31 January 2012

born again ipod

A couple weeks ago the old trusty Apple took a shit.

sound system


























With a whopping 13 gigabyte hardrive,
the imac was the brains behind the shop sound system for at least 6 years.
It was only shut down during power outages and moves.




After trudging through the shop hours with the radio,
it was obvious something needed to be done.
Out of habit,
I actually searched for a replacement IMAC DV.
new and old apples
1999 - 2012



























Than the wife let me borrow her older 8G ipod.
Ahhh...
With less than 1G of free space,
it was obvious my own was needed.


Since most of my bootleg stuff is large WAV files (vs mp3's)
I needed the most memory possible.


So I studied up,
and found out the "Ipod Classic" was the way to go.


160g IPOD CLASSIC
"doom cult"


























On craigslist there was a good selection,
keeping the resale price really low.
I found a beater 160G for under $100,
and opened up a world yet unbeknownst to me.

death black heavy thrash metal


abhorrence, absu, amputator, angel corpse, antaeus, archgoat, arkhon infaustus, axis of advance,  bathory,
behemoth, beherit,  bestial mockery, bestial raids, bestial warlust,  black witchery, blasphemophagher,
blasphemy, brutal truth, carpathian forest, cemetery urn,  chainsaw carnage, conqueror, contrivisti,
coven, cremation,  deicide, demonic rage,  destruktor, the devil's blood, diocletian, enthroned,
exhumed,  goatpenis,  gospel of the horns,  impaled nazarene, inquisition, kerasphorus,  macabre,  marduk,
mayhem,  mercyful fate,  morbosidad,  nausea,  nifelheim,  nocturnal, nocturnal breed,  nunslaughter,
order from chaos, pest 5000,  portal,  profanatica,  revenge, rihanna,  sabbat, sarcafago,  slaughtbath,
sodom, sons of satan,  spearhead,  suffocation, temple below,  toxic holocaust, truppensturm,  von,
vulcano,  warkult, watain, weapon, 1349


1722 songs
4.5 days
11.18 g




The seller (edgar) had a penchant for some crazy satanic death metal shit.
The Ipod was named "DOOM CULT".
If you're a long time reader,
it's obvious this isn't my thing.
However,
I did have a decent obsession with the first 3 Tool albums and some punk like the Bronx,
so there was a little curiosity to hear some new sounds.


Maybe I didn't listen to some of the right songs,
but it all sounded a little too caveman,
or a little too creepy,
and not in a good way.
With 3 impressionable kids,
I couldn't have the stuff so easy to access.
(although I did try to save it to an external hard drive with no luck)


So edgar's collection dwindled down to
140 songs
2 hours
200 MB


I did have a laugh though,
as with all this name brand death metal,
his top hits were...

satanic edgar's top picks

...Lady Gaga, Pink, Christina Aguilera and Marilyn Manson.
WTF?
Not much creepier than reading into a guys psyche through his musical taste.


I've never listened to these bands,
so gave it a shot.
Not quite sure how this stuff got so popular.
Delete.

spacious























It amazes me Apple's technological advancement in 13 years.
That little Ipod is 12 times larger than the old Imac,
and only the size of a deck of cards.
And it sounds just as good,
without the occasional freeze.
And even has an equalizer option.
Crazy cool.

dead weight




















So what better resting place for an old workhorse,
than rolling around the back of the Lincoln.


TP

undercover mother

Anyone find a cheesy 16" hubcap in the san diego area?

wannabe cop car




















The funny thing is it took us a couple days to notice.
Reports say someone saw one flying down the 8 freeway.

==============================================




legion of mary - tore up over you

==============================================

police interceptor





















I didn't realize the stock steel rims were so similar to the police rims,
so it's a good excuse to look for some of those small police hubcaps,
like this.

Hopefully the wife will dig the undercover look.

TP

29 January 2012

woodrup #88042

Looks like any other hot pink road bike right?

woodrup 88042




















To some yes,
to others,
it's a 1988 semi-custom Woodrup criterium race bike.

Well after 23 years this one has a bit of a story.
____________________________________________________

And for a love story like this here's a good tune.




jerry garcia and merl saunders - second that emotion 7-10-1973

______________________________________________________

A couple years ago I scrounged up a couple old road race bikes on craigslist.
The problem with getting old race or high performance stuff no matter what the sport
and who the manufacture,
is that equipment's not built to last - only to win.

woodrup frame




















So while the frame was made with super light reynolds 531c tubing,

reynolds 531c




















it showed it's age.

cracked head tube




















Somehow the head tube had cracked.
There weren't any dents and the forks were straight,
and I contemplated welding it up or trying to braze a new tube in.
Nah.

At the time I was an ebayer and decided to pass it on.
The good thing about old race and high performance equipment
is there is usually a loyal collector that will save it from the recycler.

Fortunately for the frame,
it was built by a relatively small shop in Leeds,
that still maintains a devoted following.

Woodrup main
Woodrup Cycles: History

In typical ebay form the shipping was higher than the sale price.
I knew it was in good hands when T.M. sent me pics of the surgery.

lug





















After 20 years I doubt Mr Woodrup would think someone
would be unbrazing or sweating? off the old tubes.
Fortunately it only showed off his perfectly notched fit.

ready for insertion




















There's 2 things that really surprised me,
- somehow he saved the paint with a wet rag.
- he didn't even use a jig.

brazed up




















This is the part that separates the hack from the obsessed,
the tedious filing to clean up the lugwork.

cleaned up




















Again, I am amazed the paint was saved so close to the torch work.

cool lug cutout detail




















I'm sure he had to machine the head tube to fit the bearing cups,
but i think it's a hand reamer.

test fit




















I'm gathering that he had all this reddish colored stuff saved just for this frame.
If you notice the wrap on the handlebars,
it's actually a sew-up piece of leather.

woodrup 88042




















So within 2 months after receiving the frame,
T.M. was able to get this thing on the road,
(with a mix of campagnolo and suntour parts)
and all the late 80's flare it was born with.

Pretty cool.

TP

(Note - I didn't do this work. Wish I did though!)

28 January 2012

long overdue patch panel

 Last time I showed the old 40 project,
you may have noticed the swapped wheels.

new shoes
chopped and sectioned 40 ford coupe





















I'm not sure if it was an attempt to clean up the shop a little bit,
or to get out of radiusing the rear fenders,
as the blackwall 750's couldn't be removed without unhitching the rear spring.
I'm not a big fan of whitewall tires and red rims,
but I really like the lowness of the 6.00/6.50 combo.

____________________________________________________




jerry garcia band - i'm a road runner
- there's a 12-31-75 version that kicks some harmonica ass,
but I can't find it on youtube.
This version rocks hard though -
(thanks pigpen!)

_____________________________________________________



So much so I had this homeless guy model for me.

self portrait





















I can't believe this thing is only shoulder high!

Fast forward 2 weeks and not much has been done,
except pile tool containers around the now raised car.

dust bunnies




















That was enough instigation to get my act together and get dirty.
Friday night I put some effort in
and whipped up the missing passenger door frame.

framed


























It felt good to get back in the groove,
but I ran out of time to finish.
This morning (sat) I rallied back to the shop.

finally!

























An hour and a half later the door panel was fit and tacked in.

rusty


























It's tough to see but that silver chunk on the lower corner
was the pain in the ass that held up the project.
There's 3 long bends in it that needed hammering,
and basically it was just a pain in the ass
that took me 2 months to make in one hour.

complete
perfectly dirty whitewall


























None of that matters now cause it's done.
(Except for the 8+ feet of welding left to do all over the body)

Psychologically this is a big deal,
as this is the last big gap in the outer sheetmetal.

rear apron




















Ok, except for the rear apron part which needs some help.
And the fact that there's a bunch of small lower rust patches and no floor.
But why be negative.


























The kicker today was overcoming my concern for ruining my good pants.
perich brothers (and sister): retired
as they were graced with 6 new burn holes.

TP


27 January 2012

you know you're a boat worker when...

There's not much worse ways to start and end your day,
than lugging heavy 5-gallon buckets or milk crates
back and forth down the dock from the boat and car.


aluminum scrap

























For a couple days I used a dolly,
but since the buckets were overfilled,
they don't stack well.

box




















The first night I made the box.
I'm planning on getting it banged up,
so it's more workboat than yacht looking.

____________________________________________________




jerry garcia & merl saunders - when I paint my masterpiece (bob dylan)

'72 - the first year jgb played this song.
Good twangy garage band version

_____________________________________________________

I've been wanting to build this for a long long time.
This was the hardest part.

anthony brothers
tricycle and trailer





















This Anthony Bros. tricycle and trailer have been yard art
in our various yards for the past 12 years.
Yes 12 years before we had kids,
3 kids.
It's never been used.
If you look closely,
the left pedal is missing cause there's no axle.

Two years ago I found a replacement fork/wheel,
 realized it wasn't a quick swap.
Than our youngest went on to bicycles.
Put it on craigslist cheap with no interest...

anthony bros. convert-o trailer




















So like any true hot rodder...

before


























let's part it out!
The wheels are bitchin.
They are an aluminum rim with bearings,
and a hard wagon type rubber tire.
(inflatable wheels are worthless on a work cart)

after

























The original axle was about 5 inches short,
so after some cut and pasting...

custom aluminum dock cart




















A roller was born.

Let's see how it works...

3 bucket dock cart




















Passed the 3 bucket test,
that saves one long walk.

2 milk crate dock cart

















Passed the 2+ milk crate test.
It's important to note there's 2 different sizes for these milk crates,
13" x 18.5" and 13.5"x 19".
Not sure why there's not an industry standard but there isn't.
A good base size is 20"x28" to leave some slop,
and a height of 9" so the handles don't cut fingers off when dropping in.

back seat dock cart


























And for the most important test,
it fits in the back seat of the lincoln.
I made the handle removeable just in case to fit in the trunk,
but if it fits in here than it will fit in the van no problem.


It'll work but it's not quite finished yet.
Some drain holes and some strap holes and it should be good to go.


tools of the trade
stool and dock cart

































With this little gem,
the plan is to not get so burnt after working,
that I can't post on here!

I'll be testing it at the BIG 3 swap too.

Hey AJ,
it's not a wagon!

TP





















23 January 2012

thank God for pants...

So me and a co-worker are workin on this boat last week.

what the...


























Some dumb ass thought this was a good place to sit.
Gus is way too nice and churchy,
so just kept working.

no deep breaths here

























I ended up getting the torch out.
There's only so close a guy can work next to a strangers bunghole.

TP

RIP blue racer

Trying to get back in the groove here.
So let's get the horror story out of the way.

blue racer aka chubby
western fence lizard




























A couple months ago the kids auntie Lisa found a lizard out by their horses,
and brought it too the kids.
We're renters so haven't been too pet friendly,
so this was a good opportunity to test how the kids could handle taking care of something.

lizard condo





















Well everything went fine for a while.
It was an easy pet to take care of,
just needed crickets and water.

We figured it was an older one,
as it was really lazy.
It would have been easily picked off by a hawk,
or washed out in the rains.
But that would have been a better fate for the poor guy.

lizard grave





















I've been way preoccupied lately and wasn't paying attention to it.
It looked really sickly over the weekend.
I was a little shocked as I had just seen it eat days before.
After taking a closer look,
I got those creepy shivers you get when something's not right.
There were all these little red mites on it's body.
Woops.
I searched online and found a bunch of info,
which was kinda crummy to find out a little too late.

Basically since it was a wild animal,
it had brought a couple mites with it.
Well what happens in the wild is they'll get scratched and fall off,
so only a few will remain attached.

In a terrarium,
the mites fall off,
but they just hop right back on,
over and over again,
creating a breeding ground.

RIP little guy

























Unfortunately we caught it too late.
The mites have an anticoagulant that poisons the blood,
and removing them with water was just as harsh on the lizard.

A rude awakening for us all.
The kids now know the bitter ending for most pets.

TP

13 January 2012

friday the 13th chant

Friday the 13th is a lucky day...





















Friday the 13th is a lucky day....



























Friday the 13th is a lucky day...





















Friday the 13th is a lucky day...






















Friday the 13th is a lucky day...


























All these copper tubes need to be finished by today.
And here I am writing this post!
Holey Chit I better get outta here...

Friday the 13th is a lucky day...

TP