5 Best Car Movies

So awhile back I listed my top 10 car songs. The garage has been a little slow so I decided to post up my top 5 favorite car movies. These are movies that I watched over and over as a kid and they must have helped fuel my love of cars. Some of the movies are really old and some had been made at the time I was growing up. Here they are in order of my favorites.

1: American Graffiti.  This is an old show that I absolutely loved. I could picture myself as John Melnar driving a deuce coupe around and getting in races. I own this movie and still watch it to this day and love it. I fast forward through the prom part of the movie because that's boring. I love watching it and seeing all the cool cars that are cruising up and down the streets in it. This is most likely the reason that a 32 Ford is my all time favorite car that I will have one day if I am able to.

2: My Science Project.   I remember the first time I saw this movie. We rented it from a store and at that time we rented the VCR also. They were expensive so the video stores would rent the machines. They were about the size of a Cadillac at the time and it was always fun trying to get them to work on your TV. I own this DVD and watch it when I feel nostalgic. I didn't really fit in with any group of people in High School. I played football but didn't really hang out with the jocks, I was around the stoners and cowboys a lot because I wanted to be in my car at lunchtime and they were always in their cars chewing or smoking and they also had all the shop classes I had but I wouldn't really say I fit in there either. I dated a girl that was in honors classes and music classes but didn't fit in with her friends too well. I would of called myself a motor head I guess. That's why I love this movie. I relate to Harlan (He's the one with the red GTO) and so I guess that's why I like it. I only watch it up to the point that it gets dumb and then I shut it off. It drives Dixie nuts but that's what I do.

3: The California Kid.  I actually didn't see this movie until I came home from my mission but it's just a super cool car movie. It has martin sheen in it and I actually like his character for once. I have a VHS copy of this one that I taped off the TV. I haven't ever seen it on DVD but if I could find it I would buy it.

4: Better Off Dead.  This isn't really a car show i guess but it has some hilarious parts in it. My favorite part is where he fixes his camaro with the foreign exchange student who is a girl. It's a really cool camaro and a pretty funny movie. This is another one that I have on VHS and it's a copy from another tape. It works for me though. I watched this a lot in my younger years.

5: Christine.  I had to include this one. I watched this when I was younger but since I have had kids, Dixie and I decided that we didn't want to watch movies that we wouldn't let our kids watch. That pretty much limits it to G ratings and some PG's It's funny because the language in this movie is horrible but I didn't remember hearing that when I was a kid. Not sure why but it sure makes me uncomfortable now. Anyways, I wouldn't recommend watching this one but it's got some cool cars in it and I like the music.

That's my car movie list. I know there are lots of other ones like vanishing point, 2 lane blacktop, cannonball run, gumball rally, the duel, maybe the blues brothers but these would be my top 5. I have never really seen any of the new ones out like the fast and the furious and others like it but they never really peaked my interest. You can see all these movies in there entirety on you tube. just type in their titles. I highly recommend the first 4 on my list. Let me know if you watch them and give my some names that you think I should of put on. I'm always up for a good car movie. Oh I just thought of one. Here it is.

Bullitt. This has the all time best chase scene in a movie that I've ever seen. This would actually rank around 3 on my list. I can't believe I forgot it until now.  Very cool movie, Check out the chase scene!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I figured I would post my favorite thanksgiving picture again this year. Thanksgiving is my all time favorite holiday of the year.

I hope everyone has a nice warm place to enjoy a good meal with family and friends this Thanksgiving. Remember to take some time today to think about the blessings in your life. Keep safe and Happy Thanksgiving from the Olson's

Modifying the modified exhaust.

So the other day it was super windy for a couple of days. I drove the baja on those days and coming home was not very fun. I had to shift down to 3rd at times just to keep up enough speed on the freeway. That's not very fun, especially when everyone is usually going 10 to 20 miles over the speed limit. I decided enough was enough. If you read my blog you know that I found some exhaust pipes off a victory motorcycle and adapted them so they would work on my baja. I was looking to quiet it down and to give the engine some back pressure in hopes that it would run stronger. What happened was I lost some power on the lower end and a lot of power at higher RPM's. The pipes ended up being really quiet though. Actually they were too quiet for my liking so I decided I needed to do some modifications. I went on some Victory forums and found that they were modifying the stock exhaust by either drilling out the inner baffle with a 1 inch hole saw or drilling 6 to 8 holes in the backing plate of the muffler. Most of them complained about messing up their controllers and needing their bikes to be re tuned because of the computer that controls them. I wasn't worried about a stupid computer so I decided to implement both of the modifications and see where that would get me.

So here you can see down the main pipe of the exhaust. This is where you drill out the baffle, It is about 18 inches down the tube. I rigged up some extensions and drilled out both pipes with a 1 inch hole saw.

I next drilled out 8 holes in the backing plate of the mufflers. I made a template so they would be uniform and not look like crap. I drilled them out to a final size of 19/64ths because that's the biggest drill that I had handy at the time. I painted the back plates with some high temp satin black paint for looks and took it for a test spin.

So here it is all the final product. They became a little bit louder but they really aren't that bad. I was surprised by the pleasant sound they have now but at the same time I'm not embarrassed to drive by my neighbors early in the morning. I was even more surprised by the performance increase I gained by doing this. It is a night and day difference. I have lots of power gains through all RPM's and I can go 85 MPH on the freeway again if I need to. I might not suggest doing this to your brand new Victory motorcycle but I highly suggest doing it to your bug that might for some reason have victory exhaust on it.

On a side note, my license plate either vibrated off my bug or was stolen. It may have been blown off by all the wind, who knows. Anyways if you see a plate on the side of the road, check to see if it's mine. They are due this month so I guess instead of registering it online, I will have to go visit my friends at the DMV. Joy, Joy for me.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Happy Halloween Everyone! This year I decided to carve a bus for my pumpkin. Heres the pics.

My camera stinks so I couldn't get a good night shot of it but it looks pretty cool all lit up. Hope everyone has a fun and safe halloween.

An Older Woman?

So we acquired another bug at our house much to the delight of Dixie of course. This was just too good of a deal to pass up on. It not much to look at but it's actually a hidden gem underneath for 1 really good reason. ITS RUST FREE!!!! OK actually it has very minor surface rust in spots but the heater channels and other problematic areas are in awesome shape. I have been looking long and hard for a rust free body for a good price. I was able to jump on this one quick enough to fight off the others that wanted it. I had to go up north to west point to pick it up. I swear there never is a good deal in Salt Lake. Here She is behind my truck. I needed to fill up on gas before the trip home.

 She arrives home. These tow bars work out awesome to haul bugs around. I have now towed all 3 of my bugs home. They have come from Logan, Tooele and West point and I have never had a problem with the tow bar. My harbor Freight tow lights came in handy again also. I'm pretty sure I got my 10 dollars out of them. Ellie and I actually went up to west point the day before with the tow bar ready to get it and tow it home that day but we ran into a snag. 3 of the wheels had only 3 lug nuts on them and 1 only had 2. I was willing to tow it if they all had 3 but I wasn't going to risk the one with 2. It's definitely not worth killing someone over so I picked up 9 lug nuts and went back the next day. Ellie was very upset that we didn't bring it home. In fact she was down right mad but I bought her some McDonald's fries on the way home and I reassured her I would get it the next day and she seemed OK with that.

 So a little info on it. It's a 1966 bug. That was a pretty unique year for the bug because there was some things that were only done that year. That makes it a little bit more rare but also makes some parts harder to get. I bought it from a guy who pulled it out of a barn in Wellsville. I guess that counts as a true barn find in my book. The front end has had a little tap so I will need to do some work on the front apron to get the hood to latch correctly. The wiring is a mess but the dash is unmolested and it has the original radio which is very cool. I got 2 more original front fenders. The interior is in decent shape for sitting in a barn for who knows how long. The doors are going to need some work. That's the only really crappy thing about it. I may end up just replacing them altogether. I need to look at them closer before I decide what to do.

Here's Ellie glad to see her friend again. She is so funny. I was laying on the ground looking at the underside of the bug and Ellie was right there under the car with me. I can see her having the hottest car in high school when she gets to be that age. She likes shoes, bows in her hair and changing her clothes so maybe she will be well rounded.

I parked it and it will most likely stay there for the winter before I am able to do much with it. I will probably clean it out and see what I'm in for but I guess we'll see. I am constantly tempted to just flip it because I got it for such a good price and it's in better shape than I thought for once. I really want to get fenders and bumpers for Ed. I guess I'll sleep on it for awhile and then decide.

 The family hasn't come up with a name yet but I'm sure they will. I figured this one has got to be a girl because we have Ed and Tugger already. It's time to have a girl name and by the way things are looking, Shes going to be high maintenance.

Last big road trip for 2012

So, with Summer running out quickly and Saturday being an awesome day weather wise, everything was set to take Ed out for one last long ride. I had some stuff to take care of in Logan so I figured I would take care of that and then cruise around and see some towns up north. I took Ed back up to where I bought him a few years ago. To commemorate this ride Ed had just the right amount of mileage for a picture. This way I will remember the year of this drive anyways. So with a fresh oil change and a full tank of gas I headed up north to see what I could see. I didn't have to be back anytime soon so I had nothing but time.   

Ed performed flawlessly the whole trip and the weather was amazing. There is something almost magical about cruising in an old car with no air conditioning, anti lock brakes, power steering, or fuel injection on the open road. I had a smile from ear to ear the whole time. I stopped by and checked out my parents house along the way. Ed left 2 drops of oil in the driveway marking his spot I guess. Hopefully this winter I will take care of that little problem when I pull the engine and take care of some minor leaks.

 I had to stop and take a picture of the Logan temple while I was there. It is a beautiful building built by the pioneers long ago.

 I cruised past my parents old house in Providence just to see it and on my way out I got on the road that heads to hyrum and saw this old tractor just in front of me. I just love small towns. In hyrum I saw a farmer filling up his tractor at the gas station in town.

Ed and I found Paradise along the way. It's a neat town just south of hyrum. I also went through Avon and finally flipped a u-turn to try to find a fun way to get to Brigham City.

The GPS sent me down this road to get to Brigham City. It was 6 miles long and I wouldn't recommend driving it in a lowered bug. Ed got a few scrapes on his new front beam due to this road. I also had a few guys in trucks giving me weird looks.

So this is where the road pops out into civilization. That road  in the distance is highway 89 just above Mantua. I was really glad to see pavement. I did a quick check on the tires and the bottom of the engine and then headed off to Brigham City.

This is the closest I was able to get to the Brigham City Temple and the only shot I could get of it. It's a new temple the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints built. It's a beautiful building outside and even better inside. Brigham City was booming! The annual Peach Days was going on and the temple was having an open house. Needless to say there people were everywhere.

 I cruised down to the car show and I started out at the coolest part of the show. The rat rods of course! This truck was awesome. Everywhere you looked on it there was some very cool art/engineering done to make this truck my favorite rat rod of the show.

 I like old bikes and I really like old bikes with motors. This was really cool. It might not even be that old but it has the look.

When I first looked at this truck I didn't think much of it, but the more I looked at it the more impressed I became. It was put together in a way that made me laugh. That's the coolest thing about rat rods. They are put together using whatever you have laying around and this truck was awesomely done.

I liked how well this rod was done. The flames on it are just what I want to do with Ed. If you don't look close, you may miss them.

 Very nice lines on this car. Love the color and it is sitting perfectly.

 There is more engine in this car then there is car. Beautifully done. One of my dream cars.

 Can you tell I like 32's?

I think this car was the best in the show in my opinion. This car was beautiful inside and outside. I am not a fan of really big wheels but this one worked. By far the best one in the show!

Here is a shot of the back of it. I wish I would of gotten a shot of the car from the side but I didn't for some reason. The paint was flawless and so much better looking in person. It changed colors at different angles.

 The car show wasn't as big as last years but it was still fun. This was really the only big car show I went to this year. The drive and the fun made it all worth it. Here is ed waiting patiently by a bus for me to finish going to the show.

I decided to take the fruit loop home. I was tempted to stop and get a bushel of peaches but Dixie told me she had plenty of peaches already.  This is a picture outside my window along the fruit loop.

 This is looking out the other side. Willard Bay is in the distance.

It took me most of the day but I had a blast on the last big drive of the year. I still drive Ed everyday but a big roadtrip is always something special. The next one on the books will most likely be to St. George in 2013. Ed's going to get a little makeover this winter. Hopefully his engine will get all the leaks fixed and then he is going to get new fenders and bumpers. He may even get his flames put on if I can talk my buddy into painting them on for me. There will be lots of things to write about so stay tuned. 

On the road but just not as cool.

So I was able to get Ed the bug back on the road. He isn't as low as he was, but he is low enough for now. I am planning on saving up my money and buying or making a narrowed adjustable beam. I wanted to get Ed going before the summers gone so I fixed a beam a friend gave me and I opted to save money and not install adjusters into this beam. It will work for now though. The beam needed some love. The tops of the shock towers were rusted out so I grafted in the tops of Eds bent beam. I figured it was good to have part of Eds beam installed on this new beam. Here's how it worked out in pictures. Here are both the beams on my toolbox. I have already cut out the donor pieces from eds old beam in this picture.

Here you can see the rust issues the new beam had. I looked at a lot of different ways to fix it and decided my best option was to remove the section I have marked out and weld in a new piece.

I used a cut off wheel and then cleaned it up with a rotary file. It turned out great.

Here is the new beam cut, fitted and ready to weld.

Here is the piece I am grafting in. It fit well. I cleaned it up a little more and beveled the edges so the weld would penetrate well.

 I talked my buddy into welding it for me again. He's always willing to help as long as I buy him lunch. That's a cheap price to pay for good welds.

I stripped the new beam and prepped it for paint. I wanted to powder coat it but didn't want to deal with the mess of any left over grease in the beam when I heated it up to 400 degrees.

Here is a shot of the beam with the new metal grafted in and painted. It works great. I could of grinded down the welds so everything was smooth but I think welds are like scars. They add character and show how things have gone in your life.

 Here is the beam with 2 coats of primer on it.

 Here is the finished product in satin black. I think it turned out really nice. I kinda wish I would of put in adjusters now though. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20.

I rushed to get the beam installed so I forgot to take any pictures. All I can say is it was pretty hot. Ellie can prove that by her Popsicle. She was there with me a lot of the time.

 So now this is how it sits. I cruised it down to Russ' alignment. Russ' alignment is the best in the valley. I wouldn't think about taking any of my cars anywhere else.

So all the cars are up and running and there is still some time this summer for relaxing. OK maybe not, Dixie has mowed the grass for the last 3 weeks so I guess I need to take over that job again. Anyways, if you see Ed on the road anytime soon, give a honk and wave. Until next post, keep cool for the rest of the summer.