Clyde and the Blue Jesus Balloon...

Sounds like a band huh? Had a good time @ the Dixon MC swap meet with Bryan, Bill and Clyde. Thanks for drivin' down guys.

Bikes of the Dixon Swap

Well there was quite a good turn out at the swap meet today. I took my son to his first bike event & we had a great time with Jeff & Bill. Hope to do it again in January at the Sacramento swap. Jump in here Jeff if you've got some pics. I know there were a couple of bikes I missed.

SWAMP MEAT!!!

So I placed a call to the MMA today to ask about the illusive Cow Palace Swap in Daily City. I was told it had been canceled (yet again) but that the event would take place in Dixon, Ca. instead. According to the folks at MMA of Ca., the Cow Palace wants something like $10,000 to hold an event. Greedy shysters. I really hope they find a permanent home for this swap meet & that it will once again become an an annual destination.

Be there!

transmission stand

Quick transmission stand. This thing only has 4 bolts so this was a simple project.

pre-unit stand

Finished this engine stand just in time for our move. Should have done this years ago, but what the hell; better late than never eh?

bars

About 10 inches with a 15 degree crick in the neck.

good quote

"Good people drink good beer."

-Hunter S. Thompson

shift knob

Finished this one today. Big thanks to my father in law Steve for the wood I used! I'll run this in the Dodge when It's finished. God I'm going to miss my lathe.

8BA= V8 Bad Ass....

Not really, but it made me smile. Today (while I should have been working) I rescued this engine from a field literally in the middle of nowhere. I've visited this thing for years now, trying to figure out how the hell I could get it out of the dirt & in to a truck by myself. Well today I had a plan... that didn't work. It took me about 3 hours & I damn near killed myself doing it, but I got my buried treasure.

church keys

From my Uncle Lawrence's place. One has what looks like a date of '59.

shift knob

Made this from an old oxygen cylinder valve & a bottle cap.

Dig it.

Maybe my new favorite beer. Check them out here.

Lawrence Joseph Schneider 1927-2011

My great Uncle Lawrence was one of the coolest guys I've ever had the pleasure of knowing & someone I've always looked up to. He was an eccentric man, a WWII veteran & a hot-roder since the birth of hot-roding; an original "greaser" (though he never would have called himself that). His memory was exceptional to the very end. I saw him just a couple of days before he passed & though he was in a hospital bed, he perked right up when I asked him about his '34 Ford V8. I'd say his favorite car though would be his '50 Ford sedan (also V8 of course). That was the one he always talked about racing around. His daily driver though, was a '70 Ford 4x4 with a 390. Mom has some really rad photos from the 50's of him, his brothers & my grandpa with their cars I hope to get soon & post them. He will be greatly missed.

Kingsburg

Took this a few years back at the Kingsburg Ca. car show.

Ride to Work Day... Tomorrow

1948 Tech.

Oil Bath Conversion

The Dodge's air filter/cleaner is an oil bath type. This literally means it is filled with oil. It's actually a very good filtering system, just messy & time consuming as you have to wash (& dry) it instead of just changing out a dry filter element as in modern autos. Since I had a spare assembly, I decided to retrofit the set-up with a paper element. The filter I chose is a bit tall so I needed to build a custom nut to make it all work. So I made two. In the pictures, the top of this assembly is what I salvaged from the spare & the body is the original & has not been modified. So, when I want to run the thing in it's original state (with oil) all I have to do is swap the tops & fill it with oil. I love old technology.

Progress- Lionel's CB550

Wicked custom clip-ons & narrowed tank. Good stuff!

Glass Bowl Fuel Filter

This belongs to the Dodge. Originally it should have had a ceramic filter element inside the bowl, but since it was missing I utilized a paper element from NAPA Auto & made a copper spacer to make it all work.

Ride to Work Day

custom tools

Totally unrelated, but I finished this knife today. I built it in trade for another custom leather tool by a gentleman in South Carolina. Custom tools are great & fairly unique, but when one is build just for you & to your specs it is truly one of a kind & nothing beats that. I love the bartering system.

---PARTY---

Check out Part Time Cycles.

more burried treasure...

Today I removed the seat & found the truck's original tools. Nothing spectacular but I sure felt like I had just unearthed a tomb. I know that seat had not been lifted in 40-50 years. Very cool. In other news, Bin Laden is dead! "Yippy kayay mother f#cker"

The God of gas tanks!

Saw this over on the QCB. I have a thing for tanks, but this may be the raddest part I've seen for any bike ever! Holy Sh*t! Check it out HERE.

treasures

Well, thanks to the help of Mom & Dad we got the truck home today & it all went smooth. This evening when I started looking through the glove box (which had rotted & fallen to the floor years ago) I found a few treasures; namely the owners manuals! I'm really going to have to take my time checking the manuals out as they are in quite a fragile state from sitting in the cab for so many years. The rest are tune up parts that I really hope are salvageable, but I'm not holding my breath.