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diy solar

back in the day

John Frum

John Frum

Tell me your problems
Joined
Nov 30, 2019
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Lots of young bucks attempted to DIY a muscle car with varying levels of success.
A good proportion of them achieved poor gas mileage and not much else.
Of the ones that did end up making some horsepower they often destroyed the rest of the drive train piece by piece.
Some of those cars were really dangerous.
DIY solar is eerily similar.
 
Im that guy. My second car was a 79 firebird formula. Came with a 305 with just 150hp. I put headers and a holley 780 on it and disconnected all the smog, still was slow but got about 30% less mpg. So I said screw this and put nitrous on it. Now we are talking, it did add a lot of horsepower. And threw a rod through the side of the block a couple of months later.
Undeterred I called up Super Shops and had a small block 350 crate motor, 4 bolt, specd for boats, dropped off. And a rumpety rump cam to replace the mild one.
It did do at least 300 hp, didnt even need to put the NOS back on. Over the next 6 months it completely trashed the brakes, the rear end, and the transmission. Twice. But I did get it up to over 160mph on the freeway one night. The freeway north of san jose that goes into the city. I had just left a bar but had only 2 drinks so I was cool. Took it up as fast as it would go and held it there for about 10 miles. It was 2 am on a weeknight road was deserted. Not quite.
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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Yeah, most people will add horsepower before ever improving the brakes or suspension.
My 1st muscle car was a 66 Chevelle SS396 that I upgraded to a pretty-hot 427.
That car had drum brakes ! Scary to say the least.
But it was really nice ; looked just like this :

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My first car was a 61 Rambler station wagon.....Gave up any hope for performance, but it had those fold down Nash seats that worked in wonderous ways on date nights LOL :love:;)

rambler.jpg
 
Nice :)

my first one was an R4 Quatrelle, handed down from mother. One of these:


Freaking 27hp (I think), but in winter, when all those Mercedes and BMWs failed, that car with its integrated body, independent wheel supension and front drive went up and down the central German midrange mountains no matter what weather, ice and snow. Heating was a problem, though ...

Did you know it has a different wheel base on the left and on the right, simply because there wasn't anough room under the car for all the suspension stuff. I see quite a few of those (later models, though) in a well restored state here, on sundays.
 
smoothJoey said:
Lots of young bucks attempted to DIY a muscle car with varying levels of success.

Some of those cars were really dangerous.
DIY solar is eerily similar.
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3 funny statements as long as it's not on my street.

Wyoming hot rod/muscle car = 8' tall pickup with a noisy diesel and stacks sticking up behind the cab.
Sometimes they tip over and everyone laughs at them.

My first ride was a 1963 Buick Riviera, 442 I think, slip-n-slide powerglide tranni. Got 8 MPG on a good day. It wanted to go faster than I did, lost a few recaps on the highway.

As far as DIY solar, I got new smoke alarms and an exit route from the house all planned out. ?‍♂️
 
BMcL said:
Yeah, most people will add horsepower before ever improving the brakes or suspension.
My 1st muscle car was a 66 Chevelle SS396 that I upgraded to a pretty-hot 427.
That car had drum brakes ! Scary to say the least.
But it was really nice ; looked just like this :

View attachment 85950
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My brother had one of those with the 396 .... I would take him every time in the quarter mile with my 65 SS Impala 396. I had positraction and no AC or power steering .... He couldn't get enough traction.

The worst for him was when I had to pull him up the hill to my parents house at Christmas.
 
Bob B said:
My brother had one of those with the 396 .... I would take him every time in the quarter mile with my 65 SS Impala 396. I had positraction and no AC or power steering .... He couldn't get enough traction.

The worst for him was when I had to pull him up the hill to my parents house at Christmas.
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Yes, you have to set those cars up to get traction but the stock suspension can hook pretty good once it's dialed in.
LOL, they are terrible in the snow and ice. You must have loaded your trunk with sand bags ?
 
BMcL said:
Yes, you have to set those cars up to get traction but the stock suspension can hook pretty good once it's dialed in.
LOL, they are terrible in the snow and ice. You must have loaded your trunk with sand bags ?
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I put snow tires on in the winter and threw the others in the trunk.
 
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WYtreasure said:
I never got a speeding ticket in mine. ?
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I drove that Datsun wagon at 80 mph from Sarasota FL to Nashville and back many times. About 11 hours !
It had terrible handling as the struts/shocks were worn out but I never made any quick moves in it. :)
 
BMcL said:
View attachment 86005


I drove that Datsun wagon at 80 mph from Sarasota FL to Nashville and back many times. About 11 hours !
It had terrible handling as the struts/shocks were worn out but I never made any quick moves in it. :)
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A friend of mine and I drove that 65 SS impala I had from the bay area in California to Chicago where I dropped him off in 36 hours .... averaged 79 MPH including gas stops .... No tickets.

A couple years later when I got out of the Navy I made the trip by myself driving that car with the 350 CC Yamaha I bought in Japan strapped onto the back bumper ... had to put air shocks on it. Bought that motorcycle in a crate and put it together on the cruise from Japan to bay area .... after riding it a couple of years, I sold it for more than I paid for it.

When the wife and I first got married we drove her ford Fiesta til the floor boards rusted thru .... That was the most fuel efficient crappy car I ever had.
The little Triumph Spitfire was probably the most fun car I ever had. I owned that for a couple of years while I was stationed in New Jersey for training .... sold it to my cousin.
My Uncle never got tired of talking about how much he hated that car. I guess it had problems after I sold it to them and he was the one who had to fix it. The only problem I had was that it wouldn't start when very cold .... had to give it a shot of ether and it would start right up. I guess they planned for that because there was a starter button under the hood.
 
In my move from the South to way up here to the Last Frontier, I lost or misplaced all my old photos so no cool shots of the 70 Camaro SS or the sleeper 73 Z-28. Sounds like a lot of you folks were in a similar time frame that I grew up in, the tail end of the Happy Days era when muscle cars, street drag racing and nothing stronger than beer was still a thing. I'm guessing that scene was regional, but that's how it was in the South during my teen years.

But I'm curious, how does DIY solar fit in? I have installed several DIY systems from start to finish (all off grid of course) and they are miles better and at a much lower cost than our neighbors professionally installed, over priced system. I know of friends and family that shouldn't even change the oil in the family car but those folks wouldn't attempt a substantial renewable energy install either.

A lot of the new, cheaply built products give me a little fright, for sure.

SmoothJoey, Are you referring to cheap and dangerous components or the people?

I get a lot of info off YouTube and forums. I typically follow that up by sitting on a tree stump in the woods to pondering the process and possible problems. BTW, Auto and equipment repair is my favorite on the internet. To think how me and thousands of others used to pour over Chilton and Haynes manuals to do auto work, oh my, that's appalling :ROFLMAO:. But yes poorly constructed equipment and the prevailing attitude of "I saw it on the internet so it must be true". Hmmm I can see your concern either way.
 
BMcL said:
I had a Datsun 510 wagon (1979) I bought off my dad ! It was abysmally slow and I don't think it had 100 hp.
But it wouldn't die and it was great transportation.
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Haha, I had one of those Datsun 510 wagons for my morning newpaper route down in Memphis. I was delivering to about 300 driveways each morning. Loved that car.

When I got to AK, couldn't afford anything much but I knew that 510 was a good runner. It was in 1982 so you could do things like I did that wouldn't work today. The woman had no title but a registration, she said was in her brothers name, who was no longer with us, as they say. Something about a pipeline accident. Long story but I bought it, the story and the car. Eventually I took out the passenger and back seats so I could haul firewood in it. The car lived a good and long life with 2 other owners before it's unfortunate end.
 
AKvalleyguy said:
In my move from the South to way up here to the Last Frontier, I lost or misplaced all my old photos so no cool shots of the 70 Camaro SS or the sleeper 73 Z-28. Sounds like a lot of you folks were in a similar time frame that I grew up in, the tail end of the Happy Days era when muscle cars, street drag racing and nothing stronger than beer was still a thing. I'm guessing that scene was regional, but that's how it was in the South during my teen years.

But I'm curious, how does DIY solar fit in? I have installed several DIY systems from start to finish (all off grid of course) and they are miles better and at a much lower cost than our neighbors professionally installed, over priced system. I know of friends and family that shouldn't even change the oil in the family car but those folks wouldn't attempt a substantial renewable energy install either.
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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 ?

I think the DIY systems that didn't use LiFeP04 batteries were much more dangerous to catching on fire.
The LiFePO4 batteries tend to melt, not ignite ? Is this true ? Just keep combustibles away from your batteries !
Watching Will Prowse videos and noting where to place circuit breakers and fuses makes a much safer system.

1646442033054.png
1973 Split-Bumper Z28
 
smoothJoey said:
I am referring to the DIY solar setups that I have seen on this forum.
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Hey Joey,
Love the screen name and pic of "Smooth" Joe Dimaggio !
Hope you have a wife as nice looking as he did ; although he couldn't keep her (Marilyn)
Mickey Mantle was my hero for several years back then. I would watch baseball on our pathetic tv with my dad on saturday mornings (1960-1966).
My Dad was an excellent baseball player who might have made it in the major leagues, but WW2 was a factor plus he came from a poor farming family (no money).
 
Anyone drive a 67 Falcon ?
It was my first car and my Dad gave it to me in 1970 on my 16th birthday. He paid $500 for it and he got screwed, because the rings were shot in the engine.
And to make matters worse, the engine was a 170 cubic inch straight 6, so ~100 hp was the most it could do.
But my dad was smart. He wanted it that way. He didn't want me getting into trouble.

The antenna on the front of the car was broken off about 3" from the fender. I had ZERO radio reception.
So I bought a curved sweet potato and pushed it down onto the antenna and instantly I had every station in the Nashville area.
Science !

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1967 Ford Falcon
 

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