NO NOT THOSE. I find myself lately buying up all the older mechanix illustrated books I can get my hands on. alot cool car stuff in there. some of the things on those books just plain kick ass. I bought a box of 100 today at a flea market for 6 bucks. That should keep me busy for a while.
Good score - a lot of good reading there for six bucks. I go for the old Popular Science magazines myself, I have a bookcase full of them. Of course now that Google Books has all the popsci issues online it's kind of pointless, but I still prefer reading the real thing.
I have a little book, 1938 Edition, How To Build It, published by Modern Mechanix of Greenwich, CT. On the cover "Plans for building midget auto racer, model locomotive, metal sailboat, auto trailer, furniture, radio, gasoline powered model plane, playground equipment, toys, and scores of other projects for the Home Workshop". The midget auto racer is called "Arlen Special", a midget front-drive racer, based on a modified Model T frame and powered by a Henderson or Indian 4cylinder, or Harley V-twin. It reached a speed of 120 MPH and was clocked electronically at 108.39 MPH over a measured mile and weighs just 450 pounds. The Auto trailer project is called "Runlite"-a compact trveling bedroom, based on a Model T frame and frontend with the frame being pulled from the rear. The top of the trailer is muslin painted with aircraft dope.
see - you learn so much on here - those WWII covers are amazing http://books.google.com/books?id=lE...issues_r&cad=2&atm_aiy=1940#all_issues_anchor
One high school reunion, the school library was liquidating some of their older books. I copped a bound set (4 volumes) of 1949 Popular Science magazines. It is amazing how things have changed, and also how some of their predictions came true (like fuel injection).
Those books were amazing! Here in the public Library there was a "do it yourself" Encylopedia set from either Popular Mechanix or Mechanix Illustrated...or the like, that was cover to cover incredible. Midget builds...boats...shop tools...aircraft...they even had a huge writeup on Bonneville racing in there. Loads of incredible pictures from back in the day. I would guess it was just post war or early 50's...small books with a dark cover. The later ones got bigger but the content went downhill. I went back years later to see if it was still around but it was gone. So was my old Librarian...
i have a few left around here i did run into these two sites one has old mechanics illustrated articles and the other has some neat projects in it http://blog.modernmechanix.com/ http://www.vintageprojects.com/
The Jalopy Journal
