What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
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Topic author - Posts: 6815
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- First Name: Richard
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What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
Some work requires total concertation while other tasks are tedious and boring. The latter allow your mind to wander and ever require other thoughts to keep at it. I often think of good times spent with old friends or family. Sometimes I wonder what the guy at the factory who assembled this or that was like or how he did his task. Today while trying to remove a cotter pin and castellated nut from a greasy, grimy, slimy corner I wonder if some of the techniques and tools were similar to a surgeon inside a brain or somewhere. They certainly can't enjoy doing it in the sunshine on a nice day. I'm not sure where that came from.
Forum topics, a pretty face or a Kalamity Dick predicament can certainly make the mindless wet sanding, crud scraping or solvent scrubbing go by faster.
What do you think?
Rich
Forum topics, a pretty face or a Kalamity Dick predicament can certainly make the mindless wet sanding, crud scraping or solvent scrubbing go by faster.
What do you think?
Rich
When did I do that?
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
I often think about and talk to my Father while working and even riding in my Model T's. He never had a chance to enjoy them because he had passed away long before I got them. He had Model A's and other cars in his youth that he talked about and often wanted to get one in his later life but never had the opportunity. So I guess I include him and ask his advice when I work on them.
1922 Coupe & 1927 Touring
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
I often see my fathers hands working on the T.
Several years ago, mom told me that dad use to be an airline mechanic. She was worried because she found nut, bolts and screws in his pockets.
I only knew him as an insurance adjuster, but he did tinker around the house.
It only makes sense that I see him while I am playing mechanic.
Then my mind drifts off to him, but I eventually come back to the task at hand.
Several years ago, mom told me that dad use to be an airline mechanic. She was worried because she found nut, bolts and screws in his pockets.
I only knew him as an insurance adjuster, but he did tinker around the house.
It only makes sense that I see him while I am playing mechanic.
Then my mind drifts off to him, but I eventually come back to the task at hand.
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
I think if I do this right, I wont end up walking. Also about the many lives the T's have seen. About how that dent may have gotten there. About my uncles that had A's and T's and the fact I could have asked more questions while they were alive. About my dad that drug me to old junkyards in search of parts and told me the years of the cars and ones he had and wish he had back. Many of my tools came from family or friends that have passed. I think of them while useing the tools. So many things to occupy the mind while working in the shop. Sometimes I just sit and stare at them and think " if only they could tell their story".
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
This is what I try to think about, but not necessarily what I actually think about! I usually am thinking about what I will do next and therefore, I lay down a tool and later can't find it! I need to think about what I am doing right now especially when I finish a task or complete a step in the process. Especially when done, to think about where I lay the tool, or perhaps where I put a part I have removed, so I can find it later.
Norm
Norm
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
My ADHD doesn't allow me to think too long. So then I quit and go for a drive!
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
As I listen to the news or audio books while tinkering, i think of the most random and obscure things such as calculating the number of bumps on the tire.
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
I think...this is a pain in the A$$, glad they made it easier and better on the Model A. Then I think well....they did a 180 degrees from that and it's even better on a Flathead V8.
Then I open up the hood on my modern Ford with a 5.0 with all the crap in the way and think...O'good I 'm damn glad I got a Model T, @ least I can get to that easier
Then I open up the hood on my modern Ford with a 5.0 with all the crap in the way and think...O'good I 'm damn glad I got a Model T, @ least I can get to that easier
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
As one with a one track mind, I think: If I don’t stay focused on what I am doing I’m gonna screw this up or hurt myself. Jim Patrick
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
I don't ever think of work on my T's as slaving. They are a welcome distraction.
Allan from down under.
Allan from down under.
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
Therapy with Tranquility.
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
To me it’s not slaving but great fun (most of the time!) but I can’t help wondering who is going to do this when I’m gone ??
I’m the 3rd Generation with none to pick up the hobby after me....
I’m the 3rd Generation with none to pick up the hobby after me....
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
I could have owned a Packard, if I had more money.
I could have spent more money, if I had owned a Packard.
I could have spent more money, if I had owned a Packard.
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
I think about being three and meeting a turtle in the back yard, a wing of the Spruce Goose parking beside our house on June 11, 1945, the high pitched tone right on the edge of hearing that came from a tube TV, dreaming about three guys in trench coats and WWI gas masks stabbing a body in the open trunk of a car parked in the dark beside the Coca Cola plant on Anaheim in Long Beach, Osgood Conklin, George and Charles the flying Finn Twins, Baby Ruth and Three Musketeers for a nickel, eating lunch with Sheena Queen of the Jungle and Fred Flinstone and meeting Jack Haley, driving my Beetle over the Kelso Dunes, Hoppy's laugh, "Oh Cisco! Oh Pancho!", Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer, Charlie Chase, "I dood it", the big red owl squashing pennies on the tracks, cicadas singing in the trees on a summer evening, Rosemary De Camp, Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, around Dodge City and in the territory on west there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, the Dennis Day Show, Hi Mom, Hi Dad, Hi Rick, Hi Dave, trout for lunch at the Brown Derby, Jane Stacey's friend Irma, Méxicanos al grito de guerra el acero aprestad yh el bridon, those damn clip-on suspenders, decorating Christmas cookies, Stoveoil the cat, Uncle Wiggly the Bunnyrabbit Gentleman, watching Berra, Howard, and Mantle pop balls over the Wrigley Field wall into 41st Street, the Say Hey Kid playing in the Coliseum, Cheryl Crane and Johnny Stompanato, I Led Three Lives, Oatman Grade, the Grapevine, Roy and Trigger visiting my school, Monty Montana visiting my school, Big Klu, Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, Bulova watch time, "Yes sir, Miss Bankhead", Birely's strawberry soda, Froggy the Gremlin, old 99 with the suicide lane in the center, Kodachrome, "Gotta clean out that closet one of these days", a field full of lightning bugs looking like a city at night, the smell of pines in the mountains, the smell of the war surplus tent in the mountains, $1 admission at Disneyland, free admission at Knotts, World Jungle Compound, the Bakersfield Inn bridge over Union Avenue, Wolfman Jack, "My mommy listens to KFWB!", Sweet Dick Whittington, Ed Norton, Lamont Cranston wealthy young man about town, Giant Felix Chevrolet, aiming the antenna at Mount Wilson and turning on the new 21" Silvertlone and seeing Ed Kemmer and Lynn Osborn in Space Patrol, Abba Zabba, Ken's burgers for 15¢, Frank Nelson bugging Jack with "YYYyyesss?", the Crystal Palace in Tombstone, the aunts' Studebaker, listening to Beethoven's Fifth over and over, falling in love with the sublime Third Piano Concerto on the radio in Mom's 1940 Plymouth, riding one of the last troop ships to Korea, shaking hands with Count Basie, shaking hands with Donald Segretti, buying beer from Karen Valentine at Sherwin's Road House, "On, King! On, you huskies!", "Kaneewah, Fury!", and "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"
After that my mind starts to wander.
After that my mind starts to wander.
The inevitable often happens.
1915 Runabout
1923 Touring
1915 Runabout
1923 Touring
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
Yoicks!! That's a lot to remember! I'm usually thinking, "Where did I put that wrench/pliers/screwdriver/etc. now that I need it??"
T'ake care,
David Dewey
David Dewey
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
Oh I wish i had a one track mind, mine looks more like this :
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When in trouble, do not fear, blame the second engineer !
Leo van Stirum, Netherlands
'23 Huckster, '66 CJ5 daily driver
Leo van Stirum, Netherlands
'23 Huckster, '66 CJ5 daily driver
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
What I would be thinking of is what I would be thinking of back then.
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The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either.
Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
Besides what I am working on, wishing I had a shop that I did not have to go outside and around to get to the other end of what I am working on to get the tool that I need or inside for same reason and could leave the car in one place and still have work room on both sides. That is what I think about.
I know the voices aren't real but damn they have some good ideas!
1925 Cut down pickup
1920 Dodge touring
1948 Ford F2 pickup
1925 Cut down pickup
1920 Dodge touring
1948 Ford F2 pickup
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Topic author - Posts: 6815
- Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 10:51 am
- First Name: Richard
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
When I say "slaving away" it doesn't mean I dislike it. I wouldn't have spent 50,000 hours doing this if it wasn't satisfying. (That isn't a record in this group either.)
Today I was thinking "why do I enjoy this?" It was a little cool and windy and I was wet sanding a part that really doesn't need to be as clean as I am getting it. I remembered one of the best mechanics I know mentioning how he has cleaned and polished the insides of engines before just to see them shine.
Getting into the little corners requires some muscle development and a bit of thought as to how to attack tricky areas. I spent 4 hours on this piece and only one side is close to being finished.
My son and his family will play all sorts of video games for hours on end in much the same way. It requires hand eye coordination and a similar thought process to kill all those little ogres, ghosts or aliens. I've often noticed that many hobbies have some very similar aspects that may not be very obvious on the surface.
I know that sandblasting, chemical dips and at least a dozen other processes are quicker and more efficient. Scrubbing with a bucket of water and some 80 grit "wet-or dry" just works for me. That's how I did the frames on my first and last T's. I have sandblasted half a dozen others but my lungs don't like the sand now. Sorry this isn't a T part but you can see the wooden pieces I use to drive the sand paper into the corners. A square of top material also protects my fingers from the grit. It is an acquired skill and shows how we can each find how we like to do things. Wet sanding reveals some interesting fabrication marks like the stretch marks around the center hole. Sandblasting doesn't.
Anyhow, that is what occupied my mind today and kept me out of mischief.
Rich
Today I was thinking "why do I enjoy this?" It was a little cool and windy and I was wet sanding a part that really doesn't need to be as clean as I am getting it. I remembered one of the best mechanics I know mentioning how he has cleaned and polished the insides of engines before just to see them shine.
Getting into the little corners requires some muscle development and a bit of thought as to how to attack tricky areas. I spent 4 hours on this piece and only one side is close to being finished.
My son and his family will play all sorts of video games for hours on end in much the same way. It requires hand eye coordination and a similar thought process to kill all those little ogres, ghosts or aliens. I've often noticed that many hobbies have some very similar aspects that may not be very obvious on the surface.
I know that sandblasting, chemical dips and at least a dozen other processes are quicker and more efficient. Scrubbing with a bucket of water and some 80 grit "wet-or dry" just works for me. That's how I did the frames on my first and last T's. I have sandblasted half a dozen others but my lungs don't like the sand now. Sorry this isn't a T part but you can see the wooden pieces I use to drive the sand paper into the corners. A square of top material also protects my fingers from the grit. It is an acquired skill and shows how we can each find how we like to do things. Wet sanding reveals some interesting fabrication marks like the stretch marks around the center hole. Sandblasting doesn't.
Anyhow, that is what occupied my mind today and kept me out of mischief.
Rich
When did I do that?
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- Posts: 6495
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- First Name: Steve
- Last Name: Jelf
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- MTFCA Number: 16175
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Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
I have sandblasted half a dozen others but my lungs don't like the sand now.
You're not supposed to breathe it, Rich.
The inevitable often happens.
1915 Runabout
1923 Touring
1915 Runabout
1923 Touring
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Topic author - Posts: 6815
- Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 10:51 am
- First Name: Richard
- Last Name: Eagle
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1909 TR 1914 TR 1915 Rd 1920 Spdstr 1922 Coupe 1925 Tudor
- Location: Idaho Falls, ID
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- Contact:
Re: What do you think about while slaving away on the Model T?
Thanks Steve. I certainly enjoyed your vacuum system and setup. I should add that the wind also carried the sand next door. We like the new neighbors better and that is another reason.
I did enjoy the sandblasting hour after hour and the funny places it took my mind. I have thought about building a sandblast cabinet.
I'm not sure my mind came back completely.
Rich
I did enjoy the sandblasting hour after hour and the funny places it took my mind. I have thought about building a sandblast cabinet.
I'm not sure my mind came back completely.
Rich
When did I do that?