Rusty Bowtie
General Category => General Discussion - Intros => Topic started by: sammons on November 20, 2024, 10:54:37 AM
-
My brother flew home yesterday, made it safely home. I got to spend 27 days with him. He got my garage/ house projects done, important papers found. I can't explain the quality time we spent together. For 20yrs it was just my little brother and I.
What i didn't mention was that he was suppose to be here a month earlier. 2 days before he was to leave, he came upon a firey crash at night on a desolate highway. The gal was upside down and on fire. After a very difficult time getting her out, he drug her to safety just moments before the gas tank blew throwing gas all over. She is still in bad shape, but alive. The stress and smoke inhaullation caused my brother to have a heart attack, he got one stent and needs a few more. He post poned his others till he got back from helping me.
With me on a rapid decline and him facing more surgery, you never know if either of us will ever see the other again🤧 Ahh, the love of brothers, seems mighty lonely around here today
-
Your brother is a true hero! He steps up and savs lives. The doctors will get him in good shape. They can dose much with heart & circulation issues now. He will be back to see you. Brothers are the best.
For the last few months my younger son has been working of his older brother. They are both happier than they have been in years. They have always gotten along best when working together. My job was to keep them busy. ::)
-
As Sixball said your brother is a hero. I hope his health improves so the two of you can spend more time together.
-
Thanks Sixball/ Tom. Brother offered to take me in and tend to me, i'm seriously thinking about it today. Got tripped up with these new glasses and fell leaving store early today. Mis-jusged the door mat and flipped it up. Ok other than the goose egg and bleeding scrap where my glasses got me. Bent the crap outta them. Bet i have a big bruise/black eye tomorrow.🙄 It would be nice not having to drive go out shopping anymore😁
Sixball, brother and i always got into an argument after 3 weeks together in the past. Usually over him not understanding what i said, and taking it the wrong way other than what i meant.
-
That's good you and your brother got to spend some time together.
Happy for you.
Today me, my dad and his brother are going to the lawyer to get my dad's things in order. Probably the last time I get to see these 2 together.
-
Sorry to hear about your dad Rattiac. Seems to come on quick. Spend all the time you can with them.
-
With turkey day coming up, I hope you all get to see your brother's again.
Sammons how is the eye doing ? Hope it heals well.
Sunday I got my dad on hospice but he wants to stay in his house he says. He had a fall bumped his arm going down.
Yesterday hospice arrived with all the works. I disassembled his bed and new hospital bed arrived. Now there's more room and less things to trip over. The sister thinks he should go into a facility, I reminded her it's not her choice and I will do whatever he asks. He also asked for DNR if he's found unresponsive. I never really got along with her, she's a bit crazy in the head. 🤪
While at the lawyers, he said 5 vehicles or more would put us in probate. So since he can't ride his new 2024 harley trike, he gifted it to his brother and said you are my spirit rider. 😪🥲
Pic of him a month ago riding his trike.
Happy holidays everyone.
-
Rattiac, glad your following your dads wishes. Hospice wanted my dad in a facility also, he said no. So he stayed right there in his own house. Keep him happy in his end times, it will get trying on you as time goes by. Hold in there for him.
Had some buddies over saturday night telling them of my possible move. They said try it first on a visit. To hard for me to travel back and forth. Yesterday i had a decent day and thought.... no way i'm giving up my stuff and house. Today, holy crap. All my muscles hurt so bad that i can hardly move. Yep, back to thinking a move ahead.🙄
Rattiac, thanks for asking. Side of my head still a bit sore, but the puddle has moved under my eye. Was driving me crazy because i could see the buldge when looking down. Its getting better and i never got a nasty black eye.
1st pic 30mins after it happened.
2nd pic was yesterday
-
Rattiac Your Dad is lucky to have you following his wishes. It's tough when hospice has to step in.
Sammons hope your eye is getting better. Sorry your muscles are hurting so bad!
I wish you both the best and hope you can enjoy the holidays the best you can.
Thinking about you!
Tom
-
Thanks Tom. Eye will be just fine, and the muscles... it happens all the time. Usually lasts 3 days to a week.
-
Sammons, glad you are getting some relief and feeling some better. Getting old isn't much fun but is better than the alternative, I think.
Rattiac, Thanks for sticking up for your dad. He is making some tough choices. I'll stay here as long as I can but there is a lot of maintenance. My wife couldn't do it so I can't leave her here or have her care for me. I'm trying to get my sons & grandsons involved. We'll see how that goes. They will all be here for Thanksgiving.
TFoch., It is always a good thing to have friends shouting encouragement! It can brighten dark days.
-
Dang, i am disapearing. My toes then feet and then hands got that numb buzzing pins and needles thing going on. And my sinus has been given me fits. Called for Dr appointment, my friend/classmate/ Doc just got back from vacation and backed up, but he worked me in as last patient yesterday. Got on scale... damn i'm down to 104#🤯 That concerned me and him. I'm still eating like a horse, no apparent reason for weight loss. Good thing for being last patient, i was there for 1.5hrs. Ran a bunch of x-rays and drew a lot of blood for lab tests. X-rays all looked good, but blood eork won't be read till today. Got a follow up come thursday.
Got a couple perscriptions, one for sinus the other for nerve pain🤞
-
Sammons, Hope you get good news from the blood work. Glad you were able to get to a Doc so quickly. What is your normal weight? Is this a big loss?
-
Thanks Sixball. Yep, it helps when you have friends in the line of work you need. They work you in😁
I've weighed 135 lbs since Jr year of high school and up till 4yrs ago. 3 1/2 yrs ago i noticed i was down to 127. A year ago i was 116, so lost 12 lbs this past year, scared me. Sure hope it isn't the big C hiding somewhere😬
I don't know which drug is getting me more energy. I got Predisone for sinus and Gabapentain for nerve pain. The buzzing is backing off, my toes and fingers are warm again🙂
-
They called me in 30 mins early for today, oh crap... more lab stuff.🤔 Check in, i'm up 2lbs👍 blood pressure 128/78. Blood work all csme back good with exception of questionable thyroid level, so run that again to see, he said it can cause low energy. Also told me that i can eat anything i want👍
My energy level has been thru the roof last 4 days, got all kinds of stuff done😁 He said Predisone was a short time solution so he wants something more sustainable. He does want me to get a chesy xray later. Said he wants to see if any damage from years of paint and filler/primer dust has caused, yet my lungs sound clear and i can breath deep. Oxy saturation was 98.
Had dryer problems, belt slap.. thought belt was coming apart, so ordered belt pulley kit. Dang looked up year for whirlpool... 1984, the lint was so bad it kept hitting thermal motor shut down over 30 min run time. The belt noise was a dime that fell in a drum hole🙄 Had to call in back up help lastnight, couldn't get tensioner on. Man i got my arms tore up like i was in a fight with an alley cat😁
Think that would cause motor to overheat? Lol
-
Dang, dryer drum has a sever drag. Thought we missed the rear roller above the motor. Took back apart to check, nope it was in the right spot but the felt glide at the back of the drum was folded under about 1/3rd of the way around drum. Now drum rolls free but motor making noise and shutting down after 30min run tim. I believe its cooked. I spent $15 on new belt kit, came with 2 rollers and idler pulley. Got brother to order me new motor, $68 delivered. I figure this 40yr old dryer is better than anything you can buy today, so well worth spending a few bucks on it.
Jealous of brothers '73 RS/LT Camaro. Dang thing has perfect under side, absolutley no rust any where. I had a '71 R/S, loved it. Had the coldest A/C. Weird equiped, 350 2brl, colum shift and no console. Did have rear spoiler, 150 mph spedo and tach. Red w/white vinyl to which dad wouldn't let me take off before a repaint😝 I would sure like to build brothers up.
The red R/S is internet pic but identical to mine, even the same Cragar wheels. Only i had rear spoiler and a '69 Torino hood scoop.
Brothers, you can see the damage to the lower back panel. The upper tail lamp area is fine, but he has the factory style full one piece replacement panel to install.
-
I knew i had a pic of my RS Camaro. I got it when i was 16. Was waiting on salvage yard to pull a frt side marker lamp and another drivers door glass. Had dad order a front chin spoiler from Chevy. He said "why, you'll drag it off. Well dad repainted it, put spoiler on and the next day i went to the shop to pick it up before going to work, backed out of the drive and for got something, i pulled back in and drug it ... breaking it in 2 spots🙄 The guy i got it from lived on a dirt road and it was scratched all to heck. Can't find more pics of it, know i got some.
If i were to build brothers, i would put the short rear spoiler, (70-71) on and paint it that 98-2000 chevy truck Silver Pewter color like pic below.
-
About 15 yrs ago i tried searching for my old Ralley Sport, got nowhere. I didn't keep any registrations, so i couldn't get the VIN to do a DMV search. I was showing my neighbor the old picture i had, he said it looked a lot like the RS the bar owner had back in the day. Said he rode in it alot going to races/concerts. I told him thats who i got it from, lol
I told him i had searched and couldn't find out where it went. He said, you know my wifes brother bought that car from a gal in Dodge. I told him thats the girl i sold it to. He said he would get a hold of wifes brother to see where/who he sold it. About a week ago, he told me the brother in law hit a parked car and totaled it out. Guess good reason i never spotted it around again.
-
Well after dicussing brothers back taillamp panel, how to replace he finally got started. He said he dragged his feet too long on this, haveingnever done one before. Couple days ago he said he remembered what dad use to tell us on starting/doing something we weren't sure of, "God hates a coward son" 😄
He was drilling out spotwelds and then there were none. Somebody had attempted to replace and had drilled and cut peices and quit. They then brazed up all the drill holes and cut peices the botched, mudded in and spot painted🙄 He had a hell of a time getting thru all the brass. He said under the right qtr inner lip where tail lamp panel spot welds on under was cut, and just bent up behind and they just brazed the tail lamp panel to quarter panel. 🤫 Still got some trimming to do, but he'll be test fitting new panel today.
-
He got the peices cut and welded in. Started on the lip under the rear qtr where taillamp panel spot welds to. Moved down to the mess below, got pattern made a sheetmetal cut and welded. Just sat it in place to go get dinner.
-
Nice..what a difference.
-
Lookin' good!
-
Guess been awhile since i updated progress on RS. He picked up some Z/28 wheels at a swapmeet, got them cleaned up and tires mounted. It had those ugly 14" Camaro/Nova wheels🤮
He's got the main body straightned and in primer. Now the big choise of putting on the vinyl top or removing trim clip studs and the body side moulding.
He's figured out he can't keep it due to the cost involved in this project, so how far do you go to recoup your money? Pretty much, (right now), the plan is to get it back together and running and driving. We discused paint, and at the cost... pretty much no. If you paint factory color, (or other choise) may be a deal breaker. Seems what ever the potential buyer will say no on color. Also told him the paint better be perfect, (or next to it) or they will pick it to death.
So in the mean time... he's cleaning parts and repainting the bits and pieces under the hood. A tedious time consuming job, but it sells good!
Won't be too long before he fires up the rebuilt 350. I had to laugh when he sent latest pic of engine. He's 2yrs younger than me, but i see the note on the dipstick, "No oil/oil filter". I thought that was just me😁
-
More pics
-
Looking good!
-
Nice!
-
I feel bad that i can't do all his car stuff anymore for him like i use to. Although he's no stranger to it, he picked another path as a carpenter. He has upped his game the last 10yrs for sure. All i get to do is tell the little tricks or advise anymore.
-
Back to cars😁 Brother sent update pics. He spent last two days with Camaro up on lift hand washing the floor pans. In pictures, that is the original red oxide. It hasn't been repainted that is factory original. I'm so jealous of this car! Today he is tearing apart the front suspension for anything needed and paint.
-
Very nice!
-
My brother is suppose to come out this summer to pick up Dads old '58 Vette, i can't drive it anymore. So he just got done refinishing the old Keystone T/T wheels that were on it when Dad bought it in 1974. The tires and wheels were sold thru JC Penny's Auto Center back in the day. I think Dad put the original wheels/hub caps on it in the late 80s. I always liked the mags on it better anyway, kinda give it a tough look.😁
-
Nice ride!
-
I like it both ways. That is a nice car and I bet fun to drive. Very clean looks. I raced a '58 Vette in my aunts '56 Chevy 4 door. I was a sleeper even it it's later days. It had a dealer installed performance package because she hated her '55 wagon with a 235 automatic.
-
Sixball, i bet it was a slug with the glide. When my Aunt got divorced in the mid 60s, her Ex bought her a an old ladys '57 210 4dr sedan. It was a 235 3speed, ugly as sin. White/blue top skirts/sunvisor, low mile and clean. The thing was slow as all get out.
Now my Granddads '59 Elcamino that I ended up with had a 235 3speed and it seemed to have a lot of power. He pulled a double horse trailer all around to Rodeos no problem. When i got it it would still smoke the crap out of the tires. I put in a '65 327 4 bbl and m21 4speed and it wouldn't anymore till i changed out the rear end gear from the 3:36 to a 4:11.
-
Dang, you guys have had some cool cars!
So different from here, my dad had a '65 Simca 1000 and a '62 Opel Rekord. No way to smoke the tires on these cars, if you didn't litterally light them on fire ;D
I bought my first American car in 1985 at age 19 before going to the Army, it was a 1965 Plymouth Valiant with a 225 and three on the tree. It was awesomely fast. At least compared to my '70 Corolla.
Car culture in Finland...
I've owned over 30 American cars since.
(http://www.waasadata.com/essex/bild/other6.jpg)
-
Seems a little slow around here lately, i guess everybody is busy with other things.
Brother got as far as he cam go on his 73 RS/LT Camaro with out making decisions of orig vinyl top and the additional chrome trim the car came with, then blowing back apart for paint. He has other projects he wants to get on and just doesn't have the time or money to advance on it. He listed it for sale earlier this week and sold it yesterday.
Now maybe he can get back on his 66 Vette coupe😁
-
Nice Camaro. I like those gen II Camaros!
-
Me too, the earlier the better. I'd really like to have a 1970 Z-28/RS.
-
Yes. Early Camaros are really good looking, especially the plain ones. When my wife & I were looking for our first new car in 1970 we looked at one but because she was in a full leg brace it was hard for her to get in it. So we bought a Blazer. Still have them both!
-
My buddy bought a red 70 Camaro from a lady around 1976. She was a bankers wife and ordered it new. Rumor had it she ordered a Z/28 minus the badging, 15" wheels and all the performance stuff.
About the same time another buddy bought a bone stock 71 K5 Blazer, white/black top with lower body trim and white wall mudgrips and the full wheel covers. It was a good looking rig, always liked that one.
-
Brother flew in Weds night. Then friday it was time to wake up the '58 Vette from its 10 year sleep. The master cly was screwed, the carbs were stuck. It took nuratic acid to free up the lower carb blades. Tom got it fired up, but the accel pumps were dried out and sluggish. Ordered carb kits, new master cyl.
We went down to the shop thursday too find all the new and used parts that i had bought a couple of decades ago. I actually found them all.
Took primary carb off and appart, soaked and came over last night to put it back together. Brother went down to shop few mins ago to pull seconday carb off so Tom could kit it. They got new inner tubes in the tires so the old wide whites would hold air. Hope the master cyl gets in tomorrow. Brother still hasn't got a confermed pick up time for the transporter to pick it up and back to Cali.
-
Double the fun - Nice....57-58 Vette on my dream list.
-
Brother got the new master cly on, boy i forgot how tight that was packed under the edge of the front fender. He went to break all the brake bleeders loose before i got there to bleed the brakes and found a nut holding one of the front spindle mount way loose. My uncle must have forgot that one when he put new king pins in back in the mid 80s🤯
I got there and we got the brakes bleed, got a very good firm pedal right off the get go. About the easiest i've done with out the pro pressure bleeder.
Boy that car got grubby after 10yrs under the car cover. Found some more C1 parts in a big box i forgot about. He busted the plastic button on the old brake light switch so got a new one off the shelf in the old stuff at the parts house across the street. Got installed amd tested all the lights. Hell all worked except for the right high beam, but i have one here at the house.
Tom came over tonight and tore the secondary carb apart to soak and kit tomorrow night. The bottom throttle blade plate is cast iron and those blades are froze solid, got that soaking in some diluted muratic acid mix.
-
My Golden is in seventh heaven, he just loves his uncle😁
-
My hats off to Tom again. He re kitted those carbs at night after work, and adjusted them here at the table. Brother took them down to the shop and put them on, primed them and the Vette fired right up and idled perfect. He drove it back to the house and started cleaning up the 9yrs of dust/dirt off.
The old girl cleaned up well. Hard to believe the old lacqure is still holding up since i stripped and painted it in 1978. He got it cleaned and took it out for a quick cruise and stopped at cemetery to see dads grave. After he give a full throttle to open up the secondary carb. Said everything was great.
-
WOW! That is a beauty! Just as it should be.
-
Great looking Vette!
-
Brother and i got the hardtop off to beable to start trying to load some of the extra parts in on top of the convertible top. So... we took one last short cruise together and out to cemetery for one last picture with dads marker.
Now got to figure out if we can get all these parts loaded somehow while leaving enough room for the transporter to still drive the car for loading/unloading.
Lol, if your wondering why the hood isn"t latched down.. .. i haven't seen it latched since the early 80"s. Dad did a lot of parades and it helped keep the engine cool on those hot days. We are scared to try it right now. We did PB blatster the crap out of the cables ,latches and everything seems free.... but, a thing to check once its back to his house.😁
-
Brother got all the spare parts loaded, every nook and cranny filled. I think it's ready for the shipper, just hope he gets here before my brother has to go back home.
Found a few Vette books and my old IGO office plaque. I gave him the IGO sign off the front of the shop already on one trip back here. He will still have to get back and get the red/white stripped panels that ran upright that ran from the top to the bottom of the side of the building.
-
Got my brother back on the plane yesterday morning amd he made it back home. When i got back from the airport, poor old dog stood staring at the door waiting for brother too come back in for an hour. This morn he is sitting staring at his bedroom door.
The shipper for the Vette should be here within the next two weeks to get it out to him. He got most of my stuff done for me. Ran out of time to finish the chassis swap on my mower. Did get the engines and wiring harnesses swapped. The V-twin just about gave him a hernia lifting it out. I have all winter to swap bodies and tire/wheels over.
-
We can deal with our wives running of with another guy but our dogs? Now that hurts! ;D
-
I got the rear bodys and tanks off for the chassis swap yesterday. I've been having hard to shift issues on both the newer red mower and my old green one. Had my brother drive both to see how shot my steering was and the shift thing. He said a bit stiff on shift and steering on my old green, red one steering was easy and he thought shifted fine.
I got down to where i could access fill plug and the red one only had an 1" of gear oil. My old green one had less than 1/8". I'm guessing they slowly leaked out over the last 2 decades, who knows if it was full when they delivered them new. No wonder it was hard to shift. The rubber fill plug was tough to get out, dosen't seem to me that you could even access it with the body/tank on.
-
Geeze, spent way too long on the net trying to find transaxle gear oil capasity. Finally... 16oz or up to 1-1/2" down from top of fill hole. Lol, one site said 2.5qts🙄
So went to parts house for a qt of 80/90. Put half in each and that did bring the up to 1.5" below fill plug. I thought it was hard to get that rubber plug out.... way harder to get it back in.
Dog was still with the sad eyes gloom about my brother leaving yesterday. But today he is back to his goofy self. Had to holler at him twice for doing zoomies in the house.
Yesterday
-
Well the shipper picked up the '58 early this morning. Was scary watching it get raised up on the stacker.
Brother should get it Weds. Lol then i can breath easy🙂
-
Dang, the transporter had a great trip. Got to L.A. early and made 2 deliveries there, then called my brother to see if they could deliver early, 2 days early. So a short 54hrs after it left here my brother has it safe at home😁 We'll both sleep easy now!
-
That is good news. That car is so cool! Good it is still in the family.
-
^^^^^^^Thanks! I caught a lot of flak for giving it to him. But it stays where it belongs and i haven't driven it in 10 yrs. Somethings aren't about the money. I did drive it out of the shop over to the transporter. All i could do to turn it.
We don't get to see the Northern lights down here in southern Kansas, rare. But it was a good one .
-
Brother got the '58 up on the lift to start degreasing it. Lol, he got out the air needle scaler out and got 67yrs of dried up grease off, 11 lbs of it.
Today he got the degreaser out and then presure washed it. Man what a difference. He said he's got pleanty of leaky things to fix before he gets to start repainting under there. Yep, it went to the right place😁
-
That's awesome it went to a great home. Such a cool car. Probably the only era of vette I like.
Speaking of Vettes, my dad's is still in my garage. Been trying to sell it but had only two guy's that actually came to see it. One dad that was gonna give it to his 17yr old son. I said, he'll kill himself in a week. A bunch of teens called I told them the same thing, so I kept the price high to ward them off. They can afford 5 grand but not 7g's.
It's been quiet since the gv shutdown and hopefully now that is over I'll have some calls. Has 500 views and 25 favorites.
Just need to find that one older guy that won't lowball me.
Anyways, so cool you got to see the northern lights, can't see em in Utah.
-
They saw the Northern Lights in Reno (near). I am on the wrong side of the mountain. I agree about Vetts the last one for me was '62.
-
Rattiac, hope it turns around and it will sell before long.
Don't blame you on selling to kids. Lol, dad sold a 64 vette to a 2yr older friend of mine when he was 16-17. It had a pretty hot 350 in it, (out of his 64, transplanted in my first 57), he didn't want him to hurt himself so he re-adjusted the throttle rod so it only got 3/4 throttle. A friend of his was helping him tune it up 6 months later and discovered it. He was pissed😁 Later he said holy crap, i might have hurt myself.
I lost interest on vettes after the 72 model year when they went to rubber bumpers.
-
I had told my brother that for the last 15yrs the 58, after more than a half tank, i would smell gas inside. Couple days ago he pulled the hard top off to unload the rest of the spare parts on top of the convertible top. He pulled the gas tank fiberglass cover off to check things out. He found fuel stains around the fuel sending unit and the rubber filler neck tube. That would be it!. He pulled the tank to clean things up, pulled out the fuel sending unit, gasket was toast. He callef and ask if the tank gauge read accurate, told him it never went past 3/4 tank when full. Sent me a pic of it, i can't believe it worked at all. The tank has been emty for 10yrs, so it might have finished rusting since then. He got the tank cleaned up and boiled out and straps repainted, waiting on new fuel sending unit and fill hose. He also is waiting on new wheel cylinders.