A couple of months ago, I stumbled into this Dodge high-roof van (CC here), and wondered what what it was, and whether anybody wanted to buy and save it. CC Commentator Bob identified it as a Corey Cruiser; the owner said it wasn’t running. Obviously, it didn’t take much to get it running (no surprise), and it’s been cleaned up and is three days from being auctioned off to the highest bidder on ebay. The current high bid is already $4,150. I’m not surprised. Shoulda’ talked him into selling it for me as a non-runner. Lots of nice pictures in the ad.
hat tip to Mike Burns!
I dont want it but a Dodge A100 van is quite rare here anyway never mind one like this did the builders see a Samba one day?
You have interesting posts, but I find them nearly incomprehensible to read (over many posts). I believe some punctuation would help make your posts much easier to understand.
http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp
(Also, don’t do the “comma splice”. A comma splice is where two unrelated sentences are linked together by a comma. For example,
Bob caught the cat, Mary baked a cake.
Both parts of this sentence are independent clauses and could be split up into two sentences. Alternatively, you could choose to make one of the clauses a dependent clause. (For example, “While Bob caught the cat, Mary baked a cake”.)
I don’t mean to be nitpicky about grammar for the sake of being mean or anything. I visit this site to read the interesting articles and comments posted to them. I’ve noticed you have some decent posts, but with the run-on sentences it is difficult to understand what you’re trying to say. A touch of grammatical editing and sentence-pacing would make your posts stand out and really add to the discussions on this website 🙂
Chad, it’s cool. Those of us who have been around this site for awhile have learned the Kiwi dialect, and have even good-naturedly kidded Bryce about it over the years (Paul once gave him an award for guessing the CC Clue…a jumbo-sized bag of commas!). I hope I’m not speaking out of turn for saying this on behalf of many fans of this site, but Bryce adds so much to the discussion that the raw style of his posts is part of the experience, not to mention part of what makes this site enjoyable.
Besides, the last thing I’d want is for someone to not participate because they feel they need to consult a Harbrace Handbook before posting. And God knows these guys put up with my ramblings and reminiscences…
Ah, good to know that it’s a welcome and normal part of CC 🙂
(I’ve been watching a lot of Youtube lately, and the comments there sometimes leave me scratching my head. For instance, I could be watching a music video for Idle Eyes and the top comment is something about atheism, or World War II, or some out-of-context reply to a flamewar. Often the YT comments are pretty hard to read because of run-on sentences.)
I didn’t mean to be too hoity-toity about the grammar. After hanging around Youtube for too long, and seeing KiwiBryce’s comments appear here recently, I genuinely wanted to make our comment-discussions better 🙂
You’re right about encouraging participation in the comments: It’s what makes this site vibrant 🙂
Bryce has been part of the CC family since the very beginning. It wouldn’t feel right here without him and his long sentences.
Yup, Bryce is one of the originals and there weren’t more than a dozen of us back then. I enjoy everything he says. He’s a man that tells’er like he sees ’em. I don’t have to agree and I live the straight shooting. He actually drives classics, too, unlike almost everyone here.
With Bryce, you just learn to like him & his curious insights.
@Chad…
Sorry to nitpick, but the punctuation at the end of your last sentence is a bit lacking. Pot, meet kettle. 🙂
Pot on head, now I can’t see 😛
I’m surprised to read in the ad that it has a 318. I thought all of these were 225 sixes … well, except for the L’il Red Wagon.
the 273/318 was optional on A100a and A108s, and not all that uncommon.
Wow…when I saw the builder’s plate that read, “A.O. Smith, Ionia, Mich.,” I realized I’d seen that name before: The gas water heater in my laundry room!
After doing a Google search, I learned that the same company also made frames and bodies for Corvettes (which I’d always thought were built by Fisher), as well as Shelby Cobras. Might explain why the water in my house is always so hot, and the tank gives off a nice rumble from time to time… 🙂
In the area I live in, the water is so full of sediment and calcium that typically a good water heater lasts 5 years. In 2005 I moved into a house with a A.O. Smith water heater that was around 20 years old! It died a year or two later and when the plumber came in to give an estimate he remarked; “You know we stock A.O. Smith if you’re interested in staying with same brand.” I told him I was. I left the place during my divorce in 2009 hopeful the new is at least 1/2 as good as the old.
I just replaced my water heater a month or so ago; it had started to leak but was slow enough that there was no damage (I live in a third-floor condo). It still had a sticker on it saying it was installed in November of 1981.
Now that’s a good run!
My mother has the original water heater (Westinghouse) that was installed in her house in November of 1963! It’s electric, and the city she lives in is known for naturally having extremely pure, soft water, if either of those factors make any difference.
Talk about truth in the old slogan, “You can be sure if it’s Westinghouse!”
What kills a water heater, is heavy mineral content…hard water, IOW. Minerals actually solidify as the water around the heating element boils; these solids settle to the bottom of the tank, often in a conical pile.
That’s aggreviated by higher temperature settings.
For example…you could have a large water heater, 80 gallons or more…set to a lukewarm 110 degrees. Perfect for a shower. Too cold for the kitchen? Sure…so have a smaller water heater behind it, set to 160 or so; drawing off the bigger one.
Since the water heater isn’t taking cold water out of the street pipes and dumping it into a 180-degree environment, there’s less contrast, hot on cold. The bath water heater only heats it lukewarm. The kitchen water heater takes on warm water and makes it hot. Less residue in both tanks.
Of course, it may – or may not – raise the electric bill. This setup I had in the house I inherited from my parents; the juice bill wasn’t any higher than I’d expect from electric hot water. But it wasn’t cheap, either.
The old man worked for the power company and had an employee discount.
I set up a friend’s place just like this recently. He had moved into a new place and they were all pissed the dishes weren’t clean in the dishwasher. They even had it replaced under warranty. Anyway, they asked me to help them out since I worked for BC Hydro for a while. The tank was in the garage, far away from the kitchen. It was set at 110’F, which is code here for new homes. By the time it hit the kitchen, it was like 85’C and it took a long time to heat up. The solution was just this kind of system. A little 20 litre tank set at 160’F, under the kitchen sink and feeding the sink and the dishwasher. Recovery time is amazing since there isn’t a lot of water to heat and it comes in preheated. So far he has not noticed an increase in the hydro bill, either.
AO Smith also supplies (or did in the past) rolled steel frame rails for heavy duty trucks. If the Kenworth motor home recently featured had a steel frame (probably needed at that wheelbase) it may have come from AO Smith.
Smith made frames for Studebakers and for some Big Three models. They seemed to have a foothold in metal-fabricating; in addition to frames and water heaters, they made corn silos. Yup…glass lined, just like the water heaters; to replace the tumbledown plank silos attached to so many family-farm barns…
Sold under the “Harvestore” name, IIRC. I seem to remember, also…they played with the idea of “glass-lining” automotive frames for corrosion resistance. I might be mistaken, there…
Well I know for a fact Ford in the mid-60s didn’t take them up on that product!
I liked it then and like it now! Nothing like having your own road-going observation car 🙂
Poor man’s popemobile 🙂
There were actually more than ten commandments, but Moses was old and grumpy, and after he broke the tablets he could only remember the negative ones. “Don’t do this. Don’t do that.” The truth is, most of them were more like advice. The Twelfth Commandment, for example, was “Whistle while you work.” (People think its from Disney, but Disney stole it from God.) – Father Guido Sarducci
Francisco Dodge, San Rafael, California, summer of 1969. My Dad took us kids along to look at cars as he was thinking that the ’61 Pontiac Catalina Safari might be getting long in the tooth (by 1971, no.7 cylinder lost most of it’s compression). We looked at some Dodges and lo and behold, he actually looked at one of these high-roof A-100s. I remember it was yellow with the center section painted black. A giant bumble bee.
Meanwhile, my brother and I were two cars down looking at a pair of ’69 Chargers; one yellow with a black vinyl top, the other that metallic brown color. Both R/T’s with all-business dog-dish wheel covers, but with the large dual exhausts that surely announced a 440 under the hood . . .
Best. Clearance lights. Ever.
Front = second set of A-van front blinkers
Rear = Exner-era Imperial taillights
I bought a Corey Cruiser in 1975 for $2600, for use as a tow vehicle for my
race car. It was fabulous. Plenty of power, and towed straight as an arrow.
The original interiors were high quality and very deluxe. Mine had a sink with a
water tank underneath, a full size propane stove, a small toilet with a privacy
screen, jump seats on either side in back, which folded into a full width bed.
Up front just behind the bucket seats was another seating area that also folded
into a bed, and above the driver/pass, was a large storage area. It had window
curtains all around, and an exterior rack at the back of the roof for more storage. Mine was #333, so I know they made at least that many. I never did
find out who Corey was. My friends and I had an enormous amount of fun in this vehicle, and we used to have a phrase to describe it.
The Corey Cruiser custom camper conversion consistently commands considerable complimentary comment. Needless to say we also had an
8 track on the dash. Good memories.
Tom, I know this thread is over 4 years old, but bought “Constance” from my duddy’s dad last Nov.., not sure how long Bernie had her, but quite prob since the mid-late ‘70’’s. Bernie was from MI, but I think he bought her in CA.
Anyway, here’s the Stamp on the drivers side door. Cheers!
Hello. I used to own this and really want it back. Are you the current owner?
I wonder how hard it would be to build an elevated platform in the left corner and relocate the drivers seat and controls up there? 🙂
You think like I think!
Going further, how about re-equipping a double-decker London bus so you could drive from the top. What a view you’d have!
Like driving a Chris-Craft from the fly bridge 🙂
Added to my watch list. What a cool follow-up.
Hope it’s air conditioned. I’m sweating just looking at all that solar gain.
Sold for $5101.
Dad had a 1969 A-108 Sportsman, just like this van before conversion. The 318 was optional that year. My ’66 A-100 had the 273. Both were equipped with the A727 HD Torqueflite.