Watch this vintage newsreel video of a midget race in New Jersey from 1946. So far, it is the best video I have found of racing from my midget’s era. Historic Hinchliffe Stadium was the site of the race, but these cars were being raced all over the country. (They were also very popular in Australia.)
Hit the jump for the great video and some interesting tidbits on Hinchliffe Stadium.
This is a rare 1953 Triumph Mayflower. It is just begging to be claimed, brought home, given new life (and maybe a radical chop), and put back on the street. the body, in its original style, is interesting and distinctly British, but it seems to have a real potential for a sleek street rod with those body lines.
This is a video of a radio control ’61 Impala low-rider with functional hydraulics. It is just about as cute as anything. It rides on a scratch-built brass frame and it does all the standard low-rider moves.
Click it for the short but worthwhile video. Awwww!
35 days had gone by since I decided to do this build. With a lot of help from my friend Sam and my dad, this thing was up and running in time to take it to the Wells Fun Run in Wells, Nevada. But, it still needed a few things. It needed a proper seat, a charging port, and my wagon needed a hitch to tow it with.
Click through for more. Continue reading
This crazy idea of mine was about to come to life. The midget only needed wiring to be fully functional car. (Car? Toy? I don’t know, or care.) So, off we set, plying our electrical skills.
There are four cables looping back and forth from the throttle assembly to the resistor pack.
Click it for more fun with electrons.
This is a commercial for the new (as yet unreleased in the U.S.) Fiat 500 Abarth. So far, it has aired on television zero times. Yet, it already has over 2.5 million views.
Hit the jump for the omg-she’s-hot video.
The next item on the to-do list for the midget was brakes. We could roll and steer, now we needed to stop. ’40s midgets did not use a brake pedal. Instead, they had a lever on the outside of the vehicle which was actuated by hand. They only had rear brakes. Midgets were drift cars long before drift cars were a trend.
The brake lever can be seen in this photo with a white knob. That is my grandfather, Dale Ith in the car.
Click through for more.
A great video of hot rodding days gone by. It is described by its creator, Tommy Lorbeer, as follows:
“My dad raced his AV8 roadster at the dry lakes when he was in high school, prior to WWII. My Uncle Tommy took his 8mm camera along. There are a lot of iconic cars in this footage, and a lot of iconic young guys. Enjoy.”
Click through for the video, it’s well worth the watch.
In September, I took a trip to St. George, Utah in the Need That Car Scion xB. It is about a 300 mile drive. While I was there, a 16 year old girl turned left and narrowly missed my xB, but squarely hit the small trailer I was towing. The damage was extensive enough that I had to leave the trailer behind for a week while I rounded up a new axle back home in SLC. Two trips in a week to St. George and back made me realize something: At 80 MPH, the xB was very noisy inside. So, I ordered up two boxes of Dynamat and got to work.
I now had a midget that could roll around the garage – and even be steered – at my whim. It was a real gas. But there was more work to be done. Despite the decision to stay with a patina/rat rod look, there were a few areas of rust that simply had to be dealt with. Mostly, they were structural issues and ergonomic issues.
Smithing.
Click it for more exciting metal work.
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