1986 Nissan van

 This van was introduced to North America in 1986, following a similar-styled Toyota product a couple of years previous. Being midengined and short wheelbase, neither the Toyota nor Nissan sold well, the Chrysler minivan was the popular choice if you wanted a small van. The Toyota at least lasted 6 years in the North American market before being replaced by the Previa. The Nissan had a 2.4 litre engine crammed under the front seats, too much engine in too small a space and was known to have caught fire in at least a few cases. Nissan issued recall after recall, till they decided to buy them all back in 1994. 

Overman Wheel bicycle wrench

Datamp.org

 I happened upon this surprisingly modern angular-style bicycle wrench at Datamp.org, a far cry from the usual wrenches of the day. Turns out it was patented by British inventor James Kemp Starley, who is better known for the modern "safety" bicycle, which replaced the "penny farthing" and was responsible for the wild popularity of bicycling in the 1890s. His company, Rover made bicycles before branching into motorcycles and then cars. (you might remember a Rover post from a few days ago, everything is connected, apparently)

The sheetmetal wrench was adopted by the Overman Wheel company, a bicycle manufacturer in Chicopee Falls and sold under their own name.  A Jan 1891 ad shows the OVERMAN WHEEL CO. "VICTOR" PAT APLD FOR wrench as a new product. It didn't last, an 1894 advertisement indicates Overman Wheel was abandoning this design for a lighter style with one open side.

 

Hartness Flat Turret Lathe

  Jones & Lamson grew out of the gun-manufacturing company Robbins & Lawrence. Jones & Lamson was formed in 1869 and continued in the gun business also manufacturing machine tools for making guns and sewing machines along with engine-lathes, screw-milling machines and drill presses. In 1888 James Hartness became the superintendent at Jones & Lamson and began development of a flat-turret lathe of his own design. He obtained patent 457,967 in 1891 and the company changed its focus to the production of the machine. The undated bottom picture looks like the machine in the 1911 article here.

 Machine description here.   

Manual for Flat-Turret Lathe by James Hartness here

 

Reeving a Two Fold Purchase (a lost language)

Boatswain, Royal Canadian Navy, Trade Group One, 1960

 

Rover P5B Coupe

  Rather an unusually styled car with 50s styling and a radically lowered roofline, making it a tough-looking ride. The Rover P5 was introduced in 1958. the P5B Coupe variant was produced from 1962 till the end of production in 1973, by which time it was definitely an anachronism. 

One of my vices is vise/anvils, an abused Rock Island Manufacturing anvil/vise

   Interesting and very abused Rock Island Manufacturing anvil/vise. It looks like there is a quick adjust feature, in that the screw block slides on the same track that the jaw does, that track appears to have been replaced. The anvil portion has seen a lot of use, and it appears someone has broken and welded the jaw to the anvil. It's for sale in Winnipeg here. 

Previous Rock Island post here.

US patent 1,111,103

AC Sparkplug cleaner

Sandblast and save gas!

 

Suzuki with actress

 

Posted only because this is another picture of the rare fat-tired RV90... Oh, the actress who is blocking the view is Uschi Obermaier.

The cheapest oil filter wrench

Three stamped pieces of maybe .080" or .100" thick steel, a coupla rivets and we have a simple and effective oil filter wrench, the maker didn't even put their name on it.

 Second thought, maybe its just a kitchen can opener?

 

Sidecar Sardine Sunday

 

  An illustration for the artisan sardine cannery La Quiberonnaise, by comic book artist Frank Margerin.