Somewhere around the 3rd or 4th hour on, of a brisket getting a 12hr smoke of applewood! Close second, the smell of Avgas in the morning (putting it on/in the trailer)!
It was used to weld Aluminum, I was good at it, welded a lot of Bugatti and Ferrari body work. Never got the chance to ever TIG weld, it is really high on my "Bucket List", finding 2-3 grand to give to the Miller dealer just hasn't been possible.
Old turned to varnish gas has a sweet smell I love.....that and old interior. Both remind me of long lost (and recently found) cars and swap meets. I do love the SOUND of mig/tig welding if it's in an old cars setting and almost any machine in the same type setting. As for old used oil of any sort, I like the faint smell in a VERY old shop/building or on old tools.
Automotive? Race gas when a car gurgles by warming up in the pits. Non automotive? Cracking open a real beer (not that lite crap) that accentuates some awesome Hand rubbed BBQ because sauce is a crutch
Funny you should say this, because it is exactly what happened to me. I grew up in the fifties (graduated high school in 1960) and had a '51 Ford back then. My dad a series of new Oldsmobiles throughout the decade, so I knew that "old car" smell well. Fast forward to 1987. I had always lusted after a '51 Ford Victoria, but the right car never popped up for me. When a completely original 63K Club Coupe with all the original paperwork presented itself, I jumped at the chance. The car was very nice, with good paint and an almost perfect interior and ran and drove satisfactorily. The only drawbacks were rags for tires and the usual rusty"Korean War" chrome. I was almost certain I was going to buy it. The car was closed up and had been sitting in the sun for a couple of hours. I opened the door, stuck my head in, and was overwhelmed by that "mohair smell" for the first time in over twenty years. They say that olfactory memories are the strongest, and I have to agree. I was immediately taken back to my high school days and the original '51. Of course, I bought it and still have it after 38 years. It got a new engine (a hopped up '51 Merc), and is my daily driver on nice days in the summer. Even now, I can still get that old smell out of it if I want to. Why "shoebox"? Image this car without the "greenhouse"; it does resemble a shoebox and has about the same proportions.
I asked Steve as I was leaving if I could bring my Mopar by the shop on Monday so he could spot weld the bumper bracket
Not for everyone but the smell of two stroke mix was like an aphrodisiac, especially with six or eight of your pals racing shifterkarts on dirt in a small fairgrounds arena indoors. Too bad my girlfriend didn't share the attraction.
I was an avid snowmobiler when I was younger and all of the engines were two strokes. About 1995, I bought a Lawn-Boy lawn mower instead of a Toro or something similar just because it was still a two-cycle and had "that smell".
I miss the smell of leaded gas! When I was younger my dad being an old farm boy would buy & sell/trade farm tractors. The smell of leaded gas, oil, grease, grass & hay was like an aphrodisiac! Boy I miss that! We need to bring leaded gas back!
Oddly the smell of freshly sprayed automotive urethane paint. Just wish the smell didn't make my nose hairs stick together lol. Almost a citrus smell
When I was a wee lad back in the 60’s, my grandpa’s garage had a certain smell that comes back every so often. A pleasant blend of grease, carb cleaner, carnauba wax and leaded gas. He was an aircraft mechanic for many decades and wrenched for friends and family in his off hours. I have walked into a few shops and garages over the years that really took me back. It’s the smell of an America long gone and brings back great memories of my late grandpa I still have his 1963 Motor manual that he gave me around 50 years ago. It still has a hint of his garage smell about it.
Mouth watering. You guys are making me hungry. One car really did make me kinda hungry. Warm summer day. Outdoor car show. A very nice roadster with the top up. Got close to the open window for a good look at the interior. Real leather seat. I don't know exactly what it was, leather cleaner, leather preservation product, smelly naked lady air freshener hanging under the dash, but it smelled sooooo good. I mean, I almost wanted to take a bite out of it. Heliarc is tasty too.
My Dads farm Quonset, an old gearbox with 90 w, old car interiors, and two stroke exhaust with Benol oil.
Younger..I remember walking into the nearby firehouse my dad was a volunteer. It was the combination of wet fire hose, old fire trucks running Y blocks and in-lines and the faint smell of burnt wood from a recent fire that later, among other reasons, led me to spend 10 yrs volunteering as an EMT and fireman. The actual Navarre Ohio FD
It would be my luck that welding rods that smell like pizza would have that anchovy smell too. Blech!
I love BeNOL ! I used to run RC boats with chainsaw and blower engines on methanol for the cooling. BeNol mixes with methanol (dinosaur doesn't). Fast forward a bit and I made a teeny weedeater powered go kart for my kid when he was 5. I ran it on methanol/BeNol, because I had it . I was having a concrete patio installed and one of the finishers was an old MX racer. My kid was riding the kart around and the finisher said "Smells like the pros !". I got a kick out of that. Mike
A whiff of nitromethane from the pits or in the stands but not dumb enough to walk into yellow cloud when the teams are warming them up.
Acetylene, lacquer, bondo, junkyard car smell. Have a buddy that painted a lot of choppers in the 70s, hung out in his shop a lot. We always smelled like bondo, paint, and pot. Seems like we always cleaned ourselves up before hitting the bars with lacquer thinner, so that, too.
The Jalopy Journal
