When I first moved to Seattle Washington I worked in a local chain tire shop while putting myself through college. Since I was a bigger guy I had the honor of changing commercial truck tires. Being tire shop in the industrial area of Seattle we saw a huge volume of 18 wheelers. For reference next time you see a 18 wheeler go buy look at the tires (they are rather large). While some of these tires are tubeless, the bulk of them are not and require a tube inside. For ten to twelve hours a day I would be changing these tubes out for new ones or repairing them with patches depending on the severity of damage. For the most part we would throw the used inner tubes in the dumpster never to be seen again. We would save some of the nicer ones to re-sell to people in the winter time for tubing in the snow. We had a contract with a rubber recycling company, but they focused on tires only and not inner tubes due to the fact that inner tubes were a negative return on investment due to not enough material to reuse once broken down. So most all the tubes being used are being thrown away and left to rot in our local dumps. I have looked up how long rubber items take to decompose and for the most part it will take longer than a human lifetime.

Being a vintage automotive aficionado I decided that there has to be a way to reuse these inner tubes. Not recycling them, but upcycling them into a useful product that other like minded individuals can use that involves automobiles and day to day life activities. I have listed below pictures of prototypes I’m currently working on.


Tool Rolls
An easy way to carry a tool box in your car with minimal space. Add the tools you want then roll it up and throw it under the seat or in the trunk. The beauty of using rubber is that it won’t scratch your paint and will keep your tools from rattling so you can enjoy the finer things while driving.

Prototypes of a tool roll shown unrolled using differet colors. These differ from the final product a little bit.

Here is the same tool roll rolled up ready to go.

Beer/Soda Cozy
Do you like to keep your beverage cold and your hand warm? We have created a indestructible beverage cozy out of rubber we have farmed from the inner tubes. The cool part is that it flattens nicely when not in use.

Automobile Fender Cover
A clever way to protect your pristine fenders when working on your engine. This is still in the prototype phase and will differ from the picture.

A prototype of a fender cover that will be built out of rubber.

Mens Wallet
For the man who has everything yet wants to be unique and help save the earth at the same time. Pictures pending.

iPad Cozy
A durable yet slim bag that will handle inclement weather and look good doing it. Pictures pending

Kindle Cozy
See iPad cozy

Key Fobs
Rubber key chain

Lunch bag
The most rugged lunch bag ever!!

I’m constantly working on ideas for other items I can build and will update this page when I have images to share.

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Here is the complete article in easy to read .PDF format. Enjoy How to Build a Dirt Track Racer

Good Stuff

Our 1964 GTO came from the factory with a Muncie M21 close ratio 4 speed transmission and 3.90 gear ratio in the rear differential. What do those numbers and names mean? It means the car was ordered to get from A to B as quickly as possible, but not made for long trips on the expressway. When I first started driving our GTO I was pulling around 4000 RPM at 70 MPH. It seemed to handle the RPMs OK, but I could visibly watch the fuel gauge move towards empty. If we were going to enjoy taking the GTO on any sort of road trip we would have to do something about it. We had several options which seemed like good ideas. One was changing the gear ratio to 3.21 or so to help drop the RPMs. This was probably the cheapest and easiest solution, but we would loose the seat of the pants take off feel you get when mashing on the skinny pedal that I had become accustom to.

The solution we chose was to replace the M21 4 speed with a Tremec TKO-600 5 speed. The swap is as close to bolt in as you can be. That being said there is a little body work that needs to be done do the the Tremec being larger than the original transmission. You can compare them in the picture above. In the picture below you can see the stock transmission in the stock location.

Here is the M21 in it's stock location

Front view comparison

Hole cut to clear the Tremec

As you can see there is definitely a size difference and some body work is needed. I used a template and plasma cutter to make sure the hole was as precise as can be. I have heard you can modify the rear transmission mount to lower the transmission so that it will clear without cutting the floor, but it also changes the angle of your drive-line and could cause it to bind at the wrong moment and cause serious failure.

Getting the Tremec in place

The other item I had to address was the fact that our GTO came with a center console. Which meant we would need to offset the shifter. Tremec sells several different top plates to help with this issue. Now that we had the transmission in place and the proper top plate it was time to cover up the gaping hole we cut. A rolled piece of sheet metal cut to fit will work best. Some companies offer this with their transmission kits. The piece needed to be massaged and tacked into place.

Patch panel being fitted

Patch panel from the passenger side

The patch panel needed some work to get it to fit decently. This was probably the most time consuming piece of the project. It could be that I’m a caveman when it comes to metal shaping (getting better) and need to learn finesse. The only other issue we ran into was that now the floor was taller the carpet needed to be “stretched” out. Other than that it fit very well.

Added carpet over the patch panel

This is by far the best modification we have done to our 1964 GTO. We still have the gears to get offline quickly yet can cruise at 70 MPH all day long circa 2100 RPM. We immediately drove it 700 miles on a road trip without any issues. We increased or fuel economy to boot. I would recommend this upgrade to anyone who was thinking about doing it.

Gear Ratio Comparison
M21
1st 2.20 | 2nd 1.64 | 3rd 1.28 | 4th 1.00 | 5th X.XX | R 2.27

TKO 600
1st 2.87 | 2nd 1.89 | 3rd 1.28 | 4th 1.00 | 5th 0.64 | R 2.56

Dog dish hubcaps!

No immediate plans. Need to get the front cowl bolted down to something sturdy and straight. Then align the rest of the body and build supports etc. We are a ways away from even starting this, but it is fun none the less.

Some work here..

The Cadillac 346 Flathead V8 was the durable monobloc V-8 that would go on to help win the war. The 346 Cadillac flathead was the power plant of choice for  the U.S. Army’s M-5 and M-24 tanks. The engine was backed by a  Hydra-Matic, which was an exclusive Cadillac option new for 1941, which also saw action during World War II. Cadillac engineer Harry Barr would later recall that the transmission was very serviceable right from the start, and the improvements resulting from four years of military service would make the postwar versions even better.

In the mid to late 1930′s Cadillac also built a 322 flathead V8 which is very similar to the Cadillac 346. The difference between them was the 346 bore size is 1/8 inch larger. Both engines were designed by John F Gordon, he would later go on and become the COO of General Motors from 1958 to 1965. At the time, the Cadillac flathead possessed some of the finer mechanical accomplishments for an engine. It used pressed-in piston rings (which became an industry standard). The engine also allowed for hydraulic valve adjustment which was state of the art at the time.

Dry Lakes and Hot Rods

There isn’t much information about the Cadillac 346 during the pre-war days. I’m guessing the engine was rather new and did not show up in the local wrecking yards for some speed thirsty guy to find and the odds of a fancy new Cadillac being sold off for parts to private parties was probably rare. That being said I have seen several old photographs with dry lake style cars running the Cadillac 346. Keith Landrigan had a 1932 Ford Roadster that ran a 346. I believe the car is on the cover of the 2nd or 3rd Hot Rod Magazine. His roadster ran a recorded run of 115.83.

Photo by Howard Gribble

High level planning has a vanilla Chevrolet 350 V8 backed by a 700R4 (overdrive). Disc brakes will be added up front along with a power brake booster and dual circuit master cylinder. We will also be adding power steering too. Arm-strong steering is unsavory and should be one of the first conversion anyone does on an older vehicle.  Stay tuned for the project kick off where we will be diving into patch panel replacement.

Here are some more photos.