Since the space we’re in was an active motorcycle repair shop for 30 years, there’s an awful lot of stuff that has built up over time.  We’ve finally managed to get 98% of it cleared out, and we’re working on details like washing and painting the walls, mopping the floors (hey, I want to start with a clean slate, at least), putting up shelving, etc.

We started with this:

And have gotten to here:

And obviously got the car inside the weekend before last.

Got some good progress made.  Came down to the shop intending to work on cleaning one of the walls that we need to repaint, and instead ended up removing one of the benches that’s going to get turned into shelving.  I was getting ready to take off when my partner in crime, Eli, texted to ask if I was still around… and then we spent three more hours taking Vector apart.

We got both fenders, the upper and lower valence pans, both doors, and the trunk lid pulled.  Not a bad night’s work.

We might need better lighting, though, if we’re going to be taking pictures at night.

Next up: Engine removal.

Vector is now in the shop.  Let the great rebuilding begin!

Ok.  So, other things happened, and I haven’t made significant progress on Vector.

However!  My friend Eli and I have just recently acquired workshop space from my friend Monty (who has recently shut down his business of 30 years: New Mexico Motorcycles) by renting out the bay he used to do motorcycle repair in.  We’ve spent the last three weeks cleaning out 30 years of accumulated cruft, and the plan is to put Vector in the shop and start disassembly on Sunday, February 16th.

There’s a task list, so, we have a plan!

Vector is a 1973 Plymouth Satellite Sebring with heavy aesthetic and functional modifications.

Originally conceived by Kurt Harland of Information Society, he and NYC artist Linus Corragio took a plain, two door American passenger car and a notebook of sketches in 1989 and 1990 and transformed it into the vehicle that graced the cover of InSoc’s 1990 release, Hack.

In 1991, I bought a copy of Hack, and fell in love with the car on the cover.  Coverage on MTV and a very early internet showed video of Kurt driving Vector around NYC, and talking about how since he was 14 years old, he’d wanted a car like that.  I don’t suppose I have to tell you that in early 1991, I was myself 14 years old, and the existence of Vector altered my life forever.  In that instant, I learned that vehicles did not have to be the boring appliances that my parents drove.  Cars could not merely be cool, like the Lamborghinis and Ferraris and Porsches that I had drooled over in the pages of Road and Track, they could be fundamentally awesome.

In 1997, Kurt “tired of driving a spectacle” (a statement I couldn’t understand at the time, but have since come to have a greater appreciation of) and gave Vector to my unilaterally adopted brother, David King of Death Guild.  Also in 1997, my at-the-time new girlfriend (now wife of rapidly-approaching-nine-years) and I went on a roadtrip to visit David, whom I had met the previous winter, at his home in Oakland.  He led off the conversation with “Have you ever heard of Information Society?” and eventually allowed as how he had ended up with it.  I immediately demanded we go see it where it was stored, and upon learning that it wasn’t running, set about fixing that.  This set up a universal constant, it appears…

In 2009, David decided he was tired of maintaining Vector.  He consulted with Kurt, and they decided that I was best suited to be the next Master of the Vector.  I came out to Oakland, and began a survey of the car.  It needed work.  No.  It needed lots of work.  I limped her home, and (as demonstrated by the previous entry) there she sat, while I collected parts.

And now, it is time for the great rebuilding.

Welcome to the inaugural post of PAVQ Magazine.  Yeah, ok, that’s a bit grandiose, but hey, dream big, right?

Bluntobject had asked me to blog about the work I’m doing to Kurt Larson’s old car (The Vector, of Information Society fame) and, since I’d had the idea for this website kicking around in my head for a while (and I’d bought the domain and never done anything with it) I figured this was just about the perfect use for it and the perfect time to get started.

For those of you who don’t know me (and, well, that’s probably very few of you, because hey, why else would you be here?) I’m Ogre, also known as Sandro, aliased as ‘perlhaqr’ because that’s what I do for a living, (not to be confused with MadOgre, up in Utah), and I live in Albuquerque, NM.  Which gives me a fair feel for what it’s like to live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland…  As mentioned, I’m primarily a hacker (original definition), working in the information security field, but I’m also a welder, machinist, general fabricator, EMT, leathersmith, and a whole bunch of other stuff intended to make surviving the Zombie Apocalypse that much more likely.

It’s my hope to turn Post Apocalyptic Vehicles Quarterly into not only a webzine for the survival motoring inclined, but a place where people who dream that cars can be more than just transportation can meet up with like minded individuals.  And if y’all are like me, you’re very individual indeed.  😀