ChevyAsylum

While Chinee-MexiWorld (Ooops, WallyWorld...opps...WatMart) has good prices and is able to dictate to the manufacturers (of just about anything) what will be produced and at what price (probably not as big a deal in the model car segment as in others), the fact remains that they are NOT a good company to deal with. They pay sub-standard wages, manpulate markets, make a mockery of the "competitive free market" system and send most of your money (that doesn't go into their stakeholders offshore bank accounts) to foreign concerns who get fat by using virtual slave labor. They give lip service to "community responsibility" and other high-minded ideals, but in fact, their corporate policy is to minimize costs and maximize profits...the same as every other for-profit concern, but taken to scales never seen since the robber barons of the late 19th/early 20th century...which led to anti-trust legislation and other forms of regulation...which (being the band-aid that it was and continues to be) has only crippled the free market system upon which this country's economic system was based. "Outsourcing" was non-existent when these laws were passed...but in today's "global marketplace" it has become an issue that has the potential to bring the United States to the status of a third-world country, especially when we've been bled dry by the Waltons and other corporate giants who send our money out of the country, either in the form of foreign-produced products or by knowingly hiring illegal aliens using forged documentation who send the greater percentage of their meager earnings to Mexico and other Central American countries. Don't believe it? Go to the post office shortly after a WalMart payday and see the number of postal money orders being purchased and sent out of the country. Bottom line: don't buy from WalMart. I don't. I support my LHS. I also fly the flag alongside my Patriot Guard Rider's colors and POW/MIA and Veteran flags on my leather vest. </rant>

Thanks, Ken. I'll keep my eyes peeled for him there.

No pics...but I'm 59 goin on 17 and feel like 95 this morning.

Thanks, Chris. I think I got lucky on that shot, considering the difficulty I had with some of the other shots. But I DID get the old Pentax out of mothballs and I'll try a round of pics at the cruise-in tonite. (Assuming I can remember to get film. Film....what's that?)

Wow!!! You got my respect and admiration for these restos. Wonderful work. I look forward to seeing more and more.

I spent the weekend at the American Le Mans Series race at the new track in Utah. (Makes it easy...I live 25 miles away.) I took a lotta pics and put them on my server...although I found that it's been way too many years since I did any sports car racing photography and my Sony digital camera wasn't the right tool for the job. I guess I'll have to dig out the old Pentax film camera and see if it still works for the Daytona Prototype race in August. The entry page is here: http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin06/Welcome.html I broke things up into the 3 days: Practice: http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin06/060713/060713.html Qualifying: http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin06/060714/060714.html And race day: http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin06/060715/060715.html So if you're thinking about building one of the new Audi R10s or Porsche RSR Spyders, you can get some idea of their appearance. Also on the entry page are links to the car shows and cruise nites I've hit so far this year.

Has anyone seen or heard from Jim Keeler in the last 9 months or so? The last time I saw him was last August at Speed Week on the Bonneville Salt Flats. I'd appreciate any info.

Thanks John and Mike. I understand a lot better now. I'll have to keep my eyes open just in case one of these events shows up on the toob. I'd like to watch 'em run.

Just a question from an old fart who lived in the 60s for too many decades: What series (and where) do these cars race? I haven't seem 'em in GrandAm or ALMS and I don't have a complete knowledge of SCCA classes...my last membership expired in 77. (Now I belong to SCTA and USFRA.) Are they purely Japanese racing series? European DTM? Btw, thee are some nice builds there.

I guess this is pushing the envelope a bit, but I just got the sucker running today (been workin on it since last September) and wanted to show off. Yeah, I'm a proud pappa. Here's "Rufus" after his maiden (can you say that with a male name?) voyage around the block: There's a whole story behind it on my server starting here: http://www.chevyasylum.com/29modela/050927.html

I can't wait to see the 49 Ford rat finished. That has a lotta possibilities.

Dave, I just wanted to thank you for your great reference pics. I've visited your site a lot and yesterday I got an email from a guy in Colorado referring my to ya. Totally different context, but ya sure get around. Thanks again,

Outstanding chop job, man. You make it look so easy! The results are great with beautifully proportioned lines.

Nice pics! That 39 Sedan is wild! Ossum detail!

WOW! Just WOW!

This motor is the Buick aluminum 215 cid V8 that was used by Rover and Triumph and a few others...and yes, it does have vertical valve covers. But it's a totally different block than what's normally referred to as a Nailhead. I should have been more specific. The displacements (that I'm aware of) for Nailhead motors are 322, 360, 401 and 455. That spans about 25 years of production and I don't know what (if anything) is interchangeable between a 322 (early production) and a 455, but externally they appear similar.

Just to echo what other people have written, Nailheads are Buick motors. They're distinguished by the the vertically mounted valve covers. They were forst produced in 1953 (I owned one) and continued up thru the 60s or 70s when the "GM corporate motor rip-off" began and basically everything got a Chevy smallblock. Jairus was right, there was one in the old AMT 40 Ford coupe kit. It's what you might expect from an early 60s design. If you want an Olds Rocket motor, there's one in the Beatnik Bandit kit that's pretty frequently available on eBay. It's a fairly detailed motor, but I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that it's a great one. If that Rocket IS what you're looking for, you could always do what the 1-800 hotrodders are doing: put a set of valve covers with the Oldsmobile script on a Chevy smallblock. They seem to think they're fooling people. Maybe they are as far as the casual observer is concerned, but not the true gearheads. Here's a pic of one I took at a car show recently. I saw another one at one of the next cruise nites I went to. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

I wouldn't be so hasty in discounting a cover photo. When I saw the first pic, I couldn't tell if it was the prototype or the model. The weathering is great and it all looks very natural. Good stuff, man!

Way kool VW. I like the reversed motor...like we did with Formula Vees back in the day. You model reminded me of one that I saw on the salt flats last year. It cause quite a commotion and gathered crowds wherever it went. I saw the owner driving it on the road between the freeway exit and "Lands End" (where the paved road stops and the salt begins) and it appears that he drove the sucker all the way to Bonneville from wherever he lives. 'Course, he coulda trailered it to Wendover and just driven the few miles to the salt. But no matter...it was just extra kool...as is your van. http://www.chevyasylum.com/bsf2005/sw/0508..._025r8_jpg.html I look forward to seeing the end product. Thanks for posting this.

That sure looks like a good candidate for a resin casting. I'd buy one. It's great work, btw. Old iron rocks.

That Grand Sport really is a work of art. You sure do good work, Brian.

This is lookin great, Brian. Keep up the good work.

Since I haven't built one of the Grand Sport Corvette kits, could you explain what ya mean by "fiddly?" I'd hate to go buy one and then find out that it's a pile of junk like a few other kits I can think of.

Ok...I think this is the right place. I've got a fair collection of cars, trucks (no big rigs, tho) hot rods, kustoms and kroozers and LSR race cars on my server. Here's the url for the cruises and car shows: http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin.html LSR (Land Speed Racing) pics are in the Bonneville Salt Flats section which is accessible from the main entry page: http://www.chevyasylum.com/Welcome.html There are quite a few rat rods in this section. And inside there are pics of my own cars and trucks (and some models): http://www.chevyasylum.com/Welcome1.html

I also take a lotta pics at car shows and cruises: http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin.html I collect even more for my own use. I've archived about 20,000 pics for reference.