harrybarbon

Last Saturday I was meeting with a few guys at the workshop of one of them. I took a bottle of Grappa made by the original distiller located at the bridge over the river in Bassano Nth Italy. We gently reduced 3/4 from the bottle, some added to black espresso coffee and then neat. One guy was from UK on a 1 week tour of a renter 1250 BMW bike, after he was happy and very warm inside, he headed off the Phillip Island for the moto GP.

Paul that steak is so big it had to walk onto the plate 😂 I went to New Zealand about 30 years back, went to a country town pub for dinner. The rib-eye covered the whole plate and was thick, I asked for medium-well done, it was cooked to perfection, tender and juicy. It took me a while to finish it, a few beers to wash it down and I was full as a NZ gumboot.

By coincidence yesterday I met a guy who has been involved at a top level in Western defence and aviation industries. By chance he started talking about Kamala and said (these are my words restating what he said, I cant repeat verbatum 🙄) that she spent a lot of time searching for dropped pencils under the desk of a certain politician and others. We have the same here in Australia with one of our state leaders. I wonder if these types are chosen because they will be mere puppets and can act long enough to bluff the poor souls that cannot open their eyes and ears.

Does anyone remember the Godfather part 1, early scene during the daughter's wedding party? The scene was Sony's wife was discussing with a bunch of wives the sizes of their husband's old fella. Kamala's face gesture and positions of her hands made me think of the Godfather movie scene. Maybe that is what she was really referring to ...... She can't be serious!

You can ask the Mack museum to provide the build sheets to confirm the build specs and build year. B615 V8 was 1962 plus. We had a 1964 B615 V8, we got the specs from the Mack museum. I sold it with the specs. It had a running replacement V8 - 654 motor.

Good luck 🤞🍀

Last Monday night I turned on my dishwasher before going to bed, my usual practice. But on an impulse I decided to do some research on my computer. About 30 minutes later I heard a couple of muffled sounds like close fireworks going off outside my home at 12.40 am that disturbed me. I went out to check, nothing to be seen. Back inside another 2 similar bangs which I could not locate. Then I saw smoke coming from under the kitchen bench behind the dishwasher. I quickly went outside to find my fire extinquisher from my Mack truck parts, it did not work. The electric power circuit breaker did not cut the power for about another 3-5 minutes. I called 000 for the Fire Rescue, they arrived in 10 minutes by which time thick smoke was filling the kitchen and throughout my home. Luckily the Fireys got to the smouldering in time to stop the fire developing. I barely had time to call 000 and grab a few things I could think of, my phone, computer and jacket and pants on a hanger that was on a door. I left my wallet inside not thinking. I moved my car onto the street in case the fire got to it. I called my Labrador to follow me and I put her in the car in safety. We never expect this to happen to us!!!! On the spur of the moment we act purely on instinct. Extremely lucky. Had I gone to bed, even with the smoke alarm with deep 1st hour of sleep it would have been too late to save my home etc. The smoke grew and spread so quickly, now I understand what happens to people, especially if they are upstairs and fires are downstairs. Also my house is 1949 build, the plaster walls that is behind the dishwasher, are the old horses hair solid plaster, so it does not burn quickly. If it was the current dry wall paper type plaster, then it would have burned in quick time and the house would have been totaled. The fireys say maximum time is 15 minutes to get to the fire out before it spreads to burn the whole house. The dishwasher had an electric shortage and the circuit breaker did not cut the power instantly. The smell inside is sickening from the scorched plastic of the dishwasher and cabinets. The insurance company is doing their damage assessment this week, so now time and patience to repair. I am so grateful to be okay and to stay with my lovely lady. My tips are never go to bed or leave the house with any appliances operating except the fridge, have the latest and best electric power circuit breaker unit and a working extinquisher. And even turn power connections off at the power points because of power surges.

About 20 friends and children were at my best mates home celebrating his 50th birthday, Sept 11. It was 11pm Sept 11 here in Australia. The children had been watching videos and by 10.45 pm we were packing up to leave for home. A parent switched over the TV to watch the late news, as it came on the TV news reader said a small plane appeared to have accidentally flown into the WTC and then sketchy images came thru. A few of the adults began to watch casually and some of the older children. The news reader updated and said it may have been an airliner veered off course. All of us were watching the TV in silence and saw the horror unfold as the live footage was being shown. We tried to get the children away from the TV to shield them from seeing and hearing the live news. They were frightened and asking questions which we could not explain. All of us were stunned, we could not believe our eyes and ears. As we drove home, it was an incredibly still night, we were all silent, radio was turned off. No sleep that night. Next morning the city streets were quiet and traffic was very much reduced.

International Harvester Co (IHC) developed the Comfo-vision cabin styling in 1948 most likely at Fort Wayne Indiana. They were in house designs and they produced scale clay models. Due to WW11 restrictions on in house designs, this meant that IHC and other vehicle manufacturers were short on design staff and so had to use outside independent design and engineering firms to add to their design teams capacity. The firm of Ornas and Labarr, Detroit, was asked to improve the Comfo-vision cab design. It also possible that the industrial design firm of Raymond Loewy had an involvement in the design improvement of the Comfo-vision cabin, because Raymond's firm was another call in for additional design work on the L model. In 1949 the Comfo-vision cab was first produced by IHC for the L model series at Fort Wayne. It had a split rear window and the external door handles were a push button style, virtually the same as the Mack R model cabs. The Diamond T Comfo-vision cabs bought from IHC under licence had the same push button external door handles. The Comfo-vision cab was sent to Springfield, Ohio and Emmeryville California for the IHC models built at those plants and also the IHC plant in Canada. Diamond T commenced using the IHC Comfo-vision cabins possibly from early 1950 or even 1949. In 1953, Ornas and Labarre with the help of some moonlighting General Motors stylists redesigned the L model to create the R model with the same Comfo-vision cab. They produced a full sized clay model for approval. In 1953 IHC hired Ted Ornas as chief of styling, Ornas and Labaree closed their Detroit offices and moved into IHC Fort Wayne to work. In 1955, Ornas redesigned the R model series and introduced the S series model, with the same Comfo-vision cabin. Ornas made changes to the Comfo-vision cabin, being a larger one piece rear window and larger door windows (lowering the door where the window starts), I don't recall any mention of making the cabin deeper, but that may have been possible. I did own a 1965 R model so I might see from old pictures if the cab was deeper. IHC manufactured the Comfo-vision cab for the L, R & S series and the variation models at Fort Wayne and maybe at Springfield as well. I cannot find any information if the cab was manufactured in Emeryville, but it was possible because the IHC Emmeryville series with the Comfo-vision cab was produced only at Emmeryville, if not the cabs were shipped by rail from Fort Wayne to Emmeryville, same as IHC shipped cabs to Canada and from about 1963-1965 to Melbourne, Australia for the R model assembly. Diamond T did manufacture trucks for IHC at its Chicago plant, using the IHC cabs, motors, frames etc because IHC could not keep up production for its sales orders. IHC and most East Coast truck manufactures (Mack, Diamond T, White, Hendricksen etc sent their day cabs plus extra parts to the Orrville Metal Speciality Company, of Orrville Ohio to build their extended sleeper cabins and special builds such as the crew cabs and 1 man narrow cabs for steel and lumber flat bed trays etc. I have posted this information about Orrville a while back. As to the cabs being built at the Chicago Manufacturing Company, I did read from one of my Mack books that Mack and IHC had their B model cabs and the Comfo-vision cabs built at the Chicago Man Co, which I recall was because IHC and Mack could not keep up production in house. I will try find what my books have about this. It is also possible that Chicago Man Co may have manufactured the Comfo-vision cabs for the truck companies that IHC licensed the use of the Comfo-vision cabs, Leyland for Canada, Diamond T, Hendricksen, FDW, the various fire engines manufacturers, etc. IHC fitted the Comfo-vision cab up to 1971 on its M series (oil rigs and heavy duty types) and the F-series, 210 and 230 and possibly a run out thru 1972-73 on special applications, like monster trucks for the Middle East and US oil fields. IHC licensed the use of the Comfo-vision cabs to about 1-12 truck manufacturers, including fire engines. I have seen pictures these fire engines etc that have the Comfo-vision cabs, closed and open styles. From my information the Comfo-vision cabin was used for at least 23-24 years. One bit of information about the Mack B model cab and the IHC Comfo-vision cab is that the door locks are exactly the same, but not the internal and external door handles. I think that the IHC comfo-vision and Mack B model cab door locks were made by the Chicago Manufacturing Company.

It seems then that the Mack E9 and Scania blocks are identical. Scania has continued with its V8 so, given the scarcity of the Mack E9's and parts, then it should be possible to retro fit a Scania V8 as a readily easy and economical as a substitute motor into a Superliner, subject to the electronics etc.

I got the info from the Facebook page, but I apologised because I could not copy the article in 1 page to then post it here. Maybe next time I may improve my computer copying skills 😊

Thanks for the clarification, contrary to the information I read Mack made and fitted the 864 at least to 1968 and more. It would be interesting to find out when Mack stopped producing the 864 and last year an R model or other Macks had the 864 fitted. We had a 1964 B615 without it's 864 because the motor was cooked by the owner, which was common here in Australia for the 864's. We imported a good 864 and sadly we sold the B615 with the imported 864.

Neat truck, appears mostly original, motor is likely 865. Mack stopped making the 864 before this 1968 R model.

Interesting reading, my apology for the pages and sizes, it is what I could do to copy the article I read today.

Example of Doggie secured to the top of the brass radiator cap for the alloy radiators. Only the base of the rear legs are mounted onto the brass cap and Doggie's body sits above the clip securing the cap.