CLUNKBUCKET

March Meet Trades in Time

Mike Bumbeck — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:09:03 +0000

Walking on the hallowed patch ground that is Famoso Raceway it becomes easy to see why the March Meet is now in its 52nd year. People like this stuff. In our case a rekindled interest in drag racing and hot rodding started again around 15 years ago with a wiff of nitromethane and a flashback to the Coca-Cola Funny Car Cavalcade of Stars tossing up fiberglass down a seventies-soaked New England Dragway. Move the pointer to 2010, and the anachronism that is vintage drag racing is still largely intact. Freeze time around 1978, add a few thousand gallons of nitromethane, and never forget the associated junk and iconography. The first stop at every March Meet is always the swap meet at the top end of the race track. Exposure to all this goofball stuff started as a kid seeing a Funny Car supercharger bouncing on fire down the grass in front of the grandstands, liberated from its hemi thanks to the horrors of nitro. This of course led to launching the Mongoose and Snake Hot Wheels down what seemed like five miles of orange plastic track. And though we occasionally used to race down an actual drag strip with a ‘67 Plymouth Barracuda later in life, it was all the stuff that came before moved moved us in that direction in the first place. The exquisite junk that is still with us all.

For LIVE video coverage of March Meet drag racing action head to BANGShift.com

No recalls for 1982 Toyota Starlet!

Mike Bumbeck — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:19:55 +0000

It might need a few new valve springs. The input shaft bearing in the transmission is whining a little. There’s a wobble or two here or there. One of the camshaft lobes may be in trouble. Clunks? Plenty. We’re really hoping the clutch cable doesn’t finally give out either. The good news is that even with 230-plus thousand miles on the original 4K-C engine – there are no recalls for the 1982 Toyota Starlet! We drove the Starlet down to Toyota Santa Monica in hopes for a new old stock replacement shift knob or some other eighties-era Toyota gem, but were told that the Starlet was free of any recalls by virtue of age and durability. A quick search over at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration database confirmed that the Starlet was recall free. There is no entry whatsoever for the 1982 Toyota Starlet. Not to worry. We can personally assure the NHTSA that the Starlet is mostly trouble-free, and that the 50 or so horsepower from the mighty 1300cc peanut grinder engine under the hood presents no possibility of unintended acceleration.

Bring the Amber Lamps!

Mike Bumbeck — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:45:55 +0000

From the internet meme department of repairs comes this quick and E-Z tech tip for those looking to find the amber lamps. In this case the two stock amber inboard headlamps for a 1969 Citroen iD sedan proved not only near-impossible to locate, but à prix élevé for the purposes of drivable restification. The inexpensive solution comes in a can for under ten bucks. One can of Krylon Stained Glass Color spray paint in yellow can convert standard sets of clear lens fog lights or headlamps into the amber lamps in a few minutes. The task of prying the lamps or fog lights out of whatever mounts they are fused or screwed into will of course vary by vehicle. Consult your service manual or favorite forum for guidance in removal without breakage. Once the lamps are out and ready for paint, make sure the lamp surface is clean and free of grease or crud. The spray-on finish is translucent and designed for use on glass. Apply the paint in thin, even coats. Better two thin coats than one heavy one to avoid light blocking drips and puddling. Additional thin coats will bring a deeper yellow-amber to the lens. Our Citroën driving man in the field provided these photos of his own amber lamp spray paint conversion. He reports unimpaired luminosity and no breakdown in finish after nearly a year of extensive all-weather testing and actual use. With a couple hours and about ten bucks you too can bring the amber lamps.

Thanks to the SoCal Citroen Club and Andy Takakjian for the photos and tech tip.

Hydropneumatics and Design Together in Pasadena

Mike Bumbeck — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:34:36 +0000

There were more Citroëns than drivers on a Saturday morning. The task at hand was a good one. Settle into the plush appointments behind the steering wheel of a 1969 and-one-half Citroën iD21F Safari Wagon and drive. The mission was to get all cars on the move to the Pasadena Art Center College of Design for a gathering of Citroëns, and subsequent tour of the Art Center automotive design facilities. After a few tries at a recalcitrant starter button and a couple minutes of warming up for the DX21 hemi-head engine, the wagon was up on its haunches and ready to swallow the road ahead. The wagon we were driving belongs to one Andy Takakjian, who would be piloting his other DS - a 1969 and-one-half iD 19 Series B Sedan in green that would lead the way on the first leg of the safari. Destination? Pasadena.

The wagon was loaded up with gas, oil and painted wooden baguettes for maximum effect. Out on the road the four-speed on the column was easy enough to row through. The veteran four-banger under the hood was no powerhouse, but offered up smooth and locomotive-like forward motion. Push button braking was unfamiliar, but not a problem once acclimated to a hydropneumatic sensibility. The turn signal lever was right where a left hand would expect it to be. Below it is a shorter lever that activates the commanding note of the horn. The dual-tone announcement sealed the idea that this wagon is exactly what Captain Haddock would drive off the docks upon return from a sea voyage chasing villains from the orient smuggling crab tins stuffed with opium. For now we were driving, and ready to bellow Ectoplasm! or Visigoth! at any unfortunate hipster blocking the Safari’s path through Eagle Rock.

The next leg of the tour brought us closer to the Art Center and in line with yet another DS21 – this one a beauty in red from 1972, owned and operated by SoCal Citroën Club VP Paul Secord. After some coffee and conversation pertaining to the ongoing maintenance of old French automobiles, the 1972 led the way up the hill to the site of the event. It was over a few bumps and through the many off camber corners meandering up from the Rose Bowl that the hydropnematic suspension shone above that of a ordinary automobile. Speed bumps and potholes are no cause for concern. The three full-size French automobiles negotiated the curves up to the Art Center with a precision usually reserved for harshly sprung sports cars, but with a ride reminiscent of the most cushy of seventies American luxo-barges. The lush float of a 1973 Plymouth Fury and the crisp handling of a 1981 Honda Prelude forged together into a car that Captain Haddock would drive. Incroyable!

Once on the grounds passerby and students alike marveled at the modern luxury that is the DS. A couple of 2CV variants joined their more modern contemporaries, and then the entire gathering ventured into the building for a tour led up by Art Center College of Design Chair Stewart Reed. The deluxe nature of a Citroën DS Pallas came together with the design and art work of the students with a few sentences from Transportation Design department staffer and Audi VW Group Chief Designer Jae Min, who eloquently suggested that in modern automotive design, “Form does not follow function. Form is function”. This would go far to explain the near-amidships reverse mounted Maserati engine and nitrogen charged spheres under the hood of club member Fred’s beyond merely stylish Citroën SM. The picnic lunch was pretty tasty too.

Thanks to the SoCal Citroën Club and the Pasadena Art Center College of Design for making this hydropneumatic adventure possible.

Slicing into a Sixties Charger

Mike Bumbeck — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:07:26 +0000

Most folks think of automobiles comprised of parts that are fitted together with no imperfections or miscarved lines to ruin the illusion of perfection. While this may be somewhat true of a car or truck made in the last ten years or so, it is certainly not the case of an automobile manufactured as recently as the eighties. Dip back into the sixties and things get even more agricultural. Getting a car straight at the robot-free factory circa 1969 meant people using hammers, shims, and spreaders full of molten lead. Bringing a fusty old Mopar that rolled off the assembly line fortysomething years ago back into line again after an accident involves drastic measures.

This 1969 Dodge Charger owned and maintained by Frank Kozik of the Chiselers SF needed its coke bottle curves smoothed back to jet age perfection after getting rear-ended. While some of us might be able to fashion up some sort of near facsimile of a Dodge body panel with a gallon of Bondo and a potato masher, the end result won’t look better than it did when it came from the factory. Kozik decided new rear quarter panels were the way to go. Ace custom and body man Rolfe Brittain took on the job, and let us peer into the process from the first cut. Slicing through forty years of Mopar is not a task for the ill-equipped. Check out the gallery for the beginning of the work. Head on over to Rolfe’s for the ongoing saga of getting the lead out and put back in again.

More: Rolfe James Brittain Customizing

Quad Treaded Turbo Diesel

Mike Bumbeck — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:27:56 +0000

Crippling 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.

One driver and a co-pilot ride up front on either side of the five-cylinder turbodiesel engine and transmission. Everyone or everything else rides aft. An articulated steering-drive system runs between the fiberglass cabs so that both sets of treads work as one. Quad-treaded turbo power and integral bilge pump gives the Hagglunds amphibious capability and a top speed of over 30 miles per hour! The M-973 is a Hagglunds-built descendant of the Volvo-built Bandvagen 202. This one sits in front of the Vermont Army National Guard Museum, evidently retired from service after Brezhnev and company never came down through Quebec after all.

More: The M-973 Small Unit Support Vehicle

Rescue Tape saves Heater Hose

Mike Bumbeck — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:17:52 +0000

Miracle liquids and magic pastes are usually sources of great skepticism for us here at Clunkbucket. While there are some things that might work, there are a lot more that don’t. When the folks from Rescue Tape handed us a roll of this promising tape-like stuff at the big SEMA Show last year, we already had a test for it in mind. One of heater bypass hoses in the Starlet had developed a small (and slow) coolant leak after twenty plus years of occasional contact with a chunk of under hood California smog equipment. We suspect the original bit of foam armor that protected the heater bypass hose from contact with the smog elbow disintegrated a few Presidents ago. This Rescue Tape is a self-fusing silicone material that forms a permanent water and air tight seal to resist everything save for an atomic bomb attack. A few wraps around the old hose and all would be well. Did it work? Why yes. It did.

Step-by-Step Rescue Tape Heater Hose Repair

As the Starlet had a fully-laden trip to Los Angeles in its near future, we decided to give the Rescue Tape a few times around the old heater hose for repairs and testing. After weeks of local use and subsequent 500-mile journey from the bay area to Los Angeles, the Rescue Tape repair is holding leak free. A bonus is that the tape is functioning as a replacement layer of plastic armor to prevent the the reed-burp-whatever-valve smog elbow making another hole in the heater hose. The heater works swell too. We can’t say is this stuff will work for every repair, but keeping a roll in the glove box of a twenty something year old Starlet probably a good idea.

Disclosure: Rescue Tape provided the roll of tape shown here to Clunkbucket. For more information or suggested uses head over to Rescue Tape.

A Shrunken Corvair Named Kumquat

Mike Bumbeck — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:43:24 +0000

From 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.

Bob Ballew tells us that his brother Jim Ballew was the man with 50 bucks worth of Corvair in 1971. The dented shell got hauled to Bob Ballew the elder’s backyard in Twentynine Palms, California. Dad Ballew, also named Bob, looked at the dashboardless and front seatless once-turbo coupe and thought the remaining back seat looked a lot like a deluxe sofa with built in ashtrays. The smashed doors were removed. The unibody floor pan was shortened up accordingly. A little welding, and presto! Rear seats were now front seats. Since the body was already rough from whatever accident crumpled the doors, a can of Bondo and a few coats of Fruehauf Orange finished out the exterior.

The now orange body needed an engine. A naturally aspirated 164 cubic-inch air-cooled flat six cylinder was put together as a class project at Copper Mountain College by Bob’s wife Grace Ballew. With a few of Bob’s tested upgrades built-in, the engine kicked out more than its factory rated 150 horsepower. This same engine still runs great today. Early test drives around town had residents yelling “Hey, Kumquat!” as Bob and Grace motored by. The name stuck. A roll cage and larger rear tires were joined by a 4:11 ratio ring and pinion in the four-speed manual transaxle with the intent of taking the Kumquat out to the sand drag races. The car wasn’t competitive against the lighter fiberglass-bodied Volkswagens, so all the street-legal stuff went back in.

Bob and Grace motored about in the Kumquat on and off the road for years. While tanking up one day the car was spotted by an entertainment scout. The Kumquat passed the screen test. The 1978 movie Just Me and You stars not only Louise Lasser and Charles Grodin, but also features the Kumquat in a cameo role. The shortened Corvair rolls up to the flat tire stranded couple, and carries disgruntled girlfriend Louise Lasser away from the scene. A hapless Grodin is left alone in the high desert. In the real world the Kumquat was capable of travel over paved roads or no roads at all, and could lift the front wheels off the ground at any stoplight with proper use of the gas pedal and clutch.

Around the same time the Kumquat was created, son Bob Ballew was 800 miles away in South San Francisco putting the finishing touches on a shortened 1956-57 Chevrolet two-door Handyman wagon. Bob and his wife Diane motored down to Twentynine Palms in the just finished Shorty to surprise his Dad. When the couple pulled up in the shrunken Chevrolet wagon Bob’s Dad fell over laughing. Once Dad regained his composure, he walked over and pulled the cover off the recently painted Kumquat. The father and son had unbeknown to each other simultaneously built shortened Chevrolets! While Bob and Grace Ballew have since passed on, the shortened Corvair is still with us. When son Bob went to the high desert to gather memories and the Corvair, he found a completely rebuilt show-quality Corvair engine in the garage with a note on it that read save for Bobby (Kumquat four-speed). The Kumquat is ready for more, and still wears a factory turbo emblem to keep ‘em guessing.

A very special thanks to Bob Ballew for the photos and story of the Kumquat Corvair.

1969 Honda Electric Rear Driver

Mike Bumbeck — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:47:34 +0000

Garage 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

Tool of the Week: Snow and Ice Scraper

Mike Bumbeck — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:29:32 +0000

As much of the world plunges into the sort of deep freeze that may be the work of a clandestine global super villian, the trusty snow and ice scraper seems the perfect mid-winter Ernst Starvo Blofeld edition of Tool of the Week. Growing up in New England meant carrying one or more of these handy tools around for nearly six months out of the year, along with a childhood chock-a-block with scraping and shoveling. The archetypal Clunkbucket was in fact a 1964 Volkswagen Beetle. The heat exchangers had corroded into nothing long before the car fell for 500 bucks into the hands of this freshly licensed driver, who was more or less as old as whatever German ferrous materials the Vermont road salt had not eaten away. The car came already equipped with a scraper. This bonus snow and ice scraper served well to remove frozen crud from the outside of the window in this heatless automobile. The three-inch wide miracle of plastic injection and space age polymer technology was also very handy for scraping ice from the inside of the front windshield. Especially while driving. Heating and defrosting systems have come a long way since the rusted 1964 Bug, virtually eliminating the need for in cabin ice scraping. Snow and ice scrapers have been improved to wider and brush-equipped telescoping handle versions as shown here. Odds are good that any used car glovebox in the Northeast will contain one or more seventies-style Plexiglas models, making the vintage tools not only useful but collectible.