Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
Either way it seems like I'm a lucky guy. Perhaps fatalistically looking back it is a mirror-Cal that I'm alive today. I was kinda crazy, never thought I would live long, and I embraced a lot of destructive behavior that could be looked upon as suicidal. Basically I did not want to live a mundane boring life and everytime I had a choice I always took the one with the risky outcome.
That Jeep I built, my friends all thought I would get killed driving it because it was so fast. Can't imagine another vehical to jack up and install a large powerful motor into than a Jeep other than maybe a Volkswagon Bug. Basically a suicide machine like in the song.
I'm thinking the next big move for me is three years from now. I'll be 59 1/2 or 60, and I'm thinking about just quiting my job to do something not boring or safe.
Cal
dshfoto
Well-known
Meet up on for Sunday the 7th, at 1:00, Puck Fair? -- Guess the place is still open? I plan to be there.
Steve H.
Steve H.
Yes, Steve... Cal has confirmed that it isn't closing in the near future.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
Thanks for posting the shot of my old Jeep that I named "Gypsy." I installed a Corvette engine, a Ford 9 inch Posi rear with Lincoln Continental disc brakes, and a 200 pound cast iron NV4500 transmission with an overdrive and underdrive. Lots of aircraft parts were also installed from when I worked at Grumman.
Realize that I built basically a Hum Vee before there was a Hum Vee. I considered my Jeep an armoured urban assault vehical. Not seen on the front bumper is the red, white and blue paint from cars that I hit.
The red paint is from a brand new Toyota Celica that I drove the drivers side door into the front fender when the driver opened his door into traffic by a Staples in LIC/Astoria. This young kid gets out of the car all hot with two of his friends and made a mistake of getting in my face. I gave him a stern warning to cool down or I'll have no choice but put him down. His friends stood off, understood that I was ready, and if required at least one of them would get taken out. Ends up the kid had no insurance, the car wasn't his, and it suspiciously had a temporary paper license plate because it was a brand new car that had not been fully registered yet.
The blue paint is from a Hun-Die 4-door that I T-boned right after a light turned green. The Hun-Die tried to make a left turn when I had the right of way. I wasn't going but maybe walking speed when I suddenly made a 4-door Hun-Die immediately into a 2-door Hun-Die. The roof caved in like someone dropped an I-beam on the roof, indicating that I bent the car into a banana. Then the driver decided to take off, and a chase began, as I pursued them untill they decided they were caught and stopped. Ends up it was a bunch of children, not kids, that were going for a joy-ride with the girl in the passenger seat's parents car. The oldest kid in the car was maybey 14-15 years old and the youngest maybe 6-7. I think I pretty miuch came close to totaling the Hun-Die, and what was so remarkable is the Hun-Die truely acted like my Jeep's air-bag.
So the first two accidents involved others breaking the law, but the white paint happened out in the Hamptons where there is a left hand merge to get onto the LIE at exit 70. This white car with California plates decides to cut in, and I decide that this guy is a entitled jerk, so I don't let him in. This esculates to where this entitled guy gives me the finger and then becomes determined to cut in. Anyways I kinda take out his drivers side quarter panel and stop when my bumper is inbedded into his door. He now is really pissed, but he can't get out. I take my seatbelt off getting ready for armed conflict. It is summer so the Jeep has no doors or top. When traffic moves the driver pulls up, un-pins his door and gets out to fight. He tries to throw a punch, but I block it smashing his fore arm against the roll bar, then I kinda kick him in the chest with the sole of my shoe, but in a manner that is really only a strong shove backwards, so I can get up to stand on my seat. One hand is on my rollbar, the other on my windshield frame, and my next move is a soccer kick into this guys face to end the conflict.
Meanwhile my biking buddy/friend who is built like a shorter version of Arn-old is already standing, and this Califirnian dude's girlfriend is asking my friend Mike, "Please don't beat up my boyfriend."
Somehow the California hot-head decided it was not worth getting his butt kicked in, and he got back into his car and drove off. I likely caused thousands of dollars worth of damage, but in the end as a conselation prize he eventually got infront of me and was able to cut-in front of perhaps a quarter mile of traffic waiting to make that left turn.
For those of you that are younger than me, understand that a lot of this is carryover culture from the 1970's. I grew up thinking I could get maimed or slaughtered in Vietnam, in the mid-seventies was that 1974 recession that had double digit unemployment, and double digit inflation, and NYC was almost like Detroit is today. Part of the culture at that time was that we had no future, street fighting was very common, and generally people didn't care.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
This month I didn't confirm because I have been so busy, but in May the guy I asked seem to indicate that it seems demolition seems to be postponed indefinately.
Cal
stompyq
Well-known
That's a seriously cool Jeep Cal. Can't remeber if you sold it or still have it. If you stull have it you need to drive it over to the meetup. We can all do another Cal gear porn shoot!!
Particular
a.k.a. CNNY, disassembler
These things can drag on for a long time.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Pro-Mone,
I bought it for $5K in 1988 with only 20K miles on it. Funny thing is I bought it from litterally a little old lady who only used it as a farm vehicle. Drove cross country several time New York to New Mexico. Did a lot of "rock crawling" in the Santa Fe National Forest when I lived there for a year and a half.
The bumpers I had made at Grumman, and they were made out of 6061 four inch square extruded aluminum that formed wrap around bumpers.
With 350 HP, 400 foot pounds of torque, and a weight under 3000 pounds without the doors and cab it was really fast. The idle was loopy and uneven, and the exhaust was deep and throaty. Under full acceleration it sounded like a Nascar on a straightaway.
I only recently sold it because I lost my storage. I was saving it for when I was going to retire as my "old man's car." Scramblers are kinda rare with their longer wheelbase and were made for only 3 years. Half cabs like mine are another novelty.
Anyways this vehical kinda made me famous, because I was known to drive like a fighter pilot. When my Jeep was fresh and clean looking, I use to get notes with telephone numbers left under my windshied wipers,"If you ever want to sell, please call..."
Without the doors and top the feeling was very close to riding a motorcycle. BTW I drove around a lot in my wanderings.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
GEAR ALERT: I'll be bringing out my Plaubel 69W Proshift for Randy. This 6x9 120 camera has shifts and a Schneider 47/5.6 that is a 21mm FOV equiv. I'll also be bringingout my black SL2-MOT that recently just came back from Sherry. This camera is the results of merging a parts camera and a shelf queen that had a dead meter and a desilvering prism. This 40 year old camera is virtually like new and will be featuring my rare 50 Lux "E60." I think I will bring my IIIG rigged with my Pentax-L 45/1.9 that is the rare silver version. This is the only LTM lens Pentax ever made.
I'll be bringing 14 of those 1 liter bottles to distribute. I already reserved 4 for Christian.
Cal
I'll be bringing 14 of those 1 liter bottles to distribute. I already reserved 4 for Christian.
Cal
Range-rover
Veteran
For sure, that's some jeep.
Bob
Bob
stompyq
Well-known
That's a real pity. Would have loved to see that monster. Would have gone well with your Pentax 67 setup
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Bob,
Funny thing is that I use to drive without the top and doors in New Mexico topless (meaning without no shirt) wearing these beige shorts that closely matched my skin tone. Took a while for me to realize that all the double takes were from people thinking I was driving around naked.
Also understand that I worked at Los Alamos National Lab at the time, working on one of Ronald Ray-Gun's secrete Star Wars projects, but my hair style was this windblown look where I used this stuff called "Hair Epoxy" that claimed to be "Wind Tunnel Tested." I would simply comb my hair and my hair would get wind tunneled into a sculpture that kinda resembled dregs with straight hair.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Pro-Mone,
The Jeep projected a lot of personality and was an extension of my personality.
That truck was a beast. One time I took this engineer I didn't like that I was forced to work with to go on a lunchtime deli run. I learned that the reason that this guy drove two Volvos is that he once was almost killed in a car accident. It was really-really mean, but I kinda tricked him into going out on a this deli run as a passenger in my Jeep.
On the way back to work I started racing around, while explaining that Jeeps are one of the most unsafe vehicles ever made and that they have a great propensity to roll over and kill people.
Scott said, "You are doing 35 mph in a school zone," in a paniced way, and I futhered his fear of dying by explaining that due to my oversized tires that there is a 20% speedometer error and that we are actually going precisely 42 mph. I then proceeded to accelerate further because a steep crown in the road would launch my Jeep into the air right before the driveway to an armed security guard at the gate of the military industrial complex at Grumman.
When we hit the crown of the road, Scott was holding onto the grab bar on the dash and the door handle with red knuckles, and we were doing 55 mph or 80 feet per second. We caught some big air where for about one second or 80 feet the Jeep was not in any contact with the ground.
I really didn't know how or what would happen when we landed, but meanwhile this old man with a pistol (the guard) ran into his guard shack for cover. The rear axel touched the pavement first, the front axel second, and then I hit the brakes with the precision of a Navy jet pilot landing on an aircraft carrier. At this time I has the Ford 9 inch rear with the Lincoln Continentail disc brakes, so the Jeep just squated like a BMW with ABS. No Corvette motor at this time.
So I'm fully stoped at the gate and the old man guard runs out of the guard shack with his hand on his gun ready to draw his weapon. Meanwhile I'm laughing so hard that I'm crying. I point to Scott in the passenger seat who at this point is in a catatonic state of shock, and the guard starts laughing.
The guard could not speak because he couldn't stop laughing. He motioned to me with his hand wiping his butt and pointing to Scott to communicate that Scott likely pooped in his pants. Then the guard waved me in, even though Scott and I didn't show him our badges.
Scott ended up quiting not too long after that.
Cal
ornate_wrasse
Moderator
Great story, Cal. You are a master storyteller!
stompyq
Well-known
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Ellen,
Interesting how profound 1970's culture prevails in my personality.
Never thought I would live this long, especially since I embraced mucho destructive behavior and embraced a lot of big risk.
"Still crazy after all these years." Paul Simon.
"I don't care." The Ramones.
"I wanna be sedated." The Ramones.
Meanwhile NYC is being made into a safe haven for the rich.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Pro-Mone,
I did.
Also know that for 17 years I kinda worked like a Navy Seal within a Fortune 500 Company that was once the fouth largest aerospace company in the U.S.
Pretty much my job was being a thug and doing whatever was required to get the job done. I had a network of connections and all the resources of a large company that once employed 35K people. Sometimes I had to threaten managers of other departments to get parts I wanted. Pretty much was ruthless as well as crazy. Because I did impossible things I got performance reviews stating that "Cal is like a one man army" and this was in an institution where perhaps 70-80% of the employees were veterans.
I had a lot of friends, but I also had many people who hated me. No boundries was my rule. Also know I had a lot of power and I knew how to abuse it. Work was kinda fun because I kinda wasn't supervised either and couldn't be controlled.
My boss loved me. One time at work I went to his office for a surprise visit. I told him that I had nothing to do. He told me to go to the Bethpage library, get a library card, and go read a book.
Another time he told me to take a Grumman truck home (like a UPS truck) because a lab was being closed down, and my mission the next day was basically take anything I or we could use. I was even sent an assistant where we stole and pillaged a lab. During this process we also had a lot of fun destoying the place. It was basically a free for all. Basically looting without breaking the law with a bit of CSI. Jack and I kinda made it like a bunch of TV crime shows.
"Hey Jack, I wonder if there is anything in this cabinet I wanna steal." "Gee Cal let me know if there is anything good so I can get some."
"In today's episode of this old lab Cal and Jack destoy the lab and create wreckless damage trashing the place."
Anyways I miss my old job. I had a lot of fun. I can only imagine how I could exploit my friends who were tool and die makers in a prototype shop to make me custom camera parts or even a complete camera. I had unbelievable resources at my disposal. It was a great place for an artist to work, especially one with bad boundries that was inherently aggressive.
Cal
kkdanamatt
Well-known
Range-rover
Veteran
Sorry I was late, Retail can be a "" "" at times hope to get there
earlier, nice to see everyone.
Bob
earlier, nice to see everyone.
Bob