Hello! I've been stalking this message board for the last few weeks and decided it was finally time to join in the conversation. A little about me. I grew up in a small town loving hot rods and muscle cars. I was fortunate enough to go to school when our school still had auto shop. I was pretty much a computer nerd when I started school. I rode a bike and could care less for cars. But after taking auto shop and having a best friends who's grandpa was a master mechanic at the local dodge dealer. I fell in love with cars by junior year. When I was 13 my dad bought me my first car. a 1951 GMC suburban. My dad and I worked on it a little and got it running, but about a year later my mom and dad split up and my out look on cars changed and I became a computer nerd. By the time I was into cars again, I didn't want some slow old truck and started saving for a muscle car. That didn't pan out til later. I ended up driving an 83 Toyota Tercel 4wd. Senior year I blew up the engine, and rebuilt it on my own with a little help from my dad and a lot of help from the service manual. By the time I graduated high school I had the most auto repair experience of all my friends, but the "least cool" car. After high school my dad moved that the 51 GMC went out into a field. I ended up acquiring my grandmothers 84 Mercedes 300SD and drove that daily. The Toyota went out into the field. I also bought myself a 73 Charger. I went to college for auto mechanics and worked a lot on the Mercedes and an engine for the 73 Charger. The Charger engine got stolen out of the schools machine shop and sadly I lost interest in the Charger and it went into the field next to the 51 GMC. Its hard to have a project car and start a career and live in ****py apartments on the bad side of town. I pretty much drove the wheels off the Mercedes. I knew it needed an overhaul and I was sick of getting letters for land lords about how I was not allowed to do my own oil changes. So 6 years ago in 2008, just after housing crash, I was finally able to buy my own house... I mean my own garage! I overhauled the Mercedes a few years ago. That car is a dependable driver. I drive it to SoCal regularly. I've been all over the Mercedes end of the internet, and on message boards. My screen name here is I made for my persona on the Mercedes boards, but I've become known as that to many people, so now its my screen name all over the internet. With the Mercedes overhauled and once again a reliable car, I turned to the Toyota. I pulled it from the field and rebuilt its engine and power train, Shes almost done and I'm looking to the field once again to pull out my next project. My best friend who I've known since preschool has talked me into the 51 GMC. I seriously hadn't even though of the old girl in decades. We went and looked and it and decided if it spent another 5 years in the field there wouldn't be enough car left worth fixing. So the wheels are in motion to get the 51 out of the field. I started looking on Craigslist and pretty much on accident I found a GMC 302 in a barn north of town. The engine is from a 55 2.5 ton truck. Thats now in my garage. This project is building steam and that has lead to to stalking in the shadows of this forum. Thats me in a nut shell. I know enough about things to know I don't know enough! I look forward to picking everyone's brain as my project progresses!
I'm also a long time stalker of the site. You've got some good stuff going on. Hopefully we'll get to see it come to life. Best
The Jalopy Journal
