I was just wondering if we have any Cuban HAMBers since they are so into their old cars over there. I guess the language barrier could be a problem for them since I know mainly Spanish is spoken. Maybe we could do a Hot Rod invasion of Cuba on the net!
I'm not sure how accessable the internet is there. From what I understand media has been very controlled. Anyway, trust me, you do not want to know what thier idea of "customizing" is..
Just thought maybe we could influence their ideas and bring them into the 21 century. What a great atmosphere, cigar smoke, fresh coffee and gasoline fumes. Maybe I should have said Hot Rod Revolution. Viva la revolution!
their idea of customizing is scrounging anything they possibly can to keep their car going, kinda like how an ethiopian's idea of gourmet dining would mean not starving to death.
one day man one day heard the place is beautiful alot of people from outside the USA vacation there beautiful, fairly safe, and cheeeeeeeeeeeap
The reason they are "into" old cars is nothing has been imported since the embargo began. They just keep fixing what they have. You may see a nice looking '58 Impala driving around only to find an Izuzu diesel under the hood. Nessecity being the mother of invention... Not talking about Zappa here.
my dad got to go there in 2000 under an arts and humanities visa, as a fine arts foundry is the family biz. amazing place. i'd give my teeth to go. there's been imports, but not many. mostly russian ****, dad spoke of alot of 5 cylinder or something military diesels.
I have a customer that escaped Cuba on a homemade raft. Said he left his car parked on the beach with the keys in it. Left on a whim with his buddies. No notice to his family, just gone. Never asked what kind of car he drove. This has little to do with the topic, but his story fascinated me. Those guys must have wanted to leave in the worst kind of way.
Its been said a milion times before . the cars there are in far worse shape than you can imagine!!! Ive been on Cuban soil plenty of times!
I think I read in a mag sometime back that they're even making their own brake shoe linings. Coffee grounds, or some such. Now that's hard-core dedication! How many of us would/could do that?
If you ever get a chance to see " Yank Tanks" watch it, its a do***entary about vintage American cars in Cuba. many interviews with owners, mechanics and people that make parts from scratch. Its amazing what they have to do to keep their old cars going.
Any of you guys remember the post of a cuban pounding a new rear quarter for a 56 Chevy. That was amazing craftsmanship.
Guys i got to come clean now I know this subject is not taboo. I have also been there a 2 years back and got to say I saw a lot of the Island and I saw every kind of make and model of American car you could think of. I rode in every make model and body style I could find and the late 50's . all the US companies are well represented. There are some newer cars around but they are not really surviving the test time like the oldies. I have seen late 50's Cadillacs running truck I beam axles and eliptic springs up front and using truck Diesel engines. It is very safe but difficult to get around with only english and I got to say I did not find it cheap, beer was US$2 a bottle. Not alot to buy and that includes choices of food in restuarants. I felt sorry for the locals but boy are they made keen car folks and proud as hell of their jalopies. In some respects they are hot rodders thru necessity. Got a pic of would be considered a western store in Havana and what they had for sale, they sold ice cream herebut when you see these were priced for foreign currency tourists and local have a currency I believe 25 time less in value than tourists and they only earn about $35 per month you could not get drunk on a months salary, the other is a rush hour in Guantanamo City. The car in my 1st post is an English Ford sitting on a Moscovic ch***is and running gear. I saw 2 x 1930 model A pickups still doing deliveries and a 1929 Model A tudor driving around Havana on what looked to be a Moscovic ch***is. I saw 1930's and 40's Packards and Lincoln stuff, Corvairs even. I saw a 39/40 Willy's coupe and also a Willy's 33 roadster still driving. But the most represent era was the early to mid 1950's especially Chevys, Fords and Plymoths etc. Some real sweet looking Dodge Fury's and Chrysler New Yorkers, not many but well looked after. There are some affluent Cubans who seem to have money, mostly Government folks and Spainish types I would guess. There are two standards of everything ther one for the locals and one for the Tourists and there is a different currecy that must be used by tourists and the US$ is penalised when doing currency conversions. Mind you I felt all currency were penalised to some degree. There also seems to be a 3rd standard that is for the military and other control based folks who seem to be rewarded in special commodity ways. I will post more if the thread keeps running.
Ditto checking out "Yank Tanks". You can watch it online through Netflix. very interesting do***entary about the cars over there. All the garages are owned by the government and the owners have to work on the government cars for free out of their pocket. They do make their own brake pads...There are some very very talented guys over there that have basically nothing to work with. Given the tools and tin available to them it looks like they do quite well.
I spent several weeks over there when I was younger. Went in legally with State Department permission as a part of Team USA for Pan-Am, racing a bicycle at the enormous Ronaldo Paseiro Velodrome. Stayed at the Olympic Village in a town called Cohimar, just outside of Havana. I could bore you all with many stories about the Cuban people. The Haves vs. the Have Nots. Doctors working as waiters because they made more money that way. Populace forced to work in pre-determined vocation: you're a cook and you get to edge the roads with a machete. Gorgeous superhighways built by prison labor but with no cars on them, just horse-drawn wagons. And friendly people that would invite you into their home to share what little they had despite their extreme poverty. A man once invited me into his house to purchase anything he had as a souvenir because he needed to buy milk and bread for his children. But he only had enough money for one or the other. A woman offered me her body for five dollars. She wasn't a pros***ute, just a desperate mother trying to feed her family. She cried when I gave her ten dollars and her dignity intact. Crime was almost non-existant because, as one local told me, 'they' are always watching. Get caught commiting a crime and you go to prison. When you are set free you are ***igned a ****py job. Second offense? Longer stay in prison and then you get a different ****py job. Third offense? You just disappear. There isn't any AIDS in Cuba. Those afflicted with the disease in Cuba just disappear, too. Same with gay people. I saw many, many cool old cars *******ized with everything from Russian tractor and/or outboard motor parts. They were quite ingenious in their ability to keep those old barges running. I've got a lot of pix stashed away somewhere. There's probably the largest collection of vintage Harleys in the world parked over there, too. It will all change soon. The disparity between the Haves (those with access to the US dollar via tips, etc.) and the Have Nots (those that work at jobs without access) is too great. They live side by side in huge complexes. The Haves posses food, clothes, alcohol, Nike shoes, shampoo and shop at what is called the Big Store. The Have Nots shop at the Little Store and can buy ****ons. Or lawnmower blades. Maybe toilet paper. But only one roll. But the bottom line is that the people love the USA. It's the government that hates and fears us. I loved Cuba and intend to go back again someday when the people are free. If you haven't been there you can't conceive of how big that celebration will be. dka
Saw the do***entary that has been mentioned, Yank Tanks. The people are so resourceful and good natured. There was one guy that had a beautiful 59 Caddy. He ended up making his own trim for it and became so well versed in the fabrication that he has sold parts to customers in the U.S. Amazing people.
Those cars are the greatest middle finger ever given to Fidel!............think about it, there is some underlying love for America and American Iron that they would swap a Russian diesel into the shell just to preserve their ideal of our country. God bless them. I have an entire party planned the day Fidel croaks, Cuban sandwhiches,mojitos,cigars..........we is gunna have a shindig.
Though it has been said before, the Cubans have to be ingenious. A friend bought one of the refuge boats that made it to Florida, it has a hand laid fibergl*** hull, with a larger amount of freeboard built into it using leftover metal roofing. It is powered by a cement mixer motor turned on its side and mated to a larger drive shaft with a homemade propeller. I don't know how many people it carried, but looks as if it could have carried 6-10 comfortably, though it probably carried more. It is a remarkable thing. really amazing, just goes to show you what can be done or made. I can't wait til these folks a free.
These Guys amaze me. My favorite,a 59 buick.I seen one of these when the Coast Guard pulled up the driver rolled up the window like he didn't want to talk. actual custom touch here.
Mom went there a few years ago and brought me some pictures of somebeautifully restored or at least from the outside restored older cars. When I finally made it home with the 50 ford I bought in Alabama I was having a hard time with the voltage regulator and it seemed something was a miss with the dizzy. I called my mother and told her this...exactly " Mom do you know any guy in his mid 20's or older who JUST GOT off the BOAT!"?... of course she did, found him, brought him over and he took one look at the flathead and said. Screwdriver and some cord, like form a lamp. I brought down an old cord from a lamp and a screwdriver. he took off the cap on the dizzy, removed a burned out wire from the points and made a new one with the cord, then cut a square out of a piece of discarded cardboard and put it all back together.. Told me, OK, that's it, start it.. Sure enough, one turn of the key and it was running again and timed!. Took him like a total of 20 minutes. PS. The feeling here in town is that Castro is definitely dead and his brother is slowly letting things loose down there. Folks can now buy DVD players and My mother communicates with her cousin and old school friends via email every few days. but hasn't been able to receive any pictures form her, and the emails she sends with pictures never make it. Not sure if it's being intercepted or her cousin has a dial up modem. Will ask her to scan and email me the car pics so I can post them. PS Mom left in 62 and grandpa gave her a 68 camaro SS for her graduation from Miami high... I'm still mad she didn't keep it.... Ozzie
I got detained for 1 day and interrogated for taking photo's of Police Officers was the charge. I was not put in a cell but detained because they took my p***port from me and directed me to wait to be questioned in a government office building. I had a little respect for Fidel's cause at the beginning but now realize he is a turn coat and grabbed power for himself as mostly these guys do. Any ways after being detained and questioned and avoiding a beating I was let go and told to get out of Havana. I have determined that Fidel is pasted his use by date and his brother Raoul is also a loser probably worse that Fidel as control goes since he does not really have a supporter base or is recognized as a hero etc. I dont really want to get political as it is all about cars for us, but I will go back when the folks are free, as just by saying what I have now could prevent me from entering there again. The people are great and have suffered a lot, but they have proven to the world Fidel or anybody else for that matter can not keep them down. They have a great multi cultural mix that seems to work fine. The buildings are all run down and the shop stuff is a joke, the government robs their own people by selling them foreign goods at huge mark ups. So these poor folk work their ****s off to get some foreign currency and then go to the government BIG stores to say buy an electric fan which here would cost about US$20 and Fidel charges them something like US$100 for this item and the joke is he is buying this **** in bulk from his Communist buddies in China by the Sea Container load for sweet F#$k all. The attached pic's were taken just outside the Military Hospital that Fidel was staying at the time, probably explains why I was detained, even though I did not know this until they told me, real slick undercover cops.
i believe they were sunk...they should've put them in a museum!! anyone that could make a 59 buick float is good in my book...
The guys in the AD truck made it over here in Florida and built an exact replica of that truck in a chevy dealership down in Miami, FL. It was also on that TV show. A Cuban that works with me taped the show for me off the spanish channel. Thank god it had sub***les. I watched it on mute. Great innovators. 39 plymouth with Yugo motor, Relining old break shoes with asbestos(no mask either mind you), Making a stainless grill for a 55 chevy by hand. Real cool stuff. They make something out of nothing pretty much. I think that AD truck was sold on E-bay but I didn't catch the end of the auction so I dont know how much it sold for.
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