Barn find.... today

You need to show up for Work (remember that 4 letter word?) because the mechanic Fairy's sure aren't doing your part on the car when the lights are off at night. "Want in one hand, what is in the Other?"

I hope you reflected on your Lady Luck thing.... from the hospital bed.... and realized that Lady IS a .........WOMAN.......... who has the prerogative to decide the fate of her characters.

Lady Luck is a Woman, Gravity is a Bltch, Concrete is Hard and the older you get the slower you heal..... Are there any other words of wisdom we need to draw from the group for you? Maybe a show of hands of those that think wearing a Hemet when diving head first at concrete.... is Un-Cool perhaps? This is a group of very smart and successful folks, maybe they can fill in where a "stupid father" has failed to make a point......

 

3:30AM going on 6 years now. For most of that time I had to be up to have conversations with the Germans while redesigning the F40 headgaskets. Fresh in the AM allowed a higher tolerance level of the daily insults I had to endure for those years.... "Hah, is that all youve got"? One day I will run a contest to see who can guess the closest to the number of times this Brain Trust asked me if I had cleaned out the debris in the head bolt holes on the F40's. Finally I conceeded defeat to those wiser than myself and just answered "Yes, I have, that was not the problem". Up at 3:30.... a drooling blob, life of the party by 8:30PM. My normal life before that was 4:30-5 but do you think I can get back into that habit?!

I leave a Demolition Sawzall blade on the roof of my 77GTB and this car. If there is a message to send to an inanimate object to behave... that ought to do it. Pure economics says they are both worth more as bits but I agree Sean, that would be difficult.

 

That has to be bitter sweet! It will only be a short time and you will be back looking for a replacement red sled, I should make book on that time period.

Thinking..... I could follow the popular trend and pull the hoists out and replace them with Grow boxes or Pews with a book running operation in the office. Heck, either way, I could be printing money and own a car that Runs!

 

They are all red Brock. There are White red cars, there are Blue red cars, but they are all red at heart. I dream one day of painting a TdF in Gulf Mirage colors but that just goes back to childhood memories.

The door is always open, that is unconditional if you own a car or are simply thinking of the next.... just make sure the Livestock on the badge doesn't change!

I am heavily leaning on restoring this original interior on the 330 regardless of what really makes sense. I see no valid reason to allow logic and reason into this restoration at this stage, that would simply be out of character. There is just something about old leather that is still soft and supple.... you cant duplicate it with new.... they don't make Cows the way they used to! I will pre beg forgiveness but that plywood looking dash has to go. Burled Walnut, Birds Eye Maple, anything interesting yet descrete and in the same shades and colors, something that has an appeal to the eye.... that is a personal must for me. I will likely carve out a whole new dash so I can pass on the original to the next owner.... blame the British influance but even my POS TR3 race car had a Burled Maple dash on it!

Once this thing comes close to making Stink again you can darn well bet I will be dragging you out of retirement and have you work your magic on it. Based on the Legendary status you hold here, you must be the worlds Master of rubbing special oils into hide.... lucky cuss.

I have a few cars to finish for the MA show, and a special 456 test mule for a host of new designs to finish and then I can take a breather and get some quality time on the 330 again in the evenings.... actually something I am looking forward to now that there is a new plan in place. It will require some quite time to finish the machine work on the carbs but I should be able to find a little of that here and there. The rest is just nuts and bolts at this stage, an effort to make it pretty only comes into effect once a proper restoration starts.

In my minds eye, this current surge is just a Triage effort to make Joe giggle a bit and get him talking about memories with the car. Shortly after that we can redefine the burn rate and temperatures at which paper money turns to ash as it is thrown into a black hole, a very deep and dark black hole.

 

A TR6 will do quite nicely! My father hails from Neenah and I cant think of a backroad in your area that wasnt used for a shake down drive on the Race Cars we had at RA. I will always love that area and miss it since moving from MN to CO.

The show I am referring to is the Morgan Adams Foundation Charity show at Centennial Airport in Denver. http://morganadamsconcours.org/ A wonderful show for a great cause, we were proud to be able to be a small part of it this year. We had pledged a portion of the SRI proceeds to this cause and it is you folks that made that happen, my sincere Thanks to all for that.

My plan was to reunite the 330, in running form, to Joe at this event but alas, maybe this fall. At this point we will have J and his wife, Joe, Dad is flying up, we are holding hope a dear friend/Fchatter will be able to attend with us, Jenni (if we can get her glued back together in time), Kris and myself. Something of a surprise for Joe as I know he has no idea what to expect. Being a WWII Vet and with a far bigger group of old War Birds attending than is shown on the MA web site, I am positive both Dad and Joe will enjoy the show if for that alone. Another friend of ours is in charge of picking the cars to be shown at that event. Based on conversations with him, it should be a very impressive line up for the 10 year anniversary of the show. This should be a very enjoyable evening and it will be fun to corral everyone back together that has been involved in this project to date. Sadly, life and the work load has been Too busy as of late for me to get up to see Joe and spend some quite time with J and his family. Every moment we are at the shop and not on a day time project, we are working on the 330 by candle light...... one day I will just have to pull the plug and just make it happen.

You have no life Brock.......... HAH! I have not been as much as out of this shop for a lunch in the last two... edit, four years! Oh sure upper management leave's everyday...."Do you want a coffee?" Sometimes they even happen to remember to bring one back for the droid.

I will try to prod Rich into a meeting soon regarding the use of the tunnel leather as bolster replacement on the seats. I will pull off some line of BS about providing him with seats and spare leather that is Baby Butt smooth, supple and so easy to work with that a child could do the upholstery work.... and then wait for the rebuttal of "where the heck is the Boss, I no longer want to deal with the janitorial staff on this project". This is one sublet source where I have to pre think a conversation out about 6 levels, he is a worthy adversary and just one grumpy old cuss! "Oh, and when your done doing that, I want it to smell like NEW Leather as well".... that ought to provide the little slap in the back of the head as he walks away! Picture a mix of a geriatric, slow motion Clash of the Titans and Grumpy Old Men where the one with the freshest new insult walks away with the Title! The problem here is I always have to let him win...... he is the one that writes the Bill when its all said and done. IF the plan works Brock, I WILL have you here spit shining that leather before we bring it to Rich.

Our friends Son back in MN is a cabinet maker and has expressed interest in making a whole new Walnut dash for the car for us. This way I can fulfill my want of an interesting wood yet retain an original part for someone wanting that put back in one day. I suspect that wont be addressed until this winter but planning is a big part of a project such as this. That also means I will have to set aside an hour so I can call Margaret about having her do her magic on all the gauges at the same time. No one finer at her game, she has built me a Tach for the Harrison from an artists drawing in an early 60's Sports Car Illustrated article, a true pro in every sense. Yet another dear friend I have spoken to for 30 plus years and have yet to meet face to face. Our yearly conversation is never shorter than an hour as we have to talk about all the kids and Grand kids on both sides. Not unlike my conversations with Mike, sometimes we even get around to discussing gauges. At that point she will remind me she still has all the gauges for the Lotus 19 and they should be coming up to the front of the shelf to be worked on soon. We will chuckle about that..... as she says the same thing for the last 9 years..... Obviously we live the same lives!