My name is Mark Van Acker Jr, from Pennsylvania. I'm a 19 year old student working at my father's autobody shop while I'm not in school, studying to be a history teacher. I've been reading threads for months now, and became a member a few months ago, but never got around to doing much more than reading what other people have had to say on various subjects. My dad (hemi nomad) opened Nostalgic Restorations out of our garage over 20 years ago, and has built it into a pretty decent business. I started working there about 5 years ago, starting off sweeping, sandblasting, windexing, and mopping and eventually got into sanding, prepping cars for paint, oil changes, mounting and balancing tires, and now I'm starting to learn basic panel straightening and painting. When I was about 9 or 10, my dad bought a 1915 Model T Touring for us to work on as a father/son project. He ended up injuring his back after a few weeks, and it sat in the garage for years, and we ended up selling it. Years p***ed, I got a '94 GMC Sonoma, a license, and an interest in building a car of my own. We bought a 283 '55 Chevy two door wagon that I drove to school when it was nice, and then got into putting in a 454, straight axle, 4 speed, and turning it into the "Rat *******" g***er. I spent every chance I could (400-800 miles a week) on the road looking for cars in fields, barns, behind houses, or anywhere else people hide them. After finding a dozen or so rust buckets over the past couple years, I stumbled on a junk yard filled with excavation equipment. I thought nothing of it as I drove by, until I saw the roof of a mid-50s truck on the very edge of the lot, buried behind a hundred yards of s****ped Cavaliers and Neons. My eyes lit up, hoping to find a hemi, or other power-house engine to base a build around. I turned around, talked to the kid in charge, convinced him to let me look around, and I did. Nothing exciting, just heavy machinery and cars picked up as s****... until I stumbled on a 1926/7 Model T coupe body sitting in the back of a van. The next day, my dad and I returned, looked around a bit more, and got the body, an A frame, and mid-40s front axle with steering and brakes, all for $223. The frame is fine, but the body is missing a large percentage of the bottom 2 inches, but the gas tank doesn't leak, the deck lid is almost perfect, and it has very limited dents. This find happened about a month ago, and since then, I have begged, borrowed, and borrowed parts to make a pretty decent hot rod. My dad pulled a seized 1950 Olds 303 from a car about a decade ago, with 24,000 miles on it. When people ask what this motor or that motor is going to go in, he'll usually say "the corner", and it's true. The Olds sat, buried behind our "used parts emporium" until about a week ago. In the past week, in my spare time, I dis***embled all the exterior parts, and came into the problem of removing a hydro-glide from a seized motor. Half of the 30+ bolts joining the flywheel to the torque converter can come off, but it has to be rotated to get the remaining half. I hopped on the HAMB to see if anyone else had this problem, and how they went about resolving it, and only found one case of someone mentioning it in p***ing. I figured now was as good a time as any to finally join and be an active member. We came to the conclusion to take the pan off, take the bearing caps off, separate the pistons, rotate the shaft the opposite direction, and lift the trans off with the crank. We did all of that, and now we're mating our conversion and Cadillac 3 speed, and mounting it in our frame. I've been very lucky to have my dad's help throughout all of this so far, with knowledge of what to do, what works and what doesn't, what parts of his I can use, and so on. But I owe a lot of thanks to other friends as well. I plan on going all out on my ch***is for the time being, until I have time to work on the body (winter). I'm planning on using a suicide suspension up front, dropped I-beam, juice brakes, stretched and z'd frame, torque tube drive shaft, '46 ford rear, 303 Olds, 4 97s, Cadillac 3 speed, reversed steel wheels, channeled T body, possibly chopped, and as much chrome as I can get my hands on. I know that for a while, it will look like a "rat rod", and that is why I intend on building the ch***is up as nice as I can, so that it's obvious that it's not done, but is still in progress. I have intentions of driving it to York next year for my last chance to be in the under-21 deal... my first chance was when I was 10 and I blew it. I have visions of a green metal flake and candied engine, and more chrome than I can afford. I'm bringing parts with me to school, along with boxes of sandpaper, so I can do something productive with my spare time. That's my (long) story, up to this point. Thanks for giving me this chance to learn as much as I can from as many people as I can. I've already gotten a lot of ideas from pictures of other members' builds, and I am looking forward to posting my progress in the future. If there's any advice or life lessons any of you can give me to help me out to improve my build, I'd greatly appreciate it. Other than that, thanks for having me, Mark Van Acker Jr.
Welcome to the board, just curious, how did you come up with your screen name? Thought about putting it on my truck project's door.
Great job on the "intro", Mark. Sounds like your gonna end up with a nice ride. Have fun and welcome from Arkansas....
welcome. does your dad still own the old princess show car? i also have pictures of his 34 pickup before it was painted purple. flat black primer with green wire wheels. probably around the early 80's.
Hey MARK, that was a great Intro, was appreciated ! Welcome to the H.A.M.B. from Arkansas City, KS. firstnomad
Thank you, all, for the warm welcome. As for my screen name, it's something my dad used to call me when I was little. I haven't heard it in probably close to 10 years now, but "Harvey Wallbanger" was already taken, so.... We do still have The Princess; it was on a black and white checkered display in our living room for years, and then he turned that into a trailer to pull behind the truck. For the last couple of years, it's been in our storage area behind our shop, but soon enough, my sister is going to take it. He gave it to her for her first birthday or something, and she's been listed as the owner ever since, so making her take care of it is one way of making more storage space for the rest of our stuff.
The Jalopy Journal
