Featured Art & Inspiration I love this sh...stuff

Mark did you make the pistol grip shifter handle? That is so cool.
Dan

 

Mark, do you have a period record player to play all those hot rod albums on?

 

You know he does

 

Why wouldn't he??? LOL!

 

Unbelievable, Mark! You're holding gold right there.

 

That SW watch that looks like a car gauge is cool. Never seen one anywhere.

 

The unspoken kool factor is the number of those who have no clue what it is or represents. At least to me. I'd shown it to one of my regular car guys and even he didn't "get it."

 

And here I thought I was the only one with warbird stuff in the stash...

 

A NOS Fulton visor,

 

I had a very small part in the restoration of the ball turret on this TBM (I mostly helped with the dis-***embly).


Gary

 

That photo looks like it was taken at Ford's Dearborn test track.

 

Hello,

There are two items still in our custom garage drawers. One is the starting tool for my teenage film editing processes. I could take the films, but unless I had this tool, I had to use scissors and a ruler to make the cuts straight. Also, I had to use a magnifying tool to see the actual filmstrip. It was 16mm color and is the size of a fingernail.

Once the cut edges were scratched, then I could add the glue to keep the film together. But, I had to hold the newly glued film down until the glue dried. Making sure the holes lined up correctly. This is film editing in 1957.

I also had to use a straight edge knife to scratch the cut/scratch the edge surface to make sure the glue would keep the film strip together. No one likes the bright white screen during a film showing… that is when the glue comes apart and one part of the film rolls up on one reel and the other just sits.

As you can see, the top is the 70 mm film from those huge Imax screens with perfect color and clarity. Some films are shot in regular 70 mm film and also shown in large movie theaters. We all used to use 35mm film cameras at their heydays and the photos came out clear.

But, as size matters, the 16 mm color movie cameras were not the most handy of tools. Cost to develop was high, vs 8mm or super 8mm. The color difference and quality made up for the poor development of the 8mm movie cameras. Yes, we had a good super 8mm film camera, years later and the difference is/was night vs day.

The Hollywood Industry used 16mm then jumped on the 35mm films for superior quality on the finished first run films we all saw in the theaters. But, the equipment cost was too high for most families and individuals. We even used the 35mm color unused film in cannisters sold from companies in Hollywood as a business. When the day’s shoot was finished, the studio cameras had left over film still good and still usable. So, the photo lab folks cut the film out and made 36 shot film in cannisters for sale to pro photographers.

In looking at the above chart, the 8mm filmstrip was the standard “family” movie camera for everyone to use, by point/shoot. But, look at the size difference in 8mm vs 16mm vs 35mm and the professional 70 mm filmstrips. Clarity is prominent in the larger filmstrips. YRMV

16 MM is 5/8ths of an inch. .62992 inches wide. Very small to the normal eye...

I learned to use the magnifier to see the color drag racing films I had taken the previous Saturday. When our dad came home with the developed film, I started the editing. I knew it would take a bright light shining through the film so, I could see where I could make a cut.

When he saw me using the magnifying gl***, he probably felt bad. I also had to cut his “family & friends” films and edit those, too. It was the cost of the 16mm film as payment for doing the intricate work. My brother had an afterschool job, so, he told me to help our dad with his films. Then I could also cut and edit our drag racing films, too. So, that was my teenage job.

Then one day, my dad brought home this tool:
My first photo editing device. Now, at least the film would stay straight with the teeth, so I could make a straight cut and then scratch both sides of the film for the final glue process.

A full metal film cutter for 8mm and tabs for our own 16 mm film strips. Now, instead of slapping on the 8 inch metal reel on the projector and showing the rag tag films of my dad’s friends and escapades along with my own drag racing films, I could cut out his portion of the films and make a strictly drag racing film from the week previously raced or just roamed around when we did not get to the next round of eliminations.
The purple strip is showing the film track and lifted metal cutters above, ready to come down to make the cut.

Today, this guy is still in a drawer waiting patiently to go back into action. I spent countless hours placing the film in the small cutter and neatly cutting out the film strip portion that did not belong. Then I would prep the edges of the film and glue the remaining pieces together to have one long film showing reel of drag racing, only. (I also made a "dad only" reel of his films taken, too.)

Jnaki

This first editing tool was one of the oldest things we have left our old drag racing days and movies. The other was a hobby blow torch that almost gets thrown out at every “garage clean out day.” Those two items are the oldest items saved, other than a couple of 80 year olds that have been together since our college days.

But, if I did not do a good job of prepping the film cutting edges and gluing, as we watched the films on the teenage gatherings, I took the relentless “razzing” from the captive audience, when the film broke and a strong white light was now on the wall. BOOOO!

Note:
Our dad had brought this larger "editor" home for me to use the small reels to cut and glue into a larger metal reel on the other end. The small yellow box cutter I had been using was the size of the cutter on the front portion of this larger viewer and editor. Finally, instead of holding up a 16mm size negative up to a bright light and trying to find the editing point, now, I could see the actual action of drag racing on the 4 inch screen in living color, as I moved the crank handles right or left.

The small screen showed the color movies forward and backwards until I could get to the spot to cut and start the editing process. This was the first and last work on the long skinny filmstrip and when they were all cut and edited together, the films went on a 16 inch steel reel for longer movie showings. (Those original color 16mm films are still on the large metal reels in a temperature controlled closet storage area)

On the right side of the editing screen device was a larger 7-8 inch metal reel to hold all of the cut and paste edited films. On the left were the smaller 3 inch reels from the developer's dark room. As the cut and paste went on until the small reel was empty, all of the films were moving to the final resting spot on the metal reel on the right.

Note 2:

Today, editing on photo/video film computer programs are pretty much the same. Show the digital film to a certain point and using the digital film cutter, make a mark and copy the remains. Then the remains can be added into the next similar drag racing film. A Sidewinder dragster film taken on one Saturday weekend can also be added together from another Saturday and the background does not change. It is/was usually a clear blue sky day in So Cal. So, that helps. YRMV

Turn up your sound volume... or watch it on your large screen TV with the You Tube Channel... This was So Cal drag racing in real life action and original "Sidewinder" SOUND.