How to park a 50's car... with ingenuity

Boss 351 Ranchero, no, the factory never made one.... but when some people realize what should have been, they do the work themselves and demonstrate the innovative DIY spirit that makes this hobby fun

maybe I'm off my rocker, but doesn't this look like a Shelby Gt 350 bumper under a 68 Coronet grill? It's awesome!

Galpin, the largest Ford dealership in California I think they say in their advertising.

Daytona A100 van from Problem Child Studios... very cool video of a single drawing, and making it animated

Innovative, inventive, and awesome. http://www.problemchildkustoms.com/think_fast.html

Chevy info / trivia / interesting stuff found in Automobile Magazines 100 years of Chevrolet

Founded by Billy Durant, it was one of three car companies he founded that year (he had founded GM years before, but got fired) He founded 2 more companies the next year

Durant did so well with Chevy, that by 1915, he took over control of GM... yeah, Chevy bought out GM.

The depression in 1920 jsut decimated his businesses., and he left in Dec, 1920

When Chevrolet started in business, there were 270 car companies in America

How American is Chevrolet? Well, Louis Chevrolet was Swiss, Zora Arkus Duntov was Belgian... you get the point right? Immigrants are Americas greatest asset, and they made Chevy and GM one of the few comapnies to survive 100 years, and one of only a handful of car manufacturers to stay in the car making business for 100 years or more.

Durant wanted to capitalize on Louis Chevrolet's racing notoriety, and had Lou design a car. It was completed in 1912. Lou quit because Durant nagged about his smoking, and went on to design Indy winning race cars, and found the Frontenac car company

1915 was the year Chevy tried to compete with the less expensive Ford, and made the 490 which was the same price as the Ford (Fiat 500 was the cost in thousands of Lira for a cinquecento) Ford retaliated by dropping his price by 50 bucks. Lots of money in 1915

1923 Chevy had 500 copper air fin equipped cars available, as this early in the car making development process, getting water cooling to work wasn't perfected for another 30 years, and the Franklin was successful as an aircooled engine... they work fine in hot climates, like the American mid and southwest.
The Copper Cooled Chevys were a flop, they detonated terrribly, and of the 100 bought by customers, all but 2 were reaquired by Chevy, AND DUMPED THEM IN LAKE EIRE!

Fangio's first big victory was in a Chevy Master 85. It was an endurance race round trip Buenos Aires to Lima and back

The longest running nameplate in auto history is the Chevy Suburban, launched in 1935

The 55 Chevy Bel Air grill design was ripped off from Ferrari. It only was used in 55.

Chevy's first international competition win was a 1953 210 sedan in the La Carrera Panamericana

1960 Daytona 500, the Junior Johnson Chevy was 20 mph slower than the leading Pontiacs,... and Junior discovered drafting, and won the race. He'd been in prison for running moonshine in 57 and couldn't race in first NASCAR Grand National Championship

Jim Halls Chaparral 2J "sucker car" used a 2 stroke snowmobile engine to produce suction in the ground effects race car to capitalize on the design

The Nassau Speed Week of Dec 1963 proved that the Corvette Grand Sport could beat the Shelby Cobras and Ferrari 250 GTOs ... but that was the last call for Chevy in racing before the AMA ban. Zora was about to take them to Sebring and LeMans

The Chevy LUV (light utility vehicle) was the first Chevy sold in the US built by a foreign manufacturer. Isuzu

The Vega had 2 notorious recalls, the rear tires falling off, and the carb filling with gas til it spilled out onto the engine onto overheating aluminum engines

GM went into partnership with Toyota to get better manufacturing processes and production systems, and reopened a GM facility in Fremont Ca, and Toyota would gain experience in building cars in the US. UAW workers were flown to Japan, learned the Toyota way, production began in 1984, was an immediate success, and they built 8 million cars before shutting down in 2009. The things learned from Toyota were implemented in GM in 1992

Dick Guldstrand was commisioned to make a high speed Corvette to test Bridgestones, he hit 176 at Talledega . It's in the auction cycle right now, and it didn't sell at 40 thou.

Best custom idea for pedals in a rat rod that I've come across

The new VW Golf has a cool way to open the hatchback

Coolest trailer hitch I've seen, made of con rods

found on http://bummerbro.tumblr.com/post/11049053813

Our Gang / Little Rascals made this terrific taxi... donkey powered, a pusher really, with innovation in everything it does

 the license plate is a 1917 New York

  the below plate is a 1927 California plate

 

 The driver heard a yell for a taxi, and he reaches up to activate the brake to slow down

 below are the many different controls the driver has, you can see he pulls the choke (this was a real thing before advanced carbuerators, it allowed the carb to run better by adjusting the amount of air running through it "Choking" the air supply, creating a vacuum that made the fuel metereing circuit run richer )

 and here you can see how the mule power is stopped... they close off the food that mule eats. No food, and the mule stops walking toward it. When the lid is lifted, the food is available, and the mule walks toward it, moving the taxi

the fuel level indicator was a float on the water supply of the mule.

Meanwhile in the engine bay, Farina (the black kid before Buckwheat) is making engine noise by rolling a cam against the "ingine" stick

 Here you can see Farina in the engine bay... with a pump, starter, that ingine, and the radio

 When they pulled the radio string, Farina started singing, saying he was Tony Wons... I happen to have a donzen books by Tony Wons... and was surprised to hear this. It places the movie from 1929 to 1943 I think, as that is the last year of Tony Wons' scrapbook I have. They are very good

 After singing he played the kazoo

 You can almost make out the paddle that smacked the mules butt, and made him walk faster. It's hinged at the top of the spare tire pile on his back, at the upper left corner of this photo

 Above is the "Fare Master" that indicated how many pennies they were charging to go to a destination

Hungarian made cars, the difficult struggle against political turmoil, lack of manufacturing, and frequent bureaucratic red tape... all they want is to build cars!

Hungarian car enthusiasts Pal Negyesi and Csaba Hajdu have researched the Hungarian car history thoroughly, and made a 35 page PDF that exemplifies the spirit of perseverance to surmount obstacles in the way of progress.

Their focus is the Hungarian cars made between the years 1945 - 1990, but the inventors, craftsman, and innovators often began before 1945... and so did the national and intenational conflicts and restrictions that created a one of a kind unique situation that resulted in the USSR organization COMECON ruling of 1949 that of all the allied countries, only Hungary would not be allowed to build cars. Busses and trucks, yes... but not cars that the people could use for personal enjoyment, business travel, and product distribution (flowers, parcel delivery, etc etc)

Just as important as the automobile enthusiasts informative look, is the historian enthusiasts understanding of the myriad problems that were brought about by WW2, the USSR governing bureaucracy regulations, lack of car parts manufacturing (no car tire makers for example led to using airplane tail tires), political refusal to allow foreign investors, the revolution of 1956, the oil crisis of 1973, the fall of the USSR in 1990 dissolving all the previous infrastructure that was just beginning to make progress in loosening govt owned company restrictions in involvement in cooperative ventures to produce car and parts... all complicated the Hungarian auto enthusiasts ability to make cars.

But read about the many one off cars that were prototyped, microcars that were made and attempted during this time, the 3 wheelers that were declared "motorbike and sidecar" etc etc in order to bring mobility to the people.


Price is EUR 1 or USD 1.4

There are two ways to pay:

- Either someone sends the amount via PayPal to npaul@hu.inter.net and then Pal will send him/her the link
- You can buy an e-book version at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LOVR02

Ingenious luggage or storage accessory... the Tire Trunk by Wohlfeld

Found on http://theoldmotor.com/?p=15096

1904 air filled tires were barely more than balloons, so traction aiding, tire covering hides were innovated and tested

found while browsing through the Automotor Journal on Google books

the dreams and drawings of the early balloonists (pilots were called professors)

 pretty good idea for early balloonists... an escape parachute for the basket and passengers. Early on there was no idea what to do once you got it off the gorund, just go for the ride and hope you had a soft landing

all found on http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?trg=1&word=Balloons%20%2D%2D%20Pictorial%20works&s=3&notword=&d=&c=&f=2&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&num=100&imgs=20&pNum=

Steampunkvehicles.tumblr is on a mission to post enormous amounts of railroad inspection cars. bravo!

the above gets my vote for most elegant inspection car... those couches look comfortable

 the above is the 1876 balloon car from Larkin st to Woodward's gardens, built by Henry Casebolt

get a look at the front windows, I think there are 6 tilting panels

 1910 or earlier is my guess, one big old tourer, comfortable too I bet.

portable turn table, because as I just recently learned from Steampunkvehicles, the darn cars only cool properly when the air is rushing in through the radiator in the proper direction

  I think the above and below are the same vehicle

 Above a Buick, below a Dodge

for more: http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com/