How To Know Your Are A Certified Classic Car Junky
August 27, 2008
If you are like one of thousands around the country, you will have to say that you are addicted. addicted to classic cars. Check out this 5 point list of things that will clearly label you as a a “classic car junkie!”
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1. If you pine for 3 or more car shows in one weekend
Car shows are my life. In fact, I am like a bomb sniffing dog when it comes to tracking down the local car shows every weekend. I like to take my classic out to every one of them and pine over the ones I don’t have.
2. If the roar of a 289 Mustang motor makes you salivate like Paslov’s dog
You might be a “Classic car junkie!” Hey, I am one of you guys. I love those old Ford Mustang motors, and much like the famous dogs that Paslov tested, I, myself, do have a bit of problem salivating when I hear the roar of a classic car motor.
3. If your idea of a vacation is chasing down cars in barns in remote areas Can’t resist the temptation to go all over the countryside to view the rotting old classic car muscle just wasting a way in barns? You got it bad, eh? I do too, and to be able to find one of those nuggets in countryside of America only proves I am a junkie, literally!
4. If your House Has More Miles On It Than Your Classic Car
Hey nothing against mobile homes, but it is funny when you see a dude with $100K plus classics hanging around a garage and then look to find he is living in a trailer or an RV like cousin Eddie on the movie “Christmas Vacation.”
5. If Fewer Than Half Your Cars Actually Run.. and a Majority are Older than Dirt
Hey, I am like you. I sometime bite off more than I really can chew. If your back yard (or even front yard if you are really red neck), looks like a classic car junkyard, then you may want to consider the fact that you are addicted to classic cars. You mean to restore them all, but your grass is telling you another story!
Think long and hard about your “addiction.” It might not be as bad as it seems. You can always “get on the horn” and show up with your friends at the local BBQ for a fine meal and create memories that will last.
Trying To Find A 1958 Chevy Impala?
July 18, 2008
One of the great classic cars of all time is the 1958 Chevy Impala. It never fails to delight any generation that encounters this car. The car just oozes personality. To the sleek body lines to the unique grill and dash, generations of Americans have fallen in love with this work of art called a car.
Follow this link to see 1958 Chevy Impalas and other cars for sale.
The web makes it so much easier to find the 1958 Impala for sale that you have always been looking for. Ebay makes it possible. It is easy to use ebay for buying cars, just make sure to read more about it on their help section. I always like to find classic cars sold around the country on ebay because you can find so many different cars from hot rods to originals. I am a sucker however for the 58 Impala since I have owned four in my lifetime, and have traded up to the 58 show car I now flaunt at the local car shows in Alabama.
Many a teeneager from the early sixties, like myself, loved to take their sweety out for a spin in the 58 Impala. The drive-ins were great fun, where a guy and a gal could get some real privacy. I remember the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, and a special date I had with my future wife. The windows were a little steamy but we seemed to still catch some of the plot from that famous first movie of the Bond series.
Background of The 58 Impala
Chevy’s Impala was began in 1958. This full-sized vehicle built by General Motors for their Chevrolet division. From 1958 until 1965, the Impala was the most expensive full-size car offered by Chevrolet.
The 58 Impala was one of the classic cars of the movie American Graffiti. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, and Wolfman Jack, the movie American Graffiti featured the 58 Chevy Impala, which is considered one of cinemas great cars. It proved to be the catalyst for 1950s nostalgia during the 70’s that led to the TV’s hit series, Happy Days.
1958 Chevy lovers have a special bond that transcends time. It is something that is hard to explain to anyone who has not experienced it before. The car has a way of grabbing your heart, and not letting go. I recommend that if you are one of the lovesick 58 Impala lovers like myself, and you don’t yet have one in your garage, get one. Surf the auctions online for one, because these ars are only going to get rarer. Get one while you can.
Antique Snap-on Tools — A Fascinating Early Company History
June 20, 2008
If your car were to break down today you would probably not have trouble locating a mechanic who had the right tools to fix it. You might be annoyed at what it would cost you, but at least for the right price you could get the work done. This has not always been the case. With the vast number of gas stations, car dealerships, and car repair shops around today it’s difficult to keep in mind that it has only been 100 years or so since the Ford Motor Company started producing cars.
The money in automobiles around 1910 was in making them, not in keeping them running. After all at this point in our nation’s history there were only about 450,000 car owners in the country, so finding a qualified automobile mechanic was sometimes not an easy undertaking. There were many new manufacturers of cars and many different schools were required to repair them all. If a different wrench size was required for the nuts and bolts on many different automobiles this required a large investment in the tools necessary to repair the cars.
Because of the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of two young men there is now an active market and interest in antique Snap-on tools. It’s a fascinating and interesting story about the development of this company.
A young man with training as a cost clerk and expediter is an unlikely candidate as the inventor of a line of hand tools. But in 1919, Joseph Johnson must have been thinking to himself that there must be a better way for mechanics who had to purchase hand tools. After all, every time they purchased a new wrench they were also buying another handle. There were only about 8 million cars on the roads in 1919, and Johnson reasoned that this was unnecessarily expensive for the mechanic.
William Seidemann was a young manager who also worked at American grinder. He and Joe Johnson soon became good friends, and they enjoyed talking about the best way to create a new set of tools for the mechanics. They finally decided that the best way to do it was to have 10 different socket sizes and pair them with five distinct handles. In this way they could offer the mechanics 50 wrenches which were each different.
What happened next must surely make any businessman cringe. Johnson discussed his idea with the management at American Grinder. Management felt like his concept of ten sockets and five handles would actually hurt their individual sales. They turned him down. Johnson had given a American Grinder the opportunity to take his idea and capitalize on it and since they decided it not to do it, Johnson and Seidemann could now move forward on their own.
After hours, Johnson worked on his concept. A few weeks later he had created the original set of five handles and Seidemann agreed to help him fabricate a set of sockets which could be snapped on. Thus was born the name Snap-on Tools and the first company motto “Five can do the work of 50″.
With no money, everything was being done by hand. They were milling the sockets from bar steel, and stamping the stock numbers on also. The last few dollars that they had went into the printing of 2,000 brochures. These would be used to advertise the new snap-on tools.
They only had the one, original, set of hand tools they had just created. They had no manufacturing and no sales force. They did manage to find a traveling tire salesman who covered only the state of Wisconsin. As he would visit each of the shops and he would demonstrate the one set of tools and leave behind a brochure for the mechanic. He collected over 500 COD orders and took these back to Johnson and Seidemann who were hard at work making a second set of tools.
Mechanics clearly saw how the tools would save them time and money, and wanted to add it to their tool chest. This was confirmed when they sent out another salesman with the second set and his results were the same as the first one. Johnson and Seidemann had proven there was a demand for their invention, but at this point they were out of money and had no official business. They also had a huge number of mechanics who wanted their tools, as represented by the COD orders, so they must have known that they had a sure success on their hands.
They contacted an attorney who in turn found some local businessmen willing to invest in the new company. The Snap-On Wrench Company was incorporated on April 10, 1920. Johnson and Seidemann had to borrow $500 each so they could purchase stock in their own business. They rented a 2,500 square-foot shop, leased machinery and began production. The tools they created and which sold for only a few dollars back then are now considered to be vintage Snap-on Tools and are highly prized as collectibles.
