Retro Tech

[old3bob]

Here is some real fun, pulling a 50 year old engine and tranny out of a 50 year old car...I love it!  And the tech is very simple and easy compared newer cars!  Heck it even has a high performance dual point distributor that I'm not going to replace because it works so well with a high energy coil!  (btw, how many youngsters out there know what dist. points are?) 

 

[Nungali]

Yeah

 

My old HD Holden ( Inherited from my mother as a lad , she got a a small new 'runabout' )  ..... horrible looking car but that motor kept on going ... AND   I  even fixed it sometimes myself ! ( and I am a mechanical idiot ) .  Dad commuted to work, outings each weekend, family and stuff up and down the coast for holidays, then the horror of me for an owner; went all over the place, often with 5 in the car, camping equipment, luggage, surfboards. Sold it for $100  to one of the nurses from work,  ( I bought an old Mk II Jaguar ) she and her mates drove it for  a couple of years, eventually, going up hill , full of passengers,  camping equipment  and 4 surfboards and a tent on the roof, it put a piston through the bonnet .

 

The 'red straight six' ;

 

 

 

The days when a car motor looked like a car motor  ( well, to me, anyway ) .

 

I remember the Mk II Jag 

 

 

(also known s 'the bank robber's special';  easy to break into start and steal,  big enough for some burly blokes and their 'equipment', fast  for getaway , solid heavy metal with mass and momentum for punching thorough police roadblocks , and a very large trunk to fit all the goodies in )

 

had a running problem,  it had 3 carbies , 2 for normal running and a separate one for cold start . 

 

 

 

I decided it was never going to get cold enough here for a British car to need that so disconnected it ( electrically ) , no probs after that .

 

also I got a  British designed   modern made  ( In India ) retro Royal Enfield  - I noticed the other day, when it was unusual cold here, it liked it and ran very well ... thats the British for ya , goes well in the cold 

 

 

[old3bob]

Very nice recounting and pictures of those times Nungali!

 

A high school friend of mine drove his dad's XKE jag around town.  I'll never forget getting a good look at its awesome 12 cylinder engine and long sleek convertible type body!  A big problem with this particular car was that it had bad brakes so my buddy had to constantly down shift when some braking was needed since its brakes alone were not enough to properly slow down, and that was kind of hairy with such a fast car!   

[old3bob]

not exactly  retro, more like sideways (literally), chaps racing lawnmowers 

 

 

[doc benway]

Goya Panther bass from Italy c.1960’s - check out the push button controls

 

[natural]

My dad had great lust for a jag.

I had to remind him from time to time it was the ultimate expression of conspicuous consumption, known in my day for $pending a majority of  their life in the shop.

$exy, yes as well as expen$ive. 

[Taomeow]

Coffee maker I grew up with.  My parents had it for 20 years or so.  It was German made, all stainless steel inside and out.  Indestructible, not prone to clogging -- unlike modern espresso machines that also force water through the grinds under pressure in a seemingly similar process...  but something went wrong, straightforward simplicity was sacrificed for gimmicks and trinkets that make modern ones not as capable to produce high quality brew and nowhere near as reliable.  When I experimented with simplifying my morning coffee routine (which entails standing patiently over the cezve on the stove), I threw out a couple of those over the years because they clogged regularly asking for annoying and excessive maintenance, and then just stopped doing their job for no good reason.  Been trying to find this one for years -- even though it's 220V, I'd install a converter or something -- but it's unobtainable, and even pictures I was able to find miss the glass receptacle that was placed underneath, capacity about 2 cups...  all of them probably broken by now.  

 

 

 

And this is my trusty Armenian cezve of the last 30 years.  Also indestructible.  Made of "German silver," which actually has no silver (as I found out, to my chagrin, after believing for a long time it was real silver -- it's the most convincing look-alike though.)    

 

[natural]

18 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

Coffee maker I grew up with.  My parents had it for 20 years or so.  It was German made, all stainless steel inside and out.  Indestructible, not prone to clogging -- unlike modern espresso machines that also force water through the grinds under pressure in a seemingly similar process...  but something went wrong, straightforward simplicity was sacrificed for gimmicks and trinkets that make modern ones not as capable to produce high quality brew and nowhere near as reliable.  When I experimented with simplifying my morning coffee routine (which entails standing patiently over the cezve on the stove), I threw out a couple of those over the years because they clogged regularly asking for annoying and excessive maintenance, and then just stopped doing their job for no good reason.  Been trying to find this one for years -- even though it's 220V, I'd install a converter or something -- but it's unobtainable, and even pictures I was able to find miss the glass receptacle that was placed underneath, capacity about 2 cups...  all of them probably broken by now.  

 

 

 

And this is my trusty Armenian cezve of the last 30 years.  Also indestructible.  Made of "German silver," which actually has no silver (as I found out, to my chagrin, after believing for a long time it was real silver -- it's the most convincing look-alike though.)    

 

my morning routine more often than I like to admit involves loud cursing not standing patiently standing patiently is not my norm.

[Nungali]

14 hours ago, steve said:

Goya Panther bass from Italy c.1960’s - check out the push button controls

 

 

 

Wow, that's familiar . I had a friend who had one ,  I lived with their 'garage band' for a while in  an old terrace house   at  in the back streets behind Kings Cross in Sydney ....  what a place, how did I do that ? . ......  retro seediness.

 

 

[Nungali]

13 hours ago, natural said:

My dad had great lust for a jag.

I had to remind him from time to time it was the ultimate expression of conspicuous consumption, known in my day for $pending a majority of  their life in the shop.

$exy, yes as well as expen$ive. 

 

I got  mine cheap , $3000. It had a white grey top getting darker to dark grey along the sills , some type of sun damage . It made a pinging noise when you gunned it. The rest was great, never went into the shop. Partied in it for ages until the gear box blew up and then sold t.  My only lament was I was always driving in the front , while my friends partied in the back with the built in mini cocktail bar, smoking joints and the stero on full bore   

 

... one time, after some 'Durban poison and listening to 'Pali Gap' cranked up full while ( trying ) to negotiate a  roundabout  that I couldn't seem to exit off, I decided it was better to just keep going around until the track finished .   I imagine an onlookers view; a beat up old Jag, full of 'miscreants' , going around  and around this roundabout, smoke billowing from the windows and blasting out

 

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ7AttIb-kc

 

 

[Zhongyongdaoist]

As a person who has been basically a Science/Magic nerd since my  childhood in the fifties, I have followed this thread with some amusement, as well as some serious interest.  I have done a little digging and may contribute to it in what I hope will be interesting and stimulating ways.

 

ZYD

[Nungali]

6 hours ago, Zhongyongdaoist said:

As a person who has been basically a Science/Magic nerd since my  childhood in the fifties, I have followed this thread with some amusement, as well as some serious interest.  I have done a little digging and may contribute to it in what I hope will be interesting and stimulating ways.

 

ZYD

 

 

 

Cant wait  .....

 

 

 

 

 

[old3bob]

which reminds me of: 

or

 

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Not quit as dramatic as the above, but this was one of my childhood science nerd "toys":

 

 

As you can see even today these things fascinate science nerds.

 

His description of the relationship between the DC, or direct current input, and the AC, alternating current, output is a little off, while he is correct to say that a transformer needs to have AC current in order to work the coil actually creates AC from the DC because the DC is interrupted, it starts and stops, that is the point of the gap on the outside which used to interrupt the DC input.  The reason for this is because electromagnetic induction only occurs when there is motion, either the receiving wires have to move, or as in this case the magnetic field has to move.  In this case the magnetic field moves by expanding and contracting around the coil, this is why the DC current has to be stopped and started, when it on, the magnetic field expands, when it is turned off the field collapses.  When the field expands it induces a current that travels through the wires in one direction, when it collapses a current is induced that moves in the other direction, this is why it is called AC, or alternating current because it moves first one way through the circuit then the other.  The direct current as you can imagine only goes one way.  AC current is like a sine wave,

 

 

which since it moves up and down creates an automatic contraction and expansion of the magnetic field, which is necessary for the magnetic induction of an electric current to occur.

 

I hope that is clear enough explanation, but I don't have time for more.

 

ZYD

 

 

Edit: correction to spelling.

Edited June 20, 2021 by Zhongyongdaoist

[Taomeow]

On 6/10/2021 at 7:58 AM, cheya said:

 

Reminds me of the good ole (hard!) times, lol.
I lived for five years on a farm with no electricity, no running water, etc. We carried water from the spring and kept the goats' milk in a water race in the basement. After a few years we got a hand pump in the kitchen! And then a few more years, a kerosene fridge!  Ice cubes!  I felt were like we were recapitulating civilization!  I'm soooo grateful for having lived that way for a time... but wouldn't choose to go back to it now...

 

My autumn-winter-spring city life was fully modern, but I spent summers at my grandmother's, in a city that had an "across the bridge" semi-rural part, and that's where my grandmother lived.  Coal and wood for heating and cooking -- an indoor stove for each room and also an outdoor stove for summer cooking -- and for something quick (e.g. to boil water for tea), also a kerosene stove known as Primus that looked like this:

 

 

  Water from two sources, a hand pump in the street and a well a bit farther with absolutely the most fantastic water I've ever tasted.   At the time I hated that well though, because I'd suffered a complex arm fracture one summer when I was 6, and after the breaks healed, the arm emerged twisted and wimpy -- so to straighten and strengthen it, the doctor prescribed walking around carrying downward-pulling weights, starting with very light ones and increasing the weight gradually.  The easiest way to accomplish that was to carry a small bucket of water -- then a bigger one -- with just a little more water in it every day.  So I was tasked with walking to and from that well every day dragging that bucket back and forth, and it hurt like a bitch.  It helped though -- a couple of years later I was doing competitive gymnastics.     

 

Then there were chickens chaperoned by a rooster.  A root cellar where huge blocks of ice were stored -- they lasted throughout the summer -- for refrigeration. 

 

I

 

There was electricity though.  And very easy access to the civilized part of town "across the bridge" (where my grandmother worked) -- by tram, the stop was nearby.  Here's what it looked like:

 

 

 

I would live like that again -- or simpler than that -- if there was a need.  In fact, I don't exclude the possibility.  If shit was to hit the fan in earnest, I'd rather live like that than amidst either urban collapse and decay and disease or a super-efficient totally controlled society of digitized half-past-humans.

 

I think "simpler lives" chiefly scare those who have never experienced them.  

Edited June 20, 2021 by Taomeow

[liminal_luke]

I grew up on a 5 acre hobby farm in a relatively rural part of northern California.  As a life experiment, we struggled through a few months of quasi self-sufficiency, producing almost all of our food for ourselves.  We had fruit trees and a huge vegetable garden.  Meat in the freezer from our own hogs and cattle.  Bread came from whole wheat kernels we bought but mom did the wheat grinding and the sour dough bread baking.  Each family member got to pick one item that we´d be allowed to buy from the store and I still remember my brother´s pick: Nestles Quik powder to make chocolate milk.  (Come to think of it, the milk must have come from the store too.)  My dad was chiefly responsible for coming up with the idea and my mom was chiefly responsible for all the work it entailed.  When mom developed some health difficulties the experiment came to an end.

Edited June 20, 2021 by liminal_luke

[old3bob]

3 hours ago, Zhongyongdaoist said:

Not quit as dramatic as the above, but this was one of my childhood science nerd "toys":

 

 

As you can see even today these things fascinate science nerds.

 

His description of the relationship between the DC, or direct current input, and the AC, alternating current, output is a little off, while he is correct to say that a transformer needs to have AC current in order to work the coil actually creates AC from the DC because the DC is interrupted, it starts and stops, that is the point of the gap on the outside which used to interrupt the DC input.  The reason for this is because electromagnetic induction only occurs when there is motion, either the receiving wires have to move, or as in this case the magnetic field has to move.  In this case the magnetic field moves by expanding and contracting around the coil, this is why the DC current has to be stopped and started, when it on, the magnetic field expands, when it is turned off the field collapses.  When the field expands it induces a current that travels through the wires in one direction, when it collapses a current is induced that moves in the other direction, this is why it is called AC, or alternating current because it moves first one way through the circuit then the other.  The direct current as you can imagine only goes one way.  AC current is like a sine wave,

 

 

which since it moves up and down creates an automatic contraction and expansion of the magnetic field, which is necessary for the magnetic induction of an electric current to occur.

 

I hope that is clear enough explanation, but I don't have time for more.

 

ZYD

 

 

Edit: correction to spelling.

 

nice, we can get into 3 phase down the line  .  Btw, I took 3 three years of electronics in high school largely because I wanted to build powerful audio amps to blast out late 60's to early 70's music with 12' speakers and also tinker with ham radio and early generation electronic music.  What slowed me down was all the frigging math involved since I just wanted to build something with my hands!  (Heathkits when i was a little older and radio shack projects when I was rather young).  In later life I spent 25 years in all aspects of operating small steam powered turbine generators that put out 13.8KV @ around 10mw each, along with sometimes running the chief operator job in a an industrial plant utility department.  (before 'that later in life" I worked in different aspects of telecommunications including as a telephone lineman and with the old NORAD warning system in Alaska for the USAF.  Which was not a bad job except for having to snap off salutes to many wanna be a general captains who thought they were far above the common NCO.   Hell, several times I worked for a four star base commander who I thought was a really cool guy after we talked for awhile.  (and I quit shaking in my boots )

Edited June 20, 2021 by old3bob

[Nungali]

1 hour ago, Taomeow said:

 

My autumn-winter-spring city life was fully modern, but I spent summers at my grandmother's, in a city that had an "across the bridge" semi-rural part, and that's where my grandmother lived.  Coal and wood for heating and cooking -- an indoor stove for each room and also an outdoor stove for summer cooking -- and for something quick (e.g. to boil water for tea), also a kerosene stove known as Primus that looked like this:

 

 

  Water from two sources, a hand pump in the street and a well a bit farther with absolutely the most fantastic water I've ever tasted.   At the time I hated that well though, because I'd suffered a complex arm fracture one summer when I was 6, and after the breaks healed, the arm emerged twisted and wimpy -- so to straighten and strengthen it, the doctor prescribed walking around carrying downward-pulling weights, starting with very light ones and increasing the weight gradually.  The easiest way to accomplish that was to carry a small bucket of water -- then a bigger one -- with just a little more water in it every day.  So I was tasked with walking to and from that well every day dragging that bucket back and forth, and it hurt like a bitch.  It helped though -- a couple of years later I was doing competitive gymnastics.     

 

Then there were chickens chaperoned by a rooster.  A root cellar where huge blocks of ice were stored -- they lasted throughout the summer -- for refrigeration. 

 

I

 

There was electricity though.  And very easy access to the civilized part of town "across the bridge" (where my grandmother worked) -- by tram, the stop was nearby.  Here's what it looked like:

 

 

 

I would live like that again -- or simpler than that -- if there was a need.  In fact, I don't exclude the possibility.  If shit was to hit the fan in earnest, I'd rather live like that than amidst either urban collapse and decay and disease or a super-efficient totally controlled society of digitized half-past-humans.

 

I think "simpler lives" chiefly scare those who have never experienced them.  

 

 

 

Delightful. I like stories and memories like this .   When we used to go and stay on Brisbane Waters ( no where near Brisbane ) when I was a child, the small settlements where connected by ferry, each had its own stop / wharf .  I would wait at our street's wharf, fishing, until the ferry came so I could catch the thrown rope loop and put it over the pole .   few stops down was a store .... riding the ferry to buy milk and bread was a novelty for me .  Trips where made occasionally to the larger town , for fish and chips, movies , train station, etc   at  Woy Woy

 

Brisbane Water

 

 

The delightful slow 'chug chug' of commuting back then

 

Woy Woy ;

 

[Nungali]

Here is an old fav of mine , and many others too apparently -  bakelite

 

 

 

 

 

                                  

 

 

 

I have installed these throughout the cabin and in the new bathhouse ;

 

    

 

 ( nice on the wood work and against the 'retro glam'  Italian 'crackle' tile ( with a thin accent strip of clear, silver and moonstone tiles, all outlined with stainless steel 'silver' trim .  )

 

 

 

 

[old3bob]

this place almost got me way back in 71  - Yikes x3,  it closed out with around totally unexpected swells climbing to around 30 foot in size trapping me and another guy outside for hours until it subsided to 18 footers which i could ride the dissipating shoulders of (but even then I was flying with the boards fin vibrating  because of the speed!) to get back to its a deeper channel and then get back to the beach.  (I had paddled out earlier in the day to mainly watch other guys taking her on...with watching from the side where it wasn't breaking normally being predictable  since I was no where experienced enough to ride it with my much smaller wave board and limited skills.

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by old3bob

[Zhongyongdaoist]

This:

 

On 6/11/2021 at 8:45 AM, old3bob said:

we had this type of skateboard as kids,  if the steel wheels ran into a small peddle it often acted like an instant brake which could send you flying off the board and into the unyielding concrete which removed patches of flesh or knocked out teeth or pounded your body an "x" amount.  (all in a day of fun and daring, ouch)

 

 

Reminded me of this:

 

Quote

Skateboarding started in California in the 1950s.[2] The first skateboards were made from roller skates (attached to a board).[3] Skateboarding gained in popularity because of surfing: in fact, skateboarding was initially referred to as "sidewalk surfing". Initially, skateboards were handmade from wooden boxes and planks by individuals. Companies started manufacturing skateboards in 1959, as the sport became more popular.[4] In postwar America, society was carefree with children commonly playing in the streets.[5] Boards were also continuing to evolve as companies tried to make them lighter, stronger and improve their performance. (Wikipedia, Skateboard)

 

Skates like this:

 

 

Which were adjustable and designed to be attached to shoes, were common enough, but used more by girls than boys.  I remember as a boy having friends take skates like the above apart and nail the two parts to a wooden board, to create the first skate boards.

 

 

ZYD

[Nungali]

The first skateboard I ever saw was a home made version of one of those .  

 

 

 

[old3bob]

and there was your wagon....for everything from A-z

 

and your flexie

 

(saw a young kid in the neighborhood take a horrific bite out the concrete street curb (face first) because he didn't really know how to control his flexie, I still cringe thinking back on that)  

[old3bob]

Haven't seen  an 8 track player like the one below in a long time,  but we still have two cassette players, one in hi-fi system and also a small portable along with lots of cassette tapes.

 

[Nungali]

' Off the rails '