Amazing mind trip!
Okay, this is what you do when you have amazing skills. Check out the photo this fella took. Looks pretty good for late 50’s photography. As I’ve posted before, I love taking old photos like this and “colorizing” them to kind of experience what it would have looked like if you had actually been there.
But a fella named Micheal Paul Smith took the concept just a bit further. And all he needed was a nice camera, a little photoshop touch-up, and some serious skills!
This is a real photograph. No colorization at all.
How’d he do it? Would you believe those cars are just models he built!?
Micheal Paul Smith.
WOW! Just WOW! He has truly done some amazing work. Check out his slideshow if you ever get a chance!
Ugh. Snow.
I remember when I was a kid there was nothing better than a snow day. The more the better. Now as I slowly transform into a grumpy old man, I find that I could really do without it!
Well that’s not entirely true. I just wish it would snow, but that somehow driveways, sidewalks and roadways were immune. I shoveled my driveway enough to make it passable today, but tomorrow I’m gonna have to hop to it and get the thing cleared out. I guess I’m always looking for a workout, right? hehe
But at least the Toronado handles it like a champ. It just trudges right through that stuff like a big lumbering… lumberer. I can’t help but smirk when I see people plowing along in their little Hyundais letting the snow decide where they go. It’s good to be the king.
Another Toronado not being stuck.
What to do with the Blazer?
Worst case scenario should I go fuggin nuts.
Damn. I missed a day of posting. Oh well. I’m back and beating my average. =)
So the Blazer has been for sale for a few days now. Gotten at least a call or two a day on it. I don’t want to turn this into a complain-fest. But I REALLY hate selling stuff. Half the people that have came and looked at it so far act shocked that it has issues. And the other half have been, “TOTALLY AWESOME“, then never hear from them again. Okay. I get it. I mean, I’m the same way. Always looking for the deal of the year. I can’t hold it against anybody.
So the reality is what do I do with this machine. I’ve been driving it to work this week and it hasn’t had any problem getting me the three blocks back and forth. But I’ll be honest. If I want to go across town, I take the Toronado. Ha ha! If I could figure out the bogging down thing, I wouldn’t hesitate to keep it. But before I can get that far… I’m going to have to throw some money at it. So I’ve been tossing it around in my head and can’t really decide what I want to do.
So here’s some options, regardless of your automotive knowledge what do you think makes the most sense. Feel free to offer other options than the ones listed. I am choosing to list them from “cheapest” to “fully financially committed”.
1) Keep it for sale at $800 until it sells.
2) Keep it for sale, but lower the price until I at least get what I paid for it.
3) Keep it for sale, but keep trying to fix it in the meantime.
4) Not for sale. Invest in the proper tools to figure out what’s wrong. Possibly (but rarely) ever use tools again.
5) Not for sale. Start replacing parts that might be bad (could be cheap, or end up being VERY expensive)
6) Not for sale. Take it to a shop and have them find out what’s wrong and then try to fix it myself.
7) Not for sale. Take it to a shop and tell them to fix it.
So there ya go. I suppose this is a decision I should have made BEFORE I bought the thing, hehe, but I’m interested to see what folks think. Now, I’m looking for candid opinions here. I welcome those who would tell me how crazy I am for wanting to keep it, or those who think it has tons of potential. It’d take a chunk of change, but hell I could drop a Chevy 350 in there if I really wanted to. And that would solve my engine problems for SURE.
11.28.09Well, I think the Blazer is up for sale.
I may have to take a blow to my pride, but I might have to admit defeat when it comes to the Blazer. I was out today loading up all the leaves I’d raked up a couple weeks ago to finally haul them off to the compost site. As I was hooking the battery back up (because it’s drains dead if you leave it hooked up) I was running through my head what could be screwed up with that thing again. The truth is I really don’t know. I’m almost sure it’s something electrical, but I don’t know where to start without throwing parts at it to get it going. Could be anything from a $20 sensor, or a $400 fuel injector spider. And unfortunately I don’t have the tools to test the different components correctly.
So I could take it to a shop and hope it’s not something ridiculously expensive to fix. But if it turns out to be the injectors I can’t really justify the cost of getting it repaired at the shop just because of the multitude of little nickel and dime things that the thing needs.
So after much deliberation I think we’re going to put it up for sale for a little more than we paid for it since it DOES run better than when we got it and it’s a hell of a lot cleaner. Then put that money towards something that I wouldn’t be afraid to cross a busy intersection with.
The irony is I made two trips to the compost site today and it ran better than it ever has for me. So far every time I’ve drove it longer than 10 minutes it would die. But I probably was running around for a good 30 minutes and while I still couldn’t get on the gas without it sputtering, I could just drive around normally with no problem. Sadly I don’t think there’s a good chance it’ll fix itself.
So if anybody here want’s first crack it it, I’ll give ya the family discount. 😉
So cool it’s awful.
This strikes a very harsh chord for me. I love Cadillacs, I love El Caminos. But this is like taking all your favorite foods, putting them in a blender and baking the pulp into a cake. Odds are that even though you love everything it’s made from, it’s bound to be the most foul creation meant only for the deranged or stupid.
Other than the fact that an Eldorado and an El Camino go together as well Ralph Lauren blue blazer and neon swimming trunks…. I really do respect the craftsmanship that went into the car here. First off it’s not just the front of a Caddy hacked onto the back end of an El Camino. The bed and tail gate were substantially narrowed to fit inside the quarter panels of the Eldorado. So you get to keep the body lines, fender skirts, and of course the tail fins, everything that makes this definitely a Cadillac, and not just a Chevrolet.
Use of carpet in the bed is my favorite touch. No self respecting Cadillac man is going to be throwing muddy garden tools in the bed of this truck. No, you use a Chevy for that. This is more suited for delivering your custom made saddle to the stable of your prize stallion. The tail pipes are a little too “hot rod” but everything else is very in character of opulence over function.
It’s so unique I’d have to drive one!
08.30.09Another old timey picture.
Click for full size.
If it looks a little bit “off”, it’s because this picture was originally black and white, and I’ve had it around for a while and I color a little bit on it in photoshop when I get bored. It’s not done, but it’s kinda like a puzzle, you just work on it a little bit at a time. Here’s a link to the original file. I’ve had it for a while, but don’t think I’ve ever shared it. So there ya go.
07.28.09It moves… but not quite fixed.
Its new home.
Well, Biebs and I may have killed a few brain cells in the process from all the fumes… but we managed to drop the gas tank and rewire the fuel pump CORRECTLY. Note to anyone who’s looking to attempt any gas tank removals on these vehicles. Removing the bumper makes the job 100x easier!
So once we got the tank down and could get a good look at the wiring it was clear there was some real Frankenstein stuff going on. I pulled the tape off one of the connections and the wires were literally just connected by a thread. Hmm… that can’t carry much juice I wouldn’t think.
I hate wiring.
When the previous owner (whom I’ll refer to from here on as “Captain Genius”) put the new fuel pump in, he decided that there’s no need for these fancy schmancy “connectors”. So he just spliced into the existing wiring. This adequate, but you gotta at least give it a good college try. Some of this wiring was so weird that I don’t even know what a person was thinking. There was wiring run underneath the weather stripping for the tail gate, which basically kinked it around a sharp piece of metal. And the funny part is that there was an access hole drilled under the carpet like six inches away from where they tucked the wires. And some of the wire was spliced two or three different times within a yard of each other! It was ugly.
It's not that hard.
So we got it put back together and fired it up tonight. It runs a lot better, but there’s still some gremlins in this thing. It still sputters when you really get on the gas, but it’s much more driveable now than it was. It will get up and go if you were driving normally, but if you wanted to mash on it and pass somebody, good luck. I still think it’s something electrical, so a few more things to try before I decided it’s worth it to get tags and insurance! haha!
07.23.09…Like a hole in the head.
Well after two months of assisting with the Trading Post on a daily basis. I brought home a stray. A guy had advertised this for a couple of days, and I decided to give him a call because it sounded like a good deal. So for $400 we’re the new owners of a 1994 Chevy Blazer 4×4.
It’s certainly not without its flaws. The reason we got it so cheap was because there’s an issue with the fuel mixture causing it to run super rich. So if you try to give it too much gas it dies. You have to feather the gas pedal to get it going. When it is running though, it runs pretty smooth and the transmission shifts firm. It’s rusty in some spots, like I think every one of these old Blazers are. But there’s only one spot where it’s rusted all the way though. So the body is in better shape than I expected for $400. It needs a whole host of things replaced, too numerous to mention. But like everything we seem to have, it’s a work in progress.
It’s not going to be daily transportation by any stretch of the imagination. It’ll be for hauling stuff around, and fishing and camping. That sort of thing. But first I need to get it to the point where I know I won’t get stranded at the lake! Ha ha. I have a few ideas so far, but I need to do some more research on these V6 motors.
I called Andrea this morning and asked what she thought about it. To be honest I was hoping she’d talk me out of it. But she was all gung-ho on the idea. So over lunch we both went and looked at it, and the old fella had a tough time getting it started. I was actually thinking, “Ahh good, a reason NOT to buy it!” Ha ha. But it started, died a couple times, and I’m looking at Andrea to give me the thumbs down. But nope, she just says, “It needs a little work, we can handle it.” Welp that was about it. We went for a short test drive and I was confident it could make the trip home. So the deal was done.
Almost home anyway. After taking the side streets all the way across town (Ya know, no tags or insurance *wink* ) it finally died two blocks from home. We waited to see if it would settle down, but we had to get back to work, and it wasn’t starting. So we pushed it the final two blocks home. Ha ha! After work today though it fired right up. So wish us luck. Hopefully in a couple weeks we’re cruising around in this dirty old thing.
06.22.09Still looks alright.
Well I got all the wheel covers shined up last week. But I’ve been playing “collect the parts” to get one of my rear brakes fixed. I tell ya it’s been a learning experience, but now I’m finally VERY familiar with how these rear disc brakes operate. I THINK I’m good to go now. ha ha
So since I finally got the covers back on the wheels, I figured I’d snap a few pictures while the car is all clean!
Another night of shining up old stuff.
I have had the hubcaps off my car for a couple days, doing some work on the brakes and trouble shooting a squeak I had coming from one of my wheels. Turns out it was one of the hubcaps, so since I had them all off, I decided I might as well take ’em apart and clean ’em up. And (hopefully) when I put them back together, everything will be nice and tight, and the squeak will be gone!
They look kinda intimidating, but they aren’t too complicated.
There's five small screws on the backside that hold the center piece on.
Once the center piece is off, you can get to all the spokes. They simply pull out, although some are more stubborn than others!
Once the outer spokes are removed, you can remove the inner cover.
And now you can get to the bottom spokes. They also just pull straight out.
Now all the parts are ready to be polished!
You can either try to straighten any bent spokes, or in my case I had a spare wheel cover I used for parts.
When you've polished everything. (Brasso is fantastic!) Put it all back together. Might have to used an assembled one for reference. Can you tell which one has been shined up? Ha ha!