boss347convertible wrote:

My recollection is that the auction was "no reserve". The present auction is "no reserve". I have bid on many items listed by this auction house and although not a high bidder, the winning bid was less than actual bids. This seller requires that you contact them directly if you are bidding so they can verify  the bidder.Could be the seller is bidding on its own items.

I have bid on items from other sellers and have been outbid, only to have the item come back to me at my bid price. There is a lot of room for manipulation of price on ebay, so I bid with caution. On the other hand I have found and purchased parts that I would not otherwise have located at very reasonable prices.

Really it just takes one person to be in collusion with the seller, or the seller to have multiple accounts.  Its a trick as old as eBay.  It was happening back in 2000 when I first started using eBay. 
 

Or maybe it didn't meet the reserve?  Remember, even if there is "no reserve" on the auction it doesn't mean the seller doesn't have a reserve in mind and won't shut down the sale if it isn't reached.  IME the whole "no reserve" thing is a marketing ploy. 

Good luck!

Since its become a dying art, absolutely.  I'm putting them on my short list of parts suppliers.  Thanks for the info.

I'd add that after a good heat cycle its never a bad idea to torque the bolts again.  Especially if the heads and/or intake are aluminum. 

First, don't delay in swapping them out.  My wall of shame has a ball joint out of my buddy's '95 Cobra that fortunately let loose in my driveway.  The OEM ones are not terribly well made.

Second, I will second Rudi's endorsement of Mevotech.  I only buy their chassis parts now.  I had a set of MOOG lifetime tie rod ends on one of my F250s that only lasted 20k miles before they started clunking.  I reached out to Rock auto to get replacements and they asked if I still had the boxes (of course I didn't the parts were over a year old at that point).  They asked for a picture of the MOOG logo cast into the parts (there wasn't one, and I also noticed there were no grease zerks either).  They wouldn't warranty them, even though I found the receipt from when I bought them.  Then I read on here where at some point they were putting TRW or some other brand parts in MOOG boxes, selling them as MOOG lifetime and then not honoring the warranty since the parts weren't really MOOG.  I won't give my money to businesses which operate like that.  Mevotech is Canadian and all the parts I've received from them have been first rate (I only buy their top of the line).  I've rebuilt the front end in both my F250s (ball joints, tie rod ends, drag links, track bar ball joints, sway bar bushings, swap bar end links, and unit bearings).  Everything was high quality, installed easily, and has held up (about 30k on the one front end now and still as tight as when I first did the work). 

Details?

John Ha wrote:

Congratulations!  Great job. 

As for the insurance, I always thought you wanted to have an "agreed value" policy.  "Stated value" policies typically only pay actual cash value (or what the insurance company thinks the value is) in the event of a total loss while "agreed value" policies pay the full value in the event of a total loss.

For example, if I have a $50000 agreed value policy and my car is totaled, the insurance company pays me $50000.  If I have a $50000 stated value policy and my car is totaled, and the actual cash value of the car (based on market values) is $20000, I only get $20000.

When I was looking to insure mine after it was painted and running properly, I took the summary of all of my receipts and records showing he work I did, work and cost of other professionals' work, and the cost of the parts, to a certified professional classic auto appraiser and had him value the car.  Then I used that appraised value to determine the agreed value I wanted to insure your car for.  I used the appraisal report to help substantiate the value to the insurance company.

Yes and no.  Stated value needs to be based on something, and that part is on you.  There's nothing inherently wrong with such a policy, but I'd advise having the car appraised.  I paid $200 for that service and that appraised value sets the value of the car, because it represents what such cars actually sell for currently.  You should have the car reappraised every couple of years to be safe.  If you leave anything to an insurance company they will try to pay out as little as possible.  I always say that insurance companies are in business to do two things: collect premiums and deny claims. 

Not sure.  If it were a '67-'68 I think $50k all day long.  My guess would be maybe $35-$40k. 

Yikes!  What could possibly go wrong with welding a heavy gauge mounting bracket to a cast iron steering box, which I''m sure was already machined before they did the welding? 

Worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them.  I can tell you that up at the Carlisle show they would easily have been asking $300 each for them, and probably more lie $500 each.  Not exactly NOS, but not reproductions either. 

14.7 is stoichiometric ratio for air and fuel, meaning at that ratio, all things being 100% perfect, all the fuel will combust.  Now, an engine NEVER operates with anything being 100% perfect, and this also doesn't take into account things like the dynamic reality of how an engine operates.  You won't make good power at 14.7:1, and the engine won't accelerate very well at 14.7:1.  Max power is typically made more like 12-12.5:1.  You might save some gas by going to 15:1 at cruising speeds.  Its a balancing act.  Also, the only real way to gauge what's going on is to data log a run and then look at it.  A good wideband reacts so fast that by the time you see what's on the gauge its already at a totally different spot.  EFI takes readings from the O2 a bunch of times a second to make fueling changes.  Your eye starts to fail if things happen faster than about 1/8th of a second.  So you're trying to take a snapshot and interpolate where your A/F ratio needs to be, which is less than ideal.  If you data log you can see the actual fuel curve.  Couple that to a dyno or a dragstrip and you can start to see how adding or subtracting fuel along that curve improves or reduces power.  Like a lot of things, an AFR gauge is a tool.  Tools are good for what they can tell you, but they are still limited by what they can tell you. 

BobE wrote:

One of the memes on Instagram; The fact that Keith Richards has lived longer than Richard Simmons makes one question the value of living healthy! 

I think Keith died like 30-40 years ago, but he just kept partying and it didn't take.  But seriously, you're not wrong.  My mom's mom smoked until she was 70 and drank a glass of Jim Beam every night.  Lived to be 87.  Of course she died of cancer, but she was really only sick in the hospital for about 2 weeks at the end.  At 85 she was still driving 4 hours round trip to her beach house.  I always point out that length of life is great in theory, but what's the quality of life?  Is it worth living another 10-20 years unable to do anything you love, debilitated, and in pain?  I can't say; I'm not that near the end yet (hopefully).  I'm already older than my father ever got to be, so I try not to worry too much about the future, and enjoy the present. 

The goal is not to reach the finish line in a pristine automobile, having obeyed every traffic law.  Its to slide sideways across the finish line on 4 bald tires, with no brakes, a spent clutch, and melted plugs while exclaiming: "Boy, what a ride!"