Category Archives: Auto Technology

More 2014 C7 Owner’s Manual Details Appear – CorvetteOnline

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Yet another – leak!!!

More 2014 C7 Owner’s Manual Details Appear – CorvetteOnline.

http://www.corvetteonline.com

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Welding 101: Getting Started With MIG Welding Basics – CorvetteOnline

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Welding 101: Getting Started With MIG Welding Basics – CorvetteOnline.

Follow the link above for a great run down on welding.

Welding is an essential skill for hardcore and even moderate enthusiasts. Nuts and bolts can only take you so far. Eventually, if you’re serious about customizing and fabrication, you’re going to have to learn to weld. This useful skill will open up new fabrication options for your projects that may have seemed impossible before.

While taking a class or going to a seminar is a good idea, the truth is – with practice, patience, and the proper equipment, you can learn to MIG weld in your garage, on your own. We got together with our friends at Lincoln Electric to find out what you should know to get started in the world of MIG welding.

Inside Moser’s MUSCLEPAK 9-Inch Rear End | Dragzine

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Inside Moser’s MUSCLEPAK 9-Inch Rear End | Dragzine.

Click the link above for the entire article.

For a variety of reasons you may need to step things up in the drive line department on your project car to a nine inch rear end. Extreme horsepower levels, the need to swap rear end gear ratios more easily, stronger components, less gear deflection, are all reasons that come to mind. Whatever the reason a Moser Engineering MUSCLEPAK nine inch may be the smart choice for your application

The Car Differential

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Sometimes we forget how things evolved when it comes to the functioning of our cars.  Sometimes to understand how they work its helpful to go back in time and view how the problem was solved.

Take for instance this 1937 GM film on how to solve cornering.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Sleeper Cars

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As you know  (I assuming here), a “sleeper” car is one that on the exterior looks “average” (that it’s normally understood as referring to “slow”) under the wrapper, it’s a fire breather.

I was reading a special edition of ……the best auto periodical publisher in the WORLD (normally understood as referring to “ever existed”) Hemmings’ Muscle Machines – All Modified….and came upon an article entitled “Sleepers” by Richard Brigidi.

He defined a “sleeper” car as one with no engine badges, no chrome or striping, but with a monster engine.  The idea was back in the 1960’s as to hide the fact that you had mega HP under the hood.  Of course back in the day, street racing was common (although non-legal – just like today) and often it was done for cash or “pink slips”,  so hiding (or at least under stating) that fact that you’ve got a super power plant would be a benefit.

I’ve always liked the thought of having a poverty wheeled – rubber burner and always had in mind a plain-Jane Chevy Biscayne.

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Or maybe a plain old Mustang coupe?

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What’s your idea of a sleeper car? Drop your idea in a comment below.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

sleeper carssleeper cars

5 Best Sleeper Cars of 2014

Meanwhile, I put together a list of Top 5 Sleeper Cars available today. It includes a few American-built vehicles, and a couple more coming from cold, snowy Sweden and rugby-loving Australia. Check them out past the jump and tell me your thoughts in …

 

Technology – Horse Power, Kilo Watts – What?

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1.6 = 0.4.  Yes that’s the new math.

I was reading one of the industry standard  new car ‘trends’ magazines and they were comparing two electric cars (ok, no offense intended but how ‘boring’ is that?).  In the course of the discussion the formula above was that 1.6 is how many kw per hour (kw-h) an ion battery (in one of the cars) carries.  That equals about the same amount of energy  that 0.4 gallon so gas has.

Is this soon, to be the car guys’ discourse?  “Man, I just upped my kilo watts to 1.9 per hour!”  I hope not!!

I am getting older, but no, I’m not a technophobe.  I’m the Director of IT for my company and I use  a MAC and  a Windows machine, the latest I-phone and a fairly new Android and, yes, I have all my music and movies in a “CLOUD”!!!!   So that’s not the issue.  What the hell are we going to talk about in the future? I just can’t see that being the topic of discussion, during a NASCAR race for at the drag strip.

How much of a conversation can you have?   Discuss what would the bolt on possibility for an electronic car, oh….I don’t know maybe a Flux Capacitor to provide the needed 1.21 Gigawatts of Electrical Power? (Ok I couldn’t resist – here’s a link – http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/EB00/121G.oap)

Flux

Or, maybe, “Hey I just got the new EverReady ion cooper topped E battery for my Prius.”

I’m sure I offended a lot of engineers by this post and guys that love instant torque (hey maybe I’m on to something here….umm…naaah…..) and my hat is off to those chasing energy-saving cars that go fast,  like Tesla’s offerings, but I’ll take good old horse power – gas mixed with air and ignited.  That’s the way to go!!!!

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Got a good bolt on?  Drop a note!!!!

The 302

The 302

 

PROJECT CAR: 1939 Packard Sedan « Classic Recollections

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PROJECT CAR: 1939 Packard Sedan « Classic Recollections.

We found this 1939 Packard sedan in northern Illinois.There’s really no telling what banished this half-finished project to a curb full of weeds. It may have been funds running out, a builder in over his head or just a plain lack of interest but either way, we’ll never know. We spied the primered 1939 Packard sedan in northern Illinois, not far from the Wisconsin border. The vehicle’s interior was completely gutted and a single strap appeared to be the only thing holding the hood of an empty engine bay together. Bodywork has been done on several of the fenders and there’s air in the tires, so we’ll hope that whoever owns this dejected cruiser is just taking a break from a restoration or overhaul. Perhaps the next time we roll through the area we’ll see this curvacious Packard back in road-going glory. Or at least a ‘For Sale’ sign in the window.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Mopar Door Panel Project – The LeBaron Part 2

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Let’s finish up the coverage of this project.

As you as in the Part 1 we ran into some issue with the clue holding on some critical parts of the door panel, like the part that holds up on sub-panel that holds the controls for the window, locks and mirror remote.  Also needing attention was the vent channel that push air to driver’s window to defog it.

I wanted this fixes to be permanent and it was clear that more glue wasn’t going be a long-term fix.  There isn’t much that makes up the door panel, it was only about 1/4″ thick. Now I know it might make folks cringe, but it was necessary, I used very small (short) hobby screw.

Here are some pics:

This first pic is showing the actual problems.

PANEL2The two “A”s are showing the two clips on the back of the brace that accept the male part of the clip from the panel that holds all the controls.  Without begin attached the back of the door panel the control flop around and slide out-of-place.

The “B” and arrow highlight the issue.  There the glue let go and you can see the gap.

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Here you can see the vent channel.  This posed a bit of an issue because the door panel is thin here and on the outside there is a locking ring that is mainly a decorative actually had locking prongs, which as a result of the glue no longer holding fast, broke off and I had to JB Weld them back on.  In this pic you can see one of the screws I used to put every thing back together.

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Here is a close up of the one of the screws.  In the lower left you can see on of the blobs of glue that came loose.

This was a really easy repair, however, we didn’t resolve the window issue.  So we’ll pull the right side door panel and see if we can fix window issue and as long a we’re in there we’ll shore up the braces.

Thanks for reading.  Leave a comment.

Tim