Thursday, February 11, 2010

Classic Galaxie & Wee

Our Vacation to the Tropical Island of Hawai'i is but a memory. Back to the daily grind of back to work and enduring the warm winter of British Columbia. This is shaping up to be the warmest winter in recent times. Vancouver is the host city of the Winter Olympics 2010 and it starts tomorrow. There has been so little snow that we had to truck it in from Manning Park over 3-4 hours away and unload it up Cypress Mountain. First they had to install a straw base by Helicopter at $900./hour and put the snow on top to form the ski runs.

Lately there has been great interest in photographing Bananas
(<-- click link) so I thought it was time that I put in my .02c

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(Thanks to Iron-GRAN-dad, for the idea)

I am running out of Hawai'i vacation material but I still have a few things to say about the North Kohala area and the small town of Hawi on the northern tip of the Big Island. I just thought that with the major snow storms on the Atlantic Coast it was time to show everyone what the spring-like weather was like on the Wet Coast of Canada. If you wish to see some amazing snow pictures (<-- click link)

The weather last week was overcast with a slight chance of precipitation. I was wearing my Hawai'ian attire but decided it was more prudent to change into my usual riding outfit. For a moment it looked like Pink Crocs but in the end the riding boots won.

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I envy those tropical riders in their shorts and T-shirts. Today it was jeans, with riding pants over, riding jacket with liner, leather gloves, riding boots, thick socks and the requisite GPS since we have more than one road in which to get lost or disoriented. Actually I usually use the GPS as a corrected speedometer. For some reason bike speedos are overly generous and I like to know the correct speed.

I had some errands to run and ended up downtown at my favourite parking spot

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I couldn't find a photogenic place to pose my Wee. With the Olympics many roads are closed. They have special curb lanes for designated Olympic vehicles where you cannot stop or suffer a $167. fine/ticket and you cannot cruise the areas around the docks, so after a while on the way home, I stopped at my neighbours garage when I spotted this

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It was a very nice old pickup truck. I used to have an old pickup truck which I traded for some computer equipment a few years ago and wished I kept it. I think it was a '53 Ford F something 6 cyl with 3 sp Hurst shifter. It was a step-side.

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It appeared to be in very good mechanical condition and sported a recent green paint job . The owner of the truck was visiting my neighbour, Joe

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Looking into the garage you will notice Joe, on the left. That is his recently restored 1963 Ford Galaxie XL500 convertible. It was a "basket case" when I first saw it towed in over 5 years ago. He stripped the whole car down to the frame

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While he was busy dismantling the car and prepping it for paint he was accumulating all the parts necessary for the restoration

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The Galaxie is better than new. Joe has done all the work himself, except for the excellent paint job. Joe used to own a gas service station and is adept at performing all the repairs himself

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He completely rebuilt the engine to "as new" condition and took the transmission apart to rebuild it too

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I asked Joe to pose one more time for the camera. He is very proud of this car. He basically rebuilt it himself doing all the work except for the paint. Last year he took it to a Galaxie club show & shine (car show) and won First Prize.

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It was time for me to make my exit and I mounted my Wee to ride the short distance home, up the lane

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No snow, No sand, No salt, No sun. Just another day on the Wet Coast, otherwise known as the Key West of Canada

11 comments:

  1. Hah! Key West of Canada! That's a hoot!!

    Neighbor Joe definitely has the right to be proud of his red beauty. Gorgeous!!

    The Steam Whistle deserves Kudo's as well.

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  2. Key West of Canada indeed. If I rode a motorcycle called a "Wee" I would probably keep a lower profile. Besides it's freezing down here. No one wants to be in Key West when its 50 (American). Again.

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  3. Bobskoot, you're friend Joe did a masterful restoration....does he do motorcycles too?

    I envy guys who can do such things...

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  4. Dear Bobskoot:

    I am so jealous of your ability to just throw on the old body armor and go for a ride. That will not be an option here for weeks to come. I had planned to mke my first group ride during the third week in March, and that looks like it might be optimistic at this point too.

    The snow berms are 6 feet high at the back of the driveway. I admire the pleasant way you are handling the travel restrictions, the traffic, and the delays caused by the Olympics. The big payoff will be when they are over, and income to the City of Vancouver is tallied, anf it comes up $30 million short.

    Your "Wee" looks ship-shape enough for the beginning of the riding season. The pictures of the antique were very impressive. I never had an antique... Just old cars. I was thiunking of putting a coal fired stove in the Suburban.

    Well, I'm Key West dreamin' now. But I may get to meet Conch in May.

    Fondest regards,
    Jack • reep • Toad

    Fondest regards,
    Jack • Reep • Toad

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  5. It's good to see pics of a bike again :)

    Good job photographing the antiques.

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  6. Bob - please tell Joe he did a fantastic job on the Galaxie! Nice post. I like seeing fixed up old cars and trucks. If only we'd kept every vehicle we had...

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  7. If you have to have a car, you could do a lot worse than that Galaxie. So pretty!

    If he's bored now, I've got a 2000 Mustang in need of, uh, restoration that I'll be happy to trade for the Galaxie. :D

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  8. bobskoot, the Galaxie's a '64...

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  9. You have to admit that photographing bananas has appeal!

    I had a Galaxy ( not a convertible ) when we first got married. What it would be worth now!

    Lucky,

    I know, I rode in the Mustang. However, I shall say no more as you were a Prince for transporting my sorry ass all over Phoenix!

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  10. Chuck:

    Joe has been working on this car for over 5 years

    Mr Conchscooter:

    Freezing is a state of mind. We will be up to 50 cdn here as well. No need to spend $$ and go south to KW

    Charlie6:

    He's been a mechanic all his life having owned a service station doing mechanical repairs when these cars were new

    Jack "r":

    I don't envy you with all your snow, but they do make for beautiful pictures, taken by some one special. You could always ship your bike somewhere warm and spend the winters there instead of PA

    Chris:

    It would have been great to have a bike in Hawai'i . I used to be a car guy but luckily I sold my muscle car before the downturn.

    Mike:

    I had a lot of sports cars over the years but I have more fun on the bike. Convertibles are good since you can feel the wind on your head, rather than having a helmet on

    Lucky:

    I'll put a good word in for you about your Mustang, but don't hold your breath . . .

    Orin:

    'back in the day I used to buy Road & Track and Car and Driver. I knew all the specs, 0-60 times, g's, but my memory is fading

    Irondad:

    When we got married I had a '67 Mustang convertible. Of course, back then cars were just cars, not collectibles as old cars are thought of now.

    I often photograph things with patterns in them. With a camera in your pocket often you look at things differently. I have shot a lot of B&W film Tri-X for many years where colour takes a back seat to composition

    bob
    bobskoot: wet coast scootin

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  11. Hi Bob,

    Sorry to be so late, I've been off on ''Other'' websites recently looking at vans...still cant decide whats next, perhaps next year lol.

    That is one really nice car your friend Joe has there, if only we had the fore sight all those years ago to keep hold of our old cars!!


    Cheers,



    Dave.....

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