This is one of my favorite photos thus far (with over 600 to look at it’s gonna take a while).
This is my son’s shot of a 1956 BelAir.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Got this from my circle over on Google Plus:
Lawrence – the Beamer is Looking good.
Hey everybody, just a quick update on the TrackVids Racing4Vets BMW E30 325 ground up build. Here are a few photos of the cage and interior paint work. Very clean, very tidy, gonna be lots of fun!
Can’t wait to see it done.
Thanks for reading. Here is their Site: https://plus.google.com/u/0/112504538024847827140/posts
Tim
Yup you read that correctly.
I’ll be giving away two (2) National Motor Museum Mint die-cast (metal) Ford licensed replicas.
Want to know how to win?
Grab my feed/subscribe or follow The Average Guy’s Car Restoration, Mods and Racing (http://www.average-guys-car-restoration-mods-racing.com/ or www.timsweet.wordpress.com) and stay tuned for details.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Whenever I can I like post up a plea for someone doing a restoration that may need some assistance. The Sarasota County Lodge #45 needs assistance with restoring a 1953 patrol car. This car is a ’53 Chevy Bel Air 150.
Here are some details:
The Sarasota County Lodge #45 of the Fraternal Order of Police is spearheading a project that will involve the restoration of an antique patrol car. The vehicle will match one that was actually used by the sheriff’s office since the office first purchased patrol cars in 1953. Once the restoration is complete, the vehicle will be donated to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office for various public uses.
By reviewing photographs in “From Shield to Star,” a book by retired Sgt. Bob Snell that documents the history of the department, several vehicles were identified by make and model. The first fleet of four vehicles consisted of 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air 150s. The project is being coordinated by FOP #45 Vice-President Kevin Lynch, who is a retired SSO lieutenant. Lynch has overseen the restoration of several emergency vehicles including two fire trucks and a Cadillac ambulance that he currently owns.
Tax-deductible contributions to this project can be sent to The Community Foundation of Sarasota County, P. O. Box 49587, Sarasota, FL 34230-6587, marked for the antique patrol car project.
The FOP is also looking for in-kind services and donations such as labor and supplies needed for the project, and possibly the vehicle itself. Storage space will also be needed for the vehicle as well as initial transportation to Sarasota. Questions can be sent to FOP Lodge #45 at P.O. Box 1488, Englewood, FL 34295-1488 or e-mailed to Lynch at floridafop45@yahoo.com. You may also visit the Lodge #45 website at foplodge45.com.
Thanks for help out.
Tim
I’d adding some new content to the site. I get a lot of emails on factory racing and I thought I’d include article from time to time.
These entries will not be my original work – but with my commentary (EVERYONE loves my commentary…ok….maybe some one does..but too bad, it’s my blog!!!) . This won’t be the driver stats, or the standing for championships, this will be about the cars.
First up is the Ford page which gives a look at the Ford Fusion race car for 2013…..now why would you want to EcoBoost on your race car??? (ok..fine ruin my fun….it’s only an ad!!!) Check it out at the following link: http://wp.me/PKHNM-SK
From: COALESCENCE
the union of diverse things into one body or form
http://acoalescence.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/my-71-olds/
Posted on January 19, 2012
Back in 1973-75, when I was 16 to 18 years of age, I worked in the maintenance department of Ray County Memorial Hospital in Richmond, Missouri. I mopped, swept, and vacuumed floors, cut the grass and trimmed hedges, hauled trash (that you don’t want to know about) to the local dump, and sometimes cleaned out ambulances after particularly “messy” runs. I earned $1.65 an hour to perform these duties.
During the 2 ½ years I worked for the hospital, I owned four different cars. These cars, my first four, were all Chevrolets: two ‘65 Impala Super Sports, a ’68 Impala Custom, and a ‘67 Malibu. No one handed me these vehicles: I bought them, insured them, and maintained them from the money I earned working nights, weekends, and summers at the hospital. Yes, I’m sure that seems like a lot of cars in a short period of time for a high school kid to buy and keep up with, but cars were cheap in the ‘70s, and I was good with money . . . then.
Now I dearly loved my first four cars, but there was one car I really, really had my eye on during the time I worked at Ray County Memorial . . . but, unfortuately, the car was way out of my league at the time. The assistant administrator for the hospital (a yuppie before there was such a thing) owned that car. I used to salivate every time I went past it on the hospital’s tractor as I mowed the grounds.
What the administrator had was a 2-door fastback 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass S (not a Cutlass Supreme or a 442, but a Cutlass “S”). The car was burnt orange with a matching interior (I would later learn that the color’s actual name was, Bittersweet). It had a white vinyl top, white pin-striping on the front fenders, and a new set of Firestone 500 tires. It also featured cool-looking hood louvers that gave it a bit of an edge. Not only was the car sporty-looking, it screamed sophistication at the same time. It was one damn fine looking car—I swore then that I’d have one just like it someday!
I graduated high school, moved on from my hospital employment, and went to work in a women’s clothing warehouse/distribution center in Kansas City. There I earned the princely sum of $3.52 an hour! About a 1 ½ years into my employment there, I was driving home from work one day and what in the world did I see at a local car lot, but the same ’71 Olds that I used to covet! As soon as I could get my butt to the bank to get a loan, that puppy was mine!
Although I can remember exactly what I paid for nearly all of my cars, for the life of me I can’t recall what this one cost me. It seems to me that it was in the neighborhood of $2,300. But money was no longer an impediment: I was making $3.52 an hour and working lots of overtime, so the car was within my reach; no longer was it something I could only dream of owning.
Now that I had the car of my dreams, I gave my ’67 Malibu—my former love—to my little brother, Steve (look for a future posts on both). I then got to work on building a relationship with my Olds.
I chose not to personalize the car. Rather than slapping decals on it, jacking it up in the back with air-shocks, running loud dual-exhaust, and sticking wide tires on it—as was customary at the time—I decided to leave it stock. It didn’t need all that junk: it looked perfect just the way it was!
I was constantly cleaning this car—believe me: I made the local car wash owners rich! After hitting the car wash, I would use Blue Coral, Blue Poly wax on the body, and Lemon Pledge on the vinyl interior—and the tires. I can’t adequately describe how slick this car looked when cleaned up! (It also felt slick: due to the Lemon Pledge us on the interior, one tended to slide across the seat when going around a curve.) The car was beautiful, and to use a tired old expression, it had class! In my opinion, the ’68 to ’72 Cutlasses had some of the best body-lines and interiors that General Motors ever produced!
I was the proud owner of this car for a little over a year and I enjoyed every second of my time with it! It was a pleasure to drive and cheap to operate. Other than the cost of routine maintenance, I remember spending a grand total of $33 in repairs on it during the entire time I owned it—not bad at all! But although I absolutely loved the car and appreciated the fact that it was a really well-made vehicle, I ended up trading it in on a ’74 Cutlass.
. . . So why would I get rid of a car that I had dreamed of owning for years you ask? A couple of reasons: The impatience of youth for one. Like many kids, I constantly wanted newer and cooler toys to play with. The other reason was the fact that the car reminded me too much of a long-term girlfriend I had broken up with, I figured I needed to let the car go in order to be able to move on.
Ironically, this particular girlfriend—who at the time said she cared for me—never cared for this car much. She found it a bit old-mannish: nice, safe, but a bit boring. She eventually got around to feeling the same way about me and sent me down the road.
My ’71 Olds was Bittersweet in color; the memory of it made bittersweet by the young lady’s rejection of me.
______________________________________
A few months after trading in the car, I was told by the owner of the car lot I had purchased it from that he had seen it show up at a car action in Kansas City. The car lot owner told me that the car looked as good as ever, but someone had rolled the mileage back about 50,000 miles. He went on to say that the car ended up being sold for more money than I had paid for it. Honestly, even with the mileage fraud, somebody ended up buying a great car! I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did!
It’s been a while since I’ve provided an update on the restoration of the 1975 fuel injected VW bug that I’m project managing for a former workmate. So I thought I’d post of some details andsome pics.
The car is called a “Standard” – that doesn’t mean a manual shift (although it is a manual 3 speed), that means the most stripped down, no optioned, VW you could purchase. I’m talking interior door panels with a thin covering of fake leather over (almost as thin) cardboard. Rubber floor coverings (I wouldn’t even call them mats!!!), a headliner, cloth seats were the total of trim in side. There was no upholstery covering the rest of the interior – just painted metal. It did have an AM radio – which was replaced it a JVC.

Headliner and sun visors are about the only other upholstery, the rest is painted red like you see here.
In fact importation of these striped down models was halted shortly after about 100 here shipped to the US in 1975. This is one of the 100 allowed in. Pretty cool story.
This particular car belongs to June Yang and she purchased the car, brand new, while attending college in Iowa. The car lived in Iowa it’s entire life (until now) and it show’s signs of every winter too. The car had been stored for years and suffers from a severe case of rust and by all accounts shouldn’t able to sit up-right on four tires.
But like many folks, who love their V-dubs, June has a lot of memories tied to the rusted fenders, college, and other life milestones. So when she moved to Tucson, Az she thought of bring the Bug with her. She was advised that the car was not safe to drive down the driveway much less the block and certainly not 1/2 way across country!!! And that was an
understatement!!!!!
I met June when she came to work at the same establishment where I labored. I’m not a closet car guy and a visit to my office at that time it was pretty clear. Eventually she asked about having the car fixed and her desire to have it join her in Az was discussed and although I had no idea the exact condition. I helped arrange transportation to Tucson.
The goal was to get it here to some place that could get the car running (it wouldn’t start and brakes hadn’t been serviced in some time). In run condition, the thought was we could then running it around (save a few $$) to the various places I had planned to do the work. Unfortunately even running it wasn’t going to be safe enough to drive. See here<<<<>>>>
The transport had one bump when the driver’s truck died en route. The company immediately arranged for a local company to pick it up and finish the trip. I believe June called them every hour for updates. Eventually, the car showed up at my favorite auto repair shop and Tim Sisk gave me a call to come look the car over.
These pictures don’t nearly capture the condition this car, frankly I was taken back as well and I grew up driving a 1930-ish Ford stripped down pick-up that served as an alternate tractor on my grandfather farm, in upstate New York – no floor boards and the like. This VW was nearly eaten alive by oxidation.
So are you saying WHAAAATTT???? Pretty much the standard response… but don’t fret….there’s a plan!!!
More coming up.
Thanks for reading.
So I’m read a few articles online and a few have touched on Fiat and all the issues they are apparently having with bring the brand back to the US. There are some individual that say the 500 won’t be back and that they tried too
soon or that they didn’t have any dealerships lined up to handle the turn. But I don’t really care much, I’ll never buy a Fiat, unless is an older classic, and then maybe….ummm…naaahh…not even then.
But I did notice that they are now offering a race ready version of the 500 Abarth. That’s right 160 hps of rubber melting power, not too bad when you are starting out with 101 hp. Drop a turbocharger and you’ll get 160. They
tuned the suspension for the track and its light curb weight might make it a bit fun to drive..might.
But the cool part is that included in the price is a ‘Track Day‘. Supposedly you will get (I think car will be available in the spring) a day at one of the Richard Petty Driving Experience events. What would be really cool is if you could return it right after that!!!
Anyway, I got to thinking if any other auto makers offer a track day. We all know that the Big Three are making track ready cars’ some for track only and some for street and track. Here is what I found out.
Fiat got the idea from Chrysler. They are offering a track day with the purchase of some of their SRT models (300 SRT8 and the Challenger SRT8).
GM via Cadillac offers their own at various tracks across the country.
Purchasing a Corvette ZR1 will get you a trip to Ron Fellows Performance Driving School or Bob Bundurant School of High Performance Driving, in Chandler, AZ. (OK….even you can’t afford the ZR1, sell the spouse’s daily driver, rent out your man cave (gal cave) and go to the Bundurant school.) They have a lot of classes at all levels and some fair prices. I did the Formula 1 event at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) and it was outstanding. Here is a link: http://www.bondurant.com/?gclid=CJD93Luc2K0CFQduhwodNyU1mQ
Not to be out done Ford as a similar deal with the 2012 Boss Mustang. This is at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. I chatted with one of the Miller Motorsports reps at the 2011 Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction in Scottsdale and he showed off some video of their facility and it is extremely nice. I’d make that trip.
If you got to have an “import” (and the Fiat ain’t doing it for ya) Mercedes-Benz will be offering a track day at course across the US if you purchase their top of the line models. (Although I didn’t find mention of which ones.)
So if you are going to spring for a new car, you’ve got some options if a Track Day is part of the deal. Of course the Fiat will run you about $22K and the ZR1 about $108K, tough choice?
Thanks for reading
Tim
I really like this car. These use to carry the moniker - California Special.
Ford released three pictures of the 2013 California Edition Mustang, which has traditionally been an appearance only package. They have not released an exact part list yet but the pictures speak wonders for what you will get, including the popular glass roof.
You can check out more 2013 Mustang pictures over in our photo gallery.
Some of the folks that sell cars have some great sales pitches or reasons for sell. Many blame their wives….”the wife says I have to make room”.
Here are a couple:
1973 Dodge Dart- Fast Back 318 Mopar motor,automatic trans, body fair no dents. Was going to use as hobby rebuild but obama & congress making me sell in order to servive. e-mail or call
Some are folks have a sense of humor when selling their car.
1958 Edsel Pacer 4 dr hardtop. This car would be a very good restoration project, but not for me, since I am out of space. I bought this in 2007 or 2008. It had been stored inside for years, not restored, but kept running. During my ownership, I have replaced the carburetor with a 1963 4 barrel Autolite. The original Holley is in the trunk if you want to return it to stock. It runs and drives, but I would expect to go through the suspension and brakes to be sure it’s safe for a trip. There’s also a loose connection between the tele-touch controls and the transmission. Occasionally, it will not start, but wiggling wires under the hood and calling it names, seems to correct that.
Posted Dec 21st 2011 10:00AM
According to the owner, this ’66 Mustero received a complete restoration in the ’80s and has been carefully stored indoors since then. A 289-cubic-inch V8 lurks under the hood, mated to a three-speed manual gearbox. Manual steering and brakes are part of the party as well, so be prepared for a work out when it comes time to wheel this machine through town.