[Tom S.]

Gwen, my brother had a Duster, with Slant Six. He never tricked it out - by that time he was married.
But when dating he raced his future mother-in-laws '63 Valiant (with push-button automatic) every weekend at NY National Speedway!

My first car was a 1971 American Motors Javelin. There, I've admitted it. What a POS!

Chris

Those push buttons were neat. I learned the hard way though, don't pull one out. Doing so causes the rod to fall out and requires major problems to put it back. I don't remember why I did it, curiosity, no doubt. In this case, it killed the cat and no amount of satisfaction was bringing it back.

And you have selective memory: by todays standards, no cars of that period were good. They were easier to work on, but the flip side was you were always working on them.

[Just1MoreDave]

I learned the hard way not to try popping the clutch in my parents' 1973 Dart (also Slant Six) while they were shopping. Something snapped and the pedal stuck up.

Later on my younger brother inherited this car and changed it from a column shifter to floor shifter. The column shift mechanism was worn so sometimes it would hang in first gear. He got that kit from JC Whitney too. Someone told him the Slant Six had solid lifters and he could adjust the valves. We spent an afternoon on that and it was a totally different car afterwards. But it still used oil. We drove it from Connecticut to St. Louis and had to add oil every couple of hundred miles. There was a film of oil on the bumper.

[Rupert]

Those push buttons were neat. I learned the hard way though, don't pull one out. Doing so causes the rod to fall out and requires major problems to put it back. I don't remember why I did it, curiosity, no doubt. In this case, it killed the cat and no amount of satisfaction was bringing it back.

My Dad bought a '57 DeSoto.....push button auto, hemi with two fours and it was the fastest car in town. When I first started driving at 15, I damn near killed myself in that car. It was wickedly fast for its day, and I raced every kids family car in town...and I was never short on lunch money! I never pulled out one of those buttons, and now I am glad I didn't! The push buttons were fantastic for racing, and I can still position my left hand in just the right spot to slam them in at the right moment...in my old mind, of course! Not only was it fast and durable, seldom visiting the shop...except for once when I bent a torsion bar when I ran into a ditch going too fast on a dead end road....but it was also a great looking car. Those long fins were the "thing" back in '57!

There is a photo of the push button panel on the left side in this image/data sheet. Makes me want to race someone!
Presenting the 1957 DeSoto

Regards!

[csa]

My first car was a 1971 American Motors Javelin. There, I've admitted it. What a POS!

Chris, I had the Mark Donohue Javelin SST with the 390 engine, with the donohue spoiler package. It was a robin egg blue with black striping, that demon would move; I loved it!

[RoxnDox]

First cars I drove were our family's '62 Chevy II (straight 6 and a 2-speed automatic) and a '64 International Scout with a 4-banger and 3-speed manual.

First car I actually owned was a '73 Vega hatchback, one of about a thousand "Millionth Vega" models they put out. Bought it from my aunt for $75, spent about $400 putting in a new steel-sleeved engine block, and drove it for several years before selling it to some high school kid for $800

But I wish I had kept it, loved that little scootmobile...

Jim

[Ratmagiclady]

Ratlady, I saw your post and said to myself......I can drill a 2 inch hole in my head, insert a cake mixer and turn it on high......or read the Ratlady's post.
The end result is about the same so I read it! Fortunately, as a person fluent in Squirrel, Raccoon, Possum and Ratlady, I had less difficulty than one would expect!
Mrs Rupert once had a slant six Dodge and it was a decent car...just very plain and simple but it held up well and was very dependable. It did take on the habit of heavy oil consumption in its later years. Some say it was because of the "slant" that wore on the pistons/rings?

They could at that, though the 'bulletproof' reputation may have also led to some deferred maintenance over time: If I recall I'd have liked to have that slant six somewhat redone for rings and whatever the valves might have needed: also did put in a better oil pump, which seemed sensible but wasn't enough. I think a head gasket I bought for that engine may still be hanging in my folks' basement. (And I'd heard that theory but I don't think it's any more true than it would be for a 'v' engine, which are 'slanted' even more.

"My question for you....how is the Ratmobile nowadays? Last I heard/saw you had it lookin' pretty good and up and running . Done anything new with it lately? Since your move I expect you have more time for Ratmobile attention?

Best Regards!
Rupert

Oh, going pretty good, really. Actually finally met some more mechanical type friends down here, one with particular expertise on my ignition and fuel system, which I'd largely been just going through bit by bit replacing perished or worn items but my friend just could help cut right to the chase there. Recent changes are, well, finally completed the AC delete, getting all that stuff out of the engine bay and all, went to a mechanical fan/clutch to improve cooling in the kind of driving I do, err, what else. Had converted the idle air control valve back there to something more reliable/cheaper to replace, new timing belt tensioner went in, basically running very well for one of these systems, ...still needing another crack at my front suspension I wasn't strong enough to separate tie rod ends on, crazily. )

It's been busy since the move, actually, but a bunch of little stuff. Re-flowed the solder on the dash cluster, actually, now have an analog clock to check my quarter mile times on. (Got so used to ignoring that one it's taking some getting used to it working properly.

Added some sound damping (Courtesy of a mattress box I broke down to make a futon pallet for the smaller bed I went to here. Came with great stuff for that: I'll later add some more Dyna-mat0type foil-and-foam to rest of cabin where that makes more sense,) ...all to go with nicer-sounding exhaust-tip I'd put on, to keep the echoes down and the cabin cooler/warmer.

Also scored an airfoil ie, 'wagon spoiler' from a later V90, which I haven't put on just yet. It's not much of a muchness to look at but a tad wee bit of more shade over the back greenhouse (It's only a couple of inches, but that ought to count for something considering the angle I usually park on. ) ...and arguably a good drip of an MPG improvement at more highway speeds. There was a chance it would even match my paint code but it's a bit lighter. It's also something I could pretty much flip in Volvo circles to fund something else, though that profit weighed against the odds of finding one as cheap again... Well, I'll probably use it.

That'll at least be something you can kind of see in photos anyway. Hasn't been much to see there, really. But pretty stainless pencil tip. Which embarrassingly-bad dayblind photo some will have seen months ago. Really does sound so much nicer though. [url="https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=278430"]

So basically tons of news there, not much visible. At some point soonish we'll be having old transmission fluid out and replacing it with some waiting full-synthetic ATF, (Valvoline makes some affordable stuff of that sort now, which insiders tell me works great in these automatics, making it all run like twenty degrees cooler, how's about that. (Really a concern mostly for if I'm forced to make a long-range move but also just helpful That shouldn't be too much of a job, (These transmissions apparently don't like being flushed under pressure, or new filters, (or adding external coolers, which was an idea I'd had) so you basically have the pan off, get all the gunk out of that and anything you can see, then circulate the new stuff in, call it a job. )

---------- Post added 11-12-15 at 05:46 PM ----------

Gwen, my brother had a Duster, with Slant Six. He never tricked it out - by that time he was married.
But when dating he raced his future mother-in-laws '63 Valiant (with push-button automatic) every weekend at NY National Speedway!

My first car was a 1971 American Motors Javelin. There, I've admitted it.
What a POS!

Chris

But lovable, (Pretty much a requirement for any car I own: If I can have em, I'm going to need to be wrenching on them anyway, better be loveable, ) ...And also cool, in that case, even if I recall that coolness getting rusty awful fast.

As for push-button transmissions, I never liked even the idea of them, as cool as they may be for gadget value. I like physical controls, not something someone might hit trying to change the radio station. It's kind of that way with flappy-paddle controls. As a concession to arthritis making heel-and-toe harder sometimes, I'd consider them, I'd still rather have a lever be there. Generally though, when I most need to shift an automatic transmission the last place I want to be is leaning forward to try and hit a little button on the dash.

[Rupert]

(And I'd heard that theory but I don't think it's any more true than it would be for a 'v' engine, which are 'slanted' even more.

Good point Ratlady. Glad to hear the Ratmobile is being well cared for and getting some needed attention. Take care!

Regards!
Rupert