Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 08:01:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Allison shop
Sender: fordnatics-errors@lists.best.com
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> Derrick Cope. Hard to believe a Winston Cup team still operates out
-> of such a facility.

Why?  The showroom/workshop is a result of the sponsorship money tree.
Little actual work goes on in such places; maintenance and adjustment
mostly.  Chassis come from chassis builders, engines from engine
builders in most cases.

"Li'l John" Buttera built most of his famous cars working out of the
one car garage on his house in the 'burbs.  He had to push the car
outside to get room to move; all the parts were hung from the ceiling.
Ed Roth built his show cars in little better.  Tony Nancy ran his drag
racing operation - backed at various times by Pontiac and Oldsmobile -
from the back of his upholstery shop, which wasn't very fancy either.
Dean Moon's racing operation, which birthed the Shelby Cobra and did
development for Brabham, ran out of a few extra bays in his tire store.
Ak Miller operates in a hole in the wall in a residential area.  Boyd
Coddington ran his street rod shop out of a converted barn until just
recently.  Warren Johnson's operation looks like a prison.  Keith Craft
Racing is a converted gas station.  Etc, etc, etc.

The showroom/workshop is a symbol of conspicuous consumption and a
place to hang your sponsor paraphernalia, not a serious workplace.



Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 16:47:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ackerman (Was GT1...)
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> > Being Chinese, like myself, we
-> > hate seeing tires dying a premature death (when we could spending

Chinese my eye.  Chen and Hung are old-time California names,
equivalent to ancestors on the Mayflower on the other coast.

My middle name is Lee, because when I was born in Sacramento my mother
told her obstretrician she'd name the kid after him if he'd give her a
spinal.  He did and she did.  He was an old-time California type.


Here in the say-outh they assume I'm monickered after some redneck
general who lost a war...



Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 23:58:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Class-action weirdness
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> It'd have to pass the sniffer, or else it's get a 512 stroker!!

So?  Toss the 4.3 in the back.  Drop the 512 in front.  The state
doesn't say the engine actually has to be hooked to anything to pass
smog, do they?  I bet there's not a single word in the whole North
Carolina emissions regulations about twin-engine vehicles.




Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 08:27:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: the ugliest car ever made
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> My nomination is the 1960 Ford. 2 door, 4 door, HT or sedan - they
-> were all butt ugly. Even people who like them say so. It's the most
-> unlikely jump from the square, boxy '59 to the lower, finned '61
-> imaginable. It doesn't even look like a Ford!

...yet it looks like a car.  Unlike the new Taurus, which looks like
an alien death coccoon from Aliens IV.  The interior looks like it was
designed by someone on a bad LSD flashback.  And those are its good
points.

Runner-up:  the latest Ford pickups.  Bleaccchhh.

Chrysler used to have the lead in ugly, but Ford's designers can now
proudly claim they're the kings of crud.  Most of Ford's newer designs
make my want to shield my eyes and run down to the local Chevy dealer.

I've been considering writing my local legislooter to see if he wants
to propose a special "ugly tax" on Taurus license plates.  Maybe $1000
per plate.  And limit them to 100 miles per year, not to be operated
within 10 miles of any town of over 50 persons.  The Taurus is so ugly
it's an offense against good taste.

Third place would be the previous-design Cougar, which looked like a
Thunderbird (which wasn't so hot either) that had been backed partway
underneath an 18-wheeler and had the roof scrunched in.  Dig those goofy
diagonal rear windows, yeah buddy.

Has anyone else noticed Ford's entire 1997 lineup looks the same from
the front?  All with that idiotic "smile"?



Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 20:57:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Design rationals
To: Homebrew-Autos@bolis.com

-> wheels.  Weight is the true enemy; with a heavy car you need big
-> tires for traction, big heavy swaybars for cornering, heavy wheels,
-> big brakes to stop it, a big engine to get it going, with a big
-> heavily loaded gas tank, each of which make it still heavier - a
-> nasty downward spiral.

You got it, bud!  I've been trying to think of an elegant way to put
that across.

Colin Chapman's minimalist approach to car design netted Lotus a lot of
wins, a lesson not to be ignored.

I got carried away and wound up deeply involved in building a car that
I no longer really want.  I'd probably have a hell of a lot more fun
with something along the lines of a Westfield or Caterham.  Instead, I
console myself that, if ever completed, the Marauder will be a technical
tour de force that will look good on my Maximum Overdrive business
cards.



Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 21:15:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Vendors
To: gnttype@gnttype.org

-> Perhaps it has something to do with the changing demographics of the
-> list or maybe it is the approach of the second millenium, but I
-> notice that there appears to be many more direct assaults on
-> individuals and companies than I recall in the past.

I've been auditing the Talon list for a couple of years.  (auditing:
spooling incoming mail off into a directory I get around to going
through every few months)

Various vendors frequent the list, and the wars between the vendors and
each other, and the members, get fairly nasty.  The members, on the
other hand, seem to have a much lower level of technical competence than
the (visible, posting) GN members, an (apparently) much younger average
age, and as far as I can tell much higher limits on their credit cards
than I do.  It makes for quite a bit of useless noise on the list.

The demographics of the GN list are changing too.  If you read back
through the archives you'll see it used to be quite a bit different.
I liked it better that way, but a mailing list evolves over time.  Scott
has done a better than average job of keeping the list focused on the
subject at hand, with with dweebs like me butting in from time to time
with only-barely-relevant asides.

I would like to state, though, that if some GNlist members spent as
much time working on their cars as they to thinking of peurile Mustang
putdowns, they'd probably be two seconds quicker in the quarter...

-> 9 (she described the feeling as "like hitting a big gust of wind"),
-> and then BANG- the hood folded promptly up over the top of the car,

Been there.  In my first V8 Capri - a '72 model I built in high school.
Fortunately it didn't take out the windshield.


-> screwbar, and the hood was once again vaguely hood-shaped and more or
-> less back in its normal place, sort of. This took place accompanied

Hah!  I simply unbolted the bent hood, tossed it in the ditch, and ran
without it for the next two years.  I was rather a minimalist back then.
The thing performed no useful function anyway, and the engine cooled
much better without it, though the steam coming off the exhaust
manifolds on rainy days did tend to cause visibility problems when
stopped.

On the other hand, all my other cars immediately got hood pins.


-> much merriment and derision on the part of the Porsche people

Yes.  Porsches normally accompany any mechanical failure with by flames
in the engine compartment, dumping immense amounts of oil on the track,
or both.  I have yet to attent a local PCA event without one or the
other.  A mere hood latch failure is unthinkable on a Porsche.


-> Wonder how many folks are going to go look at their hood latches

Not me.  Tyrannosaurus RX' hood opens to the front.  It's a minor pain
when working under the hood, but after the Big Bang many years ago I'm
not complaining.


Now, let's go back and review this.  You and Cindy took a brand new
1986 Mustang and hammered it in tandem one, two, and three days at a
time, over a period of nine years, on Baud only knows how many tracks on
two coasts, with nothing more than the mandatory sacrifices to the Brake
and Tire Gods.

In the last year you've DNFed due to rear axle failure, power steering
failure, punched a strut mount into the hood, took a boulder through the
windshield, wore the engine slam out, and yanked the chassis into a
parallelogram on the trailer.  Then the Griffith Curse hops from the old
car to Cindy's car...


Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 19:06:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: 3.8 stuff...
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> Ok....I yanked out my Racer Walsh catalog and here's what I found:

I made it out to the core yard but I didn't get a V6.  Didn't get the
400M crank I found stuck in with a bunch of Chevy cranks either.
Instead I spent from 8:30 to 2:30, nonstop, sorting barrels of
connecting rods.  I hit the mother lode of small block Chrysler and
Oldsmobile rods, if anyone is interested.  I threw at least two hundred
back in a barrel when I realized I was running short of money.

Each barrel holds from 1000 to 1200 pounds of rods.  I went through
six, all the way to the bottom.  6000 pounds of rods.  No wonder my back
was ready to kill me.  Plus I was beginning to look like Mark Hammill
after he hid out in the oil drum in "Corvette Summer."

I have enough Chrysler and Olds rods for the immediate future, several
sets of small journal Chevy rods (Dan!  Which address do you want yours
shipped to?), a big stack of 2.3 rods, a couple of sets of 300 truck
rods, two 400 SBC rods, and four BBC rods.  There were five more barrels
but I was too wasted to dig.  Now I have 300 rods to resize with my new
Sunnen rod machine...


Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 11:53:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Big block fallacies (was Re: 4.6L DOHC)
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> goes up,,,what do we do,,,,,Ohhh well,I've had my electric car
-> recharging on the two cycle gasoline powered generator now for 35
-> hours straight,boy does that two cycle engine smoke,but now I'll be
-> able to drive around  emissions free for atleast 10 minutes!!

That's the Environmentalist plan - NIMBY, or "Not In My Back Yard."
The idea is to get all this pure, clean electricity from great smoky
coal burning plants Somewhere Else, bring it in on big transmission
lines (which gets a whole separate group of enviro-whackos all stirred
up), and then plug all your electric cars in when you get home from
work, collapsing the entire residential power grid, which in most places
is running *way* over design capacity already.

You can become environmentally correct just like the big boys.  Just
drop the generator over the fence into your neighbor's yard and run the
power cord to your garage.  See?  Your electricity is now
emissions-free!  Hooray!



Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 17:56:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Hmm...What's That?
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> dinky. Did ford have a european plant back in those days? Sure didn't
-> look american to me.

But of course!  Ford has major plants in the USA, Canada, Australia,
Belgium, Spain, England, and Germany (Taunus).  They also have assembly
plants in South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil where they put together CKD
(Completely Knocked Down) kits due to taxes.  And probably other places
I forget, plus various partially owned or controlled enterprises, like
Mazda and Kia.

There were even Ford plants in the Soviet Union, built during the days
when old Henry was sucking up to Stalin and giving money to both the UAW
and the CPUSA.  They got nationalized eventually, of course.

I never could quite figure out old Henry's train of thought.

Commies: "We're the Communists, we're going to take your factories,
strip you of your private property, denounce you as an exploiter of the
masses, and put you in a concentration camp."

Henry: "Will you take a check, or shall I send for cash?"

On the other hand, it appeared to work, at least in the short run.


Some of the ties between Ford and early Nazi Germany were a little
sour, too.  Not to mention some of his anti-Jewish activities.  Money
talks; some of Ford's activities bordered on treason, but he was
acclaimed as a patriot.  If he hadn't expired of old age I suspect
FoMoCo would have been targetted with some antitrust actions and
dismembered.



Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 22:41:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Splitfire court decision..
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> I just had a flash! Dave Williams Keep that bandsaw going,
-> they need Splitfire Heads, Splitfire Blocks. If there's a
-> market "Sheet" lets join em! Made by Sparky an elf that

I wonder if we could use acetone to remove the markings from Lodge or
NGK four-electrode aircraft/Wankel plugs?  Then we could market them as
"Strigas Natural" plugs, lovingly handcrafted from all organic materials
by 1960s hippies living in a commune in upstate California...  package
them in a plain brown (recycled) cardboard box.  Yeah.

For the yuppie crowd we can dye the ceramics in wild Da-Glo colors and
chrome plate the steel parts, then vacuum-pack them in multiple layers
of plastic and foil like HP inkjet printer cartridges.  Of course it
would be better if we could, say, have bizarre patterns molded into the
ceramics instead of the usual boot rings.


You know, this'd all be terribly funny if there weren't so many goobers
out there who'd actually believe all that stuff...  



Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 08:41:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Stroker Archive re-visited...
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> >  Sorry.  You just hit one of my little quirks...

> yeah, and extreme unnessacary arrogance is one of mine...

Well, keep it up, Scott.  You'll get better at it.  



Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 03:37:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: SAE books, papers?
To: homebrew-autos@bolis.com

-> I was checking out the SAE's web site www.sae.org - looks like there
-> might be some things of interest there - unfortunatly, they want $10
-> per paper.

The SAE is one of the most nifty scams of the century.  Beats the Ponzi
schemes flat.

Here's the deal:  you set up a "society" that anyone can join.  You
establish a graduated dues system and charge, oh, $75 or so on the
average, per year, to be a "member."  Then you solicit the "members"
to write technical papers for you for free.  Three or four times a year
you stage a "conference", where the members pay you so they can read
their papers aloud to the other members.  Then you keep the papers and
sell them over and over and over.  Laugh all the way to the bank.

I used to be a member.  I bought a bunch of papers.  Most of them were
nearly useless, useless, or content-free.  And since you have to buy
before you can look, you're taking a pig in a poke every time.  The
members, some of whom aren't totally stupid, just generate papers with
fancy names and minimal content in order to say "I have authored over
twenty papers for the SAE."  Looks good on their resumes, you see.

There have been a few papers and a collection or two that have been
outstanding, but you're going to buy a lot of crap before you get to
anything useful.



Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 17:40:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Programming language
To: diy_efi@coulomb.eng.ohio-state.edu

-> NOT subject to the frustrations of the VERY regimented structure of
-> the other high level languages;  but, much of that structure is
-> available should you desire it.

Just like a mechanic has more than one wrench, a programmer should be
able to handle more than one language.  In many cases, the language
itself is secondary to the specific *implementation* of the language,
things like, "will this sucker generate code small enough to stuff in my
EPROM?" or "how much does this sucker cost, anyway?"  The latter figured
heavily in my rejection of various microcontroller boards; I'm not going
to "license" someone's proprietary tinyBASIC or tinyC implementation for
$695 to run on their $89 board.  Are they in the software business or
the hardware business?

Most modern language interpretations - even many COBOLs and FORTRANs
- allow direct memory and port addressing, interrupts, and whatnot.
The rest of them have been borrowing ideas from each other to the point
that few implementations have the restrictions of the old days when the
languages were "pure."



Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 16:59:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: New Folks
To: Homebrew-Autos@bolis.com

-> And electronic schematics - don't have to redraw everything :)

Back when I was into electronics I just used a piece of pegboard, pegs,
and yarn...


-> reasons - I know how to use CAD, and I don't want to lose that
-> already weakening skill.

Software changes so fast it's not really worthwhile to keep up unless
it's a job skill you need.  "Hail, visitor from the future, I am an
expert user of AutoCAD 2.14..."

You mostly need to make sure your package can export your drawings in
some standard form other packages can interpret.  It was supposed to be
DXF once upon a time, except nobody's DXF ever seemed quite capable of
completely interpreting anyone else's...

I also don't think anyone - well, any package I've had a chance to see
- has hit the mark as to a really good user interface.  But then CAD
packages have the same problem word processors do - an interface
optimized for *entry* and an interface optimized for *editing* are not
the same.  And throwing X, Windows, or MacOS at it isn't a solution
either.  (whoops!  Windows is "easier to use" and the Mac is "easiest to
use", no matter what the application, right?  At least according to All
The Magazines...)

But then I'm a mere programmer/draftsman/machinist/writer/designer,
what do I know about user interfaces?



Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 11:59:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: odd factoids
To: wheeltowheel@abingdon.Eng.Sun.COM

For years Smokey Yunick would talked about what a great driver Curtis
Turner was, though I never saw that he had enough wins to justify the
continual accolades.

Reading a 1967 Motor Trend, I find Curtis Turner was the builder and
owner of Charlotte Motor Speedway and therefore a Power in the kind of
racing Smokey did back then.

Oh.



Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 22:02:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: IHRA Changes Ownership
To: wheeltowheel@abingdon.Eng.Sun.COM

Turbo & High Tech Performance, June 1997:

Prolong Acquisition Corporation, an affiliate of Prolong Super
Lubricants, and The International Hot Rod Association jointly announced
that Prolong was to purchase the IHRA.



Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 08:28:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> material.  The print mentions a 246cc intake port that flows 360 cfm
-> and a 42 cc (!) combustion chamber.  Does anybody have any additional
-> info on these?

I've seen brief mention of them in a couple of places.  With the kind
of motors I build, a 42cc chamber would give about 14:1 CR on the most
dished pistons I could get...

Back in '84 or so my buddy Jay and I visited Brodix.  I needed some
foundry sand for doing some castings, and Brodix said they'd sell me
some from their foundry.  So we lined the trunk of AB's Capri with
plastic, cruised over to Mena, and loaded up.  I think they charged me
twenty bucks, which was a hell of a deal.  I still have most of it.
Foundry "sand" is more like silica flour bonded with clay.  AB refers to
it as "that expensive dirt."

We got a tour of the foundry while we were there.  The port and water
jacket cores are done in metal permanent molds using a fancy sand with a
CO2-activated binder.  These are assembled like a nifty 3-D puzzle and
dropped into the cope and drag, which are rammed up with ordinary
foundry sand.  They do several at a time; two guys use a long
handled crucible containing about five gallons of molten aluminum and
pour it into the molds, which steam and bubble and carry on.  Aluminum
at pouring temp runs like water.  They were pouring "Pontiac" heads for
small block Chevys when we were there; this was quite some time before
they were announced.  Out back they had a guy who broke the cope and
drag open, tossed the sand back into the riddle, debonded the port cores
with a water hose, and knocked the risers off the castings.  All neat
stuff.

The machine shop was right up the street.  We had to go up there to pay
for the sand, and wound up talking to JV Brotherton, one of the owners.
JV gave us a nice tour of the place, from pattern shop to loading dock.
They were doing SBC and Buick V6 heads.  I asked when they were going to
come out with any Ford heads - remember, back then there *weren't* any
aftermarket Ford heads, unless you counted the Ford/Root stuff.  JV
asserted that Brodix would never, *never* do any Ford heads, and
everyone in earshot got a big laugh.  Ford heads, indeed.  Who'd want
such a thing?

I've meant to go back out there sometime, but when I called a couple
years ago and asked if I could come down and take some photos, the
answer was an emphatic "NO!"  Their excuse was, they'd let someone bring
a video camera in a year or two before, and he'd taped all the
production fixtures, then sold the tape to one of their competitors.
So no more visitors at the plant.  Sounds sorta like locking the barn
after the cow got out, plus all they had when I was there was a bunch
of Bridgeports and some simple fixturing, plus regular head shop gear.
It doesn't take a whole lot to machine a cylinder head...

Schoenfeld Headers is about the same distance away, except north
instead of west.  I had some business out their way once, so I called
them up and asked if I could visit the plant.  I went through about five
different people, all of whom sounded like the result of too many
first-cousin marriages, with long periods on hold in between.  They
kept wanting to know if I was with the Labor Department or the IRS, and
told me I'd need a warrant...  most of the time people actually have to
meet me before freaking out; at last I have the Power to do it to them
over the phone.

I don't know why I affect people that way.  I mean, I bathe, plants
don't wilt if I breathe on them, I dress conventionally, and I don't
have any appreciable drooling or spasming in public.  But I'll be
someplace, an SCCA or PCA event, for example, and people will stare.
After surreptitiously checking to make sure my zipper is up, I will
often respond with expression 25-E ("Shouldn't You Be Doing Something?")
or 25-Q ("What ch'You Lookin' At, Shithead?"), and they'll take off like
they got goosed with a cattle prod.  I don't use 25-Z any more
("Thousand Yard Stare"); last time the guy got shell-shocked or
something and almost got run over by one of the cars in the pit lane.

I'd get some mirrored sunglasses, except I *already* put up with total
strangers asking me if I'm a cop...  I guess it could be worse, but...
jeez...



Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 14:13:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> It wouldn't be that "Ed Grimley" hairdo, would it?  I answered the
-> door with one this morning, and the poor Boy Scout almost fainted,
-> recovered, and RAN down the street.

I dunno, never heard of 'im.  Maybe it *is* my haircut, though.
I like to think of it at "1965 Establishment"; like James T. Kirk
without the pointy sideburns.  I guess it is sort of radical for 1997.
And it's all its natural mud color speckled with gray, instead of
Da-Glo orange, blue, or pink.  No earrings, nose rings, tongue studs, or
other piercings.  No dorky hat worn backwards.

Hmm... no wonder people ask me if I'm a cop... I probably frighten
people with my exotic appearance.

I used to have shoulder-length hair, which was probably more socially
acceptable.  Rolling over it with the creeper *hurt*, and after the
first 90wt shampoo I got it all chopped off.

Maybe I need a modern haircut.  There's a little-known B movie called
"Dudes".  One scene some guys have trapped an Elvis impersonator in his
dressing room.  The guy doesn't recognize them until one of the invaders
takes off his hat.  Remember the hat Hoss Cartwright used to wear on
Bonanza?  One like that.  The guy takes off his hat.  He has a foot-long
pink Mohawk, that sort of fans out after being trapped under the hat.
Then the movie gets sort of strange.  Yeah.  I bet nobody would notice
me if I had a 'do like that...  Maybe I can get it done before I go to
Mississippi.



Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 20:18:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> How about some nice oil spray out the rear (reworked cans of wd-40?
-> Dura lube?)  Or some nice tire-spike containers that release? ;)
-> Caltrops are easy tro make with sheetmetal-  whether or not they

James Bond's Aston Martin (note Ford reference) had all that stuff,
including an ejector seat, on-board navigation system, and other toys.

Of course in Ian Fleming's books he drove a Blower Bentley...

I believe Maxwell Smart's Tiger (note Ford association) had some of
those tricks, including the Inflate-A-Date (good for those car pool
lanes!) and fender-mounted machine guns.  (let's discuss this 'road
rage' thing a little more...)

- Dave "Sorry about that, Chief!" Williams



Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 07:38:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> What could be more interesting than cylinder heads?? These kind of
-> discussions are why I subscribe to the list.

Perhaps he was expecting a more 'normal' list, where the bulk of the
discussion is flaming, arguments about which car wax is best, radar,
vendor wars, outrageous street racing stories, silly questions repeated
endlessly, sniping at the perceived competition, stupid word plays on
the competition's names and products, two-screen .sig files, messages
encrypted in arcane word processor formats, and spam.

Obviously chucko doesn't know how to run a proper mailing list.  But if
we don't tell him, maybe he won't catch on...



Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 10:12:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
To: shop-talk@Autox.Team.Net

-> > They mist one....
->
-> ^^^^^^^^^
->
-> Man, and English is even my native language....

Typos don't care what language you're using...



Date: Sun, 21 Dec 1997 07:02:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
To: gunsmith-list@swcp.com

-> tap too.  I've broken many off in 17-4 with a 15hp Warner & Swasey
-> turret lathe.  A 3/8-16 tap going to Tool Heaven sounds like a
-> .22LR...

> And can be just about as dangerous.  Shrapnel can fly everywhere!

An accepted hazard in a machine shop.  You learn to recognize the sound
when a Mazak CNC center runs into a 100 pound Kurt vise and tosses it
across the room.  That was my first inkling that programming errors
could *hurt* you...


Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 15:08:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Hood!!
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> Are you a stupid freak or what?

I've been called that a few times.


-> This is not a junker like a freaking CHEVY PIECE OF SH*@ CAPRI!!

Uh-oh.  I'd have to take offense at that comment if you weren't such
a dork you didn't know the difference between a Capri and a Caprice.
Do you work at Auto Zone, perhaps?  Maybe Jiffy Lube?


-> I want to squall tires, kill Chevies, and just plain pimp, not it
-> being a piece of crap.  SO THERE IS A HUGE PANIC!!!!!!!!

Pimp.  Oh, okay.  I can see where you wouldn't want to affect your
business.  But I dunno, a pimp in a Mustang just doesn't seem to have a
lot of class.  Given the usual pimpmobile is a BMW or a Coupe de Ville,
couldn't you at least use a Lincoln?



Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 18:19:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Disillusioned by NASCAR
Sender: fordnatics-errors@lists.best.com
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com


-> NASCAR wins no matter who wins the individual events. And they love
-> the rivalary between Ford and Chevy.

Indubitably.  Fortunately, NASCAR is to auto racing what the WWF is to
wrestling, that is, a giant PR show, not competition.

Someday the 18-wheeler races will come back when NASCAR realizes the
big trucks have even more room for sponsor advertising.  And to keep
them slow and safe, they'll probably all use a spec 15hp Kubota diesel.



Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 15:16:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: [LONG] NHIS IT Invitational Race Report
Sender: wheeltowheel-request@abingdon.Eng.Sun.COM
To: wheeltowheel@abingdon.Eng.Sun.COM

-> The wonderful folks at Shine Racing found 30 missing horsepower

Hey, those are *MINE*!  I misplaced 'em just last week...



Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 16:17:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: FW: Calibration of Carbs
Sender: fordnatics-errors@lists.best.com
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com


-> gets beyond me. Personally I was just venting some frustration at the
-> things I unable to do with the typical "shade tree" tools.

No real difference.  Back in the old days you had a box full of $3
Holley carb jets and you went through cycles of jet changes and timed
runs to see if anything happened.

Nowadays it's much better.  You spend $250 for a chip, make a few runs,
put it back in its little static box, try another $250 chip, make a few
runs...



Date: Thu, 04 Sep 1997 17:33:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Stoopid
Sender: fordnatics-errors@lists.best.com
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com


-> Now who deserves the "Stoopid" trophy?

I think I had it during most of 1995 while building Tyrannosaurus RX.
Like when I spent several hours welding up the modified front
crossmember, then realized I'd welded the tubing on the wrong side of
the chalk line.  Compound that by picking it up off the bench in
disgust... while still smoking hot.  Dumb guy.

Or encountering the C4 'morning sickness' reverse servo seal problem
after I got it fired up.  Sitting there in reverse, nothing is
happening, shift to drive, back to reverse, finally goose the gas a good
one.  About that time the transmission decides to engage reverse.  Two
big rubber stripes on the shop floor, into the grass yard, throwing
grass and dirt into the shop.  Oops!  Good thing the shop door was open.
Dumb guy.




Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 22:03:39 +0000
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: 71 Pantera
Sender: detomaso@realbig.com
To: Multiple recipients of list 


-> end
-> @eof
-> set `wc -lwc <07ngfb6`
-> if test $1$2$3 != 1792873
-> then
-> echo ERROR: wc results of 07ngfb6 are $* should be 17 92 873
-> fi

God, I love it when you talk sh...



Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 08:20:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Wrong flags..
Sender: wheeltowheel-request@abingdon.Eng.Sun.COM
To: wheeltowheel@abingdon.Eng.Sun.COM


-> My point is, that if we keep the flags the proper colors...we don't
-> need numbers, that you would then actually have to look at instead of
-> just see. If we keep our stations set up the way we have been, for
-> the most part. Drivers will have no trouble at all no matter if they
-> are color blind or not. And they have for...how long Grayson?
-> (Grayson Brumfield, the first SCCA flagger!) And long before that in
-> Europe, I am sure!

By your reasoning, you could save the money and just use one flag,
since all you'd have to do is wave it and the driver would somehow know
what you were trying to tell him.

I watch the reactions of the other drivers; there's usually some
traffic.  Some local towns think it's real dicky to turn their traffic
lights sideways, with seven or eight segments, and I have no idea which
one(s) are red or green, so I have to watch what the other cars in the
area are doing.  That sort of sucks when you're going into a blind turn
at 130mph.



Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 18:19:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Disillusioned by NASCAR
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> NASCAR wins no matter who wins the individual events. And they love
-> the rivalary between Ford and Chevy.

Indubitably.  Fortunately, NASCAR is to auto racing what the WWF is to
wrestling, that is, a giant PR show, not competition.

Someday the 18-wheeler races will come back when NASCAR realizes the
big trucks have even more room for sponsor advertising.  And to keep
them slow and safe, they'll probably all use a spec 15hp Kubota diesel.


Date: Sun, 03 Aug 1997 03:35:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Sedans in NASCAR?
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> but they've got to make something to keep the race fans happy, or
-> what's gonna be next?                   Laura

Why should they care what makes the race fans happy?  NASCAR is making
money hand over fist, but it's *costing* Ford, and those expenses are
duly reflected in the sticker price.  I'd as soon Ford let the "race
fans" go back to World Power Belt Wrestling, or championship beer
drinking, or whatever "race fans" used to do before becoming NASCAR
drones.

Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 08:28:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: New Brodix Cleveland heads?
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> material.  The print mentions a 246cc intake port that flows 360 cfm
-> and a 42 cc (!) combustion chamber.  Does anybody have any additional
-> info on these?

I've seen brief mention of them in a couple of places.  With the kind
of motors I build, a 42cc chamber would give about 14:1 CR on the most
dished pistons I could get...

Back in '84 or so my buddy Jay and I visited Brodix.  I needed some
foundry sand for doing some castings, and Brodix said they'd sell me
some from their foundry.  So we lined the trunk of AB's Capri with
plastic, cruised over to Mena, and loaded up.  I think they charged me
twenty bucks, which was a hell of a deal.  I still have most of it.
Foundry "sand" is more like silica flour bonded with clay.  AB refers to
it as "that expensive dirt."

We got a tour of the foundry while we were there.  The port and water
jacket cores are done in metal permanent molds using a fancy sand with a
CO2-activated binder.  These are assembled like a nifty 3-D puzzle and
dropped into the cope and drag, which are rammed up with ordinary
foundry sand.  They do several at a time; two guys use a long
handled crucible containing about five gallons of molten aluminum and
pour it into the molds, which steam and bubble and carry on.  Aluminum
at pouring temp runs like water.  They were pouring "Pontiac" heads for
small block Chevys when we were there; this was quite some time before
they were announced.  Out back they had a guy who broke the cope and
drag open, tossed the sand back into the riddle, debonded the port cores
with a water hose, and knocked the risers off the castings.  All neat
stuff.

The machine shop was right up the street.  We had to go up there to pay
for the sand, and wound up talking to JV Brotherton, one of the owners.
JV gave us a nice tour of the place, from pattern shop to loading dock.
They were doing SBC and Buick V6 heads.  I asked when they were going to
come out with any Ford heads - remember, back then there *weren't* any
aftermarket Ford heads, unless you counted the Ford/Root stuff.  JV
asserted that Brodix would never, *never* do any Ford heads, and
everyone in earshot got a big laugh.  Ford heads, indeed.  Who'd want
such a thing?

I've meant to go back out there sometime, but when I called a couple
years ago and asked if I could come down and take some photos, the
answer was an emphatic "NO!"  Their excuse was, they'd let someone bring
a video camera in a year or two before, and he'd taped all the
production fixtures, then sold the tape to one of their competitors.
So no more visitors at the plant.  Sounds sorta like locking the barn
after the cow got out, plus all they had when I was there was a bunch
of Bridgeports and some simple fixturing, plus regular head shop gear.
It doesn't take a whole lot to machine a cylinder head...

Schoenfeld Headers is about the same distance away, except north
instead of west.  I had some business out their way once, so I called
them up and asked if I could visit the plant.  I went through about five
different people, all of whom sounded like the result of too many
first-cousin marriages, with long periods on hold in between.  They
kept wanting to know if I was with the Labor Department or the IRS, and
told me I'd need a warrant...  most of the time people actually have to
meet me before freaking out; at last I have the Power to do it to them
over the phone.

I don't know why I affect people that way.  I mean, I bathe, plants
don't wilt if I breathe on them, I dress conventionally, and I don't
have any appreciable drooling or spasming in public.  But I'll be
someplace, an SCCA or PCA event, for example, and people will stare.
After surreptitiously checking to make sure my zipper is up, I will
often respond with expression 25-E ("Shouldn't You Be Doing Something?")
or 25-Q ("What ch'You Lookin' At, Shithead?"), and they'll take off like
they got goosed with a cattle prod.  I don't use 25-Z any more
("Thousand Yard Stare"); last time the guy got shell-shocked or
something and almost got run over by one of the cars in the pit lane.

I'd get some mirrored sunglasses, except I *already* put up with total
strangers asking me if I'm a cop...  I guess it could be worse, but...
jeez...


Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 11:07:39 -0600
From: The Ernests 
Subject: Re: New Brodix Cleveland heads?
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

>
> I'd get some mirrored sunglasses, except I *already* put up with total
>strangers asking me if I'm a cop...  I guess it could be worse, but...
>jeez...

It wouldn't be that "Ed Grimley" hairdo, would it?  I answered the door
with one this morning, and the poor Boy Scout almost fainted, recovered,
and RAN down the street.  I didn't have to say a word.  And my wife says it
looks funny... HA!


Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 14:13:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: New Brodix Cleveland heads?
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> It wouldn't be that "Ed Grimley" hairdo, would it?  I answered the
-> door with one this morning, and the poor Boy Scout almost fainted,
-> recovered, and RAN down the street.

I dunno, never heard of 'im.  Maybe it *is* my haircut, though.
I like to think of it at "1965 Establishment"; like James T. Kirk
without the pointy sideburns.  I guess it is sort of radical for 1997.
And it's all its natural mud color speckled with gray, instead of
Da-Glo orange, blue, or pink.  No earrings, nose rings, tongue studs, or
other piercings.  No dorky hat worn backwards.

Hmm... no wonder people ask me if I'm a cop... I probably frighten
people with my exotic appearance.

I used to have shoulder-length hair, which was probably more socially
acceptable.  Rolling over it with the creeper *hurt*, and after the
first 90wt shampoo I got it all chopped off.

Maybe I need a modern haircut.  There's a little-known B movie called
"Dudes".  One scene some guys have trapped an Elvis impersonator in his
dressing room.  The guy doesn't recognize them until one of the invaders
takes off his hat.  Remember the hat Hoss Cartwright used to wear on
Bonanza?  One like that.  The guy takes off his hat.  He has a foot-long
pink Mohawk, that sort of fans out after being trapped under the hat.
Then the movie gets sort of strange.  Yeah.  I bet nobody would notice
me if I had a 'do like that...  Maybe I can get it done before I go to
Mississippi.


Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 20:18:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: SUV'S & ROAD RAGE
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> How about some nice oil spray out the rear (reworked cans of wd-40?
-> Dura lube?)  Or some nice tire-spike containers that release? ;)
-> Caltrops are easy tro make with sheetmetal-  whether or not they

James Bond's Aston Martin (note Ford reference) had all that stuff,


Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 11:30:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: beefrolls?
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

Motor Trend, August 1967...

jeez, these things are more fun than insomnia and an all-night Elvira
special...

An ad for Pedwin shoes.  Inset photo of a yellow '33 Ford coupe with
bobbed fenders in back, no front fenders.  Two guys and a girl standing
around the car, early 20s, very Ivy League looking with IBM haircuts,
collared shirts, and sweaters over the shirts.

The coupe has a small block Ford (yay!) with Cobra valve covers, a
Holley carb, and what looks like twin turbos with pipes running up to a
hat on the Holley.  Closer inspection indicates the turbos are fakes.

Ad copy: "Meet the new superstock version of the penny loader.  Standard
equipment: heavy-duty beefrolls.  Tough rolled sole.  Classic penny
slot.  Now make it to the strip in one of eight mellow colors."

No wonder.  Any feebie who'd wear a shoe like that wouldn't worry about
fake turbos...  the really odd thing is, a friend of mine used to work
for that particular shoe company...


Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 08:01:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Allison shop
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> Derrick Cope. Hard to believe a Winston Cup team still operates out
-> of such a facility.

Why?  The showroom/workshop is a result of the sponsorship money tree.
Little actual work goes on in such places; maintenance and adjustment
mostly.  Chassis come from chassis builders, engines from engine
builders in most cases.

"Li'l John" Buttera built most of his famous cars working out of the
one car garage on his house in the 'burbs.  He had to push the car
outside to get room to move; all the parts were hung from the ceiling.
Ed Roth built his show cars in little better.  Tony Nancy ran his drag
racing operation - backed at various times by Pontiac and Oldsmobile -
from the back of his upholstery shop, which wasn't very fancy either.
Dean Moon's racing operation, which birthed the Shelby Cobra and did
development for Brabham, ran out of a few extra bays in his tire store.
Ak Miller operates in a hole in the wall in a residential area.  Boyd
Coddington ran his street rod shop out of a converted barn until just
recently.  Warren Johnson's operation looks like a prison.  Keith Craft
Racing is a converted gas station.  Etc, etc, etc.

The showroom/workshop is a symbol of conspicuous consumption and a
place to hang your sponsor paraphernalia, not a serious workplace.



Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 08:27:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: the ugliest car ever made
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> My nomination is the 1960 Ford. 2 door, 4 door, HT or sedan - they
-> were all butt ugly. Even people who like them say so. It's the most
-> unlikely jump from the square, boxy '59 to the lower, finned '61
-> imaginable. It doesn't even look like a Ford!

...yet it looks like a car.  Unlike the new Taurus, which looks like
an alien death coccoon from Aliens IV.  The interior looks like it was
designed by someone on a bad LSD flashback.  And those are its good
points.

Runner-up:  the latest Ford pickups.  Bleaccchhh.

Chrysler used to have the lead in ugly, but Ford's designers can now
proudly claim they're the kings of crud.  Most of Ford's newer designs
make my want to shield my eyes and run down to the local Chevy dealer.

I've been considering writing my local legislooter to see if he wants
to propose a special "ugly tax" on Taurus license plates.  Maybe $1000
per plate.  And limit them to 100 miles per year, not to be operated
within 10 miles of any town of over 50 persons.  The Taurus is so ugly
it's an offense against good taste.

Third place would be the previous-design Cougar, which looked like a
Thunderbird (which wasn't so hot either) that had been backed partway
underneath an 18-wheeler and had the roof scrunched in.  Dig those goofy
diagonal rear windows, yeah buddy.

Has anyone else noticed Ford's entire 1997 lineup looks the same from
the front?  All with that idiotic "smile"?


Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 19:19:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: controlled mayhem
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

The boring bar is bolted atop an FE, punching it .030 over.

The bandsaw is sawing up chunks of bar stock.

I'm working my way through a couple hundred pounds of square tubing
with the vertical mill, tending to the boring bar and bandsaw as needed.

You can't even tell the radio is on, much less hear it over the noise.

Yes, I'm having fun now.

Date: Thu, 04 Sep 1997 17:33:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Stoopid
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> Now who deserves the "Stoopid" trophy?

I think I had it during most of 1995 while building Tyrannosaurus RX.
Like when I spent several hours welding up the modified front
crossmember, then realized I'd welded the tubing on the wrong side of
the chalk line.  Compound that by picking it up off the bench in
disgust... while still smoking hot.  Dumb guy.

Or encountering the C4 'morning sickness' reverse servo seal problem
after I got it fired up.  Sitting there in reverse, nothing is
happening, shift to drive, back to reverse, finally goose the gas a good
one.  About that time the transmission decides to engage reverse.  Two
big rubber stripes on the shop floor, into the grass yard, throwing
grass and dirt into the shop.  Oops!  Good thing the shop door was open.
Dumb guy.