Petrol head thread!!!

[billy rubin]

that 441 is worth $3000 if you put it back together and make it run. if you make it sparkling perfect its worth close to $5000

441s are as much a cult bike as tbe TR5Ts

[Asmodean]

A question kinda' towards that; it can be ridiculously labour-intensive to restore something to perfection - or even to factory default, and yet one sees some Netflix reality shows (Yes, yes, shame be on The Asmo and all that) where they fix up cars and sell them all shiny for 20-30K.

Is it because it's just surface-level? Polished turds, so to speak? Is it "just for entertainment," perhaps, or an actual business model over in the Americas? (We don't really have a restoration/restomod industry as such. Well, we do, but them things cost a lot more than my generally far more sophisticated car did new)

[billy rubin]

yes. lots of trailer queen show machines dont run, have never been started since the resto, or are even incomplete inside.

some show venues require the vehicles to move under their own power, but not all.

the 100 point cars lose points of there is dust on the wheels or a drop of oil on the motor.

motorcycles are no exception. art bikes are not even intended to run.

[Asmodean]

I see. I've had my suspicions - not in every case, but for instance, I suspect that Canadian Rust Bros show was only possible as a show, and that the business would not even approach viable as it was without either being a side-gig to more conventional garage operations OR that sweet, sweet streaming cash.

Hmm... Personally, I think art cars/bikes/ATVs/what have you should perform as the vehicles that they are. They can handle like a drunken container ship, but I think the capability for certain from-A-to-B-ness is a must. Now a piece of art depicting a vehicle does not need to do any such thing. Say, you half-bury a car in a roundabout and call it a scuplture. I'd say in that case, it's perfectly fine to remove the engine, transmission and other such reusables/recyclables because by then, it's no longer a car - it's a sculpture of one.

[billy rubin]

amarillo. all were running when placed

[Dark Lightning]

^ I guess there's already enough oil in the soil of Texas that it really doesn't add to the pollution. I'm curious- did these cars have graffiti on them when planted? That display ("Carhenge"    ) is enough of an eyesore without the graffiti.

[billy rubin]

no

cadillac ranch was a monument to the tail fin. the cars were stock, but have become a cult mecca for painters

they were running iirc in sequence from the first tail fins in 1948 to some much later type. cadillac tail fins were mostly vestigial by the late 1960s

they drove them into pre-dug holes in the ground and tipped them all up to the same angle as the cheops pyramid.

elsewhere on the ranch is a giant billard table with balls and a huge cue

its a working ranch visible from th ehighway. ive seen this place with wheat growing around the cadillacs, and with cows wandering around them, and then with a path set aside for tourists.

texas is full of pollution. if you drive through the central basin platform where the cable tool rigs have been drilling since 1926, you can smell th esulphur dioxide all the way. mud pits used to be just square places scraped in the ground. the gulf coast is a line of refineries and chemical plants worse than new jersey

[Asmodean]

Cool! I'm adding that there to my to-see list.

I'm not a fan of them tail fins, but it's a neat piece of art.

[billy rubin]

first car i remember in my family was the 58 dodge



push button transmission, no park position.

dangerous

[Asmodean]

...They did have their charm though, did they not?

[billy rubin]

i prefer the 50s hudsobs, personally

[Icarus]

I once had a 1937 Hudson sedan. It was a luxury car in its day. It even had heated shock absorbers for use in cold Weather. If I remember correctly it had a straight eight flathead engine.

It was a barn find of sorts. Had been in storage for several years. It did not need much fiddling to get it running. I drove it around in the Connecticut snow and ice for several months before it demanded attention. The clutch became an unreliable coupling between engine and transmission. Turns out that it had a cork clutch. I replaced the corks with about a hundred cork bottle stoppers and it worked very well after that.

That was in the early fifties and I sold it for 75 dollars because I was going to ship out..........I was in the Coast Guard at the time.

[billy rubin]

i would kill for that car.

the fluid to keep the corks working was called hudsonite. no modern interchange exists.

[Icarus]

That old Hudson was one of the luxury sedan models of the day. The rear seat was separated by a long distance from the back of the front seat.  The upholstery was luxurious. The glass was very thick. Something like a Gangster car I suppose.

[Dark Lightning]

OK, "petrol" question. I have a plastic quart bottle of charcoal fire starter. I used it to clean some price sticker residue off some wood that I bought today. I thought that that sh...tuff was naphtha? It stinks to high heaven, worse than the spirits of gum turpentine that I used to use. I put the boards outside to air out. So- question- can I dump it in the tank of my old '70 Chevy truck along with a load of corn squeezins and burn it off, or should I return it as hazardous household waste? It has no other use for me, as we have a pellet-fed smoker and a propane grill.