Vintage work crew photos

[Hoosiersmoker]

Just keep hating boys...

My '96 still looks pretty damn good. So does my neighbor's '78. Both original right down to the paint.

AND... Ford never took a penny of government bailout money...

Just a little fun, no hatred

I'm sure there are many Chevy and Mopar haters out there too! I will say post 1980's trucks were pretty stout, I just wouldn't give you 5c for one their cars or SUVs...

[Rikk]

Just a little fun, no hatred

I'm sure there are many Chevy and Mopar haters out there too! I will say post 1980's trucks were pretty stout, I just wouldn't give you 5c for one their cars or SUVs...

I get it, just getting in on the fun.

I've owned all of them over the years, just happened to end up with Fords and had great luck with them. My previous was a 97 F150 that I bought with 34K on it and sold it years later with 309k, still ran great. The diesel pictured above has ~306k on it now and has been trouble free. I can't remember what my neighbor's truck has on it. I think it's around 50k if I remember right. Was his grandfather's who bought it new.

[schuylergrace]

... Ford never took a penny of government bailout money...

But Ford actually did get bailout money. They went, along with Chrysler and GM, to Congress to request $35 billion. Ultimately, Chrysler ($4 billion) and GM (over $13 billion) got funding through TARP, while Ford got theirs--almost $6 billion--through TALF. GM and Ford also went back later and received $30 billion between them to shore-up their credit operations. There were strings attached to all these disbursements--getting rid of corporate jets, company heads cutting their pay to $1.00 per year, and streamlining the array of products they offered--and Ford agreed specifically to improving its corporate fuel economy by investing in more efficient combustion engines and electric vehicles. Some people think that hurt Ford in the long run, but it put them in the lead among the Big Three U.S. automakers when it comes to high-efficiency vehicles, which are becoming more and more popular.

[Toolmaker51]

I learned 18374526 ..18473625 ....... 18527364 .............. 1867532..4?................
So I started over, with the lawnmower, graduated to Harley, got my AA with 3 cyl Lister Petter, without a VW 4 or Fiat 5 available; made serious MBA jump with a slant 6 Dodge......... Wouldn't be doing aircraft 7 or 9 cylinder radials or Ferrari's, yet always gnawing at me this divulgence of our murky past would surface eventually.

Actually, I caught the 18436572 bug in our drive way, failure meant missed date. Classroom and laboratory, the engine compartment of new to me '57 283. Conducted intense gain of function research centered on distributor replacement. The jab; after walking 4 miles for a long enough flat-blade screwdriver to clock the oil pump shaft.
As years went by, found that pattern is not exactly rare, it's numbering sequence of the block.
I used to part off tops of used distributor caps for buddies, appreciating view of the rotor while setting valve lash. Still have one left, for 235 straight 6.
Seemed most of us were GM fans, but just helped a Ford'er Sunday, 1700 miles away. While he's thrashing a Y block, by text and camera phone pics. We thought out loud same instant, "Who'd of thought such a conglomeration of situations might one day coincide?"

The CA auto culture is visible here (Mid West) too, at roughly same population ratio. Not 'tuners', or showroom ready-mades; I mean car and bike builders. Salina, KS, said to be highest concentration. Somewhere in Nebraska there's a legitimate circuit on country roads, cordoned off for the event.
Why not, if it works F1 in Italian cities and Long Beach CA Gran Prix...
Found it! I'd build a mid-engine Factory5 around all aluminum Buick first... https://sorcrace.com/
There's another on rural roads, straightaways and mostly 90° turns, meaning FLAT 90°'s with a drainage ditch, narrow gravel shoulders, no berms or curbs. Reckon Shelby roadster patterns could do that; you know 0-100-0 in a quarter mile.

[jimfols]

18436572
15426378

The SBC fires the same as my FE Ford. Just the cylinders are numbered differently.

[Jon]

Line shaft driven factory and workers. Brazil, 1880.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...y_fullsize.jpg

[neilbourjaily]

Just about the right height when one of those flat belts comes off, to take a man's shoulder off. The first orange packing house I worked, had a flat belt driven belt-and-roll sizer. We had belts everywhere and the equipment to stitch them. Even in modern tech, ca 1975, it was a bear to keep them adjusted.

[Toolmaker51]

Unsure what is in lower left, other than big gears. Driving what, don't know. But definitely a line of vertical boring mills, into the distance.

[Frank S]

Unsure what is in lower left, other than big gears. Driving what, don't know. But definitely a line of vertical boring mills, into the distance.

If you look close at the pair of big gears facing each other you will see they have T slots on their face. and what looks like turned flange rings laying around them and mounted on 1 of them. Maybe set up to turn out mating flanges and 1 guy can watch both operations going on at the same time.

[Toolmaker51]

If you look close at the pair of big gears facing each other you will see they have T slots on their face. and what looks like turned flange rings laying around them and mounted on 1 of them. Maybe set up to turn out mating flanges and 1 guy can watch both operations going on at the same time.

Oh of course! It's a rail shop.
Not gears, they are faceplates, a locomotive wheel visible toward viewer; possibly turning mounted wheels.
To busy critiquing bad lighting, forgot good parts of photograph.
Still cone-drive, running a jack shaft, to get realistic RPM. The final drive is teeth on face plate. Begs the question, how big a vertical shaper cut those teeth? This could be still half a generation before large mills.