Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Four hour defensive driving course this morning.

 

I much rather start with the offensive driving class. Defense comes into play only after the first few bullet holes in the vehicle.

 

We had defensive driving classes at UPS. You could learn a lot in there. There was a sheet full of information that if you couldn't recite it , then you were disqualified from driving. I have a plaque for reaching 1 million safe driving miles.
We used to get some nice awards for reaching milestones . I have a leather jacket for 25 years without an accident.

 

Why thank you friend! I miss being around here as well, usually lots of cool things going on around the shop.
Just finished reading and looking at @RustyGreen tractor repair. I'm wondering if one of us could fabricate a new piece that was broken...but then I don't want to be the one to take the new one back outso we can size it up
Anyway goodmorning everyone, my work blow my mind yesterday and called a snow day, so only essential person (operators) had to go in. So I slept in....after waking up a little before usual time and see absolutely no precipitation. My first 15 years there, weather related days off or late starts never happened.
Looks like we have about a inch of snow now and 30 miles south they may have more.
Danny, keep hanging tough my man. I'm also sorry about your brother....don't do that. As I get older and lost my cousin a few years older than me, couple years ago, just know that cancer or any number of things are a reality that could happen to any one of us.

Edit; that was supposed to read, ask Rusty to take it back out so we could size it up

 

Thanks man I like to expose our members who may not be Wrenchmen to the occasional day in the life for us. Also the quality of this vintage equipment needs to be remembered too, the only plastic parts on this heavyweight old girl are the knobs, steering wheel center, lenses and the fuel cap.

...And I don't want folks thinking I sit in that chair all of the time...

 

Agree! The bolt bins were worth every penny at 3X the cost.

 

So Tuesday after eye Dr appointment, I decided to help knucklehead boy out and get some new tires on turdbox truck #2 , the white one. This one is a little more solid than the first one but still needs mechanical repairs beyond his ability
He had 3 of the five tires come apart within the first week of driving it. Long story how that all played out but lucky for him, two of them happened in the yard as he was returning home.
I just don't fully understand it, why he buys these old junkers, but then again he kind of like me...except I've learned to stay away from rotted beyond repair vehicles.
The good thing was he had enough cash to pay for 80% of the tires.

 

Up here in the heart of rust country that would be a solid project truck. I haven't seen a K Blazer on the road in quite some time, even the C/K pick ups are much less common than a few years ago. Brine really put a hurt on the older iron.

 

I was marveling at how sturdy that old tractor was built! The mower I bought 17 years ago, a Craftsman, it has a steel rod with a gear on the end that mates up to a stamped piece of steel plate. New ones definitely aren't made to last that long.
I been thinking when mine gives up the ghost that a fancy new zero-turn be in order $$$$

 

Well...the thought did cross my mind...

 

I got 2 ready to go.

 

Thing is a co-worker has a '74-'76 can't remember for certain, think it '76. He's got truck that's 95% restored chevy short box 4x4 frame off completely professionally repainted, new GM crate engine, new transmission, oversize tires and gears + lockers front and rear, only thing left is a few interior details to do. I know he got over 35k spent on it and would take 25k or maybe a little less than that for it. It began as a solid truck from Texas.
I tell him keep saving and buy something like that. He said he wants a beater to thrash about in.
He need to get some brake repair skills then because that's what it needs next. I get irritated because I understand how dangerous a vehicle with faulty brakes is and he doesn't get it.

 

Those box Chevy's are really nice when they're all done up. They look good up high and dropped down low. My dad likes to tell the story about the first time he got in his FIL's 78ish Cheyenne and went to buckle the seat belt and he pulled the whole mounting bracket out of the rusty floor pan. Whoops

 

You gotta have some mechanic skills to keep up on them old vehicles

 

The old fire chief in town passed away a couple years ago, his sister and brother in law got everything he had as he didn't have kids and was never married. Every vehicle he ever had was in a barn, most hadn't ran in 10-20 years and there was about 12-15 of them. There were 2 K5 Blazers in there, one had the turd 6.5 diesel in it, the other was a gas probably mid to late 70's. His BIL came in and got a few batteries from us. I told him I'd be interested in the gas Blazer. Well, another guy somehow got it and had it on FB for $12,500 as a non runner

 

Once you mow with a zero turn you will never want to go back to mowing with a tractor. Although the new ones are designed to mow much faster it is not so much the speed, but the increase in efficiency -- just about every second of your mow time is spent mowing not maneuvering.

Here at home the lawn takes about 3 hours with my 42" rider, if I bring the 42" ZT home I can cut at least half an hour off that. It is mostly wide open spaces up here, the two machines are closer to equal for that. In town the small ZT really shines, on one lawn that took about an hour with a 22" walk mower I can knock it out in 12 minutes flat.

My ZT is old (2006), fairly slow and only a $2600 residential grade model, the new ones are much faster.

 

Yeah, me being the dad.....well I usually have a sphincter tightening sensation about it all...I have enough of my OWN projects, but I don't want him in a fatality accident on the account of he didn't have ability to stop, so some how some way I will most likely sacrifice a day of my time to help him out with that

 

Good morning Shane, Inc

 

My first vehicle when I was 16 was a 1978 Chevrolet, someone swapped a 6.2 diesel in it. It was a piece of crap and stayed broke down a lot.

 

Thought of you when I saw this