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Vintage Car Thread - Discussion and Parts Requests

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
and a wad of steel wool up the tailpipe.

That is the best thing you can do for a vintage vehicle! I bought a 68 Norton Fastback several years ago, I knew the engine was seized, when I took the head of, I found a nest in it! Hard to believe the critter manged to crawl all the way up the muffler and header pipe and back out many times, but it did.
 

ChiTownScion

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,247
Location
The Great Pacific Northwest
Wish I'd known those steel wool in the exhaust pipe and dryer sheets in crevices tricks when I stored my boat for the winter-- in an unheated shed in northern Wisconsin. I'm always certain that small woodland creatures find sanctuary there. No evidence of any real damage thus far, but sounds like good measures for next year.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,732
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Wish I'd known those steel wool in the exhaust pipe and dryer sheets in crevices tricks when I stored my boat for the winter-- in an unheated shed in northern Wisconsin. I'm always certain that small woodland creatures find sanctuary there. No evidence of any real damage thus far, but sounds like good measures for next year.

Mice will get into any crevice or opening they possibly can, and once inside they will raise hell on your upholstery. When I bought the Plodge it had been sitting in a heated garage, under a car cover, for five years -- and there were dozens of mouse nests inside. One of them, under the back seat, was the size of a football. It took me a full year to find and eradicate all of them, and I ended up having to replace the headliner and all of the wiring. Mouse pee is also very corrosive, and will rust you out as fast as road salt.

I don't mind the skunks living under my garage, but the mice have got to go.
 

Big Man

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,781
Location
Nebo, NC



We spent most of today working around the house, so now for a little break my partner in crime and I are headed out for a ride in the country before time to go to church for a cover dish supper.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,780
Location
New Forest
An ode to Jessica:

There was a time when motor cars were serious fun to drive,
back then they didn't have seat belts, which help you stay alive.
They had quirky things like running boards and trafficators too,
those were little semaphore arms that gave the direction true.

Jessica is just like that in two tone fancy colour,
she's an MG of classic vintage, a real beauty to discover.
There's nothing more that she prefers than to show off in the shining sun,
and be photographed by one and all: she smiles for everyone.

This classic car has survived the years and not been torn asunder,
not for her, the breaker's yard, her body parts to plunder.
Despite her years she's greatly loved, her lines to be admired,
and she still puts on a turn of speed to get the adrenaline fired.

Out on the highway she likes to go and keep up with the traffic.
but serious problems can arise when all the cars are static.
The water in her engine boils and out the steam comes hissing,
she doesn't have a temperature fan but it's not exactly missing.

It simply wasn't ever there like modern cars have today,
There's so much missing with vintage cars, it's the price you have to pay.
but for all the lack of equipment and of technology,
there's something intangible this car has, this lovely old MG.

It's that distinct smell of old car, of walnut and of leather,
a fragrance that's so captivating: it doesn't get much better.
Then there's her style and grace and beauty, and class in overload,
but her greatest asset is the fun you can have, that comes by the bucketload
 

Fastuni

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,277
Location
Germany
In the Munich Gallery for Modern Art ("Pinakothek der Moderne") there are currently four highly interesting cars at display.

All are very advanced Austrian/German/Czech designs from 1936-38 that were produced.

Karl Jenschke's designs for the "Steyr Baby" (Austria 1936) and the "Autobahn Adler" (Germany 1937).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steyr_50
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adler_2.5-litre

StAd3.png

StAd2.png


The highlight: Hans Ledwinka's "Tatra 87" produced in Czechoslowakia from 1937-50.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_87

Tatra1.png

Tatra2a.png

Tatra3.png

Tatra5.png

Tatra4.png


And the commercially most successful: Ferdinand Porsche's VW "Beetle" - here the 1946 version:

VW.png
 
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Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
It was said of the Tatra 87 "so many Nazi officers were killed by spinning out while cornering, that the car was dubbed the “Czech Secret Weapon” and the mass deaths cause Adolph Hitler to forbid his officers to drive the car."
 

Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,808
Location
Cobourg
There was a lot of innovative thinking in Germany and Eastern Europe at that time, especially in auto and motorcycle design. Front wheel drive, rear engine drive, two stroke engines, and many other things that were copied by other makers for years afterward.
 

Fastuni

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,277
Location
Germany
It was said of the Tatra 87 "so many Nazi officers were killed by spinning out while cornering, that the car was dubbed the “Czech Secret Weapon” and the mass deaths cause Adolph Hitler to forbid his officers to drive the car."

Where is that quote from?

I think this is a myth. After all the highest Czech political leaders - Edvard Benes and Klement Gottwald - also used this car.

Maybe the Nazis got bad drivers or where driving too recklessly...
 

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