Today, John needed a "Pickle Fork," aka a tie rod removal device (for those who are still lost, it helps take off the rods that turn the tires as you turn your steering wheel). We needed this tool so John could keep rolling on the Lark oil pan removal project (we're going on the fourth day here, but don't bring it up...
very bad subject!). Of course, John originally asked dear old Dad what to use to take off the tie rods. His answer was, "You need a pickle fork of course!" Now, John's dad has sent John on many bogus adventure in his day. Take, for example, the job in Salt Lake that he travelled to on his dad's advice, only to discover when he arrived that there was no job. Then there was that lunch he made for him to take to work....only later did John discover an octopus sandwich in his lunch pail! So, John has reasons to doubt the wise chap. Last thing he wanted to do was to roll into Sears asking for a pickle fork and have the sales person lead him to the kitchen department. Fortunately for John, Chuck Collins from our local Studebaker Chapter called to help John get over his fear of the task of removing the oil pan and happened to use the same magic term! Well, John's friend Sammy told him that Checker had a program where he could rent a tool kit for free. All you have to do is leave them a deposit of $27.00 and return the kit when you are done to get your money back. Now, we will not get into Sammy's history of misleading John, but let's just say that there was reason to be cautious about this whole scenario, too. Sure enough, though, when John went to Checker that was exactly the deal that they offer. The moral of this story is: if you are in a pickle and need a fork, just go to Checker. (That and dear old Dad might actually know what he's talking about...but, shh! Don't spread that one around...)
John was talking to a Studebaker friend of ours last week and something he said stuck with him a little. The friend said, "The easiest way to make a car not look like a piece of junk is to put the headlights back on it and put a set of hubcaps on it." Now, first of all, our truck was not the topic of conversation at the time, nor do we consider it a piece of junk. Neverthless, after a few days of thinking about this (who are we kidding, he talked about it in his sleep) John made the call to see how much these new pieces of the truck puzzle would cost him. Well, that started a whole other set of converstions with the pit crew in his head before he decided to purchase them (Why so much mental discussion? Let's just say that if we need to make next month's house payment, we could sell the hubcaps and get close! Well, maybe they weren't QUITE that bad, but they certainly were more than the used ones at the flea market). As seen here, the new polished stainless steel hubcaps give a little more dignified look to our beautiful truck. Now if we could only get John to stop checking them to see if they are loose when he wakes up, at lunch and before bed!
