how to - 70's cheeseball

Saturday.
I'm the stay at home Dad for the weekend.
What perfect time for an "arts & crafts" "how to" post.

Let's start with the problem...

pigpen

As you can see,
trying to glamorize our computer sty in a sepia tone.
What more to say.

I had found these larger than bookshelf speakers on craigslist,
(Thanks Graham!)
tried to sneak them onto the desk area,
by using papers and paraphernalia to camouflage the big black boxes.
Nice huh!

The kids heard it from the wife and notified me my ploy didn't work.
I had even tried putting stuff on top of the speakers,
 to make it seem like they had been there longer than they were.
Nope.
She's on it.

It would have been easy to put the speaker on top of the stereo,
but covering up the vent holes isn't good for it.
So.
I had 2 hours before she went to work to knock this out.

scrap?

This would be considered borderline stainless steel scrap...

scrap!

This was scrap.
Our carpenter neighbor throws this stuff away all the time.
It's walnut veneered plywood.

scrap!?

I'm not ashamed to say that this was scrounged from next door.
It's some good chit.





(2:20 to know why this dead song is here...)
Hey don't laugh, if you were trippin at the playboy mansion in '69!

So with minutes to spare I was able to gather some fasteners and tools,
enough to finish it up at the house.

helper

With Macey's help,
we wrapped it up pretty quick.
She had a great idea,
to tap (thread) the wood to fit 1/4-20 round head machine screws,
so the head is hidden on the bottom.
Smart girl.

baby monster receiver
kenwood kr-7600

So now the computer receiver/amp - Kenwood KR-7600,
blends in with the floor.

what receiver?

There's about a 3/4" gap I'm hoping will be enough ventilation.
I've got a backup fan idea,
a little computer fan type rig to plug into the receiver,
just in case.

hmm...

The new shelf does the job perfect.
But the speakers,
a little too much of the Y2K cheese-ball with the black.

After a quick internet search,
we found a budget fix at Home Depot.

JBL D-38 speakers
70's style

With the help of a $7 roll of contact paper with a "tropical walnut" print.
These 1999 JBL "Decade Series" D38 speakers look straight out of the 70's.

I was looking for some monitor-like speakers for a while,
not too big as they are positioned about 3 feet from my ears.
JBL was known to make the ultimate 70's monitor speakers,
the 4311's and the L100's.
Yeah, I'd love a set but they are either too pricey or blown out projects.

These D38's have a 175 watt capacity!
They sound pretty dang good too.
I usually have the loudness button on,
and tweek the tone controls to compensate for the GD bootlegs though.
If you find a clean pair in the +-$50 range,
get em.

JBL D38 speakers
90's cheese with 70's cheese styling

I was impressed with this sticky vinyl fake wood stuff.
The print was hard to see in the package as its in a roll,
but it actually has a wood-like grain,
enough to fool the camera.

The best part is there's probably enough left in the roll do do these too!

boys and there toys
JBL CF-150 speakers

Just what I needed.
Cough.
These were mislabeled on craigslist and were almost the same price as the D38's!
Perfect for the shop.

Anyway.
now that we're getting the 70's walnut motif...

walnut
america's hardwood

I better clean up the camouflage I left on the desk!

crikey!
clean that chit up!

You guys are lucky -
I've got even more stereo posts coming up!

TP

bike time viii - oreo vs hot dog + dago 24"er

Too soon for a bike time installment?
Oh well.
The kids did so good in school this year,
what a perfect excuse to get them ready for the summer.

dago boys

Jakes been quietly patient the 2 years he's had his stingray.
It was set up as a 70's all-steel bmx conversion.

lets do this!

He's really wanted an original looking ape-hangered banana-seated sting ray.
Who am I to argue with that!

repop stingray goodies

We went down to our LBS (local bike shop) -
Bernies Bicycle Shop in Ocean Beach,
and they hooked us up with a bunch of shiny chingaderas.
It's all SUN repop stuff but it's perfect for a kids summertime thrash.

First we got some apes on there.

choppers

This would have been perfect,
but there is another issue that a true rider must deal with.
This whole year he didn't ride his bike cause his backpack hit the rear wheel!
It gives a real purpose to the banana seat.

stingray crazy

He was lovin it.

Why we didn't do this earlier is beyond me.
Doh.
what's gonna happen when he's old enough for a motorcycle!

oreo lives

We nicknamed the bike Oreo.

Hot Dog

We nicknamed Jaxon's bike - Hot Dog
(ketchup and mustard)

Now we can have bike drag races down the alley.
Got to get them started early!

oreo vs hot dog

Meanwhile,
Jaxon's been obsessed with a cruiser project.
He's been wanting to ride on the "critical mass" bike rides,
but a schwinn stingray is just not a long distance bike for a 11 year old,
in a crowd of 300 or 500 people.

He can fit on a 26" cruiser,
but he's a little out of control on the technical stuff.
So we've been planning out a 24" wheeled bike.
I had parts of a 24" cruiser at the shop,
so he had been pricing all the other individual parts over the phone/internet.

We ended up scoring this sweet girls donor bike on craigslist
for less than the price of 2 bike shop wheels.

chop chop donor bike

A huge perk was the rear wheel has a nexus 3-speed hub,
perfect for the long "critical mass" rides.
Within an hour or so he had swapped the parts onto the aluminum boys frame.

hot rod cruiser

It was fun to watch him understand what scabbing parts to make a bike actually means.
No joke, they each did the majority of the work on their bikes,
with a little guidance and tuning.

The cruiser bars were kinda lame,
since he's been used to riding the bigger "dago style" cruisers with the shorty apes...

perichbrothers (and sister): bike time III - dago-style prewar shelby

perichbrothers (and sister): bike time V - dago workhorse - schwinn DX


So we swapped out the cruiser bars for some "dago apes"

dago 24"er

Perfect!
Almost anyway.
Now he can get used to riding the 3-speed.
Later on maybe swap out to a 3-piece aluminum crank,
and maybe a more comfortable seat, and paint?
At least he can keep up with the crowd with this thing.

little terrors

Bye bye legos!

Good times.

TP

holley 94 - model 59

Now that I'm able to drive the RPU around,
it's boiled down to basic tune-up procedures-
-timing, carb sync, oil change etc.

During the tear down,
the intake was removed and put on a shelf,
not cleaned and bowls full of gas.
Sweet.
The engine was covered and rolled around the shop for a year.
Even sweeter.
At the time I was predicting a 3 or 5 month rebuild,
not a year plus!

The engine was swapped out a couple years before,
and the carburetors were the choice pickings of about 9 different donor carbs.
So there wasn't a mechanical reason for the renovation.

I did dump whatever gas was left inside the bowls a couple months prior,
using it to degrease stuff.
Gas is the best cleaner for greasy parts.

It was a surprise to get Chief running for the GNRS show,
especially with the dirty carbs.
Some carb cleaner was sprayed down the barrels during that first warm-up,
but there was a little hesitation and the gas stream was a little uneven.

dirty flathead

The past weeks driving the carbs didn't clean themselves out,
so what the heck,
let's clean these puppies up.

Nah I'm not gonna do a step by step.
I was just reminded how bitchin the 94 style carb is.

open

The guys who engineered the 94 carburetor mastered farm mechanics.
This carb can be completely disassembled with one slot screwdriver.
I've had to take these apart on the side of the freeway at night,
with just the light of the streetlamps.
That's why the firewall light!

chunky

Fortunately this time the problem was obvious.
There was a piece of straw or something stuck in the jet.
Easy peezy.

So what the hell.
Instead of stripping them down completely...

dirty

let's throw them back together all nasty.
Wow.
They're bullets now.

15486372
ford flathead firing order

Yeah just what you all wanted to see.
Some pictures of dirty old carburetors that run almost perfect.

These are model 59's,
standard Ford carbs on '46-'48 cars and trucks.
Once you figure out the power valve trick,
they're just as good as a Stromberg 97's on a dual carb intake.

If you ever wondered...
They are called 94's cause the venturi is 94/100ths of an inch,
or about 15/16".
I think they are only 150+- cfm carbs!

The dual intake is one of the best ways to wake up a flathead -
now that there is 300 cfm capability.
If you've ever driven a single carb flathead,
you'll notice that it won't over-rev,
it'll starve for fuel first.

model 59
holley 94

I used to run 52 jets with a plugged power valve,
but was coerced to use the rebuild kit stock power valve.
So now they're 50 jets with stock power valve.
There is still room for improvement,
so I'll be playing around with them in the future.

screen or no screen

The outside issue is the air cleaner, or lack of one.
This fine screen has been used as a filter,
but there it gives enough resistance to be noticeable when removed.

The carbs were jetted WITH the screens.
Now without the screens (temporarily) they seem a little lean,
or just not as rich as they are with the screens on.

So now I'm on the hunt for some different screen material...

TP

got gas?

Its been so long.

I forgot the old hot rod used gas.

TP

bike time vii - beater schwinn stingray

It's 2011,

you're in 5th grade.

What better choice of wheels!

schwinn stingray

I picked this up years ago from a friend who was having a yard sale.

If you can believe it was in worse condition it was.

It took about 2 years for one of the kids to fit it.

Our oldest,

Jaxon really wanted to ride his bike to school.

Around here,

kids are riding BMX style bikes.

I asked him if he wanted to paint it up or clean it up a little.

Nah. Why?

swapped out banana seat

It had been sitting out in the yard,

so the paint had faded.

We just ended up wiping it all down with some oil to brighten it up.
Greased the heck out of the bearings.

It took a while to clean the rustiness off the chrome fender with a razor blade.

ketchup & mustard stingray

Maybe since he's grown up around dirty hot rods his whole life,

he can see through perfect paint and chrome at a basically cool bike.

Uh oh!

kids cruiser

He rode to school that first time.

I half-expected a little rousting,

but nope.

He said the other kids loved it.

Wow,

there is hope!

rusty cranks

It's been almost 2 years since that first ride to school,

and it's still going.

We did replace the s-7 front rim with an aftermarket unit.

Now it has big and little s-2 20 in tires.

date?
who cares.

That's the fun thing about a  kids thrasher bike.

Restorers get caught up in the date, the correct parts, paint etc.

This bike is just made to ride.

comin

oh man...

goin

The next thing is to build a little ramp jump.

I better get on that.

hippy kid

Jakob's stingray is the 80's bmx home conversion

Jake's bmx stingray

The bummer with Jake's bike is the seat.

His backpack is so big,

it rubs on the back tire!

The plan is to convert it back to its banana seat,

but that is for another bike time post.

hot rod stingray

We have created a little problem though.

Now he wants 2 more stingrays, different colors.

Holy chit.

My wife's gonna kill me!

He also recently found Sublime's version of the Grateful Dead's Scarlet Begonia's...

Hay wey...

Better make some space in the garage!

TP

holey tijuana root canal

Avid readers will know of our now regular trips to the TJ dentist(a).
So off we went.

uh oh
sign of good times comin

Again we walked across.
It's the best idea really,
there's no need to get Mexican car insurance,
or wait in the line to get in/out.

goin to Mexico

It's hard to see but that line wraps around the curve.
This was about 4:00pm on wednesday,
so it's a normal occurence.

otay border crossing bottleneck

This is why,
there are only 2 entry lanes!

Fortunately we have Eric/Pikachu as our guide to navigate us around.
Driving down there just doesn't interest me,
especially after getting dosed with local anesthesia etc.
If you do drivemake sure you get Mexican car insurance,
and all your lights work!

There may be a chance that we go down without his help,
and we suggested using a Tijuana Taxi.

tijuana taxi
(ripped pic)

Tijuana Taxi built-up

Review 20100424 – Revell Monogram® Tijuana Taxi | Right On! Replicas

That would be fun.
But Eric suggested using the local "Taxi Libre".

Taxi Libre

I guess this is the locals taxi.
There are "gold stripe" taxi's but they are more expensive.
If I ever have a taxi story I'll write about it!

These vans are all over the place too,
but take the scenic route.

TJ bus

Ok,
let's get to the fun part.

what the hell did I get myself into...

This is the Dentista's nephew, the endodontist.
You can tell from my clenched fist that I'm ready.

holey chit

You know,

usually I'll study things a bit beforehand.

See what I'm getting myself into.

I am so glad I didn't search "root canal" or "endodontic therapy" before coming.

I saw him lay out the tools and ... oh shit...

Root canal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Endodontic therapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is only one main nerve on each side of the lower jaw,

versus 16 for the top.

I think this syringe is WWII surplus.

tranquilo

He really juiced me up good,

but it would have been way better to be asleep right now.

what the...
I'm paying someone to do this?

Holee shitt.

I had seen my wife get her teeth ground up,

so my imagination was running wild.

The sounds and smell is something to behold.

After that he digs around.

I got a second injection after the top pulp was removed.

This was a really deep twisted root,

he said it was one of the toughest he'd done,

so he squirted a 3rd injection into the root core.

Mind you this was after I thought he was already finished.

Actually he was conferring with the Dentista as the files weren't long enough.

Puta Madre...

escape root

So he took an x-ray,

and bent the file to conform to the root path.

Pretty tricky.

special file

The goal is to dig out all the rotten parts,

and pull out any living nerve as well.

I swear I could feel that needle/file poking through the bottom of my jaw.

cha-ching - the heart

They call this the heart.

Now the tooth is unofficially dead.

After this a special disinfectant is added to kill anything else in there,

and some cotton and a paste fill up the hole.

Next week I gotta go back to finish it up.

Great.

taqueria

On the way back,

my jaw was still numb and I couldn't really eat.

We passed by a slew of taquerias,

and I was shooting taqueria pics from the car.

Ok,

note to self-

Don't accidentally or intentionally take pics of mexican police eating at a taqueria!

Less than 150 feet from our drop off point,

we got pulled over by the friggin cops.

not TJ cops

These are not the cops that pulled us over.

The TJ cops have big friggin automatic assault rifles,

and bulletproof vests 2 inches thick.

They also like mordidas!

After scaring the shit out of my wife,

it ended up costing us $20 and they also deleted the picture!

Second note to self -

Always bring small change and keep big money hidden just in case!

Ah wey.

We'll still go down,

but probably not take as many pictures!

Even with the payoff,

the price is still only a fraction of the US cost.

tijuana aint no picnic

Can't pass up throwing in a Grateful Dead song!

(just give them about 17 seconds to get out of space...

... it gets weird after 8:30)

When Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter were writing this song,

all bets are that they were just finishing up a TJ root canal...

Until next time...

TP