Awesome dump score: UK spec portable tv!!

[Carmine]

One of my favorites was when he was fixing a stereo with "the speakers out of phase" by adjusting the trimmers on the tuning cap.

For more realistic depictions of "what to do in a crisis", I prefer the A-team. Ever notice how most of what they're doing is just grinding metal and making sparks? Same goes whenever they show a factory on a TV show... All dimly lit, sparks and molten metal everywhere. The only semi-realisitc version of a car factory I've ever seen was the opening 5 mins of Steven King's "Christine".

Speaking of Christine, my wife looks like a younger version of Shelly, behind the bar on Corrie.

Carmine, haven't you seen "Blue Collar" starring Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel? http://imdb.com/title/tt0077248/ It was shot in the Checker plant in Kalamazoo. Many moons ago a friend of the family was dating David Markin (son of the founder, Morris) so I was able to weasel my way into a visit back in the late 70's. My Dad bought a Marathon brand new for the family car.....see? Insanity DOES run in my family LOL

Anthony

[Carmine]

Amazing! I was actually considering mentioning Blue Collar, but I couldn't get past the part where the big black dude gets killed in the paint booth... That seemed less-than-realistic to me.

That was Harvey Keitel??? Holy crap I guess you're right!

'course we all know that "mothafreakin' Checker Cabs" weren't built in Detroit. Always was surprised that Checker let them do that... Didn't exactly make Checker look too good! S'pose they didn't really care what the general public thought about their cars, since nobody would be crazy enough to buy one as a "private" car.

oh... sorry.

Am wondering if Checker even knew quite what the storyline was about before agreeing to this.....they probably didn't or wouldn't really care anyway as their sales target sure wouldn't care either.

My dad bought it because he liked the idea of buying a brand new old style car, and the reputed heavy duty nature was a bonus.

The truth of the matter is that the front suspension was a crib from the first ball joint Fords, the X frame was cobbled into a "Y" to make room for the catholic converter resulting in a looser feel to the car.

The best mechanical parts were the TH400 and the Dana 44 rear, and to a lesser extent the 305 Chevy engine (although I told my father to get the 350, it didn't much matter as they both were the cheap thin wall castings)

Anthony (I know far too much about Checkers, don't get me to blabbing!!)

[Sandy G]

IIRC, Checker contracted w/GM to make the 1973-92 style full size Blazer & Suburban tailgates. I had an '82 Sub, & was proud I had a little piece of Checker.....-Sandy G.

Yep, Checker stamped out the tailgates and I think the rear quarter panels for the fleetside GM pickups. Also the frame rails for the "Fishbowl" buses, don't know specifically what they're stamping now other than they're still in the automotive supply biz as well as owning a trucking firm. They really began making good money once they stopped building the cars. That's actually pretty typical for the smaller car companies....Stude's profits went thru the roof when they stopped production---having diversified prior to this allowed them to remain in business.

Then there's the aborted engine building contract with Chrysler....signed, sealed, but not delivered. Checker sued and won big time. I suspect that Chrysler bought the Stude tooling and decided to build the engines themselves (the LA series small blocks)

Anthony

[Sandy G]

We had a Gravely tractor back in the '60s that was made by a decendant of Studie, Studebaker-Worthington Industries. Thing was WILD-you started it by pulling a rope, which you had to wind around this shaft, it had dual rear wheels, no fronts & a "riding sulky". The lawnmower, or whatever else you wanted to use on it mounted on the frront, & rode over the grass on skids. It was kinda an overgrown self-propelled push lawnmower, & it shook the Shite outta you using it. Very tough, though. My dad sold it sometime in the late '70s for about what he paid for it, he said. It was air-cooled, & I think the design dated back to the late-30s. Anybody else ever have one of 'em? -Sandy G.

Somewhere I have a list of well over a dozen companies that Stude bought, owned or controlled in some manner or another.

Did you know they owned Pierce Arrow for a couple of years? The irony is that the only corporate entity that is a direct desecndant and which still uses the Stude name is a leasing company....what's ironic is that Stude never had their own financing for their car sales! As a matter of fact, because of poor reseale values and low sales the banks didn't even like to loan the car dealers money so they could stock vehicles, which of course fed the vicious cycle---no cars to sell meant no sales.

Anthony

[Sandy G]

Think they also owned STP when they ceased automotive operations, to put it in corporate speak.--Sandy G