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Jim Bollman

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Posts posted by Jim Bollman

  1. I never drove in a Demo Derby but was pit crew for a friend for two Summers at the county fair. I still think of the two very nice cars we destroyed. The first one a near mint 1950 Chrysler but in 1966 it was just an old car, we bought it from the original owner for $50. It got knocked out of it's first round but we got it running again for the final round which was for any car that could be made to run from earlier rounds. We got it going but the radiator had been pushed back into the fan, so we cut the fan belt and filled it with water and went for it. We won that heat and had to shut it off at the end. Later we tried to start it to pull it out of the way and the engine was seized.

     

    The next Summer we tried again and found a 58 Lincoln, not as nice as the Chrysler but pretty close. Got knocked out almost immediately even though we thought we had a winner with that massive car. As I recall the fuel pump was too close to the front of the engine and one of the first collisions broke the fuel pump loose. That second year I stepped in a hole in the infield and thought I had sprained my ankle. Walked on it all evening and drove home after the fair closed down. Was really swollen the next day, went to the emergency and had an X-ray and had a broken heal and ended up in a cast and crutches to go back to college a few weeks later. So ending my illustrious demo career.

    • Like 1
  2. Besides two large dry chemical extinguisher in my shop I have a large CO2 extinguisher that my Dad had in his shop when I worked in it 60 years ago. When I cleaned out his shop I couldn't believe it was still around. I didn't expect it to still be any good and cracked the valve and it is still charged. I keep it close by as a first one to grab since it will not make a mess.

     

    I looked at the Element when it first came out, may be time to look again for both shop and cars.

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  3. 20 hours ago, DLynskey said:

    I had a 1978 Ford Fiesta {the German one}. I asked my mechanic if he worked on a Fiesta. He said "I'll work on anything but a Le Car. You've got to draw a line somewhere".

     

    Don

    Only Le Car I have seen in a long time. It is local. Picture was taken before the leaves came out, all I could see today when I went by was the front foot of so. I think it is beyond saving even if someone wanted too.

     

    LeCar.jpeg

  4. We went half dozen times leading up to 2012 when Crosley was the Feature Make then life seem to get in the way after that and haven't been back since. We always went for all 3 days of the show and enjoyed all 3 variations. In the short time we went we could see the direction the flea market was going.

     

    One story to share since the member has long pasted, back in 80s or 90s several of our local region went every year and talked about how great the show and flea Markey was and how hot it was. They use to take their class C camper and one year the fellow, not a small guy, couldn't take the heat anymore and went back to the camper, not sure if they had a flea space or they were in the parking area but he put the AC on high striped to his skivvies and crawled into the upper bunk. After rolling around awhile he fell a sleep with his butt up against the front window and his undies had work part way down and he was mooning anyone that walked by. He took kidding about the floor show for years after. They gave him a special award that year at our yearend banquet.

    • Haha 1
  5. I'll try and get the thread back on track. I haven't used it for a few years but I use to keep a tube of "Seal All" in my car tool bag and another tube in my shop at all times. I fixed rusty leaking gas lines, gas tanks, even a gray water tank in a borrowed camper. The only quick failure was a patch on my then young son's wading pool, too much flexing. Great stuff, you can even stop small active leaks with a couple of applications. A bandaid, yes but it does last a long time and if you forget to fix it right or it is too expensive, just patch it again. Most of my fixes last multiple years, some till I got rid of the vehicle.

    61eYqu+hdcL._AC_SL1000_.jpg

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  6. On my 3rd shop and I clean up spills but figure the stains give it character. Second shop the mason recommended a sealer to be put on soon after it dried, which I did, not sure if it did anything but it was clear and didn't stop stains.

     

    PS: if you really want nice floor and willing to spend the money look into Terrazzo flooring. Two friends put it on their shop floors. Looked great and as far as I know it has held up well. Not cheap.

  7. I also like old trucks, I have had a few over the years. Currently have 3, a 1951 Crosley FarmOroad Pickup, 1947 Crosley Pickup and a 1950 Ford F1 stake bed.  The 51 and 50 tend to get put to work from time to time. The 47 is being worked on to make it road worthy, currently fighting with the mechanical brakes. Crosley didn't give up on mechanical brakes till  early 49. I may cover it to hydraulics.

     

    image.jpeg.770673b25162bcb447c9ec8d11e6d517.jpeg

    FarmOroad setup with 16gal water tank to water 7 new trees that we planted this Spring. I also have a weed sprayer that I mount on the back to spray the Kudzu a couple of times a year.

    image.jpeg.5d7f5ec8dd852b3a7204cfcdfa52b0cc.jpeg

    Here is the 47, I plan to leave it cosmetically pretty much as it sits, but make it safe to drive. Historic plate is attached with magnets.

    image.jpeg.a732ab1572a19f799582ba8a3090f405.jpeg

    50 bring home a load of mulch and fancy stone for the flower beds this Spring.

     

    Two of my favorite that I let go down the road was a 58 Willys FC170 and a 66 Ranchero, but there were a few others.

    • Like 9
  8. Most of the sheet metal block (CoBra) blocks have been replaced by now. The factory offered an upgrade kit for around $50 back in the day. The car that is being sold appears to have the cast iron block engine. By the time the CoBra was discontinued it had most of the bugs worked out but the reputation had been shot by then. Warping wasn't really a problem unless they were way over heated. With sheetmetal the cooling of the combustion chamber was much better than cast iron. An auto shop teacher I knew back in the 70s took a rebuilt CoBra engine in and put it on the new pollution testing equipment they were using to teach in his class. It actually passed all the pollution tests for that time in the 70s, I. think it was around 75-76 time frame.

     

    Here is probably more than most will want to know https://crosleyautoclub.com/Mighty_Tin.html

     

  9. I have a around a dozen searches I do most every day. I have carefully crafted them to eliminate as much junk as possible and have missed a few things, but it only takes a few minutes to do all the searches. Since I do it daily I only look at new listings. You can exclude common things that may mess up your search by adding the item with a minus in front, for instance my Crosley search has -baseball -replica added because I don't care about Crosley field or replica anything in that particular search, actually it has about 20 things with a "-" to trim the results. I also exclude sellers that constantly mess up the search with their keyword bating, like mag wheels that they list every car they can think of as compatible. If you know the items you're looking for are in a certain range of prices use that filter to get rid of things you wouldn't buy anyway and all the stuff too cheap to be what you're looking for. You can also use the restriction of North American or US only.

     

    Besides the obvious problems that have already been covered I wish eBay would take complaints serious. I have reported a few sellers for improper use of keywords or even putting thousands of keywords in colored text the same color as the background so they don't show unless you highlight them. eBay has yet to pull any of the sellers I have complained about so I don't complain anymore which is probably what they want.

  10. My wife made my flea market bag. Not exactly a newsboy bag but I like it better. Find a discarded pair of jeans of an appropriate waist size. Stitch across just above the crouch after cutting off the legs. Make a carry strap the right length from material from one of the leg, double it so it is two layers thick and attach to the new bag. You now have a bag with 4 pockets, I carry a water bottle in one and a snack in another. My wife added a one sided pocket on the inside over the fly that can be accessed from inside the bag or by opening the zipper for an extra pocket for stuff you want to carry all the time like a tape measure, screw driver. multitool, etc. My wife put  a snap on the inside to keep the fly pocket closed. She also added some short loop handles to the top of the bag for when I have heavy things in the bag and want to take pressure off my shoulder, also made from left over leg material. Add whatever car and club patches you want to the bag.

  11. Caswell was local to where I use to live and they came to our regions meeting back about 30+ years ago and did a demo. They made it look very easy. I was serious considering setting up an area of my shop to do a couple of the simpler plating processes. With time I decided against it. Glad to see they are still in business. 

  12. I have had a few cars that didn't live up to my expectations but I liked them well enough to keep them till they were worn out. The one exception was a 1981 AMC Eagle Wagon. I really liked the car accept a rear axle broke twice while my wife was driving, right at the end so that the. wheel fell off. The first time she was just stoping for a stop sign. I replaced both rear axles thinking it must have been a defect and didn't want the other one to break. Less than a year later a second axle broke as my wife was backing out of the drive. I put the good axle from the first swap and traded it way before I planned. This was when AMC was still in business and I contact them after the first axle and they said it was the first time they heard of it. My wife worked in the ER and one of the Deputy Sheriffs that stopped in for coffee on a regular bases got to talking to her and he had the same thing happen on his Eagle. A friend that ran a garage new of the problem and after I got rid of the Eagle showed me a manual he had that they changed the design of the axle a year or so later and put a taper where both axles broke. So I guess it was worse because instead of the usual 5-10 years I usually kept a car t was more like 2. Just would not take a chance of it breaking at highway speeds.

  13. A couple of parts vulture stories.

     

    This was probably 70s soon after the red field opened beyond the original field. A fellow had a tarp that took up most of a spot with a heaping pile of $1 maybe 50 cents back then. On Saturday afternoon they got in their truck and left the whole pile tarp and all, talk about a free for all.

     

    Some years later probably mid to late 80s we were getting things packed up on Sunday morning (yes we use to stay till Sunday). Our son was in the 10-13 year old range and like to scrounge the piles to see if he could find anything interesting. He comes back pulling his wagon full of plastic bread trays. I asked him where he got them and he said there was big pile where one of the food vendors had been setup. I told them they were not abandon just not picked up and to return them to where he found them. He thought he had found a gold mine for parts storage for me.

    • Like 2
  14. My old trucks don't get used for there original purpose very often but today I took my F1 to a church meeting then picked up 20 bags of mulch and 8 bags of river stone to freshen up the flower beds. Always makes a hit at Lowe’s when I use an old truck for what it is suppose to be used for. Young guy that loaded it for me was concerned he was over loading it. I told him it wasn’t possible to over load it with what he was putting on it. The mulch got the springs down to where they were still an inch from touching the over load springs. The 8 bags of stone brought it down to just touching the overloads. I then drove over and did early voting, it was an even bigger hit there. Must have been a couple of dozen candidates and their supports hanging around just outside the limit waving signs. All giving me thumbs up. Several talked to me in the parking lot and said I was their favorite voter transportation and told stories about their Father/Grandfather’s trucks. Parked it under the carport when I got home, I’ll unload tomorrow.

    50F1-Loaded 4-20-22.jpeg

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  15. I would have to dig back through 35mm slides to check and that would be a long search but I seem to remember one in the Harrah's museum before it was mostly sold off. I have the auction booklets somewhere but those would be almost as hard to dig out as the slide.

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