Nate Wrote:

So far all the vehicles I have owned have been "A to B" vehicles, but I like to admire the beautiful classic cars and the new sports cars that cost more than any home I will ever own.

Brother Nate, let's say that someone dies and leaves me a bunch of money so that I can purchase such a vehicle is there any that you would recommend for restoration? I have always been a fan of early to mid 50's chevys. I have had this dream for many years that I would like to take one and put it as close to showroom stock as I could.

In Christ,
George

Mid 50s Chevy's are great looking vehicles. My favorite car of all time? 63 split-window Stingray Corvette. But those are in short supply. My other favorites are the 55-57 Bel Airs, 60s Impalas, late 60s Camaros, 70s Monte Carlos and Chevelles ... among so many others. If you were be in a position in the future to restore a car, pick what you really like, that's what counts! Especially considering the investment necessary to do a frame up restoration back to original.

We're in the same boat, Brother Tim! My first car was an 85 Buick that had sat in a shed for 2 years and had more rust than original paint. My father picked up the car for me and could not drive over 40mph because it shook so bad! But after draining and replacing the fluids and replacing the belts, hoses, brakes, and tires I had a dependable car. We also did no small amount of sanding to take off the rust and then applied rust converter and painted over that. The paint was dark enough that it didn't look half bad ... from a distance. I'm blessed to have a father who is skilled as a mechanic. That car was a faithful companion through college and early marriage.

Since both my wife and I worked full time before our children arrived, she had a nicer 1990 Olds. We drove that car until it hit 233K miles and started having transmission trouble and we purchases a 1994 GMC Jimmy 4x4 w/ 84K miles. That is the newest vehicle I have owned so far! We purchased a very nice 1991 Pontiac Bonneville to replace my 85 Buick, but unfortunately that car was totaled when we were hit head on at 55mph coming back from church. The Lord protected us and we had minor injuries. So that brings us to today where we have the Jimmy w/ 114K miles and another Olds w/ 214K miles! So I agree, if it hasn't hit 100K miles, it's not even broken in yet.

This post was last modified: Thu Apr 24, 2008 01:30 PM by Nate.

You have me stumped with that one. I've learned to diagnose some basic problems from the knowledge I've picked up from my Dad, but I've never heard of that before. Sorry!

No, Bro Tim, we still use miles. We are only half metricised.

While for most things, it is illegal to sell things other that in litres/Kgs, we get round it in other ways. I just looked at the bottle of milk in our fridge. It says 2.272L 4 Pints. While most supermarkets advertise their goods in Kgs, small shops and market stalls will mostly either mark prices in pounds, or dual price them, but actually weigh them in kgs. Does that make sense to you?

Don't forget that English pints and gallons are larger than the US ones. In English a "pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter." In US it is only a pound, and the quart and gallon are also that much larger.

The French do still use some legacy measures. They use Livre (pound) as ½ kg. Bicycles are usually measured in Puce, (thumbs or inches.) I notice that air tool connectors are ¼" or ½", TV screens and monitors very often marked as 17" etc.

We use millilitres as a measurement whereas the French use centilitres. 100 ml = 10 cl.

It took me quite a while in France to work out what they meant when advertised CDs & K7. K7 is pronounced c-sept, the "p" not being pronounced therefore comes out as c-set. And then there is video K7.

This post was last modified: Thu Apr 24, 2008 08:17 PM by Davo.

A quick conversion.

Miles to Km. Divide by 5 multiply by 8
Km to Miles. Divide by 8 multiple by 5
Kg to pounds. Multiply by 2.2. 5kg = 11 lb approx