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I'm envisioning this somewhat in the vein of Lobsterboy's Tome of Antiquities, just much less cool. I have a couple vehicles that I think are neat, a lot of old tubas I think are pretty neat, and a never ending string of garbage projects that I half finish before moving on. Enough people (3?) have expressed interest in my crap, that I figured I should make a thread, and hopefully help myself finish some of my many projects. I'll start with the cars first, and add tubas and whatever else I stumble on as I have time. I'll note from the start, everyone in my family is insanely hard on cars, when we get new cars, it's because the old ones are thoroughly dead. More on that throughout the post probably. We'll start with my pride and joy, a 1990 Suburban. When we moved to El Paso in '96, the family went car shopping to find my dad a truck. Naturally, my mom came back with the Suburban and my dad continued to drive his '89 626 until it was finally sent to the junkyard many years later and he ended up with a GMC Sonoma, but I digress. When the Suburban first joined the family, it was a bone stock ex-farm truck with a new motor. My mom drove the beast for years before getting a Dodge Caravan* and at that point the Suburban passed to me. I had it painted, but that was it at that point. I don't have many pictures of it stock, so enjoy one with my ugly mug when I was a teenager (for anybody worried, I couldn't care less if you figure out who I am, come say hi or something).  I kept the truck stock for a long time, and even commuted to Las Cruces with it every day for about 6 months, before I decided the fuel bill was killing me. I bought a commuter car and demoted the truck to toy status. Not long after that, I decided the truck was just too small (how many people have said that about a Suburban?). Conveniently, I had a friend whose dad owned a junk yard, so a set of axles from some random 1 ton truck were acquired and promptly slapped under the truck. They even came with brand new tires!  Naturally, I decided bigger tires were in order after a year or two of this, and rounded up some military 36's. Thrashing the truck resumed  I only ran the truck this way for a little while before I realized I didn't want to destroy it, and in fact planned to keep it for the rest of my life. I still had the original rear axle, complete with a magically intact gov-lock, so I found a matching front and slapped it all back under the truck to return it to stock. Currently the truck has about a quarter million miles on it - it's on the third engine, 1st rebuild of the 700r4 (finally let go at about 210k), original rear end, god knows what front end, and the original transfer case, though that's being rebuilt at the moment since it refuses to shift or function in anything but 2hi. How it sits today:  It's about due for another engine at this point. There are some seriously bad noises on startup from time-to-time a la sledge hammers on anvil, but it's held up for almost 100k of abuse (and I mean abuse), so I'm ok with this. Minor body work needed along with a new paint job, but other than that, it just goes. I've been trying to make it a back up vehicle for about 7 years, but it's never really stopped being a daily driver. Mileage is utter garbage, but there's a lot to be said for something I can just get in and drive anywhere. My other daily is a '98 Saturn SL2 and I'm in love with this little car. I bought it for $600 bucks because the owner thought it had a bad head gasket (it was the reservoir cap), fixed it in the Starbucks parking lot where I bought it, and have been driving it ever since. It's at about 150k and I've done virtually nothing to it outside of general maintenance. The one thing I've done that I consider a major upgrade is swapping the leather seats for cloth ones (if anyone is nearby and wants the leather seats, let me know, they're free). It's also lowered slightly, but that was just for fun. I don't take many pictures of my cars, but here's one at White Sands.  Which brings me to my ongoing project, a 1982 Custom Cruiser with the 350 diesel.    This engine gets a bad rap, and deservedly so most of the time, but it's honestly one of the most fun cars I've ever driven. The odometer shot is there to show 31k original miles, currently the car is on its 3rd engine  It was already on the 2nd when I got it, and that made it about a year before the head gaskets went. It's a super common problem with these motors, as is cracking between valves, so I'd been preparing for a while. I actually had one uncracked head, so that along with the best of the other 3 were rebuilt. I changed over to 1.6 ratio roller rockers from the stock 1.5, which should help considerably with wear and stress on the valve train, along with a bit of a boost in power. This go around I went with Victor Reinz head gaskets and ARP bolts - Fel Pro gaskets tend to come apart in these motors, and there's a fair bit of anecdotal evidence from fellow enthusiasts that ARP studs have a tendency to break the heads. Slight overbore, new bearings, all the other standard stuff. That was 6 years ago that the motor went to the machine shop. 3 years ago, I got it back and put it in the car. I've yet to finish hooking it up or hear it run, and I hope this thread is the push I need to finally finish the drat thing. When running it got about 27 mpg, rides exactly like you expect it would, and even has that old man smell an Oldsmobile should have. Current plans are to finish hooking up the engine, swap the god-awful rims for a set of steels I have, paint it and drive the wheels off of it. I've killed a couple cars that are no longer with us. The first is a '96 Camry  Bought it from a dealer and I hope that's the last time I ever buy anything through one. It was such a bad car that I would never even consider owning a Toyota again, and if I could buy it back I'd drag it out to the desert and burn it to the ground so nobody else ever had to deal with it. Next is a 1985 Suburban:  The wheels and axles should look familiar, this became my toy when the '90 went back to stock. It ran when I bought it (though it consumed a quart of oil every 1-2 minutes), so obviously I ignored all mechanical faults and cut the roof off, gutted everything, etc. I'm genuinely sad about this truck being gone, but I was younger and much poorer, so when a neighbor reported it to the city, I just couldn't get it running/legal in the time frame and sent it off to the junk yard. I did yank everything of value off it first - selling the axles brought in more than enough money to buy whatever tuba I was lusting over at the time. And a '95 Pathfinder  It's technically my middle brother's truck, but I daily drove it for about 2 years, before my youngest brother drove it for another 2, all while middle brother was away at college. It's one of the sturdiest vehicles I've ever abused, and it's another I wish was still mine. Rock punctured an oil line on the freeway, motor was toast before my brother even had time to pull it over. Sold it to a couple guys who slapped a motor in it and I still see it around town from time-to-time. I think the most dangerous thing my brothers and I ever did was tie a rope to the hitch and tow each other around on roller blades. My middle brother was dragged off a paved road onto a gravel one at about 60 mph during that episode, but somehow didn't get hurt. Thankfully, none of us are stupid teenagers anymore. That's probably long enough for now, I'll try to add a post on the tubas tomorrow or Thursday. Picture quality will be better on the cars from now on because they won't be potato phone pictures anymore. I'll do my best to update regularly, but I'm the go-to guy for all of my family and friends' automotive, house, appliance, electronic, etc. needs, and I work too drat much, so my junk is always backburnered. I'll probably intersperse stories throughout this of dumb things I/my family have done with cars, their ignominious deaths, and things of that nature. *My dad is the one who insisted my mom get the Caravan, I think as revenge for not getting his truck. She hated it, and all of us kids hated it. We hated it so much that we would go to the movies and leave the keys in the door, leave the keys in the ignition, leave the van running and unlocked in random parking lots, etc., but never could manage to make it disappear. We did finally four wheel it to death about 6 years ago and finally got to watch it disappear forever. I do miss the A/C sometimes though... A Small Car fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Feb 12, 2021 |
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Aug 7, 2019 03:20
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I'm glad to hear someone else had as bad a time with a mid-90's Camry as I did, and carries the same lust for vengeance on them I do!
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Aug 7, 2019 03:48
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Indeed! My youngest brother has a '96 Land Cruiser that has almost as many issues as my Camry did, but he loves the thing, and I certainly won't complain about being asked to help work on it! We rebuilt the motor in his garage about a year ago and had a blast doing it. I think he's up to 300k on the truck now? Pretty sure he'd never buy another Toyota either though
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Aug 7, 2019 03:58
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A Small Car posted:I don't have many pictures of it stock, so enjoy one with my ugly mug when I was a teenager (for anybody worried, I couldn't care less if you figure out who I am, come say hi or something). Sup Coronado?  My GF graduated from there in 96. Me, I went to a tiny rear end private school, but also graduated in 96 (she went to the same school for a year). (and yes... long hair is indeed lovely... mine's about 1/3 of the way down my back now, and it's not going anywhere until it falls out). Several family members also graduated from Coronado. I lived right down the street from Hanks, but parents decided I needed to go to the ADD school (also known as the school that'll take you when you've hosed up too bad at every other school, back then anyway - it wasn't too far from Coronado, just down Resler - but when I run into people from ELP, I usually just say I graduated from Hanks to avoid having to explain the short-lived school I went to).Someone in my neighborhood has a similar vintage Cruiser, but a gasser. They were doing a burnout at the light in front of my workplace around 9:45pm last night. The burnout sounded decent. Watching it slowwwwwwly wheeze its way through the intersection as soon as they let off the brakes had me cracking up, but I was impressed that they even got it to do a one wheel peel brake stand. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Aug 7, 2019 |
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Aug 7, 2019 16:12
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Nice! My hair is cropped pretty short these days, but I do miss the long hair on occasion. I'm honestly not even sure what school you're talking about, I guess it went away before I paid attention to it? Or maybe they moved? My first thought was Telles (my brother went there for a bit), but that's downtown and has been for as long as I can remember. I don't know how long it's been since you've been back to EP, but you should see how much it's changed. Coronado too, they're about to tear down all the old buildings. I'm amazed one of those can do a burnout! That vintage should have a 307 in it? Makes me think of doing burnouts in my brother's Pathfinder in the Franklin parking lot. Blew both rear wheel cylinders doing the first one and then we could just stand on the brakes and burn that one rear tire forever. For some slight content, this is part of why I haven't touched the wagon in a while  It lives in my parents' garage (they're super awesome for that), but it means it's always covered in junk. It also served duty for about 4 years as weed/paraphernalia storage for my brothers and friends lol. If you look closely, you can see the busted headlight that my brother put his knee through. I'm planning Saturday to be a cleanup and pull out of the garage day, maybe I'll even wash it 
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Aug 7, 2019 19:56
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It was still around when you were in school, but transitioned into the main campus of the Burnham Wood Charter School (still there today).. It was known as School for Educational Enrichment (commonly known as SEE or SEE School) (the "new" campus was right by Franklin - Resler and Bishop Flores, right by Redd - it's kinda behind the Circle K). Their original campus was way up on Festival I think; I want to say the current main campus opened for the 93-94 school year, and got added onto sometime in the early 00s. It's definitely still around, but I have no idea where their other campuses are. I know they've had some issues with the TEA... Burnham was the founder's name - Howard (asst principal at the time) and Iris (principal at the time) Burnham ran SEE until Howard's death. Iris is still involved in some way IIRC, but officially retired (El Paso Inc has an article about her retirement, but it's behind a pay wall). She was always a great person; Mr (Howard) had his moments, but was generally a good guy. I still stay in touch with 2 of my teachers from there, one of which went on to teach at Eastwood, then moved to ABQ. I believe he just retired. A Small Car posted:It lives in my parents' garage (they're super awesome for that), but it means it's always covered in junk. It also served duty for about 4 years as weed/paraphernalia storage for my brothers and friends lol. If you look closely, you can see the busted headlight that my brother put his knee through. I'm planning Saturday to be a cleanup and pull out of the garage day, maybe I'll even wash it Yeah, I don't even bother hiding any  stuff except to put it on a shelf in the closet - but I'm also 40.  I just make sure to keep it in a container so it doesn't stink the place up much. I'm on good terms/first name basis with maintenance at my apartment complex, same with most of the office staff, but I don't know how quickly that'd change if I left a bong out.And yeah, I figured it was a 307. Which is why I was so shocked that they were able to even squeak a tire, much less do a one wheel peel. I see it around occasionally, and they're always hammering it... but I always figured that was because that 307 is a boat anchor.  I have no idea if they've actually done anything to it, but it sounds stock, and rocks classic car plates.
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Aug 9, 2019 |
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Aug 9, 2019 17:58
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Subscribed. I had that same Saturn for 10 years. Rumor has it my uncle bought a bunch of new motors for them about 10 years ago, I wonder what he thought he was doing with them. I opted to donate it in the end as it was a death trap. Weak brakes, bad shocks and struts, and no air conditioning. I miss the subwoofer in the back, don't miss the rattling or oil burning.
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Aug 9, 2019 21:02
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You had me with the clickbait title. I too had a 96 SL2, loved that little car. First manual that I learned on. The roof leaked tons of water into the backseat and it burned oil like the rest of those S series cars, but it was decently fast (plastic = light!) and cheap as hell. Yeah, it needed a clutch when I sold it 20-30k later.
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Aug 9, 2019 21:06
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My first real car was an SW1. I kinda miss it, it was a great hauler. Keep up the good work. That Custom Cruiser is awesome.
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Aug 9, 2019 21:25
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Thanks for all the interest guys! The suburban may be my favorite, but that little Saturn has put up with a shocking amount of abuse so far, and it actually didn't start burning oil until it hit 150k or so. Even then, it's only a quart or so a month (the truck leaks that much in ~8 days for comparison). Definitely agree on the decently fast. My middle brother has a turbo S40 ('03 I think) and the Saturn holds its own against it pretty well. So far the only performance upgrade I've done is an intake, and if I'm completely honest that was mostly for the sound  If anyone has a Saturn that's leaking water into the backseat (or the dash/sunvisor area for that matter), the stupid little drains that Saturn used are super easy to clean and modify (99% of the time that's the problem). To get to the front ones, just pull the kick panel and then the rubber behind it, drains just pop right out. The backs you're supposed to get to by removing the quarter, but I'm pretty sure I just pulled the fender well out of the way and scratched up my arms. Either way, look for this guy  The proper way to do things is to clean it out and do that periodically.....yeah, no. I cut the ends off so they couldn't clog anymore and slapped them back in, it's been working great for 4ish years now. The sunroof doesn't work on mine, never has, and I'd actually like to convert it to a manual one if anybody has any suggestions at cars that have a good manual sunroof I can look at for ideas/steal parts off of. I don't mind attempting to take stuff off the glass, reglue, etc., I think I have 3 or 4 spare pieces of glass for the sunroof at this point in anticipation of destroying some. Absolutely off the rails deathwish dream car of mine - Saturn SW with the entire rear taken up by a Duramax or similar diesel, twin turbo, exhaust straight out the rear glass, etc. I realize this would take an insane amount of work, but a guy can dream right? Less off the rails, my sister's car is a '99 SC2 that's a beater piece of junk. The headgasket just blew and she/my parents don't want to fix it. I don't have anywhere to put another project, but it is titled in my name, and I'm really tempted to buy it off her, rebuild the motor and turbo it. Talk me into this? STR: I should have guessed Burnham Wood! I almost applied for a job teaching math there, and they did seem like a pretty nice place to work (certainly better than a public school). Maybe it's recruiting teachers Iris is involved in now? Her name seems familiar to me, but I'm also garbage with names. Funnily enough, I'm the only one of my brothers that doesn't partake in any way, they just all used my car for storage I'm not sure why they bothered, everyone knows/knew they smoked I think that might be my favorite class of car, partly because there are so many around here. You hear them from a mile off making all kinds of racket, revved to the moon, and then they trundle on by going 15-20 mph 
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Aug 9, 2019 22:56
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A Small Car posted:If anyone has a Saturn that's leaking water into the backseat (or the dash/sunvisor area for that matter), the stupid little drains that Saturn used are super easy to clean and modify (99% of the time that's the problem). To get to the front ones, just pull the kick panel and then the rubber behind it, drains just pop right out. The backs you're supposed to get to by removing the quarter, but I'm pretty sure I just pulled the fender well out of the way and scratched up my arms. Either way, look for this guy I didn't know poo poo about cars back then and was (mis)guided by my dad who probably just didn't want to gently caress with it. We caulked around the sunroof (didn't work, either) because we thought it was the drains maybe, but that didn't fix the leak either. Now I just try to avoid sunroofs. 
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Aug 10, 2019 02:38
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It must be a dad thing, mine suggested exactly the same remedy to me....and then again when I did it to my sister's car a few years later, despite knowing I could actually fix the problem. Neither sunroof actually works though, the parts to fix it right cost more than either car is actually worth
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Aug 10, 2019 02:49
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A Small Car posted:If anyone has a Saturn that's leaking water into the backseat (or the dash/sunvisor area for that matter), the stupid little drains that Saturn used are super easy to clean and modify (99% of the time that's the problem). To get to the front ones, just pull the kick panel and then the rubber behind it, drains just pop right out. The backs you're supposed to get to by removing the quarter, but I'm pretty sure I just pulled the fender well out of the way and scratched up my arms. Either way, look for this guy GM still used those on the Cobalt/Ion/G5/HHR sunroofs. loving annoying. And at least on the Ion coupe, you can't get to them through the kick panel unless you have infant size hands (I think you can get to them easier on the sedan, but most sunroof-optioned Ions were coupes). You can get to them by pulling the fender liners if you pull the front wheels and put the car on jack stands. Dunno about the rear ones, with the fronts unclogged it drains well enough that the headliner stays dry now (even if it didn't, it's already stained and saggy). And the fix is the same for those. Cut the fuckers off. Small world. Wouldn't surprise me if she's still helping with recruiting, that school was always her baby. But man, she's gotta be up there in years now.
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Aug 10, 2019 20:00
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I can't tell if you meant to have a shitpost tag or not.
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Aug 11, 2019 15:19
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Adiabatic posted:I can't tell if you meant to have a shitpost tag or not. Ha, nope! Chalk that one up to me being a dumbass, I probably had a cat walk across my laptop and didn't notice what it had done.
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Aug 11, 2019 19:52
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STR posted:GM still used those on the Cobalt/Ion/G5/HHR sunroofs. loving annoying. And at least on the Ion coupe, you can't get to them through the kick panel unless you have infant size hands (I think you can get to them easier on the sedan, but most sunroof-optioned Ions were coupes). You can get to them by pulling the fender liners if you pull the front wheels and put the car on jack stands. Dunno about the rear ones, with the fronts unclogged it drains well enough that the headliner stays dry now (even if it didn't, it's already stained and saggy). You would think they would have figured out a better drain somewhere in that time period. I was told once it was to keep spiders and whatnot from living in the sunroof drains, but I've never encountered anything but mud in them, even my cut-out ones. It looks like Iris is officially retired, but still on the board. If the birthday I found is correct, she's 77!
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Aug 11, 2019 20:01
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Warning: Long post with a few terrible pictures incoming. Ok, so, tubas. As I mentioned in a different thread, I have a lot of them, and have owned many more over the years. I'll start with a couple that are no longer with me that are odd enough to mention. First up, a King Eb that played so flat it was put into D by the owner before me.  This was a lovely little horn, I believe from the late '40s or early '50s, I bought it solely because it was in D and I was curious. It actually played remarkably well, but being a dumb tuba player, I couldn't cope with yet another set of new fingerings, so I put it back in Eb, cut it down a bit so it would play in tune, and sold it down the road. Next is a little Couesnon Eb.  I picked this guy up intending to harvest it for parts, but it played well enough that I fixed it up to sell. This one was my first real effort at fixing a horn and it turned out ok on the whole. I put on a new mouthpiece receiver, tapped the valve stems for new buttons, did some dent work, and then sent it on its way. It's honestly one of the sweetest sounding horns I've ever had in my possession. The first tuba I ever bought, and probably the second most important one to me is my old King 1241  I won this one off ebay with the recording/forward bell and promptly acquired the upright bell to use instead. The bell was some sort of experiment to fit a Conn tuba, and dates back to 1938, if I remember correctly. I know nothing about the age of this horn, except that it was made pre-1980 (after that there were some design changes and they became the King 2341, which I mistakenly thought mine was for many years. There would be a further redesign in the early 2000s where the 2341 became a one piece design). I've played quite a few of these over the years and loved them all, but definitely prefer the old 2 piece design. I sold this a year after I started college (after owning it for 7ish years) and have regretted it every day since then. It's the horn that I learned how to play everything on, and it shaped my whole sound concept. It was a marvelous horn that served me well, and I hope to pick up another one someday. I did keep the upright bell though  One final one that I owned for a while was a Meinl Weston 2141 Eb  At the time I bought this, I was pursuing a degree in music performance, and was convinced I needed a good bass tuba (I owned a ~1918 Holton piece of junk at the time), so I bought this used off of a tuba forum. I will note that this is probably the 2nd best tuba I've ever owned or played and that my intense dislike of it has nothing to do with the instrument itself. It more than paid for itself during gigs, was easy to play, great sound, great intonation, but it didn't sound like I wanted to sound and I ended up spending almost my entire ownership of the instrument fighting it. Ultimately, this horn is the reason that I now have a small army of old, American Eb tubas. I already knew I liked them because of the junky Holton (I wish I had pictures of that horn, it was unbelievably beat up - the slides leaked, the valves leaked, it had holes, the leadpipe was bent, the receiver didn't fit, it looked like it had been a punching bag, but it still had a sound that made you stop and listen. It's what I auditioned for college on, flying it around the country in a garbage can because it was cheaper than a case. The Holton is also most likely responsible for my masochistic enjoyment and preferment of beat up old horns instead of newer ones), but the Meinl convinced me that I needed an old Eb that wasn't made in Europe. Which brings me to current tubas! We'll start with the most recent, a 1927 (I think) Conn Monster Eb  It's a crap picture, but it's the only one I have of it for some reason. I probably vastly overpaid for this horn considering what it looked like when I got it (black, filthy, it smelled like death, it had foul goo everywhere inside it, it didn't really work), but I though I needed an Eb tuba for a gig ASAP, so I went ahead anyway. This horn has firmly cemented my decision to never give local music stores my business again. When I got it, two of the slides would not move, no matter what, and it needed a chemical bath and valve alignment desperately, so I took it to the local store (both actually, one refused to work on it) because I didn't have time to fix it just then. I ended up spending a decent chunk of change for them to break the 4th slide (they hammered it so hard they broke a solder joint), dent the first slide crook (and fail to get it moving), run some water through it and hand it back to me in worse shape than I brought it in. Naturally, I was livid, so I stayed up all night and fixed it myself. I stole a spare crook out of my parts bin for the first slide and took apart the fourth slide to use the crook like a handle to loosen the legs and had it all back together and working great in under an hour. Lesson learned for me. The gig I thought I needed it for fell through, but it's currently my most played horn anyway because it's such a joy to play. Conn Monster Eb number 2, I think this is from 1926  Bought this from Australia for no reason other than I wanted to see what a factory 4 valve played like (this was about 4 years before I bought the one above). Played it for 6 months and loved it, it's been out on loan to various people since then. Someday it will make its way back to me. Conn Monster Eb number 3! Also I think from 1926. This one needs more explanation because it's my current project horn. It started life as a factory 3 valve and someone grafted a 4th valve onto it, using a 2nd valve from a sousaphone (hence why I wanted the Australian horn to compare). I thought the 2nd valve was from a King sousaphone, but I'll be damned if King valves line up correctly. It's got a King valve in it now (and did when I got it), but it required re-drilling the valve guide hole to rotate the valve. Best guess is it's actually a Reynolds valve casing, but whatever, it works how it is now. When I got it, it looked like this  Played like poo poo, which was quickly remedied by removing the Christmas decorations stuffed in the bottom bow. I decided I wanted a 5th valve and different routing of the 4th slide, so I did this  It played immensely better after that and I used it that way for a while until I bought the Australian tuba (here's a picture of them together, aren't they cute?)  Once I had two in my possession though, it was time for full on project mode. The 5th valve I'd put in worked, but it was junk. At a minimum I would have had to swage/swedge the bearing plates, and it just wasn't worth it, especially after I traded a case for a severely damaged Cerveny with perfect valves. So I did what any normal person would do and tore it apart again  Note the square bottom slide for the 4th valve circuit built from two Yamaha convertible tuba leadpipes It worked like this, but the valves had seen better days and I still wasn't happy with it, so I decided to see if I could find a King valve section to graft in (better valves, easier parts availability, slightly smaller bore) and just use the Conn bugle. As luck would have it a parts horn appeared! I bought a King 1240 (the three valve counterpart to my old horn) and stripped it and the Conn down the day it arrived. Since it was only a 3 valve, I needed to graft on a 4th, so I stole the one currently on the Conn and voila! Needs a brace between the casings, but that's not urgent. The sad remains of the last iteration of this poor horn  I'm going to be using the rotary valve again as illustrated in the mockup of how I want the horn to go together  Now that I know there's interest, I'll actually take pictures as I manage to do stuff to the horn. The slides all need to be shortened from BBb length to Eb length, and I need to find a way to cut ~8 inches out of the leadpipe or main tuning slide. I'm hoping I can take it all from the main tuning slide because the valves are in the perfect place right now. I may also flip the 5th valve around (I'll take a picture of that next time I'm in my shed) so that it doesn't interfere with the leadpipe and my arm where it rests on the horn. Based on my previous experiments with this horn, when I'm done it will at least play as well as it did when I got it, which I can live with. Up next, yet another impulse purchase, a Boosey and Hawkes Eb cavalry horn circa 1908!  Apologies for the garbage picture, it's the only one I have for some reason. I bought this horn from ebay when I really shouldn't have simply because I've never seen another 3+1 configured this way come up for sale. It's my understanding that these were made pre-1900 through the early '20s, but I don't know much about them, and haven't had much success locating more information about them. I'm used to the 3+1 valve design looking like this:  which I find very uncomfortable to play, so the B&H was a great find for me. It needs a lot of work, but I'm head over heels for the sound, so it'll get worked on after the Monster is done. Have I mentioned I have too many horns? I do, but I want more anyway. This next horn is my Conn 25J, I believe from 1969. My professor had bought it to help out a friend and had it sitting in his office when I went in for my lesson. As a curious young lad, I asked to play it, picked it up and played one note, and bought it on the spot.  This one's kinda hard for me because I loooooove the way it sounds, but with my back it's just too heavy to play without hurting myself, so this one is sadly going to be sold soon. I've done a bunch of dent work and valve work to this one, played it in several groups, and have even been recorded on it! I've been putting off selling it for years now, but I think it's finally time. Bear with me, we're almost done! 2nd to last is my King F. It started life in 1934 or so as a small Eb and an enterprising individual cut it to F somewhere along the way. I bought it to teach myself F tuba and I've had it for 6 years now, I believe. It's a great little player, so it's going to become my 3rd project after the cavalry horn and get some extra valves added. I even have another King valve block from the same era to use as a donor to keep the look consistent, I just have to decide what layout I want for the 4th and 5th valves. I have no pictures of this one, but I'll try to remember to take one tonight. Last, but certainly not least, is my Besson 995.  This one's my main horn, and I do everything on it. I don't know exactly when it was made, but I believe it was around 2005. I know for sure that it was made during the period when Besson was made in Germany instead of the UK, which may account for why it's such a good horn (nothing necessarily wrong with the British manufacturing, but it lacked consistency). This was originally my private teacher's horn, I inherited it when he passed away in 2007 (it still doesn't feel like it's been 12 years since that happened). Obviously, it means a great deal to me, and it's going to be my horn until I'm unable to keep playing, hopefully many decades from now. I've made small alterations to this one along the way - deleted the pull rod on the 2nd slide, added a pull ring on the 3rd slide, cut the 3rd slide slightly shorter, added lightweight valve caps, and vented all the valves - but I've largely left this one alone. By far the best horn I've ever owned, and it's probably the best horn (for me, at least), that I've ever played. Fun note, I've been playing this one with a raw brass mouthpiece for the past 8 years (I tend to customize my mouthpieces, I just can't leave things alone) and finally had it plated this summer - what a difference! I'm lucky enough that raw brass doesn't bother me at all, just turns my skin green, but it's so much more comfortable now that it's slippery again. That's probably more than long enough. For anyone still conscious, thanks for reading! Let me know if you've got questions about anything in the word vomit above, tubas are one of my favorite things to talk about. Apologies again for some of the awful pictures, a few of those were taken on an old Nokia Lumia or something like that. The ones I take on a real camera aren't necessarily focused any better, but they at least look artsy lol
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Aug 14, 2019 03:12
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Dude showing off how horny he is in a thread about junk-peeping? 5'd
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Aug 14, 2019 11:18
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A Small Car posted:It looks like Iris is officially retired, but still on the board. If the birthday I found is correct, she's 77! 77 sounds right - she was in her 50s when I was in high school.
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Aug 14, 2019 12:02
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I miss my 1988 Silverado 1500 way too much. Should never have (let dad, I was driving it) sold it.
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Aug 14, 2019 13:55
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I don't know anything about tubas, but that seems to be an impressive collection of tubas. Do your neighbours hate you? How do you store them?
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Aug 14, 2019 15:34
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Dumb question: Eb = "E flat"?
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Aug 14, 2019 16:37
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Do your neighbours hate you? How do you store them? He's in El Paso, there's tons of loud music around him all day and night, with a lot of brass. ... mostly Tejano though. source: spent 19 years there.
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Aug 14, 2019 17:22
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Dagen H posted:Dumb question: Eb = "E flat"? Yep. That’s a nice collection of horns, that 25J makes me nostalgic for the 20J I played from time to time in high school. I had a Miraphone 187 when I was playing and planning to be a music major but I sold it after I decided to take a different path in college. Wish I’d held on to it.
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Aug 14, 2019 17:52
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Seat Safety Switch posted:I don't know anything about tubas, but that seems to be an impressive collection of tubas. The sheer number of Monster Eb's is unusual (I should have clarified that earlier, sorry. Eb=E flat) for sure. I'm lucky enough to be renting a house with nobody behind me (yay irrigation canals), but the neighbor on one side is a contractor, the other side is a retired couple and they don't care at all about my practicing. The retired couple is closer to my practice room and they've told me they can't even hear me unless I'm really going balls to the wall loud (which is good because I frequently practice after midnight). I also have a normal mute and a silent brass system that I use when practicing late at night that greatly reduce how loud I am. For storage, all of the ones I play regularly are in my office. A few have their own stands, most just sit on their bell against the wall. My 2nd bedroom has a desk/workbench and I keep a few parts horns in there, along with most of my spare tubing, valve sections, tools, etc. And then my shed has my current project, 2 more parts horns, and a whole bunch of parts and tools. I'm screwed if I ever end up in an apartment.
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Aug 14, 2019 19:05
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zundfolge posted:Yep. Those 20j's are killer horns, and don't seem to suffer at all from a lack of a 4th valve. Honestly, the only thing I use my 4th valve for is low F, C is much better 1 and 3, and weirdly enough B is vastly better 1-2-3 than 2-4. I'm jealous of the 187, I've never been able to get my hands on one of them (only the 186). Time to find another one?
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Aug 14, 2019 19:09
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A Small Car posted:(I should have clarified that earlier, sorry. Eb=E flat) No, it's cool; you wouldn't ordinarily expect the musically-illiterate to be captivated by a tuba thread. Bookmarked, 5'd, etc.
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Aug 14, 2019 21:01
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I love seeing someone show off their musical instruments, I was a bassoonist all through High school and ALMOST into college, but I was pushed too hard as a surly teen (looking back it was because I was really good and they wanted me to be great) and I threw everyone the double deuce and got into computers instead. My sister stuck with it though and is quite a good trumpeter (she plays Bach and Yamaha trumpets) and a boss high school band teacher. Some days I troll ebay looking for "cheap" bassoons (like watches and camera equipment, musical instruments are those things where cheap means something entirely different to enthusiasts) and dream about cutting some reeds and playing again. Maybe when the kids are old enough to try music in school themselves.
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Aug 14, 2019 21:10
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Hello fellow ignored musician! Congratulations to your sister, she must have nerves of steel to be a band director (I know how I was in school and I wouldn't wish that on anyone). I'm not sure how it is in the bassoon world, but at least for tubas, cheap generally has little to do with the quality of the horn, only its desirability. There are tons of old American tubas that are decent or better players that can be had for a song, while totally clapped out European (particularly German) tubas command a steep premium. Don't get me started on pocket watches and cameras If I've got time tonight, I'll post a bit more detail about venting the valves on the Besson. The Eb/E flat discussion made me realize that most people probably don't have a clue what venting entails, and it's actually pretty neat.
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Aug 14, 2019 21:49
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A student bassoon is around 5 grand, a used decent college one is 8-12 and a nice professional one can hit 30k and up (those are custom made to your hand span) never mind antiques. Sky’s the limit there.
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Aug 15, 2019 00:43
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I knew professional bassoons were around there, but I didn't realize student ones started so high, holy cow! I was thinking you could find used ones for a grand or less like a tuba, but that's too expensive to casually pick one up. Any universities or school districts clearing out inventory nearby? Sometimes you can find insane deals that way.
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Aug 15, 2019 01:20
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Trombones are cheap. They're also the best horn. I can sound like a tuba or a trumpet if I want. Also make car revving sounds. Seriously though, that's a nice collection of horns, and I'm impressed that you work on them yourself. The thought of de-soldering my trombone to mess with the piping or swap out the valve is terrifying.
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Aug 15, 2019 01:33
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im gonna need to hear some pedal tones
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Aug 15, 2019 02:08
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A Small Car posted:I knew professional bassoons were around there, but I didn't realize student ones started so high, holy cow! I was thinking you could find used ones for a grand or less like a tuba, but that's too expensive to casually pick one up. Any universities or school districts clearing out inventory nearby? Sometimes you can find insane deals that way. Oh you can get a used student bassoon for a grand, but it'll need another grand at least in work to make it playable again. Since they're wood, they require more than "just stick it in a damp closet for 30 years after junior stops playing" . My sister has a really nice vintage Selmer at her high school, but it needs more than $900 worth of work just to make it "okay for students" and she points out that buys an awful lot of music for the students to play or student clarinet repairs.
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Aug 15, 2019 02:12
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Oh I know, ask me how many trombones I've destroyed Euphonium/baritones too for that matter. The only thing I sound like on trombone is a fart can, but that's good enough for me! As far as working on them, it's all about taking that first step. I started doing my own repairs because I was tired of my instruments coming back from the shop in worse shape than they went in. At this point, it would cost at least $15k to replace my Besson if I could even find a brand new one (they aren't made anymore), and used ones hover around $10k, so I stopped trusting people with it. I employ a similar philosphy with my vehicles for the most part (I would never attempt to machine my own engines at home, for example). I definitely didn't start on my good horn though, I bought beaters for practice first and only moved on when I was comfortable. My soldering skills are still marginal, but my joints are sound, if ugly. Planning and working through the repairs and modifications in my mind ahead of time also helps a lot. Part of why the project horn has taken so long is I have trouble conceiving the end result in my brain, particularly with how restricted I am parts-wise. It may seem like I have a lot of parts horns (6ish), but most people who do this for a living probably have parts from hundreds of tubas, if not thousands. It's also maddeningly frustrating to want to use a piece of tubing on the King valve section (.689 bore) only to find out it's from a Conn (.692 bore) with an ever so slightly different wall thickness that makes it completely incompatible. FYI, if you need a horn for a gig, DO NOT take it apart the night before and solder it back together in a hurry, there will be leaks 
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Aug 15, 2019 02:19
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Well, been longer than I thought, but work has been insane lately, what can you do? I haven't had a chance to take apart any of my horns to better explain the vented valves yet, I'll get to it eventually though! I did finally work on my junk today though. For whatever reason, all my vehicles have non-functioning or barely functioning passenger side windows, so today I decided to tackle the Saturn's. The front window actually was working until a year or so ago, but the gears in the motor stripped out in a Wal-Mart parking lot one night so I just forced it up and left it alone. Hit up the junkyard early this morning with my brother (he was in search of rear cupholders for his Subaru) and found a '98 with power windows I could steal parts from. Ripped out the front regulator/motor assembly and headed home to do some surgery.   Blurry poo poo photos, but I had the inner and outer door panels off in about 5 minutes (I've ripped many a Saturn apart lol. Ask me how long it takes to change the starter in my truck). It's much easier to disconnect the lock and handle rods from the outside side of the door than the interior side if you have to take both off anyway. I don't know what kind of fluffed asbestos bullshit GM backed the plastic weather seal with, but it's my new least favorite substance. Anyway, pulled the old regulator assembly out, here's a side-by-side for fun  Slapped the new one in, with an extremely liberal greasing, and we're in business!  Not pictured, I used a shower liner to make a new plastic liner for the door (leaving plenty of drainage at the bottom) and found that what Autozone advertises as Honda hood trim clips are a suitable replacement for the lovely little ones that Saturn uses to hold the door handle on the outside. That door is now the most weather-proof one on the car, and there is a noticeable difference in the sound when that one shuts vs. the other 3. I do need a new lock surround piece, the old one disintegrated when I pulled the panel. Does anybody happen to know of a good source for those? I've just been pulling them from junkyard cars, but they never last very long. The rear window also doesn't work, but that's because this plastic chingus  fell apart, and the rear window only uses one, instead of the 3 the front windows use. For fun, I thought I'd take the rear regulator from the junkyard, but that drat plastic piece was broken on every car I checked. So new one ordered, I'll install that whenever it gets here and enjoy rolling all 4 windows down again Super boring update, but that's all I've got for now. Hopefully I'll have something more exciting next time!
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Aug 25, 2019 02:03
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I yanked that plastic sheet out of my door and you could feel the breeze through the speaker hole. That made for a few cold rides in Montana winters. Also I had crank windows so they always worked.
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Aug 25, 2019 19:28
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Hey man, GF is in your neck of the woods visiting her mom right now. She just got caught in a pretty decent hail storm. You make it out without any damage? Her mom's house lost both skylights, and her (liability only) Corolla looks like the moon now.  I sent an old HS friend over to cover the skylights with tarps for now (GF works for Lowe's, so she can get an employee discount and some hookups on replacing the skylights, thankfully).
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Aug 29, 2019 00:22
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Holy cow! Not even a sign of precipitation for me yet, despite the threatening clouds. Is your GF's mom's house on the east side? I'm at work until 9pm, but tomorrow is my day off, let me know if I can do anything to help (tonight too, I basically don't sleep). @StormDrain literally the first thing my sister said to me was "why don't you just swap everything to manual windows?"
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Aug 29, 2019 01:12
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She's juuuust west of central, off of the far end of Stanton.
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Aug 29, 2019 01:17
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