I purchased a suitable pickup from Florida, and had already purchased another donor vehicle to use for a full frame and component swap. I lost my job quite unexpectedly in July, and have basically shelved the EV project for now. I sold the F100.
I decided to simplify my life, so I took the money from the F100 sale, and immediately bought a 1958 Chevy Biscayne. See, for a car guy, somehow simplifying your life equates with buying another vehicle. I swear this made sense at the time, although I can’t recall how. The plan for the Biscayne is to eventually turn it into a daily driver. Hopefully it will take the place of whatever I would need to buy when my 2000 Dodge finally bites the dust. This project is stalled due to the job loss also.
I had adamantly planned to sell my Altered Roadster drag race car. I have reversed course on that as well, and decided to keep it for the time being. Since the economy is in the toilet, I doubt I would sell it for anywhere near the amount I’d like to get for it, and there’s no need to take a big financial loss on it right now. I did zero drag racing this year, and I really miss it. That’s not so cool.
I did get to do some work on EV-Steve’s electric vehicle: brake system, new cab mounts, new battery boxes, removal of unneeded 4WD parts, and hydraulic clutch system. This will get him a little closer to getting back on the road.
In the fall, we did the famous plow project. There was 9” of snowfall last week, and let me happily report that the plow “works a treat” as they say in England. It is truly a joy to use, 1000 times better than the snow-blower. Well worth the cost, although you will spend probably $10,000 on a decent truck to attach it to. I already had one. I will reinforce the corners of the plow blade this spring; they got a little benty-bent.
I think my new idea to do my EV as a dune-buggy style vehicle is a good one. The donor S-10 chassis sits abandoned in the far corner of my backyard, cut off from civilization by what is now a vast flood plain. I have not yet been motivated to row out and rescue it, get it inside, and get started on it. I thought I’d let K park her car in the warm garage for this winter instead.
On a personal note, my handyman side business is a complete bust. I did a couple of jobs for what amounted to like $5 per hour, if that. I was hoping Hudson Valley Hot Rods would take off when I introduced my EV project to an appreciative public, but I wussed-out and declined to risk spending the money on completing it once I lost my job. Based on my experience doing vehicle repairs this year, I don’t think I want to do vehicles for a living now anyway. Frankly, it’s tough work, and you can’t really charge for all the problems that arise. I have decided to get a real job, and to continue to do my own vehicle projects as a hobby.
On a more personal note, I have decided to be productive this next year by returning to college yet again, for an accounting degree, and hope to take the CPA exam by this time next year. I figure it’s better than sitting home doing nothing. I enjoy going to college more than I do working anyway; if it paid anything, I’d be a full time student forever. After I graduate, I hope to get some experience in accounting and open my own office within 5 years. Then I’LL be the boss and I’LL get to make the stupid decisions. Gonna have my own office, and commute in my EV, and my ’58, and make a lot of money, and life will be great. And I can never get laid off again since I own the place. That’s the plan anyway.
On a most personal note, K and k and I have had a fun year, and we are thankful for our great friends and families. We have more than we do not have, and for that we are grateful. We miss those whom have passed on this past year, and we pray for those that are struggling, and in a worse situation than ourselves. At a time when the world is in more flux than ever, we optimistically look forward to next year with great hope. I have enjoyed blogging, and I thank everyone that tunes in to read this. I hope I have been at least entertaining, and at best informative. Love to all, and Happy New Year 2009!!!
Here’s a couple of cars I took some pics of at the Fishkill car show in October. The first one up is a 1957 Ford Sheriff’s car. I originally dismissed this as just a nice car “done up” as a period Sheriff’s car. The reason I did not even consider it to be authentic is that it is a 2-door, and most law enforcement cars are 4-doors. But I did some research and found that before probably the 1970’s, it was not uncommon to find 2-door cars used many times as, that’s right, Sheriff’s cars. So unfortunately, due to my ignorance, I did not really take as detailed a look at this car as I might have.
You can see this car has a permanent “suspect” in the back seat. When people start with the stuffed animals and dolls and such as adornment, I immediately lose interest in the vehicle. This is another reason I dismissed this car.
This car also has what appear to be period-correct roof light and siren. These would seem to me to be difficult to get, but I suppose the right person would know where they are. Perhaps they really are original to the car?
I think it is a huge commitment to have as your personal collector vehicle such a dedicated car as a Sheriff’s car, either as a recreation or an authentic survivor vehicle. I guess some people would welcome this notoriety, but a cop car would be way down my list of cars I’d like to own, if it was even on my list. I’m not sure even the most attention-hungry person would want to always have to tool around in this, when he could have done his car in any of a dozen different styles.
This car is a 1967 Ford Fairlane GT. It is a fantastic brandywine color, and the condition of it is impeccable. For the 1960’s, this was considered a sporty mid-size car. I like it’s lean lines, it looks almost athletic to me.
It features a beautiful contrasting white interior, and factory chromed styled-steel wheels. The engine features dual quads (two four-barrel carburetors).
One cool thing to take note of is the original-style windshield-washer reservoir bag on the driver’s side inner front fender. Ford used this flexible bag style reservoir instead of a bottle or canister in the 1960’s, quite different from what I’m used to seeing on my GM cars.
Another thing I like is this factory-original style reproduction battery. Battery? Big deal, you say. When I’m looking at a nice restoration such as this, I want to be transported back in time, and believe I’m standing there looking at this car in 1967. Everything else is refurbished to give that impression, right? Well nothing ruins that vibe more than when I see a car like this with a big green modern Exide or Interstate sealed-top battery seemingly transported 40 years backward in time. These repro batteries are not cheap, but they are available. So top marks to this Fairlane!
I got a couple of driveway edge markers at HD to use as the plow edge markers. They're fiberglass, with reflective tape and rubber caps. Cheap too. Here's how I attached them. Small length of metal tube welded on, a cotter pin in the bottom, and a wrap of duct tape (not shown) to make them fit nice and snug.
I sacrificed a worthy candidate, using a circular saw to make quick, accurate cuts. This worked surprisingly well. A few bolts, washers, and nuts through pre-drilled holes, and it's done. I am very happy with the result.
One nice feature I put on the main frame is a pair of rubber push bumpers. This way I can push cars or stuff during the times when the plow is off the truck. I picked these up at a car swap meet like 10 years ago because I always thought it would be cool to have a push bumper on my truck. Now I do.
Here's the business end of the blade. After researching personal snowplows, I found that they are only like 18" tall. I cut about 6" off the top of the blade, and reattached it with bolts as the new scraper part of the blade. This stiffens the bottom edge all the way across, and if it gets damaged in some way, I am just dealing with fixing this part instead of the whole blade surface. What's nice about the short height is that even with the plow raised, the headlights remain unobscured. I don't have to fool with the auxiliary plow lights of any of that nonsense.
This is the same area from the backside. I had to basically cut that horizontal top bar off the top of the 6" piece, and grind it and re-weld it back on to what is now the top. Even things like drilling all the holes for all those bolts took a ton of time.
Here's the brackets and parts that make it all work. I cut a ton of steel off the A-frames to lighten them up. Just getting stuff like the huge 7/8" bolt, nut, and washers that serve as the pivot point took a lot of time. I had to go all the way up to Sarjo in North Poughkeepsie. You don't just get that stuff at the local home improvement store. 
As you can see in the red hook photo, I made adjustable struts to replace the side-to-side hydraulic cylinders. What I did was; using the original cylinder end anchor points, I made these 2 struts that have 3 positions on one end. The steel pin would drop through the two plates on the A-frame, capturing the strut. If both pins are in the middle position, the plow is straight. If the pins are in the shortest position on one side, and the longest position on the other side, the plow is angled towards the short side. Yes, it is a manual, have-to-get-out-of-the-truck operation, but it is easy to do, and I don't know how often you even really change the plow angle. It was necessary to build an angle into the struts so they will clear the A-frame when using the middle or short side positions. I painted the heads of the pins yellow so they will be easier to find in case they get dropped in the snow.
After looking at this plow for awhile, I decided to convert it into a personal snowplow. I just don't want a big-honking heavy-ass commercial plow on my truck. It's too big, and too complicated. I began by eliminating all of the parts I would not need. I will not use the hydraulic pump, lines, 3 hydraulic cylinders, the valve and cables, or the auxiliary lights. There was still a lot of heavy steel parts that I thought I could do without, so I spent a couple of days with my acetylene torch cutting and cutting, trying to eliminate weight without making it too weak. I eliminated hundreds of pounds by the time I was done. 
