Took a few pics while waiting for a friend outside Kidrobot in Soho, NYC. (Click for larger) Amazingly quick trip. Jumped in the car, went to a camera shop, zipped through Soho, and back to the studio in under an hour. Guess that’s the advantage of working near the Holland Tunnel.
This is a typical scene outside schools my kids go to: a row of shiny new SUV/CRVs with massive ground clearance, and my bird-shit covered brick laying low on stiff springs that make the kids puke.
I remember thinking that the Chevy Vega was kind of a cool car in the’70’s . Looked like a Camaro that had met Dr. Shrinker on the Kroft Supershow. Then I met someone who had actually owned one.
I got a job doing deliveries for a copy company and for the first delivery he had me shadow him. It was delivering flyers to a strip club. (Note: I never made that delivery again. The boss always had to make it his personal delivery.) There was a Vega in the lot and I commented on it. I then heard a 10 minute tirade against the scourge that was the Chevy Vega and how horrible it made his life when he owned it. Many of his complaints about rust I’d heard before about GM cars, but he had a depth of negative experience with actually driving and maintaining the car that I hadn’t heard before.
Carlust blog has been pondering the Chevy Vega and posts the question: “What Went Wrong?”
During Thanksgiving I had a chance to go to the local pick-n-pull near my parents house. There were three 200 series in there, as well as a turbo 940 and turbo 740, both turbos about 1994. There was a manual tranny in one of the 240s, but I don’t have the scratch to buy it. Instead I pulled the tan seat covers off of one, then took out the bottom passenger cushion. They charged me for the whole seat, but I didn’t need it. I’m gonna swap it into the driver side with a new set of springs. Above is my current seat, below is the “fresh” vinyl and slip cover.
BONUS: I drew a picture of a towering pile of cars and posted to my Flickr page.
Three circumstances worked against me this week:
1. Cold weather in NJ.
2. Oily alternator belt.
3. Ye olde battery.
I needed a jump start twice. The first was from parking in front of my apartment with the hazards on. I was away from the car for only 20 minutes and it wouldn’t start up. I looked under the hood at the Volvo logo on the battery and figured it was probably an 18 year old original. After losing the charge when I moved my car for a street sweeper, I figured I needed a new battery. Got a $100 Bosch at Pep Boys and now we start like a champ.
via NJ.com
Technically this wagon was found in Alabama, but it sure looks fried extra crispy.
How much can you hack a Brick to make it aerodynamically sleek before it ceases to be a rolling refrigerator box and becomes a 1999 Honda Insight, or a masked Luchadore? That’s an inquiry some posters at Ecomodder were exploring back in 2008.
While the “Kammback” wagon above, with 5 feet of extra car, existed only in the owners imagination, the spoiler on the right is the real deal. From hypermiler “brucepick”:
You can see the taped joint at upper right were top piece meets side.
Had to be untaped and retaped every time I opened the tailgate. Plus
duct tape residue all over the place. As with other mods, no
confirmation that it actually helped. But if using a good clean design I
think it has to help.
I can only imagine what it’d be like with the kammback. You might as well forget about opening the trunk. Perhaps it’d be a hack similar to the “Aerorabbit” pictured below.
