Messages

That'll weld up. 

How-to: Make a doily. 

I've always wanted to make a lamp shade out of a pitted perforated floor pan. Don't mean I oughta, necessarily.

 

It looks to be an industrial line rather than automotive.

And a polyurethane, not created with polishing in mind.

Matt, you said a mouth full." Because if a customer is unwilling to shovel dung out of a trunk first, that should cost extra. I presume the mentality there is well hey I have the money, I shouldn't have to lift a finger to save any." That doesn't apply to me but it does in life in a huge manner. This forum has do it yourselfers. Are we a dying breed???

In my humble opinion...DIY'ers in general, I'd say no. That is eternal, to the degree possible but it may usually be a trait learned from a waning pool of teachers and there will always be those who insist on DIY but should not even be allowed to touch tools. Automotive hobbyists, perhaps. V8 rodders, absolutely. One foot in the grave if you ask me.

Because as I reckon... In our civilization, the sweet spot for rodding activity fell in between the emergence and regulation of personal transportation technology built around fossil fuel.

Like cigs, or nukes. A way was found and used but in doing so it was found that we don't want to use that. Yet the technology actively remains. Until another method is developed for maintaining a global stalemate, future everyone is best off if we just stick to TNT until all agree war for territory is invalid. A world at war accelerated both nukes and gas tech. TV and tobacco were a match made in heaven so much slower to be eliminated from the mainstream. I'm the only smoker I know now. Gas, thats slower to fade as we grasp for alternatives and remain road-bound. So yeah, I think you pegged it square, Bill. The all will throw dirt on the ICE culture within a few generations by any means. Artifacts from our age will be as plentiful as the fossils we based them on.

However, by any propulsion means available, as long as there are wheeled personal vehicles and roads, their limits will continue to be pushed.

Plastic is going through the same process. The cause of, and solution to, all life's problems. That is not unlike alcohol but that my friends is here to stay. So is weed.

A tornado touched down within a mile or two of the shop this afternoon. We all split early. Those with wives left earlier and that proves out my theory about childless loners having less rights or less consideration on matters of safety. I just hope the twisty missed the shop. Took out a couple houses at least, on the other side of a tiny airport from us. Memorial weekend tornadoes ripped up nearby areas in town in the middle of the night. The pics of this one on news reminded me of the enormous uncontrollable nearby toxic business fire plume that happened a couple weeks ago and took more than a week to extinguish even with all the king's horses and all the king's men.

I got nothing, bud. Haven't heard of it.

... aaand-

The reason we all think the 47 is not so bad is:

Such is all we know. We fix junk, unaware that rust free bodies for everything are still available. Don't know any better. Never seen it. Well maybe that recent 85 Jimmy job. But it is an 85 and already had rockers replaced. Semi-competently.

But lets face it. Most rustbucket bodies we start with include several pounds of excrement, rodent poison and nests / corpses, ant colonies, and wasp nests the size of pineapples. If you ask me, the sign needs another line for hazard cleanup. Because if a customer is unwilling to shovel dung out of a trunk first, that should cost extra. I presume the mentality there is well hey I have the money, I shouldn't have to lift a finger to save any. Take the vehicle, do the things, send a bill. Don't call to say it is full of rat turds, just bill me. Boss hands tech the job with no mention or acknowledgement of such. If he complains, thats asking for special treatment. I could get lathered up on that point. The right to refuse those presenting undue health hazaeds ought to be a thing.

Hey Frank, you may be right.  That would come as no surprise, you are a clever man.

I just had the presence of mind to glance at the labor rate sign posted in the office at work. I've always made it a point to not look, for 14 3/4 years. This market has absolutely exploded in that time, making a relative number tough to pin down. But it said 85. 95, mechanical. I think 136 for media blasting.

So your assumption is probably sensible. We offer an affordable service for those with marginal specimens and the shop has done so for 20 years. A solid climb and a rough go. But here we are with the rest of the office papered in feature articles on plaques. I played a big part by staying, probably due to my laziness as a person. Can't be that way at work. Owning and running the shop has to be a nightmare so I try to be effective no matter the task. Thats the only way... to work like we are on flat rate.

About the time I left the crash world, mechanical and frame labor were lumped together on one rate so a bodyman installing  a radiator made like 80 while same task paid a mech tech 120. Then everyone went hourly and earnings potential went out the window. Insurance companies did that after Katrina wiped them out. Those changes hit painters the hardest.

Blah blah blah, credit where credit is due, blah. Its a living.  

4 3/4 years in (Including several long pauses to gather additional funds. I started the job and a thread here in Feb 2020), the '51 F-1 5.0's appointment with the out-of-state custom interior fabricator approaches. Was supposed to be like a month ago but the 49 Merc truck interior build is still ongoing there. So I hear. Scrambling to make ready for this is ongoing here, but it is still a work in progress so nitpicking is still disouraged at this point.

It charged my batteries a few percent to see the hood painted, albeit with only one coat of clear because accents are to be added yet. FYI I asked the painter how he shot inside the air extractors. He replied that he shot from both sides. Then I looked at it. Of course theres just dry spray down in the holes. I tried to tell them (powers that be) this as the idea hatched. But "Paint day is a long way away." was the senseless retort. Tough to argue with logic like that. The chicken wire in grille (vintage Mustang-esque hex pattern) also goes behind grille and in the extractors, in bezels made by the guy who made the rear roll pan and eliminated fender bolts in the bed. Years after my involvement ceased.

Yesterday I walked up and saw the first image. Nobody around. The smirky chuckle of vindication erupted, sure. But I busted out laughing. Not at it, but with it. Because I put a smiley face on it in metal.   

It ain't every day a guy gets to do something like that.  

Frank, there are a couple other major factors.

We aren't a car and truck finder or seller. People don't order a truck from us. They bring us the truck they want to build. If they need help looking around, assistance or advice can be provided but a customer with a vehicle and rough plan is the normal and of course preferred starting point. For us, here. Once a vehicle is at a stage where it can be accurately evaluated as a nonsensical specimen, customers are made aware and have control of their next move. If a customer drags their feet, somebody else won't so the foot dragger may have to start over... waiting for another job slot like the one they just waited a year for.

Your assumption about labor rate may be right. However, no standard exists for labor times. For example if one tech does in two hours what another does in four, how many hours are billed for that task on job A vs job B? There is no accepted standard for reference on labor times, and... not all employees are paid the same internal rate.

So I think it fair to say you have jumped to a conclusion in trying to figure out whether my boss or my customers are the idiot. I don't need to know. Do you?

It takes time for me to generate a proper response to most situations    so here is that:

A possibility exists that the shop gets too-far-gone projects because we can handle them. Get a load of this area inside front of roof-

I just get weary of foruming long about each November. It is an observable pattern.

Like the crash fixing daze, I do the tasks given. Just welded pinholes above rear roof seam. The collective desires only seam sealer there.

Everybody having stuff built wants and gets air conditioning and that is also an observable pattern. Eliminates the need for the vent.

I remember why I quit doing pics  now. All it does is generate ridicule. May your retiree worlds and dreams and air conditioners remain rust free in perpetuity, I'll be here on earth wallowing in scrap.

Is shaving cowl vents something the HAMB doesn't like or something? Never mind that. Don't care and won't share.

Ha. We all thought it was a fine specimen. The wow moment for me is once theres plenty of money, amounts blur. Want can then trump frugality. Or sensibility. Thats the demographic zone where we thrive, I guess.

You just can't hardly take somebody's restored or un vehicle in then spend a chunk to reveal truths then say no to it. Throw it in the trash and buy another better one pitch works for phones and more stuff every day. But what are you gonna say to somebody who can actually pay? Nope, we can't handle that one, it's too much? That'd leak out.

Sigh. Defending a shop that I have no reason to. I'm not but kinda feels like it. All that is boss stuff.

The sunvisor area patch is going well and to my surprise this morning, there is no encapsulator dripping through holes in my roof skin or rearview mirror area fixes. Thats a bodyman moment.

Alter your belief then? Many of them get turned away. Imagine those.

Yep it had to go.

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