As a car guy I love strange vehicles. Anything that is a concept, has been custom built or is modified from what the manufacturer originally intended peaks my interest. That’s why I was excited when I saw this page of Strange and Unusual Vehicles.

This is a huge list of unusual cars, trucks, boats, airplanes and motorcycles from around the world. It ranges from the latest concept cars to the Alaskan Land Train custom built by LaTourneau in the 1950s.

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We may be getting close to the end of the line for my 1965 Buick LeSabre 4 Door Hardtop. She’s been a little loose going down the road, so we put her on the rack today to look for problems. The Center Link is bad, really bad, maybe even dangerously so. We called the part store, and a new center link is $285. Fortunately, I do have access on a used one that will hopefully get me by for a while, but parts are getting expensive, rust is gaining ground and that car just isn’t something I want to put significant money into. Time to get serious about finding a Riviera.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I have a Maxxis Sur Trax 22×11x9 tire in good condition on a Yamaha Warrior wheel (you know, the gold ones). I bought this at a swap meet a couple years ago and it’s in good shape, but I only have one. If you have one you would like to sell me, leave a comment. If you have one and need a mate, leave a comment.

I’m not really in love with this tire or anything, just hate to see one without a mate. If I don’t hear anything I may put it on ebay or craigslist.

Popularity: 6% [?]

If you own and drive a classic 50’s, 60’s or even 70’s car, you are, like me, probably worried about one thing. Parts. Every time I go to the parts store for my 1965 Buick fewer items are available.

One item in particular that I’m sure will eventually be phased out are sealed beam headlights. Every time a headlight goes out in the old Buick I wonder how hard it will be to find a new one.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one concerned about this. There are several companies out there creating replacement lights using modern H4 bulbs.

If anyone out there has replaced their headlights with a kit of this kind, leave me a comment and let me know how it worked. I’m interested to hear.

Popularity: 25% [?]

My 1965 Buick has a transmission that leaks. It’s leaked for years, but it seems to get worse all the time. I’m not sure where it’s leaking from, it can be difficult to tell, but I thought I would start with the pan. The pan gasket and rear seal are doable, the front seal is less fun.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I think it’s fair to let everyone know that I have a love/hate relationship with auto parts stores. My first job after I graduated High School was with the local (and now defunct) Big A Auto Parts in Loveland Colorado. I was a Will Call driver and worked the counter for a couple years before I decided to do something else with my life. My experience has resulted in a very low tolerance for parts men (and women). I often do business at the local Checker because I know a guy there, but they are carrying fewer and fewer parts for my old car. I have found that the Greeley NAPA store generally has better luck getting the parts I need to keep my classic Buick on the road.

Thinking I should take care of my transmission leak, I stopped at the local NAPA store last Saturday. My Buick has a two speed transmission which I always assumed was a powerglide. It’s not. The actual transmission in my car is a switch-pitch Super Turbine 300. This transmission was used in Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs from 1964-1969. It seems to be a good transmission, other than leaking it has always worked great, but it is obsolete. The woman at NAPA, who I admit did give it a good shot, couldn’t find a filter kit for it. She checked her numbers and they were no longer available.

The next stop was the Internet to see how discontinued these parts really were. I looked several places and couldn’t find anything. There were some discontinued parts available on eBay, but that was it. The whole idea was put on the back burner.

Today I had a thought. Perhaps Amazon would carry this part, maybe I should check. The Amazon automotive search interface is a little sub-par, so it took a while to find the right part. After entering the year, make and model of my Buick the parts were all just kind of listed there. Several transmission filters were listed, but they didn’t specify if they fit the TH400 or the ST300. One thing did stick out though, they listed a WIX filter for it. If you’ve never been the parts business you may not be familiar with WIX, but they are a filter company that used to carry many hard to find filters.

My next step was to visit the WIX site. I punched in the number of the filter kit Amazon listed for the Buick and confirmed that, yes, it was a TH400 filter. Fortunately the WIX site itself has a nice search tool and they listed the kit for a ST300. Returning to Amazon, I searched for that new part number, WIX 58880, and amazingly Amazon lists it as in stock.

The filter hasn’t been ordered yet, so it may not be as good as it sounds, but it looks like they have the right part and will send it to me. The moral of the story? Twofold I guess. First, if you work a parts counter out there, or own an auto parts store, be sure to check all your resources. The NAPA store should be able to get WIX filters, and it wasn’t like they were busy and didn’t have time to look it up. Second, if you are an owner of a classic vehicle, be sure to check everywhere for those hard to find parts. You never know where they will turn up.

Popularity: 33% [?]

After a good night’s rest, we got up and headed for the trail. Last year when we were out for the Easter Jeep Safari, we scouted around and ended up at the far end of the Kane Creek Canyon trail. We decided then and there we wanted to do that trail next time we were in Moab.

Things started off great. After the first mile or so we stopped and another group on four wheelers caught up with us. We stopped and visited with them, checked our bikes and continued on.

I took the lead as I had the previous day on Top of the World, and that worked well. My machine was a little quicker than the big 4×4 machines, so I could go through the sandy sections of the trail around the creek bottom. At what I’m going to guess is about the 7 or 8 mile mark, the trail splits. The Jeep trail goes up the side of the canyon, and the ATV section drops back down along the creek.

At this point the four of us stopped for a drink and short break. There were two trucks on the Jeep trail, the second one (I think it was a pathfinder) was having difficulty with an obstacle. The geniuses had tied a tow strap to a boulder just about the trail, and were using a handyman jack as a come-along to try and winch the truck over the obstacle. Jed, Jason and I all stopped and immediately commented on the folly of their winching procedure. 5 seconds after we had that discussion, the boulder fell.

I actually purposely didn’t snap a pic as the rock fell. I really didn’t want a picture of someone dying. Fortunately, the rock hit the trail next to the truck (not on top of it) and everyone was OK. As soon as I was sure everything was all right, I did get that shot of the rock while the dust was still in the air.

We continued on down the trail which goes about another 2.5 miles. There are several obstacles which are extremely difficult. We met back up with the guys we had seen at the beginning of the trail, and it took several of us to get the bikes across some of the obstacles. Going down wasn’t bad, but we decided to turn around and head back not long after that. Heading back up the obstacles was a little more tricky and took two or three guys on each bike to get them up.

Everything had gone great up to this point, but as we headed back, disaster struck…

Jason had taken the lead, but I had grown to like leading on the way in, so decided to pass him. The trail split, part going up on the bank, and part going through the creek. I decided to take the creek to see if I could head him off at the pass. I was going rather fast, and didn’t quite see the large rock jutting out from the canyon wall. The water had gotten rather deep, and once I did see the rock I was unable to avoid it. I took the rock with the right front tire. The bike came to an immediate stop, but somehow I was able to stay on and not fall in the water. If I had fallen in the creek it would have been much worse. The temperature was only in the 50s and there would have been a real danger of hypothermia.

After the crash, I tried to ride the bike up out of the Creek, and noticed the damage. The new, heavy duty, tie rod I had just put on had broken. I didn’t have a spare with me (something that won’t happen again since I have broken a tie rod twice now).

At this point we were 9 miles in on the trail, and had no idea how we were going to get my bike out. We removed the right front wheel and tried to ride it out on three wheels, but that wasn’t an option. I couldn’t do it, and Jed, who is a better rider than I, couldn’t either.

We finally decided to make a ‘gurney’ and tow it out. With a little help from the guys in the pathfinder we were able to find a suitable tree limb, tie it to the back of Jed’s Polaris, and tie it to the bottom of the Warrior. Delbert’s machine had two seats, so I was able to ride back in comfort.

It was a long trip back, but we were able to get the Warrior back to the trailer and loaded up. We then decided to head up Hurrah Pass for the great view. It was just dusk, so we dropped the Warrior, I hopped back on with Delbert, and we were off. Delbert is a great rider, but being on the back of that rig was downright scary. He was powersliding corners, and really just riding faster than I was comfortable with. I held on and prayed a lot.

We got up on the pass, and stopped to take in the spectacular view. It was just getting dark, so we headed back down, loaded up and headed to town. With our riding (at least my riding) done for the weekend, we just grabbed some dinner and turned in.

Popularity: 72% [?]

This spring, end of March, the week before the Easter Jeep Safari, Jason, Jed, Jed’s co-worker Delbert and I made a jaunt out to Moab. Fuel has been high, so Jed offered to drive his Dodge with the Cummins Diesel, and take his toy hauler. We had more machines than the toy hauler could handle, so we used Jason’s small trailer as well.

We started out Friday morning, and headed west over the mountains. It’s about a 6 hour drive from Loveland to Moab. We took the back way in from I-25, and decided to hit the Top of the World trail before we even went to the campground. We unloaded our bikes and everyone jumped on.

One thing to note about this trip, Jason was riding his Suzuki 500 4×4, Jed was riding his Polaris 600 4×4, Delbert was riding his Bombardier Outlander Max (a HUGE machine) and I was riding my 1988 Yamaha Warrior 350 2×4. Needless to say I was both underpowered, and trying to take what is mostly a sport machine over some of the roughest trails there are.

So, we started on on Top of the World, and I was struggling a little. About halfway up the trail I realized that my bike worked much better if I could keep up a consistent speed. While the 4×4 machines were able to crawl over obstacles, I had to hit the rough terrain with more velocity for everything to work well. Once I figured that out, I took the lead, and was the first one to the end of the trail. The view from the top was amazing, and while the trail doesn’t end abruptly, it can kind of sneak up on you and be a little surprising.

After achieving the summit, and enjoying the view, we turned around and headed back. It was still daylight, so we took another trail that led down by the river. We followed this for a couple miles, and finally just stopped and watched the sunset.

We got back to the truck about the time it started getting dark. Since this was March, it was still a bit cool out, but not too bad. We loaded everything up and headed in to the campground. Once we found our camp spot, we went to the Moab Diner and grabbed some dinner, came back to the campground and turned in anticipating a big day on Saturday.

Be sure to look at the photo gallery of our trip to Moab

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Went to the Coy’s swap meet at Bandimere today. Didn’t find too much, but there was one excellent bargain for Jason.

His Sweet Pickup, a 1968 Chevy with a 427 and 700 has woefully antiquated drum brakes. They are OK, but in the mountains they get hot and stop working. Anyone who knows much about these trucks know they didn’t even offer a front disc option until 1972 when they went from 6 hole wheel (on a two wheel drive) to a 5 hole wheel. There just isn’t a good option for converting an older truck to discs without converting the whole truck to 5 hole.

We walked by a guy on with some old Chevy pickup stuff, and there were a set of 6 hole rotors sitting there. They guy said he had ordered them from Classic Performance Parts, but something happened and he never ended up using the rotors. Jason bought the PAIR for $25.

I just looked htem up, doesn’t look like Classic Performance sells just the rotors, but the kit is $699. This set is cross drilled and gas slotted, a $89 upgrade over the standard kit. It was a great find.

Popularity: 55% [?]

This is the first non-IH related post on Bob’s Bad Binder.

Basically this article was on another site, and all automotive items will be moved here. These will probably be rare.

My everyday driver is a 1965 Buick LeSabre with a 300 V8. This is a great engine – I can get over 20 mpg on the highway. One of the modifications I made was to replace the point type distributor with a GM HEI out of a later model Buick 350 V8. The distributor fits correctly, but did require some slight modifications (grinding) to the intake manifold. The power, performance and starting after this modification has been tremendous. I would suggest puting an HEI in any vintage GM product if there is a direct replacement.

Popularity: 48% [?]