Anyone catch the special on Cuban Auto Mechanics last night

[Boats]

As we know Cuba and the US have been on the outs for some time. Yet the country function's as best it can with whatever products it had from before Castro.

Anyway the story was about the Cuban Mechanic's and their automobiles. The majority of cars of Pre- 1960 many much older. But 95% of the cars they have are still running due to some of the craftiest mech's I've seen.

Jury rig is the name of the game and they are damn good at it.
I actual saw a local tradesmen make replacement brake shoes and was amazed on how he did it.

First of all he starts out with a bag of asbestos and filters it by hand through a mesh to almost a powder. Adds a few ingredients and presses it in a homemade mold.

He then fashions it to the old brake shoe using some adhesive they use - then with a clamp he fashioned he holds the asbestos shoe material with this clamp then bakes it for about 15 minutes until the gooey asbestos hardens.

He then buffs off the out surface to some tolerance of his and then sells them to those needing a brake job.

I like working on cars and was amazed how these locals can jury-rig car parts for over 20+ years. They even have some guys who rebuilt and make engine repairs and parts. All of this in their garages.

It was a public television channel - here I think it was channel 20 but even though it was dubbed in with English sub-titles you would have to watch it and I know you would have been amazed at the local talent to keep these old relics alive and running.

The little guy still knows how to make a living. They have had the same car in the family some of them for 30 years. Just getting any car that runs means status to them and transportation.

Gosh I hope some of you saw it and agree with me that they have some talented mechanics for sure. Asked if they would want a new car - most said NO they wouldn't know how to work on it.

[SuperScout]

And when Julio gets mesotheleoma (sp?) from sniffing all those asbestos fumes and powders, he'll have some yankee lawyer wanting to sue the brake shoe company!

[Boats]

SS -

I agree that the asbestos will get this guy in the long run and that it is a large legal issue here in the states. I bet there are many third world countries still using it.

I recall when blue asbestos was used as the all purpose gasket material in the industry and it was inexpensive would handle high temperature extremes and various pH levels. Now it cost an arm and a leg for gasket material equivalents - if you can call them that.

The TV program was not about Cuban/American politics but rather the old automobiles in Cuba and how they keep them in service by some rather unique jury rigger craftsmen.

Health issues are of course very important and I did think of that when I saw him making his 6 pair of brake shoes every day by hand. He's been doing this for 20+ years and making a living in the process of killing himself in the long run.

[Seascamp]

I?ve seen some pics of the Cuban built car barges. In essence the car or pick up truck is built into a barge; or the other way round, the engine drive line powers a prop, a tiller n? rudder hung on the stern and off they go Florida. They look kind of cobby n? clunky but evidently are seaworthy, or at least a few have made it Florida. One pic I saw looked like there was a hand paint brush sea surface appearance. Good job, it was hard to pick out from an overhead pic.

Some Canadian associates have done some power plant work in Cuba and report some of the extreme measures to keep the pre-Castro TG sets perking along. Grief, no need to worry about longevity in those places, the only operative question is the preference to be cooked rare, medium or well done. 600 lb pressure steam pipes have a finite time before stress fracturing sets in and replacement is an absolute. But like L?ll Abner?s tires, I could see from the pics that there are patches on patches on patches. Turbine rotor steam seals looked to be a long ago memory, clouds of LP steam are a dead giveaway and as the steam condenses, it rains.
My Canadian associates report that it rains 24/7 in the power house. And I would guess that the heat and humidity would take out an un-acclimated person, but no doubt wrinkle skin and associated malaise would have to be common. Presumably, the Ivan?s put in some power plants but in my experience, Ivan TG sets are massive n? bulky, mighty thick-hided and as a result, efficiency is in the dumper from the get-go.

Maybe when Cuba was getting an allowance from the Bear, it was feasible to keep m? cranked up. But these days production costs are around 3 cents/ KWH, whilst the Bear TG set production costs aren?t even on the same page or order of magnitude. Yikes, we?d screech like cut cats and go to the barricades if we were to get a power bill from an Ivan TG set. As an aside it?s big business doing efficiency up-up grades to Bear TG sets and someone here has done more than 50, but I aint saying who.

Scamp

[WateringHole]

The cuban auto mechanics has had a reputation for years being the best mechanics around when it comes to jury rig.

Everyone knows the US been having sanctions against Cuba since the 60's and that's why they can't get parts or new autos from us. But there's other countries that make automobiles like Japan, Italy, England, Germany, just to name a few. Do Cuba do trade with those countries ?

[Robert Ryan]

Pretty interesting to hear. Never knew about this.

[reconeil]

Re.: "Do Cuba do trade with those countries?"
You can-bet-your-bippy they do,...and BIG TIME.
There's usually large foreign construction firms and
foreign developers doing their thing in Cuba.

Plus, and even though never been there, I'll give
you (or anyone) big odds that no Cuban Officials ever
ride around in jury-rigged cars with jury-rigged brakes.
Such only for the Dictated Peons or Peasantry.

Neil

P.S. Boats,
Did the show mention any warranties or guarantees
given by these Cuban Master Mechanics???

[revwardoc]

My Dad tells me that he saw lots of trucks and cars in France and Italy during WWII that were converted to run on steam. They jury rigged a boiler on it. He said you could hear the damn things chugging down the road a mile away. There were a few episodes of the old WWII TV series, Combat!, that showed this. He always got a kick of that trip down memory lane.

[Seascamp]

I have no idea how many road miles those Cuban rehab and retread cars have but well over a million might be usual and all have to be accidents looking for a place to happen.
The frame and suspension bits have to be way beyond design life and metal fatigue n? stress fracturing must be a way of life. One mild pothole bump and the lower ?A? frame lets go or rear spring hangers rip out from the frame, steering gear set rips off, on an on.
I think it would be a fascinating journey into metal fabrication skills to put one of those up on the rack and see all the welded or bolt on butch plates, add on gussets, make do add on frame sections, and no doubt Unca Fidel ?donated? some train rails, bridge structure support pieces ?for the people?. Chained on or through bolted wood logs spanning a fatigue severed frame sections is known about, I read an ASME article on that subject. And then there is the ever present tropical rust to deal with.

For a time, what appeared to be a Ma n? Pa salvage yards were Mexican owned buying fronts and old heaps would be parted out, the bits transported to Vera Cruz, and then to Cuba. Good business until the supply of correct brand n? age heaps ran out. Neither Canada nor Mexico signed up for the Cuban embargo, so getting goods from the USA has never been a Cuban handicap.

For consumer goods, there is no requirement for a purchasing agent in Canada or Mexico to document end destination. So, if one of the corrupt Cuban Party Bubbas has a burning desire for a tricked-out custom Harley, no big deal, just truck the creation to Toronto and off it goes to Havana. No laws are broken so long as the US manufacturer is not aware of real end destination. Different story with critical high-tech embargoed items. Canada or Mexico play games with that stuff they will wish they hadn?t, big time, and the US manufacture is looking at serious slam time.

I read an article about the Castro family n? party loyalist sub- division near Havana n? a huge place with all the requisite high-wall security, gates and the like. Posh place and by estimate some 300 European n? Japanese top of the line cars and limos are stabled there n? go out n? about, even a Hummer has been seen, or so the report goes. Maybe that is the ?worker?s paradise? that Danny Glover, et al, are all atwitter about. Alas, the sub-division of milk and honey, or apparently so.

Scamp

As an anside, the EU has a trade embargo list much longer that the US list. Saudi Arabia tops the EU embargo list. But just a look around at the posh European rolling stock limos and industrial equipment seems to be a different story. Maybe the EU embargo prohibits the export of pork products. :re: