Hello from Afghanistan ~ Just registered, but have been lurking for quite some time, off and on - When I had good connectivity. Career military guy with 29 years of service and still in the Reserves. Currently working over here as a US Gov contractor, trying to help the cause. Love traditional hot rods and customs, rockabilly music (Junior Brown is a fav), tattoos, motorcycles (oops!), and admiring new ways guys come up to improvise, adapt and overcome the challenges of their builds. Haven't had the ability to own a project car yet, due to many moves over time, so my daily driver is an SRT8 Magnum, which I love. But - now that I'm finally settled in to a home in Central Texas (when I'm there!), I'm starting to seriously look around for options. I prefer 58-63 cars, with Buick, Olds and Pontiac as my major favs, but I can appreciate other makes as well. Probably won't be posting much until I return, due to poor connectivity issues over here. But I can read stuff a lot easier than I can post, so I'll be keeping up to date as much as possible. Be Safe and Happy! J2
Freedom ain't free! Thank you for your service,enjoy the HAMB and welcome. Be safe and Gods speed for your return brother.
welcome and we are proud of all of you keep your self safe over there and say Hi to the Canadian brothers from us as well as everyone else over there.
Fast Forward 3 + years I'm back in the USA now, in phoenix - And I finally have a project car - Just bought her a couple of weeks ago. She's an all-original 65K mile '61 Ford Galaxie that I bought from the family of the original owner - The proverbial "little old lady" who bought her new from Scottsdale Ford in 1961. All switches and gauges on her work, as does the am radio! Although she was kept first in a carport for 30 years and then in a garage for the last 20, her interior is baked from the ridiculously oppressive Arizona heat! She's running a totally stock 352 with a 2 barrel and single exhaust - Gotta be some restrictive issues in there somewhere, but she sure runs quiet! Planned mods are few, but are starting with 15X7 Rocket Strike wheels with cast centers and bias-ply wide whites. Restoration will be the order of the day for her baked interior. I already ordered a new dash pad and arm rests from Dearborn Classics, which are being drop shipped to Dash Specialists for a dye job. I need to remove her old stuff and send it to them so they can color match everything, as well. I'm going with SMS door panels for an extremely reasonable $750 per set, and they also have the original upholstery material I need in yardage - I just need to find a good upholstery shop to do the work! Under the hood, I plan to stick with mostly period mods, although I am considering an alternator replacement for the stock generator. I just bought some original FE Thunderbird valve covers from a member here and will be installing them after I get them cleaned up and painted. I'll eventually want to find a good tri-power setup and some headers for her, as well a good dual exhaust setup. For now - I'm just real happy to be driving her while fixing her up! I dropped her off yesterday to have the paint buffed out - I pick her up soon and can't wait to do so! I'll post more pics as she progresses - Especially after I get the new wheels and tires installed next week. Merry Christmas everyone! Pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31574945@N03/8292381912/in/photostream Thanks!
The Jalopy Journal
