Charlotte Oktoberfest!!!

We had planned to go to the 12th annual Charlotte Oktoberfest for a while now but when the time comes to buy tickets we figured our money could be better spent elsewhere. Thank goodness for Molly's friend Amber and her husband Ralph!!! Ralph works for Abita Beer and received a certain amount of tickets and Amber hooked Molly and I up to get in free and we even got free food out of the deal! What a great day.
So the Charlotte Oktoberfest has about 350 beers to try and the give you a free 5oz tasting glass to help with the duties.
We tried about 8 different beers each and I think our favorite by far was brewed by a local home brewer out of Winston-Salem, NC. It was called "Hop Island Breakfast in Bed Stout" It was an oatmeal espresso stout. SO GOOD!

We were given these yellow wrist bands and that got us in for free along with free lunch, snacks and water.

There was definately no shortage of people. we looked on the website and they had sold out of tickets for a while. It's amazing how beer brings people together!

Next time we are going to have to score one of these pretzel necklaces, they were everywhere!

Thanks again Amber and Ralph!

The Newest Member of the House Family

I am so thankful that I have a wife that has good taste and that we like so many of the same things!

In our quest for "all things vintage" we stumbled upon what became the newest member of our family. Well... stumbled may not be right, earnestly sought out might be closer. We both have always liked the old appliances and we were talking a few months ago and kinda decided that we ought to find one some time to replace our normal looking, non vintage, loud fridge. So the hunt was on! I would scan through craigslist almost daily finding incredible deals on incredible appliances... in New York...and California but not so many in North Carolina. One was finally posted in Winston-Salem which is about 1.5-2 hours from us. After many emails and a borrowed truck (Thanks Larry) we brought her home! Everything was in pretty good shape and worked great but needed a little paint and some cleaning.

The new old fridge as we got her. As far as I can tell it is an early '50's model.

Sanded and prepped for paint!

After a couple of coats...

Molly is demonstrating the difference in height and size of our current fridge on the left and our new fridge on the right.

Done and in action!

Very full. Our little freezer is pretty full as well.

I love the porcelain covered metal drawers for the vegetables and meats!

And what makes it even better is that it has a glass top/shelf so you can see whats inside without having to pull it out.

I was pretty excited about this bargain, total cost of new cool fridge...$155
I would be tempted to believe that just about everyone that has bought a new refrigerator in the last 15 years has replaced it but this one is still going strong and IT'S QUITE! I just hope I don't eat my words and have to replace anything anytime soon because I said that.
Now if I can only find an sweet old gas stove.

New Sopkes with Powdered Wheels!

I received the new spokes a little more than a week ago for the CB450 wheels that I had powder coated . I have never attempted to lace and true a set of spoke wheels but I figured with all the info online I'm bound to get it sooner or later.

There is a certain order this has to be done in otherwise it work and you'll probably go crazy trying to figure out why it's not working!
I don't have a lot of pictures of each step but I messed it up a couple times and finally figured out what I was doing wrong and it went together real quick after that. It's amazing how well things work if you do it right!

This is the final product except for the truing part. That will probably take a bit of work.
Front Wheel

The rear wheel went together real quick the first time!

When I get done truing them and wiping them down I'll probably post a couple more pictures taken outside. They look way better in sunlight than in my living room at 5:30a.m.

Cool Sprocket Cover!

I took the sprocket cover off a while ago and have been trying to decide what to do with it as far as cool vents. After a light bulb type idea went off in my head I came up with this...

First I found the relative center line with a pair of dial calipers and marked it. Then I used a compass to draw the lines moving outward. I measured with the calipers and marked equally spaced lines to set the compass.

I decided to use a .250 endmill to drill the holes and wanted the distance between the holes to be at least half the diameter of the hole. So I measured out .125, set my compass and marked all the lines where the holes should go.

I set it up in the Bridgeport and away we go!


Since it has a very small tip I used a starter drill to pinpoint where I was going to drill. That's all I did with it, since I was using an endmill I didn't have to have a pilot hole.
Milling...

After all the holes were drilled


Then it was off to the buffing wheel!
The polishing didn't come out as well as it could but I used red ScotchBrite, then 600 grit, then 1000, then the buffing wheel.

Bug's First Cruise In!!

A couple of weeks ago my brother in law Wesley came to visit Molly and I. While he was here we took Molly's Beetle up to Kannapolis for a cruise in at their town center. I was surprised how many cars showed up but with the slightly cooler temps and all the car folks in this area I guess I shouldn't have been...

Here she is!!

A pink Rambler Wagon!

A very cool Volvo Truck. I'm told by my Volvo guru that these are pretty rare little trucks.

Oh how I love Fairlanes, one of my favorite years.

This is looking down one side of one street, there were cars on the other side as well as both sides of the other one way street

Another nicely done Beettle, but I think Molly's was the nicest VW there with this one being the closest competition.

'57 shoe box

We are hoping to go to a few more cruise in's and car shows as the weather gets nicer.

After More than 30 Years...This Happened!!

I put the carbs back on the CB450 the other day and made a gas tank out of a 20oz water bottle and fuel line and I couldn't get it to run except for about 3 or 4 seconds with a shot of starter fluid. So, I had air and spark but obviously no fuel... I took the carbs back apart and and found that one of the previous owners had no idea how to set the fuel float level. After a quick adjustment and re assembly I put them back on the bike. Now I'm sure that the motor has been cranked and started since the last time this bike was inspected/registered but it had not been inspected/registered since 1978!! After I put the carbs back on it took about two turns of the engine and this happened!!!

WOOHOO!!!
I love when stuff goes right and works like it should! I still have other adjustments to make i.e. check timing points and fine tune idle screw and throttle cable but so far its off to a great start!

Tail of the Dragon!!

A few weeks ago Molly and I headed to Robinsville, NC for our friends wedding. (Ben & Stef) For a long time now I've wanted to drive/ride Hwy 129 in western North Carolina affectionately known as "The Tail of the Dragon". This short stretch of highway starts in NC but soon crosses over into TN and attracts thousands of motorcycle and car enthusiast from all across the US. The reason for all this interest is that on 11 miles of this highway there are no intersecting roads, driveways or turnarounds. Oh, and there are 318 curves in that short 11 mile run! We drove the mustang to the wedding that weekend and I couldn't convince myself not to go since I was so close. So on Saturday morning at 10 till 6am I set out...

I obviously did not take any pictures once I was on the dragon's tail but these are leading up to it headed North.

At the south end there is a little motel with lots of motorcycle parking where motorcycle/car clubs many times meet up or stay the night before their run. They have a tree of shame outside to remind riders of just how dangerous this road can be especially if you ride unsafely or beyond your limits. There has been 25 deaths along this 11 mile stretch since 2000.

I'm not sure who put the child's tricycle up there.

The Fugitive Dam

I gotta say that it was a blast driving this beautiful Hwy, if you're ever in the area head on up, just make sure you're there early. It gets pretty packed during the day. I was lucky enough to only see a handful of cars and several of those were state troopers, so drive safe!!!