Wilsonbuilt’s 1964 GMC

After anguishing for so long over the fate of Big Orange which has been in “storage” for 3 years or so, I finally had it towed in January to a my friend Sergei Hasegawa’s lot in Williamsburg.  Was just there the other day to take some pix – its amazing how quickly rust will grow but it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be and with  some luck I hope to be able to get it rolling again sometime later this year. A big plus will be Sergei’s help – he rebuilt 5 or so vehicles back when he lived in San Francisco and it will be invaluable to get his input since I haven’t done much work on vehicles.

This weekend I’m planning on starting –  The first step will be to take off the Utility body in the back. Yes I love the back too (i can hear your gasps of surprise) but the locks don’t work very well anymore and the darn thing is HEAVY! Once that goes to the scrapyard then I can look at the body a bit closer. For sure the 2 front fenders will have to be replaced, the door bottoms repaired, and the driver’s side floor needs patching. I’ll either put a wood flatbed in the rear or I’ll install a vintage pickup body if I can find one in good shape.

Oh and the engine, too. Going to look for someone selling a rebuilt motor that would work. If you know anyone selling a 350 V8 engine from the early 1970s that is in pretty good shape let me know!

More later….

Keyboard Heaven

Gotta love these keyboard pics at core 77!

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Flour Sacks!

Sometimes I’m walking from one place to the next and I see the greatest graphics on a broccoli box or some other bulk packaging for food. Sometimes you just want to pick them all up and take them home! Now you don’t have to (at least with flour, anyway) The Flour Art Museum in Ahrensburg, Germany has an exhibit of flour sacks from around the world!

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NineStory Furniture’s Tatum Chair

Andrew at  Nine Stories Furniture has finished his Piano Key Chair and it looks really nice!

Here is some text from Andrew’s press release:

Nine Stories is pleased to introduce Tatum’s Lounge, a project that explores the structural limits of a found group of parts, all similar but none the same, in the creation of a chair dedicated to the wonderful stride pianist Arthur Tatum.
Deemed “ the greatest pianist in any style” by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Art Tatum was a man of immeasurable talent who created sounds both wonderful and chaotic. Made up of 25 salvaged piano keys (and very little else) Tatum’s Lounge was over the course of 2 years built in an organic manner something like a Tatum piano solo; with both order and abandon.

Pete Waldman’s Wings

Going through stuff that I forgot to post for awhile & came across this pic. My friend the insanely good balloon artist Pete Waldman was hired to make this awesome set of balloon wings for a Victoria’s Secret show back in November. Also notice the simple but cool balloon bracelet!

More pics from the show here.

DIY Snow Shovels

While driving to Home Depot on Wednesday during all the snow I saw these guys shoveling the snow from a car wash lot with what looks to be 55-gallon plastic drums cut in half. They seemed to be useful in two configurations – as scoopers and as pushers.

nice.

Good Night Gracie

After watching her health & strength decline in the past year and a half, Liuhwen & I decided that it was time to let Gracie rest peacefully. Since mid-December she has been suffering from a bad cough which even antibiotics couldn’t help so we finally decided to take her to the vet one last time.

Gracie came into my world in the early summer of 2003 from my neighbor Harriet Zucker who rescued her from a Long Island shelter just in time to save her from an early end. One morning as I was getting a cup of coffee at the Blue Whiting, one of Red Hook’s several delis and Harriet prevailed upon me to look at a picture of a new dog she had just rescued. The image was looking down on a scrawny black-and-white flecked dog that looked skinny and neglected. But she looked at the camera with the cutest look and I guess I just couldn’t resist. So when Harriet asked me if I would take care of her “just for a few days” and though I had no interest in getting a dog, I relented and the rest is history…

Gracie you will be missed. Good-bye!

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Laser Lessons

I love my PLS 180 laser level. Bought it last year for a metalwork installation job and I wonder how I ever did anything without it (I vaguely remember using strings for something… but how did I level them? no matter….)

Last week  I did learn the hard way that despite how useful they are, lasers are unforgiving when you treat them badly. Mine was faithfully stuck via magnet mount to a beam in my kitchen renovation in Park Slope when someone (who will remain Nameless….) knocked it off while we were putting insulation in between joists. 8′ fall down to the floor and voila! It’s out of level 1 inch per 4 feet now.

Since we were about to install the ceiling framing and I needed a level reference I had to improvise quickly. I managed to set up the laser so it would project a beam across the room and I very carefully shimmed the bracket while manually checking the level with a a spirit level. It wasn’t as perfect as I would have liked, but it was better than buying a new laser (and trying to remember what I did with strings….)

Anyway – it went off to PLS today via next day air. Hopefully we’ll have it back before we have to put up the cabinets.

MTA Subway Parts!

Subway Globe

Master Controller

Want some collectible parts from MTA subways & buses? Check out the MTA’s memorabilia & collectibles sale page. Globes, horns, doors, signs, all kinds of cool stuff…

Michele De Lucchi Models

Sometimes the models are so much better than the real thing could be…

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