Mikelly

On Thanksgiving Day 1998 My wife lost her mother in a traggic auto accident. Her father was driving his wife to the family gathering when he had a mild heart attack, blacked out, and struck a tree. The impact was on the passenger side of the car and Donna's mother was mortally injured. These days Thanksgiving for my wife is a rollercoaster of emotions for obvious reasons. We sometimes fill the holiday with visiting family and friends, and sometimes just use it as a day to be alone together so she can reflect on her loss, be thankful for what she has, and just "decompress". This year is one of those. We often take things like family, friends, and those who matter most in our lives for granted, living life and assuming traggedy won't seep into our lives and snatch someone so close from us... NOT US. Don't be so sure... On this holiday, if they are nearby and close, give them a hug and tell them how much they mean. If they are far away and unreachable, my guess is they would LOVE to hear your voice... Tell them what they mean to you. Life in our country is full of many things to be thankful for. Let today be a reflection on that which should matter most... Family, friends, and life. I'd like to personally thank Dan Porter for making this board available to me, so I have a venue for communicating with all of you... For each of you are in the group I tend to take for granted every day. Every morning I rise (normally way before sun up) and drive into work, and one of the first things I do is log into the site, and checkup on the previous nights thoughts and conversations... For that I thank Dan for making this happen, and I thank all of you for contributing. It makes my world a better place, for sure! This is the most travelled holiday of the year, so please, Each and every one of you, be safe, and watch out for the other guy... arrive alive, and get home safe! God Bless you all and Happy Thanksgiving! Mike Kelly

Funny you mention that... When we pull up stakes and leave, we plan to buy something outright somewhere in the boonies. I want to have a home about the size ours is right now on about 3-5 acres with a LARGE shop. And little to no commute... Mike 8)

I actually have some artwork left to hand, but I'm going to paint the walls and floors come spring, so I'm holding off on hanging anything I'll have to remove! Mike 8)

...And I just heard this morning that in my line of work the Gov't is plussing up something like 40,000 Civillian Gov't employees over the next 18 months for intelligence work, Homeland defense related and other DoD type work... 18 years of working in this business, I've never been without work, or without competitive pay! Of course, I do commute to my job, and traffic is bad, but I'll suck it up for a while longer, or until one of my "other" irons gets hot in the fire! Mike

Yea Yea yea... Well for most of the year we do have pleasent weather, but do experience the seasons... Our winter (Truly cold 30 degree temps) generally last about 4-6 weeks. Other than that, we have late (And short) fall seasons, and Spring is relatively pleasent most years... Mike

OK Guys, Didn't mean to bust your chops so hard... The point of the post was that in the greater Washington DC area there are tremendous career opportunities that pay very competitively... And I stacked the deck... My mortgage is low because I refinanced it last year for a much better rate... Price of my home has shot up over 2Xs what I paid for it. A "custom" home is one that is truly just that... No existing general specifications... You go into many of the newer pre-planned neighborhoods across America and you see rows and rows of the same identical home, with the only changes being which side fo the house the garage is on, and which color siding is chosen... Our home was built by an architect who was building the home for himself and his wife, who dumped him within 6 months of completion... I've never been in another house like mine. Mike 8)

What's it worth? About treefitty! Pay the girl her dues and get it out of her house... Oh, and the chick can paint... If I were single... But there is no way my wife would let me hang that on a wall. Mike 8)

I wouldn't go there if I were you... i'm pretty sure that I can NOT buy a 2500Square foot CUTSOM house with a detatched garage on a half acre of land in bedford MAss. for $1070 per month, Can I? Mike 8)

Uh, Joey, This is quoted income is for DAY LABORERS who are typically immigrants standing on a corner and temp workers doing labor with manual... And Uh, I'm probably the highest paid internet surfer on the planet... Mike 8)

WASHINGTON DC... I JUST READ TODAY that people in the DC washington Metro area which consists of anything North of Richmond and extends north to Baltimore and west into west virginia, East into the Atlantic coast, is paying DAY LABORERs and temp workers to the tune of $35,000 per year ON AVERAGE... I've always known that work in this region was plentiful and readily available, but I had not idea... Sell Sell now... FIRE SALE! Come out east and FIND YOUR Fortune! Mike 8)

Find that kid and I'll hire him TOMORROW. Best thing I've read on the net in a while... Sad Really... Mike

Oh Hell.... Dude, You're screwed! Years... Mike 8)

Uh, POINDEXTER, HOW ABOUT SOME DETAILS???? Sheesh... after the last one, the least you could do is fill us in! Mike 8)

The reason you guys aren't getting to many Vette overs to pay attention to you is probably because ( I know in my case atleast) every idiot with a half way hopped up car or truck pulls up and wants to race you... I'm amazed at what people will bring to a stoplight and rev to the limiter to get my attention... I just shake my head and laugh! Mike

I think if you have the right space and 4 weekends, you could go start to finish so long as you don't get distracted with brakes, suspension and other issues... Buy everything you will possibly need before you start and keep the receipts so you can return what you don't use. mike 8) Mike

Guys, I'm starting to focus on setting up these GForce T5 transmissions on the Chevy motors and I've ordered one lakewood bellhousing specifically set up for the T5. I'm now trying to source either a slave cylinder or Hydraulic release bearing setup... What are you guys running... Mike 8)

Nope, But I've heard the problem with some of the owners out there. Mike 8)

What I have found is that even with minor mods, I still don't think I'm in the 12s. The car is quick, and I've done a couple neat little things for additional power, like the XR1 Race exhaust, bigger plug wires, new plugs, a Cold Air kit from GMS, and opening the driving light housings, plus the cold air scoop under the car, and the Z06 clutch kit. One thing that matters more than all of it is something I've not done... LS1 Edit software tuning... I'm gonna have to break down and buy it! THis morning, coming up the interstate I ran over a muffler someone lost in the road... It showered the car with sparks as it got jammed under the car... Fortunately the cold air scoop caught the muffler and stopped it from going further under the car... I got lucky and had NO body damage and no UNDER CAR damage, other than that metal duct scoop with the bow tie on it... I took it off tonight and was able to straighten it, but need to replace the hardware... All four bolts were bent! Strong car! Mike 8)

What I have found is that even with minor mods, I still don't think I'm in the 12s. The car is quick, and I've done a couple neat little things for additional power, like the XR1 Race exhaust, bigger plug wires, new plugs, a Cold Air kit from GMS, and opening the driving light housings, plus the cold air scoop under the car, and the Z06 clutch kit. One thing that matters more than all of it is something I've not done... LS1 Edit software tuning... I'm gonna havbe to break down and buy it! Mike 8)

SOunds very similar to my setup for the C5... I've got a shaner TB and a Z06 MAS. I'm thinking about ditching the Z06 induction setup for one of those FAST units... not sure yet... I also did the double roller timing chaing and ported oilpump, as well as the thunder pushrods... My whole valve train is from thunder. Patriot has a good deal on Stage2 heads right now... Mike 8)

Car fax... Best $40 you will spend. My little brother bought a 2002 Honda Accord and it looked like new... I even had it on the lift... they did a hell of a job repairing it. About a month ago I bought a month long subscription to Carfax as I was looking for (And still am!) a car for the wife... Plugged my little brothers Vin into the database... Car has a SALVAGE TITLE... Has been involved with a HEAD ON Collision... Yea, it looks good and was priced very well, for a good reason. The likelyhood that someone else will give him a reasonable retail price for the car is pretty low... Last thing you want to do is get stuck with someone else's bad decision! Happy hunting! Mike 8)

Unfortunately he is right... You're stuck. I'd not buy the car on principle now.. Lot of VERY nice and very customized F-bodies out there, as well as some nice C5s in that price range... I'd not take it to hard... Just means you might get an even BETTER deal. Guys like him make buying and selling a real chore. mike 8)

Uh I'm with John, Why are you focused on those numbers? I HAD a set of 500 pound springs given to me years ago for my Z... Back in 1990-91 timeframe, and I have no idea who made them or why... i had them on the car for a little over a year and we noticed a LOT of structural problems with that car when i took them off. i'd recommend you do a LOT of research... those springs will be MUCH too stiff. I'd also recommend you talk to some of the guys who are road racing 240-280 Zs... They will be your best bet for info on what works... You MUST be chassis specific when building a car, and especially the Zcar. Mike

Those heads sound very nice... I'm hoping mine turned out as well... We had 2.02 valves installed and the heads were hand ported and should produce some nice numbers... Not sure what the flow data on them was, as Dave didn't let me in on that tidbit just yet... Will likely be in the build book he provides with all his motors. Really interested in hearing how it runs... What intake and injectors will you use Dale? Mike

Jim Cook Racing used to make a pair of rear flares that looked similar to that. Also Import Performance out of Upstate Newyork ( I may be wrong, been a while! ) used to make a set of the Scarab style "body Kit" parts. However, I know that Import Performance went out of business, or sold all the Zcar stuff, because I got a flyer on the stuff, and called... About 5 years ago. They were selling stuff by the pallet. You basically had to buy the stuff in bulk because they were getting out of the Zcar and older celica & RX7 stuff. For all intent and purpose, when we're done with Jim's car, it will NOT be a scarab anymore. Jim retained the Scarab Shifter to use as wall art, since that is the only real Scarab part left that we haven't sold or reused to date! Mike