Annual MG Swap Meet (very small...) in Irvine -- November 22, 2015 (Sunday)

Aftermarket Steering Wheel;  supposedly fits 62 - 67 MGB...  Have not seen this style before, with the larger center hub area.  The Hub that mates to the steering column shaft is riveted to the wheel.  Based on what little I have found in a quick search, this appears to be a 60's product of the UK...  It appears to be very well made.  The wood encapsulates the alloy wheel structure.  A very faint glue line between the two pieces of the half circles can be seen...

MGA Steering Wheel.  A little rough (faded and some cracks in the plastic) but is good for a display piece...  Could be refurbished relatively easily to presentable level...

Not a huge fan of the 3000 MkII (much prefer the 100...) but the nose badge is very nicely made.  Bought this from the same guy I bought the Lancia Dash assembly from last year...

MG TC Radiator Badge (Cloisonne)

British Road Tax Disc.  End of an era.  After 93 years of the rule, starting today (11/23/ 2015), in the UK, no longer have to display the tax disc in the windshield...

Culver City Tool Swap Meet at Andersen Plywood -- November 21, 2015 (Saturday)

One of the best Matchbox cars ever...  The wire wheels were cast with very small windows so that you can see through the "wire spokes."  The whole car is about two inches long...

This is a very small wrench... (about 3 inches long)

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks...  Radiator Badge.  Very nicely made...

Bought this wet stone to sharpen some scissors (can't use the electric knife sharpener for scissors...)  Very interesting aluminum cast holder...

1950 Ford Sedan Interior Door Panel Emblems...  The "shoebox" 
Ford doesn't look anything like the stylized futuristic car in these emblems...

Manhattan Beach Pier -- November 21, 2015 (Saturday) -- Fastest Ride to Pier & Back...

The fastest I've ever ridden to the Manhattan Pier and back.  Averaged 19.5 MPH.  Main reason though is that the wind was assisting...

Strange to see Christmas Trees on the Pier, before Thanksgiving...  It will probably look good at night with the lights lit up...

Gauges previously purchased at the French & Italian Car Show at Woodley Park -- Cleaned the glass... Looks much better...

As purchased...

As purchased...   Need to take the trim ring off & get the rust off & paint?  (don't want to spend the money for chrome work...  the chrome job will cost more than the gauge...)

Don't know what vehicle this is from (Jaeger -- Made in France).  The Oil pressure gauge and the coolant temperature gauges were bought "loose" with this speedometer.  Cleaned & installed the two inner gauges...  Still missing the fuel gauge and whatever was at the bottom of this gauge...

This is the other gauge.  Removed the bezel and "cleaned" it up.  This gauge is for the Italian market (labels are in Italian).  Don't know what it's from either.  Could be from a Lancia...  Or?

Marina Del Rey -- November 19, 2015 (Thursday)

Catalina -- The gap in the middle is where Two Harbors is...

Part 6: From the Long Beach Swap Meet (11/8/2015) -- Toyota Gold Badge Kit & Kennedy Tool Box

Didn't know that these types of Gold Badge kits were OEM (accessory).  The part # starting with PT indicates an accessory part.  Since it's manufactured in March of 2002, it's for a Camry from 5 or 6 generations ago...  The shift knob (AT) was in the box too...

Yet another Kennedy Machinist's tool box (sitting in front of 3 others in this picture...).    This is the larger width box (I had 3 of these already & one is shown directly behind with the drawer labels).  Someone fabricated a hinged front lid for the drawers out of diamond plate and riveted the cover in place.  It doesn't match but it's actually been nicely fabricated and fits well.  They had to weld in receptacles in the top of the lid (not visible when closed) for the locking pins to go into (when the top lid is closed, the pins come down & lock the front lid in place).  I think I'll spray paint the lid to be a little closer in color to the box (or remove the front cover all together...).  Didn't really need yet another Kennedy tool box but the price was such that it was impossible to pass up...  Whatever number you're guessing, it was even less!

LA Auto Show - Press Day

Interesting Concept (go to the drivela.org site for details...).  Already started so a little late to find out about...

One of the best things at the Auto Show.  As the sign says, a 1/3rd scale model that appears to be nearly perfect...  Amazing...

Poor picture of a not so spectacular car.  Big wheels/tires, very small greenhouse, wide rear track, low nose...  Put these features on ANY car and it would look good.  Nearly a 3D representation of a flashy designer's sketch (which looks good as a drawing but you may not really want to drive it or live with it...).

toyota's pushrod nascar V8 cutaway...  

Toyota 3-wheel leaning narrow vehicle.  This thing looked completely ready for production (all the glass was glass and had production type of marking on it).

Volvo's concept of a self driving car's driving environment...

Concept Golf...  Big Wheels/Tires, small greenhouse, wide rear track...

GMC's engine cutaway display (mostly high-tech pushrod motors)...  Not such an interesting picture...  Behind the concrete pillar is the BMW i8 (can see a little bit of it between the pillar and the engine display...), which may be the polar opposite of a GMC pickup truck...

Alfa Romeo had the most evocative booth for me...  Unfortunately, the new cars don't look very good compared to the old cars they had on display...

Alfa has a display setup after my own heart.  Consisting of old car parts and paraphernalia...

The Maserati booth was right next to the Alfa booth.  The best part of the Maserati was the 100 year anniversary badge on the wheels' center caps (1014 to 2014)...

New NSX...  Had almost no reaction to this...

Put together by Frank Killam.  Frank was a co-worker when I worked at GM Design Concept Center California.  Frank was a clay sculptor at the time.  We used to go to lunch in his first generation CRXsi which looked not that different from this Vega (black-on-black, lowered, racing seats, etc.).  The CRXsi had several hundred thousand mils on it (I think Frank commuted about 80 miles each way) and all service was done at a Honda dealer...

There was a display of 80's Mercedes cars/wagons by some sort of restoration business called Mercedes Motoring...  It was in the downstairs aftermarket area.  I don't know what they were there to do (sell cars?  solicit restoration business?) & can't see how the cost of displaying at the LA Auto Show could have a good ROI...

A beautiful car, it's not...

The back of the car looks like it was cut off with a band-saw (built to the letter of the regulation for length...) -- absolutely flat 2-Dimensional...

GT3 RS -- One of the best parts of the car...

Sat in the car to take this picture...  The seat fit me like a vise -- perfect fit but getting out was a challenge (very high sides on the seat...).

Bad picture of the car from behind but maybe it's a good thing.  The outrageously large wing is not pretty or integrated looking...  (looks a little like something the aftermarket would do).  This car costs over $200,000...