Freq2002
11-21-2006, 09:08 PM
For openers, I'm 36, been in the Navy for over 18 of those workin on the enviromental & safety systems on C130, C9, Huey, A6, F/A18, and currently P3 airframes from the searing heat of the Mojave desert to the numbing killing cold of Antarctica. I've always been good with machines & have been workin on anything with a motor I could get my mitts on since my early teens.
Ran my own small engine business at 14, started doin odd mechanical work around the same, then moved into electronic mods at 15. I have run my own motorcycle & VW shop out of my garage when I lived in CA, still do odd bits here & there & flip the occasional car or bike here & there.
Cant count how many cars, trucks, & motorcycles I've owned in the past few years, nevermind the work on other folks rigs,...
All I can say is I love to work on anything, I get a kick out of taking something thats broke down & wore out, makin it work again, and starting all over with something new. I'm not real experienced with freehand metal working, & that is my current focus so that I can take on projects w/o making em FUBAR.
Yeah, I love to cut, hammer, & weld on old steel like it was goin out of style. Too bad a really suck at it,...
That's what practice is for, and before some of y'all get all bunched that I may be molesting perfectly good Americal metal, my 1st project & current experimentation platform is a '70 VW beetle roadster I call the Black Bomber. All kinds of neat stuff, all custom made or adapted by myself. What better way to learn w/o havin to drop a ton of bones? Not that it has been cheap, but not too bad overall.
It sits about 3" off the deck in front with open fenders and smoothed wheel wells, hiked in the hind end with fenders, rear meats stick out about 1.5 inches, overall rake gives it a mean stance & I get lots of comments about how it looks like the Prowlers bastard cousin. I think it looks better myself, but then I'm a nut! I have a 4" drop 4-bar Ford A style front axle, 70's GM discs pushed by a Porsche 944 Master Cyl, '69 Mustang steering box run thru a Nissan 280Z steering column, and a removable steering wheel from Speedway Motors (love those guys, and judging by my bank account, they love me too,...), Mazda 626 seats I recovered myself, all digital blackout guages from Nordskog, a completely redesigned elctrical system I built from scratch using aircraft grade wiring covered in nickel platted copper sheathing (for ground & radio noise suppression) & junction blocks, and a few other odds & ends here & there.
By the way, for those local NorthWest folks that want a tight electrical system custom made, hit me up.
Now that most folks are disgusted by the Kraut driver in your midst(By the way, Hitler didn't design anything, he just had an open contract bidding to build a car that anyone can afford and got XX milage & could hold 4 adults. 3 companies vied for it, Porsche designed the winner, and the English built it to revive Germany AFTER Hitler was long dead & gone), I DO have a hunk of American iron.
I just purchased a 1956 GMC 2.5-ton dump truck. L6, 2bbl, 4-speed with a 2-speed rear, single axle & a short box. All original steel with the expected rust in the usual places, but overall not bad. Only dent I found was one of the bullets in the grill got bumped, didn't dent it, but did bend the lower sheet metal a touch. She aint purty, but she's a tough old girl!
Currently halfway home as I tried to drive her home but the brakes were too questionable for my liking. It's at a shop to get looked at & get some new rubber all around. Bringin her home this weekend to scare the neighborhood half to death! Lord but I love messin with these people. :D
I'm here on the HAMB to dig around, find bits of info, and see if I cant uncover a few sources for the occasional part here & there.
Immediate plans for the GMC:
*BRAKES! Dont care if she wont go, but if she wont stop, we could have a real serious issue,... I wanna live to enjoy my rides, thanks very much!
*Dig up a 1956 Washington license plate & register her as a collector vehicle.
*Wiring is gonna be gutted from stem to stern and she'll get the same aviation grade stuff I have in the Bomber, with a fabric loom if I can find it. Wanna keep her as close to stock "looking" as possible, might keep her a lil rough on the edges, but want her true to date as much as possible.
*Clean up the tin, beat out the dents, start doing transplants for the cancerous spots, clean up the paint.
*Take the dump box off the frame & fabricate, with the help of a talented welder freind, a tilting wood deck flat bed with ramps so I can haul the Bomber around, or whatever other cars/parts/Coke machines (another of my vices, love those old Coka-Cola machines) I need taken from here to there & vice versa.
But time will tell. I may just get her sea worthy again and turn her over to some poor bum that needs a toy of his own. I'm not a profit seeker, I do this stuff for the pure joy & fun of it, will sell her for 10% over what I paid for the lot and move on to my next project. What that will be, oh man, dont get me started,... If I could get ahould of a couple grand, a 3-car transporter, and a couple winches, I know where there are a few sweet peices of steel up in them mountains. ;)
Anyway, wasted too much time already, need to look up parts for the brake system! Will post some photos later on when I get a few of the truck.
Ran my own small engine business at 14, started doin odd mechanical work around the same, then moved into electronic mods at 15. I have run my own motorcycle & VW shop out of my garage when I lived in CA, still do odd bits here & there & flip the occasional car or bike here & there.
Cant count how many cars, trucks, & motorcycles I've owned in the past few years, nevermind the work on other folks rigs,...
All I can say is I love to work on anything, I get a kick out of taking something thats broke down & wore out, makin it work again, and starting all over with something new. I'm not real experienced with freehand metal working, & that is my current focus so that I can take on projects w/o making em FUBAR.
Yeah, I love to cut, hammer, & weld on old steel like it was goin out of style. Too bad a really suck at it,...
That's what practice is for, and before some of y'all get all bunched that I may be molesting perfectly good Americal metal, my 1st project & current experimentation platform is a '70 VW beetle roadster I call the Black Bomber. All kinds of neat stuff, all custom made or adapted by myself. What better way to learn w/o havin to drop a ton of bones? Not that it has been cheap, but not too bad overall.
It sits about 3" off the deck in front with open fenders and smoothed wheel wells, hiked in the hind end with fenders, rear meats stick out about 1.5 inches, overall rake gives it a mean stance & I get lots of comments about how it looks like the Prowlers bastard cousin. I think it looks better myself, but then I'm a nut! I have a 4" drop 4-bar Ford A style front axle, 70's GM discs pushed by a Porsche 944 Master Cyl, '69 Mustang steering box run thru a Nissan 280Z steering column, and a removable steering wheel from Speedway Motors (love those guys, and judging by my bank account, they love me too,...), Mazda 626 seats I recovered myself, all digital blackout guages from Nordskog, a completely redesigned elctrical system I built from scratch using aircraft grade wiring covered in nickel platted copper sheathing (for ground & radio noise suppression) & junction blocks, and a few other odds & ends here & there.
By the way, for those local NorthWest folks that want a tight electrical system custom made, hit me up.
Now that most folks are disgusted by the Kraut driver in your midst(By the way, Hitler didn't design anything, he just had an open contract bidding to build a car that anyone can afford and got XX milage & could hold 4 adults. 3 companies vied for it, Porsche designed the winner, and the English built it to revive Germany AFTER Hitler was long dead & gone), I DO have a hunk of American iron.
I just purchased a 1956 GMC 2.5-ton dump truck. L6, 2bbl, 4-speed with a 2-speed rear, single axle & a short box. All original steel with the expected rust in the usual places, but overall not bad. Only dent I found was one of the bullets in the grill got bumped, didn't dent it, but did bend the lower sheet metal a touch. She aint purty, but she's a tough old girl!
Currently halfway home as I tried to drive her home but the brakes were too questionable for my liking. It's at a shop to get looked at & get some new rubber all around. Bringin her home this weekend to scare the neighborhood half to death! Lord but I love messin with these people. :D
I'm here on the HAMB to dig around, find bits of info, and see if I cant uncover a few sources for the occasional part here & there.
Immediate plans for the GMC:
*BRAKES! Dont care if she wont go, but if she wont stop, we could have a real serious issue,... I wanna live to enjoy my rides, thanks very much!
*Dig up a 1956 Washington license plate & register her as a collector vehicle.
*Wiring is gonna be gutted from stem to stern and she'll get the same aviation grade stuff I have in the Bomber, with a fabric loom if I can find it. Wanna keep her as close to stock "looking" as possible, might keep her a lil rough on the edges, but want her true to date as much as possible.
*Clean up the tin, beat out the dents, start doing transplants for the cancerous spots, clean up the paint.
*Take the dump box off the frame & fabricate, with the help of a talented welder freind, a tilting wood deck flat bed with ramps so I can haul the Bomber around, or whatever other cars/parts/Coke machines (another of my vices, love those old Coka-Cola machines) I need taken from here to there & vice versa.
But time will tell. I may just get her sea worthy again and turn her over to some poor bum that needs a toy of his own. I'm not a profit seeker, I do this stuff for the pure joy & fun of it, will sell her for 10% over what I paid for the lot and move on to my next project. What that will be, oh man, dont get me started,... If I could get ahould of a couple grand, a 3-car transporter, and a couple winches, I know where there are a few sweet peices of steel up in them mountains. ;)
Anyway, wasted too much time already, need to look up parts for the brake system! Will post some photos later on when I get a few of the truck.