3macboys

Yesterday when I got the mail I was happy to find that the water pump packing that I had ordered a couple of weeks ago. The first use will be in the 26 Star. I figure that this is about a life time supply at just over 3 feet long. This is the pump on the car - lots of room to work but I want to give the car a bit of a cleaning first before I get at it. Now my next conundrum is to get things moved around a bit more so that I can actually get at that side of the car As happens to most of use when we are doing rather mundane tasks, my mind tends to wander. I know I've mentioned before on the forums that I'm a retired police officer - as I was taking those gauge clusters apart earlier this week I started to reflect that when I started my career we were taught about speedometer needle slap from gauges like these. For those not familiar with that term, in crashes involving some speed the speedometer needle will actually slap the face leaving a transfer of the fluorescent orange paint. Basically it's a result of that flexible light weight needle still moving forward at the time of impact, the gauge has stopped but the needle is still moving. It's the same principal as the occupants still moving forward after the vehicle has come to a stop. At the time that was one of the most reliable means we had of determining speed at the time of impact. One other thing that was taught was to seize the tail light bulbs and the headlights as experts at the time could determine from the filament if the lights were on and if the brake lights were activated as well. It seems pretty rudimentary by todays standards but at the time that's what we had. Today there's computers on board that record all sorts of information that is much more precise and of course with the advent of digital dashes and LED lights the old methods are somewhat obsolete. One of the other things that we had to do was determine the point of impact, sometimes that was quite easy, other times we experienced what I termed self clearing intersections where the momentum of the vehicles carried them off the road. In those cases you would be able find gouges in the road where the front suspension compressed and dug into the pavement. As vehicle design has improved and the way vehicles bend to absorb the impact you don't necessarily get those same marks. As I continued down the reflection rabbit hole I also recalled how frequently people were injured in collisions and the amount of time that I spent in Emergency departments checking on them. I started in 1990 when driver's side air bags were just coming into being and ABS wasn't mainstream yet. By the time I left it was rare to have anyone hurt that required transport to hospital - as the saying goes, they don't build them like they used to...and that's a good thing! So congratulations to you all, you have now passed basic collision investigation circa 1990! One final thought on the day as this speedometer was from a Volvo, remember when their advertising was all about safety, when was the last time you heard a car company pushing that? Now you just assume that any vehicle that you are buying is safe.

A new car wash just opened up here that has a fixed monthly fee that allows you to go through once a day. It just happens to be on my route from the post office to the shop every morning - I can tell you that my per wash cost is very low.

I keep looking at it - It is only a little over 2 hours away but this year it might not fit into my schedule. My wife is getting back from a trip with her mother right around then and our oldest is being deployed overseas at the same time and we hope to see him off if we can. If I don't go to vend I'll at least try to make it to shop, it's a meet that I've never been to.

Yes I am that guy! Sadly a bunch of those manuals are for front wheel drive cars and vans - not big movers but somewhere someone will be looking for them. I just sold a set for a 1992 Ford Festiva this week. You can tell which cars must have been problem ones when new, those manuals are well worn from the dealership. One of my pet peeves on here is when someone asks what the value of something is and inevitably someone will reply with "Not much" which is such a subjective term. I wish they would just give a dollar amount and let the poster make up their mind what to do with the object they are asking about. Those "Not Much" guys wouldn't walk past a $10 bill laying on the sidewalk. Well my shop is full of $10 bills. Ok, I'll step down off my soap box now. Actually, the longer that I've been doing the selling you realize just how regional the hobby is and there are very distinct interests depending on where you are located. Datsun stuff is hot on the west coast and in Toronto. Volvo's tend to be an eastern thing along with Washington State and British Columbia. I don't know why but GM books are tough to move but Ford and Chrysler stuff will always find a new home. Of course Hawaii has a distinct flavor with a lot of 70's import cars out there. The earlier stuff tends to be east of the Mississippi, along with Texas and California. Of course these are only just general observations but they mirror where the cars were originally sold and where people with cars have moved to as they seek out warmer climes. For all the complaining people do about Ebay I couldn't do what I do without it or similar platforms as I'd never reach those niche markets going to swap meets. I've sent Volvo parts to Japan in the same week that I sent Japanese parts to France.

They certainly do, just don't try and drive down King St anymore - the street cars rule the roost and cars can only go 2 blocks or so before you have to make a turn. There's still something neat about watching the cars run at night and seeing sparks fly off the overhead wires. I believe that it's San Francisco that has a fleet of old restored street cars in their original livery including one from the TTC. Who can forget the old TTC tag line - Ride the Rocket!

The weather here has been pretty decent for the last few days and I figured that the scrap yard should be dry or at least drier by now so I loaded up this pile of cast aluminum and off I went. Boy was I wrong about the scrap yard - apparently there was more frost in the ground than I thought. I should have grabbed a pic of the soup bowl where most of the scrap had to be dropped. Fortunately for me, all I had to do was drive over the scale and then back up a concrete ramp to unload, no mud bog involved. Floor cleaned up and a 66 bucks in my pocket - I don't know what it is about taking in the scrap but it always seems like you are getting paid for garbage and you are getting free money. The yard is on my way from the house to the shop so never out of the way, nor a special trip. Next up was this corner of the downstairs shop, home of the library. It's not so much that everything is moved out of there, but more that the chaos is gone and I can walk through and see things without having to move piles of other stuff. Not perfect but a far cry from where I started.

Interesting that no one is at the tiller. Because of the nature of the picture looking like an artist's concept I did a Google image search and found this: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffrey_Electric

Going by the date on the picture of the Thunderbird one he's about 200 years too early

@Dandy Dave and or @edinmass along maybe a couple of others will be along hopefully to help you out. And welcome aboard!

I was back tackling the downstairs shop today. This bit of floor space had held the last of the used Volvo parts that I hadn't sorted through. I haven't been able to have a clear view to this bottom shelf for several years. Most of what was left was cast aluminum brackets for engines mounts and the like along with a bunch of gauge clusters. The brackets are all in the parts washer to be cleaned up awaiting a new owner. As I've stated before the dealership where this stuff came out of must have run their own wrecking yard from their used car lot. I don't know what is good is what is bad but I've broken down the clusters into their various assemblies and I'll test what I can. I set up a bit of disassembly line which made quick work of them. Having that clear bench space really is nice. I've kept all the dash bulbs and a few other parts- some of this stuff is getting harder and harder to find. Not big dollar stuff but will be good to pass along to someone in need. This message is the reason why simply parting out these clusters makes the most sense - that and how big is the market for used clusters for mid 80's Volvos in Canada - the speedo's are all metric! Psss.....wanna buy a clock? I think that I've learned more about cars by parting them out than I have any other way. Even as silly as it seems those clocks all have the same part number but there are two different mounts for them.

I think that is called foreshadowing It's a shame but, I guess like all, cars if it's a labour of love you don't count the money going out. Just maybe someone will take it on. As the saying goes, you can't save them all and if not for parts cars most of our cars wouldn't be on the road today.

I think I'm going to have to clean it up and put it with the rest of the what is it items in the showroom in the shop. If nothing else they make for good conversation pieces.

I hadn't seen this thread the first go round, mine is because I have 3 boys and our last name is MacKenzie. Now my father thought that I came up with it because there's three generations that use the shop, either way it works! Don

I'll bounce this back up for your Sunday morning coffee, Odd that it looks like only one bolt hole to fasten it as well.

I've got to add more lights to my shop and they will be LED - can't say enough good things about the ones that we already have installed. Just a word of caution to avoid the cheap made in China ones. My previous life was in the emergency services and for a good period it was dealing with our communications equipment supplier. They had discovered quite by happenstance that those lights put out enough interference to disrupt two way radio communications inside buildings equipped with them. I'm not a tinfoil hat kind of guy but I've got to think that kind of emissions is likely not good for you, or at least not worth the risk for the sake of saving a couple of bucks.

I've never seen one either - I hope that he grabbed it, I mean father's day is coming

1989-93 Olds 88/98 Toronado

Google Image says 1973 Chev Caprice, and others say 77-79 but in that ballpark

The last couple of days has been taken up with general tidying up and taking pictures of manuals and parts to list on Ebay. I'm making good head way at getting through the back log of parts that I've accumulated over the last few years. Today was a run to pick up a small lot from an online auction a little over an hour away. It came from a former school bus operator and was all International manuals and special service tools. Another small lot that will keep the doors open and pay for a few parts for the cars. And of course being a true Canadian, who can't refuse a deal on an old wooden toboggan? My wife may lay claim to that one for decorating next Christmas. Actually I'm hoping by buying that it guarantees that winter is over, not that we've had much winter so far this year and it's supposed to be 8 C (46f) and sunny on Sunday so just maybe the cars will get a little exercise next week!

They don't build'em like they used to...

Looks to me like 300 auctions on Ebay with a starting price right around the scrap price - knock down the weeds, take a bunch of pictures and let someone else do all the heavy lifting. That being said, I'm sure that I could sell my wife on the views from the property, the plywood floors might be a tougher sell than the cars outside.

Interesting, though I have no clue how I ended up with it, everything else we have is North American except the Nash Metropolitans

I didn't accomplish a whole lot yesterday. The downstairs shop was just too cold to work in. The outside temp was right around freezing but it takes a day or two for the inside to warm up down there as there's no heat. Today was much better and though pictures wouldn't do justice to the extra space that was made there's slowly more areas where you can comfortably walk through without feeling like you are going to run into something. Pizza anyone? A friend of mine had offered up a ton of boxes from his business over the last few years that I could use a free shipping supplies. (Those are actually boxes from computer motherboards turned inside out) It benefited him as he didn't have to deal with the hassle of recycling them and his shop was right across the street from my old office so I could stop by after work, load up and it was a win win. Turns out that I don't go through the volume of those boxes that I do of other sizes and I've got hundreds of spread around the downstairs shop. Not that the service manuals don't absorb moisture from the air but cardboard seems to have it's own special way of holding it. Long story short is after about 15 minutes that pile became this recycling bin worth and I've gotten back several cubic feet of space. I'll keep reducing the number that I have until it's a reasonable number to keep on hand. Getting rid of those boxes has given me the space to move all the empty wire baskets into one location instead of piled all over the place.

Careful, for the right price it could be yours with installation!

I have no idea where I got this seat from or what it fits. Any help is appreciated. Quite heavy cast hinges. Seat measures approximately 16 X 11 and 20 inches tall. Looking at the pictures I should have cleaned the cobwebs but it looks more authentic "barn find" this way.