I got this Butternut coffee can full of these spark plugs along with some early hemi parts I bought at a swap meet 45 years ago. These parts never spoke to me, so I don't know what the story is but the fact that "REATH" is written on the side of the can makes me think there is a story to go with them. Maybe I should make one up......
My last NOS ARDUN V8-60 lifter, At the time in the 1970's swapping the completer engine for $2,200. worth of Reproduction 1932 Ford parts was a smart thing to do, now in 2025 not so much.
All I have in old coffee cans are self tapping screws. I bought the can full 30 years ago at an auction for fifty cents. I've used about 1/2 the can full up. It was a great investment. It was a different brand of coffee too. No pictures... I scrapped most of my old broken parts with a story when I moved here 23 years ago. One of my favorites, of those scrapped long ago was the 2 lobe section out of the middle of a big block Mopar cam. The #6 rod broke in our dirt track car, and it came right up through the center of the block and broke the chunk out of the cam before the motor locked up. No warning, no fire, no smoke, no show. It was running strong, then suddenly it wasn't running at all.
In 1964 my late uncle Joe bought a wrecked 1963 chevy station wagon, for parts. he took it all apart and used the parts to make repairs on customers cars. The 283 motor eventually ended up in the back of an old school bus behind the gas station that was used as part storage. In 1979 while building a stock car I was tasked with the job of dragging the motor up the aisle to the front door so we could hook it with the wrecker and get it in the shop. This was early evening on a Friday . Once in the shop we took the heads off, cleaned the cylinders, my uncle worked his magic with the heads and reassembled it. We got the motor in and running sometime before daylight. That night, the car took the heat and the feature. It ran two seasons in the car then the track closed. The motor ended up in my coupe, while I rebuilt the 301 that was in it. once I finished the rebuild, I swopped it back out. A fellow club member had blown the big block in his '40 Studebaker and didn't want to lose the season, so we installed it till he rebuilt the big block, two months later swopped it out again. A few weeks later a good friend of mine sunk his 1976 Chevy Blazer in a swamp while off roading and bent a rod, so the little 283 went into that till he found a 350. Out it came again and went back into my coupe because the 301 blew and I ran that motor till I rebuilt the car in 2014 . This motor is sitting under my stairs just in case...... a very special part.
Thanks Ted, That is a Midnight Joe story I never herd before, far better than the one about buying and driving home the winner from a Demolition Derby. I hadn't planned on giving an award but my two Grandsons 8 &13 have learned the art of dumpster diving and I've got trophies to give away now.
Once upon a time, I had a nasty girl friend. Besides nasty, she was broke, homeless, and out of work. Being the nice guy that I am...I mean stupid....I set her up with a place to live and a fine 67 chev wagon to get a job. After a few months of hell, I figured out she could not live in the country with out that car. At the time, I owned a gas station in my little town, And when the car was there, (for free gas) we poured every liquid in the garage in the poor old 283. Anti freeze, brake fluid, you name it, in the crank case. It would get 10 or 20 miles down the road and seize up. She'd call me, I go out with the wrecker, and by that time it cooled off it started rite up! After 3-4 of those episodes, I held the gas pedal down till she seized again at the garage, then loaded it with scrap to haul to the scale. I'm sure the old 283 would have been fine with an oil change.
The Jalopy Journal
