Cheaper stuff for the Kenmore heads

[DesertTortoise]

Here, this one is cheaper:

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/hsh/4589486806.html

Don't crash the phone system up there calling all at once.

 

[stricklybojack]

Dayum!!!

That is cool. I have about the same machine in beige. I saw a cool ad with that machine in lime with a sweet headlight, i'll see if i can find it.

 

[super-sweeper]

Desert, forget the drive to Gainesville, Minneapolis  is half a continent away! 

 

[marks_here]

So is St. Appolis & Minnie Paul

 

[DesertTortoise]

Who's driving? That's what USPS is for. I've convinced Craigslisters to ship vacuums to me in the past.

 

[super-sweeper]

Let UPS ship THAT!? Nah, the DeSoto could use it's work-out (OK not yet, but it will when i buy the thing, or at least in dreams!)! 

 

[DesertTortoise]

What is interesting is that from experience buying vacs from Craigslist and ebay sellers is that USPS tends to charge less than either UPS or FedEx Ground. FedEx ground is cheapest up to 20 lbs. After that their rates soar so much that shipping a typical full sized canister with powered floor brush costs around $75 to ship, which is a deal breaker. UPS isn't a whole lot cheaper but USPS is around $40-$45 depending on the weight. Still a bit stiff but if the vac itself is cheap and it's something you really want, well ............................

Not sure that old De Soto is up to the trip, and I speak from experience with Chryslers of that era. Decaying cloth insulated electrics (sniff, sniff, oh crap another short), oil bath air cleaners, optional oil filters (our old Plymouth didn't even have an oil filter, my dad added, a big cartridge type), inadequate cooling, single circuit drum brakes (remember what drum brakes were like in the rain, either no brakes or the car would swerve to one side? Oh HELL no!), the defroster is a joke (my "defroster" was an old towel stuffed under the seat to wipe the windows with), AM only tube radios with one big speaker in the middle of the steel dash board, so much body roll in corners the curb feelers would scrape, huge brake dive (more dive than actual braking on some of those old beasts), no air conditioning, no modern safety features so if someone hits your beauty hard you die and ugly death. Nope, been there done that, never again. Late 1980's and later for my cars.

 

[super-sweeper]

D.T, I'd worry about the other guy's car more than mine! A 4-Ton American beast isn't going to go easy on some Plastic Prius! My DreamSoto has air-conditioning, it was a factory option back then, glad somebody bought it! Not sure about the oil filter, I'll have to look into that. however, others have told me i haven't experienced a smoother power-steering until i drive a Chrysler car of this vintage! the '61 Model also got Chrysler's then-new rust-proofing process, Which can help explain it's exceptional shape 53 years later! 

 


P.S-Has a DeFroster, too! see what i did there? 

 

[DesertTortoise]

Hate to disappoint you but those old cars had no crush zones, no side impact door beams, no collapsible steering columns, engines mounts were not designed to let the motor slide under the car in a frontal collision instead of coming through the firewall, there were no inertial reel seat belts and shoulder harnesses and nothing was safety padded inside, especially the steering wheels. In any kind of collision they will hurt you bad or kill you. Even hitting a Prius head on, the steering column will sheer off it's simple mount under the dash and the wheel will take your face off. Or, you hit your head on a steel dash board and crack your skull. It doesn't take much of a collision in one of those things to get hurt or killed. A Prius t-boning you will do more harm to the occupants of the Desoto than to the occupants of the Prius, though the Prius might be totaled.

I have seen a late model Corrola hit a gasoline tank truck head on on an LA street (I used to deliver gas in the LA basin, this was on Alameda Av just up from the old Texaco/Shell/Tesoro refinery) and the driver of the Corolla walked away. When I walked up to the car it was so badly smashed I thought, oh man do I even want to look inside? I was expecting to see human hamburger but instead the guy got up and tried to flee. Wrong way driver, no license, we chased him down and corralled him for the police.

But hit anything in that old Desoto and you are going to come out a whole lot worse than those in anything you hit that is modern. That bulk doesn't overcome lack of safety features.

Meanwhile, back to talking about vacuums. I have an old Kenmore on it's way right now, purchased from a family in Daytona after the mother who owned it died. I saw it on Craigslist. It is the last of the square cream colored ones, a 2.5 with a Powermate I have never seen before (the motor and the height adjuster are on the opposite sides of a normal Panasonic built Powermate)a hose that appears to be ok and all the tools. I have never seen one with the lid it has, with the tools sitting in recesses in the front, not like the one in the Craigslist ad, but more like you see on some of the very first 5055 bagged machines. The graphics are more like the early 5055 bagged machines too. I'm anxious for it to show up so I can inspect it and that Powermate. It will eventually grow a much more powerful motor and HEPA filtration so stay tuned kids.

 

[kenkart]

I Will Take!

The DeSoto anyday! My friend Clay Floyd hit a Subaru station wagon with his 61 DeSoto....6 people in the Subaru went to the hospital, the Sub was totalled...he was uninjured and all it did was bend a fender and break the parking light bezel!!!he jumped out and yelled at them..."You stupid idiots, do you know how rare a 61 Desoto parking light bezel is!!"..LOL They had to drag the Subaru off with a wrecker!

 

[kenkart]

RE Trip in a DeSoto...

I drove my 62 Plymouth Fury to St Louis ..740 miles 1 way...there and back it used 1/2 of a quart of oil, and I never had one problem, I trust an old Chrysler product more than anything made today...if it has a problem, it does not take a computer science major to fix it!..I also had a 53 Plymouth and a 53 Imperial, I drove them on several trips and NEVER had one problem!

 

[kenkart]

RE handling and brakes..

The Chrysler Center Plane brakes were in my book the best brakes ever, and as far as handling goes, Chryslers torsion bar suspension was in a class by itself, all the car magazines of the 50s and 60s raved about how much better they handled than other cars on the market, but the real treat was the power steering, nothing is as responsive..then or now, and you drive with 1 finger, not the stiff numb steering of today.

 

[super-sweeper]

Kenkart, that is SO cool! your friend has a 1961 DeSoto? you wouldn't happen to have any pictures, would you? 

 


D.T, I think Kenkart's tale explains the subject of old V.S new cars well! If i was going 129 Miles an Hour and hit a solid concrete wall, then i might not walk away, maybe crawl! But why on earth would i slam that DreamSoto into a concrete wall at 129 miles an hour? Maybe some kid in a Prius is texting and slams into the Delovely, Dynamic DeSoto.....That kid might not make it out of the Prius! I'd do exactly as Kenkart said above! Get out of the DreamSoto, observe how little damage it took, then scold  the kid for texting and driving! 

 Couldn't you see me now?