I don’t know whether you have caught James May’s delightful series The Reassembler yet or not, but I will tell you that I am hooked. The small series, which is available to stream on YouTube is like a Zen Garden in its peacefulness and calm. Even May himself pokes fun at the obsequious dullness of watching one man put back together what are honestly mundane day-to-day contraptions, but it’s May himself that makes it so damn interesting.
It may be that we’re both about the same age, and both share an interest in the minutia of the mundane, but I would be happy to watch the loquacious Brit put back together, well, damn-near anything while explaining while explaining its cultural importance. That in fact, is why we’re here today. The Reassembler has been two very short series and I’d like your input on what you’d like to see James May reassemble in the next series. I’ll be sure to pass your suggestions along.
Image: Overclockers
Hooniverse Asks: What Would You Most Like to See James May Put Back Together?
By Robert Emslie
Jan 26, 2017
Jeff Glucker
An entire combustion engine.
Front wheel hub assembly on a 1973-1989 GM 4WD truck. Those things are a bitch. “And tonight, here James curse.”
A #$%@ Dyson vacuum cleaner. Perhaps a fellow countryman can expose the myth that is James Dyson’s reputation for building a quality product.
I actually like Dyson vacuums, but some of their stuff is full of crap. They used to ship with a little chip of plastic that showed the “weld lines” on their injection molded parts. What it really was was poor tooling design that had horribly visible mold flow lines. As a mechanical engineer that does plastic part design, I got a chuckle out of it.
A turbine engine.
Mostly because I have read all I can, and looked at flow diagrams and so forth, and I still can’t really comprehend how they work. I consider it a personal failing, and if anyone can explain it to me in a way that I might finally understand, it’d be Captain Slow.
check out youtube channel AgentJayZ
American culture?
I”m not sure anyone can reassemble that now.
All the crap the Roadkill guys don’t get around to before the episode ends.
I don’t think he has that much time left on earth!
Didn’t know until I started searching for other things but I think a Vemco v drive would be entertaining.
That or a watch. Or a tube guitar amp.
I promise to pay close attention and take notes.
https://www.driving.co.uk/s3/st-driving-prod/uploads/2014/08/May.jpg
Must be a European model. It only has one front license plate.
Good point. Mine has three, the two obvious ones shown below and a third hidden behind them that’s just a black rectangle painted directly onto the hood with individual silver characters glued to it.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu125/mharrell_photographs/croppedFplate.jpg
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu125/mharrell_photographs/croppedWAplate.jpg
You wouldn’t prefer a video on how to make and install a Variomatic belt? 😉
No, for that project I have spare belts and several shop manuals, most of the latter of which, as a bonus, fail to contradict one another. What I need now is warmer weather.
Automatic Transmission. Seriously, how the #$%& do they work?
Put it in “D”and go.
https://jalopnik.com/this-is-how-an-automatic-transmission-works-517581894
Check out the bit about planetary gears at the end and the video at the bottom.
Some classic RC car.
An Alfa Montreal’s mechanic fuel injection (or any other mechanic fuel injection
Besides cars, maybe a typewriter?
Austin Rover
Oh? Are they experiencing difficulties?
Oh, nothing surmountable…
Business as usual, then.
No more than a British run company deserves.
My Mummy and Daddy’s marriage.
American democracy?
The old Top Gear team? Bring it back to the BBC with a lower budget than the silly Grand Tour.
This is one of my favorite shows, up there with Detectorists. I’d watch him fiddle about and reassemble anything; after all, it’s not the reassembling that’s the point, it’s to watch May mutter under his breath or wax poetic about lord knows what.
How about an old tube radio, though? He’d have a lot to say about that, I reckon.
OK, the Omega Speedmaster
( I win )