The aftermarket, one-size-fits-all floormats I got from the local Pep Boys last year didn’t quite work as planned. After a few weeks the driver side developed a fold that occasionally grabbed and held the gas pedal until I kicked it out of the way. I trimmed and re-shaped the rubber and everything has been fine since.
Not so for Toyota. What supposedly started as a problem with insecure floor mats on 3.6 million American cars has metastasized into a global recall of 6.5 million vehicles and has halted production of almost their entire line of cars.
I used to go to hot rod shows with my dad back in the late 70’s/ early 80’s and they were usually jam packed with custom conversion vans. Tons of candy apple paint, air-brushed illustrations of vikings and evil polar bears and lots of furry dashboards. Most of them had beds in the back, including one with a waterbed and a huge fish tank.
The Selvedge yard has compiled a slew of pictures of the craze in all it’s metal-flake glory.
After waiting an excruciating 18 hours for my FCP Groton order, it finally arrived via UPS. Did I really just order these front wheel bearings yesterday afternoon?
Wait a sec… is the name on the box really the name of the company? FAG? WTF? Do they offer t-shirts with their logo?
Dan Johnston has a funny post about the 240 being a good first car for new drivers. He posts the transcript of a conversation between NPR’s laugh-factory Click and Clack speaking to a teen who hates driving her 240 wagon:
TOM: Wait. I’ve got it. Emily, next time you’re in the car with your dad, look toward the back and say, “Those back seats fold down, right, Dad?” And when your dad says: “Sure they do. Why?” You say, “Well, with the seats folded down, I bet there’s plenty of room for two people to lie down back there!” He’ll have you in a 1992 Volvo sedan by Monday, Emily!
I dusted off my old Michel Gondry Director Series DVD and was excited to see a couple of bricks in the video for Kylie Minougue “Come Into My World“. The blue brick is a 140, but there’s also a white 200 series parked on one of the side streets. The video isn’t embeddable, so you’ll have to view it on YouTube.
The video is shot as if it’s one camera take, panning 360 degrees as Kyle walks around an intersection. Her route loops when she gets to the chorus, and she repeatedly spawns a clone who follows the same walk from the beginning. It’s some amazing choreography and loops 5 times.
Finally pulled the glovebox out and checked the Overdrive Relay switch. It looks fine but, after trying Art Benstein’s test of the current at the relay, it didn’t give a response. I’ve read that the circuit boards often need to be resoldered, so I’m thinking I need to bust it open and check, before springing $43 for the part.
As part of MoMA’s Tim Burton show they are screening his films. Today was “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” and I went with my daughters and a friend. During the final chase scene this blue brick pops up in a shot. See it at 5:45 in the video below. Keep playing the video for some Twisted Sister mayhem.
Before there was “Christine“, there was “The Car”, a movie I remember seeing on late-night TV in the early 80’s. I’m sure it was a drive-in theater treat when it came out in 1977. Nothing like being chased by a huge, vaguely Ford-looking black bucket of Bondo.
BONUS: Hot Rod Magazine’s 40 top car movies. Nice to see Mad Max represented.
