I was going to park it after I put in my backyard this fall and use the frame for the base for the 48 Merc M68 out back and make a wrecker using a twin spool Holmes 480 as a building guide. Now I'll have an extra 1500 in the kick. I'll be running an FE now that there's crankshaft money available.

 

I picked up this 04 pick em up truck a year and a half ago and am turning to the toys this winter now that I'm finally at the full retirement line.

 

Pickup truck, eh?

 

There's a box in the boot.

 

A box? I got a foot in my boot.

I have tried, but I've never been able to like those things. But for some dumb reason, the older I get, the more I think about getting one as a project car. What's yours got for engine and transmission?

 

I'm not big on cars as I've driven 1 and 5 ton box trucks all my life and after this last 5 weeks I'm cursing this thing. 15 drive followed by 2 3 hr drives 3 days in a row, a week of cleaning up moms hoarding followed by 15 hr drive home. Repeat 5 days later as mom decides to die instead of move as she had planned. For around town its fun but avoid any and all rough roads as it hurts after a while. This is just a V6 automatic as I don't like Mustangs as an overall performance car and its super cheap to run, my insurance is dirt cheap due to no tickets or caused accidents for over 35 years. I like the car and have fun with it but there's other Mustangs I'd rather own and when I bought this car I was chasing a tax deadline and that's $2600 worth of guaranteed winter transportation in case of medical emergency or national catastrophe. Never knew we'd have a pandemic a year later but now I don't have to use public transportation, lol.

 

Tunes for the day.

 

Perry, I'm so sorry you lost your mom. Seems like a while back, I was saying the same thing about your beloved cat. I worry about my mom too. She's 80, lives alone in her lake house, and it's a 3 hour drive for me to get there. She's surrounded by great people though. Gated community, and folks there are awesome. She's a hoarder too. And she's an absolute riot!

I'm not a car fan either. Haven't owned a car or anything 2wd since 1983. But like I said earlier, I'm thinking about a project car. Hopefully I'll come to my senses. Cars are so hard to work on. you can't even see the underside without putting all four corners on jack stands. And the engine compartments are tight!

 

I was probably expecting something different from the stang than I got but I'm more used to the twin I beam front end and with these wide tires on the front anytime I'm off smooth pavement I get all kinds of outside deflection and it just won't hold its track but I still drive like I'm in the truck and expect more from the steering than I get. My 78 f350 can out corner the car on some of the routes that I drive. There's an 73 Opel in my area that the guy is looking to trade for a car like mine for his wife and to me the Opel would be better suited to me even though they're basically the same car with the Opel being in a more raw form. Without the interior package telling me that I'm in a refined modern car it wouldn't bother me to drive a sporty oxcart.
Cats are doing fine and love the new house and neighborhood, the stroller club stops by and plays find Frankie and the kids watch the bushes for her until they can spot her. Torties are a unique cat at times, this one still walks me to the mailbox on a regular basis. And they both guard front step.
I had gotten a decision assessment call from the couple that takes my mom to church as she was wanting to sell the house and move to her home town to be with her old friends and at 85 they knew it was time for a family member to step in. All things considered with all the inconveniences of the situation as it happened, this did work out for the best that it happened now as I approved the because she was going into a safe situation but she was developing late onset mental stability issues.
Due to my brother's health and my being his guardian stuck the responsibility of the estate in my lap which is a pita in some ways as now I have to transcribe and archive the family history so that its presentable to my niece when she gets it.

I've got a piece of WW2 that moves everyone who's ever known a relative that served, especially those involved in D day.

 

I still get chills every time I hear one coming. They're used a lot around here still for the forestry, coast guard and especially medical rescue services to get people to hospitals quickly.
The rotor chop pretty much announces their coming from far away. When they're just cruising it might take a full minute or even two before you see them. And when two or three are flying together it's a real sight!

Did you see the recent documentary on the Navy HA(L)-3 Seawolves? If you have an extra hour or so to spend sometime, check it out. Well worth it.
Now, maybe you were just listening to the music in those videos, but if you were watching the action, you'll enjoy the film and other related stories probably on youtube I assume.

Paul

 

An Opel would be a fun project. When I was a kid, and they were fairly common, I remember getting excited every time I saw one. But after the initial excitement, I'd remember that it had two sick squirrels under the hood. It'd be a fun V8 swap project.

Yeah, I miss my relatives that were WWII vets. I wore my uniform at my grandmother's funeral back in the 90's. Three old uncles, that I didn't even remember came up to me and we talked all day. I got some great stories from them. Two were in the 29th Inf Div, and landed at Omaha during the first wave. One was in the 101st Abn Div and glider landed the night before. I later served in his old regiment. While I was still in, we'd occasionally have a rendezvous or other events in which old vets would attend. I loved talking with them. I was especially intrigued by a bunch of old crusty 31st Inf Rgt Philippine survivors. I escorted that regiment's ornate silver bowl from Ft Benning to Fort Drum. What an honor.

 

That was an excellent documentary, thank you for the link.

 

So I swapped cars with my buddy James and took his daughter out with me as I had to make a run through a housing development that has traffic circles and controls throughout and thought it would be a good place to drive the snot out of this.

It's going to be her car on a full time basis in the spring when she's 18 and right now she's learning to drive it. This gave me a chance to practice some old skills as we went a few miles down the road and had most of a mega mall parking lot to ourselves. We both had about 40 minutes of off and on slalom practice with light poles and the spare tire. A 18 year chick in a car like this needs to know what its capable of and what she's capable of doing in it. Her grades earned the car and she's mature enough to know she's looking after it on her nickel.
My car drives like a late 90s Taurus at the steering wheel and the front end gets lost as soon as you're no longer on smooth pavement and you really have push it on a smooth lot to get any excitement out of it. If you can't get a car sideways you can't really have fun with it. Time to put it up in the air and have my brother crawl under it with me and see how much this bill will be and if I pass it on for something else.

 

I quoted your statements that caught my eye the most and made me laugh/spit beer on the screen. I see you romping on that Mustang trying to get it to break loose and do donuts in the mega mall parking lot. And then I looked for you on u tube....

 

Heads up for every one living life.