Mylan Chelesnik

S.Lillich 

11/6/12              

 

Starting A Chevy Without A Key

 

               The most common General Motor Steering Column is the “A,” type. This Type of steering column was installed in almost every GM vehicle from 1973-1993, and they are stupid simple. Let’s say one morning  you are running super late to school or work and you have seemed to have misplaced your only set of keys you don’t show up you either flunk or are fired. But then again you drive an older Chevy with an A type column and with a screw driver and some brawn it will start. Your first step will be breaking the lock on the steering column. This can be accomplished by firmly placing your hands at the ten and two driving positions and twisting the wheel back and forth forcefully until you hear a snap and the wheel turns freely. Your nest step will be to  insert the tip of your screwdriver behind the tumbler  where you would normally insert your key then pry back. (on older models the casing is metal but on later models it is plastic) Once you have peeled  back the casing you will now have an exposed a rod  which will easily bend out. This will be your new key, pull to start push in to shut off the engine. Now hopefully you can make it to work or school on time!

The Weather is Changing

 

            The weather is chhanging  and the leaves are falling from the trees and this works very well in my favor. Without folliaage I am better abke to see what cars lying forgotten in back yards pastures and woods.It also makes it easier to explore without the risk of poision ivy snakes and pestering bugs.In mind for this fall I know of a couple old trucks left in a strange clearing in the woods. It also makes it easier to remove these hidden treasures. Well aslong as the gound insnt frozen that is the worst.Moving a car that is sunk down in rock hard frozen earth is not at all fun. I dislike this weather though because all my fucking work spaces are outside and im no freezing my ass off to hod rod that shit can wait until warmer weather fuck this post im so damn tired.

1971 mg midget

 I also currently own a 71' midget which i have removed the factory 1275cc engine and gearbox and in its place cut and welded to such a point that I installed a chevy 260ci inline six coupled with a two speed powerglide out of a 1963 bel air.Which was the first year for an alluminum tranny case and a rear pump so it can be push started  like a manual transmission.Seats are from a mid 90's F body Camero  after the factory seats went missing at some point this year.One of my biggest regrets of this car is choosing one that was in such poor condition but that is what pushed me to modify it since it wasnt really worthy of a restore.The rearend is from a 77 vega  which I found at U-pick-it  the width is alittle too wide but the lug pattern is the same as the Midgets so wheels will be able to be interchanged.

El Camino-(translation - spanish meaning The Road)

My first (drivable)car was a rusted out 1972 El Camino ... A pretty sweet car for a fourteen year old. I purchased it at a shiners automotive swap meet I attended with my uncle and grandpa. I was just kicking around the rows when my mom called me and asked if I had bought anything and I replied,"Yeah a car!" she asked something along the lines of of what kind what color and I said an el camino and its silver....well mabey primer. She said okay kind blew it off and didn't take it seriously because I honestly hadn't bought a car....well..at least not yet. Right after I got off the phone I looked over to the car corral and sure enough a primer gray El Camino rolls in. I go running this was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my young eyes.I think to myself, it must be FATE! I met the man driving as he was slapping a for sale sign on the window  with a hefty price of $1600 it was a price way out of my league but after much hard haggling I had struck a smooth deal and we settled on $1000 cash if he had it the next day. I walked away knowing  that would be my car. I took my hard earned grand out of the bank damn near wiping me out.But the next day I was back with the cash in hand and rolled out with me sweet new whip. Over the coming months I hid the car from my parents at my grandparents and wrenching on it each weekend I got it closer and closer to being  a somewhat safe car. That didn't stop me and my friends though from being the coolest cats around with a set of Texas tags (Texas plates don't have an expiration date) we drove everywhere and we were riding sooo dirty.No insurance no license no registration and possibly stolen pates. Looking back if I met my fourteen year old self today id slap him I was so dumb to do it but man I was free!

Classic bikes (of the pedal variety)

  In addition to cars a love of mine which I doubt i'll ever break from is bicycles. They were my first hot rod when I young my bike was my transportation and I could strip it down and paint it what ever color I desired, or piece together the best bits off a few bikes and make one that would put any of the neighbor kids bikes to shame. The "Golden High" I was chasing though was a 60's or 70's banana seat bike which when I was about 13 I came across and it was the crème de la crème. A totally unmolested 1962 Schwinn typhoon which was the precourser to the arguably most recognizable bike in the world the Schwinn stingray. After I aquired that bike I figured it was a once in a life time thing but as the years have drug on I have managed to collect quite a fleet. My most recent is a 1952 Schwinn  space liner  which oozes 50's jet fever in its chrome and jet age lines.Pretty soon i'm going to have to cut my self off but as long as I have rafter space to hand them from im sure i'll continue buying them.

In other new I got a new tool box two weeks ago and i'm pretty stoked about that.

1939 Albatross Or the one that got away

 Labor day weekend I stumbled across a car sitting on a trailer behind a RV that caught me off gaurd...I had no idea what it was; I just knew it was cool! I saw a guy rummaging around inside the car assuming he was the owner got to talking he didn't seem to know anything about the car other than it was a 1939 Albatross and they didn't make alot of em'. I made an offer of $4,000 and he said he didn't know about that but it was a fair offer so he took my number and let  him know the offer will still stand.

After my discussion about the car I had a name and a model year! And after a little searching I found some information. I was surprised to learn that this was the only Albatross ever made.From what I learned it was  financed by cartoon artist for the New Yorker because he felt that America didn't have the quality of cars the Europeans had.In 1939 this car cost close to $75,000 to build! I imagine this was why it never went into production.The trim,mounts,seat frames and many other components were all made from solid cast aluminium. The car was made from a 1939 (maybe 38' ?) Mercury frame which was legenthened and in the mid 40's a ford engine was swapped in. The car was sold went from owner to owner and in the mid 60's the front fenders were lost. After that it was sold and lost for years but this past year it surfaced in small town Missouri! Hopefully one day i'll get a call about it and it'll be mine.

     

1928 Plymouth Q

I will be starting this blog with a post about the oldest car I personally own. A 1928 Plymouth Four door sedan Model Q.1928 was the first production year for Plymouth.I found this car at a old service station about an hour south of Kansas City in the small town of Melvern KS. I saw this car wrote the number down that was in the window made a call and less than 48 hours later my brother and I were back with truck trailer and cash in hand. The engine was seized up when I first checked it out but after pouring some diesel in the cylinders and three hours later I had the engine spinning freely and a couple days later had it starting, I'm still working on getting it to run smoothly but I feel after sitting since 1961(last known date it was on the road) I did a decent job. What i'm going to do with it is still undecided it is so original it would be a shame to chop it up but it would probably cost twenty-thousand to restore and at the end of the day it may only worth twenty five or thirty. I will probably continue to hoard this car for awhile but if the right price is offered or another car comes up I can't live without it'll be gone.