Sunday, June 14, 2015

A Triumph in the Face of Adversity or At Least Freeway Speeds

Being a simple man with simple needs I decided to head out to Galesburg, IL Saturday June 13th morning and boy am I glad I did. As I was driving out on Rt. 74 I am upon a rental truck that was hauling a most interesting cargo, please see below.


What an intriguing view, could that be a very tall station wagon???? I must find out.


Getting closer it sure looks like a van, and old too like a fine wine, or an old van.


Odd proportions and an off pastel color, this must be English


Looks like I found a Triumph Herald Van, pretty cool and it looks like its in great shape.


Kitted up to look like a dealership van. Its great to see stuff like this out in wild. Wouldn't mind having one for Kautz Farm if anyone has a line on one in good shape


What a smart looking vehicle, a shame that you can't buy one new. A nice mix of quirky and utilitarian.

A van is like a crew cut, business in the front and business in the back.

- Keep on Truckin, literally,
Jay

All The Way Around To The Beginning: A Rotisserie Story's Completion

Hello, long ago I told of the project that Kautz Farm Cars undertook to build a rotisserie for the Midgets. Now you may say, Jay, do you even like chicken that much?? Well I have to say that its not that kind of rotisserie and now I have pictures to prove it. Below is the documentation of the completed build. Now I have to apologize for not having step by step pictures on how this was build but I can roughly walk you through the steps:

1. Argue about Design
2. Think about buying 2" pipe to build the project, see cost
3. Buy 2" tubing because its cheaper and this is a fabrication project, also buy just a bit of 3.5 and 4"
4. Cutting
5. Bend a drill chuck quill shaft with a 4" hole-saw, don't worry the hole-saw is fine (???)
6. Welding
7. More Cutting
8. Some light lay out work and drilling
9. More Welding
10. Twice to Harbor Freight
11. Scour the shop to find bits to make rotisserie to car adapters
12. More Welding
13. Hitting wood blocks with hammers
14. Bolting
15. Now you have a rotisserie!
15a. Paint

Now some sights would charge hundreds of dollars for this step by step knowledge, but since we are all friends at Kautz Farm Cars I will let you have all of this for free. If you are feeling generous share the site or click on the ads, but I'm giving this knowledge to you.

Now the part you've been waiting for the pictures.






I am extremely happy with how this turned out, its very stable and just by eyeballing the mount locations the car naturally sits at almost any angle that you put it at. A testament to how easy it is to sight the CG of an MG.