We used to make things in this country #358, Invasion Barges

 The Ramped Cargo Lighter was a British-designed and Canadian-built shallow draft cargo carrier intended for wartime use. The design is similar to and larger than a Higgins boat (52 feet compared to 36 feet). It was built largely from plywood, and powered by two engines. By the end of February 1944, 925 had been built by the two companies.

Cooling an aircooled engine

 The 200 mile race at Daytona demanded a lot from engines, running wide open produced a lot of heat that the engine fins alone and large oil tanks couldn't disperse quick enough. In 1966 and '67 Triumph fitted oil coolers from the Chevrolet Corvair. In 1968, they tried something else, a Volkswagen oil cooler up behind the carburetors, and two finned 2 quart oil tanks ahead of the engine. The oil tanks were out in the airflow, the crankcase ran hot.

All pictures from
Lindsay Brooke, Triumph Racing Motorcycles in America, Motorbooks 1996

Plymouth TL-2 2 1/2 ton switcher

Looks like a toy, but its a real locomotive that worked the 3 foot gauge Jordan River railway on Vancouver Island for years. It's now located at the Sooke Region Museum, also on Vancouver Island. According to the museum site, it was stored at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in North Cowichan for decades but has been acquired by the museum and will be restored and put into operation again. Looks like its mostly there although the original motor has been replaced by a Ford flathead at some point.
 

Much thanks, Terry!

It's hip to be square

 

Justifying the Chrysler Airflow

 

Monday Mystery, Unknown multitool

 Here's an old agricultural-type multitool in new or little-used condition. M 215 EE is the only marking. No manufacturer name is provided but a Worthpoint entry suggests it is a tool for a seed drill made by Thomas Mfg. of Springfield Ohio. That seems to be the only online reference to this tool. Can we confirm the manufacturer name?

Previous Thomas Mfg. multitool post here.

Update. What looks like a hammer, is actually a hex socket.

1964 Vila do Conde race program

 A program for the 1964 race featuring a cartoon-style graphic design. The cover was also used for the 1965 race. 

The street circuit at Vila do Conde hosted a single event in 1931, but it was 1950 before the race returned. It became a yearly event.

Track route here.

Sidecar Sunday

 Harry Langman (and unnamed passenger) at the 1923 TT

James Smart Endurance felling wedge

 Yet another cast/forged item from James Smart of Brockville... It's been well-used and abused, compare to this one found on Ebay....

Ebay

 

Seeley Ducati frame

Keith Noakes, Motorcycle Road and Racing Chassis, Veloce

Ducati Classics

The Ducati 500 GP racer and the 750 cc production bike were developed more or less concurrently through 1970-71. Both bikes followed the V twin format and Colin Seeley was contracted to design the racer chassis, shown above.  The racer apparently worked quite well but when the production 750 was introduced in 1972, the Seeley frame design was abandoned for a new in-house design (below). Interesting to compare the two and wonder if was this a "not invented here" situation?

Vintage Ducati

Cadillac V16

Cadillac introduced this OHV 7.3 liter 45 degree V16 engine for their top of the line luxury line. Unfortunately it was introduced a few months after the 1929 stock market crash so Cadillac only produced about 4000 cars before being discontinued in 1940. 

Sikorsky Skycrane earns a living (1962)

 A Sikorsky S-60 carries a 2 1/2 ton concrete mixer.

 "This is going to be the most expensive masonry job in history."

1913 Sheffield Simplex

The occasion is not mentioned but here we have a lady at the wheel of a very sporty Sheffield Simplex,  posing with a carload of people. She would be enjoying the power of the 4.7 litre 6 cylinder side valve engine while appreciating the newly-introduced electric start.

 The company was supported by the coal magnate Earl Fitzwilliam and their cars were designed to be the best on the road, they considered Rolls Royce to be their only competition. Production was interrupted by World War 1 and although they resumed production in 1919, few cars were sold and they closed their doors the next year.

Richard Hough and Michael Frostick, A History of the World's High Performance Cars, George Allen & Unwin 1967

 

Wrench fish

Thanks, Terry!

Nicely done...

 

Bentley 8 litre, 1930

 

One of my vices is vises; Solar Tool Mfg.

Here's another mediocre quality hobby bench vise, actually looks quite cheaply made, possibly an import. The Solar Mfg name doesn't seem to come up much online, though I found a clamp-on vise at Worthpoint.

Worthpoint

 

Mmmmm. Welding Goo

This is probably a water glass (sodium silicate) solution, the shadetree mechanic last-chance stopgap repair for a leaking head gasket or crack in the waterjacket, before giving up and doing a proper repair.

Canadian Pep Mfg. is long gone, the sodium silicate solution is still around, sold as Block Seal and other names...

 

Another job you may not want to do. Boiler riveter at the Baldwin factory

John K. Brown, The Baldwin Locomotive Works 1831- 1915, John Hopkins University Press, 1995

 A team of men was needed to rivet boilers for steam locomotives. The man on the left takes red hot rivets from the furnace and passes them to the man kneeling inside the boiler.  That man, "the holder-on" inserts them in the hole and holds them there for the man on the right to hammer or peen them into a round head. Hot loud work.

 Not sure what the guy on the top left is doing.

Front drive race car, 1904

 

Here's an innovative race car from 1904. It's a front drive four cylinder transverse-engined car designed by American inventor J. Walter Christie. He built a number of variations of the front drive machines over a few years, none of which achieved great success.

Monday Mystery Dashboard

 At a guess I would say this was from an old car possibly made in Sweden but Olja also means oil in Slovenian. Does it look familiar to anyone?

Below is the dash from an early Saab 92.

Lock Jaw LJ1002

Interesting concept, rotating the handle causes the jaws to tighten up and pinch the nut. It works better than I would have thought, but once again only where there's room for the large jaw area to fit. Won't replace your Crescent wrench. The Lock Jaw name is so common,  it's hard to search for information, I don't recognize the S logo but apparently it was made in Canada! 

 The tool looks as though it was never used but you can own one brand new (called a Uni-wrench) on ebay- but they won't ship to Canada.

 

Sidecar Sunday

 BSA Type 2

1973 Ducati 750GT

Wait a minute, you're actually riding that bike! You’re not supposed to do that, it's just for show, y'gotta save it for the next guy!

Brazil wrench

 When I found this wrench I was excited, the first wrench I'd seen from South America, but Brazilians spell their country name Brasil, so there had to be an explanation and from Alloy Artifacts and Garage Journal it appears that this is an SK tool, though both sites focus on ratchets and sockets rather than flat wrenches. I don't recognize the simple "K" logo, apparently Craftsman used K in a circle to identify the tools they sourced from SK.  

Sherman-Klove (SK tools) may have acquired the Brazil Stamping Company in Chicago, a subsidiary of a car manufacturer located in Brazil, Indiana in the 1920s. Anyways, more information welcomed.

Steamer Sheboygan

 The sidewheeler Sheboygan at dock in Racine, Wisconsin.  The steamer was built in Manitowoc in 1869, its regular route for 45 years was carrying passengers and freight between Chicago and Milwaukee for the Goodrich Transit company. The Sheboygan was in service till 1914, where after having the engines and machinery removed was towed out of Manitowoc harbour and beached where it was set afire and burnt.

Another view.

Lamborghini Miura gallery

How do you get away with eyelashes on a supercar???

Lamborghini Miura SV Motoring Bronze by Romain Schroeder – £8,250 + VAT

Seven out of seven hundred sixty three made.

The 159th of 275 examples built. Offered now from over 46 years of long-term storage in the Junkyard. From the Rudi Klein Junkyard.  Oct 2024