Very slow progress

 Hello everyone,

I managed to get the cart and the pickup ready to sell and posted up. No serious inquiries yet.

Started working on the Harley and after going through and sorting all the parts I’ve been dragging around for the last 40 plus years, I discovered that I have less parts to use than I thought I had. I seem to be missing most of the wheel spacers parts for both the front and rear wheels. So, this week I’ll be making up the first, of probably many, parts lists and get that stuff ordered.

In between lawn maintenance and other things, I’ll start tapping out bolt holes and fitting up the things I do have.

I did find some things in those boxes I didn’t realize that I did have, plus I have a lot of parts to sell to help fund some of this project as well.

We’ve had some pretty good storms here and a lot of rain. Not too much damage, a small tree down, and a gutter that’s plugged. All in a days work I guess.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

Great week of racing

 Hello everyone,

Went to Beech Bend in Bowling Green, Kentucky this past week for the 18th annual Hot Rod Reunion. It was a blast! A friend of mine and I went, another friend lives about a mile from the track, so we met up with him, and finally my youngest son came down on Friday for the weekend.

The friend who lives a mile from the track worked with me at the Cat dealer when I started in 1973. We’ve been friends for 48 years. He’s been building cars and bikes for forever! He’s in the process of building a 1951 Chevy 5 window pickup for a while and I finally got to go for a ride in it!! He’s pretty slow at his builds, but now he’s almost 80 years old and still building hot rods!!

We went down a day earlier than we normally go and man, am I glad we did. We got there mid afternoon and there were only 10 camping spaces left! The place was more packed than I have ever seen it!! The racing was great and the show and shine was excellent also.

When I was working at Cat there was a guy who was building a Vega exactly like this one. Small block custom sub frame in the rear, this one was really nice! 

Well, I tried to put in some video clips but, it’s not working today.

So, back to normal life for awhile, see if I can part ways with the golf cart and pickup truck this week and start on the Harley, we’ll see how it goes. 

I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

Finishing something’s and getting ready for racing

 Hello everyone,

I received some boxes of things while I was on my little weekend getaway. So I got parts to repair the downstairs toilet, check. I also got the wiring to put on the van for the trailer plug, installed it on the van. 

Just part of it in the picture it, it’s all in and works fine. I also added a couple of charge ports in the van to make it a little more convenient for charging anything with a USB cable. In the process of installing those ports I found this:

That, was a little disconcerting! I never cared for this setup, it was a little hard to get to the fuses. This is part of the battery isolator/ charging system for the inside battery. So I ordered up some new parts to change it over to something that seems better. The parts are supposed to be here today, so I’ll show you what I changed it to in the next post.

This coming week is when I go to the Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green. So, it’s mostly preparations for going there this weekend. Got the little camper out and inspected for critter damage, found nothing.

Had to replace an air conditioner at the cabin we have on our property, and ordered a new one. When it came it was smaller than our old one, so I took the one that fit in the camper and put it in the cabin, and I ended up with the brand new one for the camper! Woo hoo!!

I’ve been working around the compound to clear up some of the list of things to do. I’m going to try and sell the golf cart and the pickup truck when I come home from the races to clear up some space. I want to start working on the Harley. The frame is back and the fork tubes are here so a roller is close than before.

I’ll try to post some pics from the races next post too.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

Peace and love

 Hello everyone,

Did a bunch more house work and then took a few days off. We went to Hippie Fest, and a little more. 

We joined a group called Harvest Hosts, and basically it’s a group that includes, museums, breweries, wineries, and farms that you can stay at overnight for free in your camper. So far every place we’ve stayed has been great. Friday night’s stay was at a place called JB Whiskey. Had two bands and really good food, met some great people! BUT, what hit the home run for me was this:

TWO C8 Corvettes up close and personal! I’m a car fan, always have been. I really liked the C7’s when they came out, but these have stolen my heart. The guy with the red one had only owned it for two hours!! On top of this, we wake up the next morning and they’re having a car show!!

So, after the car show, we drive a couple of hours up to Truffant, Michigan, to the Hippie Fest! We had a ball! The music was absolutely spot on, all day. All sorts of vendors selling tie dyes and jewelry, all sorts of food, and all sorts of people! It was really fun, but it was extremely hot. It was out in a huge farm field with almost no shade, hard on us old people! We hung out for about 5 hours and finally had to pack it in. They have several in different spots every year so, I’m sure we’ll make another one!

It was a very cool getaway for us but, now back to the grind. I’ve got about a week and a half before the hot rod reunion and a ton of things to get done. Received several packages while we were gone all of which means things to do. I was making lists while we were gone so, I have a lot of work to get finished up with.

So, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

Mostly more of the same

 Hello everyone,

We did a couple of day trip outings on Memorial Day weekend. On Monday I went with my brother and Shop Teacher Bob, on what they call the dead relatives tour. We went and put flowers on the graves of our relatives who served in the military plus a few other relatives who have passed. It was a nice day, great conversations, took us back to what felt like “ normal”.

My friend who welded the Harley frame up for me brought it back on the weekend and “Bob” gave me back my repaired fork tube.

If you’re interested in how he did the repair, look him up at the link in the first paragraph. He’s doing some really cool stuff.

I’ve been cleaning up the golf cart, doing some cleaning and painting.

We’re going away this weekend to a HippieFest! Never been, so hopefully it will be cool.

I have a lot of things to get done next week in order to go  the Hot Rod Reunion in Kentucky the following week. When I come back from that trip I’m going to put the pickup and the golf cart up for sale, so the next few weeks will be busy. After that I’m going to turn to the Harley and start trying to get a roller going.

Well, I think that’s all for now. 

Talk to you soon, 

TVI