A matter of honour and respect (and classic cars)

[Nitro]

Nice. Some nice Detroit Iron. Putting myself through school working at Chrysler Lynch Road Assembly. Sometimes I would be picked to run documents to other facilities and would get a pool car. I'd wait until the execs pulled their cars, usually luxury models, and of the cars left, I'd sometimes get a Hemi 'Cuda. Never drove such a fierce car in my life!

But now I am partial to small drivers cars. Never was able to justify one (or afford it) earlier in life, so I finally bought a used Toyota MR2 Spyder. Like I've said, I will want to continue learning new things, and have signed up for performance driving lessons at a very nice racecourse. The car is now at Thompson Racing Fabrication having a roll bar installed . . . a requirement for convertables at that track

My track training was with a Bondurant instructor for roadracing when I was a pup.
Dragracing was where I ended up after a very active street racing habit proved to be too costly in the court system
I have a 7.0 L '66 Chevy Caprice well on it's way to being an NHRA Super Street class car.
I did all of my own work including fitting a ten point full cage in her.
I still may pop two more tubes out towards the front to make it a tidy 12 pointer, but life put that project on the back burner for a few.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I am striving to honour that wish by the A&W owner,

What you are calling honor, I consider ethics, which is treating people with integrity and respect. I see honor as contributing to integrity.

I don't like the idea of morals since my teens when I read Russel's "Why I Am Not a Christian." A very subversive book, even in the mid '60s, when I read it.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

My track training was with a Bondurant instructor for roadracing when I was a pup.
Dragracing was where I ended up after a very active street racing habit proved to be too costly in the court system
I have a 7.0 L '66 Chevy Caprice well on it's way to being an NHRA Super Street class car.
I did all of my own work including fitting a ten point full cage in her.
I still may pop two more tubes out towards the front to make it a tidy 12 pointer, but life put that project on the back burner for a few.

Nice, but my skills are woodworking rather than wrenching. I'm saving up for a 2ZZ-GE powerplant, a cooperative design between Toyota and Lotus, as well as a close ratio 6 speed.

I am certain that I have a lot to learn. I look upon people like you as Sensai.

 

[Sherlock77]

Nice. Some nice Detroit Iron. Putting myself through school working at Chrysler Lynch Road Assembly. Sometimes I would be picked to run documents to other facilities and would get a pool car. I'd wait until the execs pulled their cars, usually luxury models, and of the cars left, I'd sometimes get a Hemi 'Cuda. Never drove such a fierce car in my life!

But now I am partial to small drivers cars. Never was able to justify one (or afford it) earlier in life, so I finally bought a used Toyota MR2 Spyder. Like I've said, I will want to continue learning new things, and have signed up for performance driving lessons at a very nice racecourse. The car is now at Thompson Racing Fabrication having a roll bar installed . . . a requirement for convertables at that track

I'd love an MR2, I drive a rather lowly Hyundai Accent, but it is a 5-speed at least, but it's gutless...

 

[Sherlock77]

What you are calling honor, I consider ethics, which is treating people with integrity and respect. I see honor as contributing to integrity.

I don't like the idea of morals since my teens when I read Russel's "Why I Am Not a Christian." A very subversive book, even in the mid '60s, when I read it.

I see what you're saying... Let's put it this way, I would love, would rather be there at 6 PM when there are lots of cars... But I am aware of what the A&W owner has said... Thus my compromise, probably heading there at about 8 PM to catch the scraps...

 

[Sherlock77]

Where I plan to be tomorrow, a good old fashioned automotive swap meet, with full approval of our health folks...
People watching, classic car spotting, maybe purchase a few knick knacks... This is a photo from the 2016 swap meet...
For those classic car geeks out there, this is a Meteor, only in Canada...

 

[Nitro]

Nice, but my skills are woodworking rather than wrenching.

I'm a rank amateur woodworker that still ain't found an easy to use sawdust rod to weld it back together, but I'll keep a lookin'

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I'm a rank amateur woodworker that still ain't found an easy to use sawdust rod to weld it back together, but I'll keep a lookin'

My next to last project is the canoe I'm paddling in the pic. Fishform with a tuck in to maximize reach. 15 1/2 feet and 34 lbs.

 

[Nitro]

My next to last project is the canoe I'm paddling in the pic. Fishform with a tuck in to maximize reach. 15 1/2 feet and 34 lbs.View attachment 68271

That's really cool, but I'm getting too old to paddle.
Or too lazy
My style is more like the ratty looking early '60s 16 foot or so fiberglass powerboat hull with rear fins on it like a '57 Chrysler I've been eyeing up
There's a 1986 Nissan 2.5L overhead cammer out of a pickup out in the polebarn what would be a sweetheart of a power plant for her if it was rigged with an outdrive or even a v drive for that matter.

So much to do, so little time

 

[Nitro]

I'd love an MR2, I drive a rather lowly Hyundai Accent, but it is a 5-speed at least, but it's gutless...

Gutless rides are for going to work or pickin' up parts


The parts that got picked up were generally for providing the several seconds of shear terror after pulling the pin on the live grenade you had bolted in under the hood of your other ride

 

[Sherlock77]

Gutless rides are for going to work or pickin' up parts


The parts that got picked up were generally for providing the several seconds of shear terror after pulling the pin on the live grenade you had bolted in under the hood of your other ride

I don't mind a small car actually, my favourite kind of cars are the European, British or Japanese classics, even if they have small engines... I used to attend the Micro North meet when I lived, an event for tiny cars and unusual cars...

How about this one? A car called Jurisch, only two prototypes were ever made and that's it... My photo taken at one of those Micro North meets, way back in 2002

 

[Sherlock77]

I came, I went, I saw, got there at 7:45 tonight, only a few cars left, did get a few photos... Admittedly I've been doing some goofing around with a wide angle lens I recently purchased...

 

[Sherlock77]

@Nitro

Or is this more your style? Also from tonight, after the larger crowd had left

 

[Varzar]

My next to last project is the canoe I'm paddling in the pic. Fishform with a tuck in to maximize reach. 15 1/2 feet and 34 lbs.View attachment 68271

That is SUPER impressive!

 

[Nitro]

I don't mind a small car actually, my favourite kind of cars are the European, British or Japanese classics, even if they have small engines... I used to attend the Micro North meet when I lived, an event for tiny cars and unusual cars...

How about this one? A car called Jurisch, only two prototypes were ever made and that's it... My photo taken at one of those Micro North meets, way back in 2002

View attachment 68272

While not exactly micro-cars, I am actually really into the Toyota trucks and 4Runners from 1984-1988, so I'm sort of into some smaller vehicles too.
I still have my '86 4Runner out in the pole barn and there is a project truck out in the freight trailer with the Caprice.
It has a fiberglass California style stepside bed on it, an early Isuzu 2.2L diesel engine coupled up to it's transmission and transfer case, a 5 inch lift kit and a fiberglass dual power bulge hood off an early Chevy Cavalier to keep the rain off of it.

The next step for the 4Runner will be fabbing a water to air intercooler for it's 2.4L 22RE and mounting up the Eaton supercharger off a Buick 3800 V-6 on it.
I'm not after serious off the line performance out of that combo, I'm only after increased torque on the highway to keep the truck in 5th gear while pulling hills.
The present engine in the 4Runner is the early version 22R out of a 1980 Celica with the hemispherical combustion chambers and pop-up pistons set up with the '84.5 & later iteration multi port fuel injection off an '85 donor truck. It was robbed out of an earlier build that I did when I needed an engine for it.
The camshaft in it stops making power at around 7 grand as opposed to going flat at 4500 with the stock one, so it works well wound up, but lacks lower end torque at the same time.
When I assemble the supercharged engine, I will be mating the earlier hemi cylinder head to the later version lower end with it's flat top pistons to lower the compression ratio a little.
4runner:

I always ran automotive repair shops on the side to support my vehicle habits, so the equipment necessary to work on my own stuff was always available inhouse.

 

[Nitro]

Later on in my illustrious career, I got to do the engineering on the fixturing required to hold every GM Northstar engine block they ever produced.
The blocks left their machining area and required cleaning prior to final assembly, so the outfit I worked for was awarded the contract to build the cabinet pressure washer machine to do so.
After GM signed off on it, we asked them if they wanted the prototyped engine blocks they sent us back to which they replied no.
In my vast pile of "stuff", I still have one of them I kept.
I might make a wine rack glass topped end table out of it

It was not really even finished so to speak, so to me that makes it even more special, with my own career coming from my beginnings in the machineshop I grew up in.

When GM signed off on that machine which was quite huge I might add, it passed muster on every front with the exception of their psychologist they sent to look it over.
She claimed our company colors were not conducive to workers wanting to take care of it, so chose a pleasant teal color to have it refinished.
That ended up being a real nightmare in the end because we always painted them as sub-assemblies because of how complex they were

I volunteered to do the refinish work after business hours, mostly because I needed to use automotive spray equipment to pull it off instead of the clumsy HVLP setup they generally used due to OSHA compliance.
It took about 6 hours to pull it off, but in the end, we got paid, so it was well worth it

 

[Nitro]

While not nearly as active as I once was, I am still very involved in repair work.
Yesterday, I dragged home this 8 ton air over hydraulic ram from Horror Fright to place on my cherry picker:

Hand pumping them to full stroke takes a while and I'm getting lazy in my old age, so it was a no-brainer

 

[Mary Terry]

I don't mind a small car actually, my favourite kind of cars are the European, British or Japanese classics, even if they have small engines... I used to attend the Micro North meet when I lived, an event for tiny cars and unusual cars...

How about this one? A car called Jurisch, only two prototypes were ever made and that's it... My photo taken at one of those Micro North meets, way back in 2002

View attachment 68272

It's Cousin It's car!

 

[Nitro]

My '73 Buick Century Luxus after it's cosmetic restoration around the mid to late 80s.
The original 350 developed a crack in a cylinder head, so I found a replacement engine for it just to make it run again to dump it at an auto auction.
I thought I bought another 350 Buick for $50 that I found in a '79 Pontiac which would have been common during the year the Poncho was built, but as I started to prep and paint it before the install, something didn't look right about it.
It was in fact red in color, not the light blue that they were during that timeframe and didn't have an egr valve it should have had too.
When I fired it up, I couldn't get it to idle smoothly, so I swapped the carb off of the old engine figuring that the one on the new engine was faulty.
Nope.
As it turned out, someone replaced the original 350 in the Pontiac with a 1970 455 stage one Buick engine out of a Gran Sport. Being a factory high performance unit, it was never intended to idle properly
Needless to say, I kept it to play with it a while longer

 

[Sherlock77]

View attachment 68287
My '73 Buick Century Luxus after it's cosmetic restoration around the mid to late 80s.
The original 350 developed a crack in a cylinder head, so I found a replacement engine for it just to make it run again to dump it at an auto auction.
I thought I bought another 350 Buick for $50 that I found in a '79 Pontiac which would have been common during the year the Poncho was built, but as I started to prep and paint it before the install, something didn't look right about it.
It was in fact red in color, not the light blue that they were during that timeframe and didn't have an egr valve it should have had too.
When I fired it up, I couldn't get it to idle smoothly, so I swapped the carb off of the old engine figuring that the one on the new engine was faulty.
Nope.
As it turned out, someone replaced the original 350 in the Pontiac with a 1970 455 stage one Buick engine out of a Gran Sport. Being a factory high performance unit, it was never intended to idle properly
Needless to say, I kept it to play with it a while longer

That was certainly a great deal!