Category: Uncategorized

I am often amazed by how many people have never seemed to mature. When they can only seem to scream insults instead of being able to have adult conversations. It is a sad state of affairs. As a man I can only speak from the standpoint of a man and so I direct this to other men or those who identify as men; grow the hell up, put your man pants on, learn how to listen and how to speak. If the only arguments you can make include name calling and making accusations you are still a little boy on a playground trying to pick a fight and sooner or later you are going to get the fight and it may not turn out the way you think it will.

So, grow up, learn how to debate, learn how to listen, and maybe, just maybe we can turn this nation around from the brink of disaster. We do not have to agree on anything but we should give each other a chance and we just might find some common ground. Or we won’t and will continue to march towards the cliff of no return, screaming stupidly at each other, until it is too late.

Well it has been a productive week, all of the front suspension has been painted, and the frame has been primed. Spent election night banging out the front bearing races because swinging a hammer is good for relieving stress, will need to repaint the wheel hubs as the paint got scratched in a few spots. here are some pictures of the painting in process, took 2 coats of paint and may have some spots that need a little touchup. I also started painting the first coat on the frame last night, in the dark with a headlight on.

Had beautiful weather this weekend so was able to make great progress, got truck down to bare frame.

Was also able to get about 2/3rds of the frame wire wheeled and cleaned, what a mess, but it will be worth it in the end. If all goes well I will have the frame painted within the next week or two. Have all of the suspension components in the workshop so I can work on them after dark and hope to make some progress getting them cleaned, painted, and rebuilt.

Had a productive weekend working on the truck project. Got the Cab off and the engine out. So down to bare frame and suspension. Next project will be the differential rebuild.

Working on the truck this weekend, getting ready to pull the cab off. Got the doors off, seat out, gas tank out, and steering wheel out. Still have the brakes and dash to get removed. Got parts and tools ready to do a lot of work in the coming weeks.

WTFery Garage said goodbye to the Mini Cooper this morning, probably at a stupid low price but with oil in the cooling system and small puffs of white smoke coming out of the exhaust, I would just be throwing money at it with potential for nothing but negative returns. So, the garage will spend time and resources on the 1969 Chevy truck instead since I enjoy working on old school vehicles more. Of course after rebuilding the transmission and cleaning up 47 year old gaskets it isnt going to be easy by any means.

I just need for nothing else to break at this point, since I just had to replace a water heater Friday at what was my parents house. Not sure where I will find the funds to replace all of the ruined flooring but one disaster at a time and right now I need the transportation more than the flooring. The dogs dont seem to care about the floor and I will be months getting all of the glue stripped up so, I think it will be ok on the back burner.

Well I finally was able to finish the transmission this past weekend, Still have a long way to go on the truck it goes in before it is drive-able. Got to enjoy a month of driving the Mini Cooper however, as of this morning the engine is officially gone. It overheated on the way to the house and after adding coolant and making a short 2 mile trip the coolant looks like a bad milkshake of the oily variety. I just don’t see paying as much in shipping as I would for the engine and first up on ebay one with bent valves, who the, what the, seriously who buys an engine with bent valves. Oh well I am sure something will come along or not. In the meantime a picture of a freshly rebuilt TH350.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly^[a] with your God. Micah 6:8

Some days you will experience disappointment. Life will disappoint you, you will disappoint yourself, you may even disappoint other people. There is no way of getting around it, it will simply happen. What you do in response can define who you are as a person. You can accept that things have happened, some out of your control such as worn out tires on a car needing to be replaced, or 47 year old parts in a transmission disintegrating. Other things were in your control and you missed the mark, failed to complete a task or did something incorrect, whatever the case may be. It is easy to come up with excuses, attempt to shift blame. The hard way is accepting your actions or lack of actions and stepping up your game, taking a disappointing situation and using it as a guidepost to move forward and grow as a person. Success in life sometimes only comes with each valley crossed after sliding down a cliff, overcoming adversity of situations and your own shortcomings.

Today I choose to face my disappointments head on, I choose to grow as a person even if it is an uphill battle. It is time to stop scraping by one day at a time and get back to living life, I am not through grieving for my Mother but it is time to stop spiraling out of control and get back on track with my life. I am sure she understands.

Well I may have found the last bad part on the Mini Cooper, disconnected the Mass Air Flow sensor and it runs like a champ, unfortunately it is not a cheap part but I found a good deal on Amazon and will have the part on Thursday.

Transmission for the truck is coming along nicely.

Now the real fun begins of putting it all back together. Hopefully I will have it completely together by next weekend. I did have to order a few additional parts for it including a new pan since the original one has a very large dent and an accumulator spring that came out in 7 pieces.