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back in the day

BMcL said:
The muscle car thing was and still is all over america. If you have a Chevelle or Camaro, visit Team Camaro or oldchevelles.com.
I turned 16 in 1970, just as muscle cars were dying out. Unleaded gas and high insurance costs killed the Muscle Car. ?
The 70 SS Camaro was one of my favorites and the split-bumper 73 Z28 was a beautiful car. Was your 73 a split-bumper ?
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I forget about the split bumper on that Z-28, hmm. Got to find those pictures. It was black on black with a white stripe down the hood, no A/C and 4 speed stick, all business.

I got tossed in the JC for a day when I was 17 for "reckless driving". Just a routine drive home in the Z after a shift at the grocery store. Clocked doing 130 mph. Cops didn't catch up to me until miles later. By then I forgot I had been speeding. At the ripe old age of 17, my life was over it seemed. In a weird way I'm glad it happened.

At the time, I was a grocery guy (the guy who bags and totes groceries to the car for those too young to have experienced that level of service) for Giant Foods and one of my regulars was a very pleasant middle age woman. I was a talker, tips were better if you were a chatter, and always admired this woman's 1970 and a half Camaro SS. She had ordered it new and it was loaded, wood grain, nice seats, all that. Seafoam Green. It was a one woman car and in great shape. I asked her about it every time she came to shop. Finally she sold it to me for $1500 and I retired the Z-28 for the slightly less powerful SS. I rode the rest of my senior HS year out in the styling 1970 SS. I later sold it to my brother, who later sold it to some guy in St Louis who restored cars. Would love to find out where it is now. The "kid", LOL, that bought the Z-28 ended up totaling it a few months later.

A little over a year out of High School I was doing commercial piloting stuff in DC-3's. Cars faded out of my life as I had found my new love, airplanes. The move to Alaska demolished any ideas of ever having a cool car. The roads are terrible and conditions here are not good for those 1970's era cars. The garage picture of your Chevelle looks really nice, takes me back in time. Alas, all the work I do on vehicles anymore is of the necessary and reluctant type.

Man, I went off into lala land there. You are very right about the fusing and breakers for the LiFePO4's. I'm trying to stay with quality components for that reason. Breakers like the ones from Midnite Solar just seem the right thing to use. Of course, that's all I have been using since the beginning for my off grid life and never had a failure or glitch.

smoothJoey said:
I am referring to the DIY solar setups that I have seen on this forum.
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I am guilty in some regards. I abandoned my wind turbine a few years ago and have yet to remove the spaghetti mess of wiring and controllers. You gave me the kick at the right time to get it done! Like a line drive into right field!
 
Batvette said:
After I slowed down to about 65, Im just tooling along and about 5 minutes later a CHP almost rear ends me. Lights sirens PA angrily telling me to pull over. I did he tells me about a "black trans am" going over 3 times the speed limit, as he watched perched above the highway. He said it took him that long to catch up, tried to get me to admit it was me.
"No sir. This is just a firebird. Its not a trans am."
He had to let it go not even a warning.
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Haha, that was about the same type incident I just posted. Except these guys knew who I was and had been trying to catch me for a while.
 
smoothJoey said:
In my day the rich guys had a brand new Firebird/Trans am.
Less rich guys had a Duster or Nova.
My pack mostly had V8 Gremlins with the 3 speed manual.
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There really wasn't a lot of cost difference between the cars back then.
But I remember the insurance being a big factor in what you could afford to drive.
That's why guys would hot-rod their cars; it was much cheaper than buying a factory muscle car.
The 66-67 Novas were really light and fast and cheap to insure.
And Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins drove a 66 Nova smallblock and beat the factory hemis ! Those Novas cost a fortune today.
 
AKvalleyguy said:
At the time, I was a grocery guy (the guy who bags and totes groceries to the car for those too young to have experienced that level of service)

A little over a year out of High School I was doing commercial piloting stuff in DC-3's. Cars faded out of my life as I had found my new love, airplanes. The move to Alaska demolished any ideas of ever having a cool car. The roads are terrible and conditions here are not good for those 1970's era cars. The garage picture of your Chevelle looks really nice, takes me back in time. Alas, all the work I do on vehicles anymore is of the necessary and reluctant type.
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WoW, we still have grocery guys here. Sometimes they save my tired old butt.
I was driving a 72 Camaro for a few years, after the Riv. It took a while to get used to the raw horsepower of the 250ci, 110 HP with the 3 on the floor. It took a couple miles but I could get it to 100 mph.
Man you did great getting into the DC 3 at that age. I took a C-188 up to Dillingham and hauled a few salmon off the beaches one summer in the early 80s. Should have stayed but was yung-n-dumb.?‍♂️
 
WYtreasure said:
WoW, we still have grocery guys here. Sometimes they save my tired old butt.
I was driving a 72 Camaro for a few years, after the Riv. It took a while to get used to the raw horsepower of the 250ci, 110 HP with the 3 on the floor. It took a couple miles but I could get it to 100 mph.
Man you did great getting into the DC 3 at that age. I took a C-188 up to Dillingham and hauled a few salmon off the beaches one summer in the early 80s. Should have stayed but was yung-n-dumb.?‍♂️
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I had a blast as a grocery store bag boy. The manager never bothered us about taking tips although the big sign did say, No Tipping. Man, I thought for sure that job had gone the way of the dinosaur but glad to hear it's alive in some parts of the world.

Yeah, the commercial thing, I approached it like a mad man, flying every thing with wings under any circumstances to build hours. Only thing I turned down was an old Tri-Pacer literally in a farmers field in Mississippi. The DC-3 gigs were mostly as a contractor flying FedEx freight. Racked up about 700 hours in them before graduating to a tiny regional outfit hauling passengers in CV340/440's. Us DC-3 drivers were in a feast or famine work cycle, I envisioned the same with the regional job, so I switched to ATC. It provided a steady paycheck but rather boring job. If you ever flew IFR on the fish hauls you probably talked to me. I worked the enroute center and we covered from about ILI,King Salmon, TKA and east to the Canadian airspace. I did fly one DC-3 fish haul in 1984 to the beach at Iggigig (sp?) and that was enough for me to keep my day job. Flying off the beaches, you definitely had a crazier job than I ever experienced :LOL:
 
BMcL said:
There really wasn't a lot of cost difference between the cars back then.
But I remember the insurance being a big factor in what you could afford to drive.
That's why guys would hot-rod their cars; it was much cheaper than buying a factory muscle car.
The 66-67 Novas were really light and fast and cheap to insure.
And Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins drove a 66 Nova smallblock and beat the factory hemis ! Those Novas cost a fortune today.
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That's funny, goes back to smoothJoey's original comment. People like me couldn't or didn't want to pay for a turnkey system (the insurance) so we cobble together (hot-rod) our DIY systems. Hmmm, never thought about it like that :unsure:

I never had a Nova but several friends that went to the official drag strip sure did.
 
AKvalleyguy said:
Racked up about 700 hours in them before graduating to a tiny regional outfit hauling passengers in CV340/440's. Us DC-3 drivers were in a feast or famine work cycle, I envisioned the same with the regional job, so I switched to ATC. It provided a steady paycheck but rather boring job. If you ever flew IFR on the fish hauls you probably talked to me. I worked the enroute center and we covered from about ILI,King Salmon, TKA and east to the Canadian airspace. I did fly one DC-3 fish haul in 1984 to the beach at Iggigig (sp?) and that was enough for me to keep my day job. Flying off the beaches, you definitely had a crazier job than I ever experienced :LOL:
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Do you remember a crop duster saying "It's getting dark, i'm running out of fuel, which way is the airport"? In 82 or 83 I brought home the worlds best pancake recipe from a fisherman's wife who lived in Igiugig. Funny again. I drove the 340, 440 and 580. Took the 580 to 47 states and the Baja. Ahh yes, the good ole days. I was driving a 57 210 wagon and a Nova back then.
 
WYtreasure said:
o you remember a crop duster saying "It's getting dark, i'm running out of fuel, which way is the airport"? In 82 or 83 I brought home the worlds best pancake recipe from a fisherman's wife who lived in Igiugig. Funny again. I drove the 340, 440 and 580. Took the 580 to 47 states and the Baja. Ahh yes, the good ole days. I was driving a 57 210 wagon and a Nova back then.
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I remember several occasions where someone said something similar. Since I was the only controller there with all the ratings, I got volunteered to assist many times

Yep, one beach landing in the fog at Igiugig was all it took for me. Near zero visibility except straight down. You guys doing it for a living were like hero's. I remember the name of the little town because I thought my remains were going to scattered around there. Was it for sourdough pancakes? That was a popular thing but I don't know anyone making them around where we live.

Oh man, the 340/440! That R2800 was a massive engine. One night we almost had a wing fire from carbon build up in the augmenter tubes. Flight attendant burst into the cockpit screaming the right engine was on fire. A couple months later another crew did have an fire on that plane. Same problem, auto mixture would run suddenly go lean and things heated up really fast. Mechanics couldn't figure it out. It resolved itself by destroying the plane. That crew had to make an emergency landing at HOU, wing burned off after they hit the runway. Never made it to the 580, got the call for ATC before I was there long enough to upgrade. Did you ever fly for Gulf Air Transport? Hey, that funny, I had a '79 Datsun B210 at that time, had sold my '70 Camaro SS to my brother.
 
AKvalleyguy said:
I remember several occasions where someone said something similar. Since I was the only controller there with all the ratings, I got volunteered to assist many times

Yep, one beach landing in the fog at Igiugig was all it took for me. Near zero visibility except straight down. You guys doing it for a living were like hero's. I remember the name of the little town because I thought my remains were going to scattered around there. Was it for sourdough pancakes? That was a popular thing but I don't know anyone making them around where we live.

Oh man, the 340/440! That R2800 was a massive engine. One night we almost had a wing fire from carbon build up in the augmenter tubes. Flight attendant burst into the cockpit screaming the right engine was on fire. A couple months later another crew did have an fire on that plane. Same problem, auto mixture would run suddenly go lean and things heated up really fast. Mechanics couldn't figure it out. It resolved itself by destroying the plane. That crew had to make an emergency landing at HOU, wing burned off after they hit the runway. Never made it to the 580, got the call for ATC before I was there long enough to upgrade. Did you ever fly for Gulf Air Transport? Hey, that funny, I had a '79 Datsun B210 at that time, had sold my '70 Camaro SS to my brother.
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B210.... The one with the warning light for floor overheat when the cat got hot?
 
Batvette said:
B210.... The one with the warning light for floor overheat when the cat got hot?
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I don't remember that nice little feature! I hardly remember the car at all. Bought it new, it was blue, stick shift, I think 1979 or 1980 and I put about 70k miles on it in a short amount of time. You would think I'd remember more but it was basically a commuter all around the South so I could chase jobs. I do remember having to add a lot of oil between changes.
 
AKvalleyguy said:
I don't remember that nice little feature! I hardly remember the car at all. Bought it new, it was blue, stick shift, I think 1979 or 1980 and I put about 70k miles on it in a short amount of time. You would think I'd remember more but it was basically a commuter all around the South so I could chase jobs. I do remember having to add a lot of oil between changes.
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My sister had one.
Also blue with a stick shift.
Nice tight manual steering as I recall and good gas mileage.
 
I was a junior in college in 1976 and had to take a break. Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville TN had a "co-op" program where you could leave school for a year, work and save money and then return and graduate.
I jumped at the chance because I was totally worn out from the constant studying.
Started work at Murray-Ohio manufacturing near Nashville. After a few months, friends knew I was looking for a car. They came to me and said "come with us, we found you a car."
They brought me to it and I couldn't believe how awesome it looked. They said "it's a SS396 Chevelle." The car was 10 years old at the time in 1976.
I knew nothing about muscle cars but they knew I would like it. They were right !
It was triple-black, black vinyl top with black paint and interior.

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I drove that car for 13 years. It's body was perfect. No dings, no rust. I still kick myself for selling it in 1989 for $4400.
Ten years later it was selling for $20,00 to $30,000. Now it's $40,000+

After selling it in 1989, I knew I had made a bad mistake so I searched for a replacement. I found a 1968 Camaro Convertible for $5200 and bought it in 1992. I still have it today. It helps me forgive myself for selling the first 66 SS396 Chevelle !
 

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BMcL said:
I drove that car for 13 years. It's body was perfect. No dings, no rust. I still kick myself for selling it in 1989 for $4400.
Ten years later it was selling for $20,00 to $30,000. Now it's $40,000+

After selling it in 1989, I knew I had made a bad mistake so I searched for a replacement. I found a 1968 Camaro Convertible for $5200 and bought it in 1992. I still have it today. It helps me forgive myself for selling the first 66 SS396 Chevelle !
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Yeah, I know how you feel. If I had kept the 3 Camaro's I wouldn't be on this forum trying to DIY a battery. I don't think anyone from High School kept their cars. We were all to short sighted or broke to keep them.

I knew of one guy with a 396 Chevelle. He graduated and left the area just as I was getting into the scene. But I was friends with a guy who hot-rodded the family Impala wagon. It was hilarious. I did always wish I had bought the 1967 2 door Impala off my dad. 327 either 275 or 300hp, I forget and the 2 speed power glide. Reasonably quick for a family car and smooth ride.

If we had all kept those cars we probably wouldn't be on a DIY forum talking about DIY batteries. I'm guessing we would simply be monitoring our gigantic battery room capable of powering a submarine. I'm only speaking for myself, for all I know you guys have di-lithium crystals powering you house and Scotty manning the engineering room.
 
AKvalleyguy said:
I remember several occasions where someone said something similar. Since I was the only controller there with all the ratings, I got volunteered to assist many times

Oh man, the 340/440! That R2800 was a massive engine. One night we almost had a wing fire from carbon build up in the augmenter tubes. Flight attendant burst into the cockpit screaming the right engine was on fire. A couple months later another crew did have an fire on that plane. Same problem, auto mixture would run suddenly go lean and things heated up really fast. Mechanics couldn't figure it out. It resolved itself by destroying the plane. That crew had to make an emergency landing at HOU, wing burned off after they hit the runway.
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I believe we learned about that fire one year in class. "Okay guys, here's what not to do". I could be wrong but I think that plane caused a big ruckus.
 
An example of the parralel between young guys making horsepower and new folks here making systems...
Gung-ho new guy comes in, already decided that 3000 watt inverter at 12 volts is fine idea.
Figures he can pull 300 amps through a BMS rated for 100amps.
Buys Amazon brass busbars and a $10.00USD amazon breaker.
Oh... and he uses the copper clad aluminum cables that came with the inverter.

---Sad Trombone---
 
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WYtreasure said:
I believe we learned about that fire one year in class. "Okay guys, here's what not to do". I could be wrong but I think that plane caused a big ruckus.
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I'm thinking it was N4815C but that 40 years ago so probably mixing up the tail number, I think they had maybe 8 or 9 CV's total. Steve, the left seater at the time of the real engine fire was a friend, but I had already left GAT.

Interestingly you may know or have experienced this on the CV's. The particular plane that had the fire, it would rumble for a few seconds when we turned off the water injection, that's what I wrote up multiple times on that plane. Mechanics never found anything. They said the auto rich probably wasn't kicking in immediately after the water injection got shutoff.

Something leading up to the puzzle of the actual fire happened to us during a night take-off out of JAX with a "possible engine fire", no warning bells, just the cabin attendant's frantic report. . We had just shut off the water injection and had the familiar 2 second rumble. The CA's said flames were shooting out the exhaust ports. Mechanics said that likely the auto rich problem caused a temporary lean burn, which burned the carbon out of the augmenter tubes. I don't know man, that was 40 years ago and some stuff is like yesterday, some stuff is rather obscure. Most of my flying stuff is like a yesterday memory. I've not talked to anyone with CV experience since I left the flying scene so this interesting to run across you, on a DIY solar forum of all places! Right On.
 
smoothJoey said:
An example of the parralel between young guys making horsepower and new folks here making systems...
Gung-ho new guy comes in, already decided that 3000 watt inverter at 12 volts is fine idea.
Figures he can pull 300 amps through a BMS rated for 100amps.
Buys Amazon brass busbars and a $10.00USD amazon breaker.
Oh... and he uses the copper clad aluminum cables that came with the inverter.
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Hahaha, yeah, that's the guy who should never change his own engine oil because he saw a YouTube video on how to do it!
 
You sure bring back memories. Got my driver's license in 1965, gas was about 20 cents, diesel 17 cents. My cousin dated one of the ramcharger boys (426 street stock hemi) got many a fast ride from them. Ordered a 1968 mustang fastback 4 speed 302 V8, very fast, shoulda kept it. High school buddy was brother-in-law of Tom the Mongoose McCuinn sp (top fuel dragster driver) and we would travel around to so cal dragstrips watching him and Don Gartlets.
Over 200 mph on i-15 in a 427 Chevelle. Spring break in Newport Beach - wild.
21 years on lead acid batteries and just ordered lifep04 batteries we will see. Have a nice day. George
 
Sierra Nevada said:
You sure bring back memories. Got my driver's license in 1965, gas was about 20 cents, diesel 17 cents. My cousin dated one of the ramcharger boys (426 street stock hemi) got many a fast ride from them. Ordered a 1968 mustang fastback 4 speed 302 V8, very fast, shoulda kept it. High school buddy was brother-in-law of Tom the Mongoose McCuinn sp (top fuel dragster driver) and we would travel around to so cal dragstrips watching him and Don Gartlets.
Over 200 mph on i-15 in a 427 Chevelle. Spring break in Newport Beach - wild.
21 years on lead acid batteries and just ordered lifep04 batteries we will see. Have a nice day. George
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Oh yeah the '68 Mustang, guessing it would fetch a pretty penny these days. A high school friend got a '67 or '68 Mustang. All I remember was a 302 and stick shift. He didn't have his license yet but he took a girl for a spin in it. During an attempt to impress her, he wrapped it around a telephone pole. Car was totaled but they both walked away.

I hope the Lifepo4's work good for you. I'm in the middle of a DIY with some and looking forward to disconnecting the old Trojan L-16's.
 
WYtreasure said:
Link Please.

Maybe I could find another Datsun 610 wagon, put a blower on it and cruise the strip again. :ROFLMAO:
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You didnt know about those? Its been a thing for years, a little axial fan just a little more powerful than a desktop pc case fan, put inline with the air intake. Stupid to even think it could make boost, but people buy them. A friend bought a used 90s mustang 5.0 that had a switch on the console for a "turbocharger" she said the previous owner told her about, I followed the wiring under the hood and sure enough there was one of those cheap little fans in the duct. Probably hurt performance.
I dunno, when I had a C4 corvette I used to see these TPI "airfoils" that claimed 15 hp by "straightening out" the fuel/air charge. Next page in the magazine/catalog had another that claimed 15hp by adding turbulence to it!
One thing I did notice about that car was that for emissions GM had the engine running right on the brink of overheating, about 230 degrees all the time. However it seemed like it had more power when it was cold, about 160 degrees. My air conditioning hadnt worked in years so I found if you disconnected the AC high pressure sensor, the cooling fan would run all the time if the car was below 40 mph. In addition a TPI tuning book had a tip about relocating a MAT sensor to get a more accurate reading and a part number for a more accurate sensor.
The car then ran about 160 degrees, no more than 180 on the hottest days, and picked up about 10% more horsepower. You had to put a fan motor in every few years but they were $27.
Pretty much what a chip does for a fraction of the cost.
I parked that car with 195k miles on the stock engine and transmission when the engine showed O oil pressure at idle sold it a few years later. All the forward speeds were perfect but reverse quit long before, if you werent careful how you parked you had to fred flintstone the backup.
 
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