New guy here.

Hey-

My name is Art. I'm new here, and I plan on lurking for quite awhile, not saying much, and learning what I can.

I've been a car nut practically since birth. My dad grew up during the depression, and one of his quirks is to never throw out a freakin' thing, ever. Subsequently, I had a yard full of old Ford junk to play with. Mostly late 50's to 70's vintage, but my favorite hunk of scrap was a '53 Ford Customline. This thing was all the way at the back of the property, wheels sunk into the ground at least a foot. It hadn't run in 22 years by the time it caught my interest. Earlier generations of neighborhood punks had shot out nearly every window, and totally vandalized the inside. But, it still had a flathead V8, which intrigued me. The old man, in his campaign to be as big of a hard*** as possible, refused to let me tow it to the front yard where it would be easier to work on. So, I decided I'd show him. I spent 6 months secretly getting the beast ready to drive- patching the radiator, wiring up a 12 volt starter and ignition, freeing the engine up, rebuilding the Stromberg 97 with homemade gaskets, and creating a stupidly dangerous gravity feed fuel system using a lawn mower gas tank on the cowl that leaked gas everywhere, among other things. Amazingly, I got it running well enough to drive it. No brakes, but I was able to stop by yanking the emergency brake. I'll never forget his face when I cruised by the house in this vehicle from beyond the grave. I think he might have been kind of proud.

Fast forward 20 years. My experience with working on cars became not about fun, but something I had to do, and usually out on the street. I live in a big city now. When my last car died, I decided not to replace it, and I'm happy not to have one. I remember what fun that '53 was. Unfortunately, I didn't have the smarts or patience back then to get it back on the road, but in the last 20 years I've dealt with every imaginable mechanical problem myself on all the heaps I've owned. I've never been able to get the idea of building my own ride out of my head, so now I'm ready to have some fun. My dream is to build a Model A. I've got the flatty and 3spd still stashed at my dad's, plus some other goodies. My plan is to find a garage around here to rent, and start building. This is a great resource you guys have here, and I'm glad I found it. Now I'll shut up.

 

Welcome aboard.

Doc.