HG's thread of miscelaneous stuff

[Low Elco]

Thanks for taking us along, neet stuff!

[hgs_notes]

These are some pics I took this summer at the French Lake junkyard. Starting with some old panels...


Some fresh meat up by the office...




Some REAL old iron. Yes these are in the U-pull-it area...


Since I was interested in the 47 Olds I wanted to see if this yard had much for parts available. I don't know if they will have what I need (assuming I even get the car), but it's a start...




Old muscle...






An Opel?




I really dig this old Volvo wagon. I could do something with this...

[flashed]

I see all kinds of Firebird stuff I would like to have and the Volvo and Opel are way too nice to be in there .We just dont have yards like that here .

[Ol Blue K20]

Man, some cool stuff in there..

[hgs_notes]

More pics. Always more pics. Last week I went through a small town south of Mankato, there is a junkyard there. This was out front and I'm guessing was for sale by them.


This was a little further south, maybe in Wells, at a small welding shop. Looks like they keep it as their scrap bin.


Later I was doing some work in Fairmont. Next door was a small engine repair place that I think is a part time business. Nobody was home. Behind the dollies and junk is a 75 Honda CB-750...


There was a tarp over a bunck of stuff behind the bike, but I wasn't going to dig into it without permission. All this other stuff is out in the open. Like this cushman cart...


And this Harley...


And next to a machine shed that may or may not still be a body shop was a Shelby. Not the super cool cobras or mustangs, but the dodge version. Fairly rare car though.


Just to the east was a closed up ag business of some kind. Lots of old junk laying in the weeds. This old International semi was the only thing worth taking pics of though.






6 banger


These things on the front seem like part of the suspension but I really have no idea. Made by Cleco. Looks like a shock absorber mount to the front of the leaf spring pack.


Another town, another pair of old cars...




I like the early broncos and this one seems pretty solid after a few parts were replaced on the body. Its parked under a canopy that would have been over gas pumps decades ago.




Nice plow truck in St James. Late 80's? When did Chevy start the Z71 package?

[flashed]

Any more adventures with pics ?

[YBNORML]

Originally Posted by flashed

Any more adventures with pics ?

Agreed! I live vicariously through this thread. Everything around here has been picked over or recycled

[hgs_notes]

I have some pics I will try to get loaded in the next couple days. With the holidays and other things going on the past month there hasn't been much. Too many other distractions.

[hgs_notes]

Gonna take a few minutes this morning to post a few things. Heres a pretty damn nice plow truck...






Then later in the day I stiopped at one of my favorite junkyards to see if they had any dana 60 axles I could use. They didn't, but they started taking in motorcycles and snowmobiles and I found a near perfect seat for my KZ750 for $10!


And its a junkyard, so of course there were other things to look at. There always is.














Some days later I was on my to NE for a job and stopped to eat in Worthington. Its on I-90 in SW MN. I was a bit surprised to see these things in the parking lot behind the ground round...


I think maybe they were a bit optimistic on how many they would need.


Later fellas.

[flashed]

Thanks for the pics ,dang I want that Jeep.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by flashed

Thanks for the pics ,dang I want that Jeep.

Its at Misgens Auto Parts. Give them a call.

About a month ago I had to go to Chicago for some training. It was done right downtown and I spent some time in the evenings just strolling around. I took several pics, but it was with my crappy phone, which gets even crappier when its cold out. Really grainy pics, but still some interesting sites.

First, I'm a huge fan of the Blues Brothers movie. One of my all time favorites. So when I saw the train rattling by overhead my first thought was: Jake: How often does the train go by? Elwood: So often that you won't even notice it.


Lower wacker drive?


I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, it was pretty nice but I thought the building they were in was real cool.






A couple of hard core motorcyclists were out...




I don't know why this was here...


Unusual parking garage...


Thats a lot of rivets...


My aura has just been feeling filthy and my chakra has been way out of wack for a couple years. Who knew I could find a specialist?


Just being a tourist...








View from my room...




This one was for my friend James, the scott.


Just a couple oddball pics from the car wash. One with flash and one without. Same time and no other changes.

[Palf70Step]

I recognize a few of those places in da windy city. Other than the Blues Brothers, it's been a long time since I actually saw the city. Thanks for the pics HG.

[flashed]

Cool pics as always ,thanks for taking us along . I better hold off on the Jeep ,I cant keep up with what I already have .

[rambler]

its been 15 years since I've been there.. some great places to eat.. and a nice place to go is Second City comedy shop if you like improv...

[hgs_notes]

Some pics from the junkyard in Windom...










This one was behind a shop at a junkyard in Sioux City I think...


When I first started dating Connie she would joke that maybe I was a serial killer (you never know, she says). So I went with it and its been one of those running jokes we have had. When I was at the body shop one day I noticed this tag for the trunk latch pull handle. I sent it to her immediately. Notice the guy is running.


Also at the shop now is her brothers new project. He has been looking for years for the right deal at the right time and found this hertz edition vette. Rear quarter damage.






I have that rear bumper cover in my garage to hang on the wall or something some day.

I was in Minneapolis working downtown. The skyways are how everyone gets around the city. Nice in the winter or bad weather. You can tour the entire city through them.


Here is the new Vikings stadium being built...


In the older buildings are still some remains of the original boilers. These were typically built during the construction of the building. Dig a basement, build a boiler room and install the boiler, then build the rest of the building around it. It costs money to have them scrapped and removed so in many cases they are left in place. If they have room for the replacement boiler, which is usually much smaller. As the buildings were updated with better insulation, windows and doors the btu requirement dropped significantly and the boilers have become much more compact. There are boilers now the size of a suitcase where 2 or 3 could replace this beast.


Another building in the same complex has most of the bricks still in place around the boiler.


In the firebox...


That upper plate of the firebox is called the crown sheet and is the primary location for the start of a boiler explosion. Scale settles onto it from the tubes above and its not an easy area to get cleaned off on some designs. It also is more prone to corrosion. So it typically thins from corrosion and is running hotter because of the scale and sludge setting on it reducing heat transfer. Then it gets exposed soon with a loss of feed water and will get red hot if the burner isn't shut down. Once that plate is that hot if water is added and hits that plate it rapidly expands to steam (flashes). It can expand to an enormous volume, like upwards of 16,000:1 (depends on temperature, etc), so a gallon of water becomes like 16,000 gallons of steam nearly instantly. Boiler goes boom, people die, building falls down.

Your lesson for today. If you come across a super hot boiler, do NOT add water. Just shut it down, call 911 and evacuate the building. In many states there is a code rule that a boiler shutdown switch be installed outside the boiler room door (please don't play with it) that will shut the boilers down without having to enter the boiler room. Kind of like the gas pump shut offs at the gas station.

I can't stress enough the don't add water thing. This has always been the rule and everyone with knowledge of boilers should know this, but you would be surprised how often experienced people do just that. Many have died as a result.

On that note I will cool things down by posting a pic of an ice vending machine. This is in Waterloo, IA. Add your money, make your selection and the ice is dispensed in bags to your right.

[Ol Blue K20]

Awesome ride as usual, Thanks Mike!

[Indian113]

I love taking trips with you. Some of your pictures make me want to go and check it out myself. Thanks so MUCH

[dan42]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Gonna take a few minutes this morning to post a few things. Heres a pretty damn nice plow truck...






Then later in the day I stiopped at one of my favorite junkyards to see if they had any dana 60 axles I could use. They didn't, but they started taking in motorcycles and snowmobiles and I found a near perfect seat for my KZ750 for $10!


And its a junkyard, so of course there were other things to look at. There always is.














Some days later I was on my to NE for a job and stopped to eat in Worthington. Its on I-90 in SW MN. I was a bit surprised to see these things in the parking lot behind the ground round...


I think maybe they were a bit optimistic on how many they would need.


Later fellas.

That Tesla station was in Worthington? Seriously? I have cousins that grew up there, we visited them in the summer, and the only thing I remember is the disgusting mud bottom algae choked smelly lake we used to swim in and get instant ear infections. It's hard to imagine Teslas in Worthington.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by dan42

That Tesla station was in Worthington? Seriously? I have cousins that grew up there, we visited them in the summer, and the only thing I remember is the disgusting mud bottom algae choked smelly lake we used to swim in and get instant ear infections. It's hard to imagine Teslas in Worthington.

I think its because it was a convenient location on the freeway. I'd bet they have charging stations set up along the major freeways every so many miles to keep the cars moving down the road.

[Low Elco]

Actually saw a Tesla plugged into a charging station at the Hyatt in Wichita, Ks over the weekend. We all thought it was pretty neat.

[hgs_notes]

I saw this piece of art on the sidewalk outside my lawyers office...




Here are a few from the place in Morgan I've posted before. The owner told me back then that he had kept a studebaker for himself. Looks like I found it. I hadn't looked in the old main shop before.


Another chunk of old iron in there too.


And theres an old parts bike in a pile outside. Its a 71 Honda CB500. I was surprised it was a 4 cylinder.

[hgs_notes]

This next set of pics is from a location that is quite odd. Just east of Rosemount is a large area that looks like it was a huge industrial plant of some kind. I've been all over the country in all kinds of businesses and production plants and I couldn't make out heads or tails of this place. So one day last week I had some time to spare and got a closer look.

Along the south side of county road 46 I think are these...


Northeast of those you can see a set of smoke stacks...


There was a road through the woods that was blocked off for vehicle traffic, but there were people tracks through the snow and I didn't see a trespassing sign, so I went for a walk.


Closer...


These things aren't really smoke stacks. Or at least not from the bottom up a few levels. I went inside one and looked up at a solid concrete ceiling. And from outside looking up into the doorways above it looked more like rooms. Maybe the top section is for venting something.

There was one standing building just to the north of these stacks. Completely empty. The only signs identifying anything I saw were a simple painted on "BLDG A", BLDG B, etc. There was a lot of graffiti. This is the west end of the building near some large concrete tanks.


North of that building was a large concrete holding pond. I don't know what else to call it. Looking down the side...


Doug was there. It looked like there was an opening further along...




More graffiti, lots of it.












I walked back to my car and headed further north. There was a road into the site with fairly fresh car tracks so I went looking for that. Before I found that road though I had to stop and check this freaky place out...






Looking west you can see another similar structure or foundation...


So I continued my journey around to the north and see these concrete structures in the woods. They look like the start to a bridge to no where...


And there were a couple buildings like this in the woods...


And another set of the funky smokestacks that aren't smokestacks.


Around all the other places where roads or trails go into the site are posted for trespassing. The place I walked into must have been missing the sign. The whole place just gives off an area 51 vibe. To me it looks military like, but not really. So further investigation was required. I needed answers.

I saw signs around the property calling it UMore Park. A google search brought me to this...

http://www.umorepark.umn.edu/index.htm

Weird enough as it is. Some "Under the Dome" type crap going on here. But the history was what I wanted which brought me here...

http://www.umorepark.umn.edu/about/G...orks/index.htm

Hard to believe really. That much time, money and effort put into building something to support the war and it gets used for about 10 months and abandoned. Makes you really think hard about the sacrifices that were made by the generations before mine to fight a war. Look around now or over the past decade and you would never know we have been fighting in foreign lands almost all of the past decade and longer.

I'm not longing for the days of massive wars. I'm just appreciative of what those before me have done. This is ringing in my head a little louder tonight because I just watched the new Brad Pitt movie, Fury. I saw American Sniper last week and it was good. I really liked it and I appreciate the sacrifices made by those guys too. But Fury makes it a pale comparison when you think of what was endured by our soldiers. It's much like Band of Brothers and I recommend you see it.

[ERASER5]

Those are cool and just a bit freaky. Modern day Stonehenge looking stuff. I wonder if there are any local fake stories for tourists or Freshmen students? I could think up a few I'm sure.

[rambler]

thank you.. I love learning about this kind of "hidden history"

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Unusual parking garage...

That looks like the parking garage in the Steve McQueen move 'The Hunter' that the bad guy drove off of near the end. Internet said it was Marina Towers parking garage?