My budget resto

[scooterhulk]

I just posted a few pics to be brief. It was primer grey, matte black hood, cowl and access doors. The body was COVERED with glazing compound. It was like a friggin M&M. I spent I know two weeks, sanding with like 80 grit and a mouse sander, chiseling with a hammer and screwdriver. Dear Lord.

 

Paint it Rustoleum Gloss White, I painted it with a roller.

 

Welded in new dog legs, new frame rails, welded the gas neck to the body, patched a hole in the left quarter. had to patch a hole where the left side of the front sway bar mounts to the frame. A rectangular sized piece of metal had been ripped off and was still bolted to the sway bar, leaving a hole in the frame. Painted the tail light housings/bezels, painted the chrome black based on Vintage-TechZ's instructions. New weatherstripping, fixed some wiring, installed all the AC components under the hood except for putting my compressor back on (Idk yet if anything is wrong with it).

 

The hood is off a 73 and was junk when I started the project. Managed to save it and the original hatch (which was rusty...). I had another hatch that was clean but the hinges on one side had rusted at the weld and allowed the hinge to warp. I ended up deciding to save my old one.

 

New struts (kyb), new tie rods, patched 4 spots in the floorboard and had to make new rear seat mounts on both sides, which I did with come C-channel from Lowes. POR-15'd the engine bay, top and bottom of the floorboard. Used internal frame sealer from Eastwood everywhere it would reach, in addition to drilling holes in the frame rails and capping them with plastic rivets. Then I undercoated it heavily with the nice 3M stuff that's like $10 a can.  I believe I used four cans.

 

Did the fusible link upgrade, polished my wheels, installed the cowl drain tubes inside both fenders. For the money, I did everything I could do and as well as I could do it.

 

I don't mind the Rustoleum paint job so much. Looks good, and I can always repaint if something happens. I don't intend to get rid of the car, and I'm aware that I can't paint it with anything else unless the Rustoleum comes off. I figure if it looks good it's more apt to last longer than it would looking like a dog turd with window louvers.

 

I spent about 7 mos on the car and about $1500 or so. Someone gave me a pretty nice CD player to put in it. Basically, I got the car as close as I could to the condition I wanted it in, balancing with that cost. I was unemployed during this project (I have an amazing fiance who has preferred, for the time being, that I stay home and do bitchwork, which I enjoy), so my budget was limited.

 

I was also completely hammered or otherwise inebriated throughout pretty much every aspect of this project. My goal was to have fun during the project. Other than a handful of things, I absolutely dreaded working on this car, and for no particular reason. Some of what should have been fun was a complete pain until I had a 6-pack or a 40. Probably not the best example to set, but I did enjoy it, and I learned a lot about the car, about myself (yea, I went there), and I learned some pretty decent skills and unwound some - which, like I said, was my initial goal.

 

I live in an apt and just moved to a new city. My best friend let me keep the car in his garage throughout the entire process. Very cool of him. I bring that up because, when I showed up for the last weekend of work, and to bring the car home, my friend had killed himself (rubber hose...exhaust...his car), right where my car was before I backed it out of the garage a few weeks earlier. Knew him for 14 yrs, very upbeat and positive guy, commercial airline pilot, really had his stuff together but apparently kept much of his depression to himself.

 

It was excruciating to clear out that garage, and then to have to work on the car before I could move it. I had to have a friend hang out with me, because I couldn't stand to be in that room alone. But because I spent so much time there with Danny chewing the fat, tossing back beers and watching tv with him while I worked, this car has particular meaning. He was very encouraging in the project and was a hell of a friend.

 

Wanted to show you guys my car, after I bugged some of you on how to do these things.

 

I have to put the interior back in it, but other than that it's pretty much done.

 

Sorry for the sad story, but...thanks, and enjoy.

 

 

 

[scooterhulk]

I can't figure out how to edit. My apologies.

 

I wanted to say that I used Bad Dog frame rails, Black Dragon dog legs and frame reinformcements (for the frt sway bar, to help stiffen it up after I repaired the hole), Black Dragon weatherstripping kit. And I used a RT rear dif mount.

 

On a side note, my last work on the car was stone cold sober. But, that was because beer probably wouldnt help the feeling that comes with laying underneath a car in the exact spot where someone just ended their life. The mood was sober, I'll put it that way.

 

To everyone who gave me advice during the project, thank you.

[Milenko2121]

got any closer shots of the paint under lighting?

[scooterhulk]

I'll attach a few more that I have at the moment.

The car is an hr and a half away right now. I'll get some better pics when its totally finished. I assume you're wondering about the quality of the roller job.

 

If the body work isn't perfect, it'll stick out. There are a few spots on the car that show but only if you're looking for it. For a $70 paint job I'm pretty satisfied. I do have some pics of the door jambs I'll post also. I still have to polish it though. Attached is a pic of my 78 Toyota I painted the same way.

 

I uploaded some of the other pics I took while I was working on the car into my gallery if you want to see them.

 

[scooterhulk]

Few more shots.

 

[BluDestiny]

First off, I'm really sorry about what happened to your friend. I wouldn't even know what to do if my best friend did that.

 

Next I'd like to say that for the money, your car definitely looks good. You put a lot of time into this project and it shows. That being said, I can't believe you did most of it drunk lol

[zohanisback]

Dang, for a roller job, that looks pretty darn good.  Really sorry about your friend... Makes me want to call around to my friends/family and check up on them, make sure they are doing ok.

[scooterhulk]

First off, I'm really sorry about what happened to your friend. I wouldn't even know what to do if my best friend did that.

 

Next I'd like to say that for the money, your car definitely looks good. You put a lot of time into this project and it shows. That being said, I can't believe you did most of it drunk lol

      He was a shy, 27 year old commercial airline pilot with a dark sense of humor. He loved doing Quagmire impressions over the intercom while he was flying. I'm (currently) an amateur standup comic. He was very encouraging when I decided to take a chance and quit my day job. The great thing about him is that I couldn't give anyone the picture of him that I had without it taking the 15 yrs that I knew him. I suppose that's true of anyone, but I've rarely felt that way about people.

He was responsible for a lot of good in my life.

     Suicidal depression is definitely something worth talking about and spending time on. What's sad to me is that I spent three years in a crippling black depression. Danny encouraged me when I wanted to be a writer and a comic. Expressing myself, and reading my own material eventually helped give me an idea that something was wrong. I had no idea that the way I felt was just my brain's interpretation of things around me, that it could be changed. Your brain is a muscle. You can work it like any other muscle. Might need more rest, might need physical exercise like running, might need to find a fulfilling thing to do, might need medication.

     I know this is a car forum, but maybe someone would benefit from reading this. I was very lucky to have seen my depression for what it was. As bad as I was at the time, no one else saw it. No one close to me ever said to me "something might be wrong with you that can be fixed". I just came across as a negative person, but what went on inside my head all the time was like a white noise of anxiety. It was screwing up my entire life at the time. I'm a talkative open person, and still I will say now that I was very very lucky to have gotten out of it. I don't think most people get out of that. You try to live with it, maybe because you think you'll figure it out, maybe you're afraid you'll ruin a relationship (or several) if you talk about it. My family didn't believe in mental illness, so it made it that much harder to see and deal with. But it's like an animal. It grows and adapts. Good things you do don't look good to you. It gets to where everything you think about is horrific, and you're not aware that's not normal. I found out after Danny died that he talked about it with his ex-girlfriend. He was afraid of not being able to fly if he got help. I mean, what would you think if you knew your co-pilot was suicidally depressed?

     Danny saw all of what I went through almost firsthand. When I came out of it I was very vocal about it, because I knew how lucky I was. It is a difficult mindset to describe to someone, because if you have any idea what it's like it tends to stick. It's hard to understand it without getting into that mentality yourself.

 

     Thank you for the compliment on my car. It should've been done much faster than it was, but some of it was slow-going. I had to learn how to weld, so my welds aren't pretty. There were also parts of the project that were simply not fun to do and for that reason took much longer than they really should have. I was afraid of screwing up the car. Eventually I realized that I had forgotten what it was like to even own the car because it had been so long since I'd driven it. At that point I stopped worrying whether I'd even finish the car. If I finished it I looked at it as a bonus because, like I said, I had gotten used to the car being a bunch of random junk strewn across the garage. I should have enjoyed the project more, but there were several parts of it that were a blast.

     I usually didn't weld drunk, but I was buzzed enough to have the courage to try it (ex: welding the gas filler to the body). But all body work and painting, between the fumes and the beer, it was pretty interesting. Someone once told me that all good painters are drunks.

 

 

 

 

Dang, for a roller job, that looks pretty darn good.  Really sorry about your friend... Makes me want to call around to my friends/family and check up on them, make sure they are doing ok.

 

I'm responding to your post too with that rant above.

[Tony D]

"Your brain is a muscle. You can work it like any other muscle."

Beware, that statement will draw the ire of those adverse to exercising their brain (see Tool Shed!)

 

I knew someone that was similar to how you describe yourself. Continually talking, but scattered, unfocused. Took him till 28 to finish college. First real job at 32. Excelled in his field, but never really excelled. Everybody would shuffle him onto projects and get him to start up,the group...but move him before "closing" because his record was implosion and meltdown.

 

Now, that sounds like he had a great manager above him, someone who realised his strengths and used him accordingly. Productive for the company, but never "fixing" him as you phrased it. Successful, but never tied down, always moving.

 

Then a life implosion. Big time. Prison. Start back square one. Talk about a black time. A social worker friend suggested a medication (Strattera I think) she had seen work. He said when he took it, it was like that movie where the guy took a pill, and suddenly he could see everything clearly, learn new languages in an afternoon, etc... Problem was it was $400 a month. He worked odd jobs (previously a six-figure earner) knowing there was something that would help...but it was beyond his reach (I learned about it too late...) anyway, while on the three month pharma trail he really perked up put out resumes, and went to interviews.

 

He landed a job, in his field or a fraction of his order pay. The owner asked him one day "why the big change?" And he explained the medication. The owner arranged for a prescription, and to pay for it brought a 50/50 deduction on a trial basis. With the clarity, he was able to triple his income, and really help this small company turn around.

 

That owner wasn't just interested in his business, he cared about his PEOPLE. Helped get a critical item to someone who needed it and I really believe it saved his life. He's doing well now, productive beyond what he ever conceived possible before. Things are looking up. By the end of this year, all things being good...he may finally be back where he belongs heading a department and keeping a weather eye out for those in need f help like he did.

 

Like you said, people don't know...by shuffling him between projects at the one Employer-they just USED him, and were oblivious to the cycle of unproductivity they were perpetuating. They thought "he has limitations we will just use him where he's good" and never looked any deeper than that. Fostering his perpetual downward spiral. People that knew him then can't believe how well he's closing projects of the size he's overseeing now. It was inconceivable to them. It was in there all the time, unfortunately too few care to look into their fellow man further than their own immediate needs...

 

You know, without a doubt you are not alone, and being vocal about it gets others to ask the questions. Many times those affected don't know. Without those persistent questions from others to get them looking, they can never see..

[zohanisback]

This is very inspiring and a fresh look on people's health today.  I'm currently in medical school, and only in the last 2-3 years have people even acknowledged that med students get depressed.  As physicians, people like to think we are the most stable, functioning individuals on the planet.  In reality we spend 16 - 20 hours a day studying, reviewing cases, hacking through cadavers to learn anatomy, and putting up with the immense stress that comes with (a) the risk of failure to the tune of $50k/year, and ( the more experienced above you who believe putting med students down makes them tougher.

 

It's hard to go through that without it severely affected who you are.  Bottom line...if you need help guys, get help.  There is no shame in it, and we all get depressed.  The sad fact is that society today sets more people up for depression.  It's a treatable condition often perpetuated by environment.

[Tony D]

"As physicians, people like to think we are the most stable, functioning individuals on the planet."

 

I don't.

 

Does that make you feel better?

 

LOL

[zohanisback]

Yes, it does!  I think the problem is that people equate money and smarts with having your s%&! together.  Reality is that physicans are:

 

1) Stuck up

2) Know-it alls who are

3) Usually unreasonable and most likely

4) Think the world involves around them while

5) Pretending they're stable enough to hold the life of someone else in their hand, when in reality they're

6) Depressed with

7) Addicted personalities who likely live some of the most

8) Dysfunctional lives

 

When I'm with a physician who is talking to an acquaintance, and the person acts like every word that rolls off their tongue is gold, I LMAO inside.  A humble doc is a rare find. There needs to be more of that. We have a job and learned a trade like anyone else. Just took a bit longer, so what? I'm here to help, not get an ego boost.

 

Going back to what I said, that's why it's been hard for med students to get depression help.  People like to think docs-to-be are cream of the crop. Not so...

 

Geez, gotta go to bed and get off my soapbox. Night all on that happy note! 

Edited March 17, 2013 by zohanisback

[scooterhulk]

"Your brain is a muscle. You can work it like any other muscle."

Beware, that statement will draw the ire of those adverse to exercising their brain (see Tool Shed!)

 

 

 

Now, that sounds like he had a great manager above him, someone who realised his strengths and used him accordingly. Productive for the company, but never "fixing" him as you phrased it. Successful, but never tied down, always moving.

 

Like you said, people don't know...by shuffling him between projects at the one Employer-they just USED him, and were oblivious to the cycle of unproductivity they were perpetuating. They thought "he has limitations we will just use him where he's good" and never looked any deeper than that. Fostering his perpetual downward spiral. People that knew him then can't believe how well he's closing projects of the size he's overseeing now. It was inconceivable to them. It was in there all the time, unfortunately too few care to look into their fellow man further than their own immediate needs...

 

Well, when I said you work the brain like any other muscle...whatever you do to it has an effect whether you intend it or not. Of course no one wants to be depressed, but not doing anything can put that on you. Kinda like how if you don't move you're more apt to be a wiry dude with a gut. You can't help but get input from your environment. It's going to effect you one way or another, just a matter of whether you're conscious of it and what output you wanna get. I'm oversimplifying it a bit I think, but that's what I meant.

 

This was really encouraging to read. My boss did something similar to me before I quit. When I became aware of what was going on with me, I realized that it was impossible for him not to know something was badly wrong. As much time as I spent there (60 hrs a week minimum, and on call 24/7) it got to be a manipulative thing, using those insecurities against me to avoid pay raises and demand more productivity/hrs. When I started to get better, I got balls enough to demand more money. I started tracking how much more was coming in than previous years. I got my raise and the hours cut, then quit out of spite. One of the best things I ever did for myself. I've watched that company circle the drain ever since (it was a large plumbing contractor, but hemmoraging money bc of the economy, and the Service Dept was the only thing keeping the company afloat). It's been a year and a half and they still haven't found a replacement that lasted more than a few weeks. Nothing felt better than my last day on the job, except maybe when I pigeonholed him into not fighting the unemployment claim, or maybe it was after I left when a job that I had volunteered for (plumbing a house for a wounded veteran. He refused to let the company do it, so I had to do it on my own time with one of the techs who was a good friend) decided out of kindness to pay us each a thousand dollars. We finished the job the week after I left, and the non-profit sent us a Thank You letter addressed to the company. He called me furious, and I took great joy in telling him what I thought of him without threat of being fired.

 

 

 

This is very inspiring and a fresh look on people's health today.  I'm currently in medical school, and only in the last 2-3 years have people even acknowledged that med students get depressed.  As physicians, people like to think we are the most stable, functioning individuals on the planet.  In reality we spend 16 - 20 hours a day studying, reviewing cases, hacking through cadavers to learn anatomy, and putting up with the immense stress that comes with (a) the risk of failure to the tune of $50k/year, and ( the more experienced above you who believe putting med students down makes them tougher.

 

It's hard to go through that without it severely affected who you are.  Bottom line...if you need help guys, get help.  There is no shame in it, and we all get depressed.  The sad fact is that society today sets more people up for depression.  It's a treatable condition often perpetuated by environment.

 

Unfortunately a lot of people going through that don't know. Danny knew, eventually. And I figured it out eventually. Take this next statement with a grain of salt, but most people who are crazy have no idea they're crazy. With my friend, I can kinda relate to what you said. People think doctors can treat themselves, and that they're the picture of health. They also think doctors have it made with a somewhat fulfilling job and good pay. I frequently heard people tell Danny what a great life he had - cool job, awesome work schedule, good money, had his own house (bought it at 24 - who the heck buys a house at 24, on their own?). It made everyone less receptive to the idea that he wasn't happy, myself included, and he was well aware of that.

 

I appreciate the responses. I thought I might get a bit of flack for mentioning the whole thing. Thanks.

[Tony D]

" As much time as I spent there (60 hrs a week minimum, and on call 24/7) it got to be a manipulative thing, using those insecurities against me to avoid pay raises and demand more productivity/hrs."

 

You need to read Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"!

"The Fountainhead" is groundwork, but either stand on their own merits.

"Atlas" explains the mechanism you describe in a co-dependent manner.

 

When I quit a job, at Christmas that year I sent the entire engineering group a bottle of Capt. Morgan's Spiced Rum, with a rub-on decal of their company logo affixed to the treasure chest.

 

I was a pirate, and my partner and I took $2.2 million in service work from them in the first year. Upon my first available opportunity, my only words to the national service manager was "In retrospect, $21 an hour wasn't all that bad, relatively speaking--now was it?"

[scooterhulk]

I wish I could've seen his face when you told him that. Did he say anything back?

 

Nice symbolism on the Captain Morgan gift. In my case, I had no interest staying in business. The boss liked my ideas before he started downplaying them. I think he found it a little insulting that I'd rather wait tables and have fun rather than go make money, even if it would've been working for someone else. I was good at what I did. It was odd to see that from a supposed greenhorn in his early 20's when the average age of everyone there was...something higher than that. I think what I enjoyed most was all of the older employees who'd been there for years working for peanuts knowing why I left.

 

But it does feel good to be able to go back and twist that knife a little bit. Part of me wishes I enjoyed the business so I could've tried to do something like what you did. Very very cool. Thanks for sharing it.

 

I read The Fountainhead. Loved it. Ironically I read while on a crappy work-class trip for that company. I have Atlas Shrugged, but I need to read it.

[Tony D]

Well, it was on a teleconference from a customer's office, which the customer had us secretly listening in...

The customer actually said it to him "Tony has a message for you" is how he couched it, and Dave's reply in a thick Scot's (think Austin Powers "Fat Bastard") was:

"Is that sooo, eh?"

The customer then said "Sure, he's right here, listening in (to all your revealing counterselling proposals, your counter offer on parts pricing, your offer of free replacement parts, installation, AND free maintenance for a year if they can come in and take the parts we installed to analyze them...) do you want to say hello?"

 

I said "Hi Dave!"

 

"THIS CONVERRRRSATION IS OOOVER!" (BANG) as the phone was slammed down so hard in Holyoke MA that we felt the seismic event there at the plantsite in Cinnamonson NJ!

 

Ahhhhhh, revenge!

 

I went to two of Dave's Customers in Korea, took them. Had the local distributor take Dave's business cards, stamp "CANCELLED" on them and remove the title page of the instruction manuals and post them back with my card stapled to it...

 

Did several customers around Bandung Indonesia, each with 25 machines each ($13,000 annual service each machine...) and took the pile of pages back to the local competitor's offices and gave them the same "CONTRACT CANCELLED" notices, along with my business card.

 

The payoff? Mostly irritation... When I started unannounced around the Manchester UK area, by Wednesday word was out... The competition was driving UP the driveways to customers sites as I was driving out with our local crew. I would wave, the local Brits were a bit more graphic with their hand gestures... Returning to the offices the principal called me to his offices (7PM) and asks me directly: What did you DO to 'AC'?"

 

I have no Idea what you mean, why?

 

Apparently, upon the European HQ getting my Business Cards, they called to the USA and "received word" of my activities. That day, there was a general order for all European/Middle East/Africa Business Unit Service Managers to be on a plane that SUNDAY for an Emergency Service Meeting to discuss how to "Handle that Tony D guy, and find out what he's REALLY up to here in Europe!"

 

Nice to be noticed....

 

Crowing two glories: This all was 10 years ago (199 through 2005 maybe 2006).... Last year I did a startup where my current company supplanted some older technology which happend to be serviced by the same old company from before (AC)... They SWORE it would never work. And on the face, you would think it couldn't. But I arrived, hung some conduit, installed some switches, and VIOLA! Perfect functioning on that which it was said could NEVER be done. The customer actually realized the dryer function was IMPROVED the way I set it up. I'd left my card there... and I noticed within 72 hours, the local competitior's rep was curiously arriving 15-30 minutes before I was usually departing for the day. The equipment was all in the same room... What was he doing there, why was he avoiding me (I am the AC Anti-Christ...apparently!) I found him, and he said when the business manager got my card, they called Europe to let them know what was going on, and word came back that evening to SHADOW HIM AND DON'T LET HIM OUT OF YOUR SITE! Must be afraid of more lost business. And this is 10 years after the fact! (I guess taking a 10% hit worldwide on your core business which you BANKED on always having, which NOBODY could or would EVER touch makes business managers upset... "In retrospect, $21 an hours wasn't all that much, now, was it?")

 

(Nice to be remembered...)

 

I mean, I'm just doing my job... That is gratifies me on this kind of level is a PLUS, right?

 

Three weeks ago, out of the blue, I received a job offer. Substantial raise, in management, blah blah blah... I never heard of the company (related field, but in a different commercial sector)-- I put the name into Google, to find a local rep.... Oh, they're an "Acquisition" by guess who?  Yep, the old saying :

 

If you can't beat 'em, BUY 'em!

 

And it was quite a bit more than that $21/Hr I asked for in March of 1999! Even adjusted for inflation!

 

Seems the old controller's admonition of "you quit, you will NEVER work for this company again!" isn't true. Or maybe it is...even if I considered the offer, why would I WANT to go back there?

 

I'm an irritating, needlesome prick with an axe to grind nice and dull so when I hack my pound of flesh out of the middle of their back they REALLY FEEL IT... They didn't want me before, now that they're bleeding they want me to stop? I'm like a long fin eel up a sheep's arse. I'm tasting that liver now, and just wanna SPIN SPIN SPIN and rip those insides right out! 

 

I went too far with that, didn't I. I should probably seek professional help with my vengeance issues...

Edited March 21, 2013 by Tony D

[scooterhulk]

No no, didn't go too far with that. You did take that murderous rage and do something productive with it.

[Tony D]

It continues...

Though the principal I spoke of started his revenge trail in 1985...

He asked me "why do you do it?"

I replied, I guess I just haven't extracted my pound of flesh out of AC yet.

 

As I said "extracted my pound of flesh" he went from a serious look to a beaming ear-to-ear grin, and said "I started in 1985, and you know what...I haven't gotten mine, either!"

 

The corporation seems to engender hate in their employees, and their customers.

Customers all too willing to withstand all sorts of delay just to not deal with them as an OEM-Sole Source services vendor!

[Pharaohabq]

Remind me never to piss you off Tony...