Category: 1A Auto Blog Home

Throw Out Bearing Says: “Not Agaaaaain!”

Jeremy Nutt 1 Comment

When you build a car from a bunch of parts that were not intended to play nicely together, sometimes you end up breaking some random stuff.  Normal people don’t have these issues.  Unfortunately… hm…  no….. fortunately in my world, this kind of issue is the norm.  This past weekend my brother in law and I had a hoot of a time pulling the transmission out of his 2nd generation FC RX7 because the throw out bearing had exploded in grand fashion.

In a serious tone, you say: “Jeremy, this is not normal! What is the meaning of this?!”
To which I proudly respond: “Truer words have never been spoken!….. but alas! He has a 3rd generation, FD twin turbo engine swap producing mucho POWAH!”
You then cover your ears with your hands and shout: “Oh My!”

Back to reality…. where were we?  Oh yeah, so the car was built quite some time ago, and then recently sat untouched for a few years outside in the awful New England weather (sadface), which we are thinking maaaaaay have been a contributor to the bearing failure.

To sum it all up:  Throw Out Bearings can make the Best Day Evaaaaaar! into the Worst Day Evah!!! in the blink of an eye.  Use the picture above to easily determine which day you may be having.

No More Excuses! I Think?

Jeremy Nutt 2 Comments

 

Finally.  When I was 15, I bought a 1964 Chevy Impala convertible (my dream car), which you may have read about HERE.  Because of it’s sad state of disrepair, I immediately started a body off restoration when it rolled off a flatbed and into my parents driveway.  Much to my chagrin, it has never made much progress because of x, y, and z, but mostly because of its full time outdoor storage.  Everybody that I know hassles me about it not being done yet because I thought I would be driving it to the junior prom (nope), then senior prom (nope), college graduation (nope), 5 year high school reunion (nope), wedding day (nope), 10 year HS reunion (nope)…… Well..yea….it still isn’t done.  However, over the course of this extremely short feeling summer, I built myself a garage to play in.  Last night, I finally got all the garage doors attached properly, and Read More

The Rust Heinz Designed Bowman & Schwartz Phantom Corsair

Jeremy Nutt Leave a comment
This picture above is what it looked like when it was new.
This is after it was modified and painted by the second owner.
This is what it looks like now.

Back in the mid 1930’s Rust Heinz (yes, the ketchup guy) decided to design a high end supercar.  He made a model out of clay, and had it built by Bowman & Schwartz (they were awesome car builders).  The car was known as the 1938 Phantom Corsair.  Rust Heinz wanted it to be a limited production car that would be sold for about $15,000, which was a massive sum of money at the time.

The car used a Cord engine in its original front wheel drive configuration. It had an automatic transmission, and they bumped the horsepower up to around 190.  Not too shabby for the 1930’s!  Once completed, Rust drove the car for a while and advertised it all over.  Unfortunately, Rust died tragically at the young age of 25 in a car accident (not in this car), and the “push” for the car to become a success was lost.  The car was stored for a few years after Rust’s death and then sold to a guy that modified it to be a more driver friendly vehicle.  Better cooling, a bigger windshield, and a modified roof were all molded into the clean original body.  It was then painted gold and driven by the new owner.

Decades later it came up for auction and landed in the Harrah Collection in Reno Nevada, which eventually became the National Automobile Museum. It was modified again back to its original design, and is currently on display in the museum today if you’d like to see it in person.   My only thought is that it needs more “low”, like at least 5 more inches of it.  Other than that, its bug eyed killer whale body is quite appealing to me.

Image Borrowed From:

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t114/dog427435/1218%20ashbridge/Vintage/1039.png

http://www.supercars.net/cars/4422.html

Taking it Back to 1984 with “Fat Charlie”

Jeremy Nutt 3 Comments

Recently I had the pleasure of working on an absolutely beautiful 1984 Chevy Caprice.  I know, I know, “absolutely beautiful” and “Caprice” probably shouldn’t ever be used in the same sentence.  However, I assure you that this car is an exception to the rule.  This big fella, nicknamed “fat Charlie” by its owner, was clearly babied from the start, and always well taken care of.  He was parked indoors, and only driven when necessary which kept the mileage down around 2800 miles per year.  Yes, you did read that correctly, Charlie has just over 70K miles on it today.

When Charlie arrived in my driveway under the cover of darkness (don’t ask), he had a saggy headliner, stripped out windshield wiper arm, a leaky muffler, and a directional that only wanted to make left turns.  All were easy fixes that I thoroughly enjoyed doing.  Every nut and bolt was removed without a fight, and I took special care on everything I removed because I didn’t want to damage any of the original interior trim that was in perfect condition.  Overboard? Yea, maybe, but I love cars.

Several days later, Charlie had officially passed the state inspection, and I got to take the big guy for a truly enjoyable jaunt down the road.  It basically feels like a brand new 1984 car.  There is plenty of room for you and 16 of your closest friends, it has power everything, and the floats like a Cadillac down the bumpiest of roads.  I even got thumbs up from multiple people!  Going forward, Charlie will be kept in the family of the original owner, and driven and enjoyed daily for the foreseeable future.  Maaaybe Charlie will even make it to some local cruise nights?  We’ll see. 🙂

Any other 1980’s B-Body fans out there?

When Early 1900′s Puck Clutch Technology Is FTW!

Jeremy Nutt 2 Comments

In the early 1900’s automotive engineers were trying some crazy stuff.  That is one of the reasons that I love older cars so much.  These guys didn’t really have a “norm” to start with, so they attempted to create it.  Cars in general were in their infancy and each manufacturer was completely different than the next.

The other day I spotted an engine that still had an old clutch assembly attached.  It was something that I had never seen before so I snapped off a few quick pics.  Judging by the planetary gears on the back of the clutch, it was probably from a tractor or some piece of farm equipment, but it was cool looking & genius design nonetheless.   It vaguely resembled a modern puck clutch with it’s multi-pad design.  From what I am told, you could swap those friction pads out without pulling the transmission.  Now that is a good idea!  Just imagine how much cheaper clutch jobs would be if the transmission didn’t need to come out.  Even if clutches didn’t last as long, it could be a 30K mile service that is 1 hour of labor, and likely ~ $50 in friction material.  What am I missing here?  Why was this design lost in history?  Why doesn’t somebody reinvent this for ultimate profit?  What the heck?

Exedy? You listening?

Rusty Yet Appealing: 1933 Chevy Edition

Jeremy Nutt Leave a comment
What would you guys and gals value this car at?

Each weekend I find myself at car shows, junkyards, swap meets, and generally surrounded by the car culture.  This past weekend I was at a swap meet that we call “Amherst”, but it’s actually called “Cruising To Amherst”.  I have been going there on the last Sunday of every month for as long as I can remember, and it is always a great time.  There is never a lack of bizarre cars for sale or interesting people people to watch.  I usually bump in to old friends, co workers, and sometimes even cars and parts that I used to own!

This month was no exception for interesting people and cars.  One of my favorites was a 1933 (I think?) Chevy that appeared to have been freshly pulled out of a barn.  The body itself wasn’t that bad, but the running boards on the sides were almost completely rotted away.  I don’t really know how that’s possible, but hey, whatever.  The frame was cover in grease from looooong ago so it wasn’t too bad looking in the grand scheme of New England cars.  I was afraid to ask what the price tag was, because I’m often left flabbergasted, and I wasn’t mentally prepared for that type of risk so early in the morning.  If I had to put a number on it, I think $1500 is probably a fair estimate of value for a car like this.

Pro’s:
– It was a complete car
– You won’t need to hunt down little odds and ends that nickle and dime you to death.
– You may be able to get free delivery if your local?
– Cool looking car
– The metal is fairly straight

Con’s:
– Quite Rusty
– Needs lots of time and money invested to restore it
– 4 Doors, not as desirable as the coupe
– Your significant other will not like this in the yard / garage / property.  You may be kicked out of the house.

1A Auto Blog Readers:  What would you guys and gals value this car at?

Must Have Automotive Apps?

Jeremy Nutt 4 Comments

Ok, I have accidentally smashed almost every cell phone that I have ever owned.  I certainly don’t try to, but I’m constantly rolling around under cars, sandblasting, painting, washing, burning, and hammering things.   My environment is just not conducive to cellular phone usage.  Recently my service contract was up, and I had to make a decision.  Do I stay in my simple world without internet on my phone? OR Do I wake up to modern technology and get a phone that has internet, cool apps, and a variety of other gadgets?  I weighed out all the options and questioned some friends on phone durability.  I then jumped into the wide world of modern technology with a new Blackberry Bold. Wow!  Some of my friends tried to convince me to go with the Droid, which does look like an awesome phone, but I decided that it never stood a chance at surviving my automotive lifestyle.  I knew that I could get an Otterbox case for the Blackberry, and one of my friends has put his to the test with a 40 foot drop onto pavement, without damage.  So, mine shooould survive for a while as well.

This brings me to the point of this blog.  What apps does an automotive enthusiast like myself need for their Blackberry?  I know the flashlight is useful, but I don’t even know what else to look for!?  I realize that I could hop on Google and get recommendations from people I don’t know.  I would rather get the info from the absolutely awesome readers of the 1A Auto Blog.

What are the MUST HAVE Automotive apps?

Full disclosure: The Apple I-Phone pictured above was owned by a co-worker and was hit with a poorly (?) guided golf ball from about 50 yards.  The phone was resting “safely” in a golf cart cup holder with a pair of sunglasses keeping it company.  Then it happened, DRIVE! > POW! > SMASH! > CYA!  Just imagine those odds!