Frank: Will you be converting your Ford over to use that continental spare kit on the back bumper?? I can see you using a ~cement~ tire in there. Make a nice traction aid hanging out back there. OOOOPS!! Did I just give your secret weapon plan away??? :kodak: :kodak:
FrankenDart If you see my super trick Cooper Radials wrinkle, You'll know!!:laugh: Dave, I don't think so, there's an entire industry and a multitude of "Specialists" who make, or claim to makep those things work. My neighbor had one, a 58 I think, used to get the top stuck once a month or so. :rant: He traded it for a 59 Chrysler 300. Used that to blow off the local Hotshoes in their Flatheads and 55 265's. Guy always had the latest and greatest. Learned how to fly in his 50's, wound up dead in a Bonanza at 67 or 68. Looks like an Imperial ragtop behind the Olds too, If so, those were REALLY rare. Frank, get the new issue of Hemmings Muscle cars, Ful of Mopar stuff.
Yeah, that was a nice issue of HMM. They even had a bonus section with a GTS Buyer's Guide. A few glaring issues with that article. The main one is that they state the GTS came standard with what yours and Brian's Ford/Merc have: a 3 on the tree. ou: GTSs came standard with a 727 and the 4 speed was a no cost option. Also the price structure of the GTS was about 10 year's behind the times. Yes, I wrote a letter to the editor! :spank: Those were cool articles with Ralph's 440-6, that Studebaker Marshal cop car, and the awesome SD421 Tempest wagon!!!! :bglasses: :bglasses:
Is that the 421SD wagon that Tieman did and Brian did that trick transmission? Very nice cars in this issue. I extended my subscription.
That's the one. I didn't realize that (1) there were only 12 SD421's built, and (2) that was the only surviving wagon. That was a good "cover to cover" issue. I usually glaze over while reading the articles concerning replacing Camaro trunk panels or Chevelle brake calipers.......:sleep:
As I read it, they said that 440-powered GTS came standard with a 727, but for 340- and 383-powered cars the 3-sp column was standard -- but no one ordered them that way. The accuracy of such HMM articles has always bothered me. I wish they'd send each article to an expert for proofing. Problem is, so many experts from which to choose! That and the publishing deadlines, I'm sure.
The 440 GTS only came with the 727. The other Dart models came with a 3 on the tree standard. But not the GTS, nor the 340 Swinger which came with a 4 speed as standard equip. They did contact a "Dart" expert in Joel Cooper who runs a club for 1970 340 Swingers (not 67/68/69 GTSs). I don't know if the author even asked Joel for the info regarding the transmissions. All they had to do was pick up the original sales brouchure and there is everthing they needed to know. A quick search on the web would have turned up my GTS Registry and that could have provided them the proper facts as well. I remember a couple of years ago for one of their articles about the Studebakers (either Ted Harbit's or George Krem's) HMM screwed up the facts so bad!! Bob Palma straightened them out on the facts and even had HMM sending him the next Studebaker article to proof read before publication. We love to have our cars featured in magazines, but usually there are some artistic liberties taken during the writing of the article. I remember a buddy having his 6-71 blown 428 Mustang featured in Hot Rod a number of years ago. He lives in Fraser, MI which is just south of Mt. Clemens, MI. The magazine stated that he likes to cruise his Mustang around the FOOT HILLS of MOUNT CLEMENS!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Everybody knows that Michigan has the same topography as Kansas so I wonder where these FOOT HILLS are?!?!? I was featured in a mag back in 1978 with my Nova SS. I was a house painter at the time. The article stated I was an ~interior decorator~. :rant: I guess those things can be laughed at, but they really need to get the facts right!!:Comp:
Perhaps they were refering to our potholes -- a geographic feature in which I'm certain Michigan surpasses Kansas. :Smarty: You guys better be careful when you come to Michigan in May and September this year. It was a bad winter for our roads, and some of the government entities around here have decided they don't have enough money to repair them. Their solution? Grind down the asphalt and turn paved roads into gravel roads again. Seriously. By this time next year I expect I'll be pulling my horse and buggy out of storage, not my Olds.
