Saturday, July 10, 2021
it's been a rare good blogging day, lots posted, lots of variety
it's been a long time since I've had a full day to blog and enjoy it, and then be satisfied with the results. But today's surfing the web resulted in a charity the Rolls Royce did for a kids hospital, a Bentley, humor, a dad's 32 Ford truck surprise restoration, barn finds, a B24, a 70s Fury still in use, Monster truck doing incredible ballet, and the other stuff I've already forgot
The days are getting shorter, there's never enough time to relax and enjoy the blogging anymore.
But yesterday I got the shop that did shit work on my 69 R/T served with a subpoena, and that's one more step out of the way on the path to small claims court to get some well deserved justice for what was done to my car.
Looking forward to getting to the end of this, so I can leave a Yelp review with a court case number, because there is no refuting a loss in court, where your speed shop gets smacked down by a judge with the results of the California Bureau of or Automotive Repair investigation
So, I was in a great mood today.
the ‘Lady be Good,’ a B24 that rested in a Libyan desert for 15 years before being discovered after crash landing in 1943. Thanks Bob K!
the Lady Be Good disappeared without a trace on its first combat mission during World War II. The plane, which was from 376th Bomb Group, disappeared in Libya following a bombing raid on Naples on April 4, 1943.
The wreck was accidentally discovered 440 mi inland in the Libyan Desert by an oil exploration team from British Petroleum on November 9, 1958.
Investigations concluded that the first-time (all new) crew failed to realize they had overflown their air base in a sandstorm. After continuing to fly south into the desert for many hours, the crew bailed out when the plane's fuel ran out. The survivors then died in the desert trying to walk to safety.
All but one of the crew's remains were recovered between February and August 1960. The wreckage of the Lady Be Good was taken to a Libyan Air Force base after being removed from the crash site in August 1994.
History cannot forget these guys.
The full crew included, left to right in the picture, 1Lt. W.J. Hatton, pilot; 2Lt. R.F. Toner, copilot; 2Lt. D.P. Hays, navigator; 2Lt. J.S. Woravka, bombardier; TSgt. H.J. Ripslinger, engineer; TSgt. R.E. LaMotte, radio operator; SSgt. G.E. Shelly, gunner; SSgt. V.L. Moore, gunner; and SSgt. S.E. Adams, gunner.
Have you seen what this driver has perfected in this monster truck, with TWO ramps? Until I get that video link, here he is with only one... trust me, you want to see the ballet he can do with two
this is what the other video looks like. Until I can look around, and learn the "name" of the truck and driver, I won't likely find that video embed code, but you CAN see it at https://www.dumpert.nl/item/100002962_2154abfb OR in this compilation at 8:47
in the family for 84 years, 50 of those were in a carport disassembled with the parts in the basement, but Harry Lubyk's sons got around to restoring their dad's 32 model B Ford truck, that he first rode in the back of when he was 6. That was 1942
Jim Franks, Harry’s mother’s brother, bought the four-year-old 1932 Ford pickup truck from a teacher in 1936, the year Harry was born.
Uncle Jim had stake sides on the truck that he used to haul pigs and cattle over 23 miles of dirt and gravel roads to the slaughterhouse in Prince Albert. “I remember riding in the truck in 1942 when I was six years old,” Harry says.
Uncle Jim was struck by lightning in 1958 and never drove again. The truck sat in a garage on the Saskatchewan farm with 1959 license plates on it until Harry bought it for $1,000 a decade later.
Harry had left his family’s farm at the age of 17 and would be around cars for all his working life. He hauled new cars between Windsor, Ontario and Vancouver for 15 years as an owner-operator, then sold cars for at a Vancouver Chevrolet dealership for 25 years.
Harry trailered Uncle Jim’s 1932 Ford pickup truck back to Vancouver in 1969 and, after cleaning the gas tank and other work, got it running.
Harry’s son Kirk took the truck apart in 1975 with the intention of restoring it. That got sidetracked and the truck body sat in a carport with the parts stored in the basement for nearly 50 years.
But Kirk recently took the truck in pieces home to Kelowna in 2018 to give it a complete restoration with help from high school friend and fellow mechanic Wayne Hatcher.
When the restoration was done, Kirk and Ken conspired to arrange for their father to visit Kirk in Kelowna. The ‘big reveal’ occurred when the restored truck pulled up in front of the house. It was a complete surprise to Harry who didn’t think he would ever see the truck again. It was restored to better-than-new condition.
https://driving.ca/column/collector-classics/collector-classics-1932-ford-model-b-pickup
don't get married, and keep your prized cars safely away from the people that get murderously angry at you, like, this wife on a mission to destroy her husband's Porsche 918 and Ferrari
don't get married, as 1/2 of all marriages end in divorce, which means the spouse wanting to regard you as a source of income, for "spousal support", child support, alimony, and whatever else they don't work for but their lawyers figure out a way to convince a judge YOU must pay them.
Plus, most people (guys) getting divorced, get screwed out of the stuff they own, like cars, house, savings account.
So, be like Oprah, never going to marry Steadman, never going to get divorced and find out what it costs from her fortune to pay him to live in the "manner he is used to" https://www.rosen.com/alimony/afaqs/what-is-alimony/
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/terrible-wife-slams-into-husbands-gtc4lusso-and-918-spider-with-bmw-after-fight-164993.html#
My guess is that the rich guy with these luxury cars has a young wife issue, and divorces them after a couple years. Then he gets another one. As there is a limited number of wealthy guys looking to get married, they happily take the offer, until the realize the lifestyle was a limited time offer.
St Richard’s Hospital Pediatric Day Surgery Unit in Chichester, West Sussex was given a handmade all-electric Rolls Royce in 2017, so children requiring surgery can drive themselves to the operating room, rather than be wheeled in on a gurney.
The hospital originally used a battery-powered plastic Jeep, but when it broke, staff asked Rolls-Royce if it could perform the repair. Rather than fix the Jeep, the British automaker built a new toy car.
A team created the body shell with carbon-fibre-reinforced fibreglass and painted it with a two-tone finish as they would a real Rolls. The handmade seat is medical-grade vinyl over wood, hot-welded without seams so it could be disinfected, and a custom aluminum foot well lifts out for cleaning. The company also made a laser-etched Rolls Royce badge, 3D-printed dash and wheel caps, and a miniature Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament. The project took about 400 hours to make, with the team donating their time.
Rolls-Royce said the restoration was necessary due to the car’s “singular working conditions,” and that it is “unaware of any other Rolls-Royce being routinely driven along corridors by unlicensed children in a state of nervous excitement.”
It is the smallest Rolls, and the 1st electric Rolls
Friday, July 09, 2021
this C54 Skymaster resulted from a War Bond Drive undertaken in Feb 1945 by Maine Township High School who accepted the challenge to raise funds in two weeks, they raised a total in excess of $551,000, far more than was needed. High school senior JoAnne Seabury sold the most war bonds -- $50,250 -- to 65 people, according to a 1945 newspaper clipping
The dedication ceremony was carried out at the nearby Douglas Aircraft plant and was attended by the entire school. The silver Skymaster was emblazoned with the slogan "Faster and higher - that's Maine's Flyer" together with the title of the school.
But what ever happened to the Maine Flyer? Firefighter Len Johnson, a treasurer of the Park Ridge Historical Society in 2008, started to try to find out.
Douglas built the first Skymasters in Santa Monica, CA, then opened a second plant here on the edge southern Des Plaines, where it built 655 of the 1,170 Skymasters, but shut down when the war ended.
Skymasters included the first Air Force 1, used by President Franklin Roosevelt. After the war ended they were used in the Berlin Air Lift.
The Maine Flyer had flown troops for the Navy and later was assigned to the Air Force, which finally retired it in March 1971.
It was sold by auction to a company that resold it to Brooks Fuel, which planned to use them to deliver fuel to remote towns in Alaska, but paused when they were landed in a private airfield near Chandler, AZ, this was part of the Papago Indian Reservation, but when it became the Pima Reservation in 2008, the tribe confiscated them and for unknown reasons, it took 10 years to get permission from the tribal leaders to just lay hands on the planes, and see how the Maine Flyer was weathering the years.
It turns out, the airfield had been off limits, to the restoration minded, but in use as a drug smuggling cartel.
Eventually, Johnson retrieved a cockpit window and door, a pilot seat and the controls to set up in the Park Ridge History Center on N. Prospect Avenue to commemorate the history of Douglas Aircraft and a cargo plane built there, specifically the “Maine Flyer”
https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/len-johnsons-quest-finds-maines-flyer-memorabilia/
there has been a strong bond between the USA and France for a couple hundred years, and in 1971, France gifted a B17 to the USA, the Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby came home for a restoration, and to have the nose art painted back on by the original artist, Tony Starcer
Above in 1944,
Below, in 1979
In 1955, the Babb Company of New York purchased “Shoo Shoo Baby” and resold her [for profit] to the Institute Geographique National in Paris, France. She flew as a survey aircraft until 15 July 1961. As a friendship gesture the French gave the B-17 to the U.S. Air Force in 1971. She was disassembled, crated, and flown to Ohio in a C-5 transport, arriving in May 1972. From June 1972 until July 1978 she remained in 27 crates at the Air Force Museum at Dayton. In 1979, the 512th MAW at Dover, Air Force Base began the task of restoring the B-17G to her WWII condition.
https://forgottenhobby.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/decals-will-have-to-wait-update/
Thursday, July 08, 2021
a lot of stolen cars are hidden by dumping them in lakes, ponds, and rivers..... but sometimes, stolen vehicles are located in a chop shop, and a tip led the cops to find one yard with (I kid you not) 61 stolen vehicles..... BUT WAIT! There's more! The defendants sued in court that they were innocent! And framed! And claim law enforcement planted five stolen firearms on the property!
back in 2017 Jerry Lee Craig was busted when 66 years old, and 50 year old Bradley Craig was busted, for stolen mowers. $44,000 worth.
Both lived on Morrell Creek Road, both busted for stolen lawn mowers.
But Bradley Craig was also found in possession of the following list of stolen vehicles in addition to the 6 mowers:
5 cars
25 trucks
12 motorcycles
1 camper
4 trailers
4 boats
1 ATV
10 golf carts
and 3 tractors
Tennessee, Sullivan County, Sheriffs dept filed the following charges on May 5th 2021:
Bradley Craig, 50, 218 Morrell Creek Road, Bluff City, unlawful carrying or possession of a weapon (nine counts); theft of property (two counts); theft of property; theft of property (37 counts); theft of property (22 counts); theft of property; theft of property; own, operate or conduct a chop shop.
https://www.timesnews.net/news/business/fyi/article_fe4ab388-de7c-11eb-84ef-d7ad0bade221.html
https://swvatoday.com/news/article_2f7da9c8-0d9a-5f8e-8cc2-23d05de1ff45.html
HERE's the countersuit!
Over the course of a week in late April and early May 2017, law enforcement conducted searches of the Craigs’ business and residences, seizing more than $1 million in vehicles and equipment including multiple cars, trucks and tractors, motorcycles, a boat and trailer, golf carts, personal watercraft, various tools, paint sprayers and plasma cutters.
Here's the tricky part about the report of six stolen John Deere lawnmowers from Meade Tractor in Abingdon on April 22 of 2017.
Sheriff Fred Newman said at the time the zero-turn mowers (valued at $44,000) were taken out of a fenced lot, loaded onto a covered trailer and driven from the scene. According to the lawsuit, the vehicles used in the theft were a black Chevy Tahoe and a large, white box trailer — neither of which the Craigs own.
The day after the theft, Jerry Craig claims he purchased six John Deere Lawnmowers for $6,000 from a Daniel Helton (whom he met at a flea market in Abingdon earlier in the month). Shortly thereafter, Helton passed away, the lawsuit states.
On April 24, Meade Tractor reported the lawnmowers stolen.
So the Craig family lawsuit makes 27 claims against the (law enforcement) defendants including unreasonable search and seizure, warrantless aerial surveillance, misstatement of facts, seizing items not specified in search warrants, seizure of property without due process, false imprisonment and negligence.
The Craigs are seeking $150 million in compensatory damages and $350 million in punitive damages in a $500 million federal lawsuit against three local law enforcement agencies claiming they conducted illegal surveillance and searches of their property, lied in court affidavits and seized their property without due process, as of April 2018
A tribute to an iconic act of defiance from the Croatian War of Independence involving a small car that Branko Breskic defiantly parked in the path of the tanks
On June 27, 1991, T-55 tanks from the Yugoslav People’s Army rolled through Osijek, a city that would later suffer heavy damage from the war, in a forceful demonstration of power.
A resident of the city decided to protest the incoming forces. He parked his red Fiat (also called a Fićo) on the street in front of the approaching tanks, blocking the road as an act of defiance. The man calmly exited the Fiat seconds before the tank leading the horde of military vehicles rammed into the car and dragged it along the street before crushing it.
The event was captured on film and was shown on the news. It was interpreted as a symbol of aggression from the Yugoslav Army and came to symbolize the resolution of the Croatian people.On the day of the event, 20 years later, a monument was unveiled to commemorate the act. A red Fiat can be seen climbing a T-55 tank, symbolizing resistance, and in the end, victory, in the war for independence.
Wednesday, July 07, 2021
I've never seen the original paintjob of the Nine O Nine until now, and it's the only airplane I've seen painted which appears to look like it's made of planks lumber!
https://aiiaiiiyo.com/post/656098717976428544/ground-crew-of-the-91st-bomb-group-paint-the-nose
was originally in the National Geographic Jan 1948 Issue Page 97.
"The original "Nine-O-Nine" was assigned to combat on February 25, 1944. By April 1945, she had made eighteen trips to Berlin, dropped 562,000 pounds of bombs, and flown 1,129 hours. She had twenty-one engine changes, four wing panel changes, fifteen main gas tank changes, and 18 Tokyo tank changes (long-range fuel tanks). She also suffered from considerable flak damage.
After European hostilities ceased, "Nine-O-Nine", with its six-hundred patched holes, flew back to the United States
https://www.flickr.com/photos/konabish/14591571415
what do you make of these kids pumping up tires... think they let the air out of them, and are getting to work off some penance?
those tires didn't go flat by magic, and being a young kid once myself, I think they might have been involved in a prank
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