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Rough Drafts & Lessons Learned

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Ryan, Feb 26, 2008.

  1. tfeverfred
    Joined: Nov 11, 2006
    Posts: 15,791

    tfeverfred
    Member Emeritus

    About 25 years ago, I had a '66 Mustang coupe. I bought it off a guy that restored Mustangs and it was in pretty good shape. The hot rodding bug bit me and not having any real knowledge, the only things I could do was bolt on type stuff. (Like a freakin' ricer!:eek:)

    One day, while in the auto parts store, a set of hood pins caught my eyes and I got 'em. Took 'em home and cut 2 holes in my hood where I THOUGHT the pins would be able to bolt to the core support. Yup, missed by a mile. The sad part is, I drilled TWO MORE holes before I figured I should get out a tape measure! Geeeeez. Back then, I was dumb as the day is long.
     
  2. oilslinger53
    Joined: Apr 17, 2007
    Posts: 2,500

    oilslinger53
    Member
    from covina CA

    ive learned that buying a "modern car" is just like throwing you money in the trash
     
  3. thirty7slammed
    Joined: Sep 1, 2007
    Posts: 886

    thirty7slammed
    BANNED
    from earth

    I think all on here can relate to Ryans experience. Back in the day cars were plentiful and cheap, although dollars weren't dollars compared to todays money. I can remember customizing and modifying cars, and the results were very substandard as compared to todays cars, but back then it was cool, because it was different. We all learn from our mistakes and patience comes with age, Thank god we did not get discouraged and accept what Detroit offered.
     
  4. dragsterboy
    Joined: Aug 29, 2007
    Posts: 345

    dragsterboy
    Member

    I just turned 17 and bought my first car in January of 1986,a 68 Buick GS California.I graduated high school and immediately got a job working in a body shop.They were nice enough to give me a corner of the shop to fix up my car.I tore into that car like there was no tomorrow.I was sitting there one day looking at the body hanging from the ceiling and the frame on the other side of the shop,stripped down to nothing.All I remember thinking was"Holly shit,what the hell have I done".I didn't have a clue how to put this thing back together.
    I did end up getting it back on the road,but never did like the way it turned out.I just couldn't figure out how to build what I had pictured in my head.I ended up doing that car 3 times over the next several years before I finally got it right.I still have that car today.It's a good reminder for me to do it right the first time.
    They say you learn from your mistakes.I learn something every day.
     
  5. Zombilly
    Joined: Sep 5, 2006
    Posts: 351

    Zombilly
    Member

    This is really good stuff you guys, thanks for sharing.
     
  6. farm boy
    Joined: Oct 25, 2006
    Posts: 178

    farm boy
    Member
    from reedley

    My bud Dennis had a bad 56 chevy,283 tri power, 30 30 duntov, 4 speed. after a year it wasn't good enough for him. He builds up a really hot 370 pontiac, huge cam, 2 afbs, ported, really hot stuff for 1966. Sense he is now my hero, we talk my dad into letting us use the barn to exchange engines. We got the Hurst engine swap kit, only problem, engine is bigger. We get out the torch and start heating and beating in the firewall so the right head will clear. (you have to remember , we've never seen a die grinder) 2 am, my dad comes out in his underpants (not a pretty site)wondering W T F, he could smell the burning undercoating in the house!!!!
    Wait there is more!!!!
    2 days, almost done, tie rod hits the pan, no problem, I got a torch and I got a forney welder. I cut the tie rod about 6 in. from both rod ends, make some nice 4"x4"x 1/4" plowsteel brackets to lower the center portion of the rod, welded it up with some good ol 6013, (used that cuz it's prettyer that 6011) clears pan, let's go!!
    We head out laughing and screaming, can't belive the torque, the acceleration. Remember this "farm boy meets the real world" after about maybe 3 hours we decide to go show our auto shop teacher, Mr. Willems the car. As we start to turn into the school the car shudders to a stop. W T F. We get out, left tires turning left right tires turning right!!! My welds broke!!!! This, mind you, after 3 hours of pegging the speedo and doing 1/4 milers down these narrow country roads, with big thick orange trees on one side and irrigation canals on the other. Dennis and Mr. willems will never let me forget. Heck I didn't even know about Tigs and Migs and what's that, ah, Joint preperation.
    Sorry for being so long winded. OLY

    The cancer car lives
    Give to cancer research
     
  7. warpigg
    Joined: Mar 4, 2001
    Posts: 591

    warpigg
    Member
    from gypsy

    what a nice little neighborhood... i wish we still had you around to paint outdoors on a windy norman day.
     
  8. octane
    Joined: May 8, 2006
    Posts: 339

    octane
    Member
    from Virginia

    Oh man, great thread Ryan. I started working on my first project in 1988 when I was 14 - a '53 Chevy 210 four door. My old man picked it up as a father/son project - he traded it for payment on a job he did when the customer didn't have the cash. At the time it ran and he drove it home, but he never had time to work on it and it sat in the weeds in our backyard for a couple of years before he let me loose on it all by myself. I had no tools and no experience, just a load of enthusiasm. The top ten lessons I learned:

    1. with some practice I could do decent basic bodywork.
    2. the right tools make all the difference.
    3. the right tools are expensive.
    4. if you bridge a battery's terminals with a wrench they will weld themselves together.
    5. a hand-me-down timing light with cracked and missing wiring insulation WILL shock the shit out of you when the cylinder fires.
    6. most neighbors don't appreciate a 35 year old car painted six different colors of primer parked outside their window.
    7. check underneath the car before you pour a year of time after school and ALL of your paper route money into the project (those years in the damp weeds rotted the frame damn near clear in half).
    8. a paper route budget will NOT pay to repair or replace a broken frame.
    9. a half finished project is worth more in parts.
    10. there are a LOT of shady mother fuckers out there willing to lie to and screw a kid over for cheap parts.

    Some hard lessons learned on that car, but I'm still dreaming and wrenching twenty years later. Good times.
     
  9. Ahh, I am not alone !
    What joy to read that most of you gearheads come from the school of hard knocks too.
    Here is my confession;
    When I was barely 14 in'74, I took my hard earned paperroute money and proceeded to the nearest Army dump to buy a real motorcycle.
    The guy sold me a tired old ex-army Harley WLA 45 for something like $750, it ran but it wouldn't idle, it smoked like you wouldn't believe and it had sand in the olive-drab "paintjob", but I was a happy man.
    Next day I tore it apart, and I mean all the way including the engine and gearbox.
    You see, I was going to build me a WR racer and I was not going to cut corners.....
    And I was doing it in the driveway, it was summer and I figured it would give me the added and dearly needed exposure to establish myself as the neighborhood hardcore biker gearhead !:cool:
    At the end of the day the driveway was strewn with bikeparts.
    The next day I put the heads in the vise, breaking some fins but what the heck, and started filing away to get some more compression, I was absolutely confident I could file them flat with a foot long course file I found in the garage.
    Day three was "lightening day" with drill in hand I drilled holes in anything that had the width of the drillbit with a couple milimeters to spare, next came the hacksaw, I took off every piece of metal that I did not need or did not remember or grasp the use of.
    At the end of day three my dad ordered me to get my shit out of the drive so he could park his car again.
    I threw everything in some boxes and carried it inside to the workbench in the garage and after dinner I went to bed tired but satisfied at what I had "accomplished" that day.:)
    early tomorrow morning I would start the reassembly of my old WLA and it would miraculously emerge from its ashes as a real racer !
    Morning came and when I came in the garage and saw all my boxes with parts, I panicked !
    I had trown all nuts, bolts and washers in an old coffeetin, I put valvetrain and gearboxparts together in one box but didn't remember which was which, I had taken the crankshaft apart and didn't know the left from the right flywheel,:confused:
    I had read a ton of bike magazines but i did not have a HD manual...
    I was staring in the deep "Abyss of thy own Knowledge",
    I was in way over my head and knew it !
    Two weeks later I traded the heap of parts for a very very tired Matchless G3 which was not a Harley obviously, but it ran good and it was complete and I was a lucky man again.
    It was more than a year later when I decided the G3 was not powerfull enough and I made the trip to the Army dump again to get me a decent Harley 45 and a manual !
    I took that second Harley apart very carefully, manual in hand, part bu part, labeled every item with tape and marker and it took me most part of a year to rebuild it in my spare time, but ididit !

    Boy was that a steep learning curve !!!!:eek:
     
  10. My dad had a buddy back in the Fifties that used to race an early Lasalle sedan with and Olds engine.

    Lots of great stories about that car, but the best was that when Fred would shift under heavy acceleration, the entire car would lean heavy to one side. Years later, my dad asked him why the car would do this... "Well, I never finished the engine swap, so I just put a block of wood between the oil pan and the front crossmember":eek:!!!
     
  11. It's funny, a friend of mine and I were talking about this sort of subject yesterday, and it really had me thinking. I have learned so much that it would take hours for me to write it all here. Early on I learned that I am not nearly as good as I once thought I was (although I am much better than I was 10 years ago). I learned that I must have ADD, as I have had so many cars and projects that it's ridiculous. I now know that the big name builders that I once looked up to and damn near idolized are actually no better than the majority of the people on this site. I know that I do not like doing my best work on someone else's ride, and then watch it drive away. I've learned to take my time and plan shit out, as many times I have been extremely quick to start cutting or tearing into something, only to change my mind. I also learned that I am extremely hard headed, don't listen to anyone, and actually seem to like learning shit the hard way.
     
  12. autobilly
    Joined: May 23, 2007
    Posts: 3,123

    autobilly
    Member

    So, one sunny day in '84(ish) a few buddys and I got together at a friend's place. After a few hours of beers and conversation, it was decided that the carby on his '59 Cad. needed some work. So it was every one into his old wood floor garage. Off came the carb. Out came screws, springs and ball barings, many of which ended up on the floor. After drunken searching in the cracks between the floor boards, most parts were recoverd and reassembly done. The carb. was then refitted to the car and amidst much fooling around, the car started. Cough cough bang, it caught fire. "Quick grab the hose!" This happy little tale ended up with a hydrolic locked engine with bent rods. Lesson learned; save the pissup until the work is done.
     
  13. Montechris
    Joined: Nov 15, 2004
    Posts: 529

    Montechris
    Member

    Who is Batchelor, Montgomery, and Southard?
     
  14. ct
    Joined: Oct 31, 2006
    Posts: 128

    ct
    Member
    from minnesota

    "all i"ve ever built is motorcycles and i finally decided to build a car. i have a 34 chevy sedan and i will have it done by june 07 if it's the last thing i do. at this point i really don't care about anything else."

    That's what I wrote in my introduction. Guess when that was? December 1 2006. What am i still doing? You guessed it. I work on that beautiful piece of crap about 3 days a week. Cars are a bit harder to build than a motorcycle. i've learned so much, I feel like I can do anything. I read, research, and ask questions. I take everything with a grain of salt because you never know how accurate it is. Then I get to it. No secret really.

    I thought id be done for BTTF's in '07, I was there all right. I took my Pops 64 t-bird. my '34 stayed in the garage.

    Will I make it in '08? I'm doing everything I can to get there. I'm sure it will be right down to the wire.
     
  15. Greybeard
    Joined: Dec 13, 2005
    Posts: 40

    Greybeard
    Member

    My first lesson was learned on my very first car, a pristine one owner '48 Chev in royal blue, that I was actually only looking at - merely considering buying - and not all that keen on it anyway except for the price and I needed wheels. The guy wanted forty hard-earned 1962 dollars for it. This car didn't have so much as a parking lot ding, or a stain on the interior, or a flaw in the engine compartment.

    I really wanted that '54 blue and white Bel Air hardtop at a local dealer, but they wanted ninety-nine bucks - way out of my range. I had about sixty to my name after a long summer of hard laboring... Instead of finding more work, I took the '48 for a test drive on a wet oiled-dirt parking lot. Car fish-tailed just a little, and somehow "I" broke an axle. Guy gives me the "You broke it, you pay to fix it or you buy it " speech. An axle cost $35 to replace. I bought the car.

    Got a buddy to rope-tow me home. On the way home, the rope jerked me into the rear of his car and bent my perfect grille and bashed a headlamp. In addition to my headlamp and hours spent straightening the grille, it cost me another $10 to fix his tail light. And the axle change was a real nightmare. I think three of the cover bolts or studs snapped off, and the catch pan had a hole in the bottom and leaked all over my dad's garage - stunk up the place to high heaven and the car got evicted to a muddy corner of the driveway.

    Then somehow I got my little finger pinched in the gears so badly that they talked about amputating it (45+ years later and the tip is still stone numb.) I was out of commission for a month after that. Took about two more months to get the axle finished. In the meantime, a cat took to running in place on the hood and tore up the paint. Two tires and the battery went permanently flat, and I could only afford to take care of them one at a time. I learned a few lessons - patience, for one, and to keep my fingers out of rotating machinery, among others. And drove it for the second time, right after Christmas.

    I sold it that summer, at night, when the buyer couldn't see my half assed sewing job on the seat or the scratches on the hood or the steady drip of 90 weight from the rear. And for exactly what I paid for it, although somewhat richer for the experience and the skinned knuckles, amen.
     
  16. SquashThatFly
    Joined: Nov 24, 2005
    Posts: 723

    SquashThatFly
    Member

    PLAN.....well....somewhat plan and have an idea of where you want the build to go.

    Otherwise end up like me...have a car for two years that gets worked on all the time but never gets anywhere because I change things 3 and 4 times.
     

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