It has been a minute - but I’m working on my car again

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Posted by CraigMBA
9/06/2024 4:36 PM
#1

Apparently the last time I logged in was January of 2014.  I screenshoted it for posterity.  Might post later.

It’s a long story and I’m sure nobody will want to hear it, but a decade plus nine months since  my last login I’m glad to be back and be alive.

Let’s just say - there’s no good time to get divorced and if you get divorced make sure that you aren’t 90% of the way through a rotisserie restoration.

Anyhoo.  Anyone got any advice on starting over?

 
Posted by CraigMBA
9/06/2024 4:44 PM
#2


 
Posted by 6sally6
9/06/2024 5:27 PM
#3

Welp (thx RPM).......Fresh start...new beginnings...yada-yada-yada....
On behalf of "da guyz"...we glad to see ya back (and your front) !
Is LeMoore close to Bakersfield ???
Check out all the details and come on down to the Bash and meet the normal-people..(welp (thx RPM) some of us !
(We'll have name tags so don't feel shy)
6sally6


Get busy Liv'in or get busy Die'n....Host of the 2020 Bash at the Beach/The only Bash that got cancelled  )8
 
Posted by CraigMBA
9/06/2024 8:33 PM
#4

Bako is about an hour and a half away.

What is going on there?

Oh wow the Bash is in my backyard!

Last edited by CraigMBA (9/06/2024 8:35 PM)

 
Posted by rpm
9/06/2024 9:25 PM
#5

Would love to have you join us for at least Saturday Craig. These guys will grow on you quickly, and you'll be fast friends with many. The Bash T-shirts are available at the group price for just one more week. Hope to see you at the Bash Craig, you won't be disappointed.

https://www.customink.com/g/pdx0-00cw-c4v9

Sally, ya gotta go heavy on the Lee in Lee Moore. Lt Dan was stationed at Lemoore NAS years ago.


Bob. 69 Mach 1, 393W, SMOD Toploader, Armstrong  steering, factory AC.
 
Posted by CraigMBA
9/06/2024 10:03 PM
#6

I’ve been a member here since the old UBB forum!  I recognize most of the names from back in the day.

You can’t tell from the pictures, but my car has MS roller bearing clutch pedal, MS cobra brackets, Opentracker roller perches, and a whole host of other fun stuff that was state of the art for….2005.

We used to farm from the flight line to south of the phone building across from base housing.  Probably still would be if I didn’t get divorced.  Kind of lost my Lemoore privileges after that.

Anyway!  It would be nice to see everyone and put names to faces.

 
Posted by Nos681
9/06/2024 10:35 PM
#7

Eye wood post MI Lee Moore pics, but pitchers make the ‘65 look 10# heavier.😜

As for starting over…

I started with getting my engine reinstalled so I could drive it ASAP for summer.

Checked/changed fluids
Inspected and bled brakes
cleaned out the carburetor internally due to varnish plugging up ports
flushed/cleaned steel gas lines and replaced all rubber fuel lines
Lubricated suspension and drive shaft u-joints

That was best therapy for me too.

I plan to be at the Bash too.
Drive your Kia if ya hafta.😁
You’ll enjoy it and meet some wonderful people too.

Last edited by Nos681 (9/06/2024 10:43 PM)

 
Posted by John Ha
9/07/2024 6:07 AM
#8

Welcome back!


Founding Member of the Perpetually Bewildered Society
 
Posted by Greg B
9/07/2024 6:13 AM
#9

Not sure I have much advice on starting over or not, but I can definitely understand life knocking the wind out of your sails for one reason or another.    My stuff I just let sit.   For a good while I couldn't bear to look at it or even be in the garage.   I just shut it down.   I did continue to lurk here, and Daze forum, but I didn't really contribute much.   I started slow.  Went to a car cruise here and there, trying to get "the love" back.   Then started thinking about projects and ideas, that kind of helps light a fire.   Then a former classmate who has a couple of classic cars told me.   "They wait for you."   Not really 100% sure what that meant, but I do know when I went into my shop for the first time in about three years, it was just as I left it, waiting for me.   It took a few trips and trys to be in there for more than a few minutes without breaking down and crying, but slowly I just started going down there more and more.   I admit, it aint the same, but as time goes on it does seem to get a bit easier.   I started changing our driver cars oil and small maintenance again.   There are days when I want to sell it all off, and there are days when I want to dig in.   Start with a small pet project.

Hope that helps

Edit:  it did help to go to a bash and talk with old friends and such.

Last edited by Greg B (9/07/2024 6:17 AM)


If multiple things can go wrong, the one that will go wrong will be the one that causes the most damage.
 
Posted by TKOPerformance
9/07/2024 6:54 AM
#10

Spend an hour or a couple hours each day just going over various things and reacquaint yourself with the project and where you were when you stopped.  I've had a couple projects over the years that I had to stop and start for various reasons.  Ease back in.  If you try and jump back in you'll get frustrated more easily IME. 

 
Posted by CraigMBA
9/07/2024 11:27 AM
#11

Greg B wrote:

Then a former classmate who has a couple of classic cars told me. "They wait for you." Not really 100% sure what that meant, but I do know when I went into my shop for the first time in about three years, it was just as I left it, waiting for me.

It was a couple months short of a decade.  I actually lost the car, it was in the garage at my old house.  When I went back it wasn't there. Somebody moved it from there to my parents farm shop behind their house and nobody told me. Shortly after my divorce finalized the farm got sold out and the family has been, uh, estranged since then.

My dad has age related dementia and that was a big part of why I got divorced.  I couldn't be alone with him for more than a decade because he'd physically fight with me.  But my dad is in a memory care facility now and I'm the only one who has been in it for many years.  So I guess that's good.  Most of the equipment is still there but it's also not ready for prime time.  

Been going to the shop one day a week for a month and, um, "cleaning".  All of my car was on that cart and somehow there's parts everywhere in that shop.  So I've been cleaning trying to find the headliner bows so I can get ready to put the brand new 15 year old window glass in.  After I extract all the seed from the mice.  After I get the rest of the archeological dig finished.  Figure it'll take me another month to get the shop ship shape and the parts sorted.

Not sure how many of you suffer from HSS (Horizontal Surface Syndrome) but I counted 17 flat surfaces stacked high wide and handsome of just....junk. But now I can get it cleaned up and keep it that way.

I guess it's like eating an elephant.  Start at one end, go to the other, be slow.  Be persistant and just keep chipping away.

It's nice to be back around, yall.  I'll see you in Bakersfield!

Last edited by CraigMBA (9/07/2024 11:32 AM)

 
Posted by lowercasesteve
9/07/2024 12:01 PM
#12

CraigMBA wrote:

Greg B wrote:

Then a former classmate who has a couple of classic cars told me. "They wait for you." Not really 100% sure what that meant, but I do know when I went into my shop for the first time in about three years, it was just as I left it, waiting for me.

It was a couple months short of a decade.  I actually lost the car, it was in the garage at my old house.  When I went back it wasn't there. Somebody moved it from there to my parents farm shop behind their house and nobody told me. Shortly after my divorce finalized the farm got sold out and the family has been, uh, estranged since then.

My dad has age related dementia and that was a big part of why I got divorced.  I couldn't be alone with him for more than a decade because he'd physically fight with me.  But my dad is in a memory care facility now and I'm the only one who has been in it for many years.  So I guess that's good.  Most of the equipment is still there but it's also not ready for prime time.  

Been going to the shop one day a week for a month and, um, "cleaning".  All of my car was on that cart and somehow there's parts everywhere in that shop.  So I've been cleaning trying to find the headliner bows so I can get ready to put the brand new 15 year old window glass in.  After I extract all the seed from the mice.  After I get the rest of the archeological dig finished.  Figure it'll take me another month to get the shop ship shape and the parts sorted.

Not sure how many of you suffer from HSS (Horizontal Surface Syndrome) but I counted 17 flat surfaces stacked high wide and handsome of just....junk. But now I can get it cleaned up and keep it that way.

I guess it's like eating an elephant.  Start at one end, go to the other, be slow.  Be persistant and just keep chipping away.

It's nice to be back around, yall.  I'll see you in Bakersfield!

HSS?  I know about that.  My wife has it!
 


Original owner - 351w,T-5, 4whl disks, power R&P
 
Posted by rpm
9/07/2024 12:41 PM
#13

CraigMBA wrote:

  I'll see you in Bakersfield!

Wow, what an ordeal.

Outstanding, glad you'll make it.
 


Bob. 69 Mach 1, 393W, SMOD Toploader, Armstrong  steering, factory AC.
 
Posted by 50vert
9/07/2024 4:41 PM
#14

Welcome back Craig! A trip to the Bash always leaves me motivated. It's too hard for me to get a Mustang to the Bash, so I always end up in a rental ... I don't have any less fun than anyone else. Cars and wives are optional. 

If you can make it happen, consider staying for a night or three with the group ... you'll be glad you did.
I look forward to meeting you. See ya soon.

 


"Those telephone poles were like a picket fence"
 
Posted by rpm
9/07/2024 9:34 PM
#15

50vert wrote:

If you can make it happen, consider staying for a night or three with the group ... you'll be glad you did.
I look forward to meeting you. See ya soon.

 
Ditto that. A lot of info is covered at the Thursday night board meeting.


Bob. 69 Mach 1, 393W, SMOD Toploader, Armstrong  steering, factory AC.
 
Posted by CraigMBA
9/23/2024 1:00 PM
#16

rpm wrote:

CraigMBA wrote:

  I'll see you in Bakersfield!

Wow, what an ordeal.

Outstanding, glad you'll make it.
 

 
It was unfun.

I’m six weeks (one day a week, till I fill up the dumpster or my back bothers me, whichever comes first) into this and I have thrown away:

15 tires to recycling
12 yards of misc junk and trash
3 gallons of waste oil
And I have liberated 1 of the surfaces suffering from HSS.  17 to go,

Got a nasty respiratory infection for my trouble. Leftover pandemic PPE and a soaked buff (double masked) seems to have fixed that.  Lots of dust in there.  Lots of bad stuff hiding in the dust in there.

I can touch all four sides now, but I guess I can’t post pics anymore.

Last edited by CraigMBA (9/23/2024 1:03 PM)

 
Posted by Bullet Bob
9/25/2024 7:02 AM
#17

Great to hear from you Craig, and I'm glad you're back.  Do come to the Bash and DO come for the three days if you can.  You really don't want to miss the Thursday and Friday night "Board Meetings"  normally held in Glen's 65 5.0's room.  See ya there!
 

Last edited by Bullet Bob (9/25/2024 7:02 AM)


"you get what you pay for, good work isn't cheap, and there are NO free lunches...PERIOD!"
 
Posted by Glens 1965 50
9/25/2024 11:06 AM
#18

Welcome back!  Hope you can make the Bash for a visit.  I feel your pain. I started tearing down my car 6 years ago and then was struck with an illness.  Back to tinkering on small projects now until I can get Sheetmetal started.

 


 
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