a pacer and damn proud of it by the look of him

but why a tiny little kid is out behind him? Dont know

found on http://whiteblackgrey.tumblr.com/

I didnt even know about pacers til a week ago: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/12/mighty-big-beast-clearing-wind-for.html

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The crazy car business stories are excellent heres just one from Michael Satterfield of Gentlemen Racer com

Your tax dollars at work:

I was working as the Internet Sales Manager for the dealer group that included Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, and Kia when a phone call came in from a local state assemblywoman’s office. The staffer was frantic and looking for a Lincoln Towncar Signature L. These had been discontinued from regular production at the time but had been available for special fleet orders, but production was done so they were few and far between. The staffer told me that he needed two Black on Black Towncars. One for the local office and one for the Sacramento office. I put him on hold and did a search find that there were none within 500 miles and with Southern California being the hub of the automotive industry and the largest market if we did not have it, no one did.

So I google the assemblywoman’s name and find countless bills, speeches, and articles on her green legislation, hybrid car bills, and other general tree huggery. I pick the phone back up and tell the staffer “good news I have the cars you are looking for in stock. Black on Black Ford Escape Hybrids”…. Complete silence on the other end. “Well seeing as the assemblywoman is so concerned about the environment that she keeps passing laws regulating the cars we should drive and the types of cars we should have in California, I thought she would like a car that gets double the gas mileage of a Towncar, and costs about $15,000 less” the staffer flies off the handle. “She cannot be seen in something like that she needs a prestigious car for entertaining dignitaries… if you are not willing to help us we will go to someone that will” At that point I was just laughing a the idea of a state assembly member “entertaining dignitaries”. They wanted to spend almost $100,000 for two Towncars so some hack can be driven around in by a staffer like she was the president….they did find them from a dealer in Nevada that orders them for the casinos…your tax dollars at work.

the others are just as good, and can be read at http://www.thegentlemanracer.com/2014/01/crazy-car-business-stories.html

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Signs of Progress

Frank has made up a first roundel for IRMA as a test, so today I brought it to the Museum to try out.  It appears to be the right size and should work fine on nearly all of the signs well want to attach one to.  Of course, they will all have different numbers.  "391" is just the last three digits of 4391.

I left the sample with Dave Diamond, who was very satisfied with it.  He thinks the best way to attach them will be with an adhesive.  For these pictures, I used masking tape, which lasted long enough to snap a photo!

The Wednesday guys keep working, of course.  Henry and Jonathan have  put a first coat of primer on the 36s train door.  It looks good, and we should be able to install it in a few weeks. This is the outside surface, and the inside is painted also.  Thanks again!

Today was cold and damp and drizzling most of the day, so painting was not an option.  I spent most of my time working on the 36s electrical system. The first grid box has several bad elements and needs a complete overhaul.  So I needed to drop it from the car.

For future reference, here are the connections before they were disconnected.

Removing the box is not that hard to do, except that all the nuts and bolts were badly rusted.  I let it down onto a bucket for a platform, then onto the ground.  Here you can see several repairs that must have been attached at Cleveland.  Evidently they didnt understand the concept of "running points" and "resistance points". 

In any case, Ill want to take the grid box to the shop.  Im hoping the shop guys can schedule it at some point.  We have several grid box experts who know just what to do.

And heres where it used to be.  The five grid boxes are hung from two wooden beams, which had started to rot.  So a couple of ordinary 2x4s were sistered onto them, as you can see here.  Im not real happy with this solution, so thats another thing that may need to be addressed.  Im leaning towards replacing the sisters with hardwood, but am open to suggestions.  (Hey, Im always open to suggestions.  Ive got a trash can right here!)

And I installed the next contactor in the series, the one on the right.  Its been about a year since I worked on this, but it all comes back in a hurry.  This box is under the car and opens inwards, so working conditions are very cramped.  But Ill try to keep the whining to a minimum.  

The next problem that cropped up is that evidently this classy old C6 controller with the original style handle needs some adjustment.  I could hear it hissing while trying to test the new contactor, and after removing the cover, could see the arcing taking place.  So that needs to be worked on also.

In any case, were making progress.  Of course, we can always use more help!

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