Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Painting with Rust-oleum

Painting with Rust-oleum.

When I retired my wife and I move back to what was once the family Homestead. It was the home site that had once been a large dairy farm. We live on a road I call “Five Car a Day Road.” When we first moved up here that was the amount of traffic that came by. Now, fifteen years later the traffic volume has exploded to about twenty cars a day. If you have ever been on a vacation in your automobile, traveling down an Interstate Highway and seen a farmstead in the distance and wondered about the people that live there…you have thought about my wife and I. We actually exist in one of those small complexes of buildings.

My wife is a Cardiac Nurse and works the weekends. We get up in the morning, have our little routine and get about our lives just like everyone else does. I like to work on old trucks and much that I have come to understand about life I relate to working around them. I talk to my trucks and I get this weird feeling that they’re listening. Sort of like dogs…and I know they’re listening…cats too for that matter.

A couple of friends of mine from Green Bay came by and dropped off a 1940 Sedan, two door car body. It was the second installment on a car that was delivered last week. It is really a nice body and I hate to use it for a parts car because everything is so nice on it. Except for the roof. I don’t know what happened with the roof but it is in pretty bad shape. I think I will take my plasma cutter and cut it out and replace it with something better.

I have a flat head V-8 I helped build on an engine stand. I love to fire it up in the morning and just listen to it resonate. It rumbles and sounds beautiful. Every morning to start my day I go out to the garage and start the engine. It rumbles to life and sits there on the stand thumping. I wish everyone could share that experience with me. There is something about taking an engine that reached the end of its service life and rebuilding it. Then comes the day when you finish, get to turn the key and hear it sputter back to life. If that isn’t a hoot I don’t know what is. When the 40 Ford gets finished my “Flattie” will be going inside and I’ll have to build a new one .

Today I spent the afternoon stripping off old paint. What a boring job, but it has to be done and sending it out is too expensive.

In Hot Rod Magazine there was an article several months back the showed how to paint a car using Rust-oleum, mineral spirits and a roller. I was skeptical but tried it on an old truck and was simply amazed. It turned out great and was easy and no mess. Anybody interested in doing a paint job on an old beater would be wise to read the article. One of the advantages is that there is very little spray and equipment required. You don’t need much in the form of expensive equipment and can do a little bit each day.

For example suppose I go out to the shop and look at the running board that is falling off my 40 Ford. I say to myself, “SELF, today I think I will work on fixing that running board.“ Now here I am about to embark again on telling my readers again how to do something. I tried that with my blogs on reason and that was a total fiasco. I started out with twenty readers and by the time I finished I was down to less than 5. Maybe rather than heading off on that tangent I need to talk instead about some of the adventures in my life. I have had a very exciting life…at least I think so…oh well I think I will try mixing things up by talking about the past and present together…at the same time and pointing out some of the connections I keep making. I have what I call a connective mind. I am not particularly smart but I am good at connecting things together and seeing how they work.

I have a management philosophy on fixing up old cars and trucks just like I had in my career field when I worked for a living. My management philosophy I am almost ashamed to share with you and would keep silent altogether were it not for the fact that it enabled me to retire to where I can work on cars instead of going to the office each day. You can think what you want of me but when I finish this blog I will be going to breakfast and then doing something I enjoy doing…Plus I have a sweet and affectionate wife who likes to sit in bed and talk to me in the morning and the evening. She is a natural mime and when she describes her experiences she becomes the thing she is seeking to explain. Instead of describing something…she becomes that something…do you know what I’m talking about or is this too abstract? Anyway she is pretty cool and makes me smile with her antics and sometimes ever more…sorry, this is an open blog.

Anyway tomorrow I will begin talking about life and the restoration of a motor vehicle. Specifically the one fender at a time approach. If you think I’m a jerk now, you’re intuition is about to be confirmed.