Proposed Wall Street Bailout is Unamerican.

This just in, I agree with a Republican.

Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky states:

"The Paulson proposal is an attempt to do what we so often do in Washington—throw money at a problem.

We cannot make bad mortgages go away. We cannot make the losses that our financial institutions are facing go away. Someone must take those losses. We can either let the people who made bad decisions bear the consequences of their actions, or we can spread that pain to others. And that is exactly what the Secretary proposes to do—take Wall Street's pain and spread it to the taxpayers. The plan has not even passed, and already Americans are paying for it because of the fall in the dollar as a result of all the new debt we will be taking on.

I know there are problems in the financial markets, and I share a lot of the same concerns that our witnesses do. However, the Paulson plan will not fix those problems. The Paulson plan will not help struggling homeowners pay their mortgages. The Paulson plan will not bring a stop to the slide in home prices. But the Paulson plan will spend 700 billion taxpayer dollars to prop up and clean up the balance sheets of Wall Street. This massive bailout is not the solution, it is financial socialism, and it is un-American."

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-home-front/2008/09/23/sen-jim-bunning-the-bailout-is-un-american.html

Vintage VW Training for Vintage VWs

Today, this video helped me adjust my Volkswagen.

Renaults

Some of my photos were featured today on my favorite website, Jalopnik.com:

http://jalopnik.com/5042285/citroens-and-fuegos-roam-the-streets-of-portland

Honda Trail 90

On June 3, 2008 Dan and I went to southeast Portland and he bought this baby, a 1965 Honda Trail 90. You meet the nicest people on a Honda.

Of course, my head wraps itself around the Beach Boys' song "Little Honda" at the sight of this "little motorbike." Here is a great video of the original song:



Being an indie rocker, I much prefer Yo La Tengo performing the song:

Lifter Puller - "Nassau Coliseum"

Here is an incredible fan-made video for Lifter Puller's song "Nassau Coliseum." Lifter Puller broke up and sort of reformed as The Hold Steady. Lifter Puller was more noisy and abrasive, while The Hold Steady goes for more of a bar-rock deal in the best possible sense.

This video is incredibly weird, vulgar, and awesome. It should be presented with a South Park style disclaimer that states it absolutely shouldn't be viewed by anyone.

This song was inspired by a Grateful Dead concert at the Nassau Coliseum, on Long Island, NY, where the biggest drug bust in Grateful Dead history took place.

HOLD STEADY

I just stumbled on to this site, an index of Hold Steady lves shows and radio session downloads:

http://holdsteady.blogspot.com/

They even have Lifter Puller stuff.

VW Microbus Best of

Here is a link to some of the best pictures of Pre-1967 Volkswagen Split-Windshield buses, as selected by split window microbus fanatics of TheSamba.com

LINK

This is over 50 message board pages of pictures, but I highly recommend it. It is interesting to see people's perceptions of the car change over time. I believe the original VW Bus is such a subjective piece that people can place very different connotations to it. Hippie vs purely industrial, unsafe vs warm nostalgia; It's a strange psychological mirror of an automobile.

Above: 1. VW Samba as surfing icon, in garage surrounded by quiver of longboards. 2. VW Bus as American road trip icon. 3. VW Bus as chicken coop.

Megasquirt or not?

I have been seriously considering converting my VW to nasty sounding, yet quite non-aggressive Megasquirt Electronic Fuel Injection.

Here, at the Samba, I am discussing it.

Ruckus all over USA.

I came across this story today of some guy riding all over the United States on his Honda Ruckus. I would have met him at Spring Scoot, but he and I both only attended on one day, opposite days. It reminds me of everything I love about riding scooters. There are lots of great pictures in this account of his trip.

LINK

Secret Codes of Volkswagens.

Every old Volkswagen has a little plate riveted to it telling a bit of history of the car. I found mine on my 1971 Bus behind the drivers seat and yesterday decoded it. I used the information found on Type2.com as well as TheSamba.com.

Here are the codes and their meanings:

12 = Unknown, possibly a code meaning 1971 model year
162 = Bumpers with Rubber Moldings
191 = Outer and Center Underfloor Reinforcement Plates (these reinforced the structure of the bus to compensate for the hole in the roof for the camping pop top)
E = Unknown

4747 = Neptune Blue on top and on bottom
51 = Dark Beige Leatherette Upholstery
A02 = USA DOT Specifications
177 = Rear Bench Seat
507 = Vent wings in Cab doors
697 = Rumored to be "Fitted With Continental brand tires"

10 2 = Date of manufacture: either February 10th, 1970 or Tuesday on the 10th Week of 1970
7998 = Unknown, possibly a serial number of production runs at the VW factory
UP = Port of Delivery was Portland, Oregon
2310 = Kombi wwith Sliding door on the right, Left hand drive
21 = Upright cooling 1600cc engine, Manual Transmission

I encourage all Volkswagen owners to use the online resources to discover the meaning of their M Codes.

The Oral History of WGSU

I started a new site to compile the history of Geneseo, New York radio station WGSU, where I used to be a DJ.

http://theoralhistoryofwgsu.blogspot.com/

Volvo 164 Update

Well, we finally did it. After months of scrounging for parts and lugging around two transmissions we finally got one into the reverse-less Volvo 164.

I am very pleased to report that after months of searching for parts, and 2.5 weeks in the shop, the 164 is kicking with the manual transmission. Anyone who has a 164 : this swap is completely worth it. The car is SUCH A BETTER CAR now. It does not sputter and die when cold starting, it roars and wants to peel out. The transmission makes all the power readily available and I love driving it. Jessica is pleased because it now goes in reverse.



If you didn't know, the car, when we bought it in June 2007, was equipped with a leaking, slipping automatic Borg Warner 35 transmission. This transmission is mediocre at best and only has 3 forward gears. I figured we could just put in a manual transmission at some point in the future.

We had initially wanted to do most of the work ourselves but we ended up taking it to a shop - a special Volvo shop - that would have all the right tools and knowledge. It ended up costing a lot more than we expected, as most of these old car projects tend to do.

These were the parts that I brought to the shop:
driveline
M410 transmission
another M410 transmission
pedals: clutch and brake
rear transmission support bracket

These were the parts the shop had to come up with:
crossmember (as it turns out this is common to 140 series cars)
front urethane trans mount
bracket for clutch pedal (custom fabricated)
redone clutch kit by Otts in North Portland
clutch cable

It was very hard to find all the parts but luckily the shop - Vol Tech in Portland OR - that did the swap (I do not have an adequate garage nor adequate skill for such an undertaking) was very resourceful. They pulled the crossmember off of one of their 142 race cars. They also fabricated a custom clutch pedal mount that looks very clean and well done.

In retrospect I wish I had done two things differently:

I wish I had gotten our full parts car over to the shop for them to take all the parts from. I had a parts car but only scavenged some parts from it before it was sold for scrap.

I wish that I had just gone ahead and installed the Ford Mustang T5 transmission. The cost would have been very similar in the end, and the availability of Ford clutches and trans parts all over would really have been nice. I have retained a spare M410 to have in case I still want to do this, but hopefully this will be the last of Volvo modifications for some time. I want the car's monthly cost average to drop to something more economical before we consider any more upgrades (megasquirt and spark conversion, new baseball glove style interior, bomber-style shark teeth painted on front fenders).

It feels good to have a truly unique car. The money I've spent on this pales in comparison to many people's Civics, BMWs, Acuras, etc that remain fairly commonplace and not as Jalopnik as my tastes. I definitely consider the 164 to be a type of found art, in a Richard Prince sort of sense.

I would like to thank all the people at Vol Tech, Cameron L., Suresh and Lee from Vancouver, William from SE Portland whose 1971 Volvo we ripped up for parts, and the people of Brickboard.com for all their help!

Further reading:
A history of the design of the Volvo 164 LINK

Rockets and Bluelights video

Rockets and Bluelights : Forrest Green and Autumn

Video

The Sheep Market

www.thesheepmarket.com

I like five songs.

Sorry I never post on this thing very often. Dear reader, I missed the Pinhead Gunpowder shows thanks to my stupid full time job.

Songs I like recently:

"The List" by Defiance Ohio off of The Fear, The Fear, The Fear

"What is your secret?" by Nada Surf off of The Weight Is A Gift

"Time of The Season" by The Zombies off of Oracle and Odessey

"Looking for Astronauts" by The National off of Alligator

"Subject to the Ladder" by Broadcast off of Tender Buttons

Go find them on your own.