USS Macon in Hangar One Near Almost Everything Autobody

USS Macon (ZRS-5) at Hangar One, Moffett Field, California, 1933

Great photo found at the site of Go Away Garage of the USS Macon dirigible at Hangar One in Moffet Field, Mountain View, California, just a few miles from Almost Everything Autobody. The photo is from 1933, about 2 years before the Macon was lost at sea (and 75 years before our shop was opened.) The Macon was just 20 feet shorter than the Hindenburg. She carried several airplanes inside her frame and could launch them in mid-air as a floating aircraft carrier.

For more information and photos visit:

Wikipedia.org

Navy.mil

NationalGeographic.com

Airships.net

NOAA.gov (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Almost Everything Welcomes Intern Jinkie

Student Intern Jinkie working at Almost Everything Autobody 

Almost Everything Autobody welcomes our most recent intern, Jinkie. She comes to us from the College of Alameda and the California School for the Deaf here in Fremont. Jinkie has been studying auto body repair at school. She's proud to be a woman in what is often thought of as a male dominated field (although Jinkie is certainly not Almost Everything Autobody's first female employee.)

Jinkie is helping to prep cars for paint by learning to remove pinstripes and decals and to protect chrome mouldings in preparation for sanding.

Besler Steam Plane & Doble Steam Car

Amazing 1933 film from the Besler Company of the Doble Steam Car and the Besler Steam Plane. I actually lived in the old Doble/Besler factory in Emeryville, California from about 1986 to 1993, when Emeryville was still an old industrial wasteland and cheap housing for artists instead of the shopping mecca it is today.

The Doble is a little known but magnificent automobile that competed with the likes of Rolls Royce & Duesenberg. When the Doble brothers' company failed, William Besler bought the factory & continued to develop steam power. He worked with General Motors for many years on steam power. Besler also provided smoke screen generators to Allied forces during WWII.




More links on Doble Steam Cars & Besler Steam Engines:

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-last-great-steam-car
http://ucblibrary3.berkeley.edu/gendl/EADprint/doble2.pdf
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt3p30193p;developer=local;style=oac4;doc.view=items



Jay Leno writes about his Doble: http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/1302916.html?page=1

http://steamingdownsouth.com/Doble/doble.html