Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Spectre said:
Do you really want me to trot out the list of European manufacturers that did the exact same things? I'll give you a hint, not even Porsche was immune to putting crap on the roof instead of paint.
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I look forward to that list! I can think of Opel and Ford (who takes orders from Detroit), a bunch of dead british marques that nobody remembers and the extremely limited Volvo 262C but that's about it. That Porsche doesnt even have a roof to put paint on, that's a targa top :p

Putting vinyl on cars who already had a roof strikes me as extremely odd, but it was the 70's (or 1985 if you were GM) so everyone was probably too busy doing drugs (playing with the mobile phone if you were GM) to really care how durable it would be.
 
AiR said:
I look forward to that list! I can think of Opel and Ford (who takes orders from Detroit), a bunch of dead british marques that nobody remembers and the extremely limited Volvo 262C but that's about it. That Porsche doesnt even have a roof to put paint on, that's a targa top :p

Putting vinyl on cars who already had a roof strikes me as extremely odd, but it was the 70's (or 1985 if you were GM) so everyone was probably too busy doing drugs (playing with the mobile phone if you were GM) to really care how durable it would be.
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I had one of those Porsches. The Targa roof actually had metal under the vinyl, and of course the "hoop" was vinyl over sheetmetal as well.

I also had an XJC which of course had the vinyl roof.

BMW 2002s and all the coupes up to the E24 were available with vinyl roofs from the Bavarian factory, including the Bavaria coupe.

Mercedes W123 coupes had a black vinyl roof option, as did the earlier 70s coupes.

Even Ferraris came with vinyl roofs. the original Berlinetta and the later 512BB had this as options.

VW got into the act, too. The Hippie Bus was available with a vinyl roof in the 70s.

Maserati's vinyl roofs were (in)famous.

Audis were known to come with them, too.

Basically, if you were a manufacturer anywhere, you had a vinyl roof option in the 70s, if you didn't already ship some standard with the cars. So, no, it's not just an American thing.
 
Must be the dry climate and the long production run (well into the 80's) that has preserved so many Chryslers and Buicks with vinyl tops that they now ended up on Youtube for us all to lament then :)

Did it have body coloured paint under the vinyl?
As for random thought of the day, when are those nano paints that repair themselves going to show up, I want them now.
 
Those paints have shown up, but they're only on Nissans/Infinitis for now.

Most of the cars that had vinyl roofs had body paint underneath, but many didn't.

Personally, I think the vinyl roof idea was hideous - but apparently everyone in the 70s thought it was a great idea.
 
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Add Vaz/Lada to the manufacturers list too. You could order a model of the old 2101 that was called ES, and it had a white vinyl roof. Didn't make the car look any better, or improve the quality, but still! ;)
 
So I was looking at the brochure for my car to check the transmission ratios, and this is what it has listed:

1st: 3.357
2nd: 2.087
3rd: 1.469
4th: 1.150
5th: 1.194
6th: 0.975

Final: 3.944 or 3.087

How the heck can 5th be a shorter gear than 4th? :? (It certainly isn't that way when I drive it!) Brochures for my car from other countries all have the same ratios listed, too.
 
Spectre said:
Those paints have shown up, but they're only on Nissans/Infinitis for now.

Most of the cars that had vinyl roofs had body paint underneath, but many didn't.

Personally, I think the vinyl roof idea was hideous - but apparently everyone in the 70s thought it was a great idea.
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Odd I would think they all would have had body colored paint underneath due to the whole body being dipped in paint. Or did they not do that back then?
 
argatoga said:
Odd I would think they all would have had body colored paint underneath due to the whole body being dipped in paint. Or did they not do that back then?
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They didn't all dip the body, in fact at least in American factories the paint was applied by spray gun.
 
Spectre said:
They didn't all dip the body, in fact at least in American factories the paint was applied by spray gun.
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Did they prime them like that too?
 
The dip (ED) is not body coloured, it's a grey base primer so you have something to paint on.
 
Exactly - the primer coats were applied by dipping, the body color was applied by spray gun. The primer/dip for the Series III, for example, was a red substance and the thermoplastic top coat was applied via spray.
 
Yup, like this
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CT1zyXEhII[/YOUTUBE]

If one were to apply paint that way it'd result in horrible runs.
 
There are some paints where you could apply them that way and not get runs, but those paints are all illegal now as you cannot do that with water-based/low-VOC paints.

One related process that's gained some interest is the thought that one could apply a powder coat to a car that way.
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZuDYIt0rE[/YOUTUBE]

:lol:
 
EyeMWing said:
!! Yes please.
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Not going to happen as long as we have ecowackos and ecoweenies around. Apparently one of the ingredients of the prep solution is cyanide. And despite the fact that it's a minute trace and would be completely contained and never leaked, guess how likely it is to receive ecomentalist approval.

Imagine a surface as durable as the Glock Tenifer finish, but in normal car colors and with normal car reflectivity/glossiness and you get the idea. Can we start shooting the ecomentalists now?
 
CrazyRussian540 said:
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZuDYIt0rE[/YOUTUBE]

:lol:
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I guess they didn?t have automatic gearboxes in the america of the 1920ies? When exactly did America go "wrong" on that topic and changed to automatic gearboxes? Is there any point in time where there was a key moment where america decided to ditch the manual?

Would be great to know just in case you?d get your hands on a timemachine at some point ... :mrgreen:
 
It occurred when we installed the Interstate highway system, cars became wildly popular, GM killed off some mass transit systems, and traffic jams became common.
 
I was under the impression that automatics have been around since at least the 30s, if not necessarily common.
 
Spectre said:
Not going to happen as long as we have ecowackos and ecoweenies around. Apparently one of the ingredients of the prep solution is cyanide. And despite the fact that it's a minute trace and would be completely contained and never leaked, guess how likely it is to receive ecomentalist approval.

Imagine a surface as durable as the Glock Tenifer finish, but in normal car colors and with normal car reflectivity/glossiness and you get the idea. Can we start shooting the ecomentalists now?
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I've already started.
 
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