Steamboat's new ride and his Iraq bike.

He's a HAMBer too.

 

No shit?!?! You guys prompted me to make a quick search for some of his work from that time period. I found his website: yosemitesams.com. Holy hell.........................

 

'Nother update for ya'!!!
Got another package in the mail.............................


Persian rug?


No!! New embossed front seat cover in OG NOS fabric.


Now, let's go see what Sethro is doing.................


Spotted this on the way to his house. Gnarly.


Old bag mounts and leaf spring mounts completely ground smooth. You can see behind it the mangled rear crossmember has been removed, and a fresh new that has been fabricated (didn't get pics ) will soon find a home nestled in there.


Brand spankin' new lowers.


Got my new airbags!!! With skulls!!!


Sethro can be seen here pondering the new upper control arms he is about to create.


Mr. T air freshener.


Sethro's Chip-Foose inspired rendering of what the rear end is gonna look like, immediatley before telling me, "John, you don't need to take a picture of the fucking drawing." He also tells me with this new setup I will NOT be able to hit side to side!! eusa_wall.gif WTF!?! This is a lowrider, of course it needs to hit side to side!!! We will figure something out.


Larry's happy ass and a covered-up Mercury.

More later.
028.gif
John
Oh yeah, I take back what I said about those cats, one of them will give you a high five if you reach your hand down to it. Any animal that does that is cool in my book.

 

Well, Sethro's wheelings and dealings have warrented him getting a Model A project in trade for his Biscuit. The only catch is: He has to bag it first.
Hes got this really sweet deal where the whole setup can be taken out at once. It is all mounted on a piece of wood that will be screwed into the trunk.

Here is the trunk where said setup will be going into.

Unfortunately for the old girl, she will be out in the cold for a little while.

The lower 4 link bars are in place, but I really didn't want to get down on the cold ass ground in the dark to look undernieth. I'll give you all a looksy once he gets it back into the shop.

Snow patterns on the hood.

Here's a dude with a classy jacket I saw at work the other day.

 

I got so damn tired of this stupid car I painted it green and took it out to the Chelsea fair last weekend. It should still be good enough for next season. The right side quarter panel is rubbing on the tire, so that will need to be pulled out. Other then that, she is running strong, but the tranny is starting to leak and I shattered the rear locker. Easy fix, but it kept me out of the final heat. We'll come back strong next year, though. Sorry to everyone that sent me money.


John

 

Man! I'm telling you. You need to check it with the VA!!!

 

Hey Steamboat... Did you ever get that deadbeat Dave to finish your bike? Good shot of his kickass welding helmet in one of those shots of the bike. You'll have to ask him about it.

Later,
Kevin
Ooltewah Speed Shop
(Dave's hangout in the south)

 

Here we go..........


You may remember awhile back how I bought some OG fabric to recover the busted-up front seat. Dave told me he had a few connections that would be able to assist me in getting in sewn on and looking pretty. In order to do this, though, we have to get the seat over to St. Claire Shores. That's about as far on the other side of Detroit as you can imagine. Now I know what your thinking, "Hey Steamboat, why don't you just drive the car up there and have him fix the seat?" BECAUSE THE CAR DOESN'T RUN STUPID ASS!!!

This required us (Sethro and Eric while I watched) to remove the seat from the car and take it over to Dave, where he would see to it that it was taken care of.




(I found that milkcrate on the side of the road and figured I could use it to store records in, later that day my new truck broke down with a $700 repair bill, WTF!?! 104.gif )

You may also remeber I bought some slotted mags for my Lincoln that didn't fit. You TRUE O.G's will remember the bike project that I built in Iraq, and had since been painted Baghdad Biege (Like a cake) by our own Jetstarr on here.

So here was my plan for last Tuesday:
*Take seat to Dave with OG fabric for added pimpness.
*Take ill-fitting slotted mags to Dave for bead blasting and later, polishing.
*Take miscilanious Iraq bike bicycle parts to Dave to have reassembled and ridable.
*Learn how to spell "miscilanious"

Alright, so my day got off to a smashing start, literally.


I had the slotted mags that I was gonna run on my Lincoln in the crawl space above my closet. Three of them were upright, so I just just roll them off into my hands and catch them. The last one, however, was resting on it's side. Rather then walking all ten feet into the kitchen to get a chair to reach it, I decided it would be quicker (which it was) to reach up above the top lip, and pull it down with my fingers as hard as I could, "flipping" it safely into my loving arms.When I did this, I was greeted with an explosive shattering sound, followed by an early morning shower of broken glass.

I immeadatley had flashbacks of dank clubs and Corona Bottles, but my forehead seemed to be free of any new scars.


Turns out I had flipped the mag right across the hallway into the hall light, laying down some ownage on both the light fixture, and the bulb itself.

I called my landlord on the way out the door and told him I made a mess of his apartment, and off to work I went.


*Begin workday*
.....lame.gif.....
*End workday*

I immeadatley set my course for the East Side, which involved navigating Gratiot Ave, right through the center of one of Detroit's many Ghettos. I got there in one piece, only to be greeted by Dave conning me into moving furniture for his white ass. :? What greeted me in the garage made it all worth it, though.........




The paint on this thing was immaculate!!! (Save for one spot on the rear fender which contained a short black hair from Dave "Waving his bag over it to make it dry faster")
badgrin.gif
He popped in Eric B and Rakim's "Paid in full" and we got to work.............





We are stil trying to figure out how to do the rear fender. What do you sall think? No fender? Half Fender? Full fender?
I'm leaning towards the half fender I had on in Iraq, but I need to find it. Give us some input on this, yo.


Well, there she is. Hit the grips and the seat with a little Simple Green and things were lovely. She just needs the fenders figured out, and some white pedals added. I can't remember what size pedals to but, though. Once I hit the whitewalls with Wesley's, things will be right as rain.

Oh yeah, about the seat............I um........I forgot the fabric and didn't realize it until I got to his house.
eusa_wall.gif But I will be going back this weekend, for a guided Detroit ghetto tour, as well as bringing more parts for the bike and the fabric. I guess it is really more of a bike update then anything. I might try to get the air tanks from Sethro so he can squirt those with some biege paint as well. Be patient brethren, moves are starting to be made once agian!!!!
eusa_clap.gif
John

 

Nice update on a couple of cool projects. Since you asked about the fender, I vote for half only because of the history behind it. Even though the bike is super cool detached from the story, it's origin IS the bike.

You didn't really drive cross town with those car rims sitting on the bike rims, did ya? Hah, the perils of photodocumentation....somebody's always gonna pick ya apart!!

good luck!

 

Step one is the big one - get your ass home safe!
Everything else will fall in place.

And thanks for your service.

Shit, shoulda' read the whole thing first :-/
You are back and the rest is still true.

 

Damn, I really did drive 45 minutes like that. Damn.......

 

Dave painted the tanks up pretty for me. Biege and white of course (Like a cake) They look dope as hell, as you can see.....

This was just holding the car together until the new crossmember could be fabbed up.
What I REALLY want is to swap the Supremes and 175's back and forth between the fat whites and painted steelies. It's a fitment issue. They will probably work in the front, but It wont lay in the rear with taller tires. The main objective of this whole project is to get it to LAY.
Let's go back to where we left off. Awhile ago, the driver side rear tire was rubbing on the fender. I had my homie
John in Tejas trade me two 14x6's in exchange for my 14x7's. So off to the tire shop I go to get the rubber switched out.............


That 1" of extra clearance on each side should do us just fine.

Washing off the 6's.........

.............and sending the 7's back to Tejas where they will be used as part of a display for a dope 1969 Impala.
So I drop them off at Seth's garage with a good feeling. I get a text message from him at work a few days later that read as follows:


your wheels rub


WHAT THE FUCK!!!
Apparantly the backspacing is the only thing that is narrower. The dish on the front is exactly the same. So at the end of the day I spent $20 on each rim to get the rubber switched out and balenced, then another $40 to mail them out.
But look at the bright side, I paid $80 for a set of mismatched rims!!! And not only that, the 6's are the old school kind that aren't rienforced. So I have a set of double mismatched rims.

So we decided just to run the stock steelies on the 175's instead, and worry about chrome later on. This means I have to go back to my parents house, and load up the steelies that have been outside in the snow all winter.

That's all the scumming, moldy water that was inside the tire when I loaded it up.

.............Then we have the skirts...............

The plan originally (back when I had money) was to run these skirts in the rear with the fat whites in the front fully laid out. I went cheap and picked these up for $200. Seth had always told me they were gay and I didn't beleive him. After smoking a bunch of grass, it became apparent that he was right all along. These things were CRAP!!! Cheap, waving, fiberglass repops with shitty hardware undernieth. I don't know what the fuck I'm gonna do with them.

I picked out a sponser if I decide to run lambo doors, 28's and trian horns though.............


Whoa!! What the hell happened here!?! Isn't that a piece of my car??

Apparently the four link bars that were previously installed were too short, causing the pinion angle to become bad. Longer bars are in order, and in order for them to fit, the rear seats had to be ripped out and a giant gaping hole cut into my mint sheetmetal.

This is the new crossmember that will hold the upper bars in place. That guy in the backround is some red-bearded dude.

This dude, to be exact.

A whole lot of thought went into this piece........

..............but it fits perfect.

Inside of my car at the moment. Not sure how many girls will ride with me when it looks like this.

 

Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 Scored her on eBay for a good price. I've had alot of fun. Took her down the road to the General Store the other day......

Jonesy.

Ray.

Seth.

Ass.

Nose.

Ethiopian Resteruant.

Word.

 

Okay, I just put up like 20 pictures, I'd better get some kind of response.

 

Mate its good to see the dream didn't die, you need to get your ass back to Iraq for some spending cash.
Too bad about the wheels, maybe next time.......

You can strap them spats on someones arms and see how quick you need to go until they achieve launch off the trunk, I dunno, just a thought.
Doc.

 

Seth built me two really nice racks out of 1/8" tubing or so, and sent them out to get powdercoated. The guy powdercoated them, and was on his way back up from Monroe to deliver them to Seth's house when he went off the road wrecked his Ranger. There was an aluminum crotch rocket frame that had been powdercoated as well. Apparently the entire load was biffed. The reason he went off the road? To avoid hitting a cat.






However............................






Seth made two new racks and we are just going to spray bomb them instead to be done for Cobo. This one is turned upside down and primed. Thats not whats cool though..........


Awww yeah!!!!


As seen here from underneith, the new 4-link crossmember has a ridge in it, and just the section above that crossmember needed to be raised.


I didn't even notice this until he pointed it out, but make a note of the bead-roll that goes along the outside of both curved peices.


Here I would like to bring your attention to the hand-hammered flange that runs along the floorboards. This is some quality work here, kids.


Here is a detail shot of the bead-roll that Bryan "The Columbian Kid" put right throught the middle of the sheet to add some strength and rigidity to the piece.


This was the bead roller used.


Since we had the tanks out, Seth decided to lay down some lines on them.

More updates as I get them. After the suspension is all done, then we move onto the engine work, then exhaust, hopefully get the seat recovered, and maybe a wheel swap?

Stay tuned.

 

Anyway, I've been working like a (insert witty comment here), so I have not had time to keep my brothers updated on the funky thangs going on in Whittaker, Michigan. Screw the chit chat, lets get to it while I have a minute to myself.




Here's the stock floor mat after 50 years of grime and dust collected on it. Also notice hoe the previous "installer" took great pleasure in hacking the hell out of it to make it "fit" He also drilled a couple holes for good measure. I took it to the quarter wash and it cleaned up pretty nice. No pics though. eusa_wall.gif



Here's Bryan the bead roller with a funny look on his face. What did you find in the trunk, Bryan? Let's take a closer look.


Dirty T strikes again!! It's amazing how even after a year, you can still find stuff like this on your pride and joy. A grim reminder that you get what you pay for. I still remember how excited I was on the phone when he told me he could "make those reversed wheels fit"



Looking underneith, we can see stars!! Oh wait, that the shop lights shing through the gaps in the metal. Top notch work for sure. Solid weld beads are for fags anyway. badgrin.gif



There are several things going on in this picture, Most noticibly there is no front seat, or is there? Also, you will note that the York compresser pirated off the old 60's Lincoln behind the barn has been fitted with some very nice stainless steel braided line that one of Seth's friends randomly dropped off to "see if he could use it for something" Hell yeah he can. Above the gauge cluster are Mercury shop manuals from 1958. Thry will be quite handy when we start getting into the mechanical stuff. Now, you were asking about the seat, right? Let's hop in the Ranger and drive 50 miles to the West, to a little 2 horse town called Concorde.


This is Mike Carr's upholstery shop. As you can imagine, I have a renewed sense of caution when approaching people about doing work for my car. He quoted $300 to put a new pad on the front seat, and lace it up with the fancy new fabric. I was skeptical but he was all I could afford, (Others quoted me for $1000 and above) When I pulled into his shop and saw the framed magazine spreads on the wall, to include Ken Griffey's six-digit 64 drop, I knew I could rest easy. He had an entire wall covered with pictures of the cars he has done. Imagine my surprise when I saw this picture.........


When I saw this, any shadow of doubt was lifted from my mind and I made the trek home with a confident smile on my face.


Back in Whittaker, Seth has finnally gotten off his ass and rolled his sleeves up big time.


Atta boy.


A little hammering..............


A little welding..............


Bam!!!! Where did that hole go? Exactley.

I have not made it over there to get more pics, but Seth has been sending me some over the phone and she is coming together nicely. More updates soon............

 

some really cool work goin on there

love the car

 

Well, everything seemed to be going according to plan, until Seth pionted out that the ugly ass battery rack in the front of the car Felix put on was squishing the air line into the exhaust manifold!!! Damn. I started to throw a fit. After stressing myself silly over it, I took the trusty Optima out of my truck, bought 20' of amp wire, and went down to the farm, where Seth had agreed to relocate the battery to the trunk. This means I loose storage space, but it's the only option at the moment short of mounting undernieth to the frame.


La-Di-Da-Di..........


Party of four.........


Plasma cut those edges.......


Rusty.........


Clean.


Boom!!!

More pics later. Hes got it bolted in and wired up, its just a matter of me getting down to take pictures of it.

 

Cool Merc! Did this real quick...

 

I really like when peole go head first into a projects!
No short cuts, only what its right!
Top notch!....i'd love to have half of the tools in that garage, they would make my life a looooot easier!
Bitchen!

 

Nice work guys.

 

Thanks Scooter, I put that on my desktop at work.

Well fellas. Life has been strange lately, a week after I put in my two week notice to Miejer (The Grocery store that I've been employed at for way too long) The boss at my new job calls me into the office and politely fires me out of the blue. The reason they gave me was "poor work performance", after telling me again and again how happy they were to have me and what a great job I was doing. The lady who fired me has known me since I was 6 years old. Now I'm jobless. To make it even fishier, they are offering me a "Seperation pay", I don't know if its to keep my mouth shut for an illegal termination or what.

Next thing I know, Uncle Sam kicks me down a pretty sizable check for keeping me in Iraq longer then my contract stated. So where do you think all the hard earned money is gonna go? Right into this old whore.
Hopefully my income taxes will fall favorably this year as well. I spent all day Wednesday and half of the day Thursday moping around the apartment feeling sorry for myself when I finally got the nerve to go deposit the check and head off to Concorde to pick up the seat.



.....................and cram it into the back of my truck with all of Alice's other parts.



Seth finally got her finished, well, one backwards wired switch and an ugly battery rack needing removal away from finished.


On Monday I'm calling up AAA to tow her down to Saline to get the exhaust hung, and the wheels aligned. (It's hard to find a shop that will cater to lowered vehicles around here, much less ones that go up and down.) Hopefully a certain boulevardo will stay true to his word on trading my reverse Supremes for standards so I can ditch the ugly steel wheels and get her set laid out nicely on the chrome she wants.

After that:
The front seat needs to be bolted back in,
Radiator flushed,
Ignition fixed,
Choke issue handled,
Insurance reinstated,
Driven.*











*-providing nothing else stupid happens along the way

 

very cool. I like the story that goes with it. Congrats man and welcome back. Army vet here

 

Stop messing around with all those build shots. LET'S SEE YOUR PINK SHORTS!!!!

 

I love it when a quality thread comes together!!!! Bitchin car!!!! I like the steelies personally...

 

Thanks for the story and pix, enjoying the ride.

 

Looks good. I can tell that this is going to be one ride that is going to be DRIVIN!

 

How right you are!!








Gerry's handling the exhaust.


If you look closely, you can kinda see Magnum P.I's face in this stain right after the letter R, maybe it's just cause I'm Catholic.........



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rffDRdWRec
Next day.............