grruminator78

I live on base, and all I have is a stinkin car port, and there is "no major automotive work allowed"
Define major!

spanish mustang

Tell me about it, I live in a gated community and am not allow by the community rules to ever wash my car let alone do anything else...

Thankfully a community commitee can do no more than send letters, whereas you are dealing with an army!

THUMPIN455

Yeah I couldnt live like that anymore... no garage. Lived in an apartment for a couple years while in the USAF, and that sucked. 5 vehicles in the parking lot, and a trailer. A storage unit full of tools and car parts with transmissions on the floor in the kitchen of the apartment.

2000sq ft isnt enough, I need more. I can only fit two projects in at once, maybe three if I really need to fix a transmission or something.

I blame HOTROD and CarCraft for how I am today. 30+ vehicles that are future or past projects, some daily drivers, some I have never driven, either way they must all find thier way through the guantlet that is my shop. then the problem is what to do with them once they are completed, since leaving them outside will just result in them looking like they do now in a few years. Selling some of them would be like selling a child.. I have some sort of mental disorder, dont I?

At least the current shop will be insulated tomorrow, its about time... please no snow untill its done.. please?

spanish mustang

Joder! 30+ Vehicles????

Youre either insane, very rich or its your livelyhood? Here in europe shop when used with cars is always a business, is it the same in the US?

72rustang

I feel like I should add another disclaimer, namely that whenever I set up the car on 4 ramps, I knew I was not going to have to be dealing with some nasty frozen bolt, such as the leaf spring front eye bolts. Any sort of struggle like that and I wouldn't feel safe with the car on 4 ramps. I felt reasonably confident doing undercoating etc. with the car on 4 ramps, but in the back of my mind I was also thinking "this just *might* get me qualified for a Darwin award".

grruminator78

What you can't even wash your car!?!?!?!? WTF is up with that? You crazy euros!

I don't have it that bad, at least we have an auto shop on base I can do oil changes and what not at. The guy down the street from me has a impala SS and a 60's ford truck, plus 3 newer cars, man our street is full

THUMPIN455

not a business anymore. I am not rich, it came about sorta like this. I started off with just one when I was 14 (67 Cougar for $450). I could only afford to buy old cars that had problems. At 17 I bought my second (72 GTO $175) from a junkyard, it was hit in the front but repairable. From then on, I would buy parts cars or projects and the vast majority were between $20 and $500. Infact I have only paid more than $1000 for my 70 GTO, the 65 GTO (both right at $1k)a 79 Trans AM ($2500 when I was 18) the 92 F150 ($2500) and a 98 Pontiac Formula ($7500) with the 98 being an economy car since it gets 30mpg, has 305hp, and ran a mid 13 second 1/4 mile stone stock. Everything is paid off now, but since its winter I can only drive the beater 97 Intrepid that my father in law paid $200 for and gave to us. I think I have put another $200 into the intrepid and stripped out two others for parts.

Anyway, I would buy a project, and sometimes life would happen and it would sit, sometimes I would drive it for a while. To date I have only sold two 56 Buicks, a 71 Cutlass, a 72 Mustang Grande, a 76 Torino 4 door, and a beater 85 VW GTi that I had in Charleston when I only had the GTO to drive and the GTO had electrical problems.

So I have a bunch of beaters that I bought years ago, that have been resting peacefully at my dads farm. then I inherited some 4x4s from the father in law when I moved here. I just dont sell them off because i will build something from them later, and I had the room to store them. Not sure how it happened, but I now have 9 Firebirds, mostly Formulas and 3 Trans AMs, they were cheap for a long time. I have driven 4 of them on a daily basis or raced them. I wont sell something unless I can get my money back out of it, especially if it has parts for another one that currently runs.

I dont drink, dont smoke, and dont have anything else I spend loads of cash on, it all goes to my kids and my cars. I live on a VA government check because I am a disabled veteran, and I cant work.. So now I have time, some money, a place to do it, but I cant physically do it like I used too. About two or three days per week is all.

I think its insanity...

spanish mustang

Sounds like you have a very nice life.... Lucky man!

THUMPIN455

As for the ramps, I dont use ramps. I find them dangerous and a pain to use, driving up on them with some of my cars dont work because they are low. I have an awesome floor jack and I use jackstands extensively. That red jack is a kick butt jack, you can get a Lincoln just like it for about $250, but mine is red with a SnapOn tag on it so it cost more. Its a professional grade shop jack, I didnt want to buy one every two years, so I have had this one for 15 years.

After I get the stands under it, I leave the jack close to the crossmember I lifted it with and shake the car to make sure its stable. I wont get under it untill I do that, and I never trust my jack even though it has never dropped before. Jackstands are cheap and they dont take up much storage space, just be sure to put them in a location that will hold the car without damaging it, and so they are stable. You can use different size stands for different things and if you have it right, the car will not fall on you. I have a 52" chest, so there isnt enough room for me to breathe if the car comes down...

THUMPIN455

Car wise its okay. If you want to trade knees and other items that put me on the gimp list, I will swap you anytime..