Say, What's that Avatar?

[300rag]

All depends on whose calling it.

Especially if it has your middle name included.

 

[Big_John]

Especially if it has your middle name included.

Or if they are so pissed they go down the list of your brother's names before they remember your's..

 

[lemondana]

This is my 1971 Polara 2 dr Nebraska State Patrol car I saved from the junkyard back in '97 I think. I and a good friend of mine got it back on the road a couple years ago. We've put around 7000 miles on it in the 2 yrs. 440, TTI exhaust, the correct red working lights, and the long whip antenna. It by far gets the most attention of any car I've ever driven. It's not pretty, it's not done, but everybody likes it.
Everyone slows down when they meet me or comes up behind me. Law enforcement likes it also. Looks awesome at night with the red lights on. I'll post some pictures one of these days when I figure out how.

 

[detmatt]

This is my 1971 Polara 2 dr Nebraska State Patrol car I saved from the junkyard back in '97 I think. I and a good friend of mine got it back on the road a couple years ago. We've put around 7000 miles on it in the 2 yrs. 440, TTI exhaust, the correct red working lights, and the long whip antenna. It by far gets the most attention of any car I've ever driven. It's not pretty, it's not done, but everybody likes it.
Everyone slows down when they meet me or comes up behind me. Law enforcement likes it also. Looks awesome at night with the red lights on. I'll post some pictures one of these days when I figure out how.

Nice! I'm sure we'd all like to see more of it.
Where do you call home?

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Mine is currently of my Semi-trailer, (not as exciting as a new car) that I literally picked up at the factory. Here it is the day I picked it up after they brought it down out of the storage lot.

 

[BIGBARNEYCARS]

Mine is currently of my Semi-trailer, (not as exciting as a new car) that I literally picked up at the factory. Here it is the day I picked it up after they brought it down out of the storage lot.
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Pretty Dave, I like it. I pulled into and old 76 out in Albuquerque one time with ah steal frame 9' Spread with an OD load and pealed the asphalt when I backed into ah hole. Needless to say when I saw what I'd done I eased on out and went on down the road ah piece, lol

 

[commando1]

Mine is currently of my Semi-trailer, (not as exciting as a new car) that I literally picked up at the factory. Here it is the day I picked it up after they brought it down out of the storage lot.
View attachment 136885

How many illegals does that thing hold?

 

[Wollfen]

In the mid-90's there were few forums out there and the ones I knew about where dealing with travel in a manner of speaking. At the time there were three I knew of and now only one is left. On all three the screen name was and still is "cougar". I could show up today in the Philippines, where I haven't been in 8 years, and someone will yell out "cougar" when they see me on the street.

I walked onto the Hornet during Memorial weekend of 1998 when the ship was just undergoing restoration. In late 1999 the Chief Engineer asked me if I would restore the Avenger they had just purchased form the owner. History shows in to be an Eastern TBM-3E model built in January 1945 and delivered to Guam in July 1945 where it was put into a Composite Squadron. After the war the plane was delivered to Litchfield Park, AZ. for long term storage. Two years later the plane was pulled and turned into a Navy COD or carrier-onboard-delivery. She served till 1956, last aboard the Coral Sea and then was mothballed again.

In 1960 she was purchased by Sacramento Crop Dusters for $1. Several years later the plane made it into the Fire Service as a retardant bomber. The plane was eventually retired when rules changed and fire bombers need to be twin engine planes. The plane was then purchased by a fellow who had an aircraft business at Oakland Airport. He also dabbled in restoration with a house, large private hanger, and shared a private runway south of Sacramento. He also owned one of the six flying F-7 Tigercats in existence. He flew the plane into Oakland in 1990 and one could say that it needed a tune up at the time. It was stored at Western Aerospace Museum for that decade. The plane's original turret was long gone but he sourced another one and stored it at his private hanger. Western Aerospace disassembled the instrument panel and the gauges were never seen again. In 1999 the plane was sold to the Hornet much to the displeasure of Western Aerospace. The owner then had an untimely death due to throat cancer.

It sat for about six months after which I was asked to do the work. Two of us drove out to see his wife, now at the shared airfield, to pick up the turret as she had no gauges. Now you talk about walking into a barn with a bunch of old cars and going wow. I walked into a hanger to see eight planes from the late 30's though WWII not to mention walls stacked with rudders, ailerons, radial engines, propellers, boxes of instruments to name a few. Must not forget the two prop airliners outside. Outside, overhead were flying British Sea Furies before landing on the runway and the two of us driving down to see them and be invited into a professional aircraft restoration shop to see another collection of warbirds.

Back at the ship I went to work stripping down the plane, cleaning, fabricating a couple of new cowling panels, a couple of machine gun housing covers, and about a dozen wing panels that had corrosion and recovering the ailerons with the correct fabric. Never did any of this in my life, but read, watched a few pros and then learned myself while on the plane. Needless to say my first cowling panel, very difficult, didn't end up fitting after drilling the many holes for the Zeus fittings. It still hangs in my work area today. A young woman was working on the F-8 Crusader and was coming up with instruments for her cockpit. I asked where and she said eBay and her user name was CrusaderFan. I had never heard of eBay in 1999 but checked it out and found stuff I could use for my restoration. Consequently I picked the name "tbm3fan" for use on eBay and then started using it everywhere where "cougar" wasn't used.

I still don't have bomb bay doors I can install. When these were turned into fire bombers those doors where removed and thrown away. We have acquired enough pieces, or remnants, to make a set but the braces and stringers are a nightmare. The interior is not done because I transitioned to the Island to save and restore given it's exposure to the elements and popularity to museum visitors. One day I will get to it though as I have acquired every piece of missing equipment from gauges, to radios, to cables, to O2 regulators in either very good used condition to NOS. Just try to find a unmodified ART-13 radio which is one large box.

We just finished an FM2 Wildcat that was dragged up from the bottom of Lake Michigan and made the Avenger look spotless. One wouldn't recognize that plane today. Spectacular.
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I can probably put you onto a guy who will have an ART-13 radio system for you. PM me and I will pass the information on to you. He has over 70 tons of WWII radio equipment and not only allied either.

 

[tbm3fan]

I can probably put you onto a guy who will have an ART-13 radio system for you. PM me and I will pass the information on to you. He has over 70 tons of WWII radio equipment and not only allied either.

That's ok as I found all the radios within four years. The ART-13 is the big one.

 

[GJS]

A still from a Complete weirdsmobile film cycle called Cremaster. This portion (Cremaster III) takes place mostly in the Chrysler building. This still is from the opening credits. Other Mopar related features are 5 67 imperials demolishing a 38 Chrysler.
You really don't want to watch any part of this film. ... or any part of its other parts. It's "high art" in the worst, most boring possible way and 6 Chryslers died in its filming.
I just really loved the image of the Chrysler Building. I've always been obsessed with it.

 

[Wollfen]

That's ok as I found all the radios within four years. The ART-13 is the big one.
View attachment 136916

I thought I recognized it, I spent four months sorting through all his equipment and racking it all on steel shelves.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

How many illegals does that thing hold?

How much a head?

 

[commando1]

How much a head?

With, or without, a/c?
Ooops, no A/C on your model. It's a ragtop.
I'll check with my broker in Mexico and get back to you.

 

[MarPar]

With, or without, a/c?
Ooops, no A/C on your model. It's a ragtop.
I'll check with my broker in Mexico and get back to you.

so you changin' your name to Coyote1, Stan?

 

[amazinblue82]

What's your avatar? Comments about them are sprinkled through lots of threads but I didnt find ONE thread on just our avatars (if its there, I'll ask Tallhair to kill this thread).

They are so small its hard to tell what they sometimes. Others are easy and obvious what they are. Many are beggin' for a story to be told -- if you decide to

I know people change them up from time to time (i have used three in three years, but kept the one i have now for 2 1/2 of those years). I plan to keep mine as is.

So is there anything to tell about your avatar? Why that photo/image in particular? Do you have a bigger version of it or related photos/images? This is intended to be fun so we'll see if it goes anywhere -- and still remains fun.

I'll start.

View attachment 132847

This is the St. Louis Gateway Arch, standing directly beneath it, one brutally muggy morning (8am, 86 degrees, dew point 76, RH in the 90's) in July 2011.

I picked it because if the "shiny stainless steel" look of the arch against the beautiful "amazinblue" sky. Simple as that.

Here's a photo on approach to the arch from the South a few minutes earlier. Mississippi River (unseen) is on the right.

View attachment 132848

for me, coming up on 10 years here in a couple weeks,

Site has doubled in size over that decade. The "fleet" is half the size, I saved a whale, and bought a bus.

Anyway, I have not, and don't intend to, changed my avatar since 2015 -- I joined in 2014 and used two that year (i e., started galleries) then moved on to the Arch.

Thinking about it tho -- now that I am TRULY an old man with a hat.

Maybe one of these cats?

Naahh

 

[Fratzog]

Now that this thread just came back from the dead and I've got a different avatar here is an update.

My avatar is an idea borrowed from Jordan Peterson who postulated that far from being social constructs, hierarchies are natural. Like humans, lobsters exist in hierarchies and have a nervous system attuned to status. Humans are hard wired to function within natural hierarchies aka hierarchies based on competence. If it wasn't the case there wouldn't be any evolutionary adaptation on a social scale and humans wouldn't have evolved or survived. The implications are huge as our society drifts inexorably toward deconstruction of such hierarchies and towards a model based on equal outcomes.

 

[65 500]

Humans are hard wired to function within natural hierarchies aka hierarchies based on competence.

Not anymore.

 

[69CoronetRT]

Not anymore.

The innate hardwiring didn't change. It's the, false, belief that one can override the hardwiring with the wave of a magic wand, or words. That's called hubris.

Back on topic, I'm still recycling the 'ole AEN avatars.

 

[commando1]

 

[amazinblue82]

View attachment 655938

Yo Stan ... been here for years in the gallery brother.

"77 GF, ex-Virginia Statie, unmarked, E86, etc., Owned it for 20 years.