Quote:
Originally Posted by McMurphy
Wow...
Ok, first off the retirement.
How are you coping with that? I ask because unless something monumental happens in my career status I will be retired from the Army the summer of 2014. I already know I dont want to show up every day to some place of business, put my brain on auto pilot, and draw a 9-5 pay check. We are working on being self sufficient so I wont have to do that.
Secondly, the work you do to this rig is amazing enough as it is... I am ever in awe of your truck and hope to see it in person this summer !!
Third, Your garage is like heaven to me. I showed the profile pic of your truck above to the wife and she keyed in on the same thing I did, the neat and orderly collection of tools you have !! Your garage looks like it would be a joy to work in !!
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In answer to your first question, it took at least a year to get used to being out of the work force. When I was working, I had a very active and involved daily routine. and planned to work for 10 more years. For the last 14 years of my career my official title was Non-Inventory Buyer for a multi-million dollar international corporation. I bought everything that didn’t go out the door as a company product – like production equipment, computers, software, office supplies, buildings, vehicles, etc. I spent millions of dollars, and placed thousands of orders and had no shortage of work.
But my real job was a Mr. Fixit help desk for corporate headquarters. If anybody local or remote needed anything and didn’t know where to go, they called me whether it had to do with purchasing or not. I either had the answer or knew how to find it, and I could navigate corporate politics and get things done when there was no other solution. Duplicate technology at home provided me the privilege of a very flexible schedule. For the first 12 years, I absolutely loved what I did.
To reduce the long story to a short synopsis the last two years saw one too many mergers which toppled the management, ruined the corporate culture, and my health. Working 20 hours a day wasn’t enough, and an event with my left eye revealed a bunch of other more serious medical problems. I was provided a very generous benefit package to get rid of me cleanly, and felt fortunate the stress didn’t kill me like it had several other employees.
But going from that type of vital daily routine to nothing at all was rather daunting for quite a while. While recovering, I sought work for a while until it became obvious I wouldn’t have the stamina for it any longer. So after decades of having purpose bringing in money and making a difference at the workplace, I had to find something else to do.
I joined several forums to see if I could contribute, which turned out to offer a measure of therapy. I also initiated a bunch of truck and home projects that didn’t cost much, which has also proven beneficial.
Sadly my wife had to go back to work to afford health insurance, so we switched roles and I now wait on her hand and foot like she did for me the previous two decades. After adjusting to a limited income, I only kick myself for not retiring earlier. I can’t imagine returning to the stress of answering to anyone. I really like being able to get up whenever I want and do anything I please whenever the mood strikes.
I hope you can develop a plan that allows you to retire as you envision. It can certainly be an enjoyable time of life if you have developed the means to support it. It’s tougher today, but so far we’ve been managing okay.
Thanks for the positive comments on the truck. I look forward to meeting another forum member. Try not to be too disappointed when you see it in real life. It’s certainly not a show truck, just the best street rod truck I could build on a budget. When you’re planning to be in the area just let me know and I’ll make sure she’s all cleaned up and ready for inspection!
As for the garage, it’s amazing what little investment it takes to make everything really convenient. A few sheets of pegboard, some paint, and a little creative thinking can make it so much more pleasurable to work in. Mine is just a typical attached two car garage (not a shop) but everything has a place and a purpose. My wife can also find almost anything she wants which keeps her happy as well.
Having many of the hand tools hanging on the wall offers a couple of advantages. When you’re done with a project and everything is put back, you know if something got left under the hood because it’s obviously not where it belongs. Also when you’re in a big project and you realize all the ½” wrenches are missing, it’s time to take a break and put everything back. A few minutes later you can start over fresh and avoid frustration. And when you’re done and everything is hung up, visitors have a hard time believing any work goes on at all, because everything looks just like the last time they saw it.
It’s been evolutionary for me. As a kid in the 1950’s I grew up the garages of men that were old school mechanics and racers that grew up in the 30’s and 40’s. They had very little in the way of tools or supplies, and most of those were dirty and greasy dumped in bench drawers. By the 1960’s the only significant garage improvement I remember was the concept of screwing baby food lids to the bottom of shelves, and filling the jars with old greasy nuts and bolts. From the perspective of a kid it seemed much harder to get anything done when everything was slippery and greasy. It also caused many baby food jars to fall off the lid, smashing the jar and scattering the contents. I found it much easier to take a rag and wipe everything off first.
And regarding contents - back in the 70’s I had boxes full of “really cool stuff” that took up a lot of needed space. Rare parts for cars it turns out I never did own. I came to two conclusions. 1. Unless it’s just a rare collectible item I want to keep, if I have no planned use for it in the next 5 years I get rid of it. 2. If I do want it and can’t find it when I need it, I might have well have thrown it away because I’ll end up buying a new one anyway. As a result everything I own is in totes with accurate descriptions on the end. If I know I have something, I can almost always find it by checking in one or two places. It saves a lot of money and irritation.
The last big step I took was to mount two benches, the dirty bench and the clean bench. The dirty bench has the vise, and all sawing, grinding, cutting, etc happens there. The clean bench is reserved for small projects, carb rebuilding, or model car painting. There’s much less chance of contaminating a delicate project this way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 66farmer
Mark
I really like reading your posts about your truck keep it going. It does help that it's a stepside.
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I’ve got pages of more photos to load I think might be interesting. Getting it all in sequence takes a bit of effort but my goal is to get this thread up to current so when new things happen I can post them immediately instead of dealing with all this historical stuff.
There are many beautiful fleetside trucks on this site alone, and I do take the time to look them over thoroughly at rod runs. But short stepsides are my passion. If mine hadn't been a stepside I wouldn’t have bought it.
Thanks to you both for looking and commenting.