toddski.ta
Member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2015
- Messages
- 8
Hi All. Been lurking for a while now and figured I should do a quick intro.
My name is Todd, I’m married with a 12 yr old son and 11 yr old daughter. Live in Canberra, Australia and have done so for a while now – though moved around a bit when I was younger as my Dad was in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force). This included about a year in Toronto, Ontario when I was about 8 yrs old. We did a bit of touring around, taking in a number of airshows (such as Oshkosh, Old Rheinbeck), visiting the Smithsonian – all truly magic for an 8 yr old boy.
My father is very mechanically minded, having started in the air force as an apprentice engine fitter before going on to be a fighter pilot. I grew up with Dad restoring old Jags, Alfas, Triumphs as well as keeping the dailies on the road. Spent an awful lot of time in the garage with him and still have fond memories of that time. Not sure I learned a huge amount though, but I’m not shy about having a try.
It was pretty much inevitable that I’d end up a gear head. I’m fairly agnostic – I love British, Japanese, American, German, 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder, thumping V8s and screaming rotors. For a large part of my driving life I had Triumphs – 2500 PI, Stag and until very recently a very rough Spitfire Mk3 that had been partly converted to GT6 spec but using a 2500 sedan engine (which led me to creating the gt6.com website, now sadly neglected). I made the mistake of pulling that off the road to restore and then kids came along and it just sat around getting worked on sporadically. Then I got into hillclimbing, bought a Series 1 RX7 and that was a revelation. You could have an old car that when you undid a bolt it undid – not just snapped off. Persisted with the Spitfire for a bit longer then got sick of tripping over it and sold it on to someone who will see it through and appreciate it – Craig who now runs the Sideways forum.
The house I’ve been in for the last 16 yrs was the first house my wife and I looked at when we started house hunting. We both loved it straight off – both for different reasons. My wife loved the upstairs (the actual house part) and I loved the double garage, small separate workshop that leads to under house storage and the double carport. Couldn’t afford it so kept looking, but nothing else was as good. Kept going back to look, and slowly the price came down. Figured we had nothing to lose, made a low ball offer – and a counter offer came back not much higher. So it was ours.
Over the years the under house storage has been completely filled with various bits and pieces, mostly car parts and bits I may need one day (yes, I may be a hoarder). The workshop has never really been functional, more just additional storage with a workbench my father in law made for me. Around the time I sold the Spitfire I also demolished our old rear deck and built a new one with the help of my kids, father and father in law. Doing various tasks in the workshop for that job made me realise it was not well suited to the tasks. I was also doing a welding course and the workshop would have also been unsuitable for that.
So while this was all going on I discovered the Petrolicious channel on YouTube (yes, you know where this is heading). And one day I watched a video that really struck a chord – yep, “One Car to do it all”. Jack Olsen, such a legend. I really liked his approach to his workshop, and car. Keeping a budget in mind, repurposing, doing it himself. Watched that video numerous times, then went searching on the web and read through his site and it got my mind working on what I could do for my workshop. Then I followed a link from Jack’s site to here… And now I rarely go elsewhere (ok, except maybe Ebay & Gumtree). So many other legends to go along with Jack, so many fantastic work spaces, benches, skills. I’ve just been sponging and thinking and planning. Slowly my workshop is taking shape, and I’ll start a Gallery thread soon. But just wanted to thank all here for contributing and inspiring.
Did I say quick intro? Best sign off now and I’ll get cracking on a thread on the Team Aardvark garage soon.
My name is Todd, I’m married with a 12 yr old son and 11 yr old daughter. Live in Canberra, Australia and have done so for a while now – though moved around a bit when I was younger as my Dad was in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force). This included about a year in Toronto, Ontario when I was about 8 yrs old. We did a bit of touring around, taking in a number of airshows (such as Oshkosh, Old Rheinbeck), visiting the Smithsonian – all truly magic for an 8 yr old boy.
My father is very mechanically minded, having started in the air force as an apprentice engine fitter before going on to be a fighter pilot. I grew up with Dad restoring old Jags, Alfas, Triumphs as well as keeping the dailies on the road. Spent an awful lot of time in the garage with him and still have fond memories of that time. Not sure I learned a huge amount though, but I’m not shy about having a try.
It was pretty much inevitable that I’d end up a gear head. I’m fairly agnostic – I love British, Japanese, American, German, 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder, thumping V8s and screaming rotors. For a large part of my driving life I had Triumphs – 2500 PI, Stag and until very recently a very rough Spitfire Mk3 that had been partly converted to GT6 spec but using a 2500 sedan engine (which led me to creating the gt6.com website, now sadly neglected). I made the mistake of pulling that off the road to restore and then kids came along and it just sat around getting worked on sporadically. Then I got into hillclimbing, bought a Series 1 RX7 and that was a revelation. You could have an old car that when you undid a bolt it undid – not just snapped off. Persisted with the Spitfire for a bit longer then got sick of tripping over it and sold it on to someone who will see it through and appreciate it – Craig who now runs the Sideways forum.
The house I’ve been in for the last 16 yrs was the first house my wife and I looked at when we started house hunting. We both loved it straight off – both for different reasons. My wife loved the upstairs (the actual house part) and I loved the double garage, small separate workshop that leads to under house storage and the double carport. Couldn’t afford it so kept looking, but nothing else was as good. Kept going back to look, and slowly the price came down. Figured we had nothing to lose, made a low ball offer – and a counter offer came back not much higher. So it was ours.
Over the years the under house storage has been completely filled with various bits and pieces, mostly car parts and bits I may need one day (yes, I may be a hoarder). The workshop has never really been functional, more just additional storage with a workbench my father in law made for me. Around the time I sold the Spitfire I also demolished our old rear deck and built a new one with the help of my kids, father and father in law. Doing various tasks in the workshop for that job made me realise it was not well suited to the tasks. I was also doing a welding course and the workshop would have also been unsuitable for that.
So while this was all going on I discovered the Petrolicious channel on YouTube (yes, you know where this is heading). And one day I watched a video that really struck a chord – yep, “One Car to do it all”. Jack Olsen, such a legend. I really liked his approach to his workshop, and car. Keeping a budget in mind, repurposing, doing it himself. Watched that video numerous times, then went searching on the web and read through his site and it got my mind working on what I could do for my workshop. Then I followed a link from Jack’s site to here… And now I rarely go elsewhere (ok, except maybe Ebay & Gumtree). So many other legends to go along with Jack, so many fantastic work spaces, benches, skills. I’ve just been sponging and thinking and planning. Slowly my workshop is taking shape, and I’ll start a Gallery thread soon. But just wanted to thank all here for contributing and inspiring.
Did I say quick intro? Best sign off now and I’ll get cracking on a thread on the Team Aardvark garage soon.
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