A Hot 4th and Electrical Circuits

[BobPalma]

The 4th of July ambient temperature peaked at 98 today in central Indiana. We were going to go to the parade up the street and have a dozen folks here for a cookout, so I parked three convertibles in the front yard just for fun :



This photo was taken during a brief cloud cover around 4PM: The cars had been in the direct sun for maybe four hours by early afternoon.

So we're in the back yard and I hear a horn blowing in the neighborhood. No matter; just somebody's car alarm acting up, I thought.

Until it continued...and didn't seem all that far away, in reality...nor was it intermittent, like a car alarm. Hmmmm....maybe I'd better check out front.....

Bottom line: The Barracuda is equipped with the sport, rim-blow, three-spoke steering wheel option. The sun had so baked the wheel that the circuitry shorted of its own free will, blowing the horn continuously until the horns were relieved of their duty by disconnecting their leads.

I've owned the car 36 years come December, and that's the first time this has happened.

Unbelievable. BP

[jclary]

You are very fortunate! (and I think you know this) Because, few circuits in any automobile carry as much current and are more prone to be under protected as a horn circuit. Being able to get to it and stop the mayhem without the use of a fire extinguisher is very fortunate indeed!

[mbstude]

I left the '51 coupe out one day last summer, and came back to find that the sun through the windshield had melted the gear indicator. There just happened to be a new one in the garage, but still..!

[SN-60]

That's a really nice looking '71 Barracuda conv. Bob. A VERY poular MOPAR these days. Have You seen the TV show 'Graveyard Carz'? All they do are MOPAR restorations.

[StudeRich]

That's HOT!

[gohdes]

a cooker here in Minneapolis area, tying our record for this date, might break it yet this afternoon.
Stude is out of commission at the moment, so I didn't even have to attempt to drive it today.

[mbstude]

[BobPalma]

That's a really nice looking '71 Barracuda conv. Bob. A VERY popular MOPAR these days. Have You seen the TV show 'Graveyard Carz'? All they do are MOPAR restorations.

Thanks, Ed. I bought the Barracuda stuck in a snow drift in front of the seller's house on a cul-de-sac in east Indianapolis December 13, 1976. I knew what it was at the time, but I sure didn't know what it would become. MoPar people jokingly tell me it is rare because it is one of the few 318 cars that haven't been converted to a hemi clone!

The car was stuck so thoroughly, the snow was so deep, that I had to come back the next day and dig it out to get it home. I went ahead and paid the seller, a curbstone dealer, without driving it. I told him I'd be back if there were any transmission or drivetrain issues. He said there weren't and there weren't.

I have not heard of the Graveyard Carz show. Is that on Speed Channel? BP

[BobPalma]

Now that's funny, Matt. BP

[BobPalma]

That's HOT!

Yeah, Rich, it is.

One of the people here was my wife's cousin and her husband, who had not been here before. He's a bit of a car guy, so he and me and my brother went for a spin in the Daytona about 3PM. The Daytona tried to vapor lock a couple times, but we made it back home without the car actually dying even once. Whew! BP

[SN-60]

To: Bob Palma,----That show is on the 'Velocity' channel up this way Bob, Once again, I realize what You have there, and good for You for holding onto it all these years!

[PlainBrownR2]

Funny, freakish things happen when it gets really, really hot, or really, really cold. In this weather, materials have a tendency to "grow" when they get nice and toasty. Sounds something in the baked steering wheel swelled up and expanded when it got hot, and there was a small enough gap for the contacts in the switch to close and set the horns off. It's one of those remote, isolated incidents, no doubt about it though...

[BobPalma]

To: Bob Palma,----That show is on the 'Velocity' channel up this way Bob. Once again, I realize what You have there, and good for You for holding onto it all these years!

Thanks again, Ed. The only way to avoid seller's remorse is to only buy cars you are sure you want and then keep them...forever! They only made 1,014 "regular" 1971 Barracuda convertibles (like this one), plus another 374 'cuda convertibles, so any of them are fairly rare by Big Three collector standards.

As a result of that philosophy, I've had seller's remorse only once in my life. That's a year or so after, and ever since, having sold this unbelievably-nice, one-family-owned, 42,000-mile original paint 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air:



Photo taken on the north part of the infield of The Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Turn Three and seats visible in the background.

Fittingly, I suppose, the only reason I had the car was due to my Studebaker hobby. I rode to the Dallas / Irving Texas 1975 SDC National Meet with friends. I had money and a license plate, intending to buy a dry Texas Studebaker to bring back to Indiana.

Well, nothing there tripped my trigger, so I bought this Bel-Air out of the local paper, from the original family when Grandma stopped driving, for $650!

'Drove it back, made a few modest improvements to it, enjoyed it for a year or so, and then sold it. Dumb. BP

[9echo]

Matthew, I hope those are chocolate chip cookies.

[aarrggh]

Which one of them cars have you done a burnout in . ?