surprising things in the Jesada Technik Museum in Nakhonphathom, Thailand

Looks like a coal burning conversion, I've never seen one before, but I have seen a wood burning truck conversion for the cold climates of Russia

I believe the above is a Tempo Matador

I recall posting about the above 2 wheel drive bike before, it is a Rokon, the rims are hollow gas tanks, the Rokon website is http://rokon.com/about/index.htm
and a good post about the Rokon is at http://www.thepetrolstop.com/2012/07/rokon-trail-breaker.html#more

Ugly nose, but cool trailer

Not sure if this is a Tempo Matador, but it looks like one that has had the hand made wooden door and bed treatment

looks like one of the cargo planes from the 1950's like they flew in the movie "Air America"

See a couple of galleries of all the bikes, scooters, and cars at the Jesada on the http://6nicestpeople9.blogspot.com/ and a new post http://6nicestpeople9.blogspot.jp/2012/04/thai-report-part_20.html of the trains and more on the aircraft. 

Stolen car alert, be on the lookout for a '57 black Tbird license plate ZCT 696 (California plate black background, yellow letters)

From, http://scootermcrad.blogspot.com/2010/10/urgent-57-t-bird-stolen-in-hollywood.html

(Tuesday, 10/5/10) Chris Casny's black 1957 t-bird was stolen in the Hollywood Hills area. If you have any information or any connections to help Chris and his wife out, please contact scootermcrad@yahoo.com will get the message to him or will get you his direct contact info.

FYI, if you want to help spread the word on stolen cars, just email me ( jbohjkl@yahoo.com ) about the car with at leat 2 photos, one from the front, one from the back... just like the above two photos, and I will post an "Stolen car, be on the lookout for" immediately.

I have 175 other websites that are "Followers" and anything I post immediately shows up on their blogs as the most recent thing I've posted, along with a photo in most cases... and I am positive that no one minds if I use that little space to help out anyone whose car has been stolen.

Chuck Yeager, american hero... drove a hot rod!

The first pilot ever to fly faster than the speed of sound, but that is only one of the remarkable feats this pilot performed in service to his country.

Shot down over enemy territory only one day after his first kill in 1943, Yeager evaded capture, and with the aid of the French resistance, made his way across the Pyrenees to neutral Spain. In all, he flew 64 combat missions in World War II.

On one occasion he shot down a German jet from a prop plane. By war's end he had downed 13 enemy aircraft, five in a single day.

Yeager commanded the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilots School to train pilots for the space program. In this capacity, Yeager supervised development of the space simulator and the introduction of advanced computers to Air Force pilots. Although Yeager himself was passed over for service in space, nearly half of the astronauts who served in the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo programs were graduates of Yeager's school.

In 1968, Yeager was promoted to brigadier general. He is one of a very few who have risen from enlisted man to general in the Air Force
Biography info editted from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/yea0bio-1

via: http://speedseekers.blogspot.com/ where there is always something cool and unusual going on

Last post of the day, a couple interesting photos from Le Container blogspot, things I wish I had one of

Some designer was smoking something and staring at manta rays too long befgor ehe drew up this thing. I still want it.

Looks like another fun thing at the Burning Man

Both photos from http://lecontainer.blogspot.com/

Things left in rental cars and found by the clean up crew after the vehicle was dropped off at the rental car place

3 million cash... drug deal that was interrupted by cops who then confiscated the vehicle, but didn't throroughly search for evidence

an Uzi... Secret Service sorta dropped it and didn't notice it, rental car company called them up to let them know they'd "misplaced" somehting important

a kilo of cocaine... DEA rented a vehicle to transport a large haul of confiscated coke... and "misplaced AKA lost" one kilo. Under a bench seat, somethign like that, who knows.

I went to a couple other rental car places, and they enjoyed hearing the stories, but wouldn't share any of their own unless the corporate office gave the OK ... seems everyone is on a gag order, no telling any stories because of lawyers and "confidentiality" legal mumbo jumbo.

If any of you want to share stories like these, I don't print names, dates, locations, or companies... so use the comment thing, or email me and I'll add them to this list. jbohjkl@yahoo.com

Skate boarders have invented something new, tarp surfing

via: http://lecontainer.blogspot.com/2010/07/coolantony.html

Gina asked me to help locate a Studebaker for her wedding day to drive from the church to the reception... I was able to help!

Back in March I found the following email:

I'm getting married this coming October in San Diego. I'm looking for a Studebaker to ride in on my special day.

My grandfather was an automotive engineer with Studebaker back in Indiana in the 40's and 50's. Since he is no longer here with us, I was hoping to have a Studebaker on my special day (instead of any kind of limo) to pick up my new husband and I up from the church and take us to the reception, as a tribute to my grandfather.

I looked on the website for the local Studebaker club. But when I looked at the member's cars I don't see any car with a back seat, so I don't think anything would work for us.

By any chance, do you know of anyone in the San Diego are that has a Studebaker (with a back seat), that may be up for chauffeuring a couple, for a short time, on their wedding day?

I know this is a long shot, but just thought I would try.

I responded with links to the SD Studebaker Club http://studebakersandiego.com/ and some other places to try... and Brian, the Pres of the Stude club was great ( I already knew he was! ) and was able to spread the word about Gina's quest, and put an owner of a '46 President in contact with Gina.



From Gina;

Thanks to Brian Bennion (great guy) of the SD Studebaker club for finding a perfect Studebaker, Sean-Colin Fort for offering his 1940 President Studebaker and being the driver and to David Hepburn of YourDayVideo.com for taking the awesome picture! :)

Thank you SO much for helping us! We really really appreciate it! :) It was a dream come true to ride in a Studebaker on our wedding day! Turns out the car used to be owned by someone in the Studebaker family and Sean-Colin's parents even used the car as their get-away car for their wedding.

Best wishes to you!
Gina :)

Pin up photographer that isn't part of the Kustom Kulture scene

from http://www.irinadavis.com/

Penetrating Oils Compared

Machinist's Workshop magazine is reported to have tested penetrants for break
out torque on rusted nuts. (I'm waiting for vevrification)

Significant results! They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.

Penetrating oil ..... Average load

None ..................... 516 pounds
WD-40 .................. 238 pounds
PB Blaster ..............214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ...... 127 pounds
Kano Kroil ............ 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix... 53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone.

Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this one particular test. A local machinist group mixed up a batch and all now use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.

Rocket Chemical Company and its staff of three set out to create a line of rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for use in the aerospace industry.

Working in a small lab in San Diego, California, it took them 40 attempts to get the water displacing formula worked out. But they must have been really good, because the original secret formula for WD-40® -which stands for Water Displacement perfected on the 40th try—is still in use today.

https://www.wd40.com/cool-stuff/history

Tron Legacy artwork, by artist Daniel Simon

Found on http://lecontainer.blogspot.com/ but for a full gallery see: http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2010/09/29/amazing-new-high-resolution-tron-legacy-concept-art/ or go straight to the source http://www.danielsimon.net/portfolio/portfolio.html

posted for Will... this will just drive him crazy to know this woman is out there somewhere

from http://lecontainer.blogspot.com

VoodooTimm's blog just starts strong and stays on the gas

check out the wide variety... not everything is NSFW, or car related http://voodootimm.tumblr.com/

Iskenderian Racing Cams hot rod

from http://mentallydefectiveandborntolate.tumblr.com/

Halloween is arriving fast, Ed Roth had a costume for you

Found on http://mentallydefectiveandborntolate.tumblr.com/ which shut down around 2015

Fangio (5 time world champ) racing Brabham (3 time champ) in a 4 lap demonstration, and Fangio was driving the legendary W196 Mercedes!

from http://thechicaneblog.com/

Lance Reventlow and his Scarab

from http://thechicaneblog.com/ for a gallery of the race car transporter and a couple of Reventlow's race cars: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/lance-reventlow-scarab-race-cars-and.html

A galley of photos of the Blitzen Benz

Above 3 images from http://goawaygarage.blogspot.com/
the engine was a 12.5 liter, 763 cu in
Eddie Rickenbacker... you may recall who he was, WW1 flying ace awarded the Medal of Honor in the 94th Aero Squadron, head of Eastern Airlines, owner of the Indy 500 racetrack, race car driver, and set a speed record in the Blitzen Benz of 134 mph... with a chain drive I want to point out. http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/07/eddie-rickenbacker.html for a full biography of a remarkable icon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker
Barney Oldfield at Ormond Beach in 1910... Barney was the first to drive a car at 60 mph, and in 1910 he broke all existing speed records for the mile, two miles, and the kilometer in special runs at Ormond Beach, Fla. in the Blitzen Benz
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/02/barney-oldfield-american-icon-record.html

Photos are mostly from http://thechicaneblog.com/2010/07/26/art-appreciation-blitzen-benz/

one astonishing comment on the Chicane blog is " as some poor guy found out on the Pendine Sands of Wales, chain drive has a structural limit. Pass that limit and the chains decapitate you when they break."

Beach racing might have died with the whimper of 1909 except for Barney Oldfield. He was the most famous race driver in America. The Stanley Steamer’s 127 mph in 1906 remained the fastest any automobile had thus far traveled, and Oldfield wanted to set a new speed record and so bought the Blitzen Benz.
Scarcely had it been announced there would be no beach racing in 1910 than the statement was retracted and the Speed Carnival was reinstated in March “chiefly to give Barney Oldfield an opportunity to attack world’s straightaway records.”

Oldfield’s name was sufficient to ensure the success of the carnival (and draw a big crowd with lots of money) but to spice the proceedings, competing cars were encouraged to enter.
Oldfield put on a spectacular show and set a speed record of 131.724 mph. “As near to the absolute limit of speed as humanity will ever travel,” said Barney loftily. The Florida Times-Union declared that only a bullet had traveled faster, making a superb advertising line for the Benz importer in New York.
Kaiser Wilhelm II cabled congratulations from Germany.

Thereafter Oldfield barnstormed the nation with the Benz, until that fall, when he engineered a match race against the heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson—a fine gimmick but illegal because Johnson was not an accredited race driver. Suspended by the AAA for a year, Oldfield raced in Mexico for a while, then sold the Benz to his manager, Ernie Moross, announced his retirement, and opened a saloon in Los Angeles.

To Oldfield’s considerable chagrin, Moross returned the Benz to the beach at Daytona in April 1911. His driver was Bob Burman, and there were no challengers to the car this time, but still, a large crowd gathered along the measured mile to watch Burman try for a new record.

“‘Here he comes—there he goes!’ summed up the story of the ride in a nutshell,” reported The Horseless Age after the run. Burman’s speed was 141.732 mph—a full ten miles an hour faster than Oldfield’s. Barney had typically held back during his Benz run so he could promote another “go-for-the-record” exhibition. Needless to say, Oldfield was furious and came out of retirement to seek vengeance. But the “fastest speed at which man has ever traveled over the earth’s surface” belonged to Burman for eight years. So phenomenal was 141-plus mph that automobile makers throughout the world were loath to consider building a car to attempt to top it.
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1987/7/1987_7_92.shtml

read another story about it at http://www.dogfightmag.com/2011/04/the-blitzen-benz-remembered/#more-2060

Columbia Icefield Snowmobile tours old tour bus... it's been replaced by modern busses riding on monster truck tires

I believe this is located on the boundary of Banff and Jasper http://www.explorerockies.com/

top photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/7552808@N04/3501308421/ the bottom photo is one I posted last year

Harley models by letter designation, correlated to year and type

Model Years Description
D........... 1929 - 1931 45" SV
DL ........1929 - 1931 High Compression 45" SV
DLD..... 1929 - 1931 High Speed 45" SV
E ...........1936 - 1950 Medium Compression 61" OHV
EL .........1936 - 1952 High Compression 61" OHV
F ...........1941 - 1950 Medium Compression 74" OHV
FL......... 1941 - 1965 High Compression 74" OHV
FLE ......1955 - 1965 Special cam police 74" OHV
FLH..... 1955 - 1965 High Compression Sport 74" OHV
G ...........1937 - 1963 Servi-Car with tow bar
GA ........1937 - 1963 Servi-Car without tow bar
GD ........1937 - 1941 Large body Servi-Car without tow bar
GDT...... 1937 - 1941 Large body Servi-Car with tow bar
R ...........1932 - 1936 Low Compression 45" SV
RS......... 1932 - 1936 45" SV with Side Car
RL......... 1932 - 1936 High Compression 45" SV
RLD ......1932 - 1934 High Speed 45" SV
RLDR.... 1935 - 1936 High Speed Race 45" SV
U............ 1937 - 1948 Medium Compression 74" SV
UA......... 1939 - 1940 Low Compression US Army 74" SV
UH .........1937 - 1941 Medium Compression 80" SV
UL .........1937 - 1948 High Compression 74" SV
ULH...... 1937 - 1941 High Compression 80" SV
V ............1930 - 1936 Standard Compression 74" SV
VHS....... 1934 - 1936 Medium Compression 80" SV
VL.......... 1930 - 1936 High Compression 74" SV
VLD....... 1930 - 1936 High Compression 74" SV
VLH .......1934 - 1936 High Compression 80" SV
W ............1937 - 1952 Low Compression 45" SV
WL.......... 1937 - 1952 High Compression 45" SV
WLA....... 1940 - 1945 and 1949 - 1952 US Army Low Compression 45" SV
WLC .......1942 - 1943 Canadian Army Low Compression 45" SV
WLD........ 1937 - 1942 High Speed 45" SV
Via: http://fucdatbirth.blogspot.com/2010/09/useful-harley-model-chart.html

A better look at the "Topper" movie car trailer

Via: http://dieselpunks.blogspot.com/2010/10/topper-car-now-with-trailer.html

It went on to be owned by the Gilmore Oil Co, then the Brucker collection in their "Movie World" in Buena Park ... and Von Dutch lettered it

Body by Bohman and Schwatz

the 1929 Caproni Ca.90, a six-engined inverted sesquiplane. In 1929 it was the largest aircraft in the world, it held that record until 1934

A six-engined inverted sesquiplane designed as a heavy bomber, read more about it and see a couple more photos at: http://dieselpunks.blogspot.com/2010/07/italian-giant.html

a better write up at http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2013/08/caproni-90.html

The Caproni Ca.90 of 1929 was a follow-up to the unsuccessful nine winged Caproni 60 flying boat. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/06/wow-just-wow-caproni-ca60-experimental.html It was designed as a bomber with possible commercial use with an eye to transcontinental flights. Powered by six 1000 hp engines, it flew at 126 mph and set records carrying more than 20,000 lbs to 10,000 feet altitude. This was Caproni's last attempt at a large flying boat and only one was built.

This was featured in the Studio Ghibli film "The Wind Rises" (as always, skip the first minute)

thank you Kim for the reminder that Studio Ghibli did this