Folks Of Interest I have freaking had it! A rant about people not following through

ROOTHAWG, you are just doing what many of the rest of us do. My stuff isn't real good but I only have me to be mad at. Years ago, one of my friends wife's said I was lucky to be able to do my own work. I never looked at it from that viewpoint but she does have a point. Not everybody has the capabilities to do the work.

 

Growing up my dad was a plumber, painter, electrician, bricklayer, body man, small engine mechanic, welder and fabricator. We never could afford to pay someone else to do our work and that kinda rubbed off. There’s only a few times I have hired things done. Those usually ended in frustration. This is a prime example.
We do our own fabrication, welding, painting, engine overhaul, ****** rebuilds and now interior.

 

Yeah, the two times I paid someone else to do car repair, because I was out of town, were disappointments. I had one side of my dual exhaust redone- it hung down about two inches lower than the side I did myself lying under the car.
The second time a transmission cooler line leaked, the repair was a big loop of hose ready to get caught on the first piece of road debris.

 

Corncob I understand, my Dad was born in 1913 , a farm boy, Took home study courses moved to Calif and ended up working for Boeing, Dougl*** aircraft and ended up wiring missiles for Lockheed in Sunnyvale calif. His Dad made him quit school at the 8th grade too to work on the farm. Lippy

 

OT but on point ,50 years ago I hired a guy to drywall & tape my house , after my wife went to check things out a couple days later @ lunch Was told he no longer worked for us & I'd better learn how to do drywall , wasn't much different than using body filler , made a load of money over the years hanging & taping DW & most any other trade you can think of .

 

So, as Brother Dave Gardner referred to them, you became a "Professional Sheetrocker". It's an underappreciated skill but, if you learn to do it right, one that teaches you how to work efficiently. Just wondering, are you still married to that same woman?

 

In today’s world, if you can’t do it yourself, you are pretty much screwed.

 

Same girl , just had our 47th anniversary !

 

Doing **** yourself?
I’m glad some can’t or don’t need to because that’s how I made $$$$
But growing up, we didn’t pay anyone to do anything. Except doctors and undertakers.
Grandpaw was an old school Union coal miner. Worked off commission. Blasted, loaded and hauled it out. That meant repairing his own equipment. There was no way in hell he’d pay the coal company for anything. If you’ve ever seen an old coal miner pay stub with its deductions for company services you’d understand.
I think he kept his old model T going just so he wouldn’t have to shop at the company store.
I’m glad I got I grow up with him and uncles like him.

 

Hello,


My Flathead powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery was one of the most reliable hot rods ever. It ran from the first crank in the wet, cold and extremely hot times in various locations in So Cal. We put on a lot of miles going on our long surf adventures. Overnight camping to day surfing trips all played a huge part of our teenage years. It was something to try and get others to enjoy the feeling of being outdoors and doing a sport that a few were doing at the time.

Some of our hot rod friends all got together a couple of times and we all gathered at a local surf spot. Teens from all sports showed up for the surf day events, varsity football players, championship golf team, basketball team and baseball team.


That was one of a few times a lot of our group all went surfing together. It was a blast. Despite not knowing how to surf, the guys that did not know did a good job of standing up and at least head for shore on the waves. Big smiles all over for everyone and plenty of stories to tell later on when we all gathered on our weekly drive-in parking lot gabfests.

From the several times we all gathered as friends and had a blast, it started to show that only a few were interested in getting up very early and surfing all day, like I wanted to do and did. So, the big group got smaller as the months rolled on in the years.

Jnaki

My Flathead sedan delivery was one of the cars used later on and when I had it at a garage shop in Los Angeles getting a once over to see why it was using oil, but no smoke or leaks of any kind. No white or black smoke, while our clothes smelled nice and not a burning oil smell. So, it was a puzzling situation. Our Long Beach connection to all Flathead motors had already checked things out and was puzzled, too. So, in Los Angeles, our friend, the expert in all mechanical things, was keeping it for a couple of days to check things out.

During this time, I was being picked up by another friend and one day, he told me that he would pick me up early Saturday morning to go surfing in Dana Point. He was a beginner, but I had convinced him that the waves in Dana Point (prior to the harbor being built) were excellent for learners. He just had to get over the rocky bottom and the slimy seaweed that floated and kept the area “super gl***y.”

So he said he would be by my house at 3:30 a.m. for the hour plus drive down the coast. Well, I got all of my stuff ready in our sleeping house and went outside with my board on the front lawn. I bundled up and waited for my friend. Well, being dark so early in the morning I was sitting on my board and then, my mom woke me up as I had fallen asleep on the longboard with my jacket and towel for warmth. I was wondering how my mom had somehow gotten to Dana Point and woke me up.

It was about 8:30 am and I was still on my front lawn. No contact from my friend and my brother was not going surfing that day, so I was stuck at home. We should have been in the water by now and surfing those empty waves. But, the gr*** in front of my house, my surfboard were the only things that were moist from the dew.

When I finally got a call around lunch time, apologies were there, but I got the feeling that surfing really was not going to be the best thing my friend wanted to do at the time. He told me that he overslept and forgot to pick me up. So, we came to a solution about not going surfing anymore for him.

He did that one more time about going up to another hot rod cruise spot in the South Bay area of Los Angeles coastline. That never happened, either. So, for the next year and beyond, he was crossed off of my list of friends as being not reliable for any thing. To this day, he is friends with others from our old teenage years, but we have not talked since high school. Reliability is important in hot rods and friends for any situation. Can’t have one without the other… YRMV