Sleep Walk

In the summer of 1966 and I was a young man working in Seattle for the generous wage of two dollars, forty-nine and-a-half cents an hour. It was twice what I had been earning in my most recent construction job, and ten times that of my Air Force pay before that. One Friday, with the big check in my pocket I joined a few friends at a local honky-tonk. I don’t recall the name of the band, but as the evening wore on, I became more and more in awe of the guy playing lead guitar. He looked to be only a few years older than me, maybe thirty, but he played like a master.


I finally consumed enough beer to approach and talk to him during one of their breaks. I told him how much I enjoyed his skills with the guitar. He thanked me politely and we visited until it was time to play the next set. He was a friendly and pleasant conversationalist. During our short conversation he told me his name, though it meant nothing to me at the time, and he didn’t elaborate. I also learned he was a local guy from the town of Puyallup, a half-hour down the valley.


Later the next week, I was telling a friend about this fantastic guitarist playing at the tavern across the street from the airplane factory. He laughed when I told him the guy’s name, and he informed me that Nokie Edwards was the lead guitarist for the Ventures. Of course, I had heard of the group and loved their music, but the names of individual band members never really interested me enough to follow them, and the band he was playing with that night was not the Ventures. Nevertheless, the fact that I had spent a short time conversing with such a talented musician helped me appreciate his performances even more as the years passed.


Thirty-some years later I saw Nokie Edwards again…his name was embroidered on his somewhat gaudy Ventures jacket…but this time we were both having dinner at a Puyallup eatery and he didn’t have a guitar...and we didn't get to talk.


Yesterday, I read on the Internet that last fall he had died of complications following hip surgery in Yuma. He was 82, and the world lost yet another rare talent. It seems like only yesterday that we were both young men sharing long forgotten thoughts in a dumpy beer hall, by the airplane factory in Seattle.

RIP, Nokie. I’m just glad your music will live on.

Still Here...

...but progress is negligible again.


I had to lay vinyl floor tiles and finish shelving in my wife’s art studio, so nothing much happened on the car in the past week or so. One evening storm with cat-1 hurricane winds and heavy rain didn’t help my disposition either! No serious damage, but lots of cleanup.


 I spent most of the weekend getting some of my wife's art supplies moved in and put away. I did sneak away for a couple of hours on Saturday  to order more e-brake parts, heavier metal stock for shock absorber extenders, plus a few odds and ends parts from on-line suppliers.


 Everything I ordered is scheduled to arrive by the end of the week, so hopefully I’ll get back to the car by next weekend…unless the puppy takes up all my time. Some friends left their two Pomeranians with us to dog-sit for two weeks while they take a business trip to Australia, and the ten-weeks-old puppy has chosen me as his interim guardian. Unless he is in my lap or underfoot, he cries constantly, so he may demand more of my time than the Plymouth!


I’ve been studying my accessory drive belt configuration, and I’m tempted to modify it for increased reliability. I picked up a heavy cast iron alternator bracket and I’d like to use it as the base to reconfigure the layout…or maybe not. It depends on how much the existing configuration keeps nagging at me whenever I stop to look! The constant desire to improve something already finished is one of my major failings, and often it is not needed. The car is not intended to be driven hard, so it should be fine as-is, but I know I can do better!


I also dug through my driveshaft collection and found one that looks like it can be modified rather easily. It only needs to be shortened about two inches, so I’ll drag it out and clean it up so I can take it to the driveline specialists the next time I’m headed that direction.

Rear Shock Mount Plan

I'm still playing around with the rear shock absorber issue, but I'm leaning toward resolving it with what you see in these sketches.
I can't find shocks long enough to use without moving the mount locations, so the lower sketch would be the easiest to accomplish, and probably the least expensive. If I purchased aftermarket mounts that fit on top of the axle housing, I could use the KYB shocks I already have, but I would have to weld the mounts in place, and the mounts barely fit between the U-bolts. That means the bolts would have to be removed to allow room to weld, and I'm not at all comfortable welding heavy materials.

The position of the shocks with the revised upper mount location changes the center of gravity  somewhat, but I don't think it would make a noticeable handling or ride difference unless driven hard. That said, I'd like to hear your comments.