Thread: 53 Is back from the Body Shop

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I think I got it fixed. When I took my sway bar off to put in the bushings, if I remember right I had a bit of a pre load on the sway bar. When I put it back on I made sure it had 0 pre load on it which may have been a mistake because the sway bar bushings and linkage are a little sloppy. I put a little preload back on it tonight, and it seems much better. Before It seemed like it was bouncing crooked, like one side was bouncing more than the other, which makes sense if the sway bar was not kicking in right away. V8nutz, that's a very good info on the KYB shocks, I have a set in my Summit shopping cart, just in case I could not find anything else.

Sway bar should have zero effect on making the ride bouncey. It does nothing when driving in a straight line. And making one side more bouncey would say to me that that side has components in a bind.

It seemed a lot better, maybe it was just in my head.

Well, I think the sway bar fix it was mostly in my head. I ordered KYB gas adjust shocks or whatever they're called and put them in tonight. I don't know what kind of witchcraft they got going on inside those shocks but it is day and night different. It rides more smooth and more stiff at the same time somehow, and the extra bouncing is completely gone. I drove it about 10 miles away to the bouncing bridge of death and it handled it just fine. It was money well spent!

They are some really good shocks IMO, been using them for a few years on a variety of vehicles, always been pleased with them!

Cool, yes they made a dramatic difference on my Camaro, it felt planted and sporty after the change.

We got back from a road trip across Iowa in Rita. We live in NW Iowa and we dropped down to Boon to ride the Scenic Rail line which is about a 2 hour train ride that crosses the Des Moines River, that was pretty neat. From there we took highway 3 to Dubuque which was a very pretty drive. We stopped at the Field of Dreams baseball field by Dyersville but didn't stay long because we have been there before and they were an hour from closing and it was stupid busy. We worked our way up to Galina Illinois and checked out that. Pretty neat town but more of a bunch of shops that wives like to go in and husbands pretend they like to. From there we worked our way to the top of Iowa, going a bit into Wisconsin and dropped back down to Lancing IA which is a town of about 950 people but we spent quite a bit of time there and talked to some locals and were pointed to some beautiful areas that overlook the Mississippi River. On the way back on the north side we bumped upward into Austin MN. to check out the Spam museum which was a bit more interesting and fun than you would think. The best parts were talking to the locals and them telling us about the rides they have or are building and talking about the local area dynamics. I tried buying a Korean war vet his dinner on the way home but his said he really appreciated the gesture but he had more money than he could ever spend We got back home and racked up a little over 1K miles on Rita. A loose steering wheel was the worst problem and I'm still getting 20 mpg on every tank. A better radio and a more comfortable seat are on the list but we'll see how quick either happen

In Boon, the Camaro and the Chevy pickup were within one block of each other, I never dared call about the Camaro just in case it was in my price range

more pics

The first is a neat pic in Galina, the other is a gravel road called Roller Coaster Road where there is 7 steep hills in a mile stretch and a motel steering wheel fix.

more pics

A pic from the top of Lancing, some neat vehicles along the way and of course, Spam

Looks like a great trip! And other than the steering wheel, no problems so it's all good. Thanks for all the pics, let me know if you came home with the International P-U..... 8-)

Wow. Great pictures. You really drive your hot rod, as it should be.

Originally Posted by 34_40

Looks like a great trip! And other than the steering wheel, no problems so it's all good. Thanks for all the pics, let me know if you came home with the International P-U..... 8-)

That IH was in Lansing and I don't know if I've ever seen a IH
short box like that. A local from there said both IH's showed up last week at the guy's house, and he hasn't had a chance to talk to the guy to see what his plans are. Both IH's were from Montana, it was in incredible shape.

Originally Posted by Driver50x

Wow. Great pictures. You really drive your hot rod, as it should be.

I think all genres of car builds are great, but for me, driving them is best. It hit 22k on the odometer during the trip. I try to be careful with it and keep it nice, but it does not get babied

Nice trip, looks like you had fun! I'm trying to think if I've ever seen an IH pickup like that, man I really like it. I always dug the Scout, I remember when nobody cared about them and you could get them dirt cheap, not any more.

Originally Posted by v8nutz

Nice trip, looks like you had fun! I'm trying to think if I've ever seen an IH pickup like that, man I really like it. I always dug the Scout, I remember when nobody cared about them and you could get them dirt cheap, not any more.

I don't think I've ever seen one like it either. Kari and I fell in love with it immediately. If I really felt the need to try to buy it, I do know how to get a hold of the guy. I also remember the days of the cheap Scouts and IH pickups. I wonder if bolt on EFI and modern motors swaps made everything go up in price because you're able to drive them again.