About Tinkerah

Tinkerah

Until I was part way through the article I had misinterpreted running "Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew backwards" as in reverse. (Sigh) Now I'm less excited.

Tinkerah

"Beware of fakes". Indeed I will!!

Tinkerah

How can you be sure changing the name wouldn't've helped? Now that (Two)Facebook is rebranded as Meta, I'll be introduced to a wider variety of thoughtful opinions and my personal info will never be exploited.....Full disclosure: I'm not on MetaFace or whatever they're calling it these days.

Tinkerah

Good Luck to ya - Looking forward to an excitedly written follow up!

Tinkerah

I'm a little surprised the PCH hasn't gotten more mentions; maybe it's a bit cliched? No matter, the views are breathtaking even though my wife-to-be asked me to cool it on the switchbacks since I was making her nauseous.

Tinkerah

I'm admittedly a throwback but I don't get it either. Real people are actually "spending" imaginary money on imaginary products that I can copy with a right click? Looking forward to the crying when all the "emperors" realize they've been naked all along.

Tinkerah

I love learning about innovative manufacturing techniques but tying up inventory for years to reduce casting stresses? I've done no research so will not call BS but had shot peening not been invented yet? We had a '73 TR6 in the family for awhile and the ONLY things that never gave us any trouble were the engine and...electric system.

Tinkerah

And is confusing market movement with feature similarity.

Tinkerah

There ya go, a valid application I couldn't've imagined because well, I never buff anything. But I cringe at the thought of a dropped right angle grinder, locked "on".

Tinkerah

Can't "Like" this enough. Even with all our problems, and I'll go there with anyone in a different venue, it's the best country on Earth. Evidenced by how many are trying to get in vs. out.

Tinkerah

You can say it looks better in pictures than in person but I'd gamble it sounds, runs and drives better in person!

Tinkerah

We're all in envy but this is a column about safety.

Tinkerah

Unsolicited advice: appreciate that for a certain period in time you lived a dream that not everyone gets to experience.

Tinkerah

Are they spiking in value? That's what the article was about.

Tinkerah

My wife recently sold her Suzuki Sidekick for $500 more than she paid 7 years ago after putting 100K miles on it. If you can spare the ride, now's the time to sell.

Tinkerah

Last night I had two 69's but when I woke up this morning I was back to just one again.

Tinkerah

Yes it's easy for us to scoff at them now but look at the rest of the inventory of the time.

Tinkerah

Two things: First: Trigger locks on hand held tools. I'm hard pressed to imagine a safe situation for them. Second: Resist the temptation to grab the chips off the drill bit with your fingers until it has completely stopped turning. They can "Chinese finger lock" you and cut you all up. Bonus: Don't prank the rest of the crew by rolling this across the shop floor:

Tinkerah

That's great old technique that should be part of every drill press' instructions.

Tinkerah

I think Jesus would be honored.

Tinkerah

Yes, wheel under the car. It's already in your hands and takes two seconds.

Tinkerah

Every brake rotor or drum I mount, whether new or used, has four drilled and tapped jack screw holes whether I have to add two or do all four. It's the quickest, easiest mod that saves untold pain upon removal.

Tinkerah

A really close stab at a successful bleed can be done on a cylinder with a broken nipple by cracking the flare nut and compressing both pistons toward each other with a C-clamp. The only air remaining inside will be the small volume between the tube entrance and bleeder socket. It wouldn't work quite as well for a cylinder installed upside down as it appears in Rob's photo but I prefer to think that was just a matter of camera access.

Tinkerah

"Back in the Day" (<--- my tagline again) I owned a plow truck that only ran in wet, usually salty conditions. Merciless rust was an unavoidable part of its life and eventual death. Factory bleed nipples had a cruelly narrow hex so that with far less torque than it would've taken to crack them they'd round over instead and it was game on for the screw removal challenge. I cured it by making my own bleeders with comfortably long hexes. That's one of mine on top, made of 304 stainless steel of course:

Tinkerah

As a Packrat in Recovery I think I'm an authority on hoarding and managing finite storage space. Here's my system. Organize your list by priority: Top Priority: Impossible to find parts that you currently need or are sure you will at some time in the future. 2nd Priority: Hard to find parts that you might not really need but would appreciate having on hand. This includes NOS OEM parts that are readily substituted. Lowest Priority: Supercool stuff that you know you'll never need but would cement your pedigree in the halls of Corvair enthusiasts by displaying it on your mantle. Of Zero Priority: Everything else no matter how rare or sought after. It's great that it's being made available for some lucky customer but you can pass it up with no second thoughts or regrets. I hope this helps. I'm available for sponsorship if you or someone you love may be struggling with a hoarding issue.

Tinkerah

Dugans you are a credit to this community.

Tinkerah

Pro tip in a photo that I haven't seen before, and will do the next time I use mine: a length of hose on the jack handle!

Tinkerah

Been doing them this way since I broke my first (and only) one sometime around 1979. Never realized I was "pro"!

Tinkerah

I was a field service tech for a few years for an outfit that had a small fleet of Express vans. Those things really won me over. Routinely overloaded, driven recklessly by short term employees (and occasionally me too), good in snow and depended upon for long distance jobs usually with no notice. They were all V6's and I don't recall any of them ever needing anything but oil changes and brake pads, both always overdue. 30 gallon fuel tanks too.

Tinkerah

Real barn finds don't usually come with the title and such thorough documentation attached.

Tinkerah

If your wish comes true MustangJim, they'll still have to dig up or reproduce unobtainium parts. In the example of the 69 Chevelle and other wildly popular models, everything is already available via the aftermarket so would they tool up to reproduce long obsolete parts at tremendous expense or (gasp) simply get them through the existing aftermarket to complete their restorations? <--Now who's the cynic...

Tinkerah

While I enjoy your cynicism CitationMan I'd guess it's more likely they'll be giving aftermarket suppliers competition when what the market really needs is unobtanium plastic and white metal bits.

Tinkerah

My suggested response: "Yes it is. When's a good time for you to see it?"

Tinkerah

The saying must be even older than I am, I've never heard it but it is perfectly appropriate. Those banks looked twice as steep as they really were. We don't appreciate how much we depend on our sense of balance for driving - until we can't trust it.

Tinkerah

My biggest pet peeve is "What's the best you'll do on it?" They expect you to negotiate against yourself on their behalf. My response is ALWAYS "What's the MOST you'll offer me for it?" They don't even have a figure in mind.

Tinkerah

Whenever I get low-balled online I include the offer in my reply but add a zero into their response implying they made a typo. In your example "sure, I'll take your $250K but do you realize I'm only asking $55?

Tinkerah

Yeah. Holding the intended customer's vehicle hostage is very poor form. I wonder how often it worked for them.

Tinkerah

Half helmet and goggles complete the time machine.

Tinkerah

Interesting question, and I have no first hand knowledge but believe I have a good guess: All the applications you refer to are situations wherein very heavy use could warrant recapping several times before the carcass ages out.

Tinkerah

I agree it seems silly but really how much time did "we" waste adding another line to a list?

Tinkerah

This is one of those things that probably doesn't need a study. Most of us have observed old rubber that wouldn't survive being mounted; between that and new is just a matter of degree. A graph of the likelihood of failure under a controlled condition against ages of tires stored and used under the same conditions would be interesting but certainly not surprising.

Tinkerah

This tire dating scheme can't ever be publicized enough.

Tinkerah

Whew - multi-carbed V8's and radius rods = spectacle even on level ground! I vividly remember watching other novices in spectator races "eat the wall" at a long-gone local high-banked oval while waiting for my heat. No amount of observation or study could've prepared me for how my senses would betray me. Only seeing far too many drivers crashing in what looked like easy to avoid wrecks put me on hyper-alert. At speed on track my vestibular system said "30 degrees? Hah! It's more like 60! More speed!", my butt said "It's a salad bowl! More speed!" yet my eyes said "it makes no sense but we seem to be sliding sideways up this hill." I trusted my eyes, ended up 1st and drove my unwrecked car home.

Tinkerah

Performance and innovation will never be enough to win over EV holdouts.

Tinkerah

Thanks - so either all three started at once or one was the designated "start" engine and the others must've had clutches in place. Drop dead cool either way!

Tinkerah

You know it. "Anything with a motor..."

Tinkerah

Oof - clever!

Tinkerah

Check those dates Dhturk, and careful with that spelling there.

Tinkerah

Love it!! Any idea how they were coupled?

Tinkerah

After we've figured this out, let's work on how the Friends afforded those glorious Manhattan apartments while hanging out at a coffee shop.