Thursday, March 11, 2010

CLUNKBUCKET

Everything but the same old cars

Archive for the ‘Odd Rod’ Category

Quad Treaded Turbo Diesel

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On February - 11 - 2010

M-973_Vermont_leadCrippling winter snow storms serve as a reminder that when the big snow or the Russians do show up, those all-season radials on that 1984 Plymouth Voyager in the driveway are not going to cut it. A snow shovel and some road salt might get the Voyager out of the driveway, but when you wake up to sub-zero weather and see Vladimir Putin doing shirtless chin ups on the kids swing set in your backyard, there had better be something heavy-duty out in the garage. The M-973 Cargo Carrier is equipped with not one but two sets of drive treads, a Mercedes five-cylinder turbodiesel, and can carry either 17 fully equipped troops or over two tons of supplies. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

A Shrunken Corvair Named Kumquat

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On February - 5 - 2010

Kumquat_Corvair_leadFrom the West coast division of the Corvair shortening department comes this 1963 convertible dune buggy variant of the American air-cooled rear engine sports car. The car originally rolled off the assembly line as a factory turbocharged Spyder in 1963. An accident that buckled and creased both doors landed what was left the Spyder languishing engineless behind a gas station until 1971. What was left of the turbo convertible was purchased for 50 bucks to acquire a still complete dashboard. The catch was that the entire car had to go with the dashboard. Where it went began the journey of car shortening, engine transplants, and an orange paint job that lent the shrunken Corvair its name.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

1969 Honda Electric Rear Driver

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On February - 2 - 2010

nikolai360_leadGarage talk concerning engine swaps or drivetrain transplants is plentiful. Thousands of instant message windows, forum posts, and Facebook updates are populated at any given second with declarations of Hayabusa powered mid-engine rear-drive Ford Festivas (or similar) with induction systems managed by MegaSquirt. And so on. Some folks actually go so far as to get the pieces. Far fewer fabricate the pieces into something that works. A 1969 Honda N360 is a perfect foundation for such great transplant ideas. How about a 60HP electric motor? Yup. Rear-wheel drive? Sure! Volkswagen GTI transaxle with limited-slip differential and Volksubaru Ground Control hybrid suspension? Oh yes. If your name is Forrest Koogle, you not only gathered all the required pieces, but are building this very car at Hectors Chop Shop. Forrest says that one of the their credos over at Hectors is that they can do anything. We believe it. These guys are well on their way to constructing a 100% electric rear-wheel-driver into the shell of a sixties front-wheel-drive Honda kei car. Fabricating the chassis and making everything fit is far more involved than merely saying it. Follow along with the ongoing transformation and unfolding story of Nikolai360 the E.V. over at the world of unforgiving tolerances.

More: Turning a front-driver into a rear-wheel-drive BEV over at Hectors Chop Shop

Popularity: 1%

Ford Double B Wrecking Truck

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On January - 22 - 2010

1934_BB_Ford_leadFrom the before and after division of the project car department comes this 1934 Ford BB wrecking truck. The former tow truck is shown here in before condition, after the heavy-duty Ford made the journey to South San Francisco by way of the windy rusty city of Chicago. Bob McLennan of Champion Speed Shop fame picked up the project up off eBay and had it shipped out west for future restification into a working tow and show truck. The wrecker was sitting in the previous owner’s yard for so long that most everyone has forgotten where it came from originally. What is known is that it is still a Ford, and started out as a one and one-half ton truck from the factory. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

Henney Kilowatt in Florida

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On January - 6 - 2010

henney_kilowatt5The jet age was upon us. Radio magnates, vacuum cleaner industrialists, and battery manufacturing cabals pooled their vast economic resources. Top electrical engineer Victor Wouk and Pulitzer Prize winning chemist Linus Pauling were put on the job. French automaker Renault was called in for their expertise. From this global effort sprang a compact electric automobile with a top speed of 60 miles per hour, and a range of over 60 miles on a single charge of its dozen sequential batteries. These pioneering Henney Kilowatt cars were sold in small numbers for brief time – from 1959 to 1961.

It could have been a Franco-American variant of the Previa Effect that caused vacationing top fuel drag racer Brendan Murry to drop his bicycle and snap a few shots of this maroon car, which bears close resemblance to a Renault Dauphine. While Key West, Florida seems as likely a place as any to spot a a Dauphine, this one is only partially French. The compact maroon sedan started life as an engineless Renault, but is actually a Henney Kilowatt! Somewhere south of 100 of these electric runabouts were ever sold, making the chances of seeing one parked in a driveway as likely as winning the Moldovan lottery.

Thanks to AA/Fuel drag racer Brendan Murry for getting the shots. More here about the Henney Kilowatt.

Popularity: 1%

Forgotten Chevy Truck

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On December - 16 - 2009

forgotten_chevy_leadThere is no finer automobile for around the ranch work than a solid full size pickup truck. This 1963 Chevrolet C20 truck had evidently finished the job. What job? The old Chevy is the sort of truck that Hoss Cartwright would drive into town for some dynamite to blow those stumps out in the west field, if he didn’t ride a horse on TV. The patina on this Chevy could only result as a combination between years of actual work, and judging by the date on the California black plate tags, ten or so years of stationary sunbathing in a big valley north of Los Angeles. Even with half of its wheels buried in Southern California soil, this full-size pickup truck of over four decades ago seemed far more compact than modern Potemkin-class pickup trucks. A new battery, fresh gas, can of carburetor cleaner, some air in the tires, and the retired Chevrolet could be ready for more service.

Popularity: 1%

Austin Bantam Not Once But Twice

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On December - 3 - 2009

bantam_coupe_leadTaking the castaways of the automotive world and transforming them into race cars through ingenuity and steel tubing is nothing new in America. This sixties-built dragster was at one time a thirties-built Austin. Opportunity Washington’s Duke Cornell first constructed this Bantam bodied drag coupe 1961. Duke claims he ran 10-second quarters at the drag strip with alarming regularity using an injected small block Chevrolet for power. That’s Duke himself in the cockpit out on in the staging lanes at the NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion during the post-race celebration of nitromethane known as the Cacklefest. Duke built the car the first time on a twentysomething year-olds racing budget. After racing for a number of years he sold the car for the usual reasons. Duke recently unearthed what was left of his original coupe and brought it back to better than original condition for display at Famoso in Bakersfield. Now, if only they would let him run down the track a few more times.

Popularity: 1%

Crosley Car and the Mighty Tin

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On December - 1 - 2009

crosley_leadFrom the cars you don’t see parked on public roads everyday department comes this 1949 Crosley car in red. The Crosely was manufactured by the Crosley Corporation, which to this day makes appliances and portable traveling turntables. 1949 was a pivotal year for the runabout, as the brazed aluminum and steel engine block that served with valor in World War II was upgraded to cast iron for durability. Peacetime engine coolant formulation combined with poor owner maintenance waged war on the coatings inside the The Mighty Tin’s cooling water jackets. The corrosive brew ate away at the bonds that held the the engine block together. The lightweight engine that worked so well buzzing along at a constant RPM to power generators for the war effort lost the battle against demands imposed by civilian automotive use. This particular Crosley was seen on the same block as one of the largest American road tankers cars ever built. The Crosley had a for sale sign in the window for over ten times the asking price of the Newport. Crosley scuttled the Mighty Tin engine for an iron block version in 1949, but it was ultimately too late for an automobile built with wartime thrift in mind to appeal to a public hurtling into the interstate highway age at turnpike speeds.

More: The Crosley Automobile Club

Popularity: 2%

Confluence of Gremlins, now with more Porsche

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On November - 25 - 2009

gremlins5Communications from operatives over the last day have produced not one but three AMC Gremlins. Two are evidently in the wild. One is for sale, and has a Porsche engine swapped in under the hood in place of the AMC peanut grinder. First was Jim, seeing and snapping a few Gremlins in the states to the north west. One Gremlin appears mostly stock, while the other is somewhat more mysterious and art like. Hours later came the ever vigilant Alan Rutter, who forwarded along a Craigslist post for a Gremlin with a fancy steering wheel, and a Porsche 924 2.0 mill bolted up to the slushbox. All this for the princely asking price of 650 bucks! With close proximity to the holiday this AMC confluence could mean that the Plymouth where the pilgrims dined on the famous turkey was actually a Gremlin. It also means that if you’ve been dreaming about a Porsche-powered AMC hatchback, your time is now. What could possibly go wrong?

1976 Porsche-powered AMC Gremlin in Yreka

Popularity: 7%

Seeing Double Morrissey

Posted by Mike Bumbeck On November - 18 - 2009

morrisseyThere are simply not enough cars in your driveway. You like your automobiles in pairs. You want nothing more for Christmas than an English runabout with a transmission in the trunk. Better still, is you’re the one who has been longing for a duet of Morris Minors since Morrissey and Marr were together on stage in Manchester. There has never been a better time then now. Alan Rutter of Al’s Rapid Transit fame has unearthed not one, but two of these standard Morris beauties and put them up for sale. It would be your mission to make them run. These two stylish econoboxes could represent the perfect opportunity to start that Morris Minor spec racing league. It might also be time to blow the dust off that wire-feed welder in the garage and fab up some scrap metal along with one (or both) of the four-pot 37HP engines into some sort of English car themed Tilt-a-Whirl style carnival ride. You know, for the kids.

Because winter time is Bondo time. Two 1959 Morris Minors at Al’s Rapid Transit

Popularity: 14%

Bring the Amber Lamps!

Posted by Mike Bumbeck
Mar-1-2010 I 3 COMMENTS

Rescue Tape saves Heater Hose

Posted by Mike Bumbeck
Feb-9-2010 I 5 COMMENTS

Economy Seat Covers

Posted by Mike Bumbeck
Jan-28-2010 I ADD COMMENTS