Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Blues Brothers at the Dixie Square Mall: Then and Now

Jake: Disco pants and haircuts... 
Elwood: Yeah, lots of space in this mall.

-The Blues Brothers (1980)

The Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois was made famous by the classic comedy(and one of my personal all-time favorite movies) the 1980 film The Blues Brothers starring the late Jim Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. This mall was used for the now classic car chase which can be seen here:

Unfortunately this was the last hurrah for the short lived shopping mall(It officially opened in 1965 and the last stores left in 1979). It was used as a temporary school and of course a movie set for The Blues Brothers movie. Many attempts at resurrecting the mall have been unsuccessful and what is left is a slowly rotting structure. Here is an eerie video of what the mall looks like today:

Here are some more interesting links I found about this mall:

Monday, June 28, 2010

2000 Chevrolet Impala Road Test

 

It was cool to find an old 2000 Chevy Impala Road test video. The silver LS model they show looks just like my daily driver. Soon my Impala will be marking it’s 150,000th mile on the road. I’m still very happy with it and be shooting for 200,000 miles. Here’s my my ride:

2000 Chevrolet Impala LS

Friday, June 25, 2010

Choosing a VW paint color by Classic VW Bugs

This is quick video from Chris Vallone at Classic VW Bugs. Chris shares a quick tip on picking out a color for your classic VW.

 

He also shares a video he made of a show he attended in  Litchfield, Connecticut which show off some beautiful air-cooled VW’s. His own ‘55 VW won best in his class.

Of course this just serves as a reminder of how much I need to get off my backside get moving on our ‘71 Super Beetle. No excuses, I know it’s my fault that I haven’t made the time. Have a great day.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A Mercury Tribute 1939-2010

1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser

Another automotive brand bites the dust as Mercury will soon cease to exist. In retrospect it would seem as if Mercury was the automotive equivalent of Rodney Dangerfield as it never quite got the respect it was looking for. They were meant to be between Ford and Lincoln in the hierarchy of automobiles. In reality though they became an optioned out badge engineered Ford product with a waterfall grill on it. The closest I ever came to owning one was an early nineties Sable wagon my wife had. Here’s a photo tribute of Mercury’s I’ve encountered over last few years.

My Merc

1965 Mercury Monterey

1971 Mercury Comet

IMG_0609-1

Mercury Cougar

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Humor: VW Engine Rebuild Kit

vw_rebuild_kit

If only it were really that simple.

I did get to work on the bug for a few hours this past weekend. I’m going to revamp my plans on it though. I seem to be going in bits and pieces. I was starting with the brakes at first reasoning that stopping is always a good thing. Now I’m wondering if I should just start disassembling it and start doing the body work. I’ll probably just finish up the brakes and go from there. Thanks for coming by.