BSME '72. Planned to work in the oil industry but it had crashed in '72 and I went to work for a local industrial fastener manufacturer. The owner put me in the shop for 6 months making me learn how all of the machines worked, great idea. I came home covered in cutting oil every day but got a real education in how the plant functioned. Ended up designing /building a lot of items for them. I was their first and only engineer. While in college I built a T-bucket and drove it to the 2-nd Street Rod nationals in Memphis. Did all but the upholstery. Ended up starting my own manufacturing company when the fastener company closed. We designed and built machines for the fastener industry including chamfering, marking, bar shears, and automating them. Employed an engineer that was hands on who was an exception. I tried hiring student engineers from the local college but they were mostly clueless. Had one though that was an exception, he was more interested in going in the shop and running a lathe. He turned out to be an great engineer. Sold the company 4 years ago and retired, trying to go to all of the car events, races, etc. still on my bucket list. Have a '34 Chevy sedan I did all of the work on including paint and upholstery I built in the late '70's and a '32 roadster I built before I retired. Didn't paint that one. My oldest son has a masters in ME and works for NASA. He does have an old Mustang he tinkers with.
I'm a self proclaimed engineer. 40 years of visualizing, designing and building custom fixtures, tooling and machinery for a wide range of industry.
I appreciate all who have responded!..besides having a love of early HOTRODS I also enjoy working on cars built for one slightly HAMB unfriendly purpose of going very fast and turning left. Many racers only care about " if I make X alteration I will get Z result " . I have always wanted to know " WHY" and HOW that takes place and also have immensely enjoyed the occasions when we were able to get ahead of the competition. Most of the chassis theory can be figured out with a basic understanding of the laws of physics and a little geometry, however there are thoughts and theories rattling around in my head that I REALLY could use some input on and a few targets for my questions have identified themselves!..the HAMB is a great source of knowledge and I am sure more than a few people may now know where to direct their questions as well...
BSME here. Retired after 35 years working on performance and emissions development of Diesel Engines. First couple of years were spent doing fuel system optimization on mid range engines... throttle jockey on performance and emissions dymamometers. Got kicked off the dyno console and into management after that. Ended up running the Advanced Development group with a bunch of PhDs reporting to me. Despite what some of you think, there are quite a few smart people out there, even if they can’t turn a wrench. Without them, you guys would still be turning wrenches on Model As with six volt charging systems and gravity fed carburetors on your daily driver... oops, some of you are.... It was a good run. Lots of fun discovering new frontiers.
The Jalopy Journal
