Hot Rods How do you hot rod in retirement???

Hi HAMB folks...

I am a little over 3 years away from getting my 25 years in at the local DPW in the county I live in, my kids are all grown and gone and having kids of their own...my plan is to move for the winters to the N.E. Kansas part of the country (where my son and his family live). I plan on having a small shop there similar to the one I currently have. (28 x 32)...I need to keep tinkering on old junk in both places or I will go stir crazy...I will still be working a part-time job in both places.

Has anybody else out there had 2 shops and how did you do the tool thing between the shops?... I am shooting for 4-6 months in Kansas and then the rest of the year in upstate NY where I have lived most of my life...

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

MikeC

 

You not chasing the warm like the snowbirds do. Possibly you could get one of those utility beds from a truck and mount it on a trailer and put a camper top on it. that way you could easily move your compressor , welder & other tools without a great deal of loading and unloading. and they would not be hundreds of miles away for a thief to steal.

 

I retired 23 years ago and moved to FL. I would spend 4 to 5 summer months in upstate NY where I had a small camp on an Adirondack lake. My only shop is in FL. I'd take my '37 north with me in a trailer each summer and attend as many northeast events as I could - Syracuse, York, Burlington, Rhinebeck, etc. Summer was play time. Winter was both build and play.
Once into my 80s I gave up the north woods - Sigh. Not building any more. But keeping up the old '37 is a joy. Just finished adding power steering. At my age, ... oh, never mind. Enjoy your retirement. I'm enjoying mine.

 

What @Old wolf said. I carry almost all my tools on an 11 foot utility bed including one of my welders and an air compressor. I have room in the side boxes for a Lincoln LN 25 wire feed machine if I need it. I've had this unit all over from Raleigh NC to Memphis TN and everywhere south. All the boxes lock and stay dry. When I'm home, it's parked just outside my 24' x 36' garage and I never have to worry about where the tools are. For me, it's convenient. Around here, an un-rusted 11' utility bed, without a crane, will set you back about $1000. Not much less than that for a 9' bed. If you mount one on a trailer, make sure the trailer is up to the load because these boxes get real heavy when you load them up with tools.

 

Ive got two of those utility boxes still mounted on 3/4 ton trucks. Ive been gonna pull off the cabs and turn them into trailers. One I already have it full of my hyd stuff valves ,hoses , pumps , cyls ect.

 

I usually spend 7 months of the year in Florida and 5 in Minnesota. I have a 40'X30' shop in Minnesota where I diligently toil away on my cars all summer. When October rolls around, I am quite frankly sick of working on cars, so I pack myself up and go to Florida. Every year a bring a carburetor or two along with me to rebuild when I'm there. During my time down south, I work on the carb and think of what I'm going to do next summer, When I return to Minnesota the next spring my "workin' on cars" batteries are all charged up and I jump back in with a relish. I don't think I'm as much of a fanatic about these things as a lot on here, and there are lot of other things to do in the Keys (the fishing is great!), so everything works out just fine.

 

Kansas isn't a good place for weather or hot rodding . Hot summers , cold winters . No stash of old car parts..

 

When I retired, my spare time vanished. I bought a second home. Now between mowing, remodeling, painting, planting, etc. my car time is less than it was when working. My homes are 3 hours apart, so we switch houses about twice a month.
Your way (4-6 month hitches) sounds better on paper, but every retired person I ever talked to wondered how they ever had time for that job.

.bjb

 

I do fine, living somewhere with mostly moderate weather all year round. Road trips in an old car are a good way to experience other places that have awful weather at other times of the year.

 

I had this problem as well. I solved it by getting rid of the houses and buying condominiums. My shop in Minnesota is about 3 miles from my condo, so my car life and non-car life are compartmentalized, which I find is a good thing. I do all kinds of fun thing during my car life and spend most of the time in my non-car life watching other people drudge away, doing the things I, quite frankly, never enjoyed doing anyway.

 

The older I get the more I think about relocating where the heat and Humidity isn't as bad. We get 60 inches of rain per year. and the wet plays havoc on my wifes arthritis. And cutting my winters firewood gets to be a bigger chore every year.

 

I'll probably wind up in Florida or the Carolinas for the colder months, I'll start out with 1 month at a time to see how I like it. I can do without a car for a month since the season up in NY is good for most of the year.

 

I just retired last year. Living in an area of mostly decent weather makes it a bit easier to do hot rod stuff year-'round. My small 2 car garage is full of welders, press, compressor, sheet metal brake, English wheel and numerous tool boxes and benches. I do alot of my work out in the driveway like I did when I was a kid. Being over 70 I find the work on my back under a car is the hardest but I am just slower now. I thought I would have all kinds of free time once retired...HA!...no way. I can't seem to get caught-up no matter what with owning a home (paid-for, same house for 46 years) and two hot rods to maintain plus a project going for my grandson ( mini-truck V-8, non-HAMB vehicle). I have no idea how I got anything done working 45-50 hours a week...alot of times travelling all over the country for work. Retirement has just changed my focus...toward what I would RATHER do instead of what I HAVE TO do. Now, if I could find a pot of gold somewhere...............

 

My biggest problem with retirement is “ procrastination “ ! While working ,my life was structured, couldn’t wait till the week ends to do something. Well in retirement everyday is a weekend, so there’s no rush and I find myself putting things off till tomorrow! Visiting , sleeping in, hanging out at the club while the wife plays card games, going to the race car shop, watching Gunsmoke and the Rifleman , going to car shows, traveling, going to garage sales...... fill my days now! I don’t have time for my car....because every day is a Saturday!





Bones

 

MikeC: I retired a year ago and I am loving it! I built a 36X60 shop a while back and put in a 4-post lift, which is great since I'm not as agile as I used to be. I'm currently building a '32 five window. My shop is about 100 feet from my garage, so I do have some duplicate tools; many of which I pick up at farm auctions for cheap. Colorado winters can get cold, but we have lots of nice, sunny days. On cold days I have indoor projects to do. I grew up in central Kansas and would certainly move back; it's a great state to live in. And the NE area is a great location with nearby cities for services and shopping. Go for it!

 

Lol bull shit. NE Kansas is pretty close to where I am and I can’t go a block with out seeing an old car, I know of multiple places to find any old ford or hotrod part your want and you can cruise damn near to New Years.

No help on the commute though it seems others have ideas

 

Guys cold and “ winters” are a “ relative” term! Lol. Since the OP is from New York, Northern Kansas Winters will seem mild to him. To me Northern Kansas Winters are harsh, since I’m from middle Oklahoma! But.... we took a trip to New Orleans one Christmas, not long ago and the had a “ cold snap” the lows went to 55 degrees! I actually saw a native New Oleanser with a parka and gloves! I sure the Alaska folks and Hawaii folks could give us some insight, too. Lol
Now if you want to talk heat!!!




Bones

 

Yep I tend to procrastinate now. I can think of the best reasons or excuse not to do something. Like you every day is a weekend. I cant take the extreme heat or extreme cold any more. And I used to set on a old cat dozer from daylight till dark in any kind of weather. I went to driving truck so I could stay in the air cond & heat. Today is the first reasonably cool day we have in several months. I actually got some work done today

 

Old Wolf, I can still take the cold, as I always liked working when it was cold. In moderate temperatures I sweat profusely and tend to overheat. And I can put a coat on to keep warm.

Now.... I can only take off so many clothes in the Summer time, before it becomes illegal!lol
Even A/C can’t cool it enough for me to be comfortable in the Summertime.

Those are my excuses and I’m sticking too them!





Bones

 

Tim , I agree with you on good parts in your area. I routinely see “ stuff” I think I need in your part of the world on Facebook! I picked a unique winch in your town about two months ago. Had to be in the area for other reasons and made a good score! While I drove around I saw what looked like some good scores.... but didn’t have time to check!




Bones

 

seems that having two shops a long distance from one another would make having many duplicate tools, etc the way to go - in the beginning may want to utilize a utility truck/trailer to haul stuff in as others have done - but, by being retired you would have the opportunity to pick up super deals at estate sales of other car nuts that have reached a point where they can no longer work on cars, house,etc or others that have passed on - doing all of this will not happen over night - but, you will have plenty of time to figure it out

 

Retired 4 years ago, shop about 15 feet from house. Living in nowhere Oklahoma during the cold monthes, not many of them, I do bodywork so things don't harden to quick. Spring and fall do painting if needed. During the summer it get pretty hot so I mostly do machanic work. Seems to work out for me since I try and have two maybe three projects going at once. I did get caught up in watching tv etc. so I got rid of it and started making my own wine so no need to go to bars anymore. The nicest thing about where I'm at is most people around me don't care if you have to many cars sitting around. here they just add to the rustic atmosphere. Guess I'm a hotrod hermit.

 

To answer the original O.P.: have 2 sets of tools. With age and loss of memory, trying to move stuff around is frustrating. Because you have children there, someone will keep an eye out for your stuff.

 

Hey, one of those kids in your avatar is plenty big enough to swing a chainsaw. Start them off young, I say

 

Been retired 18 years Built what I thought would be a large enough garage and small enough house. We picked the right town with only 1,600 people in it. But I should have made the garage larger and the house smaller. Next Time.

 

You are joking. However that urchin is ate up with the want too be a chainsaw operator. Grandmaw bought him a orange plastic toy saw just like Paw Paws Huskvarana.

 

I retired last year, but have been doing small jobs some morning since. I'm finding it a lot easier to just say no to many of those small jobs. I'm also finding it pretty easy to sit in the shop and listen to the radio and think. I'm going to have to invest in a better chair in the shop.

I have took on a job for a friend that is still working. He has a project that has stalled because he got to a point where his project needs some head scratching time, and he simply doesn't have that kind of time. I'm discovering this kind of job sucks a lot more these days then it did before. I have another friend that wants me to work on his car, he doesn't seem to understand that I don't want to work on his stuff. He keeps asking what I'm going to do with all my "free" time. I tell him "Anything I want to do, but that doesn't include working on your stuff!"

As far as having two different locations to work at, years ago when I had a shop for work, and my home garage, I ended up buying 2 sets of most of the hand tools. The welders and stuff stayed at the work shop, if I needed to weld something I took it over there, but the two shops were about 10 miles apart. Now that I'm retired, I can't possible think of how I could work at 2 different shops. That wouldn't be much fun at all. Gene

 

I resemble that!

Ben

 

Not two shops, but similar in theory. I have a sailboat in a marina 10 minutes from home. Have a set of duplicate hand tools on the boat, and tools at home. I'm constantly at one or the other and find the drill/driver set or something isn't where I need it. I retired July '18 and am getting caught up on some of the things I didn't have time for before while working. At least here in central Gulf coast of Fla we don't have too many cold months I don't feel like doing anything, and yes my arthritis bothers me then!

 

I’ve got a set of tools, in my attached garage, a-set in my detached garage, a-set at the ranch, a set in my motorhome, and set I carry with me when I travel with a car! Not a complete set in the lot! Oh I forgot...... my welder stays at my friends house!




Bones