Krazy George's NEW NEW Model Garage

Last updated June 2014

Finally updated after 7+ years of neglect, welcome to Krazy George’s New, New Model Garage–named after the monthly stories about the original Model Garage operated by Gus Wilson in Popular Science Magazine back inthe ‘60s and 70's. My original Model Garage was ‘opened’ back in the early ‘90s, back when we lived in Suisun City, CA, back when I had ±15 cars in the back yard, and 9 SHOs (at one point in time) parked in front, or in neighbors’ driveways (always with their permission). At this location, we have a Homeowner’s Association, so I have to keep the front neat and clean. They frown on cars being parked in the driveway and not driven for a while, plus nothing in the back yard can be seen from the street. In this picture you can barely see the roof of the truck, parked in the side lot, plus we are down to three cars, all of which are in the garage. A new taller fence makes the back yard less of a problem. Big changes have been made in the car population at this location, and as far as that goes for me, the ultimate car guy, I am overall not happy. But SHE WHO RUNS THE FINANCES IN THIS FAMILY makes those decisions now, all I can say is Que Sera Sera!

This is the New, New, Model Garage

I had so many plans for some of the cars in the back yard of the previous house....one was a ‘68 T-5 Mustang that I bought for a song in 1988, and another was the ‘65 Mustang convertible that I paid $350 for on a used car lot in Oakland, CA, back in 1975. Yet another was a ‘67 Firebird that I wanted to restore for my new wife after our marriage in ‘97. But I got a shock when I discovered she didn’t like ANYTHING old, no matter how much it might be worth. They were all sold or given away, depending on condition. The Mustang convertible was particularly special to me, since the VIN was about 450 builds behind the ‘65 GT hardtop I bought new (first new car) back in 1965. I had all kinds of plans for it. I bought it off a lot in Oakland for $350...yes, $350. I drove it for almost 20 years before finally deciding to restore it to original yellow with black interior. I upgraded the engine to the A code version, 10:1 compression and a 4 barrel Holley Carb. That car was a treasure...unfortunately the person I gave it to (and paid) for painting turned out to be a disaster (for ALL cars I gave him to paint). Long story short, he said it should be sandblasted before the new EFI 302 engine was connected to all its wiring, sensors, and PCM, which I had already paid $500 for and was ready to install. The engine would crank fine, but nothing else was hooked up. So it got sandblasted down to bare metal and then just sat.....SAT....for at least 5 years. I finally gave it away to John Miller, host of BaySHO, our local Bay Area SHO club. The T-5 got sold for $750, not that bad considering I’d paid $1,200 for it. It was restorable, but since I had/have no budget, I could not do it. That car would have been worth a LOT of money now.....T-5s are rare. The Firebird got sold for $1,500...it would run, sort of. Regarding the SHO population....around 1990 there were lots of them at the old house....all of them ran except for the black car that came from Anthony Northrup in about 2000, also from BaySHO. It had spun a bearing, and sounded like it was going to explode when it was running. I got it on my trailer and stuffed it in the back yard along with all the others. You can see on its “Black Diamond”page what it looked like after several years of very heavy river water washing while I was watering the back lawn with a pump getting the water from the delta. So, in 2002, after getting rid of all the other SHOs, I am left with 3....Lowrider, the unnamed black car, and the Plus from Hell. The Plus had had its problem fixed by this time...you all know its story. The battery cable terminal had been replaced, and it had a new R-134 A/C system including evaporator and condenser. I bought 5 full R-134 condenser replacement kits from my favorite A/C-Stereo-Sunroof shop in Hayward for all the SHOs I might need to be fixed...at 1,300 each, plus free installation labor. (I had recently lost an aunt, and she left me money for this hobby.) Two of the quick sold cars had them, then Lowrider got one, BD got one, and the Slorider wagon got the last one. Bad luck continued to follow me, though. In 2003, while we were at the Madison convention, someone broke into the house and stole a few things....nothing terrible other than Eva’s laptop computer and some car stereo equipment in my office closet. What they did that was the worst was to try to break into the Plus from Hell, stored in the side yard. I left the driver’s door unlocked to prevent damage, but the morons who were there (I knew who they are, but couldn’t prove it) started at the pax door, dented it trying to open it, also dented the rear door, then broke out the right rear quarter window, and finally got in to try to steal the Sony CD deck. They couldn’t get it out, but damaged the edges of it noticeably. It still worked when I tried to use it. But now I couldn’t give it to my cousin, for whom I got it, because it was dinged up. It could have been fixed easily, but ‘THE BOSS’, who had gone through the terrible trip from Florida with me, said “It’s OUTAHERE!!!" So I sold it to Joseph Van Oss at a huge loss, and his brother came out from Wisconsin to drive it back. My cousin never got a car, for which she paid good money. I am still trying to deal with that....(again, because I have no funds to get her another one.) So anyway, the previous paragraphs on this page describe the fates of all the other SHOs. Suffice it to say that they all went to good owners....one that went to a Bakersfield friend whom I got to know while in the FAA there, was worn out, and thanks to the good folks at NWSHO, Chris Kluber in particular, I was able to get him another one a couple of years ago for a couple thousand and trading the old one in for parts. During this particular time, about spring of 1992, I got my good friend Zach Leahy to come out and spend a week getting the bad cars running good. Lowrider was fine...at about the 210K point in miles. It had just had new rod bearings, after which I went to Kaiser for a pain shot and wound up losing half the use of my right hand. It works on a daily basis, but I cannot play the piano anymore, and I cannot play a saxophone (I’ve had a tenor of my own since I was 10 years old), but I can play a clarinet...the bad finger can reach the proper key. So anyway, Zach helped me get BD running with a spare engine I got at a PnP, and both it and PfH passed smog. At the Indy convention, in 2005, I contracted with Mark Nunnally to ship BD to him in New York and let him make BD into a brand new car, drivetrain wise. The tranny was good, but I wanted the engine to live as long, so he did his magic (3.2 block, last new oil pump on the planet) over a year’s period of time, and I got it back in mid to late ‘06. He also put some extra parts here and there to make it tougher, like an H brace in the rear suspension. It now (2014) has about 30K miles on it since the rebuild, and is insured by Hagerty for $16,000 agreed value. It got a complete new interior thanks to an Oregon SHO guy, and just this last spring got the final coat of Lexus clear over a brand new Lexus Graphite Pearl paint job, with black plastic trim. When any of you have your cars painted, have the clearcoat be Lexus/Toyota clear....the other brands will not last. Our GS300 has been out in the CA sun for 11 years, and the paint looks two weeks old. I’m telling ya!!!! I said on the original home page that Lowrider would be going to a Ford Museum in Sacramento, called the Towe Museum. Well, it turned out that they didn’t want any current issue cars, despite the fact that the ‘86 Taurus saved Ford Motor Company from dying. So I kept driving it until 5th gear finally went out at 293,000 miles. It certainly did not deserve to go to the crusher down the street, so I gave it to my good friend (yet to meet!) Jon Heese. He paid the shipping, and I signed it over to him. He has been rebuilding it from the ground up since getting it in ‘07 or so, and hopefully it will be at the Fort Worth Convention in 2014. One car that I had up until two years ago was very important to me, but again “SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED” got involved with it, and it went to Pick N Pull. The Slorider wagon was the #2 Hooptie, after the GS300. It had a trailer hitch with wiring on it, and it had new paint, new Bridgestones on slicer wheels, and a new LX interior with new A/C and a 60 CD changer. But a few years prior to this time the water pump failed (again), and I didn’t know it, and was driving it home from work (60 minute ride) at Oakland Airport at midnight. I noticed the temp gauge was at H about half way, and I stopped for water, but the damage was done. The water pump was replaced, but that famous early to mid ‘90s 3.8 engine blew yet another head gasket. It had already had two gasket replacements within the last 5 years, but hey....it’s a ‘91 3.8! What’s a head gasket? So from then on, I’d check the water level every morning, pour a bunch of water into the radiator and the overflow bottle, and drive it normally, with its original worn out factory radiator cap, which let it not build up pressure. It worked fine as long as I remembered to check the water. But after a stay in the paint shop (it was a beautiful Ford Windveil Blue with good clear) it developed an oil leak at the externally mounted oil pump. I took it to my clutch shop to see if they could fix the leak, but could not....another great idea from Ford was no gaskets in the engine....just paste out of a tube. So it failed the test, and went to the Lemon Lot on Travis AFB right next to us to be sold. I basically gave it away, and informed the new owner that he’d need to check the water every day. Well, he did, but his wife did not. 3 months later I saw it at the base service station, and I asked them what was up (already knowing the answer). The man said it was headed for PnP. If it was me only, I’d have bought it back for 100 bucks and stuck a new (gasket design fixed) 3.8 long block in it for about $1600. If it had that, it would last until 2100. But I knew better than to ask. I didn’t go out to PnP for 18 months after that....I didn’t want to see it. So, back to BD...when it came back from New York, I started to swap parts from Lowrider to it, including the sound system, the keyless entry computer, Wilwoods, and whatever else I could think of. That story is under the Black Diamond link. As I think of other stories or ‘books’ or whatever else comes to mind, I’ll either have Jon put them up here, or hopefully after he shows me how, I can do it myself. Thanks for visiting.....Hopefully there will be more toys to talk about...some with wheels, some with propellers, and others with different propellers. Sometime down the road, I’d be happy to help host another West Coast convention...perhaps in Portland, Oregon. The NWSHO guys occasionally talk about a good track near there. Someday...... To email me...   krazgeo@comcast.net

This is our older house that Zach Leahy came to when he took a week off to help me get BD and PfH running. It looks definitely like a used car lot! Left to right, there is Tex 2, the Plus from Hell, BD, and Lowrider, with the wagon behind it.

Lowrider          Black Diamond           Slorider         F-350        Boss 302       The Mustang Era        Lowrider's Owie    Tuneup         Crank Sprocket Repair         Valve Adjustment            Rod Bearing Replacement       Pictures of BaySHO Cars