Monday, March 31, 2014

I aint ready for this shit...

Monday morning, my head hurts and the week is looking mighty long from this end.


Clapton seems like a good way to start it off.

Friday, March 28, 2014

MGA final update.

Having finished up the MGA that by most accounts was "unfixable" I thought you'd enjoy some pix.

 
 
The rockers were installed shortly after these were taken. We had to get everything on the chassis and mostly llined up before they could go on.

 
 
Fenders were a bit low at the nose but adjusted up nearly perfectly, lots better than from the factory I'm sure.

 
 
The only panels on the car I did not have to repair or replace were the doors.
 
These are right after the body hit the chassis, BTW the chassis is from a different car. Add in the fact the all of the body mounts and surrounding areas were rusted or nonexistent I was surprised at how well it fit and how quickly we got it bolted down.
 
 

Chassis and driveline have been completely redone, motor is fresh and everything is painted or powdercoated.
 
 
Wheels and tires are also new, tires were made in the Ukraine, I mentioned that it was good he didn't wait to get the rubber as I'm fairly sure those folks are not interested in making tires right about now.

 
 
The nose was wrecked and rusty so the grill section came from another body and I had to replace the flanges where the fenders bolted to the car, the patches were 7 foot long and 5inches wide. that was 14 foot of weld per side.
 

 
 
I made the patches from scratch and made them fit the fenders better than the factory did.

 
 
The forward sections of the inner fenders were rotten so those were replaced from the same car that we got the grill from and they needed patched too.



The leading edge of the hood was way off so I had to rebuild it. whats another 3 foot of weld when you've already welded a couple miles...

 
A few random pics of my idea of overwhelming and underpaying....
 
 



 
 
 


 
Adding some better metal,,
 



Both rear door posts were made from scratch and the passenger side front door post was homemade too.
 
 

 
 
Not sure anyone can understand how much work went into this thing and I'm glad its over and done.
 
If you own an MGA,,, I feel for you and if you have one that needs this kind of work,, well kindly find another dumbass to fix it cause I'm fairly sure I'm not doing another one..
 
We do have enough cutup rusty parts to build a copy of this one as it was when we got it if your interested.....
 




Tuesday, March 25, 2014

First Shooty Goodness of the Year!!

We had some fine weather on Friday and a bunch of us decided that it was to good a day to work, so we did what most responsible adults would do... Say Fuckitol and go shoot something!

Pop's ultra seekrit shooty spot was still a bit damp so we had to stay on the gravel or risk sinking up to our knees so mostly short range stuff but we were turning money into smoke and noise, that's all that mattered. (Mr Yellow got one tire off the drive on the way out and got stuck.)


Da Good Squaw finally got to put some rounds thru her new 1911, she looked real good packing that on her hip!!


 
Still need to work on her form a bit and get her past that flinch that haunts her. She's getting better though.


 
 
 Gun did ok after a bit of a teething issue, after 30 rounds or so it locked up so tight that I had to nose it into the table and lean on it with both hands to move the slide. A bit of heavier lube and it worked smurfectly for the rest of the day. The point of aim is a bit low but we'll be putting a better set of sights on it and can adjust that out.
 
 
I'm not much of a 1911 fan myself but I do like hers, and those custom grips I made have a really nice feel and don't chew up your hands so I will be making similar ones for sale.
 
I put a hundred rounds or so thru my SR9C, love that little gun!
 

 
 
Then we broke out the "Rabbi". Gave Da Brat a bit of coaching and she seemed to like the bullpup!

 
Then we turned it over to her boyfriend and he liked it a bunch too.

 
 
Mr. Yellow was there with his SKS,,
 

 
and so was his son,, Mr. Green, fresh from a deployment in Afghanistan,

 
 
About this time Pops started draggin out relics for us to play with, Ruger US Old Army Blackpowder,
 

 
"when the smoke clears I'll tell you if I hit anything...."
 
 
 
 
 Then a 30-30 lever gun,,


 
"be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting a little green chunk of steel"
 
 
 
In case your wondering,, 30-30 drills really nice holes in 1/4" steel pistol targets...
 
 
 
 
It was a wonderful day all the way around, giggles were had and we didn't hit the propane tank. A decent  pile of brass to show for it.
 
 
 
We will be doing this a lot more as soon as the weather gets better and stays that way!
 
Stay tuned more misadventures to come!






Monday, March 17, 2014

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Missed a Week,,

Didn't get a post up last Mondee as I was still trying to get caught up from the craziness of the weekend. I'll make up for it here,,

In honor of Pop's 212th birthday,,,



and

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Hectic Part 2!

Ok so the weekend was a blast!

Went north to Insanelandia, located in Crook County, to a Shindig, helped some good Folks raise 92500 pounds of pennies (ish) for some other good people.

I was there making panels for the artists to ply their trade upon. I made 14 or so but was to busy to get any pix. Da Mom may have some and I'll get her to email me a few and update this when I get em.

So anyway,, there were cars or something there,,


 
 
That's all I got of the cars, sorry to say not all that interested in what others do to the rides, keeps me free of undo influences. I don't read car mags or watch any of the Hot Rod type TV shows either.
 
 
Not much into bikes either but this one was parked like a foot and a half from my workstation (you can see my stuff in the background of the first pic) and it was hard to ignore.
 


 
 
This pic tells the story, man what a find!



While I was making up a panel I heard the Evil StepDad conversing with someone while they were watching me do my thing and when I looked over he introduced me to this Fella,, (here too). He's a big inspiration to me as he is still working, giving classes and chopping cars during shows.

In a sense giving back information he has so that the following generations can learn both the history and the techniques of the trade. Something I try to do as well.

He was really admiring the panel I had made so at the end of the show I took it over and presented it to him.

 
 
Inflated my ego when he complimented me and the panel so I could think of no better thing to do with it.
 
One of the airbrush guys from the Brushmasters blew some candy on it and really made it pop.
 
 
All in all a great weekend and for a great cause, will be going and doing it again next year!

.