Automotive Museum and Member Classics...What We Do For Fun.

[Hugo Habicht]

In the northeast USA, we get snow, and roads are treated with a lot of salt.

Shortens life-expectancy a lot. Both of our vehicles are approaching 8 years.

Yes, salt is a killer. It is being used in Ireland now as well unfortunately. 25 years ago this did not exist, there was black ice on the road and people simply crashed their cars

The key to a vehicle to survive those conditions is: corrosion protection wax or grease (apart from good design practices). Mercedes Service instructions include cleaning the underside and applying a wax coating on everything every 3-4 years. Pretty much nobody got that done at the time. But I bought a W124 once, 17 years old, driven 17 years in Stuttgart (plenty salt in winter), but always waxed as per instructions. The whole suspension underneath looked like new.

And I knew a 200 fintail that was driven for over 40 years as a daily driver in Stuttgart as well. The fintails were very poorly designed rust wise but the first owner got it corrosion protected inside when new and inspected the underside every year and repaired rust damage and waxed it. The car looked like new when I saw it 40 years old.

Based on that experience a friend of mine partially disassembled his brand new G-Wagon with 40 (in words: forty !) miles on the clock and applied wax in all areas that were not protected properly. His wife thought he'd gone nuts taking a new car apart

 

[BBFarmer]

My daily driver. 1983 Mercedes-Benz 230TE.

View attachment 154027

Still used as the manufacturer intended ...

View attachment 154028

Also used on longer trips to Germany to haul material for the house and car parts of course ... Typically not much space left, the ferry ticket is expensive enough

View attachment 154029

I absolutely love station wagons.....all of em.

 

[BBFarmer]

Wow - - you guys that can keep 30-40 year old vehicles as daily drivers makes me envious.

My 99 I daily with 280k on the clock

Definitely don't have the conditions y'all have up there. As long as they don't get flooded, stuff can stay kind of stay preserved around here.

 

[Hugo Habicht]

I absolutely love station wagons.....all of em.

I think if you had one once it always has to be a station wagon. My first car was a 1980 Volkswagen Passat station wagon and when a friend of mine sold the Mercedes I bought it without hesitation. Actually bought it without having seen it

 

[Hugo Habicht]

My 99 I daily with 280k on the clock
View attachment 154076
Definitely don't have the conditions y'all have up there. As long as they don't get flooded, stuff can stay kind of preserved around here.

Actually flooding is not the end of a car either. A guy from a car club in Germany had his beloved fintail Mercedes flooded two years ago and was so distraught that he just could not act, despite better advice.

Three days later a guy from a garage got it, all interior out, instruments and radio out, power hosed the muck away (also inside the body), drained engine, gearbox, axle, tank, refilled with oil and gas, repeated that after running the engine briefly and the car is running fine since and looks pristine.

He had done the same thing years earlier with a car of his that got flooded and he drove it for years afterwards without any problems.

 

[Lil Foot]

I absolutely love station wagons.....all of em.

Here is what my FIL called a station wagon.

 

[BBFarmer]

Actually flooding is not the end of a car either. A guy from a car club in Germany had his beloved fintail Mercedes flooded two years ago and was so distraught that he just could not act, despite better advice.

Three days later a guy from a garage got it, all interior out, instruments and radio out, power hosed the muck away (also inside the body), drained engine, gearbox, axle, tank, refilled with oil and gas, repeated that after running the engine briefly and the car is running fine since and looks pristine.

He had done the same thing years earlier with a car of his that got flooded and he drove it for years afterwards without any problems.

I have heard of folks doing this a time or two. I have luckily never had to deal with it with any of mine.

 

[BBFarmer]

Here is what my FIL called a station wagon.
View attachment 154077

LOL, that's no good..... Maybe not all of them then.

Been looking for one I can load the family up in and take to church on sundays.

Something like this ole girl here that came in for an alignment a while back:

 

[lugbolt]

speaking of station wagons....I'm looking for a Ford Farimont station wagon if anyone knows where one is at. Need it for a driver, so I don't need it to just rust away. Closer to cent. Arkansas the better.

 

[RCW]

We moved a bunch of vehicles around this week as we start to change-out our exhibits. Some going out ("Back to The '80's" Exhibit), some coming in (Farm to Market with trucks and tractors). That's nearly 50 total.

We also always change-out about half of our "Post-War" Exhibit, so about another 12-15 cars.

Don't have even one photo to show for it.....I'll do so, and @BAP, I haven't forgotten about the Case 530. It isn't in yet.

One thing I learned yesterday - - the Ford Taurus SHO cars from the 1980's had a Yamaha engine......

I had no clue that was a Yamaha engine.... Had no clue Yamaha made any engines for cars.....

The one we had for the '80's was also a 5-speed manual. Pretty special for an '80's car.

Definitely learned something new....

 

[Speed25]

We moved a bunch of vehicles around this week as we start to change-out our exhibits. Some going out ("Back to The '80's" Exhibit), some coming in (Farm to Market with trucks and tractors). That's nearly 50 total.

We also always change-out about half of our "Post-War" Exhibit, so about another 12-15 cars.

Don't have even one photo to show for it.....I'll do so, and @BAP, I haven't forgotten about the Case 530. It isn't in yet.

One thing I learned yesterday - - the Ford Taurus SHO cars from the 1980's had a Yamaha engine......

I had no clue that was a Yamaha engine.... Had no clue Yamaha made any engines for cars.....

The one we had for the '80's was also a 5-speed manual. Pretty special for an '80's car.

Definitely learned something new....

Toyota also used Yamaha a lot in the development and improvement of their engines in the 80s-90s (specifically the DOHC heads, etc). I know my old 3SGE in my '91 MR2 was developed with Yamaha, as as the 5MGE in my '85 Supra. While I believe Toyota still produced the engines, Yamaha seemed to be the go-to for some of Toyota's advancements.

That V6 in the Taurus was an awesome engine and well ahead of its time for anything in a Ford.

 

[BBFarmer]

We moved a bunch of vehicles around this week as we start to change-out our exhibits. Some going out ("Back to The '80's" Exhibit), some coming in (Farm to Market with trucks and tractors). That's nearly 50 total.

We also always change-out about half of our "Post-War" Exhibit, so about another 12-15 cars.

Don't have even one photo to show for it.....I'll do so, and @BAP, I haven't forgotten about the Case 530. It isn't in yet.

One thing I learned yesterday - - the Ford Taurus SHO cars from the 1980's had a Yamaha engine......

I had no clue that was a Yamaha engine.... Had no clue Yamaha made any engines for cars.....

The one we had for the '80's was also a 5-speed manual. Pretty special for an '80's car.

Definitely learned something new....

I was 18 or so out crusing in my elco one night.

A car load of fellers around my age come up along side the ole lady (girlfriend at that time) and me and start buckin this little sedan at us. Which was quite common and happened pretty much every time we took the ole girl out.

Figuring these kids were riding around in momma's car, I said i'd give em a little hit of the elco and let em hear some ponies.

Well, who'd a thunk it, that car walked the freakin dog on me and I saw nothing but taillights.

And that was the night i was introduced to a sho taurus.

 

[RCW]

I was 18 or so out crusing in my elco one night.

A car load of fellers around my age come up along side the ole lady (girlfriend at that time) and me and start buckin this little sedan at us. Which was quite common and happened pretty much every time we took the ole girl out.

Figuring these kids were riding around in momma's car, I said i'd give em a little hit of the elco and let em hear some ponies.

Well, who'd a thunk it, that car walked the freakin dog on me and I saw nothing but taillights.

And that was the night i was introduced to a sho taurus.

I remember when SHO came out. I had test-driven a couple Pontiac Fiero's about the same time. Liked the GT.

Ended up with a Ford Ranger S.....2L 4 cylinder with a 5-speed. The rear bumper was optional. Drove that thing many years and 100k+ miles.

Your El Camino was a 1966? Yeah, an SHO would toast them pretty easily.

We had an '86 (?) El Camino leave yesterday. I think it was a 305. Nice truck, and a "driver" for the owner. Owner is a great person.

Had a Jaguar XJ V12 go today. Nice guy and nice car. Don't recall exact model.

Had a very nice '67 Camaro SS come in yesterday for Post-War.

Also, Porshe diesel, Minneapolis Moline BF, B.F. Avery, JD L and Cockshutt tractors come in for Farm to Market. (MM BF and BF Avery are same/similar tractors with different paint/badges. MM bought BF Avery in the early '50's.)

 

[Hugo Habicht]

Also, Porshe diesel, Minneapolis Moline BF, B.F. Avery, JD L and Cockshutt tractors come in for Farm to Market. (MM BF and BF Avery are same/similar tractors with different paint/badges. MM bought BF Avery in the early '50's.)

Since you have tractors as well I have a question: Kubota was founded in 1890 and I believe they cast pipes initially. But when did they start building tractors? Which was their first tractor?

 

[RCW]

Since you have tractors as well I have a question: Kubota was founded in 1890 and I believe they cast pipes initially. But when did they start building tractors? Which was their first tractor?

Good question. I have no idea when they started building tractors. Know more about North American and European companies.

World-wide, a lot of companies started with other agricultural equipment, then included/transitioned to tractors. In the US, there's many examples.

PS - - found these references. Later than I expected for Kubota. 1960's by the looks of it.

By 1969, started exporting to the US.

What Is The History Of The Company That Makes Kubota Tractors? - ClassicTractorNews

TractorData.com - Kubota farm tractors sorted by model

 

[Hugo Habicht]

I did some searching myself. The English Kubota Wikipedia page has very little but the German Wikipedia has more details. It seems the T15 was the first Kubota tractor as we know it and went into production in 1962. They had single axle agricultural machines before that. An improved T15 was then sold in the US as L200 from 1969 onwards.

Kubota T15 – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

Sorry, probably the wrong thread for that, but you mentioned tractors

 

[Hugo Habicht]

The T15 on the picture is red. The big question now is: what was the first orange Kubota tractor?

 

[BBFarmer]

I remember when SHO came out. I had test-driven a couple Pontiac Fiero's about the same time. Liked the GT.

Ended up with a Ford Ranger S.....2L 4 cylinder with a 5-speed. The rear bumper was optional. Drove that thing many years and 100k+ miles.

Your El Camino was a 1966? Yeah, an SHO would toast them pretty easily.

We had an '86 (?) El Camino leave yesterday. I think it was a 305. Nice truck, and a "driver" for the owner. Owner is a great person.

Had a Jaguar XJ V12 go today. Nice guy and nice car. Don't recall exact model.

Had a very nice '67 Camaro SS come in yesterday for Post-War.

Also, Porshe diesel, Minneapolis Moline BF, B.F. Avery, JD L and Cockshutt tractors come in for Farm to Market. (MM BF and BF Avery are same/similar tractors with different paint/badges. MM bought BF Avery in the early '50's.)

Yea I got roasted.

This happened on her second engine which was actually a 305. She had a 250 straight 6 when purchased. Ran it a couple months until my stepdad brought home a 1980 z28 camaro. It was a cali car that was fairly clean. We took the motor and trans for the elco, neighbor bought the roller.

I would later get a set of og cast iron camel hump heads and a comp 292 cam that following christmas. We put those in plus several other goodies. Now, my stepdad was a pretty smart feller. Knowing that the 305 from that year was layin down a mind shattering 160ish hp on a GOOD day, he knew this would be perfect for a 16 year old new driver. That plus a mismatched cam and heads with intake valves WAY too big for the tamed ole 5.0 meant she had most definitely less power than stock LOL.

I would correct this a couple years later with a 350.

305 (me taking pictures out of my pic album)

350

 

[RCW]

@BAP - as promised. Not the best picture. Just came in. A BF Avery in the background.

The Case 530 may end up on our turntable out front.

PS - if I remember correctly, the front wheels were not painted silver from the factory (?).

 

[RCW]

Couple more from today in the Post- War exhibit. Some of these might be repeats.

1955 Fords.

Beautiful 1956 Chevy Convertible. He will also bring ‘55 and ‘57 drop tops in black to go with it.

Same owner had two Shelby Mustangs that I posted pictures of before in our “Pony Car Exhibit.” Those are gone and we have a couple replacement Shelby’s we’ve moved around in Post-War.

66 Toranado