We currently (Easter Friday morning) only have 1 death & 1239 virus cases due to drastic measures taken & widespread public acceptance of the need for them!!

David ---That's great news and very encouraging numbers. There is a correlation between strict lock down measures i.e., social distancing, and lower spread of infection---basic biology rules do apply. How long is the NZ government planning on keeping these measures in place? That's the challenging question the US is now faced with answering too. Time will tell the story. Stay safe,,,

Originally the lock-down (live within your bubble) was for 4 weeks ending April 22. The gov't will announce on April 20 what their plan is for the future, although there is much discussion about how the country will come out of this level 4 lock-down. We'll see what happens.
In the meantime my garage has not looked this clean & tidy for decades!!
Stay safe & remember to keep your physical distances.

Neighbor committed suicide today. Was it related to the COVID19 shutdown? Who knows. Job loss, income loss, social isolation take a toll on those who are not mentally, emotionally, and financially sound. Hope this ends soon.

Kenneth--- Very sorry to hear of this tragedy. May his soul RIP.

Gas was $1.16 three weeks ago at Costco in NC, but $1.49 today~~~ and that gas is pumped from the west. Thanks people !!

This has really gotten off-topic!

Something came into my computer that was about the cost of gasoline recently in CA. Thought it interesting to compare to NC.
But I see the reply didn't go under the person's comment. Perhaps I should have resd the whole thing.
Thought I was on Facebook; Guess that is what autonotifications do. Sorry**

[quote="Robert Waid" post=25804]Have a 51' Commodore, 262 CU, 3 Speed Manual, believe the rear ratio is 4.11 (welded cover, no ratio tags or markings present). The car drives nicely around town, almost exclusively using 2nd gear to start from a stop, but the engine revs too high in my opinion when on Freeway especially above 55 mph (I estimate at 65mph the engine rev's are approx 3400 rpm). I sure would like to drop the revs. Driving 55 mph is dangerous in my neighborhood.

I've been toying with idea of swapping out the original 3 speed for a later model 3 speed/ with OD tranny (out of a 52' Hornet). But that would entail quite a bit of work and money. Furthermore I'd ultimately be setting aside the 3 speed which is in great shape (recently rebuilt, new clutch, etc.)

I also have a 3.08 rear-end that originally came out of a 54' Hornet (automatic car). It seems to me that the swap of the rear end would be much simpler and cost effective way to achieve the freeway goal. If my calcs are right the engine revs would drop to 2550 rpm.

Has anyone performed this swap? Any leanings you might share are greatly appreciated.

I did something similar -- I've got a '51 Pacemaker and swapped in a Ford 8" from a '76 Granada with a 2.79 gear in it (against advice from many, it should be said). The results? I'm pleased, but maybe I'm just easy to please -- it does take a long time to get up to speed, and I worry about clutch life a bit from getting her rolling from a stop, but I rebuilt the engine last spring and replaced the clutch disc at that time. In the last year I've probably driven 13,000 miles on this setup, including a trip to Boston, MA (I live in Albuquerque, NM) and back, and I haven't noticed any difference in the clutch pedal height, nor have a re-adjusted it since getting it initially set up, and I'm on the 9" clutch that came with the car. The positive is how she handles highway -- from Albuquerque, I can't drive in any direction other than south for more than 25 miles without getting on the highway, and our speed limits are 75 out here. I'm using 205/70r15 tires and I pull about 2550 rpm at 70 mph with this setup, which is right about in the sweet spot of the power band for this engine. I'm at 1 mile of altitude to start, but as long as the hill isn't too steep she will do 65 - 70 pretty well, and did better still with hills when I got into lower elevation. I did make a mistake in planning the road trip and had to push her up to 80 mph between Memphis and Chattanooga to catch a boat we had reservations on and I think she was running about 2800-2900 rpm to do that, and we caught the boat with one minute to spare!

Would I recommend this gearing? Depends on what matters to you. Acceleration definitely suffers, but I'm really happy with being able to do highway speeds anywhere I go and I can live with taking a little longer to get up to speed. If I could do it again, I absolutely would, but I do wish I had a gear between 2nd and 3rd for when I hit steep hills. It just depends on how/where you want to drive it.

BTW, I averaged about 19 mpg for the trip to Boston and back, and that wasn't all highway -- tooled around Salem, MA, and went up Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga to see Rock City. I think, as my engine loosens up and breaks in a little more, that average will go up a bit.

With the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, what a pity Hudson didn't offer a ratio like this with a 4 speed transmission. I had a '50 Pacemaker with overdrive, and the 4.55 rear end. I swapped it out for a 4.1, and this worked well, with about the same overall ratio in o/d that John talks about. But it had the 9" clutch, which did not like too hard a pull, so swapped it out for 10". Those 232 motors are the best of the Step-downs for reliability and smoothness.