Intertec Manual on the Yamaha TD1 Roadracer

The Intertec 2 stroke manuals were great, nice line drawings, clear concise explanations and hop ups! You too can turn your lowly ( insert model here) into a race bike!

 

We used to make things in this country, #336 The Canadian Commercial Motor Car

Herb Collings with Carl Morgan, Pioneering the Auto Age, Travelife Pub 1993

The Canadian Commercial Motor Car Company started in a factory at 509 Goyette St. in Windsor in 1911, specializing in commercial vehicles. The model above, shown in a typical scene is "the Canadian", featuring a screened in body (not shown) and an ebony steering wheel. Carrying on the patriotic flavour was their motto "Deliver the goods the Canadian way". It wasn't enough, the company seems to have disappeared by the mid 30s.

Moorhouse fender, 1910

 Patent info

Sidecar Sunday

 The family up the road that no one talks to.

 Dad sidesaddle in a wicker basket? Mom looks fine in the pointy sidecar looking curiously at the camera, but the rider, she's a witch! And where did they steal that train headlight?

Canada Foil Ltd.

Apologies for the bad scan, once again a local company that has almost totally disappeared. Apparently located in Toronto, just around the corner from the Canadian Bakelite Corporation, the exchange below shows that the company was active in 1928. 

 

Princess May aground

 The Princess May was already an older ship when this accident happened in 1910. The vessel had been built in 1888 near Newcastle, England as a trader for use along the coast of China. It worked for several companies and under different names but in 1901 was acquired by Canadian Pacific Steamships for coastal service along the coast of British Columbia. On Aug. 5, 1910 the ship was heading south from Skagway Alaska in a fog when it ran aground on the north end of Sentinel Island. When the tide went out (a 16 foot range in that area) this is what the situation looked like. 

There were no injuries and the passengers and crew took refuge on the island where they were duly rescued. The company hired a Captain Logan with his salvage tug Santa Cruz who after repairing the holes in the hull and building temporary shipways managed with the help of dynamite to refloat the ship. Just another day for Captain Logan, apparently. (see below)

After WW1 the ship was sold to a company that used it in the Caribbean and some time in the thirties, the old worn out ship was deliberately sunk.

 From The Railway and Marine World  November 1910

One of my vices is vises, wooden carpenters vice

Here's an old, possibly handmade carpenters vise, made of maple. Rescued too late, maple rots quickly and it's really only suitable for a pattern.  A shame, really.

 

Moto Rumi La Strada prototype

 In 1960 three versions of this sweet little 4 stroke V twin were shown at the Milan Motor show, 98, 125 and 175cc. Unfortunately Rumi was struggling at this point and the machine did not make it to production. One prototype remains.

More here. And here.

Rolls Royce Avon

Dramatic way to advertise the reliability of the Rolls Royce turbojet with Shell Oils.

 

WAG Vtwin twostroke

 The WAG was built by Wright and Gasking of Birmingham and introduced in May of 1925 in The MotorCycle. The cylinders were spaced 60° but fired 180° apart. The crankcase was isolated from the cylinders by an intermediate chamber as shown in the lower right corner, so the intake and pumping took place above the crankcase, the piston running on an inner guide. An exploded view is needed to sort this one out!

CB750F 1975

The 750cc followup for the 400F. Close, but no cigar...

 

Recruiting, WW1

1915

 

KD #362

 One of those tools you never knew you needed when working on Briggs and Stratton points/condenser ignition system. This is the system that uses one end of the condenser as the other contact surface for the points. The ignition wire is held in place by a spring under tension, this tool squeezes the spring to expose the wire hole. Those of you under 40 years old and familiar with capacitor discharge ignitions, thyristors, mosfets, etc. may need to an update on just what a condenser does... (see below). All you need to know about points is 12 thou...

Rougeriverworkshop

From the Intertec 2 stroke manual

Sparkplug maintenance

 

Detroit Automobile Co.

This was Henry Ford's first commercial automotive venture. Well backed financially by the mayor and local businessmen, it was open for a full year and never produced a single car. Despite the promotional piece in the Detroit Journal (bottom), which featured his second car, the vehicle to be produced in this facility is the delivery van in front of the factory (above).  It was only the third car that Henry Ford had built. He never finished developing the design, constantly changing and redesigning components so no complete cars were sold. The operation closed down in the fall of 1900. 

Sidney Olson, Young Henry Ford, A picture history of the first 40 years. Wayne State University, 1963

 
 

Sports Car Engineering body kit, 1958

This is a fibreglass body kit to build your own custom sports car, details are a bit vague but steel tubes are molded into the various panels, allowing the body to be located on some appropriate car, the tubes cut to proper length and welded to the existing chassis. Googling this rather sketchy information brought up an entry in the excellent Coachbuilt.com website which tells the whole story.

Monday mystery

 Here's another find with no markings on it anywhere, I'd guess something to do with leatherwork, but I'll put it out there for guesses!

Chevrolet 348 V8

 The 348 Turbo-Thrust motor was introduced in 1958, intended as a bigger engine for the larger Impala. Unusually, the combustion chamber was wedge shaped and located in the block. The combustion chamber surface in the head was flat. Never intended as a performance engine, it was in production till 1964. The 409 V8, introduced in 1962 replaced it as Chevrolet's big motor.

Sidecar Sunday

 

CPR cruises, 1947

 

We used to build things in this country #335 International Harvester

Wisconsin history

 End of the line for the factory, here (2002). And the real end here. (2009). 

Econoline in slush

 

Canadian Pacific, 1942

 Another wartime Canadian Pacific poster by Peter Ewart.

Can't face another face cam

 A diagram like this is ok, but what we really need here is a photo of a pile of parts or better yet, a cutaway. Not sooner googled than we find a Phil Ainsley photo of a cutaway engine and the whole story of the bike.

American Can Co.

1933

 Your package is important.

Porsche tractor windup toy

Made in the Czech Republic by Kovap. I don't think it's vintage, but nice nonetheless.

1928, the side stand is introduced

DEPATISnet

Innovation from Harley Davidson. Can't believe it took twenty years of motorcycling to figure this out. Before this, I guess motorcycles just laid on their sides...
 

thanks, Rolf!

Designers discover the benefits of plastic

 

Another job you probably didn't want to do; crewman on a corvette

"The ducktailed little ship that would roll on wet grass". The Corvette was the Atlantic convoy defensive mainstay. armed with a couple of 4 inch guns and lots of depth charges, they fought off German submarines while the crew did their jobs best they could in the cold and wet.

Thomas G. Lynch, Canada's Flowers, History of the Corvettes of Canada 1939-45, Nimbus Pub. 1981