I can count my true friends on one hand and still have a finger left to pick my nose with.

I’m going to save it for my next family gathering.

Looks like not only is it still around, it’s in great shape too!

But Wait, something ain’t right here!

I can remember having to look hard to find the plastic model of that thing to put together when I was a kid.

It was an off brand model and I had to go to an Honest To God Hobby/Model shop to find it.

I was pretty determined though and I finally had the little box in my grubby little hands.

For nostalgia sake I just looked it up and something caught my eye right away.

A detail that I didn’t remember from so long ago.

In the video above, this version quite obviously has great big, Fire Breathing V-8 engine in it.

All the pictures of the original model I just looked up show it having a Straight 6!

Doing some quick internet searching, I re-discovered that the original full size cae car did feature a Straigt 6 and was built by the Monogram Model Car company, based off of a model car in 1969!

The Red Baron was a custom t-bucket hot rod built in 1969.

The project was designed by Tom Daniel and built by Chuck Miller at Styline Customs.^[1]

The car was inspired by a Monogram model kit that Daniel had designed which was on display at the 1967 Chicago Toy Fair.^[2] Seeing the popularity of the kit, Monogram arranged to have a full-size version built. It is currently at the Smith Collection Museum of American Speed in Lincoln, Nebraska.^[3]

It later inspired a Hot Wheels car.^[

So the picture of the model I found was made by the Atlantis model car company but the original was made by Monogram!

It also featured a Straight 6 engine.

So if the original is sitting in a museum in Nebraska, then someone has built another one, with the fire Breathing V-8, and it’s currently running around.

So I had to do some more digging and I came up with this,

1923 Red Baron Replica Roadster

VINOK2063597568

event_availableOct 4, 2018

visibility14

bookmark_border1

Specs

Details about this vehicle – decoded from the VIN & CLASSIC.COM curators.Year1923Make-Model Family-Model Generation-Model Variant-Model Trim-VINOK2063597568Mileage-Originality-Engine-Transmission-Drive Type-Vehicle Type-Body Style-Driver Side-Doors-Color Group (Ext)-Color Group (Int)-

Vehicle History

A timeline of events that we’ve detected for this vehicle.

gavel

Oct 4, 2018

Sold at 

Auction

Sold:

Dallas, TX, USA

View Sourcelock

Pretty interesting and quite the Rabbit Hole to fall down just from looking at one video that brought back old memories.

After driving almost 1600 miles to arrive at my destination in South Dakota and no it is not Wakanda which Bear Claw insists. I have been here since Saturday afternoon and checked into an RV park while my apartment was finishing with some repairs and I was slowly taking loads over during the day. I suffer from venous reflux in my legs but not my feet. About three weeks ago a small blister pop it’s head up and the nursing and medical staff and of course me was thinking “Tailor’s bunion or or a bone spur on the distal 5th metatarsal” by the joint on the which skilled podiatry appropriate care would suffice. Naay, during the trip my right foot was buried to the floor, due to me hauling two trailers up and over 8 passes going East from 6000 to 8000 feet and roller coaster I 80 through Eastern Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska and of Course South Dakota as my older cruise control would not hold the speed when it dropped below 10 mph below set point.

So, the wound had opened up considerably about 2 inches long and at least a quarter inch wide with bone showing quite proudly with the added parting gift, Osteomyelitis… and it was present in goobous amounts. The doc wanted me to admitted today and while I agreed with him I had to get my trailers over to the parking lot at the apartment, arrange for the manager to feed my cat, Nora and get my bed put together and my recliner put back in one piece as I will not be dancing much with my small toe gone and a surgical wounds. I go in on Monday and will be there until Friday with no computer

I was wondering if when I am cremated I will get a lower cost as I have no tonsils, no gall bladder, no right kidney and now, no right small toe… Something to ask a an funeral director…

Please go send my friend Bunk Strutts some love.

I swear, some people’s children.

What do you think?

Actually, after 38 years of blood, sweat and many, many tears, I have finally come up with a nickname for this little fucker.

I’m calling it Lazarus II.

(makes sign of the cross)

The reason is, this is the SECOND TIME I am bringing it back from the dead

And true to my personal style, I’m doing it ass backwards from the way most people do these things.

Most people strip the car down, do the body work and then paint it. THEN they start putting it together. Rebuilding the engine, doing the brakes, all that happy crap.

I did that the first time and now all the paint is completely shot. So this time, I rebuilt the car literally from the radiator to the gas cap.

New fuel tank, pump, brakes, engine, tires all of it.

I;ll deal with the paint, maybe, later.

Lucky for me the latest fad seems to be a rusty,faded paint look so I’ll fit right in.

The last couple weeks I have been prepping the floor boards and putting in sound deadener mats. Today I started in on the carpet.

I got most of the driver’s side done when the local Weather Man’s 30% prediction for rain turned into 100%.

So I threw the stuff I was working with in the garage real quick and threw the tarp back over it. At least I got something done first.

It took me a very long time but I finally found some old, aftermarket rubber floor mats with the Austin Healey name and badge with wings images on them.

They are harder to find than Hen’s teeth.

I bought a set of seats out of some KIA thing last weekend but I am going to have to do some serious modifications to how they mount as they have 3 inch tall feet at the ends

I have to get rid of a big bracket under there and I have to cut off and some wiring that I don’t need.

The Good Lord willing, I am going to drive this little sonofabitch to work at least once before this Summer is over.

A tip of the hat to Plague Monk who posted about this recent somber event in the comments.

Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Like most of us here, I grew up watching the Viet Nam War on television every night.

I still remember the “Burst Of Joy” moment mentioned in the video even now from 1973

Col. Robert L Stirm, the subject of that moment was recently laid to rest in Arlington.

Rest In Peace sir.

This is funny.

They have no shame.

You know, how they put the cheap metal axles in little plastic casters that go under Chinesium cabinets and such.

The rivets in cheap tools that let things move and spin.

If you have ever seen an Emergency Brake assembly with a foot pedal on it from a car from the 60’s to the early 2000’s, the part that you push down on swivels on a big rivet.

I always wondered how they made those and now I know. I ran across it earlier today and the process is called Orbital Riveting.

Orbital riveting is a low-force, noiseless cold-forming process that joins components by using a peen tool held at a fixed angle (typically 3° to 6°) to gradually deform a rivet. 
 Unlike impact riveting, the tool rotates off-center, maintaining a sweeping line of contact that progressively kneads the material into a desired shape with significantly reduced axial force. 

Of course there is a special machine with special bits that go in it they call Peens.

They can have different contours on the ends for specific types of finishes.

They can also control how far the end of the rivet expands and sticks out too.

That’s how they can allow parts to move and not fall off.

Here is the difference between Press Riveting and Orbital Riveting.

Just thought I would share, I’ve been turning wrenches for 45 years now and had never heard of it.

My friend Steve from Up North sent me these pictures of a truck his neighnor has. It’s a beauty!

“Neighbour got a new toy.”

“1970 GMC… rebuilt 350 smallblock with 3000 miles on it…..4 on the floor…. pickup

All original except for wheels and tires and radio…radio is replica of 1968 to 1972  unit  that came with the truck”