a drum set speed king pedal, knobs that look like the window crank handles, the vibrato arm is a half a crescent wrench, and quarter turn fasteners for tuning pegs
In a dusty warehouse on the outskirts of Asuncion, capital of Paraguay, three German parts experts from Audi Tradition and Volkswagen Classic found a huge stash of NOS VW and Audi parts. The local importer Deisa SA founded in 1953 had stock piled these parts to keep a sufficient inventory of spare parts for the models it sold. This was very necessary as those days the delivery time for parts took about nine months. So it was very necessary for the importer to keep a vast amount of stock.
Anyway, the spare parts stock kept building up over the years simply because the VW Beetle was so darn reliable until the parts weren’t needed. Some models did not sell as expected and the dealer usually ends up with a ton of slow moving spares.
This loss in the past is now for collectors in the present to gain. Diesa SA has about 3500sq ft of spare parts of old VWs since the 1950s. This includes rare and hard to find items like engine and transmission units for Beetles and other VWs. What was also found are body parts like bonnets and doors for the 2nd generation Audi 100.
Previous examples are rare, but a couple years ago there was a car club that made a display look like a snap together kit car (shoebox sized hobby store type) but full sized. They even had a huge exacto knife and bottles of paint
the car is numbers matching, and unmolested. It was garaged for good when the gas tank had to be removed to fix a leak, but it never went back on the car,.
One of the members of the Disney Squadron "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" this rare B 29 is Doc, and has been restored in Kansas at the hangers that once were Boeing's business in Wichita.
Monday’s invitation-only roll-out of Doc was largely symbolic and included a ceremonial delivery of the airplane to Col. James Dermer, vice commander of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base. Doc was originally delivered to the Army Air Forces 70 years to the day on Monday.
Spirit CEO Larry Lawson presented a replica of the B-29’s horn button from the yoke of Doc to Dermer as part of the delivery ceremony.
its time in the factory is done, and it’s ready for ramp tests … prior to its first flight,” said Jeff Turner, retired Spirit CEO and chairman of Doc’s Friends, the nonprofit organization that owns Doc and is leading its restoration.
Doc’s Friends will need to find a permanent location to house the airplane and ongoing support to operate it as a flying museum. The organization estimates it will need to raise an additional $7 million to $9 million to complete those efforts.
Bought in 1969 just before getting orders to Vietnam, Ron Smith drove it to Texas from Washington, and has several stories of cops being very cool about him driving over 120, when passing them, along that trip. Well worth the time to read from top to bottom
The Conistoga Star pictured below was one of several Wagon based Vehicles. The Booger Buggy up above was another, the Fink Mobile is the 5 wheeled orange creation and the Wagenmister.
For the past 10 years, Cheever has devoted her Tuesday nights to providing hot, restaurant-quality meals to homeless people in the downtown area.
Chef Joan Cheever serves high quality, healthy meals to the homeless people of San Antonio, Texas out of her food truck each week, a project she started in 2005. Though she's been running the "Chow Train" for years, local police recently slammed Cheever with a ticket carrying a fine of up to $2,000 because she brought prepared meals to the feeding location in a pick-up truck, take-out style.
Cheever has been cooking for the hungry and her “street peeps” for many years. The Chow Train is a nonprofit food truck that serves hot, healthy and restaurant quality meals to the hungry and homeless and those individuals who are temporarily homeless like the residents of the devastated towns of Joplin, MO, Moore, OK, La Place, LA and those who lost their homes in the Bastrop fires.
As the court date to contest the ticket approaches, Cheever is considering mounting a religious freedom defense, citing laws very similar to the RFRA, which caused so much controversy in Indiana this spring. "This is how I pray," she says, "when I cook this food and deliver it to the people who are less fortunate."
Cheever is scheduled to go before Municipal Court on June 23, but she remained defiant after receiving the citation, arguing that under the 1999 Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, she has a right to serve food to the homeless because she considers it a free exercise of her religion.
Over the past year, it’s become increasingly obvious that the city wants its homeless population out of the view of downtown tourists. It wants to push the homeless west of downtown to Haven for Hope, and discourage any acts of compassion that might divert them from that destination.
Express-News reporter Benjamin Olivo also reported that benches had been discreetly removed from Houston Street because city staffers worried that the benches led to loitering and panhandling in the area. “(The city) has already made being poor and homeless a crime,” Cheever said, “and now they’re going after Good Samaritans. “I always say, 'We’re not working against Haven for Hope, we’re working with them.’ They have a waiting list, and they send their people over to us, and we feed them.”
Kenneth Broskey, is still working full-time as an Uber driver and real estate agent in the Detroit area. Broskey told ABC News today he's trying to raise as much money as he can so his daughter, 46, and his two grandchildren, ages 13 and nine, have a place to live when he's soon gone.
"Once I pass away, chances are my daughter, who’s a part-time waitress at a small restaurant will lose the house we live in because she won't be able to afford it anymore," Broskey said. "So I'm doing everything for her and my grandkids at this point. When you find out you're dying, you realize your family and friends are so important."
Thanks to a fateful Uber ride three weeks ago, Broskey met Ronald Gainer and is now $22,000 closer to paying off his family's $95,000 mortgage.
"I was asking him if he liked Uber driving and then he explained how much he loved it because he got to meet new people, and it was also helping him earn extra money before dying because he had head, tongue and throat cancer," Broskey told ABC News today. "I felt super-compelled to help him."
Gainer turned to the owner of a popular barber shop in Detroit for ideas on how to help Broskey, and Sebastian Jackson, owner of "The Social Club" barber shop, said he got Broskey connected with a communications expert named Karen Dumas in the area, and the three of them worked together to start a GoFundMe account for Broskey this past Monday.
"Uber will continue donating an additional $1 for every rider who uses the promo-code "UberPartnerKen," through April 20th," Anderson added. "Ken is part of the community, and we were so struck by how he's continuing to support his community and family every day even in the face of such challenges."
Broskey said though he's been given an estimated two to 10 weeks left, he feels fine, and he's going to keep driving with the help of morphine pills.
