Spring?

There are signs of spring in south Sweden; The sun is-a-shining. Birds are loud and annoying. The white hard light that makes trolls burst in no time hit the workshop windows like laser rays. But the road is dry and the time is right to optimize cold start. 

 

Spring is what we're all looking for and warm weather makes us all feel fine. All of us? Nope. The early sunlight brings stress too. Because we all know what's coming up next. Spring and Summer. Race, Shows, Party...and your ride needs to be ready to run.

Everything's cool...but the clock is ticking. 

Salt Slush Saturday Sun. 

Pictured: Magnus and Chicko-The-Dog in waffle battle. Magnus won.

But you cannot dwell in the sun if you're a man with a plan. 

Magnus have plans. A million plans. At least.

 

 Kalle is in transmission mode too. The Tremec TKO has not arrived to its final destination yet, but the Camaro has reached another level and Kalle is planning to gear up.

 When not serving as Salt Slush CFO, Carina is in engine bay mode...

 

..cleaning, painting and preparing for the Rocket to reach the Ride. 

It's still cold outside, but spring is coming up and therefore the mechanical puzzle is coming together and yes, a test drive confirmed clutch function.

Lillebil. A Salt Slush fan who have seen more springs than most of us will ever see. Her view is basically that we need to get our shit together soon.

Me? Since the road were dry, I managed to make a 5=5 this week....meaning....a different commuter car each day this week.

Here's what; 

Pre-war Monday = 1941 Buick Super Coupe

Art Deco Tuesday = 1938 Oldsmobile Coupe

Post War Wednesday = 1946 Freedom Ford Coupe

Modern man Thursday = Cadillac CTS

Feel good Friday =1979 Chevy C20
 

Summary; it's getting colder again. Spring is not here yet. But summer will come this year too and we better get ready.

Stay hard on your way down

According to science we start to rot as we celebrate our 30th birthday. Physically. The heart is pumping less blood day by day from there on. We obviously have to live with this process and try our best to rot down gracefully. But the really annoying factor is that before 30 you've got no money. So, when you finally have gained some ground and managed to gather some experience, get a decent job and have some money to spend on useless dreams, body starts to go down. I mean...ain't life a bitch?

What to do?  There are ways...but rule number one is to fight back, stay hard and not let that rotting body control your mind. As you're not continuously broke anymore, it might be tempting to travel in deadly boring means of transportation, because of comfort. Don't do that. Crank up the spirited ride of your liking instead and avoid to slowly but surely sink in to incapability. 

Just do it. Get dirty. Go there. Race. The body will protest. 

Ignore it.

 

Kalle's Z28 -69 is waiting for a Tremec transmission. A painful operation, but Kalle is preparing mentally. Revitalizing.

BMW bikes are not like they used to be...Anders is performing 30 000km clutch change. A Meccano for grownups.

'

 Life ain't easy for an Oldsmobile girl that prepares for a Rocket Ride. But small  steps every day makes our Olds -49 engine compartment...

...ready for the summer. Pictured: Carina, tired but happy.

It's still cold outside, but the road is dry and the sun is shining. So I thought that those GM coupes from the 30-ties and 40ties should start to serve a commuters.  At least until rain start to fall in one form or the other.

No fan, no heater and choke doesn't really work. The -38 Olds is piece of art and represent poetic way to travel before the Magnuson Supercharged Corvette starts to growl. It happens every April.

Take the Salt Slush advice and pay no attention your aging and the associated reality. Instead, nourish the remains of the youthful spirit, do deeds and feel the pain. 

Why? Because it will make you better on your way down.

Advanced Hot Rodding 2022 - An Anglo-German celebration

Serious conflicts are all around us. We're drowning in a flow of information about the bloody conflict between good and evil in Ukraine. But let us distract our minds between news updates and celebrate the strength of the west. I'm here thinking about competitiveness, creativity and technology.

Here's what; Should you go for Mercedes or BMW? Turbo or Supercharger? American or European?

According to Magnus @ Salt Slush, we don't need to choose, because we can have it all. At this point you might ask yourself; How? What is he talking about? Before we go into details, it's important to point out that hot rods and hot rodding, in the past and in the future are all about creativity and freedom. Doesn't happen in north Korea.

Now, to the point.

 

What the f...did OM605, i.e the Mercedes turbocharged 2,5L 5 cylinder diesel come with a supercharger?

Nope. But Supercharger + Turbocharger made by Magnus will provide towering torque a low rpm and make transient smoke go away. 

American Supercharger from Eaton combined with a diesel engine from Daimler is a good combo when you're prepared to do deeds.

The Salt Slush team have built Supercharged LS engines as well as Rocket, Ardun, Nailhead, Hemi, Flatheads, Straight 8's, Four banger and obviously Small & Big blocks and we've done Mercedes M116 and M117 too. Not to mention our 900hp turbocharged Volvo 6 cylinder engine...but pictured is the new hot rod kid on the block. The Mercedes OM605.

Still missing: The BorgWarner AriWerks S200SX-E turbo from US that soon will   replace the slow stock stuff.

 

But hold on... what's this? Isn't that a BMW ZF 6 Speed transmission on the Mercedes engine? Yes it is. It's the best of the west...Germany. A super strong BMW transmission and a robust fast burning Mercedes diesel engine from European junk yards merged together with heat, love and precision. 

 

But where will this 500hp power pack end up? Well...Magnus is preparing a kind of Chevy S10 based Baja Diesel Truck contraption. 

What's a Baja Truck? Here's an educational video clip.

Summary: It's still possible to dig gold at the junk yard. Boost pressure, Creativity and Determination will make it go fast. In the past, today and in the future.

 

Get it Fore it's Gone

The War in Europe is pounding our brains.We follow news that flows like a violent river through our minds. We're full of wrath while practically paralyzed. We need  clear mind activities and think of good things that happened and still happens.

So, how do we find peace of mind? Here's how.

Cina and I took our 1941 Buick Super Coupe for a spin in the cold early spring. Felt good. Until I started to think about Pearl Harbor 1941 when Japan without and obvious reason attacked US. 

But still, the straight 8 still sang a song of hope.

 

Meet up with friends and do deeds. A way to sooth the soul. 

Pictured; Magnus during manifold modification.

Remember sunny days. Summer is coming up again. Sooner or later and there will be new days to remember. 

Pictured; Kjelle Power and Salt Slush Kalle.

Celebrate what has been accomplished. Still love to look at that interior.

 We're working on making dreams come true. 

The pandemic stopped us for years, but we're working on getting back on track step by step. It's soon time for a shake down test drive in the El Mirage desert. Will be exiting to see how that goes.

Business as usual. When providing turbos and superchargers, you get to know nice car guys with dreams, schemes and ambition. It's really rewarding to take part of all the creativity that is out there. Makes me happy.

Long Live Western Democracy

Long term they'll go down. Always. There's no escape. I'm talking about maniacs in power surrounded by yes men. But their evil force can spread death and destruction before they eventually meet their own destiny and humiliation.

 

Let's make it faster this time than back in the 40ties. The sooner we put a pin in Putin's war wheel the less the world will suffer. But where should we have the 2023 Nuremburg Trails? In US, EU or Ukraine. Let's think about that while we follow how the Russian economy develops from tomorrow and onwards.

Long live Western Values.

And Freedom!

Peace, Hot Rodding and Understanding

Will hard rain fall? Will there be a war? As cold clouds gather in the east we celebrate freedom and clear western skies. We're staying tuned and keeping our minds cool with activities, dreams and hope. Because dreams and passion keeps you sane while the world seems to be set on repeat, as good and evil is in a power struggle.

The Salt Slush way forward is to keep business open 24/7, because the race is on again. Here's what; Gatebil will happen 2022 and there will be Aftertrack parties too. Time Attack has endured the pandemic and now there's a race schedule with audience planned. Besides, Salt Slush will go to the US of A to race at Bonneville Speed Week again!

But right now we're in waiting-for-spring-mode. In active waiting. Because we know that when sun rays at our latitude finally are ready to warm us, our rides and the asphalt...we want to be ready too. 

 

Magnus avoid the void through a solid flow of car parts driven by dreams

 

The West: Bob's Big Boy Burgers under a clear open sky in California. Love it.

 

More of the same. Western freedom outside Autobooks & Aerobooks Store in December 2021.

The result of elbow grease and contemplation...a clean, sealed and painted transmission. In LaSalle Green. An early man 4-speed Hydramatic automatic transmission. Yes it's from 1949...shifting gears before few of us were born.

Carina in progress phase. Contemplating.

Meanwhile in another part of the Salt Slush workshop, Anders cast cup cakes in aluminum. What's the next step? Will he provide pistons to us all or will he loose his foam? Nobody knows.

 

However...

Keep sane in the cold rain

Freedom is not for free

Sun will come back.

Always.

 

Precious Metal

Let's first of all state that Smeagol is not a role model. We don't want to end up like him. We need to fence off severe addiction that magic powerful metal in any form might bring. But at this point we need to make a distinction. 

Metal that has been formed in to an object of passion represent category one. Here I'm thinking about hard-to-get vintage car or bike parts or low volume speed parts. The search, the waiting and the saving period required for this type can make a strong man weak for a while. But when that kind of stuff arrives, there's euphoria even in February. 

We need however to keep in mind that there's a potentially dangerous addiction lurking at eBay and Web shops too.

 

Next type of precious metal represent more of a Midas moment. When ambition is too strong, not even magic thinking will help. Rethinking might be needed to avoid disaster.

 

 

Precious metal type one according to definition above. When it arrives after a couple of years of eBay searching there's relief and true happiness all around. Yes, it's an upper grille bar for a 1949-1951 Oldsmobile.

 .

Another type one example; a significant piece of metal that is very precious for the group of people that spend a couple of years building this racer. Yes it's our metal speed machine.

 Third and last example of precious metal type one. High precision parts that forms a AirWerks or EFR turbo or a Magnuson supercharger of significant size. Precious for those in need for speed and smoking tires.

  

Precious metal type two, representing the Midas moment. The dream of electrification expansion of any kind in any device based on Lithium might need rethinking as price per tonne is on a rocket ride.

Did I hear the word sustainability echo from the mine hole?