Vehicle Sighting: Home-built Jalopy

Today a new addition to the archive of curious downtown Raleigh vehicles: The Homemade
Street Jalopy. Home Built from stainless steel on a dune buggy frame by a man in his
eighties ( or so I am told)

Attentive readers may remember previously central downtown Raleigh was graced with
a horse drawn Surrey with the fringe-on-top: CLICK LINK

A Genuine Go Fast Lotus Elise: CLICK LINK

A prestige luxury Bentley: CLICK LINK

And, of course, the wildly improbable GOOGLE Street Photography car: CLICK LINK

Spotlight: Vintage Wheelbarrow Repair

Before

After

Welcome to wheelbarrow week here at the International Headquarters!

After a new handle for the robust contemporary design, (CLICK LINK HERE)
work began on an older vintage cousin with many similar robust features
from yesteryear– an all metal wheel with bearing axle, an all metal pan,
and most remarkable– metal parts coated with a thin layer of protective
rust.

Yes, before stamped one piece plastic pans and powder coat metal finishes,
old timey implement metals were designed to coat themselves with a
thin layer of preventive rust which would inhibit corrosive metal
eating rust from ruining vital parts.

Read about protective rust here– click link.

Much to my surprise this layer of protective rust allowed all the
nuts to loosen freely from their respective bolts without any assistance
from oil or Liquid Wrench or other solvents. Two nuts and bolts were
completely reusable and returned to service in their original locations.
All this after 40-50(?) years of unprotected exposure to the elements.
Then, as now, they did what they could with what they had available.

Sometimes the old innovations worked as well or better than modern ideas.

So here’s to the good days with a wheelbarrow restored to a second life
of service with a new set of handles!

Spotlight Fixit: Maytag Gemini Surface Element

With the advent of flat ceramic cooktops, the days of a simple
plug-in replacement element are gone. So, for entertainment
purposes, enjoy a simple overview of the steps required to replace
the new age range top element.

For demonstration purposes only. Not a tutorial.

Seek the advice of an experienced appliance service to work
on your equipment.

Spotlight Repair: Wheelbarrow Handle

The modern wheelbarrow is a model of hardy, robust technology —
with a one piece molded thermoplastic shell, pneumatic wheel mounted
on a ball bearing axle, powder coat metal brackets to hold everything
together which can take years to rust– yet even with all
those innovations sometimes the whole business falls apart because the
wooden handle breaks. Fortunately, with a quick and simple replacement
handle the humble, handy cart is back to work…..