Hot Rods How Are you Using The Time Off

Yea all this time off is killing me.
The missus retired last year and I was already drawing a pension. We have had to change our going to the store plans a little bit but other then that we are not doing anything any different then we would have. Workin on the house some mostly.

 

Things pretty much stayed the same here in Sodak. We split our office up at the beginning so I just worked from home, had the phones for on call in the evening. Been business as usual since April. But, I am still taking staycations every other week or so. Getting a ton of house stuff done. With that ending I will have time to play with bikes and cars after ski season is over!

 

Since the shutdown of our shops on Dec 16th I´ve been pretty productive on my car stuff ( but I have to admit, I could not have been without the support of Rockauto or Summit, it usually only takes them 3-4 business days , sometimes a week, for them to get me my parts. I thinks that´s pretty amazing, it often takes 2-3 days to ship something within Germany). I got my Dad´s 300cui Ford six back together and running well today, but I have to say that an EFI inline 6 in a van is a major PITA to remove and install along with all the late model BS attached to it. This thing has given me fits. On the positive side, now it has all new bearings, piston rings, gaskets , vacuum lines, plugs etc and I pray I´ll never have to touch that engine again. After the first start up it has 60 psi oil pressure when warmed up, 150 psi compression even on all cylinders and runs as smooth as it should. And it doesn´t leak ( yet) which was the main reason we pulled it.
As some of you may have read on here I have been looking for a usable crank for my 235 that I bought freshly rebuilt but with toast rod bearings and couldn´t find one, but now I got a very cheap 1961 235 with an 848 head. The 235 looked pretty clean for an original engine so I supposed one point. After tearing it down it showed that I had been right, brandnew inside,spanking clean, new .030 SL pistons, crank has been turned down .020/.010 on the mains/ rods, new cam and lifters. I´ll be cleaning parts for the next couple of days and there should be a parcel from Rockauto at my door on Friday with a set of gaskets, main and rod bearings and a few other parts ... 25 years ago I had to plan ahead 1 or 2 months to have all my parts here before i started a project... Seems like some things ARE better today , hahaha
When the 235 parts will be clean in a day or two I´ll try and work out the dent from my 40´s fender... it had been damaged when I had it shipped here...

It´s a pretty sharp kink and someone has already tried ( maybe with something sharp, a piece of tubing or rod) to push it out, ruining it even more... I´ll be busy for the rest of January, hahahaha

 

Oh, and a group of friends has been doing our usual weekly stop at one of our many great breweries.

 

Wish we could socialize like others do in states with better governors! Our Nazi Kate Brown wont let us even eatt or drink together now!
But as for what I'm doing with my "time off". Same things I've done since I retired 10 years ago. Just doing more of it since we can't do car events, or social get togethers now!

 

I worked all through are first lock down then got laid off July 10th. I didn't work for four months with no income. I kinda liked it at first lots of time and we had a grate summer. Got some parts, and I wasn't missing the job at all. I'm a truck driver, and it was real shitty during lock down with lots of stops having no hot food for sale or showers to use. Getting by with a little gas stove and strip washes.Then realty kicked in the bank was getting low I wasn't spending on my car just on food and bills. So I found a short term Christmas contract and that finished two weeks ago, now looking for a new job again. Are government told every body they could have the same family from three households a get together for a week lots of people spent lots of money. Then the government changed its mind and said the same family from one other household for Christmas day. My x wife went to my daughters, I understood as she has terminal cancer. But we are now on are second full lock down and Boris announced another six weeks last night. That means I haven't seen my kids or grand kids for three months. Bloody virus is tough. God bless anybody that has lost family or friends to this.

Sent from my KOB-L09 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Went to work yesterday morning after the holidays and I stood around for a couple of hours with my thumb up my ass....
No setups for my mill, so I told my boss to call me when they get castings in and bailed the hell out of there....

 

Ha, also first day back blues yesterday. I drank a lot of coffee and looked at the hamb most of the day, lol. I'm in the food production business, so I haven't gotten any time off for covid. Indeed, we supply the armed forces with food so we're required to stay working. I get on the fast list for the vaccine though, I think I can schedule my shot any time now. However, I took a week of vacation at Christmas and hung out with my wife and young son, and he and I threw a new ignition cylinder in the shoebox. That's my only hot rod story since she's tucked away from the snow. I tell you what tho, guy I bought my house from thought to have a heated garage, and it's my favorite thing ever. Damn I love that heated garage, highly recommended!

 

Being retired my income stays the same but the shut downs of shows, cruises, restrictions on so many things, and now with this ongoing lock down it's starting to get to me. I/we made a choice and we are spending winter again in Az. in our Snowbird nest, you cannot beat their winter weather IMO. Let's all hope this pandemic clears up in 2021 and get back to some sort of normal or whatever normal is going to be. For me the car hobby has been my passion/social outlet all my life and yes I am thankful it has not hit my family or me so far. A positive for me is I spend too much time here on the HAMB. LOL. I Thank Ryan and his crew, fellow HAMBrs for this sanctuary in this difficult time.

 

I haven’t gone to work one day since this civid thing came around! And it hasn’t bothered me one bit!





I retired in 2012!Lol








Bones

 

the rental car business dropped 65% due to no flights/customers at airport,they had to reduce staff by 60.
company offered us a redundancy package of 14 weeks pay plus long service (worked for them 25years)
I had been laid of for 36 weeks and Govt paid me a jobkeeper wage
Have worked 55 years so wife said time to retired and concentrate on our trips to USA when borders open
plenty if time to drive my coupe now