Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Best car for picking > up girls was my 1943 M-38 jeep, painted a pinkish white (mixed white and red > lead primer, applied with a 2" wide brush)! Tom, my first "car" when I was 17 was a 1942 Ford Army Jeep. And I too painted it with a paint brush. Grey and light green with red trim. Carried bailing wire for keeping things together. And always wrapped the fuel pump in a wet rag before serious jeeping so it would not vapor lock at the VERY WRONG MOMENT. Like when I was trying to back(lower gear in reverse) it up Mt. Massive(third highest, 14k+, mountain in Colorado). I had heard someone else had jeeped the mountain so me a buddy and our two dogs had to try it. We did not make the top but gave it a good try. Later I heard that the previous success was the result of 12 big football players carrying the jeep to the top of the mountain. > The early MGA was also rather commendable in this context, at least it had a kind of heater and the gear > lever stayed in the car! I will hear nothing against MGAs Tom. In 1961, I drove my red 59 MGA from Boulder, Colorado to Fairbanks, Alaska, including 1500 miles of gravel. Gravel wore out the tires, the wiring under the car was de-insulated, the windshield was busted from big trucks throwing gravel at me and the rear fenders were pockmarked from below. You should try passing a big hurken diesel truck when you could not see if someone was in the other lane while wiping the dust off your glasses(never put the hood up so I was not able to clean all of the dust out of the inside of the car after the trip), downshifting to get some RPMs(horsepower)... 28.6mpg and no one passed me. No Leicas in those days but my Retina IIIc's took mighty fine Kodachromes that still look great. Dale PS About picking up girls. Today is Katy and my 38th wedding anniversary. The first drive I took her on was during a snowstorm(hood down so the heater was useless) in the MGA. I wrapped her up in my Antarctic(real Antarctic since I had just returned from my second year on the ice) and I guess she thought that I was a VERY interesting fellow. Little did she know. - --- $ dale-reed@worldnet.att.net Seattle, Washington USA $