What are you doing today?

[jaybee]

Great stuff Wayne, I just downloaded the one I need.

[wayne petty]

when i run across good stuff.. i do try to share.


i have a question. today is
friday march 28th..   there were tornados and hail storms reported on the news in the middle of the country..

i heard just a few days ago.. that members from arizona will need to comfirm.. that there were giant dust storms in arizona..


we also had a fire here in so cal last week.. i forgot where it was..


so.. if you were effected by the tornados and hail storms.. please ask your local weather men.  if the dust storms from arizona could have placed enough dust in the atmosphere to create the additional strong weather.. if so..

perhaps.. we need to find a way to take some of the finest particle size dust and dispense it via aircraft several hundred miles upwind of where we need at least some rain in drought areas...

take a look at this article...

http://gcaptain.com/monstrous-saharan-dust-cloud-puts/

this happened just a week or so before a Massive hurricane almost hit hawaii but was blown away by high winds.. and about a week and a half or two before the massive hurricane with 300 Miles an hour winds wiped out several areas of the philippines.

there was a local los angeles news channel that visited the NOAA or NWS offices locally here in so cal.. either west los angeles or oxnard. they talked to a lady who monitors the yellow dust off the gobi desert and the smog from china that makes its way across the pacific ocean..

she described that the smog particles are too small to gather enough moisture to make it rain so it just stays as clouds .. but the dust particles create not just rain but also snow when they blow across the pacific..

so... does the smog from the so cal area.. drifting east create dust bowl conditions as it attracts tiny amounts of moisture that never falls..

these are just things that have been bothering me.. that i cannot seem to get an answer to from my local weather men here in los angeles.

most of them are when is it going to rain.. and when it starts raining.. when is it going to stop..

so this is what i am doing today... trying to make it rain where it should..

i know i have brought this up before..  

but i thought since the weather had just happened..

[kb426]

Wayne, it's spring. That's an acronym that here in Kansas refers to: sporadic painful random incidents naturally growth-inhibiting.
I'm a weather watcher. Before we make any conclusions, compare a 100 year history of past occurrences. I've heard many times:" I don't remember this happening before." That would be correct. Either we didn't remember or we aren't old enough to have known what happened many decades ago. Our drought has people referring to the early 50's. As a newborn, I have no knowledge of that. If there is a logical conclusion as to dust particles causing a unique weather pattern, that's way beyond my level of accumulated weather knowledge.     Sleep well my friend.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Wayne;  it has been windy here in metro Phoenix area for many days..   Real windy out here where I live.

The dust storm the other day was a large slow moving storm.  Big and messy , yet moved slower than most dust storms we see here

[wayne petty]

http://www.data.scec.org/recenteqs/Quakes/ci15481673.html

5.1 quake ... about 15 miles east of downtown la..

the floor here was rolling sliding about 2.5 to 3 inches..

[wayne petty]

all quiet...
but i did find another GEM for your collections...


http://www.gmheritagecenter.com/docs/gm-heritage-archive/vehicle-information-kits/Cadillac/1938_Cadillac_V16_VVI.pdf

[kb426]

I read a little of the last one, Wayne. That's real interesting. I may have to read all 348 pages now.  

[purplepickup]

all quiet...
but i did find another GEM for your collections...


http://www.gmheritagecenter.com/docs/gm-heritage-archive/vehicle-information-kits/Cadillac/1938_Cadillac_V16_VVI.pdf

A little trivia....A pair of V16 powered 1938 Cadillac convertibles were specially built for the White House and were used by FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower.  Pretty classy car.  Those were the days.  No need for a fully enclosed armored vehicle.

5.1 quake ... about 15 miles east of downtown la..
the floor here was rolling sliding about 2.5 to 3 inches..

Wayne, if I remember right your mom was a tugboat captain.  Maybe you could use your connections to get a retired boat to park in the backyard for when an earthquake drops Hollywood into the ocean....sort of an ark.  Sturdy boats seem to survive.

[Rrumbler]

We have a full day of Girl's Fast Pitch Softball today; our girls are playing two games, two hours apart.  I do enjoy them as far as my broken body will let me, but by the end of a day like this, I'll be truly worn out.

Interesting stuff there Wayne.  Wasn't that Cad 16 used in tanks in WWII?  I don't think I have ever seen one, but I've always thought of them as something special.

So, Wayne, how's the shakin' goin'?  The last quake that was centered in that area, that I know of, made me a lot of moolah through overtime, did some serious damage to a few power substations.  That was the "Whittier Narrows" shaker in the mid-late eighties.  Since I retired in '95 and left SoCal, I am not sure of any others in the area since.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Harbor freight budget stuff got me..  Fuel line hose on a auger for digging dirt.  Hose is fallin apart.

had this auger for about 1 year.  Guess I need to find some small fuel hose.  This stuff is near 3/16" in diameter.  Goes thru a grommet into the tank.

Hose is literally falling to pieces as you touch it

[wayne petty]

Harbor freight budget stuff got me..  Fuel line hose on a auger for digging dirt.  Hose is fallin apart.

had this auger for about 1 year.  Guess I need to find some small fuel hose.  This stuff is near 3/16" in diameter.  Goes thru a grommet into the tank.

Hose is literally falling to pieces as you touch it

find a  Model aircraft shop. they will have the proper hose for fuel..

sears home service stores where they have lawnmower parts also as will some garden supplies..  even ATV stores...

something like this..


http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/261322826588?lpid=82

[Carps]

So here we are first day of Autumn, we don't call it Fall down here because Aussie trees don't drop their leaves before winter.

What better time to have a nice little car show in the parking lot of the local pub, with all proceeds donated to our volunteer fire services who have worked pretty hard during the summer months to keep us safe.



Since there's plenty of Deuce coupes in the US of A, I'll stick with a few of our local oddball cars just to help maintain interest.

Naturally the Police come along to help out.



Let's start with some MOPARS, L to R they are all Valiants starting with the '69 four door sedan, then a '71 Charger and a '72 Regal Two Door.



This angle shows the short wheelbase of the Charger Vs the standard wheelbase of the other two.





This was Chrysler's first Aussie performance model, the Hemi Pacer, based on the regular four door because that's the only body they had aside from a station wagon........



The Hemi wasn't the big V8 you 'Murrican's think of, but a 245 cubic inch straight six with hemispherical combustion chambers.



The Pacer's bucket seats said 'sporty' and the instrument panel got a few extra gauges whilst the  floor change operated a three speed manual gearbox.



In addition to a boot lid stripe, the hot versions had a Holley four barrel carb a slightly lumpier camshaft and high performance electronic ignition.



All things considered they were a pretty good package and could stick with the v* offerings from Ford and GM.



The next generation Valiant was 100% Australian and no longer based off the US Dodge Dart.  It was also bigger to compete with the larger Ford and Holden models.  This one is the luxury Regal model as indicated by the four headlamps.



The part number for outer door handles for this model is 3408JS1, 2 or 3, indelibly printed in my mind because that broke and required more regular replacement than oil filters.  Which I figure explains why this car has none.



This model was actually the last year for the Australian Valiant before the local operation was sold of to Mitsubishi of Japan.



The grille on this one tells me it was the first series of this final Valiant body style.



There was a much more luxurious version of the two door called Chrysler by Chrysler but they are quite rare now days.  The Valiants had much smaller lamps and lighter bumper bars.



This is the third series Valiant Charger, it competed with GM's Holden Monaro coupe and Ford's Falcon GT coupe and was built on a shortened wheelbase.



The black panel on the C pillar fairing indicates this was the luxury rather than sporting variant fitted with the 318 V8 and torqueflite auto.



Performance Chargers all had the Hemi six and this car is the grandaddy of them all.



The 'six pack' logo indicated three two barrel carbs just like on US MOPARS and this was the hottest version of the Hemi six with three side draft Webers.



Tex Smith replaced the Pontiac six in his Dollar a Pound roadster with one of these engines.  This is exactly how they came from the factory.



This car is the e38 Option, which includes a huge 38 gallon fuel tank and other things required for long distance endurance touring car racing.  Those wheels are also factory stock.



Inside were high back bucket seats, full compliment of instruments and a stubby shift lever for the four speed manual trans which used a twin plate clutch.



Meanwhile Ford slipped a 351 Windsor into the Falcon, added a few more go fast bits and called it GT.



Unfortunately GM's new Holden Monaro Coupe beat the 351 Falcons on the track.  This one is the the poverty pack model.



However the GTS version was fitted with a Corvette 327 and Muncie four speed, allowing it to kick Ford's butt on the road race tracks of Oz.



Ford's answer was simple, when the car git a midlife facelift the GT version also got a new drivetrain, which included a 390hp 351 Cleveland, top loader four speed and LSD 9 inch all from the performance parts bin.  In it's day the XY Series Falcon GT with the HO option was the worlds fastest four door sedan with a top speed over 140 mph.



The HO optioned cars were easy to pick from regular GTs as they had a huge front spoiler and rear wing from the Mustang on the boot lid.



Because the Holden and Valiant coupes had become popular Ford would not be outdone and their next generation Falcon........



........included a pretty mean looking coupe with huge rear wheel wells because for racing, tyres were limited to whatever could be fitted in the stock wheel housings.  The wheels on this car are part of RPO 83, the racing pack.



The Falcon coupe was a pretty heavy car but was so powerful it dominated touring car racing.



No matter what GM did, the Falcons continued to dominate.



The coupe was so popular they also did a luxury variant.



GM Holden built a better looking coupe but even with the Chevy 350 it couldn't beat the Falcons.



So, they came up with a better idea.  GM also marketed a small fanily car based off the compact English Vauxhaul, it was called Torana and their better idea was to stuff they small lightweight car full with a 400hp 350, Muncie four speed, four wheel discs and a whole bunch more.  That the mechanical bits including wheels and tyres don't fit under the car was no big deal, they just made a few plastic bits and bolted them on to cover everything.  The A9X Torana's were unstoppable for the next four or five years, until Ford's Turbo Sierra arrived on the scene.



That's kinda how the Aussie Muscle car wars panned out, so now I guess we can look at some of the regular stuff from the '50s and 60's.  Starting with a '64 Holden Panel Van, which is our take on the sedan delivery but with more carrying space.



Panel vans were all based of regular boot models, with an added top and the cabin back open into the cargo space.



The sporty options were also offered on all ute and panel van models.



I still have fond memories of the first time our pal Don Dillard came to Oz, as we left the airport he almost jumped out of his seat exclaiming that he'd just seen a flatbed car!  These are affectionately known as 'One Tonners' and they were exactly as Don described.  The front half of a passenger car mounted to a truck style chassis with a flatbed and one ton carrying capacity.



Of course the wheels didn't usually protrude thru the bed that only happens when they are lowered and tubbed.



When Australians refer to Zephyr they don't mean a Lincoln model, they mean the English Ford like this '60 Zephyr wagon.





As a British Empire nation, we had lots of cars from mother England and this was the GM equivalent of Fords pommy car for 1960, the Vauxhaul Cresta.



Of course the Japanese arrived in the late fifties and in 1965 the new Corolla was made in Australia as well as Japan.



However only the Aussie ones got superchargers.



This was Fords Luxury model for 1971, the ZD Fairlane, I had one just like this.  Most came with the 302 engine but ours, like this one, had the 351 with all the GT gear and was quite the sleeper.  I sold mine for a pittance, today it's worth bucket load of money.



I've often said it was probably the bast car Ford of Australia ever built, great to drive and bloody fast, handling was OK too,



The next generation (the one on the left) was bigger and heavier, comfortable but slow as a wet week on the road and could only be had with a 302 V8.  The car on the right is the Aussie '65 Falcon which was kind of a continuation of the tooling for the first models as was won't to happen in Oz to amortise costs.



Here's the other end of the same Falcon.



GM's Oz styling lagged well behind the US through the fifties, here's a rare '54 Holden Wagon.  It's rare because GM still didn't make a Holden wagon, that would have to wait until '58, but a couple of local coach builder did cars like this one.



The thing has been perfectly restored right down to the last detail.



Although the sedan back doors confirm it's clearly not a factory design.



Here's GM Holden's '58 model, which has many '55 Chevy styling cues.



And the station wagon.



Here's their 1960 model which is more like a scaled down '57 Chevy.





By '63 and 4 they'd caught up and the cars looked a little more contemporary, 63 model Van to the right and '64 model sedan to the left.



Here's the 63/4 yoot.



In '66 GM introduced curved side glass and suddenly thy were at the forefront of contemporary design.  This is a '67 model.



Back of the same car.



Here's what happens when you wash your '35 roadster too much, it shrinks.



As Dorothy once said, "This definitely aint Kansas Toto!"

[tomslik]

Thanks,Carps.
I like seeing the "weird" stuff

[kb426]

Great pics! Thank you.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Harbor freight budget stuff got me..  Fuel line hose on a auger for digging dirt.  Hose is fallin apart.

had this auger for about 1 year.  Guess I need to find some small fuel hose.  This stuff is near 3/16" in diameter.  Goes thru a grommet into the tank.

Hose is literally falling to pieces as you touch it

find a  Model aircraft shop. they will have the proper hose for fuel..

sears home service stores where they have lawnmower parts also as will some garden supplies..  even ATV stores...

something like this..


http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/261322826588?lpid=82

great minds think alike:

One of the first comments my wife made was go to Hobby Lobby or some business  with airplanes.