TV Tragedy
 

2 July I was transporting 6 televisions from my girlfriends house to my garage in San Antonio. The right front tire blew on her Toyota van. I then side swiped a Semitruck and was struck from behind by the wide load of steel it was hauling. Was then put into a 360 degree plus spin at highway speeds. I was able to keep the car off the cement wall and off the grass. I know what you are all thinking and Tony Stewart did not run into me. The Tv destruction was massive. My new late 40's Crosley 10" combo took a direct hit. The crosley was then pushed into my Zenith Space command 300 tv. It suffered cabinet damage and a busted CRT. The chassis to the crosley was in front with me. It survived intact. The Cabinet did not. You can see the part of my other Zenith sticking out the back window. It along with my 1951 Raytheon survived with minimal cabinet damage. I will have to rebuild the Crosley though.

polaraman

This is what is left of the Crosley cabinet. I have located a source for the new wood for the sides of the set. I will attempt to rebuild the cabinet. The other set is the Space Command 300. There is a hole punched right through the side of the cabinet. I have some stuff to fix that also. Have to look for a new CRT. Both sources of wood/masonite will come from parted TV sets. It was a shame that the televisions lasted so long and to damaged in a car wreck. Well that was my Fourth of July Fireworks!!

polaraman

You were some lucky,you must have done an extaordinary piece of driving to keep her upright! Glad you are OK,sorry about the TVs

Alan

:eek: Look at the van, glad you are OK.

Jeez Louise what a disaster, glad you didn't get hurt....sorry about the sets though. Never saw a Toyota van look better! Grind it up and make it into an ashtray. Next time use an American van! LOL

Anthony

Damn Polaraman, glad your ok and nobody else was hurt. I think Tony would have been proud you kept it upright and off the roof dude!

-Dave

Holy Sheetrock!

Glad you're both ok... Must have been a hell of a noise inside that thing! Wow. Sorry about the TVs too, wish I had some parts to donate.

Have to agree w/Anthony on the van however. Weren't those the vans that all got bought back because of engine fires? Or was that the Nissan S-box from the same era? You'd think a mid-engined van would be less violent during a blow-out. Find your lady a nice A-100, lol!

Hell-o Fuzzy ! Glad you're OK. Look, more old Tvs we can get. Would be awful hard to get another Polaraman. PLEASE be careful!!! -Sandy G.

It was an interesting trip. I actually thought the car behind me hit me. I did not know what really happened till I got out and looked at the damage. I took a high speed driving class a few years ago. Got to drive my own car for the week. I feel that it helped me this time. I-35 between San Antonio and Dallas is one of the most deadly roads in America. It is being made worse by excessive growth and the highway going to 4 lanes each way. Hope you are all safe this summer.

The Televisions are going to be replaced, a life can't.


I wrote down measurements from the Crosley. I will be driving back to Texas soon the drop off another load at my house in San Antonio. I will pick up some sets and bring them back to Georgia. I may have to put a car out of the garage. The Tv collection is taking over. It is a fun hobby though. You folks are great!

Been looking for a 60's Dodge panel van. An A-100 would be sweet but they are expensive. We can all thank the Little Red Wagon for that. I looked at a 66 Dodge telephone company van last week. Too rusty for me. Want to combine the two hobbies by making a television repair van. It would be neat to display the restored van with a few vintage televisions in the back for display. Think it would be a hit(AHEM!) at car shows.

The Toyota van is about to be recycled into more toyotas!

polaraman

Well, if you get an A-100, Econoline or Chevy Van from the early '60s, be double-dog careful. Those guys all handle like pigs, & the brakes aren't anything to write home about. Solid front axles, high center of gravity, buggy springs & terrible weight distribution make them a good deal less than sports cars. Still, it would be kewl to have one decked out like an early '60s TeeVee repair truck !! Paint a couple of tubes on the side & maybe a roundie, & yer all set !!-Sandy G.

Glad to hear you are ok,too bad three of the tv's got damaged.But as you said tv's can be replaced and a life can't.

Wow! :eek: that van is wasted!
It's a shame about the TV's but we all seem to agree that the main thing is you're OK :grnbounce

Sandy is right, those old turds handle like a drunk wearing roller skates on greased ice. (my ode to Uncle Tom)

Straight axles, king pins, (now decrepit) leaf springs, teeny drum brakes (which were too small even when new). There are cures for all of this, just costs moolah. Rebuild the axles, replace the springs (fiberglass or carbon fiber are even better....sit lower, ride smoother, handle safer and outlast the originals)

Am sure you can convert to disc brakes using mostly off the shelf Mopar parts (Carmine, suggestions?)

My story of a early mid 60's Chevy van (inline 6 between the seats). At the time I was supplying vehicles for movies and TV shows.......for the pilot episode of Wolf (TV show) they wanted to have a stunt in which a car chase ends up with a car crashing into a tow truck towing a car. Well I scrounged up this van at the junk yard.....the cylinder head was laying on the floor and everything was apart. but none of that mattered.

We did the stunt but they never crashed the cars. At the same time a movie crew blew into town from Hong Kong and they wanted a van for their movie! Showed them the heap and they loved it, all I had to change was the color. "Does it run?" they asked "Sure thing, like a top" I sez.

The next day I took the head to the machine shop, had them vacuum test the valves, check for cracks and straightness and slapped it back on with new gaskets etc. Crossed my fingers and it fired right up......even the transmission worked! I love it when I can sell the same vehicle several times. This HK crew was great, I sold them a couple of different vehicles a couple of times each and at the end of production they gave them all back to me to resell to members of the local crew!! What a hoot.

Anthony

Actually, I wouldn't really recommend an A-100... Just said that for the laugh factor (BTW, somebody in my neighborhood has a "survivor" A-100 that's a daily-driver!)

I do like the TV repair van idea. I've thought of a similar display for my an old TV in the back of my '73 Monaco wagon. I would suggest getting any old Dodge van from about 1971-78-ish and just slap on the cool all-chrome grille from 71-73 era? Good thing about these van is that you can actually remove the door from a '71 and bolt it to a '03!

In other words, tons of parts interchange well into the modern era, but you can keep the old styling. Much better than the A-100 in just about every way.

Check around in Phoenix, there were always tons of them 4-sale cheap with no rust. Then hit the Ecology wrecking yard off of Van Burean and I-17... They've got dozens of those vans for parts... CHEAP!

I'd suggest painting it the factory Turquoise, as every 70's repair van I can remember was this color!

When I was helping a TV repairman friend back around 1979-80 he had one of these Dodges, cept it was yellow and black.

He also had a 63 Corvair van he used for awhile too, but it was kind of a pain when you had to wait till it cooled down before it would start and go to the next call :rolleyes:

I am drooling!!!!! Need to replace the doors with non window doors. My grandfather had a van like that. He was a carpenter. I have many memories of riding in that thing going on fishing trips. The john boat fit right in the back. I was bit by the bug way back when. The telephone company van was a solid panel on the left and had windows on the right side. It was kind of interesting. Too rusty for an easy fix.


73 Dodge wagon. I have a 63 440 wagon.

polaraman

As a little nose picker (am now a big one) I recall seeing lots of those Chevy pickup based suburban-ish panel delivery vans.....early 60's vintage with the wrap around windshield. This was in NYC and most of the TV repairman versions had wire mesh over the back windows to reduce theft......phone company used these too.

The eary 60's Chevy/GMC's and some I-H Travelalls came with torsion bar front suspension which was tanfastic....rode real smooth. No Carmine, Mopar was NOT first.....Packard was (1955) and their system was better than anyone's before or since as it acted upon all 4 wheels and automatically adjusted for load (height). Thought I'd twist that knife a little LOL

Anthony

Always liked the TON panel vans especially the Advance Design era 1947-55 or the "pinched waist" era 1960-66. Both of 'em are VERY rare especially the sixties models. My '51 tonner-you can just keep stackin stuff inside it. I think I've lived in smaller places than it... Access is pretty shitty, though. You gotta load stuff over the seats or thru the back doors. The A-100/Econoline/Chevy Van designs were MUCh better in that respect. -Sandy G.

T'would not have argued with you Anthony, as I am a bit of a Packard fan myself. However, weren't T-bars optional on Packards, or was this just the load-leveling feature? I have a book called "Chrysler Imperials 1945-1968" which shows a pictures of design mules built around 1955, before the switch to T-bars in 1957. One of them uses torsion bars with an independant rear axle and 4-wheel discs. Has more in common with a 2005 Viper than anything from the 50s! Damn bean counters!

:(

My company slogan: "We're not that good at fixing TVs, but we think old school is cool"

A coincedence, I saw a clean looking (from the road) A100 this weekend, the first I've come across locally for awhile. My neighbor here at work has a couple Econoline pickups-he loves the things. Right now we're fixing up the one, its going back basically bone stock. The other actually came from somewhere in Georgia...another story. Anyway, the TV van idea is great! Can't wait to see it!

Glad you faired as well as you did in that accident. That Toyota couldn't have handled much better than an A100!

Torsion Bar history 101
 

Allllrighty then, here's what I know of the Packard Torsion Level suspension system.......Packard had patents on various torsion bar systems going back to the 1920's but it wasn't until one Dr. William D. Allsion approached Packard in the early 50's that they ever developed something for production.

Allison had tried shopping his design all around Detroit, starting with the major players. Every one of them shot him down as it was considered too expensive/complicated. His timing was finally right when he got a chance to meet with Packard's new Prez James Nance.....he was looking for novel features to put Packard a cut above the competition and felt this would be ideal.

This system used two long bars on each side of the car, each essentially connecting the from to the rear (on the one side). As the front wheel encountered a bump and was pushed up the twisting action of the bar would bear down upon the rear wheel and push it down---all of which actually raised the side of the car in a gentle motion. No twisting forces were exerted upon the chassis itself......all went thru the suspension.

In the center of the chassis was a small "Equalizer" device. This was basically a modified starter motor with gear reduction, a series of limit switches and a pair of much smaller interlinking torsion bars. This did nothing to affect the ride or handling but was essential in maintaining a level ride height. Without it the car while normally sitting level at rest would then list fore or aft once the ideal balance was changed due to luggage or by adding passengers.

How this Equalizer worked (this was the "Level" part of the name) would sense a load fore or aft, and then wind or unwind the torsion bars thus changing the pre-set on the main ones. This in turn would bring the car back to level. There were various delay switches built in so that this wouldn't keep running while driving......during extended braking downhill for instance it might try to raise the front end but a brake light interrupt circuit prevented that.....same thing with driving over a lot of bumps...they system would go crazy trying to interact and compensate for them if it wasn't for a 5 second delay.

They designed this to be interchangeable with the standard suspension so that the customer could order a car with either the new torsion bars or the conventional coil and leafs. Torsion Level was standard on all the Packards and was optional on most of the Clippers. Now don't get me started on the pushbutton gear selector on the 56's LOL

Anthony

Sweet ride Carmine!!!! Love the flames comin out of da pipes!!!!

polaraman

Burnin' rubber too! At least on that right rear tire. ..

This 1950 Dodge panel truck is for sale on Ebay now. It would be a real head start to build a TV repair truck. This thing would be a real bruiser. Talk about bad steering, brakes!!!!



polaraman

:eek: Polaraman, are you by chance still picking seat foam from your posterior? My best friend had a wheel bearing seize at @80mph on the autobahn in the '80s in a sleddy BMW 2002ti. He said the puckerfactor increased substantially! If you dare to be different, look into a '61-5 Corvair van. Windowed ones are Greenbriers and non are Corvan 95's. Contrary to popular belief, they handle well, especially with radials, gas shocks and stabilizer(sway) bars. I have pictures of a stock one in an Autocross cornering so hard it is lifting the inside rear tire, ala VW Rabbit fire hydrant salute except a Rabbit/Golf doesn`t have its' engine back there. Trying that in an A-100 or Econoline is inviting trouble. Also, a Vair has great balance when braking, due to the weight shift. A GM propaganda, excuse me, Advertising film from the day showed an Econoline being stood on it's nose under very hard braking. The driver did do his best to do it, though. Interestingly, the BMW buddy has a sharp '62 Corvair convert (I've got some Vairs, but NOT sharp), a 1970 BMW2800CS and a just finished '39 Packard 120 sedan. Straight 8, 3 speed O/D. ( factory tach & front and rear sway bars, 65 years ago!) Dare to live in the past, it's cheaper and you can afford to fix things!!

The Junior series Packaderms (110 6 cylinder, and the 120 8 cylinder) were technically more advanced than their Senior series in that the Jrs had fully independant front suspensions and column shifters among other things.

Replace the rear axle gear ratio with something a little higher and you could easily keep up with today's highway traffic, the suspension is THAT good.

All up till the 70's people would remark that when you bought a Rolls Royce you got a 30's Packard suspension and a 50's Packard V8 wrapped in a different body! LOL

Anthony
PS I've worked on and driven many Packards, and other than the Torsion Level cars, none in this writer's not so humble opionion rode or handled better than the pre-war Junior cars.

Anthony, thanks for the Packard input, I'll pass it on to my friend, B Mitchell Carlson. He also has a 33k mile Diamond Jubilee '78 MK V and two IH trucks; a '39 D-15 and a '47 KB-1. He also writes two columns on IH trucks, for Red Power and Vintage Truck magazines as well as does auction reporting for Old Cars Weekly and Sports Car Market. I, on the other hand, work weekends and don't get to many auctions or shows, which is good as I have waay too much already. i.e., a '47 FWD 4t V-plow truck, '48 Chevy 2t grain truck ($100 at a farm auction) '47 Stude M16 grain truck, '64 IH 3/4t 4wd pickup, LOTS of Corvairs and Oldses and........I'll also partial to station wagons. The queen of the fleet is a '72 Olds Custom Cruiser, but I just rescued a nice '78 Merc Colony Park (460) from a wrecking yard in Mandan, ND. I have a REASON to live in the country..."Zoning laws? WE don't need no steenking zoning laws!!":D I've got the collecting part down great but I need to work on the selling.....