Another Trip Around The Sun

 For the most part my old friends have all gone their separate ways . What I learned from the time I was on facebook is that you can't go back. I left facebook way back in 2016 and have never regretted  it for one second .I encountered many of my old friends there and after the initial "hey how are you. Wow it 's been 40 years" you find out that you have very little if not nothing in common . I get these stupid emails from this classmates  site .It never ends ,they are just trying to pick my pocket so I ignore them. It's my own fault for signing up for it  but , I thought going back could be fun.  This is just not the way it is . Nope, it's more like this . I'm in a totally different reality than the majority of my friends from my youth. We were all pretty crazy back then in the 60's but that craziness faded with age or perhaps got buried and hidden to protect some sort of corporate identity  or some such thing.Me,I don't care . I just go on doing what I like .You know , painting with my paints ,riding my vintage motorcycles,hiding out up at my camp in the Adirondacks.Never really had much interest it that whole middle class thing chasing after lots of money and getting that big house and that 90,000 dollar SUV. So,as I begin my 73rd trip around the sun I am looking to the future.Not all my old friends went this way., just the ones from my former life that I began to leave behind in the mid 70's when I quit drinking and taking drugs. I made new friends and they became my old friends. Right now one of my best old friends is doing battle with hart disease.He and I built cars together for around 25 years.It was such fun working on these old cars.I miss those days.It's touch & go with my friend and I worry for him.This is the stuff that comes with age but we all go thru it at some point . I think the trick is to never stop. This is my plan anyway. I'm going to keep running until I drop .I think it's better that way.You know ,I may get slightly less time that way but the time I do get will be of a higher quality .All those doctor visits ,tests,drugs ,insurance bills ,out of pocket expenses and so on over the course of a working life time cost a huge amount of money and that money equates to time which is really the only true currency there is in this life. I skipped it . I paid myself time instead and in the end when it's all added up I believe I come out ahead. Stopped going to doctors when I was 28 and dropped the insurance when I was 30. I could make less and have more time to ride ,go to the beach,hike in the woods,and generally enjoy my life .It was a big gamble but I took care of myself .Stopped eating red meat about the same time I quit drinking at 26 years old. Pretty much ate mostly organic ,stayed thin,got lots of exercise and fresh air and took my vitamins. Maybe it is genetic ,maybe it's the choices I made ,or maybe it's just dumb luck but I'm still pushing forward . So, as I begin my 73rd year I'm thinking I'd really like to get on my motorcycle and just disappear for a few months.Screw it, that's what life is for and if I get squashed like a bug on a windshield so what,it beats doctors ,insurance companies ,hospitals ,and all the misery they dispense to give you a few extra days while they pick your pockets dry.Age gives a different perspective on things . This is where I wanna be  !   

https://youtu.be/LuyjuAWmsOk

My 1St Car Show In Two Years

 I finally decided it's safe enough to venture out into a semi crowed event outdoors.Seems like forever since I got out and saw people .Mostly I've just stuck to riding my motorcycles alone and other solitary activities as a survival strategy against COVID .It worked out ok for me,I made it to age 73 without catching this friggin disease and I'm feeling pretty good.So to the car show /swap meet I went.Saw some cool cars and a few people I haven't seen in quite some time. 

I love old cars .Can't even think about buying one anymore,they are totally out of reach financially but I have my old Rat Wagon Project and my sweet little 1966 Valiant convertible . 

 

The rat wagon is why I went to this show.I'm always on the look out for stuff for it.I did find a couple things but not for the wagon.What I found was a factory service manual set  for my newest addition to the fleet,the 2000 Chevy S10 .A few weeks back I was having issues with it and searching for a service manual.I saw these same three books for sale on Ebay with a buy it now price of $300. ! Actually there were a couple sets and all had this insane price tag. So, I settled on some Haynes manual that covers a ten year span of these trucks for 20 bucks .The guy sent the wrong one. Then he sent another and it got lost in the damn mail.He won't refund my money and it's nothing but aggravation trying to get Ebay to help so I gave up. Yesterday as I'm walking the swap meet I spot the very same 3 book set of service manuals .Now these are genuine GM service manuals used by dealerships not mickey mouse Haynes books .So , I ask the guy how much and he says 10 bucks ! I SCORED ! found some useful tools for cheap too and had a great couple of hours living normal for a change.Sure hope normal sticks around 'cause I'm really tired of this so called "new normal" that we all are being subjected to.Anyway , got home at lunch time and decided to pull my oldest bike out of winter storage.Gave it the quick once over  putting air in the tires ,some fresh gas in the tank ,checked the oil,put in a fully charged battery and fired her up.Had a great afternoon of riding my old bike . 

Today is another nice spring day.I cut the grass for the 1st time this morning and now I'm going to head out for another ride on my old 1965 Yamaha YDS3  before I put her away and pull out the next one for it's spring awakening . That will probably be my 1971 R5 End of the month I turn 73, I'd like to have all 6 of my registered bikes up and running so I can spend my birthday riding all of them .

Working On My Wagon part 2

 So,after getting all the work done that I was describing in the previous post I ended back right where I started.Hooked things all up and had everything all adjusted correctly and put the shift lever into 1st. It went right in ,then 2nd 3rd and 4th ,all good I go back to 1st and it locks up ! I re adjust it numerous times and no change .I know it's not in the transmission because this one that is in the car is not the one that this problem started with.This one is one I had in one of my old Barracudas and worked just fine.It came from this gem that I sold in 2006. 

I pulled it out because the buyer wanted to make it an automatic. I included all he needed to make the car an automatic and kept the 4 speed stuff to use for some future project . This future project turned out to be this repair . So,after coming to the conclusion that the shifter is defective and needs to be rebuilt I called up my friend who owns the auto parts store in town.We go back well over 40 years and back in the early 80's he hooked me up with a guy to rebuilt this very same shifter when I set up my little 65 Valiant 2 door with a 4 speed. Yesterday I walk into the parts store and there he is! The guy who did this job 40 years ago and he's still active.He's 78 years old now and says he'd be happy to rebuild both shifters I have so I'll have a good one in the car and a good spare .So,I ran home ,pulled out the shifter and packed them both up ,stuck them in the saddle bag of my old Moto Guzzi and rode over to his house.I go down into his basement shop and there are 4 speeds all over the place ! Must have been 15 or 20 of them all apart and being rebuilt . All clean and bead blasted .The guy is a master .He has a look and tells me he'll have them for me next week.I think this problem is finally nearing it's end as I pull away from his house on my bike  and head out for an afternoon of riding. This is how the restoration of my little wagon is beginning .Once the car is made operational again the body work begins .Today I ride and after I ride I pull off all 4 wheels and check the brakes .May as well get this out of the way while it's up in the air on jack stands. Tomorrow I go to a car show /swap meet to see what I can find for this project . Should be a good day and after I get home I power wash the wagon  so I can start working clean. Ran an ad on Craigslist yesterday to sell this nice wood lathe I got from another friend .I'm trying to sell it to help bankroll the wagon project.We'll see where this goes.I'm hoping to get 500 bucks from it to buy body work supplies.

This is how it all begins . It usually starts with some sort of issue and leads to a big project. Once it starts it rolls along and becomes a fun project no matter how frustrating it is at first. Bikes , cars , houses , it's all the same .I dive in and start swimming .

Working On My Wagon

 Finally got under my 65 Valiant station wagon ! It's been way too long since I've had this car in service.It all started way back in early January of 2021 when I was stopped at a traffic light.I went to put the car in 1st and the shifter jammed .After moving it around a bit it freed up and off I went.It seemed to shift just fine so I just continued on my way towards home with a stop at the store.Came out of the store ,went to put the car in reverse and there was nothing there .I crawled under and saw the linkage to the reverse lever dangling .With the help of some guy that came out of the store we pushed the car out of the parking space and I headed for home.I still had the 4 forward gears. It turned out to be a broken lever in the shifter .  I pulled out another shifter I had and installed it . As I was hooking up the rods to the gear levers I got really bad vertigo . I was done for the next couple days  then I tried again.Got it hooked up and it wouldn't work right.Then more vertigo .This went on for weeks . Finally I came to the conclusion I had to remove the transmission .There was something going on that caused this lever to brake inside the transmission so I figured I'd throw another one in . I have three extra 4speeds for my Rat Wagon! I was thinking as I unbolted it.The vertigo had let up and I was more or less back to normal.Those rocks in my head finally re aligned themselves I guess. Got the transmission out and discovered the clutch was worn and in need of replacement too so I took it out.Had a new one in the basement so I changed it. Work at Steve's happened and there went 5 months then Summer came and went as I went up to my camp . Then I had other things to take care of and the wagon just sat.Finally the other day I attacked it .Got the transmission installed yesterday .Today it's raining so nothing is happening on the car.The shifter has been all rebuilt. That's next then I will test it .If I have a driving car I can finally move forward and get it down to my friend Steve's house where we are going to restore this little wagon.Working here at home is nearly impossible .It's real 3rd world with a driveway of broken concrete all uneven.Everything takes four times longer because of the struggle that goes on dealing with this.It's dangerous and very frustrating. So,today I'm happy.I finally have forward motion with this long stalled out project.I miss my wagon.

I can't wait to start on the body work .I have nice rust free straight fenders , doors , quarter panels to use. I have a nice 65 Barracuda grill and front valance to use that will change the whole look of the front of the car .I also got a rust free upper fire wall and cowl piece from a guy in California that I'm gonna weld in to replace the one in the car now that is rusted at the hood hinge mounts.And I have a really nice rust free hood. So,my wagon is coming back from the dead yet again .I got this car for free back in the mid 1990's it was a total wreck that should have been crushed but I took pity on it and decided to save it.This is what it looked like when I brought it home for the first time.Who would have thought I'd get 30 years of really good service out of this !

Then I fixed it up to use for a work car and work she did !

After a few years in white primer I did a brush & roller paint job on her with Rustolium and she looked pretty good so she stayed in use This was 2011

And here she is in 2020 up on the Canadian border for one of the many trips she made up to my camp on a kayaking adventure .

So now she's going to get a new lease on life.Not only is she getting a body makeover but I have a really sweet 170 cu in slant 6 that has been all rebuilt waiting to replace the one that's in there now with 250,000 + miles on it. I'm a MOPAR guy for sure ! So, today I get ready, dig out all that I need and with a bit of good fortune I'll have my old friend running again by the end of this week. Retirement is a beautiful thing !

Another Painting

It seems I'm on a roll lately.We had some really crappy weather so I was sort of stuck here and looking for stuff to do.Worked some on the motorcycle engine I'm building for my friend Paul. Back in the beginning of the winter he gave me his wife's old 2000 Chevy S10 pick up truck in exchange for me putting together a motor for this 1975 Yamaha RD350 he's building.The truck needs but used trucks start at 3500 bucks and for that you get something not much better than this one so I figure I can fix it all up and end up ahead. It was running ok so I used it a bit then one day it lost power.I put in new spark plugs  but it still only ran on 2 cylinders.bought new plug wires and installed them with no change.Then I bought new coils and still had no luck so I was thinking it could be a bad fuel injection system or the motor could be shot. Thought about it long and hard and looked at new motors.I could do that for 1900 bucks and still be way ahead . One afternoon between rain storms I pulled out the new spark plugs to do a compression test.To my surprise number 2 and 3 cylinders weren't firing at all.The plugs were in as new condition.So,I did the compression test and the motor is ok and I did some research .Found that the 2 & 3 cylinders fire on one coil and 1 and 4 fire on the other.I also read that only two things can cause both cylinders on the same coil to not fire, a bad coil(mine are new) and a problem with the ignition control module .Then more reading gave me possible causes for this failure.I checked the wiring and it was all good with no corrosion on any of the plugs so it had to be the module itself .Got a new one ordered and put it in ,hit the key and it runs GREAT ! so now it's on to a new exhaust system ,new shocks ,and a complete brake system overhaul . Like I said,they go for 35 hundred and up and then they need work too so with all this work I'm doing I'll end up with a good little truck for around 2 grand.I'm a happy camper ! So happy that I took a couple days off from the truck work and did another painting .I call this one " Early Spring Thaw" It's oil on canvas 18  X 24 .

Been Productive

 These last few days have been busy .Mostly I painted because of the cold weather  preventing me from working on my truck.I have the 1971 Chevy C20 almost ready to be back in service.The little Chevy S10 is still down as I wait for the vendor I bought a service manual to send the replacement because he sent the wrong one .Can't do much without a service manual and I thought I was going to need a truck to get lumber for a job so The old C20 was my only option.Well,the job fell apart.It was building a closet for my neighbor so she could have a place to put things when the renovation on her house starts.She was all set to go when the contractor  gave her a revised bid due to the inflation and she canceled .So my part of that work went down the drain as well.This is life these days as Putin screws the world with his garbage .So,here I am ,what to do? well,I decided to do another painting .Yesterday I started and at lunch time I had this :

Now I had an idea where this painting was headed and by the end of the day I was here with it:

Looked at it in the evening and decided where I'd take it tomorrow then looked at some photos I took out in Arizona when I was out that way. Was thinking I'd ride today but again the weather had other plans so I went to work painting some more and by lunch on day two I was here with it:

Looked at it some more and decided it needed something else so  I kept on painting and now it is finished. It's a painting of early spring in the desert.Just where I want to be.Well,I can't be there but I can go there in my head which is where I've been for the last two days !