Hello! These are the Christmas 2009 fotos of my sons and me at my Tampa Bay MH Park. FINALLY, THEY BOTH CAME DOWN to visit! Over a 4-year absence for Ken and only the 2nd visit in 2 years for Rik. Of course, their mother didn't interfere this time by having her October ashes taken back by them to Texas over Xmas like last year for burial.
Above, on the left are Rich & Rik in front of Rik's "new" 100th Anniversary of Harley-Davidson Commemorative Ford F-150 Pickup (2003)! Beautiful pickup truck with all the trimmings! Now that he's got a decent job with the State of Florida (eligible due to completing his Bachelor's Degree in 2005), he can afford all the trimmings for the first time in his life as an adult on his own. It took awhile because State jobs don't come open often in Tallahassee -- but if he hadn't finished his BS degree, he'd NEVER have gotten an interview!
Imagine a Florida Gator who partied too much in Gainesville his freshman year so that he had to finish his education all on his own elsewhere (paying back government loans now) AND EVENTUALLY GRADUATE FROM FSU!! Still, on that one day a year when Gators & Noles battle in the football stadium, his primitive, reptilian sports-team brain comes to life & reverts him back to being a Gator. He's lucky cuz "MY school" (FSU) is rebuilding and UF has been winning this bitter state football rivalry, lately. He has won our "dinner-out" bet 2 or 3 years in a row.
On the right, Rich and Ken, the younger son of the same 2 parents, are standing behind Rik's truck just before Sunday goodbyes after Christmas. Ken was heading back to Orlando (only 2 hours away compared to 5 1/2 from "Tally" to continue HIS post-secondary school experience: the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute where he is having good success due to hard work and focus due to his enthusiasm and interest in this field of work! Only 13 months to go!
Ken has MORE tats than I do & here's a pic of us showing off our tats at WingHouse with my favorite "serving wench!" This was a special hug from her & I love it! MUAH, Girl!
A couple of weeks ago, my 1959 Ford Thunderbird original "Survivor" was in my car guy, Ted's, shop with him starting the restoration with the few safety items most essential for driving.
The BRAKES were the most important to fix, and he replaced all components in the system including all new steel lines to each wheel as well as the engine compartment master cylinder. All engine hoses were replaced and the silver valve covers above were replaced with sand-blasted originals he found stored in the T-Bird's trunk. He repainted them blue as the voltage regulator above is to restore their original color, and I think it is an interesting note that the T-Bird's colors when restored are planned to be red, white, and blue (with an understated patriotic feeling.) Ted thought that would certainly be appropriate considering my father's and my full military careers in service to our country (and, I might add, considering my sons' & my Eagle Scout or near-Eagle Scout backgrounds.)
Ted has already done countless other things like completely hand-repacking new wheel bearings with new grease; also, like checking the engine's compression before he ever tried to start it to be sure the pressure indicated the piston chambers were still well lubricated, and it would not endanger the engine to start it up. Countless other little things I do not remember now, he listed having done as we discussed progress over the last 3 weeks. His previously unspecified charge for labor was very reasonable and generous when he finally determined what it was after encountering the work itself and finally knew the difficulty & length of time it took.
Of course, I am in no hurry to have this finished so Ted finds it convenient & to his advantage in restoring the T-Bird along with the major renovation of a country estate property he purchased recently and is completing by himself and the help of friends. That unspecified labor charge was the one thing I was leery of until now -- not wanting to have "bought a pig in a poke" in advance. His statement afterwards rang true that a regular auto shop would have charged 3 or 4 times as much for labor in such a restoration job. We have much more work to do but I am feeling much better about his labor charges, now. After he installs a new Lo-Jack anti-theft system, I could stop anytime for any reason because he has already put the car in a safe, operational condition. He is dying to get me to re-title it ASAP & get Florida tags so we can show it off even NOW at a weekly meeting of classic car owners in St. Petersburg!
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