Saturday, April 29, 2023

weirdos and wanna be's somehow always drive ex cop cars, or make over their SUV to look quasi military. Avoid these people.



inside an Aero Flite



https://www.facebook.com/vintagecampertrailers/posts/pfbid0KxzqftpJPuMqF5ehUjr22qvJjnBieWTnTZLF36CLzfJYbrp9emVKeymz2LB7Hz3wl

oh damn. That ruined Mike's day. I knew Mike, great guy, was the manager of the NAS Miramar Auto Shop, until retirement. Then he fixed up this 6 cyl Mustang and had a lot of fun at autocross events. I've had a ride in it, it was amazing


happened at Good Guys Del Mar. 

in better days:





cars look better on snow



I respect the ambition to emulate the Fast and Furious original, but a Prius?

that Supra

Fluffy, great guy, VW fan


this guy has 4 of these Fiat Allis dozers, powered by Cummings 1150s, with 22 ft blades, using 22 gallons an hour, weighs 96,000 pounds. 2 guys working side by side move a 44 ft wide path. These came from coal mines





100 years ago the Autocamping fad was in full effect as people had a simple, cheap, effective freedom machine to get them far from their home town


not a lot of photos, but a well informed talk about the 1920s car camping fad, good for a podcast listening to while you're busy at work

McDonald Ford of Freeland, MI just added this family heirloom to their dealership showroom

 



https://www.facebook.com/don.booth.50

https://www.facebook.com/don.booth.50/posts/pfbid02DUYpEqhu2soGq3zX3WmGcRGm9TJcN3hcRU88mFcmiXmzSVakm2cyo68gw7uoH5Csl

in a month or two, the radio episode of the WSGW show of Art Lewis might rebroadcast the Friday the 28th of April interview where the owner Tom McDonald, and the restorer, Don Booth, talk about this trucks history in podcast form, but the radio station seems to have an 8 week delay https://www.wsgw.com/shows/art-lewis-show

terrific mechanical window regulator... built to last a thousand years

 https://www.facebook.com/don.booth.50/posts/pfbid0386rzFCnx33KVcuaqRp7ymGrDQC2UakhaDm6dFNHGe7yrYn6tmW3qqkptNHQdd5fql

skip to the halfway point, turn down your speakers, enjoy the mechanical operation

upcoming new tv series based on a video game about marauding vehicles in a post apocalyptic world, Twisted Metal

Starring Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz as the enigmatic woman Quiet and Thomas Haden Church as psychotic highway patrolman Agent Stone. 

Will Arnett voices Sweet Tooth, while Joe Seanoa (a.k.a. wrestler Samoa Jone) performs the character physically. 

According to the official synopsis, Twisted Metal follows “a motor-mouthed outsider, John Doe, who is offered a life-changing opportunity, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland to complete his mission and survive the onslaught of killer cars.



I've never heard of this or the other video games from the 90s, so here's a video that mentions the other vehicles the tv show might have, from the game


The first season premieres July 27th and consists of ten episodes.

https://www.ign.com/articles/twisted-metal-poster-peacock-playstation-series

Friday, April 28, 2023

in the new Tom Hanks movie A Man Called Otto, his character has a Gerstner machinists took chest in the garage

to help the kid actors on Peter and Wendy believe in his character's meanness, Jude Law stayed in character the entire production (well done, not easy) but after the film wrapped, he got out of costume, and arrived on set driving an ice cream truck to make it up to them (and ditch the character in their eyes)

“David Lowery had the idea of really trying to encourage them not to see me when I wasn’t Hook,” Law said. “So I just stayed as Hook the whole time, which was an opportunity just to be really scary and mean. And, yeah, a lot of the reactions you see in the film are their reactions to me for the first time, or as the man himself, you know?”

Law recently told Collider about his version of Captain Hook: “I wanted him to be sad, I wanted him to be scarred and gnarly and disgusting and scary, and funny too. Like an overheate, angry dad or uncle who, from a kid’s perspective, is just really pathetic and loud.”

When filming wrapped and Law was ready to reveal his actual self to his young co-stars, he decided ice cream might ease the transition.

“They met Jude at the end,” Law said. “And I did what every adult should do to bribe children. I hired an ice cream van and I drove it on-site and gave out ice cream. Nothing like chocolate ice cream to persuade a child you’re alright.”

B 25 in need of assembly acquired by a museum in hopes of making it at least taxiable to draw in museum attendees



Santa Monica's police activities league, was a pedo playground, and the city learned that one of their employees was guilty, and covered it up. For decades.

The city out of court settlement now brings the total payout to nearly $230 million to 229 alleged victims over the past three years.

The pedo was a city employee dressed like a police officer and would recruit kids from the police department program.

“He had a badge. He had handcuffs,” recalls a victim  “I remember even seeing a pistol on the seat of his car.”

“Eric Uller would pick up kids after basketball games or baseball games and he would take them to go get food,” said Claypool. “The last child in the car, he would pull into an alley and molest that child. That was one of his MOs. He did this for over a decade. The city should never have allowed Uller to be picking up kids. He told many of the victims that if you want to participate in a sport, that you have to get a physical. A lot of these kids didn’t know what a physical was.”

Victims said Uller would drive then them to a medical office operated by his family.

“He would make them undress and he sodomized many of these kids in his dad’s medical office,” said Claypool.

Claypool claims city officials were made aware of the abuse as early as the 1990s, but nothing was done until 2018 when Uller was arrested and charged with numerous molestation counts.

“We want to know why the city never investigated when one of my clients looked at a police officer in the face and said, ‘Why are you letting Eric Uller do bad things to kids?’”

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/santa-monica-pays-122-million-to-victims-of-city-employee-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-children/ 

And that's the it is, as Walter Cronkite said at the end of the nightly news. 



a state prison so full of asshole prison guards assaulting the inmates with systemic, omnipresent violence, and retaliation that a federal court of appeals upheld the court order for them to wear body cams. Why? Knocking over inmates in wheelchairs, punching deaf inmates for not hearing... just two examples

The FBI found that one guard, and one inmate, had a smuggling business relationship. Not a struggling, no... a SMUGGLING business

A corrections officer at an Otay Mesa state prison smuggled contraband to an inmate, including a custom gold and diamond grill for the prisoner’s teeth, in exchange for thousands of dollars worth of bribes, according to a newly unsealed indictment.

Hugie used “his position as a corrections officer to work for the inmates inside the facility rather than the public,” Stacey Moy, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego-area field office, said in a statement. Also named in the indictment was the inmate, 26-year-old Shawn Brown, and two of his brothers, both Fresno residents.   

While investigating the alleged bribery, federal agents learned that same inmate, Shawn Brown, at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility also coordinated a fraud scheme targeting fraudulent COVID-19 unemployment benefits, totaling about $1.4 million and received more than $695,000 in cash payouts, according to prosecutors.

But all that was a side note to the assaults by prison guards on inmates in wheelchairs

Attorneys for the inmates with disabilities had asked the judge to issue an order mandating body cameras for correctional officers after documenting widespread physical abuse of the inmates, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

 "Body cameras have never been used in California prisons. This is a very important order to help put an end to physical abuse and broken bones of those with physical disabilities at this most dangerous of prisons," attorney Gay Grunfeld told The Times. Her law firm, along with the Prison Law Office, represents the plaintiffs.

Soon, another court case examines evidence of abuses across the state prison system and seeks to implement the use of body cameras across 35 prisons

54 declarations were filed with the court case, declaring officers are throwing people out of wheelchairs, punching deaf people when they cannot hear spoken orders, beating people with disabilities who request help carrying heavy packages, closing cell doors on people who use walkers and wheelchairs, and attacking suicidal people when they ask for mental health care. Broken bones, shattered teeth, bloodied faces, and concussions are routine. Those who complain about mistreatment become the officers’ next victims or are tagged with discipline for “resisting”—even when they have intellectual disabilities or are otherwise too fearful to dispute the charges.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”) has known of profound problems at RJD and other high-security prisons for years. In 2015, California’s Inspector General recommended installation of cameras to combat violence at High Desert State Prison. In 2016, Plaintiffs’ counsel began notifying CDCR of horrific allegations of misconduct at RJD. In 2018, CDCR’s own auditors and Plaintiffs’ counsel each wrote to CDCR regarding significant reports of abuse of people with disabilities.

CDCR sent a “strike team” to conduct more than one hundred interviews withincarcerated people on one yard at RJD. Investigators heard over and over again that officers were targeting people with disabilities with violence, hiring incarcerated people to assault other incarcerated people, retaliating against anyone who dared speak up, and engaging in “gang-like” activity.

Despite evidence of criminal assaults, not a single officer has been criminally charged


This country isn't any better than that. It's just as corrupt as this. Prisons, and police, are protected by the courts, and the only people committed to stopping the human rights crimes committed by those with badges, are their victims, and the family of the victims, and convicted felons in prison do not get interviewed by the press, do not contribute to the re-election campaigns in order to get dinners with mayors, governors, etc. You know, the people who run the prisons. 

And this is the same system that weekly has to acknowledge the innocent people that were fraudulently convicted, and kept in prison for decades.  

great aftermarket brake light accessory

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=802105331252101&set=pcb.10167411470980548 

interesting documentary about the recycling program at River Rouge Ford plant... I've never heard of before, to lower the cost of steel needed to build new cars, and reduce the used car market competition (WW1 Navy ships were recycled by Ford to make cars, whoa!)


one forgotten cotter pin.... that's all that caused this wreck

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10211496098116132&set=gm.10167413300265548&idorvanity=17532215547

Doolittle's B 25 raid, was thought up by a submariner.

Capt. Francis S. Low, a U.S. Navy submariner, suggested an attack against the heart of Japan using U.S. Army Air Forces medium bombers flown from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. 

The top secret plan called for the B-25s to take off about 450 miles from Japan, bomb selected targets at such locations as Yokohama and Tokyo, and then fly another 1,600 miles to friendly airfields in mainland China.

The operation was risky -- medium bombers had never been flown from a carrier, and sailing so far into enemy territory endangered the U.S. Navy task force.

The Chief of the Army Air Corps, Lt. Gen. Hap Arnold, selected Lt. Col. James Doolittle to lead Special Aviation Project No. 1, the bombing of Japan.


Yes, I'm a goofball who finds the craziest submarine related stuff to add to a car blog. And it works, because this crazy shit is real 



Thursday, April 27, 2023

I stumbled across an old style motorcycle blog, one that only posts single images, no discussion, no articles, and has a crazy wide variety







like so many of the early bloggers, https://motorparade.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2016-03-07T10:01:00%2B01:00&max-results=20&start=220&by-date=false started in 2010, and had a lot of heart, at first, but by year two was only posting 70%, then 50%, and a steady decline until after 7 years, they were about done, and in the last two years, had only one post each year. 

the movie Dazed and Confused, good movie, even better than I remembered it. It takes place in 1976, and the cars are very cool







one of the world’s largest tractor collections is the Museum for Tractor and Agricultural Machinery History in Israel

The museum, which most just call the Tractor Museum, houses 400 agricultural vehicles and tools, was started in 1991 when Israeli farmer Erez Milstein had to give up his nearby groves due to health problems.

 Missing his life in the fields, he bought and restored an old Porsche tractor.

 After that, Milstein was hooked, began collecting tractors, and met with other retired farmers.

Then, his friends, and later their friends, started to join in, eager to help revive the tractors. In 2003, the group became a non-profit. They received some government funding and got to work building the museum. Today, more than 60 volunteers—former garage owners, farmers, and mechanics—help to operate the Tractor Museum. Most are octogenarians, says Milstein. “The oldest is 87 years old and he will work here until the day he dies. The youngest is in the 11th grade.”

 “Agriculture in Israel is disappearing, along with the camaraderie,” says Milstein. “This country was strong due to its united communities, and today it’s torn and polarized. This tears me up inside, but then dozens of volunteers come from the north and south to the museum, filled with enthusiasm and joy of giving and working together. They give me hope.”


You can look at the photos of the tractors and items on their website

one significant and unusual tractor in the museum's collection is a Bucyrus TD9 bulldozer, a truly  astounding story accompanies it: 

"The Bucyrus TD9 bulldozer was one of the tractors rescued from a ship that sank in Manila during World War II.
It was purchased from the surplus of the American army, and it was decided to use it to fortify the settlements in the western Negev (Israel) after WW2
In 1947, the tractor worked on fortifications that proved very effective in holding off the Egyptian army for a number of critical days.
Apparently, the Bucyrus also participated in the marking out of the 1949 Armistice Line, commonly known as the Green Line, a fence marked by deep ditches along the divide between the State of Israel and her Arab neighbors.


a Norwegian shipping company has banned electric, hybrid, and hydrogen cars from its ferries. Since the “Felicity Ace” sank off the Azores, last February, it's been clear that moving electric cars and trucks by cargo ships is obviously a bad idea

After the sinking of the “Felicity Ace,” Greenpeace also warned against e-cars on ships: “In general, electronic components and especially electric vehicles pose a risk for every transport.”


Thank you Robert G! 

plans are in motion in New Zealand to scratch build a Texaco Doodlebug, Steve and Sue Keys who just finished the restoration of the Diamond T Texaco fuel tanker, learned a lot about the Doodlebug, and well, it's time for a new project!


They've found another Diamond T 614 chassis and a Hercules Diamond T six-cylinder engine of unknown size along with front and rear axles, 10-bolt Budd wheels, a transfer case, and other smaller components including side vents and instruments. 

The plan is to have Simon Tippins and Craig Garland of Creative Metal Works scratchbuild the body, they were the crew that did the bodywork on the Texaco fuel tanker

the Dagmar was built by a famous and very large pipe organ builder in Hagerstown, MD. The only two known to exist are in a museum near Hagerstown (home to the Mason Dixon Dragway)


I love the brass bumper and hubs... matching the trim with a nice accent, such an appealing look


this is a DRAWING of one... that's incredible artistry. So photo realistic




One Dagmar was customized into a "Trackless Train" by Harry McGee for MGM

looks like a 57 Bel Air with Avanti aerodynamic front fenders


https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2400482006792461&set=gm.974971030445390&idorvanity=226675368608297

someone's collection of speedometers and tach from the brass era is getting auctioned at Bonhams



these are only SOME of them... a wide variety for certain

the 7 sons of a 7th son


https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10223659323411329&set=a.1617402035143