Vehicles

All images are links to larger images.
This was our first car, a 1969 Austin America. $1690.00, brand new.
The Sportster as it was when I got it. I drove it that way for a couple of years. The photo border says it was printed in 1973, likely taken in that summer about the time I bought the bike.

The Chevy was a '55 Bel Air, 2 door sedan, 6 banger and a power flush transmission.. The doorpost on the driver's side had been caved in by a guy smacking it with a forklift he was towing.

And Tiger was Tiger.

1973 International Travelall. Solar was owned by IH when I worked there and, as an employee, I was entitled to buy their vehicles at dealer cost (25% off list price). I ordered this in the summer of 1972.

I took that thing to more places in the hills than all the other cars I ever owned.

Filename: 64-Corvair

1964 Corvair Monza, affectionately called the Monza-lac (cf. Cadillac). Chuck messed up his knee on a motocross bike and I went looking for a car with an automatic transmission, as we had none in the family. A neighbor of one of the guys I worked with at Solar sold this to me for $150. Ran great.

After Chuck healed I drove it for a while. It was a great car and lots of fun to drive but had a tendency to swap ends if you hit the brakes hard and turned the wheel a bit.

1970 Sportster after I "customized" it.
1966 Harley Davidson "Sprint" - 250cc single cylinder. I rode this from IB to Solar up on Ruffin Rd for more than a year. I would drive up I-5 to what is now I-15, then up to Kearney Mesa.

One afternoon on my way to work (swing shift), as I was making the turn onto 15, I heard a round wiz past my head. Nothing else sounds like a bullet.

1960 Austin Healey Sprite. Could have been a lot of fun but someone had stuck a Morris Minor engine in the car. This engine had a red line of around 5000 RPM - it didn't ahve cam bearings, the cam just ran in the block. In the Sprite, whose tachometer showed a 6500 RPM red line, the engine overheated and was junk.

I didn't realize any of this when I bought the car, and eventually wound up selling the non-running car for parts.

Circa 1973

My 1948 Harley Davidson FL as it was purchased with an aftermarket rigid frame and 8" extended front forks.