Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Lakeside Farm

Lakeside Farms

Yesterday I went to Lakeside farms which is a unique type of salvage yard. Their specialty is old Tractors and they have a large inventory of old parts. The place is laid out on about twenty acres and there are rows of old tractors and piles of parts in old school buses they use for storage. I like to go there and walk around when I feel pensive. My dog Honey likes it too and enjoys chasing the rabbits. Honey is a Golden Doodle.

Anyway I was over there picking up a few pieces of scrap when I saw this black, S-10 ‘93 Chevy Blazer. It had close to 200K miles but it started right up and I drove it around the lot. It had a five speed transmission and was a complete truck. The sticker price was $495.

I was tempted to buy it and might still. It was loaded with the parts that a good rat rod is made up of. A single appliance by itself would almost justify the purchase of the entire vehicle. I have a 1946 Studebaker pickup and it occurred to me that I could remove the body of the S-10 and put the Stude on it and would not have to buy any upgraded components like a new front end or rear end or brake master or wheel cylinders.

I thought about the article of building a rod for under $15K and concluded that this would be the approach to take. I would have everything I needed, a classic pickup body and the goodies to make it run like a late model car for under $1500.

Meanwhile in the garage I took apart the flathead engine I’m working on, removing the heads, exhaust manifold and other parts as I get it ready to send out for cleaning and machining. This engine I found in a salvage yard in Wausau and had been used as an auxiliary unit. It would no longer turn over, which never bodes well, but it was complete having the stand, radiator and transmission in a package. When I got the heads off there was corrosion in the cylinders that could be the cause of its sticking. Today I plan to put it on the new test stand and remove the oil pan. Then I will turn it over and see why it won’t turn over. I.e. is the crank, cam or pistons broken or something else wrong. Then I will unbolt the rods from the crank shaft and pound them out of the cylinder. Then I’ll remove the valves and clean those up. Maybe today is my lucky day.

I found a guy in Oshkosh named Meyer who is supposed to be an expert on Flathead engines…I told him about my transmission problem and says he has what I’m looking for and will get back.

Purple says that classes will soon be starting back on writing com and I am glad that is still a go. It will be good to do a little writing along with everything else on my plate