My vehicles

Not a great picture but a great car. Ford 390ci 4bbl carb, dual exhaust, yellow with a competition stripe on the side which, in my opinion, makes it go much faster. :)

I bought this from my cousin Shazz. Such a cool car. I don't really have any stories I'd like to share but suffice it to say that it was a great fast muscle car.

Again, not a great picture but my first Jeep. I can't remember where I got this but it was in 1980 and I traded a motorcycle for it. It was a handful on the freeway and was 4 different colors of primer paint. My biggest surprise was when I came home from a week-long hunting trip I found that Debbie had arranged to have my Jeep painted a gun-metal grey by my friend Scott. What a surprise! After a year or two, I ended up trading this to a guy for a motorcycle, a full dress Kawasaki Z1 900cc that his brother was killed on. He apparently escorted funerals and one day while holding up traffic for a funeral procession, someone ran him over. His grieving brother had the bike rebuilt and wanted to get rid of it. I get it.

 Yah that's weird but no matter - I wanted that bike.

My daughter Cathy standing next to my second Kawasaki Z1 in front of our house in Lancaster, CA. This is the bike I got by trading for my Wagoneer. I commuted 84 miles each way on this bike from Lancaster to Redondo Beach thru L.A. traffic for over a year. A lot of fun. You can't see it here but the gas tank had an airbrushed rattlesnake on it - So cool. I later traded this bike to a friend for his 79 ford van.

This picture is not my car but almost identical including orange paint. Deb and I bought this Mazda in Torrance used at a dealer. 89 days after buying it, the wankel (rotary engine) went out. We replaced the engine and the dealer paid half. Later, maybe a year or so, I blew a radiator hose coming down the 405 into Van Nuys, I know when it happened, shut off the engine and coasted off the freeway and the engine was fried. Turns out, the rotary engines were amazing little engines but were VERY sensitive to over-heating. If they over-heat, the main seal fails - similar to a head gasket - and you're done. Well, I still owed a couple hundred bucks on this car and there was no way I was going to put a third rotary engine in that car. 

Here's a crappy picture of the engine compartment of the Mazda after conversion.

;-)

So after careful planning and measurements, Scott and I pushed it into my garage and closed the door. I visited an auto wrecking yard, found a wrecked 1971 Ford Torino with a 302ci V8 with C4 auto transmission for $150, took it home and we put it in the Mazda. Yes, we did.

To say that this was a fun engine swap doesn't begin to express my love for this car. Crazy performance, way better gas mileage and just a fun fun car. After a few years, I answered an ad in the paper who wanted to trade. He was the road tour manager of the band 'Sting'. He had a beautiful corvette with 454ci and all the extras parked in his garage. Problem was, he didn't want his wife driving his 'Vette when he was on tour. So we both decided she would have a blast with the Mazda and leave his car alone. So I traded my Mazda for a Kawasaki Z1 900cc motorcycle. God I miss that car.

This is the van that I traded my Motorcycle for (above). It was white, we painted it in my driveway at Lancaster. We carpeted it and it was a good vehicle. But no where near as fun as the Rattlesnake Bike!

I bought this Suburban 454ci/Auto from a guy in Palos Verdes for $300. He said he was selling it so cheap because it had a dead cylinder and he didn't want to mess with it. Secretly, I could see that a spark plug wire was unplugged. I gave him the $300, drove around the corner, raised the hood and plugged the spark plug back in. We enjoyed this truck for several years after that Christy drove it to Illinois and used it there eventually selling it for $400 after developing another problem. Best $300 I ever spent.

We bought this from Dave & Cindy for a few hundred dollars as a second car. You can't tell from this picture but it was a nice little bug - powder blue paint job thanks to Scott. It had what they called an 'Auto Stick' as I recall. You still had to shift as if it had a manual transmission but there was no clutch. Accelerate, back of the throttle, change gear and accelerate. The gear shift had a switch built in so that it electrically clutched the engine from the tranny a soon as you touched the gear shift and re-engaged when you let go damn near snapping your neck in the process. It was a very weird idea and was only offered for two years. This was the only VW I ever owned, although I always wanted a nice 4sp bug when we were living by the beach.

A crappy picture, I'll keep looking for another. My Dad bought this truck when he was in Placerville around 1990 as it had 4-wheel drive and was good in the snow. It was a clean little truck. He had it brought to Illinois when he moved in 1991. I bought it from him for $2000 around 1996. A real nice little truck. Not sure what happened to it after that. I'll think about it..

A couple years before I retired, I was in need of a dependable car for commuting. I opted for a $12,000 Corvette. What a blast and it got 27MPG. Still have it and it's still a blast to drive. Without a doubt, the coolest car I have ever owned.

We bought this from Nicki and Tim as a second car for Debbie. It is a great little car and we still use it every day in 2025

This picture is another Divco, not mine. Well the story of the Divco is that I was in Reseda CA at a body shop. Next to the body shop, was a tow-truck service. They had a fenced in area that contained several vehicles belonging to the tow biz. I saw this beauty making eyes at me from inside the cage. I asked the tow shop about it and he said it's got a bad clutch but I'll sell it to you for $150. I said you got a deal IF you tow it to my house. He did and I called Scotty. The Divco was parked at the curb in front of our house on Hayvenhurst Bl in Van Nuys. Scotty came over with his tools, crawled under the truck and pulled the tranny and clutch. He showed me what was wrong. It was missing a small brass/bronze pin. We went to AC Auto parts and got a new one for $0.19. Scott put it back together and that was all it needed. It had a Continental inline 6cyc. I drove it all around (death trap) and eventually sold it to a carpet store for $400 to haul rolls of carpet. It had incredible suspension. Another one I wish I had kept. 

Peter Pan Dairy

My Kawi Nomad 1500 parked next to my truck at work 2010

Resting safely in the engine bay

Around 2004 or so, I stopped by the memorial on Mormon Emigrant Tr.

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Way earlier maybe 1993 or so I was a Fire volunteer for Pleasant Valley & Pollock. We get toned out early one evening for an MCI (mass casualty incident) on Mormon Emigrant Trail Sue Feddericci and I responding in the squad, just made the turn onto Mormon Emigrant when we got cancelled (code 4)

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Turns out, a 2 ton truck carrying firewood lost his brakes heading North on M.E.Tr and plowed head on into 9 motorcycles southbound. They had just fueled up in Pollock before the accident. - 4 Died - a monument was later erected at the scene

Proud Papa with his brand new Nomad in 2003

I bought this in 2000 from a guy in San-Francisco (San Mateo for $3500. Very comfy, fast and extremely TOP HEAVY. But what a cruiser

For a short while I owned the Venture and my new Nomad. Later sold the Venture to Milt at work

Lisa on the Nomad at Ice House Lake

My first bike in Arizona, actually my only bike in Arizona 1959ish