Supercharged 1939 BMW

The Classic Motor Cycle, April 1986

Styling 1958

But did those fins need accentuating?

 

Gray Batavia speeder

 Here's an interesting speed handle made by a Canadian company famously known as the only manufacturer of wrenches and hand tools in Canada. It would date to the 1920s as it was made at their new American subsidiary located in Batavia, New York, perhaps as a tie in to the (also Canadian) Massey Harris factory located there. More interestingly, look at the drive end, it's a hex. When they introduced their drop forged line of sockets perhaps it made more sense to continue the 6 point hex theme at both ends? 

 The reader who sent me the pictures (Roy) tells me the tool is "surplus to requirements" and is available. I will forward any requests.

  Gray Manufacturing & Machine Company Limited had opened for business in 1912 in Toronto as a Manufacturer of steam and power pumps and special machinery. They introduced their tool catalog in 1922 in both countries, the Canadian address was listed as the Gray Ball Bearing company on St Clarens Ave. Toronto, the American side address was the aforementioned Batavia. The US site only lasted a few years but was supplying the automotive market, especially Ford. No word on when the hex drive was discontinued.

The company was in the Gray family till 1912, when it was sold, Alex Gray III was retained as chairman. The company is now located in Brampton, Ontario. Previous post on Gray here.

 

Gray Tools

Remco press

Says easy to own, but in 1938, minimum wage in the US was 25¢ an hour and the average hourly wage was 55¢ an hour. I expect not many of these made it into a home mechanic's garage or workshop.

Vintagemachinery.org has a short history of Remco/Manley.

 

Rise and fall of Ford tractors

 From a book on general technology as it looked in 1986. Wow that's 40 years ago! Ford had just purchased New Holland. The Ford-New Holland company went on to be purchased by Fiat in 1991, phasing out the Ford name by the late 90s. New Holland and Case then merged to become CNH and the Ford name was long gone. 

  Ford had gotten into tractors in 1917, rapidly becoming a industry leader with the Fordson and later the 9N, 2N and 8N tractors... 

Sunbeam S-7 cutaway drawing

 A nice cutaway of the inline twin said to be inspired by the prewar BMW twins... 

Mr Fooks was an British motoring artist who turned out drawings for magazines of bicycles, motorcycles and cars from the 1930s through the '50s.

Trident- electric ships log, 1938

 Definitely a must-have when you didn't have time to send a crewman aft to take readings on your minesweeper-sized yacht. 

Lube NSU

This is the first Lube-NSU I've seen. Parts are probably close to impossible to find, these bikes were made in Spain and do not show up often. Previous post on a Lube race bike here. Tank logo below.

 

David plane

Here's a little hobby trimming plane made in Holland. By the wing nut and the groove on the bottom, it must be part of a system but I can't find much information on it. Its different than the one in this old post and appears to be very similar to the Australian-made plane in this ad.

 

Discard sculpture?

  I was skulking around an industrial area of Toronto and came upon these statues out behind a factory. I just have to wonder, are they factory seconds, defective castings or ??? They don't seem to be cared for...

 

Sidecar Sunday

     Officers from the West Riding Police Force in Yorkshire taking delivery of seven new Brough combinations from the Brough Superior factory in Nottingham. 1933

License plate set

 In Ontario, 1966 was the last year the Ministry of Transport required 3 license plates on a motorcycle. One on each side of the front wheel and of course the rear. Predictably, complete sets are rare these days and rather expensive.

Honda Motocampo

 The Motocampo was a 50cc folding scooter made by Honda as a an option for the 1981-83 JDM Honda City. The unit fit in the trunk and was intended to be used as a "last mile" commuter. 53,000 units were made and they are considered to be a collector item now. They were never imported in North America.

Moko Lesney #12 Land Rover

These were made between 1955 and 1959.  Originally sold and distributed by Moko (a partnership between Lesney  (Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith) and Moses Kohnstam.
 

Cutaway from How to Keep Your Volkswagen Rabbit Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot.

Not your average cutaway drawing of the VW Rabbit engine and the illustrator is not R. Crumb. This was an illustration Peter Aschwanden did for the book How to Keep Your Volkswagen Rabbit Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot. by Richard Sealey. It followed an earlier book by John Muir called How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive with technical drawings done in the same 60's counterculture style.  His drawings are accurate but not technical in nature, they really make mechanical work seem less intimidating. Anyone in the sixties or seventies trying to keep his VW running would have felt completely at home with the style. 

More here.

Hemmings

 

1927 McEvoy Special

Peter McManus, Motorcycles, Merlins, and Mosquitos, Breedon Books 2009

 The caption described this as a 1927 McEvoy later fitted with a V twin made up of two JAP alcohol speedway cylinders on a common crankcase making 78 hp. It was apparently raced by George Patchett but no pictures are turning up...

1931 Hupmobile

 

Shelby Cobra for sale

 Doc Holliday, seriously?

1971 Yamaha 90

The gamechanging dual purpose 250cc DT-1 comes in a smaller size.

 

Diamond wrench

 The wrench seems to be of reasonable quality, the raised panels look familiar but the stamping seems crude and overdone. I don't think it's from the Diamond Calk company. and I suspect it's a product from India or China though the CoO is not marked.

 

Naked Ferrari 1953

Ian Dussek, Sports Cars 1910-1960, Shire Publications, 1987

    The chassis of a 1953 Ferrari 250 Mille Miglia at an unknown exhibition stand. It looks better with its clothes on. 

Goodell Tools glass cutter #1

 Brothers Albert and Henry Goodell left the Miller Falls company in 1888 to start the Goodell Tool Company. Albert's patents formed the basis for the new company's tools, mostly in the drilling and automatic screwdriver sector. 

Albert soon left the company to pursue other tool manufacturing, but returned to Goodell within a few years to make a newly patented breast drill design. The glass cutter was patented about the same time, starting a new line of tools for the company. The company later merged with William Pratt’s investments to form the Goodell-Pratt Company, which continued producing glass cutters and other tools until the mid-20th century despite the fact that Millers Falls had acquired the company in 1931.

 I'll look for this tool in one man's glass cutter collection.

datamp.org

 

Champion Anti-Rattler Co.

 Interesting name for a company, but the Champion Anti-Rattler Company was an automotive aftermarket parts manufacturer founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1929. It produced window shims for the Model A Ford and is best remembered for manufacturing small, specialized hardware and service parts to fix noise, wear, and suspension issues in older cars. The name was changed to Champ-Items at some point and in 1972 the company was sold to Standard Motor Products. 1947 Washington Ave is no longer an address.

Ducati for sale...

  For sale at the CVMG swap meet.  A mere $4100. Lots of questions. For instance...What model is it? How did something so exotic and expensive end up in this condition?  Why would someone buy it? How negotiable is the price? the list goes on...

 It would certainly make a good subject for a creative writing class.

Sidecar Sunday

 Nimbus with sidecar, seen at the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group rally.

AJW Super Four

 This unconventional bike was made to chase world speed records. It drew huge crowds when it was shown at the Olympia Motorcycle Show in 1928. Despite its straight line performance it was unstable enough that it was not used. More here.

Gray Bonney 3/8 ratchet

 I picked this up today for 75¢. The reversing lever is broken off but it works ok in both directions. Checking Alloy Artifacts, they suggest the ratchet was introduced in 1936 and show a slightly different version with just the Bonney name. Another difference is that this version is assembled with screws opposed to the Bonney's rivets, might be innovation from Gray.

 I might try to renovate the thing just for fun. 

 

Corvette!

Sweet. I'll guess, 1960? 

 

The G man meets C & B Rods

  No relation to me, but Clawson & Bal's business practices led to a 1939 tax lawsuit regarding whether a connecting rod is a taxable item.

 

Bone chisel

  I always get a bit queasy when I find these surgical tools, I would definitely need anesthetics for this one. Nasty. Text stamped in the handle looks like Teur a Paris, Google Translate says Author in Paris but we'll just leave it there. Futuristic (for twenty years ago) Ridgid hammer included for scale.