The Way Back Machine

[regular guy]

Went to the Floyd Clymer sale in about '73.

It might have been in the Peterson Publishing building.Kind of Hollywood/Downtown area.

The guy showing the stuff I don't think was Floyd Clymer.

Couple of old motorcycles they were selling off.

The one I will always remember was a Clymer Munch.

4 cylinder NSU car engine mounted sideways in it.

Bike was like new.Maybe one they had taken to car shows and whatnot.

Jump to today. I bought a Floyd Clymer original 'How to Build Race Cars'.

Cool little book.

[Ace-Garageguy]

11 hours ago, regular guy said:

...Jump to today. I bought a Floyd Clymer original 'How to Build Race Cars'.

Cool little book.

Thanks for the reminder. That's one I'd seen in the past, but had forgotten about. 

[regular guy]

You're welcome.

I made a mistake.

How To Build a Race Car.We bought a reprint that you can find easily.

Floyd Clymer 'How To Build A Fiberglass Car'.That one is an original.

When we were ready to pull the trigger there was an original for sale on Ebay.

It was LESS than the reprints and it sat there on Ebay for a couple days! Go figure.

[regular guy]

Just throwing this in here.

Right now the MPC '60 Corvettte kit is out.

It's a 7 in one kit.Lots of accessories and engine parts.Think they are all small block though.

It's on sale for $16 so I might actually grab one.

Just a guilty pleasure. I need a 1/8 chassis more than I need the Corvette.

[regular guy]

When I was a kid one my friends big brother had a shoebox 55 or 56 Chevy.

He used to take us for a ride when he had made some improvements to test it.

We sat in the backseat except there was no backseat.

He had removed the back seat to save weight.I think he had a rollbar in it.

It sat high gasser style all the way around. The idea was weight transfer to the rear wheels for traction.

That stuck with me.Later in the 80's when I built a 440 Dart. No back seat.Every little bit heips!

His Chevy had a black primer paint job.Then that meant you were interested in All go No show.

With mags of course.I had a dangerous set of mags on the rear of the Dart.

They were Keystones.Aluminum center welded to steel rim.I was always worried they would fall apart.

His Chey looked a whole lot like the one in American Graffiti. The one Harrison Ford drives in the big drag race with John Milner at the end of the movie.

In the 60's and 70's a LOT of fast cars roamed the streets of Southern California.

Some of them where legendary.The one guys Max Wedge car on the Westside.Everybody knew about that car.

The whole place would shake when that guy pulled in.The car shook!

Well.Back to working on my little model kit here.