Secondary, Post-Carb Air Filter

 

 

The 1960 Ford Vanette ran so poorly that it took me 1.5 hours to drive back to the shop from Leimert Park. Backing the idle mixture valve out until it was loose in my hand told a lot of the story. There were four individual vacuum leaks plus this brass fitting stuffed with cotton. Is it a plug or an intake filter? Intended to be the former but functioning as the latter.

Sorry about the photograph quality. When you are mid-curse, mid-knuckle bust, it is difficult to remember how to focus on the near field with our phone camera.

Black/Gold XZA 077

I'm fully loaded with hoopty projects, but I want this wagon so bad that I could spit in your soup and poke momma in the nose. You could eat dinner out of that taillight lens! Serve banana splits for 6. Rack on top for your kayak and PX10? A tri-color on the aerial?

Here on the list.

Look at the rear bumper with the euro plate window. I can't keep looking at this.

In the 6PM-9PM photo, it appears there is some interesting stuff in the background. Seems it is owned by a true believer.

I would name it, Table Wine. I can't keep looking at it.

Milwaukee Power Cord

 

 

Despite the previous owner's expert duct tape rewire, the Milwaukee Polisher/Buffer deserved an upgrade.

Enter Tool Shack

Could have bought a generic cord at Home Depot but then I would have been grouchy, would not have supported an important micro-business and my cord would be without a strain relief/cord protector.

Webley Hurricane and Tempest

Wrinkle finish Halliburton case from garage sale last week: $5
New foam from Foam Mart in Burbank: $41
Beeman Webley Tempest from garage sale 8-10 years ago with two tins of pellets: $40
Beeman Webley Hurricane from garage sale 1 year ago: $85

$171 well spent

 I was obsessed with airguns when I was kid and despite shooting thousands of pellets, I never shot an animal. These interests are quickly rekindled. Searching for scans of manuals to determine what to use as lubrication and where to apply it. I must admit, I joined the foremost airgun forum today and lead things off with a WTB.

General Whale, a heartbreaking story of our smog testing our most grand mammal

I must admit that it has been a few years since I have trolled the junkyards. The weather is beautiful in Los Angeles - perfect for a George Seurat stroll. Without need for a taxi cab sway bar for American iron, I thought there was little to interest me. Though snooping around Pontiac Grand Am trunks is always interesting, there was no commercial reason for me to go even if I do enjoy it more than the zoo.

Beyond acquisition and aspirations, a more interesting view of contemporary culture is what people throw away. And, as a function of government programs, throwing away now comes with financial benefits.

Let's say the your Volvo 145 fails smog. On these older cars the smog equipment is so primitive, that troubleshooting and repair is pretty cheap and easy. 50% of the time it is just addressing exhaust gas recycling. However, the way that smog testing is structured, the tests are just tests and there is no analysis or advice. The people testing the cars know how to test but may not know (or care) about the underlying causes. I am not an expert in smog testing bureaucracy, but it seems people cheating the system have created divisions in the system to separate testing from fixing.

So, it eliminates some cheaters, but so what? At what cost? I would propose that the catching of cheaters has lower net benefit to society than a system that would allow for informed repair of emissions errant automobiles.

The junkyard was full of great, great, great cars. I was amazed.

It has become 'the right thing to do' to junk your polluting car. God damn it. Junking the General Whale. The ecological insanity of removing this well maintained, original paint, tank like Volvo from the world to build another Prius. Certainly, somebody somewhere, has weighed the ecological impact of replacing a 1972 Volvo 145 with a 2011 Prius. I am too upset to look.

It was like a farmer's stand acorn squash. Gorgeous green exterior with an buttery orange interior. 

Perhaps I am wrong and this car was not junked for the emissions Junk Your Car for America program. Perhaps it was the Junk Your Car for Your Favorite Charity program.

Lurking Behind

Bought a sweet little quartersawn oak desk the other day and removed hardware for cleaning. Like finding change under the backseat of a used car, these washers were a bonus.

Funco

 

From a Craiglist ad and a period photograph for inspiration, this looks like a lot of fun. A 'Caveman' style paint job on this old Funco would be difficult to deny.

Occasionally, during bench racing sessions, I try to convince friends that we should form a racing league of buddies that all have the same car. A shared platform. So we are all working on the same knowledgebase and collecting swappable spares. Randy points out that we are doing that with bicycles, which is true and fun, but I am not sure it is Funco-level fun.

On craigslist. I wonder if it starts.

UN Chevrolet Caprice

Realizing this doesn't look like much of a car, I must defend (and honor) this Caprice. Cheap high gloss black paint job, Police Interceptor badge from a Ford, ex-cop car with giant anti-sway bars, tinted windows, cop hub caps with stainless beauty rings and a UN sticker in the rear window. Hard to imagine a sticker could elevate a car so much but, there it was! A crackpot nut, a wanna-be diplomat, a prankster, completely random or all the above? I found it really inspiring.

Harbor Freight Contractor Series

I recovered an old bike saddle with a Kate Spade knock-off bag as a fabric donor. I must admit, I was capably assisted by my garage sale find Harbor Freight Central Pnuematic Contractor Series staple gun. However, that Contractor Series tag does give pause.

It may as well say, "I am an idiot."

Recovered Saddle

Blessed Tool Box

I am happy with how this turned out.

We Loan Tools on Coco's Variety

Apologies (and thanks) to those that read Coco's and D+R