Random Winter Thoughts / Observations

idrivejunk · February 18, 2021, 01:42:01 PM

FWIW, living near coastal areas is just as puzzling. To me. Just doesn't have to do with winter. Forecast is for 50 and sunny here... Monday of course. I won't wonder then, as much. About that.

chimp koose · February 19, 2021, 12:24:27 AM

IDJ no offence taken. I dont like poisonous snakes , we have none . In the summer we get sun till way after 10pm sunrise before you get up . Snow mobiles, hockey , skiing (I do none of these ). summer is rarely hotter than 85F . My favorite season is spring. Winter air is fresh , no bugs ,pollen or dust. Used to make snow forts in winter . Lots of folks ice fish. I was born here and its what I am used to . I feel kinda sorry for immigrants when they first experience winter as the cold is not something they are prepared for. Its also not as hard on your car to go drifting as opposed to doing it on dry pavement. When it snows lots you just push it away , not so when you guys get floods. I have never actually seen a tornado in person. Have you ever seen the northern lights (aurora borealis)

idrivejunk · February 19, 2021, 09:28:47 AM

Quote from: "chimp koose"IDJ no offence taken. I dont like poisonous snakes , we have none . In the summer we get sun till way after 10pm sunrise before you get up . Snow mobiles, hockey , skiing (I do none of these ). summer is rarely hotter than 85F . My favorite season is spring. Winter air is fresh , no bugs ,pollen or dust. Used to make snow forts in winter . Lots of folks ice fish. I was born here and its what I am used to . I feel kinda sorry for immigrants when they first experience winter as the cold is not something they are prepared for. Its also not as hard on your car to go drifting as opposed to doing it on dry pavement. When it snows lots you just push it away , not so when you guys get floods. I have never actually seen a tornado in person. Have you ever seen the northern lights (aurora borealis)

Top notch response!

The aurora would be a bucket list item if there was one. If I made the effort to catch a view of it, there would be clouds until I had to leave. That and the bloom where you are planted factor are legit. To me. What I just can't get my mind around, besides disproportionate fuel consumption for warmth, is that the outdoors will kill you if given the slightest mistake of a chance. I ain't man enough to buck nature as a lifetime endeavor. Brrr!

I never ice fished, snow skiied, rode a snowmobile or had interest in hockey, and never been snakebit, flooded, or tornado'ed either. 85°F is comfortable to me. Grape likes it between 50 and 85. I like that such a great percentage of days are usable here. But theres three times the laundry for example in winter, and it takes like a third more gas to do the same thing. And if you stick a wheel in a slush pile and get stuck or high centered... you can die pretty fast from it. Like I said, I just ain't man enough. More for you guys.

Ohio Blue Tip · February 19, 2021, 11:42:47 AM

Quote from: "kb426"I've not seen one of those. The last time I worked in a paint shop was 1972.

Old guys always have one of those!

Also still working on the 32.

idrivejunk · February 19, 2021, 01:59:32 PM

Does that mean I'm old yet, BlueTip?

Our selectors look different, one must be older. Wonder whose?

Mine doesn't work, soooo

Probably newer

idrivejunk · February 20, 2021, 09:30:23 AM

This, on the passenger side doesn't work either, well. The light inside it does though, last time I checked. If you smack it a time or two. The letters are around here somewhere. Obviously not updated during this or the previous decade. Needs a couple fives now. Came across this pic while hunting another.

idrivejunk · February 20, 2021, 04:05:57 PM

There was yet another snowblindingly brilliant observation, or two, this week.

Small plant across from work manufactures sauces (oddly producing all horrid odors, never pleasant. Peppers have to rot a year, for example) and there was nobody around all week long. Hmm. Was it snow or the bug?

Thats a far thought I reckon but heres the catchy observation...

One school I pass by, and nearby gang territory city park, were jam-packed to the hilt with parked SUVs blocking half the road all week in the afternoons because get this...

Sledding. Decent hills there. Diverse crowds of parents gathered atop the hill sipping trendy java variants, kids sliding, screaming, scrambling back up the icy hillside and probably generating a rash of boo-boos...

because they can't get to school. Whut th'? Over 80% of the tax I pay goes for schooling of other peoples legal or otherwise children. I'll stop at that but I was Mr. Sled as a kid. Plastic toboggan, Radio Flyer or whatever that popular steerable sled brand was, or F-1 truck hood on chain behind dirtbike or 4x4.

Transmission shops ought to be buried through summer, that was another. Trash pickup never happened this week and no voicemail notice like usual so lets everybody just leave that trash in the street to thaw. A couple more thoughts just came and went faster than I could track them. They'll come back by later.

I'd just love to clean my daily driver. But its too soon, too cold, and probably too late to rinse out the rockers but asap, I will. It had one salt (or whatever) hose out already this season but this was the worst slush pack probably in the car's life. Keeping a clean rig used to be my bag until our heavenly father took away the tree. And now that Johnny Cash song is in my head. But yeah, black car and half a year no wash job. Total dirtbag. Paint pretty much all reached the end of it's maintainable life during last year's four month plus broke sit. No more fooling anyone about condition with touch ups. It's twin is suffering the same fate. Theres just no place to fix them at.

Important stuff you need to know! :!: A little heavy on bleak tone, I digress.

Ohio Blue Tip · February 21, 2021, 09:31:57 AM

Quote from: "idrivejunk"Does that mean I'm old yet, BlueTip?

Our selectors look different, one must be older. Wonder whose?

Mine doesn't work, soooo Probably newer

Mine still works fine. Got it back in the Lacquer days from a friend that was the paint sales/rep, been 25 or 30 years.

idrivejunk · February 21, 2021, 10:59:13 AM

Quote from: "Ohio Blue Tip"
Quote from: "idrivejunk"Does that mean I'm old yet, BlueTip?

Our selectors look different, one must be older. Wonder whose?

Mine doesn't work, soooo Probably newer

Mine still works fine. Got it back in the Lacquer days from a friend that was the paint sales/rep, been 25 or 30 years.

Had to use the calculator, ran out of fingers and toes but I have had those at least 29 years.

Starthane was most popular for overalls on cool rides then, in Shreveport, Once in awhile I got to dust off Radiance dyes and mix candy lacquer.

Nothing quite glows like a tinted clear over bright metallics. But I became partial to pearls for the pretty effect without all the extra layers. I was a paint mixer among other multi-line jobber duties. During the Dallas and Sikkens era, I ordered myself one of every cool promotional item offered. Nothing as big but many cool knick knacks.

kb426 · February 21, 2021, 06:48:56 PM

In the mid 70's I shot most everything in the PPG (Ditzler) line. Many not successfully. Lack on info was apparent back then. Now you find a video that shows you enough to be successful.

idrivejunk · February 21, 2021, 08:46:59 PM

Correct me if I am wrong but catalyzed paints for cars were just emerging then and it was a turbulent and dangerous era to be a painter in.

When I came around paint in like 88, it was frenzied paint mixing for small shops and servicing every whim of the big users. Radiance dyes were on top of the Duracryl machine. Next to the Delstar. Starthane additive on top shelf there. Next to the Deltron. PPG vinyl intermix toners atop that one. Next to the Centari. Then Lucite and Imron machines. Then Autobase, Autocryl, and Autonova, then an industrial but you can put it on a car like SPI now... Sunbelt. Two or three sets of toners there. I have lots of paint stories.

kb426 · February 21, 2021, 08:59:08 PM

1972 was the 1st catalyzed paint I used. Centari. The other brands had similar products. Sometime after that Imron came about. It had much more vocs in it. You could shot centauri but Imron in a regular cartridge paint mask would affect you. I only used Imron one time. I painted my top fuel car in 1978 with it. It bothered me enough that I shied away from it. About that time, all I shot was uncatalyzed products. When I purchased my fresh air unit in about 2006, is when I started using cat. products again.

idrivejunk · February 23, 2021, 02:05:46 PM

Centari's PPG equivalent was Delstar. Acrylic enamel. It can use no hardener or yes hardener or high gloss overall job hardener. Or get cleared with acrylic enamel or urethane. Without hardener, after evaporation is complete, it dries via oxidation due to an additive called drier which will eat a can over time. Either brand.

Did my first paint job, 75 GP, in a warehouse with half mask using Deltron with Durethane clear. Durethane is a polyester urethane like Imron, flexible enough for old fabric aircraft they said. Buffing was impossible but I did a nice job and never regretted anything but the DU hardener made me sick and I was sensitized for life.

That was in 89 or so. Man I used to make 100 gallon batches in gallon cans on regular scales, of Imron for Kansas City Southern Railroad. What a circus. At least we had a two sided Red Devil!

enjenjo · February 23, 2021, 02:49:24 PM

I used to build cable trailers. I bought the paint in 5 gallon pails. The kids stopped asking me to paint their bikes and stuff because it would be National School Bus yellow.

idrivejunk · February 23, 2021, 10:25:52 PM

Quote from: "enjenjo"I used to build cable trailers. I bought the paint in 5 gallon pails. The kids stopped asking me to paint their bikes and stuff because it would be National School Bus yellow.

That was probably due to Ol Yeller coming out on the big screen about then.