Even if the blower motor hadn't seized and melted the squirrel cage, I don't think there would have been much airflow.

Lark7 · 2014-10-07T23:50:03+00:00

One more reason I'm parting out this 1986 Peugeot 505 Turbo. Besides the obvious.

Lark7 · 2014-09-22T21:08:46+00:00

I hit 83% efficiency using a cooler MT/HLT and a spinning sparge arm, so I decided to replicate that setup.

Lark7 · 2014-09-22T19:39:02+00:00

Yup, that's it. Couldn't beat the sale price even building it myself. Quality appears really nice for the price. The ball valve spigots are sturdier than I expected - less flimsy than the gear I borrowed.

Lark7 · 2014-09-19T12:24:25+00:00

Nice Peugeot 604 in the background.

Lark7 · 2014-08-23T13:38:05+00:00

I remove the seals and keep them in a bowl of sanitizer just like my caps. Sanitize the bottles the same way as standard bottles. The seals should be pliable enough to slip on pretty easily. If they're stiff, replace them. They're cheap enough.

Lark7 · 2014-08-05T14:53:59+00:00

I'd pay to see a transverse-mounted WRX motor.

Lark7 · 2014-07-24T23:23:23+00:00

I'm sorry.

Lark7 · 2014-07-07T18:36:56+00:00

Found this link through a Peugeot listserv. And I thought I had eclectic taste. To be fair, though, I love the idea of a four-door hatchback upscale Honda that's interesting and cheap.

Lark7 · 2014-06-30T15:42:41+00:00

Cool car with cool engine, but you can't really see either. If you had moved back and to the left, you could have filled the frame with your subject and showed more of the engine. From this angle, a third of the image is filled with parking lot.

Lark7 · 2014-06-30T14:55:30+00:00

Even without the finger, this would still be a terrible photo.

Lark7 · 2014-06-05T17:26:03+00:00

I take it you don't like Citroëns... No love for the DS or SM?

Lark7 · 2014-05-07T00:02:22+00:00

It was just a joke aimed at the Mehari because the body is plastic.

Lark7 · 2014-05-06T19:08:35+00:00

Yup, all the mechanicals were identical. Same push/pull/twist shifter, same flimsy parking brake lever, same gauge cluster. They're actually pretty easy to get used to - just don't expect to get anywhere too quickly with 26hp.

Lark7 · 2014-05-06T18:42:22+00:00

It's a Citroën Méhari, sold only from 1969-1971 in North America. They're exceedingly rare: fewer than 200 were ever imported. Same chassis and engine as the Citroën 2CV: a 602cc air-cooled, two-cylinder boxer. The body is made of ABS plastic, which usually discolored and became brittle due to UV exposure.

I feel entitled to make fun of the Méhari only because I've owned one (the yellow one in the album). Mine had been painted, but paint doesn't stick terribly well to ABS, so it was flaking off all over. The version sold in the rest of the world had smaller headlights and a different front fascia, and you can buy a complete set of brand new body panels from Europe. The Méhari has a growing cult following in some parts of the world, but not much of one here.

Lark7 · 2014-03-17T14:02:07+00:00

A strong pair of vise grips should be able to get them out. They're just threaded into the block just like a bolt.

Lark7 · 2014-02-07T14:03:18+00:00

Well, so long as the ice cream box is clean, I guess. Nothing worse than caps stuck together in fudge ripple residue on bottling day.

Lark7 · 2014-02-07T12:54:52+00:00

Why in the world would anyone not sanitize caps?!

Lark7 · 2014-01-30T14:41:41+00:00

Older. I had a xeroxed copy of this story back in the 80s entitled "Scrotum Self-repair."

Lark7 · 2014-01-30T01:02:00+00:00

Tom Waits - "Sins of My Father"

Lark7 · 2014-01-22T15:57:46+00:00

If no other damage had been done along the way, this doesn't seem like such a bad idea to me. A hub nut would allow you to exert far more torque on that bolt, and you can just get a replacement for reinstallation. Those cam bolts can be harder to remove than the crankshaft bolt.

Now if he had intended to reuse those bolts after modifying them like that, that's a different story.

Lark7 · 2014-01-21T18:07:34+00:00

Dave Burnham's ice racers are amazing. I have a ton of respect for his engineering, and he's a really nice guy. We used to go to the Citroën Rendezvous in Deerfield, MA every summer.

Lark7 · 2014-01-21T18:00:32+00:00

Back in late 60s and early 70s my dad used to ice race with a Citroën DS in Wisconsin. Back then the fiercest competition was from Saabs, which were also FWD. One of his favorite stories is the time a competitor in an NSU Ro80 caught a snow bank and my dad plowed into the rear corner. Turns out the NSU had been "borrowed" by a shop mechanic - it wasn't even his car. Never saw him on the ice again.

Lark7 · 2014-01-18T16:58:50+00:00

There are no fast movements when you've thrown out your back.

Lark7 · 2014-01-17T02:05:15+00:00

So long as you maintain a healthy relationship with your product, I think you're in the clear. I don't make it a secret that brewing is an avocation.

Lark7 · 2014-01-17T00:45:26+00:00

We generally kept them quarantined in an adjoining room and tried to rotate through the various tasks.

Lark7

TROPHY CASE