My father had a black late-60s Chevelle, but my mom made him sell it because it was too fast. My father is also the original owner of a 1960 MG A convertible that didn’t run from 1979 to last year or so. He’s been working on it for three or four years and he was retired by his company last year, so he finally had time to get it running again. It’s absolutely beautiful and will post some pics when I get a chance.
Hey Limey, have you seen Nomadland? Of course we’re talking different circumstances. Good film.
@subnuclear That’s great. My dad started the same thing with that ‘63 bug when he retired in the early 90’s. It’s been a fun thing to occasionally do with him throughout the years. Here’s a pic from the start and one from nearly the end just before the pandemic started.
2 Likes
Not yet, but I plan to.
ETA: now that Falcon and the Winter Soldier has started, I may have to signup for that Disney/Hulu package. Maybe in a few weeks so that I’m not paying for an extra month just to see the last episodes of Falcon.
Good work. Most of my efforts at restoration started like pic #1 but there was never a pic #2.
1 Like
It was interesting. There was an essay published in Harper’s in 2014 that was excerpted from the book Nomadland is based on. The essay pulled no punches about the difficulty and loneliness and pain of that lifestyle and had lots to say about the big corporations that were profiting off these folks and about the failure of the “three-legged stool” concept of American retirement and so on and so forth, but I thought the film was very nearly a glorification of it and not very reflective of the original journalism.
The essay was very moving–I still remembered it seven years later when I first heard about the movie. But I found myself constantly sniping at and arguing with the movie.
ETA: I also work with a lot of young people and it blows me away how they talk about “van life.” They have extremely low expectations from life.
1 Like
I liked Nomadland, but I hadn’t read the essay. I saw it more about someone who had everything meaningful in their life disappear and wanted to live in those memories rather than to attach to something new. It’s sort of uneven, but the good parts are really good.
1 Like
Amazing pics. My dad is a really good mechanic, but he met someone through the MG club in Houston who is a real expert in restoring cars and had all the equipment and space to work on it. He probably wouldn’t made nearly as much progress without him.
I tried to post some pics from my phone this morning, but I screwed up and will try again.
I drive a '12 Challenger in that orange with some black wide stripe on the hood and trunk. The wife says “don’t you need a newer car”?. Nope.
I’ve been listening to the book Nomadland. The book is about the desperate who choose vanlife over homelessness. It’s not upbeat. I stopped when it started talking about what faces these people when they reach the point they can’t care for themselves.
1 Like
Just for shits and giggles, here’s my buddies’ new $2K purchase so he can drive from Taos to Central Texas next Fall, he re-did the interior and mechanics himself
1 Like
Is that a Datsun?
Not a Brat
It’s a thing of beauty.
Winnebago has come out with a concept electric RV. They made a good fist of it, but they gave it an 86kWh battery, which is good for 125 miles of range which, in real world terms is really 100 miles. You’d struggle to make it from charger to charger with that little range, and the whole thing runs off the main battery pack, so even if you get to your destination, you’ll not have any juice to turn a light on.
To be fair, they did this by converting an ICE Ford Transit, while Ford has since come out with an electrified Transit that should be a better starting point. Still, I think you’d want an additional battery that serves the “house” systems only so you’re not completely in the dark if you die on the roadside.
As RVs are loaded with weight, to make an ERV truly functional, they’re going to have to add a giant battery pack. Which adds even more weight. Probably still a long way off from being real works usable, but at least they’re trying.
I’m sure somewhere, somebody is trying to figure out how to make an electric bulldozer.
2 Likes
Why wouldn’t they?
The torque advantage for electric motors should be great for construction equipment. They use a lot of energy doing work, but don’t need “range”. Electric drive bulldozers have already been on the market for years as diesel-electrics. Once the market and product emerge for battery power in the next couple of years, I expect the industry to change rather quickly, especially if cities start prohibiting diesel.
Everything will be electric eventually. More and more things will become viable for electrification as battery technology improves.
To wit, sodium batteries offer similar charging times to lithium-ion, but with higher energy density. UT leading the research in the US.
Plus sodium resists dendrite formation, which is something every thinking man should do.
2 Likes