FYI FORD MustangSteve's Ford Mustang Forum / Just figures!

**Posted by Greg B** 12/11/2024 1:37 PM

So, I've been piddling in the garage this week messing around with a few things. Finishing up a tool cabinet project I started a LONG time ago. I cut the plywood about 1/4" too long! Started searching for some shelf brackets I bought on Amazon, and I found a small box, that had that led light thing and this envelope right next to it. Yep! Those missing white face voltmeter decals! Frustrating.

That led thing was something I played with 40 years ago. Those lights would flash back and forth like Kitt Night Rider car. I was trying to simulate a fake alarm. I had it taped to the dash of my Ford Falcon near the center. Tough neighborhood! I was young and dumb, but Radio Shack was a fun place back in that time frame. It's got a couple of broken wires but I wonder if it still works. Looking at my 17 year old selfs soldering it's amazing it ever worked at all. And this right here is why I never get nothing done.

**Posted by rpm** 12/11/2024 1:56 PM

Greg I'm president of the misplaced parts club.

**Posted by Greg B** 12/11/2024 5:06 PM

If anyone is interested in what those flashing leds did here is a video. I played with it for a few for nostalgia purposes, couldn't get it to work again. Bottom half the box is missing anyways. But thinking about it, not bad for a 16/17 year old kid back 40 years ago. This video makes it easy. All I had was a rough sketch out of an electronic book the guy let me copy. It sure did look cool back in the day.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KFSpxY_KM5A&pp=ygUcTWFrZSBmbGFzaGluZyBsZWRzIGxpa2Uga2l0dA%3D%3D

**Posted by RCodePaul** 12/11/2024 6:43 PM

Good find on the missing voltmeter decals. How long were those missing?
I have memory spots for a lot of stuff and catch myself not using them. Was doing some piddling of my own this week on the lathe and there's a holder for the chuck tools. In ONE NIGHT I found the chuck tool on the bedway, on a table, in a rollaway drawer. DUDE!
Last night after changing the earl and filter/pan assembly on my DD cleaning and putting away my tools. I couldn't find my 7mm deep 1/4" drive socket. What the Fresno??? Just aggravating. Found it on the end of a driver bit in the allen wrench drawer. NO!
I have an issue.
Eleven more steps and I'm on my way.

**Posted by Mach1Driver** 12/11/2024 7:14 PM

That's cool, a little 555 timer running a decade counter, that drives the Leds. Nice

**Posted by Greg B** 12/11/2024 7:31 PM

RCodePaul wrote:
Good find on the missing voltmeter decals. How long were those missing?
I have memory spots for a lot of stuff and catch myself not using them. Was doing some piddling of my own this week on the lathe and there's a holder for the chuck tools. In ONE NIGHT I found the chuck tool on the bedway, on a table, in a rollaway drawer. DUDE!
Last night after changing the earl and filter/pan assembly on my DD cleaning and putting away my tools. I couldn't find my 7mm deep 1/4" drive socket. What the Fresno??? Just aggravating. Found it on the end of a driver bit in the allen wrench drawer. NO!
I have an issue.
Eleven more steps and I'm on my way.

Long enough I had to order some more!

**Posted by Greg B** 12/11/2024 7:35 PM

Mach1Driver wrote:
That's cool, a little 555 timer running a decade counter, that drives the Leds. Nice

Should of seen that lil box in my Falcon! I tawt I was the shiz! Although it did absolutely nothing

Just remembering good times guyz..

**Posted by rpm** 12/11/2024 8:04 PM

Mach1Driver wrote:
That's cool, a little 555 timer running a decade counter, that drives the Leds. Nice

Who else butt Terry knew that?

**Posted by Ron68** 12/12/2024 2:17 AM

RCodePaul wrote:
Good find on the missing voltmeter decals. How long were those missing?
I have memory spots for a lot of stuff and catch myself not using them. Was doing some piddling of my own this week on the lathe and there's a holder for the chuck tools. In ONE NIGHT I found the chuck tool on the bedway, on a table, in a rollaway drawer. DUDE!
Last night after changing the earl and filter/pan assembly on my DD cleaning and putting away my tools. I couldn't find my 7mm deep 1/4" drive socket. What the Fresno??? Just aggravating. Found it on the end of a driver bit in the allen wrench drawer. NO!
I have an issue.
Eleven more steps and I'm on my way.

Losing stuff......

Many years ago, I was re-installing the compressor halves on a small turbine engine from a Hughes 500 helicopter. I was bolting the halves together with some small, special bolts. I dropped one and started to look on the shop floor for it. I could NOT find that bolt! Looked everywhere, swept the floor, etc - no luck. Didn't have that bolt in stock. Had to go down the street to the Bell Helicopters dealership to get one (they used the same engine - Allison 250)
While getting undressed that night, took off my work pants. The bolt dropped on the bedroom floor. My work pants had cuffs and that damned bolt had simply dropped into one of the cuffs. It really wasn't lost at all, I had it all the time.....

**Posted by Rufus68** 12/12/2024 7:35 AM

Until it fell out of your cuff, it was lost. I always, and I mean always, carry my pocket knife in my left front pocket. This is where I've carried it since the second grade. There have been a few times in my life when I have lost my pocket knife in my right pocket. And no amount of searching will find that knife before I need my keys.

**Posted by Raymond_B** 12/12/2024 11:52 AM

My most recent act of both losing something as well as forgetting I had it. In my black truck I have to use a special front timing cover seal, it's $30.00 from Innovator's West with a $20.00 shipping fee! Sure enough I was getting ready to install the balancer and thought "oh yeah I need to order that seal" so I did. After I received it and was grabbing the tools to do the job sure enough I ran across the seal in the drawer with my balancer puller/installer. I had bought it a while back and put it in there with the balancer tool to remind myself

Last edited by Raymond_B (12/12/2024 11:52 AM)

**Posted by RCodePaul** 12/12/2024 7:52 PM

Raymond_B wrote:
My most recent act of both losing something as well as forgetting....

All of that. You are livin' my life!
I built my own C4 for my long interrupted fastback project. I executed tons of mods inside the trans. In a rare example of clear thinking, I wrote on the trans case what each of those mods was. In sharpie. It stayed readable for decades. All good there (for once.) I had a box labeled "spare stock valve bodies". Cool. Inside was a B&M shift kit. No idea I ever bought that, completely unaware that I owned it. DOH!

Notes show that I put 7 thrust bearings in it, squeezed 5 Raybestos frictions in each of the clutch packs, brazed the forward drum, drilled the hi/rev drum and did the Burly4x4.com set of VB mods. 20+ year old writing.

**Posted by rpm** 12/12/2024 8:27 PM

While RCodePaul was doing his Bash Thrash on his 65 fastback he needed a hard to find size U-joint. He asked Lt Dan and me if we knew where to find one. In a moment of clarity I went to a parts cabinet and immediately located the size U-joint he needed from a bag of three of that size.

The back story on those U-joints is years ago I too needed one the size Paul was after for my 69 when I bought a new driveshaft. After hours of interwebs searching I found a place that had them, so I figured since they were an oddball size I'd order two. The driveshaft swap was a several month effort trying to find a power train vibration. When I was ready to install the new driveshaft I ordered a new U-joint, and figured I'd order two. When the new U-joints arrived I went to put the spare in the parts cabinet, and was staring at a box clearly marked with the same size U-joint I was holding in my hand. Huh? Opened the box which had two more identical U-joints. The receipt showed I bought them a few months earlier. Huh. Guess you can't have too many.

Last edited by rpm (12/12/2024 8:28 PM)

**Posted by 6sally6** 12/13/2024 12:33 PM

In the 'can't-find-dick-department'.......Youngsters 390/2 barrel F-250 (72) had fuel pouring from the bottom of
the 'cobber-raider'. Gasket for the accelerator pump orta fix it right up...right ?!!
WIWAIT overcame me and I decided to check and clean the bowl and needle & seat assembly. Being the careful and
forward-thinking car guy that I am I spread a clean towel on my work area to help organize this 'little clean & repair' venture.
Ya know that little wire clip that holds the needle to the float....tiny.
VERY necessary to the operation of the 'cobber-raider'.
Yeah.....I launched-it somewhere on my garage floor...the floor... with all the tiny little speckles and chips...mixed into the epoxy paint.
Finally located a re-build kit that had the little clip included for $20+ bux. New/rebuilt 2-barrel 'cobber-raider'...300 BUX !!
(a great incentive to re-build what you have BTW).
My 'help-me-stay-somewhat-organized trick' is to leave the draw(s) OUT until I return the tool to the draw. Granted....I may have a dozen drawers hanging OUT butt a good reminder to put my tools BACK into proper drawers.
The down side to this brilliant trick of mine is sometimes I get dirt and trash in the drawers that are open.
We ALL know how uncomfortable and awkward dirty-drawers are. Sooooooooooooooo
6sally6

**Posted by John Ha** 12/14/2024 6:11 AM

A week ago I received some stuff I bought on line and have no idea where I put it. I've already spent at least 2 hours looking for it.

EDIT: I found it! I guess all I had to do was whine about it and look again ... and there it was ... right where I left it ... and no longer invisible.

Last edited by John Ha (12/14/2024 9:08 AM)

**Posted by MS** 12/14/2024 10:08 AM

Sal, that little clip is right there in the screwdriver drawer, right next to the empty spot where you didn’t put the flat blade back. The one you used to remove the clip in the first place.

I have opposite rule at my shop. Never leave a drawer open! Ever seen what happens with a six foot tall tool box comes toppling over from having one-too-many drawers open? We had a Lista drawer cabinet at work, loaded with thousands of drill bits, topple over when it got jostled one time. Every drill bit in it hit the floor. Had to send the whole thing back to tooling to get it sorted out. The differences in bit sizes were in thousandths of an inch. We bolted the cabinets to the floor after that.

**Posted by John Ha** 12/14/2024 12:20 PM

6sally6 wrote:
Ya know that little wire clip that holds the needle to the float....tiny.
Yeah.....I launched-it somewhere on my garage floor...the floor... with all the tiny little speckles and chips...mixed into the epoxy paint. 6sally6

A few years ago I bought a magnetic floor sweep. It's bailed my butt out of trouble lots and lots of times when I drop stuff, although it only works on ferrous stuff. I even used it to go around the yard after the roofers left. Am I glad I did! It picked up a ton of nails that they'd dropped. I'd have had a ton of yard equipment flat tires had I not picked them up.

**Posted by Mach1Driver** 12/15/2024 2:26 AM

Greg B wrote:
Mach1Driver wrote:
That's cool, a little 555 timer running a decade counter, that drives the Leds. Nice
Should of seen that lil box in my Falcon! I tawt I was the shiz! Although it did absolutely nothing

Just remembering good times guyz..

It's the little things that make us smile ;)

**Posted by Greg B** 12/17/2024 6:14 PM

I figured someone would ask to see the 16 year old version of me solder work. I did this with my neighbors borrowed soldering iron. Then I bought my own (which I still have today). The wire in the pic is phone wire, had to use what I had. While I was looking for that snorkel, I was also looking for the bottom of the box with the rocker switch in it. Hopeless lost. For some reason I feel like making another! But I'm not going to. I was embarrassed but after thinking about it I'm not. We had to start somewhere and this is my first soldering eve

summary of solitary reaper line by line

Last edited by Greg B (12/17/2024 6:15 PM)

**Posted by TKOPerformance** 12/18/2024 7:41 AM

I often have been critical of past work I did as well, but then I remember a couple things:

1.) Like you said, you had to start somewhere. It would be a problem if what I turned out today still looked like what I turned out at 16.

2.) It was the dark ages back then. There was no internet, no Youtube, etc. A lot of what we did was the old farmer method of "cut and try". Kids today are spoiled with all the world's information at their fingertips. We at best had a manual, or the advice of more seasoned people.

**Posted by RTM** 12/18/2024 11:11 AM

Greg B wrote:
I figured someone would ask to see the 16 year old version of me solder work. I did this with my neighbors borrowed soldering iron. Then I bought my own (which I still have today). The wire in the pic is phone wire, had to use what I had. While I was looking for that snorkel, I was also looking for the bottom of the box with the rocker switch in it. Hopeless lost. For some reason I feel like making another! But I'm not going to. I was embarrassed but after thinking about it I'm not. We had to start somewhere and this is my first soldering eve

summary of solitary reaper line by line

I think it's pretty cool you still have it.