Plates!

So, I told the long story about the North Dakota title a few weeks ago... Now begins the long wait for my Minnesota title. On some money saving advice (I plan on eventually registering Rig Red with "collector" plates, but there is significant savings for switching a vehicle already in your name to that status), I registered it as a Farm Truck. No, I don't own a farm. The restrictions for use of a farm registered vehicle are basically what you would expect - it can be used for anything related to operating a farm - either on the farm or delivering goods to and from the farm. Sounds like a bad deal for me, since I don't own a farm, right? Well, don't forget that Big Red is not running, and will be undergoing restoration for at least a year, and once the renewal is due, I can switch to that "collector" plate.

Big Red the farm truck

Also, I texted this photo to my Dad with the caption, "Bam! Plates. Title in 3 months." (Better than North Dakota's 6, no?) His reply? "Now you're cooking." Me: "This means I can take it out for a spin, right?" Him: "No." Good stuff...

Man, those are heavy!

I paid for my huge tire deal Monday:

Deal of the century - IF you needed 9.00x20 tires!

And picked them up today:

Snow on the ground, buses in the background, huge heavy tires in my pickup

They are heavy. It took two of us to lift them into the back of my pickup, and I decided to weigh them once I got them home... 160 lbs. each on the bathroom scale. Now, I do have to return the hubs once I get them mounted on Big Red's cast rims, but there's no rush. I'm pretty sure they will either just sell the rims of scrap them.

More photos! Here's the new 9.00's next to the old 8.25 rear duals:

Hmm, tread - what a concept!

And the new propped up next to the front:

Tight squeeze, but I think it'll make it!

I do have a minor concern about the tires rubbing on the fender when turning, but it looks like it should be okay. No way to know for sure 'til they're on there...

And speaking of, I got a lead on a place locally that mounts truck size tube tires. I got a quote of $40 per tire to swap them out, so it's going to end up running $35 + $240 = $275 to get good tires all around. Considering what I said it could have cost? I'm thrilled!

I won the tire lottery!

No pics (yet) - at least none until I start bringing the tires home, but I finally got a price from the bus mechanic for the "new to me" tires for Big Red. These will be 9.00x20 tires, which are a bit bigger than the 8.25x20's it currently has. Now, before I tell you how much I'm going to pay for the tires, I want to let you know how expensive these tires can be. Check out this website. That's anywhere from $175 to $239 per tire, not to mention shipping on something that weighs a couple hundred pounds - each. So, on the low end, the tires would be just over $1000 and on the high end $1500.

Now that I've  spelled out the possible tire costs, here's what I'm going to pay for my tires... All seven of them (4 rear tires and 3 front - one spare even!)... A whopping $35! Yup - $5 each! Seems he was considering giving me the tires, but the school (remember - they're coming from a school bus) needs a paper trail for the tires, rather than just having them "disappear." The reason is that they no longer have any buses that take 9.00x20 tires... So, they came up with a token cost of $5 per tire. Like I said - almost like winning the tire lottery!

The looonnng wait

One story about Big Red that dates back to buying in August that I haven't mentioned yet is finally going to begin to be resolved - the title.

When I bought Big Red, it didn't have a title. I've read several stories that say buying a vehicle without a title is a massive headache and not worth the effort of dealing with the DMV, going through all the paperwork and expense. The good news, in this case, is that the seller of my truck was willing to title it in North Dakota, where he owned it. It is apparently much easier there than in Minnesota to title a vehicle with just a bill of sale. All he needed was a bill of sale from the previous owner, who he had kept in touch with.

The first snag in this road was the the previous owner and the gentleman who I bought Big Red from had a hard time getting together, and that took nearly three weeks. They finally got all the paperwork together and submitted it to the DMV. Then the next snag. You might have heard about this big oil boom going on in western North Dakota. It's really quite amazing. Well, the North Dakota DMV has been overwhelmed by all the companies out there registering vehicles and told the seller he would have to wait "at least three months" for the title for Big Red. So, we've kept in touch, and four months (early December) later, nothing. January rolls around and, nothing.

Finally - yesterday I got this in a text from him:

Title, sweet title!

Yup, it finally came. I was starting to have doubts. I mean, six months to get a title? Crazy...

IHC's all over!

Last week I noted that I sent off a request for a quote on having my hood ornament re-chromed. Well, I knew that it would come back high, and it did. Honestly, I thought it would be higher. Looking over the Finishing Touch website, they note that several of their items have been featured on cars shown at the famous Pebble Beach car show. Knowing that, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford the cost of the quote, and that is certainly the case - it came back at $600. Now to decide on if I need to find a different chromer, or save and wait and have it done by this top end place...

Now the title of today's blog entry. It's the "red car syndrome," or as I learned, scientifically, it's the "Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon." The old, you buy a red car, and all you see is red cars. In other words, I'm suddenly seeing International trucks everywhere. Okay, everywhere might be an overstatement, but for a truck that for all practical purposes hasn't been built for almost 33 years (I'm excluding the current Navistar heavy haulers, of course, and their "pick-up," which was a mid 2000's novelty - "we're bigger than a Hummer!"), there are quite a few folks I've run into (or heard about) who have them.

It started back in August when school started back up, and I had an in-service. One of the other bus drivers said he collects and fixes IHC's and to give him a call if I had any questions, or needed any parts. They, my wife found out that the audiologist where she works has a KB-8. Now to last week, and I ran into a guy in my town who has a 1960's International truck. Finally, last night, I was on a call with my father, and he was showing off photos of Big Red at his wood workers meeting, and ran into a guy who had a KB-6 and might have spare parts!

Fun to find others who enjoy the same things. Oh, and that International "pick-up" from the mid 2000's? Yeah, it was a beast:

Navistar's "International CXT"

Shiny stuff is purdy...

I finally decided it was time to start working on some of the chrome and stainless parts that I took off Big Red in the fall, and went to work with my trusty Nevr Dull. Man that stuff works great! The parking light covers were first, and they went from a tarnished red/brown to mirror shine very quickly. Then I worked on the side trim pieces for the hood cowling (I'm still missing two of those - and need to buy the missing ones at some point soon). I then decided to work on the hood ornament, which is quite pitted. I had read up on removing pitting from chrome, and found that I should start by knocking them down with steel wool. That worked great, and also polished the chrome at the same time. The issue is that the pit marks remain, and I'm guessing that there's no real way to remove them without having the piece re-chromed. Just thinking about that cost makes my bank account shudder... Anyway, remember this video?:

I had it up here on the blog back in August. Since I can't find a local chrome place, I think I'm going to at least contact these guys to get an estimate on having the piece re-done. At least then I'll know how much it would cost. Plus, that's the only real big chrome piece on Big Red. Everything else are very small pieces that I can just clean up.

I should note I also started looking closer at the hubcaps too. They were never chromed, which is great news. They are, however, rusted pretty good. Maybe time to break out that hand grinder I acquired and try to (gently) remove the rust?

The "before" pic.

Pieces I worked on today

Look at that shine!

Visitation Rights

Happy New Year Big Red fans! The family and I just returned from a mini-family reunion down at my folks place. We got to see my parents plus my sister and her family. It was shorter than we would have hoped, but a good visit. Now, if only we get that last piece of luggage that the airline lost...

Anyway, as I have noted, my Father has bought me several tools for Big Red lately, and I got to "visit" them while we were down. Unfortunately, most of the stuff was way too big for carry on luggage (a 70 lb. vice, air compressor, 3-ton floor jack with stands and creeper plus some air tools and an oscillating sander), but I did bring back one or two items. My Dad also reminded me that I promised to polish the chrome and stainless pieces over the winter, and that I hadn't done any of that yet. Sigh, yeah, I need to get on that.

Thinking optimistically, it may one day warm up here (it's -2 with a wind chill of -16 as I type this), but I'm not holding my breath. It surely will get colder before it warms. After looking it up, average lows around these parts remain below zero through mid-February, and we will finally see average highs above freezing by April. In other words, the chrome and stainless has time...

Waiting for a ride north

Is it warm up there yet?

Hey - it's cold outside, come play with us!