Esso Sticker - Approved

An Esso sticker on the front fender makes anything look racy. Consider a Toyota Starlet. Add an Esso sticker. Better, right?

Also, related, see Agip and Elf. 

Seen at Cork Grips Tumblr

Every Pickup Needs Perimeter Tie downs

Bring a trailer featured an amazing, original condition Datsun pick-up truck and bidding has already reached a lofty $10k with 15 hours to go.

At some point, aesthetics dictated that tie downs around the perimeter of the bed were too ugly for the consumer market. What a shame. Tarping a load without them is a total pain in the neck. It seems every full size, alley trolling metal collector or gardening truck has had coat hooks screwed in the side to compensate. Always crooked, surface metal always dimpled where they are pulling out.

I wonder if there is commercial bed rail that integrates simple hooks - not an 'integrated, patented loading system.'

Abercrombie and Fitch Corduroy Safari

For those that know my epic want list, I have been trying to buy one of these jackets for ten years.

The fourth jacket that I have encountered has slipped through my fingers. I detail my chase at my other blog, Dinosaurs and Robots.

How to turn $7,200 into $17,200 or $27,200

The rear spoiler is particularly appealing, in a very crude and racy sort of way. Ad says that the carb and dash cluster were damaged in an accident, which strikes me as an odd damage to sustain.

Half-freshened, a single Cibie on the front, new livery, out of spec harness, race gas, spent autocross tires and attack Mulholland at 5AM. A challenge... how cheaply can you get it running and stopping. Do you include bail in the estimate, only the final tally or chalk that up to life experience?

On craigslist, no affiliation.

 Something like this, but think Krylon and that self-stick aluminum from Home Depot. DieHard sticker is a must.

Now, I have one of these.

Cable TV Security Shield and Filter Removing Tool CATV

Not being able to split and extend your cable is ridiculous.

In other news, my 2000 Chevy Silverado truck failed smog today. Evap failure. There is a whole closed vacuum system to recirculate gas fumes from the tank just like PCV works for oily engine air. The whole system is quick release connectors, hard and soft lines. You unsnap the connector, look inside at the nitrile o-ring, poke it, wonder if it is still supple enough, shrug and snap it back together.

All that snapping is pronto fast for assembly of automobiles, but it sure makes for difficult troubleshooting and expensive replacement parts. A few years ago, when Maytag was still a stateside company, I read their annual report and they spent a lot of time crowing about their huge parts margins and their de facto lock on the parts market for their equipment. Somewhat excusable as they made quality parts, but now that it has been bought by a Chinese manufacturer, the parts quality has gone down the toilet.

This isn't a "they are stealing our jobs, everything from China sucks" rant. It is a very specific problem. I like lots of stuff that is made in China. Hard to imagine my iPhone being any better than it is and lots of bike parts are amazingly nice.

There is a fluid filled brake mechanism for Maytag commercial top loaders. It goes bad every few years. For the past year, every brake comes out of the box leaking or starts leaking within 1 month. It is amazing. It is like getting a pancake in a Japanese hotel - it looks like a pancake, but it tastes nothing like a pancake.

Chevy fixed. Bad gas cap! Ain't that the pickles. After disconnecting every quick disconnect and blowing in here and there, I decided the cap would certainly be the cheapest point of failure. Smog passed.

Boogie Opel GT Van

Pretty much my dream stable in 1978.

Via Matthew Bowne's Flickr

Treasure

For some inexplicable reason, I thought it would be easier to replace the door weatherstripping if I removed the interior door panel. Don't ask. I don't want to talk about it.

Found this little morsel inside, which succinctly answers why the door won't stay open on it's own.  One day I am going to remove a door panel and pull out a Beretta 9mm. How many pine needles until then? Maybe I should leave a Beretta in there. Would certainly improve my chances of finding one. A ziploc full of cosmoline with a handgun floating like a Hirst.

At least the turbot is in focus.

Re-Wiring the Big Beam

Crimp, solderless connectors have a well deserved bad reputation. Whenever I lift a hood and see a yellow crimp on a piece of 18 gauge stranded, I think, better get home before dark!

I am an advocate of solderless connectors BUT you have have a set of Vacos. Smashing the plastic is not enough, you need to leave a deep dimple.

Maserati Jumpsuit

 

Having trouble dialing in those mismatched sidedrafts? Probably because you are dressed outside of factory spec. 

Maserati Jumpsuit on eBay, no relation

Relentlessly Plastic-y

Whenever I buy a project car, I start a milk crate of take off parts. Every chrome plated interior sheet metal screw goes into a jar, that lives in the crate, as at some point I will either find it's home or a similar loss elsewhere will require the same sort of screw. It can be a bit of a burden e.g. if you replace spark plug wires, do you keep the old ones?

The door map pocket poses no such dilemma. It is total and catastrophic failure. Short of 3-d printing a new one, this is an salvageable situation. Under engineered, certainly, but the amount of plastic in "modern classics" means they sort of dissolve all at once. The vacuum line junctions break at the exact same moment that the map pocket falls off which is the same instant that the plastic trim holders disintegrate.

The door map pocket is satisfying in that succinctly answers whether to keep it. It is true garbage.

(Should I make a replacement pocket from wood? Guess I better keep the plastic one for a template...)