
been a good month. It's been fun hanging out with old
friends and making some new ones. The Car Craft Magazine
Summer Nationals were held at the Minnesota State
Fairgrounds on July 15th, 16th & 17th. Temps were
close to 100° for all 3 days but that didn't stop
people from enjoying themselves. |
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| June
2005: In late May I got the big idea to buff out a paint
blem in the front fender. What a mistake that turned out
to be. Like a fool, I buffed through the clear coat and
the basecoat. Wonderful, Mopars in the Park was
less than 2 weeks away and now the fender needs
repainting. I got the fender and hood stripes repainted
over Memorial Day weekend. Things were looking up, all I
had to do was reassemble things then clean and detail
the entire car. |
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Saturday
morning the skies opened up and everyone was treated to
a 3 hour car wash. It wasn't a total washout, the storms
cleared out by early afternoon and those that toughed it
out enjoyed a pretty decent afternoon. Despite the
weather, the weekend was a lot of fun.
Photos
from Mopars in the Park 2005
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On
Sunday morning, Rob Wolf of Mopar
Collectors Guide approached me about shooting the
GTX for the magazine. How could I possibly say no? Rob
couldn't promise that it would actually be in the
magazine, but I was thrilled for the opportunity. The
shoot location was in an industrial park just down the
road from Raceway Park, I arrived early and watched Rob
photograph a couple of E Bodies. As he was doing that, a
street sweeper began cleaning the yard of a concrete
manufacturing plant next door. Moments after the shoot
was finished, the sweeper went by in a huge cloud of
concrete dust. Talk about good timing...
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The
next big local event will be the Car Craft
Summer Nationals in mid July. Until then,
there's plenty to do. The Friday night cruise in
North St. Paul is starting up and Porky's
drive-in is always open... |
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April
& May 2005:
I haven't been slacking off. A lot of work has been completed
since the last update. On the GTX's exterior, the drivers door
trim and all of the red reflective side stripes have been
replaced. Plans to repaint the hood stripes are still in the
works. It will be done well before Mopars
in the Park on June 4th and 5th. The GTX will be in the
"Winners Circle" this year, competing against last
years other class winners. To avoid being totally outclassed,
the ol' Plymouth will have to look as good as possible.
Before
the drag shocks went on, the pinion angle needed correction. It
was off by 7°. Out came the 8¾ so that new spring perches
could be properly welded into place. Once the rear was back
under the car, the drag shocks were installed front and rear. A
pair of Raybestos calipers replaced the cheap ones I installed
during the disc swap. One had began sticking, causing the car to
pull to the right during hard braking.
The
only interior item on the list was the Redline Gauge Works repro
tach. I really dreaded doing the swap because it looked like the
whole instrument cluster would have to come out. Instead, I laid
on the trans tunnel with my head wedged under the dash. There
wasn't a lot of room to work with but there was enough to manage
swapping the tach from underneath, saving hours of work.
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February
2005: The
days are getting longer, soon it will be time to pull the cover
off and get a little work done. Every year the list gets a
little shorter. I spent the winter gathering a few of the things
I'll need once it's warm enough to work out in the garage again.
The hood stripes will get a fresh coat of Organisol and a nicer
door molding will replace the one currently on the drivers door.
I finally found a correct jack hook so the trunk can be detailed
out, even though not many people will see it.
| Ever
since I installed the MSD 6AL the factory tach didn't
seem too accurate, even with the recommended MSD tach
adapter. I ordered up this reproduction tach from
Redline Gauge Works. Redline uses modern internal
components from VDO gauges so it should be much more
accurate.
The
8 track player stopped working so the radio will have to
be opened up. Folks that know a lot more about tape
decks than I do seem to think it needs a new drive belt.
Radio Shack carries generic replacement belts, hopefully
they'll have one that works. We'll see...
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