The best part about having musty old car magazines from the '60s is reading press releases about how by 1971, we would all be driving electric cars that ran on batteries comprised of then futuristic exotic materials. In the Detroit Spotlight department of a December 1966 issue of Motor Trend magazine is a small photo of a 1931 Detroit Electric Model 99, accompanied by the news … [Read more...]
Starlet and Starion Conquest
While seeing a Starion and a Starlet together in the same driveway may be something we're used to around here at Clunkbucket, rarely are the two cars ever seen together in the field. Andrew Layman is the only other person we know of that has not only a Starlet, but also a Starion. In this case the Mitsubishi is a 1986 Conquest-by-Dodge version Starion, and the 1982 Starlet … [Read more...]
Two Dogs Ford F-250
Karl Richofsky purchased this 1963 Ford F-250 pickup truck in 1965. He was looking for a tough, low mileage, heavy-duty truck. He got one. Over 700 thousand miles, five engines, countless sets of tires, and 44 years later he still has the same truck - now known as Two Dogs. Karl is a retired Operating Engineer, who can be found these days working in the pits on front engine top … [Read more...]
Tool of the Week: Snap-Ring Pliers
From the how did they get that thing in there division comes the snap-ring pliers edition of Tool of the Week. Snap-rings themselves are also known as circlips, rotor rings, and retaining rings. These flattish rings are usually found holding in a bearing or assembly by way of being stuck into a machined groove. In this case a pair of snap-rings was holding a piston onto a … [Read more...]
Return of Bluebird
For 1966, Datsun went to 11. The durable and Pininfarina-styled Datusn P410 was stepped up with more engine and became the Datsun P411. In 2004 Pete Peterson found this 1967 Datsun RL411 Bluebird SSS wearing various shades of blue and surface rust, and woke it up from a 20-year junkyard slumber. The chronicle of the this Datsun is one of two cars, forty years, and a meandering … [Read more...]