Hey, Joe; Is your buddy Mike, w/the white VolksT, Mike Chivetta(sp?). Took me awhile to read the clues - or at least put them together. If it is, I don't think I've ever met him, but know the name & at least some of his cars/projects well. He did(or someone did) a handful of articles/features for Tex Smiths' new(at the time) mag. His ~'24 Dodge woody was very cool. About the only one I haven't seen pics/heard of, is the white VolksT. Sure would like a feature on it. It's got good proportions. Mikes' work is worth looking at. Marcus...
before I move on to 2019, we'll take a step back to October 2018, and the time me and my buddy nearly froze to death, driving the wagon to the speedway cars and coffee. we had some calamity on that trip, other than almost freezing that morning. we almost T-boned an SUV that pulled out in front of us (while we were doing 55), And we also had problems with the fuel tank, the original from the 70's, puking rust into the fuel system, and clogging the filter every 100 miles. I wish I could say I fixed that soon after, but remember, I'm young, dumb and also stupid. . so I drove it that way for all of 2019.
Spring of 2019 rolls around, and one of the first things I went to, was our semi-local VW show. I power parked right up front, and confused people all day as to why a model T was at their show. Now that it drove good enough, and I had some experience behind the wheel, I went somewhere nearly every weekend that summer. I took it out and took some nice photos of it. While coming home from a local show, I stopped a few times trying to adjust my shifter to keep it from popping violently out of 4th gear, and after one of the stops, my clutch cable snapped. after a moment of confusion, I floated it into the right gears, and after a circuitous route through a parking lot to avoid a red light, I made it home. I found it humorous that on the ramps it sits almost level. I made it to my favorite local show on fathers day, I also made it to a few other shows, and to greaserama again. I also went to a newer show, at a local-ish drag strip. the first day it rained, but the second day it was clear and I made a couple p***es! I managed an aerodynamic and hp challenged 12 second p***. In the 1/8th mile. at 52mph. whoo. .
I've looked. and searched. and this is it. that's the only photo I can find of the wagon, the whole year of 2020. and yes, that's a poly fuel cell going in the front. I finally got tired of cleaning the fuel filter over... and over... and over. I drove my vw the whole year, and well, we know what ELSE happened that year. ANYWAY.... on to 2021!
2021 started with good news, I got accepted to bring the wagon to the gathering at the roc! and that got me thinking.. I should make it ride better... and look better. I had already gotten a seat done by @NathanxStewart and decided I needed to tackle the Transmission that popped out of 4th gear, and does it sit crooked? when I pulled out the transaxle, I started cleaning the rear frame and suspension... and umm... yeah... what I found was... un-good. So rather than re-indexing the torsion bars, when they built the car, they just added metal blocks to the bottom of the spring pad, limiting the downward travel of the suspension, and thereby making it ride like a buckboard wagon. remember how I said the car had a little lean to it? well, the p***enger side was failing. It was ripping the bottom of the spring pad off. so.... It needed fixed. I took the torsion plates loose, and cut off the offending blocks... And then formulated a plan. I decided for the purposes of this car, Coilovers made the most sense. so I made a crossmember to mount between the shock mounts, with an arm that bolts to the web of the frame forward of the axles. once I had the crossmember, I had to have the coilovers to mount. cue sketchy things.... but if it works, it works.... once I had built the tabs to double shear the coilovers, I pulled it back apart to paint. and ***embled, with new rotors to loose the wheel adapters, and a set of tow hooks, in case I needed to strap it down. I ****oned it all up, and took it out around town.. Annnnd it sagged like a big dog. not enough spring. so, I convinced a guy from work to let me borrow his scales. yeah, its light, and very light in the nose. honestly I got tired after swapping springs a couple times, and I messed up with my mounts, making them too short for where the spring wanted to sit.. so I threw a set of 500# springs that I had in stock on it, just so I could drive it, and it wound up being mint. on paper it should be stiff as a rock, but it rides great. It went right back into daily driver rotation, and started hitting up shows, and racking up miles. stanberry was rainy, but other trips were great. and after a 3 month pause to build (and sell) a T coupe, I got back to driving the wagon. I stopped on the trip to the rumble drags in September and took these photos. Just a couple weeks after that trip, I drove, Without a single hitch, the 700+ miles to Oklahoma and back. I'll be honest, the best part of the trip, was getting to meet Pat Ganahl in person. After talking to him on the phone for his blog article, It was neat to chat in person, and see him smile at the sight of my bucket of bolts. next up, 2022!
Nope, his last name is Coles , and as far as I know he's never had a 24 dodge.. Ok, thanks. Looks like he does real nice work, esp on that VolksT. Marcus... Oh, & until you posted pics, I never realized just how narrow that thing is. Wow... Wife ever go w/you in that? & I'm not ******** enuf to run w/o any side windows avail for bad weather. At least clip-ins, or pull-up type. .
haha I've done many miles with 2 people in it! including our very own @J.Ukrop ! for reference, the seat is 36 inches wide.
Haha well, that was me. I took that photo and sent it to pat ganahl for his blog. You might recognize the admin building behind it.
Since you referenced it, here's the link to Pat's write up... https://patganahl.com/2019/07/08/the-mysterious-mini-t/
Yupp, I would have posted the link, but I already linked it in post#5... felt a little redundant. It's also not 100% accurate because I have since found more history. good read nonetheless, and an honor. .
I wanna bring this back around! I wonder how it would favor in the Hot Wheels Legends to Life series?! Would love seeing it beside Micky Brown's Isetta creations....
The Jalopy Journal
