How's Abby doing?

Abby at the Watkins Vintage Fest in2012

Who's Abby?  Why, Abby is my 1970 VW
Type 3 Fastback. I can't say I ever desired a
VW Type 3. I've always had a thing for the old air cooled VWs, but Type 3s just don't exist in this part of the country anymore, so until recently I never even knew of their existence except for a distant memory of an odd white station wagon with no grille in the front, that used to tool around here when I was a kid. Time rolls on, and a couple of years ago I stop in to my buddy Jim's shop in an old warehouse, just to see what's new, and there sits this peculiar green car that I can only identify by the VW emblem on the hood.  It's in a row of other old cars including a BMW 2002, a Studebaker Champion,  a Camaro, and a Beetle Convertible. I kinda liked the weird little thing, but that was  all the thought I gave it until about a year later when my friend needed to find a new home for all the cars that had been in the warehouse. I saw it again, and started to see the possibilities it had, and started to think I needed to have it.
A little negotiation later and we towed the non-running VW across town and parked in the yard with an ancient set of Maryland license plates bolted on it to throw the village code dogs off the scent.
 I started to do some research about  the Type 3, mainly because it wouldn't run, and the reason it wouldn't run related to the world's first mass-produced electronic Fuel injection system that was installed 43 years ago, at the factory. The VW Type 3 holds the honor of being the first mass-produced car with electronic fuel injection  Over the next couple of weeks I learned all kind of things about the marvelous Bosch D-Jet Fuel injection system and the ATARI  of  a computer that controls it. After a major triumph of diagnostic work (I'm still proud of this) that included finding and repairing no less than 6 no-start conditions, I had the sweet little 1600 cc flat four  air cooled engine  running like a top. 

the transformation is underway

After a set of newer tires, a quick going through of the brakes, and a few other inspection items the Type 3 was on the road, and this unusual little car required a good name. so it was dubbed, "Abby Normal" in a little homage to Marty Feldman in" Young Frankenstein". Unfortunately the fuel injection triumph was short lived. After only a few short months, the barometric pressure sensor took a dive, and the car began burping and chugging like a collage freshman at a kegger.  it seems, on the East coast Bosch D-jet fuel injection parts  were made of unobtanium, and while they can be found on the West coast, they come at a price, and used.  I made the decision to switch to carbs. It got me back on the road, but not running nearly as nice as with the injection setup.

Since then Abby had shed her bumpers, traded in the original wraparound  b-ugly turn signals for some trim little bullet type ones off of a 68 Type 3, and ditched the plastic parts-store stick-on side molding in favor of a smoother look. Inside we have the original tatty seats, seatbelts from a C-130 cargo plane, and a  Magic Hat beer tap for a shift lever. She also sports a tach on top of the dash, more as a joke than anything else. But it's cool, and it works!
  Abby is never going to be a show car. not with all the body filler, fiberglass and pop-rivets she's been treated to over the years, so I decided the rat-rod look would suit her well.
The green paint had to go. It looked like Earl Scheib was forced to join the Army. So a quick sanding and several rattle cans of flat black primer later, and we have a hot-rod look.  The wheels went red, porta-walls will be ordered soon to give the tires a whitewall look, the body will be getting a proper coat of black paint with a matte clear  very soon, and I hope to lower the front end just a bit for a better stance. This winter I hope to be able to rebuild the engine, and work on a Mega Squirt fuel injection setup along with an MSD ignition.
Are you going to the Watkins Glen Vintage Racing Festival this Sept.? If so, you'll likely see me and Abby there. We hang around with the other unusual cars in the Concorso Speciale.  We'll be there unless the oil leak gets worse........

Long Time, No Blog

Wow! it's been since May that I posted anything here.  The weather got nice, things got rolling, and even though I've had lots to talk about, I've been out doing and not writing. 
Well, the ol' shop has a few things going on. I'll spread them out over a few posts to organize a bit, but here I'll update you all on the motorized bicycle project.




this shows the placement of the engine. the gearbox will fit
in the space between the back of the engine and
the seat-post

The shaft drive mocked up for testing.
 Gonna keep this one in the wings for a future build

 It's been a while since I did anything on it, but I made some good progress a while back. The frame was stretched 6 inches, and the plates I fabricated were tack welded in to hold the Maytag engine.  Everything is just tacked in at the moment, so if I change my mind about anything, it can be easily modified. You can see now how I'm trying to mount the engine like it was on the old BMW bikes, or that ABC bike in my older post.  So far the biggest design change will be in the final drive. You can see in theone pic that I had the shaft drive from the Yamaha moped mocked up  to test. and  I started to modify bits to try and make everything work. It ws quickly becoming a major effort, and even though I'd have the nice clean shaft to the back, I was still going to need some kind of chain to make the pedals still work as I will need them to get the bike rolling to get the engine to start. Then I made a deal with someone on the motorized bicycle forum for some 90 deg gearboxes  and have decided that for this project I will be using one of those boxes to run a belt to a large pulley on the rear wheel.  I hope to get back to it soon, but there are a few other projects eating up my time right now.  New posts soon I promise

turning the 10-speed into useable pieces.

The frame stretched using the donor 10-speed parts
and the fabricated plates

 

Score of the day

Just a quick little story to keep things interesting. I got a visit from an old neighbor this evening. He stopped in asking if I had any push-mowers. "As a matter of fact I do" I said. So we made a trade. I gave him two parts mowers that will go together to make one good one, and he gave me an old Sears chainsaw from the 60s
It was seized up, so it's soaking overnight in a mix of weasel-pee. We'll see tomorrow how it worked.
Old wrenches trick of the day, weasel-pee is a 50/50 mix of automatic transmission fluid and acetone

Old Engine Day!

It's that time of year, Old Engine Day at the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport N.Y. This is the first year I've made it to this event, and it was well worth the drive. The museum pulls out some of it's collection to stretch the legs of some nice early iron, and all the friends of the museum show up with their private collections to join in the fun.

The Model A Aero Engine in action

The museum had two nice aero engines they were firing up to the delight of the crowd every so often throughout the day. The first was a Ford Model A engine set up with a propeller, and short pipe exhaust so it made wonderful music as it tried to blow the leaves off the trees. the other nice one they had was a Heath Kit engine. Any of you remember Heath Kits? the radios and electronic kits you could have fun building at home? Well, they used to make airplane kits too! And the engines they used were an inline 4 cylinder air cooled  made by the Henderson Motorcycle company. They are a great engine to hear running,Just watch the video, and I'd love to have the chance to play with a Henderson someday.

A peek at the "secret show"

On hand were several hit-and-miss engines of all sizes. from  a Tom Thumb up to some monster chuggers on dual axle trailers. also a great variety of model engines, vintage motorcycles, and a "secret show" of sportscars in the parking lot when the MG and sportscar clubs arrived.


Yamaha donor parts. Yes, That's a SHAFT DRIVE!!!

The most productive part of the day for me was meeting up with a new friend from the Rochester area, Brad, and getting a crucial part of my motor-bicycle build. a final drive  from a derelict Yamaha moped. With that part, now I can start the planning of what I need to do with the frame to make everything work.


Brad and his creation

Now, about Brad. He's a pretty creative guy. He and his son brought a nice collection of engines and bikes, including a total custom built chopper- bike with a hit-and-miss engine. IT was totally rat-rod, and totally COOL. I even got the chance to ride it around the parking lot!  I see a technical write-up in the future. I challenge any of you out there to build something cool  too.
That's Brad and his son, at the beginning of the video.
Back at the home front, the new workshop at Stray Cat is making great strides.  All the outer walls are up, the roof is done, the floor had it's sub layer done, ad pending the delivery of a few more pieces of plywood, it is closing in on being ready. I've already moved some stuff out there to get a feel for how stuff is going to fit. It's exciting to see things coming together after all this time and effort.
a couple more weeks on the shop, and I should be shifting over to working on projects.
Here's a shot of the shop with some stuff moved in. Not all of that is permanent, and actually the workbench will go right where all that stuff is now.
Keep on trucking out there. I'll update again soon.



gettin in gear

Holy cow! Has it really been two weeks since my last update?  Last week absolutely nothing happened on the shop. On Saturday I decided to clean out the ol' BBQ, and found it quite a bit more rust than I expected. After looking up all the parts I wanted to get it back like new, I realised I could get a new grill for not a lot more. So after a bit of research it was a trip to Target to pick up a new "Stok Quattro"  then spent the next hour putting it together.  After a week of grilling I can say it is a lot better than the old Kenmore. So far I recommend it.  That was about all I did last week. I needed a day off to recoup.
This week on the other hand has been hopping. It all started around Thursday night.  My buddy  Brian got all the parts working on his CNC mill, and sent me a video. Very cool. I'll be writing more about that soon. Then I was over at Jimmy's house because a friend from work was looking at an E36 BMW he had for sale. While I was over there, he tells me his friend has a truckload of plywood for me! Alright! An hour later I had a stack of 3'8" square plywood in my garage.  Great looking stuff, and it was just what I was waiting for.
Saturday I had to wait just a little before I could get to work on the garage. It was Free Comic Book Day!!! We went down to Elmira Heights to Heroes Your Mom Threw Out comic book shop to join in the fun. We had a ball, and came home with a handful of comics.



After we got home I got to work. I got the plywood on the end wall, covered it with tar paper, and stood it up. Then framed up the first section of the back wall, covered it with plywood, and tar paper, then got it up. By then I was beat, so it was grill up some dinner, and then go to bed.


End of  the day Saturday

 Sunday was a very productive day. I got the other half of the back wall up, put up the frame of the other end wall, and was able to put up all the rafters, cover them with plywood, and tar paper.
So now I'm tired, sore, and fried to a crisp. But man did I make some good progress today!
More soon. Stay tuned



The roof is on!! end of the day Sunday

Sittin' Here Lookin' Forward

Waiting....waiting...waiting.  It's all in the wait for some plywood to come my way. The expansion is stalled for a while, until something comes through. There's a couple if leads out there, and now I have to be patient to see if they work out.  Until then I'm still slowly cleaning out.  This last week saw a trailer load of junk go to the dump, an old TV go to someone who could use it, and the preliminary assessment on a couple of old mowers hanging out in the yard. One has a rotten deck, but runs good, and luckily the other had a good deck, and a motor with a LOT of rod knock. The two shall become one, and then become some funding for Stray Cat.

My Diagnosis? You need a new fuel pump! or five...

 The First automotive project of the season was a Birthday present for My brother John. Plugs and wires in his Olds Minivan. A basic job, but a good start to a hopefully busy season.  Coming up I need to renew my ASE cert, and  the end of the semester means summer vacation from my teaching  job at the college. Also my buddy keeps talking about  opening a shop. That may mean some freelance diagnostic work for me as I'm his electric guy. It's all good. I like doing diag, and I haven't had much of a chance for a long time. 

Other projects, like the home foundry, the motorized bicycle, and the VW have been waiting for warm enough temps to let paint dry, and cement set up, and the like. Not to mention I'm still on 10 hour days, and that makes it tough to have enough motivation to do much of anything after work.

Totally random pic of the Blues band that plays every year
 at the Watkins Glen Vintage festival. Yes! On the roof!
By the way, Maria's sells killer Italian Sausages during the event! 

So for something of interest, I'm passing on a link to a museum In Allentown P.A. that a friend of mine, Dave Reese, is involved with. It's a really neat place called America On Wheels Click on the name to follow the rabbit hole to the museum's website with all kinds of cool pics of cool things. I gotta visit someday!    

Keep on Truckin....into Spring

The weeks are flying by! The weather is trying to cooperate with us, and I've taken just about every chance I've had to be outside working on the shop. By the time I've gotten back inside at night, I've had no mental capacity left to sit down and write a post. (Some would argue, with good reason, that I barely have the mental capacity to write at any time)
So let's see. Last weekend was great for building. I managed to get the main floor structure done on Saturday. The overall footprint of the expansion will be 7 feet by 20 feet as dictated by a Black Walnut tree that is bigger than I can cut down. It's all sitting on cinder blocks that I levelled, and some pretty hefty 6x6 beams, and some 4x6 beams on top of them. On Sunday I managed to get the framing done for both the end walls, and that's where it sits now. I need to get either some plywood or OSB board before I can make any more progress. I have some leads on those things, but I need to wait and see how they develop.

The walls, waiting for plywood
 so they can be put in place.

In the mean time it's all about cleaning out stuff. I spent a lot of this saturday hoeing out junk, and filling my in-law's trailer with crap-o-la I have held on to for wayyyyy to long. The shop is looking better, even with all the homeless stuff waiting for the expansion to get built.
Kinda boreing, but it's all I got between overtime at work and the regular April weather that keeps everything cool and wet.
I know things are dragging a bit right now, and I hope to get things revved up soon. I just gotta be patient, no matter how itchy I get sitting here thinking about all the stuff I want to do. Keep dreaming, things will be coming soon.

Let out the clutch! Things are turning green!.

Nice weather is teasing us here in the Fingerlakes. Temps keep flirting in the 60s, and I've seen more of that mystical yellow orb in the sky recently  than I have all winter. All that means that I'm itching to get things going outside.  I started collecting wood this week for the workshop expansion to the garage.  I plan to build what is essentially two 7.5 foot by 10 foot sheds onto the back of the garage, all linked together to make a 7.5 foot by 20 foot workshop. All the materials are being scavenged from old shipping crates and pallets. also A friend at work has offered several sheets of OSB board that need several hundred staples removed (Anybody volunteer?). Seeing as how this is being built from nearly 100% "Obtainium" The name "The vulture workshop" seems to fit. Offer up any other ideas if you have 'em.

Contents of the shed overflowith

This weekend saw the beginnings of the project. I started by moving the BMW outside for a bit to gain room to empty out the shed that was right where I want to build the workshop. Then I had to empty the shed, move it, and neatly put all the lawn and garden stuff back in it at the new location. Following that I knocked apart the rotting floor that had been under the shed, and cleaned out the area for the workshop. That pretty much took up 2 days, and now the garage is trashed until I get the workshop built and can put stuff away.

Right where I want the shop to be!

The shed's new home.

The next step is to bring home the lumber I'm planning to use on the floor, get the rest of the 2x4s for the walls, the OSB board, and rafter boards, shingles...... the list goes on.  I hope to have this done by May, but scavenging building materials makes for an unpredictable build schedule. We shall see.

The skeletal remains of the old floor.

the side of the new workshop. Yuk!

After all that work, I went over to visit my buddy Jim. We've been scheming about a project for Stray Cat for over a year. Jim has a sweet old 53 Studebaker Champion in dry storage that he wants to do something with. For that matter, so do I. We went over to the warehouse and paid it a visit. We rummaged through the parts, looked it over inside and out, and did a lot of dreaming about what it could be. The most logical answer right now is a low-buck Rat-rod. We could have it running and driving on the cheap, and have loads of fun.  What do you think?

The ghost of hot-rodder future......... Ok, it's me.

Today was Easter, so, of course, it was a day for family. We went to church, had a great dinner , and hung out at my parents house for the remainder of the afternoon. I also got to do some pickin' with my Dad and brother on the ol' guitars. That's always fun.  It's also my dad's birthday today, so I want to wish him a happy birthday, and hope he enjoyed it.

A life celebration

In about an hour I'm heading out to go to the funeral of a lady that has been a staple of the small town where I grew up for decades. She lived to be 92, and still lived at home. She died last week, at home, surrounded by family, content.
When I was little, all the kids in town could go over to Gram Comfort's house, where she had a pool table and a ping pong table in the basement. It was basically the town community center. She was also the Sunday school teacher at the little Methodist church, and made sure we all attended every Sunday, or at least made sure we knew we were invited, welcome, and wanted. Not to mention all the community activities she stayed involved in.
Calling hours were last night. The hall was packed! We expect that the little church she spent her life teaching at will be filled to the rafters today to send her off.
It's sad to have to say goodbye, but I've not seen a more beautiful tribute to a wonderful person. I can't ever say how thankful I am to have had her in my life.
If any of you are familiar with the Ray Boltz song "Thank You" I believe it was written about her.
Godspeed Gram Comfort, and thank you.

Cabin Fever

Hope is all I have... Hope that spring will get here. It seems winter won't let go this year. Or it's just that I have so many things I want to do, and they all hinge on the wether getting better. I think one of the improvements  the the shop this summer should be insulation and a heat source of some kind.  My friend Brian  put a wood stove in his shop this last fall, and has been out there all winter  tinkering. I'm jealous. 
What's driving me crazy is the overabundance of crap packed in to the shop. I'm overwhelmed at times. I go out there and just stare at the shop and think about what I need to do. I'd love to get some salvage wood from pallets at work and build a carport off the side, and maybe a narrow storage room off the back. I wonder about closing off one of the overhead doors, and making one bay a work area. That, of course, would make at least one car homeless. Maybe the carport could get closed in and be a smaller workshop.
 I still need to get rid of a large quantity of usless crap. I think a dumpster is in order soon. and a craigslist binge.  Clean out, and make a few bucks. Hopefully I can get a few small restoration projects going, and start getting things to sell.  I gotta pay for my projects somehow.
The only actual thing going on right now it trying to track down a no-start issue on Jimmys "Dirty 30". We gotta find the cause of no spark through the Motronic engine control system. It's stuck on the street in front of his place right now. We may wind up towing it over here to get a better look. Updates to follow.
This last week, I downloaded a program called Creo. It's a 3D modeling program like AutoCAD. I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but I think if I can get the hang of it, it will help me plan a lot of my builds. I hope to be able to draw up the frame of the bike before I start hacking so I have a plan. I'll share my progress soon.
Also, straight from the rumor mill, word has it Uncle Jake, aka "Old Man", is coming North sometime late spring, early summer with a major project for Stray Cat! a 1947 Harley Davidson Knuckle-head engine that needs to be built so it can go in an old-school bobber that Jake and his friends are building.  I'm excited to be part of a bike build, and can't wait to get started. I guess that's some extra motivation to get the shop in order!

Music, Maps and Machines

It's been a Busy weekend here at Stray Cat. Friday night Gabrielle and I headed down to Pennsylvania Ave. United Methodist Church's food bank fund raiser. There was music, laughter, and some really great desserts.  I was glad to see people getting up in front and sharing their gifts and talents of music. It seems that we think the only good music has to come from professionals on TV or Radio anymore. NOT TRUE! There's got to be an outlet near you for live music. Go there! Get inspired. Dig in the closet, pull out that dusty guitar, oboe, flute, accordion or whatever. Get the piano tuned! It doesn't matter how long it's been. You'll feel good about making music. If you don't play, then turn up the radio and sing along!

There were a lot of good acts there, and I want to commend everyone for a great job.One act that really caught my attention was a 10 year old girl who got up and sang with another girl accompanying on guitar. The best part was that she had written the song herself! I know it took a lot of guts to get up and do what she did , but she did it, and did it well!
After a nice breakfast on Saturday morning, I headed up to my cousin's house to mark out the property line on a piece of land he recently purchased.

My cousin, his dad, my uncle  and I hiked out through the woods to survey the line.  We spent about 4 hours taking compass readings, cutting brush and marking trees. I had a good time. I love being out in the woods, and it meant I didn't have to go to the gym instead.
Back home at the shop, my gear had arrived from Kwik Way to repair the brake rotor lathe, Yay! so I went out and installed the new part and test rant the lathe. It works 100%. Now I need to find a set of adapters and start fixing some brakes. Hopefully that will be some income for Stray Cat this summer.

Off for more adventure today, then back to work for the week. The weather is still holding back a lot of projects, but that will be coming soon. Until then keep dreaming, and take every opportunity you get to go out and do something interesting.       Cheers! Banjo

Exhaust pipe dream

As predicted, the weather has  turned back cold, so  here I am inside making plans, and doing research to be ready when Spring has finally sprung. It's still to be seen what will become the first project of the season, but, for now it's looking like the Maytag-engine motorized bicycle will be on the top of the list.   This project began  when I was trying to find something to do with a couple of small engines that are hanging around, and I came across the motorized bicycle forum. Specifically, I gravitated to the Boardtrackers forum, where there is a great community  of creative guys who love early motorcycles, and build some great replicas of iconic racers. Not to mention great original creations that pay homage to the early manufacturers that have been lost to the mists of time.
Out back, at Stray Cat, I have a Maytag Model 72, 2-cylinder, 2-stroke engine  originally built by the Maytag company to power thier washing machines in the 1930s, when electricity was still confined to urban areas. Also in the parts pile is a  pre-WWII Western Flyer  boys bike I picked up at a local rummage sale.

The Maytag, and the Flyer

Plans are still in flux as to the final design, but the current idea is to pay tribute to a 1921 ABC "Sopwith Machine" that used a flat- twin  motor similar to what the ABC company's  Sopwith Camel Bi-plane used in WWI.  The biggest variation from that design is that I want to use a shaft drive system. Similar to what BMW used in the 30s. The problem with that is finding a suitable system to use on my build. I believe I have found my solution in a late 70s Yamaha moped. They were lightweight, compact, shaft drive, and I have a line on one for cheap.

1921 ABC "Spowith Machine"

The next step will be to start drawing up some designs to make the engine and driveline fit the frame. Then it will be time to start fabricating modified parts to make everything else fit.
This post is just to give you an idea of what I want to build. posts to come will keep you updated on progress and all the stuff I have to do to make this work.
I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never built a motorcycle before, nor have I designed custom components to this degree. What I have found is that if you want to do something, the information is out there if you dig. All you need is the desire to try, and a few contacts with folks to help out. Don't let anyone tell you that you need expensive equipment, or a degree in engineering. This stuff was originally done with manual  machines, in garages, by lantern light, by guys that just had a desire to do it.
My hope is to come up with something cool, and at the same time inspire you to try your own project. May a new adventure begin here.

Carpe Diem! An abnormally warm day in March.

With temperatures climbing into the 60s this Sunday it was time to wake the sleeping beasties from their long winter hibernation. Abby, the VW Type 3, and Gabrielle's E30 BMW have been hiding all winter, stuffed in the shop along with all our lawn furniture, and anything else that I didn't want to leave out in the snow. It was like an archaeological excavation to get down to the cars. I had to pull out bags of returnable bottles, roll the battery charger out of the way, move the brake drum lathe out, jack, jack-stands, air hose, baby stroller, cans of used oil, stack of LP records all had to find new homes. Now came the moment of truth. Was anything going to start? NO battery tenders, no sta-bil in the ethanol-laced fuel, and no air in the right rear tire of the BMW! But when I got in both cars they cranked and came to life, just as if I had parked them yesterday! Ahhhhhhh...
All tires pumped up, fluids checked, it was time to get the gears  moving. First  up was Abby. We took a tour around town with the window down (It's little things like that that makes us New Yorkers happy this time of year) and stopped off to say "hi" to my buddy, Jim. Jim is an old school body guy who is an excellent pin-striper and airbrush artist. I'll be doing a post on him sometime soon. After I got home, I took the BMW out for a blast up the highway and back.

Driveway full of Germans

Good, all toys exercised. Now some cleanup. I was sweeping out the shop when Jim pulled in  the drive with the "dirty 30", his 86 BMW E30. He was missing a few lights, so we got out the necessary tools: shop manual, logic probe, and some Genesee Bock, and traced out the problem to a corroded fuse. Soon it was all functional again and we were well on the way to solving all the world's problems.

tools of the trade

After Jimmy headed out, I figured I wasn't going to get any more cleaning done, so I took Abby for one more spin  before everything had to go back in the garage.(Winter ain't over yet!) During my drive, I  stopped by some weird fly-by-night- parking-lot-auto-sale that was going on across the highway, because I had seen a Fiat 600 in the front row earlier in the day. Of course, it was out on a test  drive when I got there. Right on cue, a well-dressed salesman spots me, hurried over, and askd if I wanted to wait until it got back so I could see it. "Nah," I said,  through the window of my rattling, rusty, leaky, bomber of a VW, " I just wanted to check it out. I don't need a new car." The salesman didn't skip a beat. He scanned my junker from front to back and replied, "Yes, you do."
We both cracked up. 
I never did get to see the Fiat, but I've been laughing about that encounter ever since....

Of men and motorcycles

January 24, 1907. Glen Curtiss climbed aboard this motorcycle on the sand at Ormond Beach Florida and drove this 40 HP, V-8 monster of his own design to an astounding 137 miles per hour, covering a measured mile in twenty six and two fifths seconds after a 2 mile running start. He wore no goggles or safety gear, just bending down as much as he could to reduce drag.  

This was the climax of 7 years of motorcycle building and racing that Curtiss started with a set of rough castings he learned to build into a working engine, using a soup can for a carburetor.

After this he started his career building aeroplanes.

Is there any wonder I see Glen Curtiss as an ispiration? 

I took this picture last weekend while at the Glen Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport  N.Y. attending the Mid-Winter Cycle Therapy event. There were over 100 vintage motorcycles there, along with the museums regular displays. It was a great day. My favorite was an original  barn-find1911 Indian that the owner was allowed to fire up every now and then to huge applause.

This all fueled my interest  to work on the motorized bicycle project. I have a pre-WWII Western Flyer bicycle that I plan to modify into something that looks a lot like the above  Indian. For an engine I have a 1932 Maytag model 72 2-cylinder (Stay tuned), and I'm working on the drive system. I plan this to be "practice" for following in Curtiss' footsteps and building a motorcycle engine and all.

I plan to get the help of some friends who have more experience in machining than I do. You'll meet them soon enough. They do some pretty interesting things too. I also plan to stumble my way, maybe dragging my friends along, through the learning process of casting parts for the engine I hope to build.

 

Around the area. Bits of history from nearby

Yesterday My wife and I had some free time, and we stopped off with some friends at a quaint little cafe in the nearby town of Montour Falls. Montour used to be known as Havana, and it sprang up on the banks of the Chemung Canal that was opened in 1833 to connect Seneca Lake with the Chemung river (more on that later). The building that the cafe is in is called  the Montour House, and was built by Charles Cook, pretty much the father of Schuyler County, as a hostelry for travellers along the canal. It also housed his bank, and his personal residence for a time. It took 4 years to build at a cost of $30,000! it was comlpeted in 1854.  Follow the link in the text for a great article about the house.
The cafe is very nice, as is the owner who accommodated us  warmly with local cheese, salsa, snacks and tasty coffee and tea. not to mention the grand view of Chequaga Falls  from outside the front door. Thanks to the photographer who posted that nice pic of the falls on flikr I was able to use.

Today's project

Today it's just durn cold outside, so I'm busy in the basement shop cleaning up the cutting head for the Snap-On brake rotor lathe I got from Mike Grover at MD Automotive. It has not been used for years because of a stripped gear. It took a week of searching, and the folks at Kwik-Way (the company that actually produced the lathe) came through on getting ma a part number! I gotta wait to get paid before I order the part, so I'm making sure the rest of the machine is ready to go. It was pretty gummed up, but a good cleaning in the old parts washer, some fine tuning of the adjustable parts, and some fresh oil has it ready for service. Here's a before shot and an after shot. Not much to look at, but the two plates slide nice and smooth now

Hello and welcome!

Greetings all.
I'm Banjo, and I'll be your host for this journey through long forgotten paths of mechanized history.
Stray Cat Vintage and Custom  is the name I gave my shop in the back yard. As of right now it is not a commercial business. All the work I do is personal or for my friends.if things develop in the future I may look into becoming a business, but for now we're just having fun.
Here's how it all began. Right out of high school  I got a degree in auto mechanics/ auto body, and for 15 years I worked as a professional auto technician at both independant shops, restoration shops and dealerships. I am an ASE certified Master Technician and Advanced level specialist. I was also a Toyota Master Diagnostic Tecnician. For the last two years I have been working for a company that builds custom industrial automation, or to put it simply, Robots!
Working at my current job, I have access to many fabrication tools, and this had really got me interested  in trying some very ambitious projects at Stray Cat.
Up till now I have done restorations on cars, and many other antique mechanical pieces. Including lawnmowers, garden tractors, old engines, and I'm working on a 1930s washing machine.

 The current shop buggy is a 1970 VW type 3 fastback named "Abby Normal"
I love anything old and mechanized. it doesn't have to be fast or powerful, it just has to be cool. The older the better, the more obscure, the better. and this has brought me to the current planned projects here at the shop.
First off is turning a pre-war western flyer boys bike into a "tribute" to an early motorcycle. It won't be strictly following any original design, as I have some ideas to make it unique, but it will be practice for an even more ambitious project to build a motorcycle that will involve casting engine parts from aluminum,and possibly iron.
So I've started this blog to cronicle the going-ons of my backyard shop, and maybe inspire others to get out and try something new. I hope to keep you interested with all the different things going on here. It will be a bit scattered, I'm sure, but all related to what's up at Stray cat Vintage and Custom.
Thanks!