Daily Drivers

Here's a little prelude...

Ken picked up what looked and sounded like a bitchin camaro.

It made me want one too.

Then I remembered we couldn't afford to drive a GM musclecar when we had one,

and oh yeah we've got a handful of ford based hot rods already.

That's how the competition starts.

It's easier for me to dial the green 40 to be just as bad ass.

302 vs 350

It's an age old battle.

Of course in this case there's almost 30 years of styling differences.

And that's what makes it fun.

Old vs older...

Round vs square

Prewar vs postwar...

Sadly most people find comfort in slowly paying off an inflated car loan.

Thankfully car based America allows us to build this stuff.

Ken's got big plans for this beast.

I'll continue to scrape by.

Funner to be the underdog.

Stay tuned for the updates...

TP

Free your mind

So the boys got caught doing a little fabricating.

Usually I'll be happy about this.

Not this time it was with words and the timeline.

Nothing major,

but one thing were serious about is telling the truth,

then you don't get caught later looking like a dufus.

Best way to free your mind!

As prepunishment we had them write up some options.

Something for us to choose from.

Jaxon's in top in sharpie,

Jakob's on bottom in pencil.

What's with this list?

It's like they're punishing us for them doing something wrong.

Why take away our fun riding bikes or skating?

Where's the spankings,

or the kneeling on uncooked rice for a half hour,

or soap in the mouth.

Or how about an hour of weeding every day,

or scrubbing the toilet with bare hands,

Or writing "I will be a good boy" a couple thousand times.

Taking away their iPod...

Jeez...

So Jaxon says,"I may do the Portuguese Rice punishment!"

TP

Dyngus Day

Easter Sunday.

One of those days when it's tough to sneak in a couple work hours.

Even the egg coloring kit was teasing me.

This year the wife even had the day off,

which is rare in her retail world.

A fun filled family day,

we hung out with my mom's side of the family,

then had a mellow movie night - The Pirate Fairy.

Now we know the back story of Captain Hook and Tinkerbell,

how pixie dust is made,

and the birth of Tic-Toc the croc.

Good times.

I'll admit there was a brief thought I could get a couple hours in,

and I'm glad I didn't,

as there's always Dyngus Day.

http://holidayinsights.com/other/dyngusday.htm

Whatever I thought could have done would have backfired.

Didn't I warn you yesterday my preplanning doesn't always work?

The idea was to bolt on the running boards,

drill a few holes,

and slap on some filler after hammering the panels.

What ended up happening was creating the backing plates,

which helped to reinforce the real fender curve to the running boards,

and redoing the flap rods/tabs to keep the fenders from flaring out.

When I tried to half-ass it,

there was no way I could continue.

The quick couple hours extended into the evening.

And the waiting paid off both ways.

Dyngus Day!

TP

Early Morning Psychobabble

One thing I know,

if there is momentum on a project,

don't stop.

It's like curling,

that ice and broom sport.

Do whatever you can to smooth the path.

In this case,

it is freeing up a block of time,

and getting my butt down to the shop.

After that I'm pretty much on autopilot,

just like that heavy curling stone.

The explanation is simple.

It may take days or weeks of subconscious planning.

It's like cranking an old wind-up toy.

The trick is to seed your mind to use that free time.

Go to sleep thinking of the project.

Have some pics on the phone to study and remember details.

When the solution hits clear the path.

Of course this doesn't guarantee success.

Far from it.

What it does is give mental preparation,

so there's no thinking needed to do the job,

that parts already been done.

Overthinking is usually what screws everything up!

In fact this thought process bleeds to the work time as well.

Instead of thinking of the cut or the shape,

I'll unintentionally think of a family,kid or the neighbor issue.

It helps to bring a notepad!

Some great ideas don't seem so great later on.

So instead of acting on them and being foolish or mean,

the better choice can be made.

I don't know if this is insight or crazy talk.

What the heck it's 3 am I'm going back to sleep!

TP

A new leaf

I've never been known to have a green thumb.

I've tried and have good intentions,

but there's a certain amount of patience,

and upkeep I tend to forget about.

Even house plants tend to whither away.

However one of us has to have the magic touch.

A couple weeks ago we started our seedlings,

and it's taken about the same time

to weed this little stretch of dirt,

partially anyway!

The sprouts were transplanted,

and now we'll reap the benefits.

Maybe over the weekend we can finish that last part too!

TP

bottom's up

As you have read in the back to black series,

over the week a major milestone had passed.

That was the easy part.

Over the weekend,

some negative energy fueled an even stronger push.

I'll get to that story later,

for now let's focus on the good stuff.

Back in February I started to tackle the bottom rust.

Piece by piece sections were replaced.

Patch panels were rough hammered out,

and fit into place.

These pieces had only been mig tacked,

Waiting for finish welding.

Funny cause here was a time 

I could have lived with the rot.

As each corner became whole,

there was no turning back.

Finally the last of the easy pieces was finished,

and the big TIG was brought in.

So much nicer to use the tig for sheetmetal,

even if wind blocks are needed.

The finish welding took a couple hours each day.

At this time the corner points were also buttoned up.

A big step.

You know what happened next.

A little hammering and sanding...

...and time for some black primer.

So cool to see it like this after all these years.

Now for the hard part.

The front end is a mess.

The lower sections are toast,

And they aren't simple flat pieces.

The good thing is after I've got a plan,

Totally different from a month ago.

Stay tuned...

TP