Transverse torsion bars like a VW Beetle?
@Squankum, the torsion bar suspension I remember best was the setup on all the Chrysler vehicles in 1957. GM responded in 1958 with an air bag suspension system but it wasn't a universal change like Chrysler. It was an option on Chevy and Olds for just one year (1958), Buick and Pontiac for two years (1958-9) but Cadillac started offering it as standard equipment in 1957 on the brushed stainless roof Eldorado Brougham and optional on several Cadillac models a little longer than the other GM passenger cars (1958-60).
Bob,
Happy belated birthday.
Sorry, I haven't been around. Hope you had great one.
Leonard, I have been AWOL as well. Lots of little time-eating projects, shopping and visiting doctors and their dealers (Walgreens mostly). When It's my turn to pick up the prescriptions, I warn the people behind me: "it's going to take a while, they have to get my heroin from way in the back."
Bob, I had no idea that cruises were the way to go, back in the day. Prices of food, the experience, everything. We paid $50 per person for the whole experience for our trip, nowadays. That included a ride on a school bus, a cruise on the river, buffet lunch, shopping afterwards, then a bus ride home. If I think about it, we really did a lot of things for our money, verses a decent restaurant in any local town. Quite a bit better, if you pick an... Ummm upscale restaurant nowadays. That being said, Cheryl liked the cruise so much that she is going to try to find a train ride for us, soon. She promised me a train ride that serves pizza!! I'm for that, hugely. Love me some pizza. Deep dish, lots of meat. Lots of cheese. Ever been to Chicago? Ha. One piece fills you up. I almost get confused between lasagna and deep dish pizza in Chicago. Best pizza I've ever tried. My favorite.
Rick, cruises weren't for everyone. We just happen to live in South Florida on the east coast where cruises to the Caribbean start, from the ports of Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. We took most of the cruises with another couple in our Corvette club and the wife learned about a lot of special deals from her travel agent friend. The 7-day cruise for $250 each required us to bunk together in one cabin. The ship had a very limited number of 4-adult cabins and she got one by calling at midnight the day of the deal. Quite a few of our cruises were to visit places without having to pack and unpack luggage every day. In 1984 we took a 14-day Mediterranean trip starting in Greece and visiting a few Greek islands, Egypt, Israel and Turkey. After the 7-day cruise part, we enjoyed a bus trip all over Greece (lots of packing and unpacking). The Scandinavia/Russia cruise took us from England to Sweden, Norway, Finland, Saint Petersburg, Russia, Estonia and Denmark. When we got older we did road trips. Several in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the finale, Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland but missed Ireland).
Like you, I've been to Chicago twice. Once in 1955 to connect to Route 66 from Long Island via the Pennsylvania turnpike. We didn't take Route 66 for nostalgia -- it was the main road west because there were only a few freeways, parkways, thruways and turnpikes and those were built by the states back then. Eisenhower didn't even sign the interstate highway bill until 1956. We cooked 95% of our meals in the little travel trailer for those 75 day trips so I missed out on Chicago pizza back then. In fact the first time I had pizza was when I was dating Liane. In the early 1970s, a business trip took me to Chicago and I tried the pizza. I thought it was fine but our equivalent is Sicilian pizza, New York style, which is rectangular, baked twice and is heavier and more filling than the classic New York round pizza
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The only pizza that comes close to that, around here, would be a foil pan pizza, with cowboy ingredients on top, from your local Papa Murphys.... They refused to make that combination, at first, but they do now. I'm not ready to take credit or discredit for the above, just think I had some influence on their success for making that combination, nowadays... Just sayn... Even at that you would have to stack about three of these bad boys together to match something made in Chicago...
The first Pizzeria Liane took me to was Babylon Pizza and they had a clam pizza I thought was to die for. Mention it anywhere but Long Island (or Connecticut) and people take a step back and give you the "What's wrong with you?" look.
"Clam pizza is most famously associated with New Haven, Connecticut but it is popular on Long Island and can be found at various pizza establishments there. It is a white pizza, featuring a thin crust with toppings of clams, olive oil, garlic and cheese rather than a tomato sauce. It is sometimes called "grandma pizza" and often includes oregano and Pecorino Romano cheese."
I really like Green Mill pizza, too. But I find that a thicker crust pizza comes with huge chunks of fresh tow-maters... I'm not really a fan of that, so I always go much more thin crust on them.
Rick, these days we rarely eat food cooked or prepared outside our home. I forget exactly when but more than a decade ago, my blood pressure started rising and my feet and ankles started swelling after eating at restaurants and prepared meals from the grocery store. Turns out it's because there's so much salt in it. I take a tiny 12.5mg hydrochlorothiazide pill every day to counteract the sodium. Walmart has become a regular food shopping location for us because they offer a lot of "no salt added" groceries.
Pitcher better n' a thousand words:
That's looking up from the bottom side. The quick n' dirty on a 53-56 F-100 was to eliminate the entire buggy spring/solid axle front end including the steering box, then slide this K-member assembly under the frame, position it, lay the frame flat on it and then weld 'em together. It worked, but it was impossible to get the front end dropped much lower than the nose in the air stock stance. The proper was was to make profiles of the k-member at the intersection point with the effie frame and then carve most of the bottom and side rail of the frame to fit, then spend a ton of hours welding, filling, trimming and more grinding, but it came out with a suspension system that rode good and that you could set the nose of the truck on the ground if you so desired (although mine was set up the height of a beer can, which cleared most stuff)
Bob - sad to say it was a low compression '72 350 with a Turbo 350 behind it, with the stock '54 4:11 rear end behind it. I Bought it that way, had a blast the first year with it, but hated the front suspension (see above). I don't know the background except the truck was brought to Michigan from California in the late '80, supposedly driven, which must have been quite a trip with the 350/4:11 combo and Cherry bombs with short pipes that ended just behind the cab. (huh? whatja say? what? Speak up!). I believe it may have been built as a hauler for a race car or boat, as it had a ton of extra rear leaves and a beefy class C hitch. Adding to the mystery was that the Vin said it was originally an automatic, yet had been set up with a stick at some point because the cross shaft with the clutch pedal was still there with the pedal gas axed at the base.
There's lots more to tell, I'll save that for later, let's just say that sometimes it's better to have fun with what cha got rather than try making it into the "really cool" thing that never gets done...
Gerry, that's a beautiful truck. I am torn between the Ford and Chevy pickups of the mid-'50s. I like the stepsides in both brands but I fell in love with the 1955 Chevy Cameo the first time I saw one on the way to California.
My favorite pizza of all time would be a deep dish pepperoni at Pizza Hut. Since they've greatly gone downhill, nowadays, with less locations, it's a challenge to even find a place, local to us, nowadays. But I've always liked them. Back in the day, there was a Pizza Hut in Menominee, WI. Cheryl and I went there often. We haven't been there since we had a choice of a smoking section or not. We always asked for a smoking section. Back then, if I remember right, the menu was paper, had a menu on one side, had crossword puzzles, jumble type games, things like that on the reverse side.
Rick, we always got our pizza from a mom and pop place. The exception was during our two years living in Australia. The local pizza was fine but it didn't taste like home. We visited Pizza Hut or McDonalds to get that fix. We returned to the US in 1991 and haven't been to a Mc Donalds or Pizza Hut since. Since our local New York pizza place closed five years ago, we haven't found one we both like since. Liane did find a place that sells a tateless crust (think Saltine cracker without as much salt) and airbrushed red sauce with slightly 'off' cream chease. Now she wants to try the $9.95 Domino's anything goes pizza. Looks like I won't be wearing shoes for a couple of days.
My experience with cruises was pretty much eat and drink. My wife still don’t know how I was able to walk and not have hangovers in the morning due to the amount of adult beverages I consumed. I said “easy, don’t stop drinking and you don’t get a hangover!” But as mentioned, the cost wasn’t too bad really when I did the math. I just didn’t really enjoy sitting on the boat all week. I did the parties, I did the shows, and I did the gambling, but it just seemed it was more about eating and drinking on the cruises I went on.
Cody, many cruise serve one ounce of liquor with ice and your choice of mixer. We would often bring our own favorite (Johnnie Walker Black for me and Bacardi Black for Liane). All but two of our cruises had many interesting ports so the ship was our transportation and lodging.
Our second cruise was on the Cunard Princess in 1978. One of the ship's propellers or shafts was bent and causing an annoying vibration. They couldn't serve a full drink or cup of coffee because ripples would form and at some point wash over the rim of a full container. The night of the Captain's Dinner we ran into some rough weather and waves were breaking over the bow. The menu that night featured Maine lobster tails and Filet Mignon (Surf & Turf). By the time the appetizers, salads and soups had been served, people started getting up from their tables and leaving. Before long, there were empty tables with 8 servings of Surf & Turf just sitting there. Hating to see food go to waste, I made my way to a couple of nearby tables and brought back my 10th or 12th serving (I held back on the early courses). Only had one piece of Baked Alaska before we exited. I grew up fishing in the North Atlantic on small charter boats and managed not to barf from the waves, diesel fumes and bait buckets so a little rocking and rolling on a giant ship was kinda relaxing.
In addition to sightseeing on many Caribbean islands, we shoped at their duty free stores. I bought a Minolta SLR for half the price in the US. But the killer was the duty free liquor stores. Here's a receipt from Al Cohen's Discount Liquors on St. Thomas:
A few years later Liane and a girl friend visited St. Thomas on another cruise and she only bought me one bottle of Johnnie Walker Black. She paid about $30 but it was the 4.5 liter bottle on a swing. It's $268 for that bottle today.
An addendum to this : I often thought about posting a picture or two on Ryan's HAMB (Hokey *** Message Board) part of The Jalopy Journal to see if anyone that was around on the Left Coast in the old days recognized it. I'm not a member and it seemed like a "one and done" kind of thing.
Gerry, I am a subscriber to the HAMB but haven't visited in years. Way too much squabbling over stuff and my oldest vehicle is a '72 so I didn't fit in. The fact it was a fiberglass car made it even more awkward. I did manage to sell my Edmunds Custom dual Ford 94 2-barrel manifold and carburetor setup for $600 (I paid $35 and used it on my '56 Chevy 235 ci stovebolt six for several years.
Ah. My only experience with Chrysler torsion bars is the front springs on our '00 Durango, which are longitudinal. And here's a pic from a 1957 Chrysler, longitudinal.
I got confused when this subject started, thinking Jay Leno had a mid-50's Chrysler with longitudinal torsion springs all around. Nope, it's his Packard Caribbean.
It also had an electric motor to adjust the bars, for load leveling;
In 1955, Packard introduced a novel and advanced suspension system called Torsion-Level Ride. Here’s the lowdown on this little-understood system, including an excellent little Packard film that shows exactly how it works. By 1955, the Packard Motor Car … Continue reading →
macsmotorcitygarage.com
Trivia clattering around in my skull says that old man Porsche had a patent on the torsion spring. Well, good thing I checked Wikipedia, because it is, of course, complicated:
Did somebody say T600 Tatraplan?!
Porsche torsion bars included the VW Beetle and 356 suspension, like this:
Kudos to Chrysler for keeping it simpler and cheaper! Like two-thirds of a sway bar.
@Squankum, I had forgotten about the Packard system. Even when those '55 Caribbean's were available new, you rarely saw one on the street.
A close friend of mine bought a suspension kit for his '39 Ford Tudor sedan that used longitudinal torsion bars from a full size '70's Chrysler product. (He's older than me - like dirt- and it's his high school ride).
Gerry, I have an "Older than Dirt" t-shirt and have had it for a looooong time.
Bob, another restaurant comes to mind with me.. it is in Hudson, WI. It is called Milwaukee Burger. Quite the place. Those burgers are awesome. Very popular place. Most of the time we go there, it's about an hour wait to actually get seated. It is worth it. We only go once in a while. A waitress escorts you to a table. Full bar. Everything...
Another place I buy from is in Hudson, called Five Guys. Those burgers are awesome. I ask for a large burger for me. ( Meaning a double patty) And ask for a small burger for Cheryl. Meaning one patty. Then I ask for the smallest helping of French Fries... A small amount of ketchup and a small amount of grilled onions on both.... I kid you not, the smallest order of fries consists of put the burgers in the sack, then fill the rest of the sack with fries. I'm not kidding. Ha. I would hate to ask for a large portion of fries.... I always pick up something for the both of us on a Wednesday evening. It gives Cheryl a night off from cooking. She thanks me profusely, every week. She picks up a pizza every Tuesday. So there is that, and I love it. Cheryl made Chicken shis-ka-bobs on the smoker tonight. Pretty tasty. I promised her that I'll try to find a rack of ribs, this week, does she prefer pork ribs or beef ribs? She didn't have a preference, and I don't know what I'm buying in a grocery store.. but I'll try. Cheryl is running out of charcoal, so I'll pick up some more. Lately, she has been using just normal Kingsford briquettes and a sprinkle of shredded apple wood on top. I asked her if she would like to try something else, other than apple wood. There's hickory, mesquite, and some others. I remember that Kay had a favorite combination of two different woods that she uses on her smoker.
Rick, there's a great burger joint near us. We used to go there with our neighbors on occasion but since they moved away, we haven't returned. I make my own patties at home and adjust the size (7 oz. for me, 5 oz. for Liane). Publix sells great fresh rolls that I put mine on but Liane prefers hers on an English muffin (I know!). Mine also gets a slice of Hot Jalapeno Habanero cheese.
Our time in Australia spoiled us. The Fish & Chips shops served fantastic fries with the battered fish, all wrapped up in paper but the best fries were sold at Coles supermarket. We would walk down the hill from our place to the Corso in Manly, pick up a bag of fresh cooked french fries and eat them on a picnic bench overlooking the ocean. Our favorite one-legged seagull would always stop by for a taste. I can't be sure because I never asked but I believe the best fries in Australia were cooked in lard, not vegetable oil. Of course that was 35 years ago so things may have changed.
www.vevor.com
! So we all feel your pain!
