Don, Great rant. I agree. My New Years Wishes for everyone on the list. 1. May we all be able to read advertisements for trick parts that cost a lot of money and realize they perhaps are more about ego than performance. 2. May we all be able to understand if that advertised part will be worth the investment via what we are trying to accomplish. 3. May we all understand that owing trick parts does not make us cool. 4. May we all have the grace to complement the guy who just blew the doors off our trick car with an old reliable combo. 5. May we all always be able to share in the excitement of a new Mopar owner who just bought their first Mopar, even if it is not the most desirable car to own. 6. May we all be able to show respect for each and every other car enthusiasts. 7. May we all be lucky enough to never finish working on our cars until the day we die. 8. May we all always have enough room in the driveway for "One more Mopar". 9. May everyone on the list make that rare find of the car of their dreams in an old barn somewhere. 10. May we all be able to continue to openly share our knowledge and opinions about the cars we love and remain friends and brothers. Sorry, I have been out of email contact over the Christmas holidays... So this is a late Merry Christmas and have a wonderful holiday greeting for all. Earl I guess I am a hard headed fellow. Might be my heritage . When factory parts are available that work perfectly i lose it when I see brand "schmuck stoff" going where factory parts would go perfectly . Then i see my friends buy that stuff and it doesnt work right and i have helped a few out to get it at least working. When they told me what they paid for the stufff. I went ballistic . Probably that is because I have a real real strong distaste for the "If I pay more it must be better" idea. Real real strong distaste would actually be an understatement by the way. I learned the hard way that the right parts always work and expensive stuff is often just expensive and usually a big disappointment. My and Wager shops are filled with stuff we tried that didnt measure up. Like for instance three sets of Rockers, all different, all junk. Often we have to lend others our stock based stuff so they can finish at the track or when we experiment find what we had before worked best. Sometimes it was cheaper too. more often than not. Four door B bodies are a dime a dozen and almost any from the late sixties/early seventies came with discs. The replacement caliphers and pads are easly bought, sometimes for almost peanuts in rebult condition for caliphers (26 bucks here). Mopar masters are used on many race cars and yet we find kits with Gm cylinders for ours. Yeah it ticks me off. Still I am only one guy and others may love spending money regardless of the results. Reminds me of G Wagers last race out this year. He was running the 426 from 400 engine built for between 3000 and 4000 . He meets a couple of guys running an indy headed mega buck strocker set up on one of our vintage (62to 65)automobiles. They had more money in carbs than we have in the engine and were changing them at almost everypass to get better times. Both their car and his ran the same times almost exactly. Them with 511 cubes and multi $$$$$ and him with say for arguements sake $4000 and a 15 or 16 year old homebuilt Mirada racecar with 425.9 cu inches. We see this all the time and it bothers me when people spend their hardearned money on Mopars and dont get back what they should or expected. Now it doesnt bother me if Chevy or Blue oval guys spend a 1/2 a million. and get zip. That joys me but my own Mopar guys deserve better i think. Probably the more of this I see the more I lean the other way and it is possible maybe sometimes a bit too much. It is hard to be cute and perfect at the same time you know. Still I would defend anyones right to have what they want in their car. I just wish the folks who sold them that stuff would help them get it working. Often they call here as last resort. Even other shops engines costing double or triple ours that wont start, dont go, wouldnt pull the skin of a grape and want to know if Don will help them out. (last one was a 340. my quote was $1850 plus taxes , he told me he paid $7000+ at another shop (basically stock 340 mild cam and TRW pistons) and engine would not run at all. They did not care and would not help. (Santa didnt either BTW;>( ) It Depends . If they went elsewhere because my quote was too low they can pound salt i guess. If they were innocently led down the garden path that is a different deal. Last brake deal I saw was almost $1500 and worked like crap till we changed a couple of major components to Mopar ones. Seems some of the folks selling these dont seem understand Pascals Law of Fluid Dynamics.Some kits are good too so i dont want to lump them all together. i just dont understand why one would buy aftermarket when stock is available and works perfect. It is just the way i think i guess. Have watched four racing buddies go of the end of the track with defective aftermarket disc brakes. In fact Wager has purchased one of the cars, an RED and is fixing it now. It as Airhearts which we were led to believe were the best. this car has had two off track experiences both brake related and none related to hyrdaulics. I look at the fancy smancy hi dollar set up and think a set of stock caliphers and a good matching master would probably last 30,000 miles while these wonderful pieces of crap wont go 30. See where I am coming from?That is the best i can explain it. Enuf already! Merry Christmas. Don Author of Return to Deutschland (True Adventure) Old Reliable (Mopar) http://stores.ebay.ca/Don-Dulmage-Enterprises http://seniordragster.bravehost.com/index.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ---- Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks! '62 to '65 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines: http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html. ---- Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks! '62 to '65 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines: http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html. This email was sent to: arc.6265@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx . http://www/?p=