LA lurker getting more active

[cfloren]

Hi, I've been a long time lurker but have gotten addicted again lately and have been inspired to work on my house & garage by a few awesome threads here.

I think I semi-purposely avoided GJ for many years because I knew it would **** me in...

I'm probably a bit of an oddball as I'm a younger guy (halfway between Millienial and GenX basically) with a collection of 10+ cars, almost all of which run and drive, live in LA, run a 24 Hours of Lemons racing team, manage a co-op hobby workshop of ~15 people, have an online business selling Volvo parts, and am a turbocharger engineer in the OE motorsport industry as a day job, working with LMP1, WRC, DTM, IMSA and lots of other racing teams. So you could say I'm in really deep in the car thing. I have one wife, one kid, several pets...and 4 or 5 motorcycles too.

I grew up in San Diego. My dad is a recently retired physicist/engineer who worked for the US Navy for almost 50 years, working with submarines and electro-optics mainly, and was always into fun cars and dirtbikes, and got me interested at a young age. His dad before him was a pilot, machinist, tool & die maker for the aerospace industry, woodcarver, and gunsmith. Mom is a teacher and set me up well to enjoy reading, writing, and language. My siblings all went in different directions but I'm definitely following my dad & grandpa in essence. We all love the outdoors though and the family has been active in rock climbing, backpacking, oceanography, and scouts for decades.

I'm planning to start a Garage Gallery thread soon, for my home garage and for the shared workshop. Do you guys prefer 2 separate threads? I'm thinking it would be fun to jumble it all in together, since I hop back and forth between the two work spaces and projects constantly.

Thanks!
Chris

 

[HOTFR8]

Welcome to the GJ. Although you joined in 2008 it is nice to see you posting.

 

[BajaScout]

Welcome to GJ from your old home of San Diego.

38 years working for the Navy. Maybe I ran into your dad. Where did he work at?

 

[cfloren]

Welcome to the GJ. Although you joined in 2008 it is nice to see you posting.

Thank you! Glad to be posting. Forums like this are great and I want to help keep them alive.

I have a friend here in the states who is into Aussie Falcons but he's far away in North Carolina so I've never seen his cars. I have indirectly worked on the Barra engine in a way - at least on the internally wastegated GT35R turbocharger that was OE on the Turbo models, in its later life as an aftermarket unit away from that engine.

Welcome to GJ from your old home of San Diego.

38 years working for the Navy. Maybe I ran into your dad. Where did he work at?

Howdy! My dad worked on Point Loma at the R&D center that has had many names over the years. SPAWAR, NRaD, NOSC...I'm not sure what it's called these days! Just up the hill from the Ballast Point sub base.

When I was in Boy Scouts he was able to set up an awesome weekend for our troop at Ballast Point. We camped there on base and got to tour a Los Angeles class sub. Going aboard and squeezing through the passages and seeing the bridge made me realize movie submarines are much roomier than the real thing...

 

[BajaScout]

Thank you! Glad to be posting. Forums like this are great and I want to help keep them alive.

I have a friend here in the states who is into Aussie Falcons but he's far away in North Carolina so I've never seen his cars. I have indirectly worked on the Barra engine in a way - at least on the internally wastegated GT35R turbocharger that was OE on the Turbo models, in its later life as an aftermarket unit away from that engine.



Howdy! My dad worked on Point Loma at the R&D center that has had many names over the years. SPAWAR, NRaD, NOSC...I'm not sure what it's called these days! Just up the hill from the Ballast Point sub base.

When I was in Boy Scouts he was able to set up an awesome weekend for our troop at Ballast Point. We camped there on base and got to tour a Los Angeles class sub. Going aboard and squeezing through the passages and seeing the bridge made me realize movie submarines are much roomier than the real thing...

That is where I worked! Retired two weeks ago. It is now called NIWC PAC. PM me his name. Maybe I know him.

 

[cfloren]

That is where I worked! Retired two weeks ago. It is now called NIWC PAC. PM me his name. Maybe I know him.

That's awesome that you worked there. I sent a PM.

Not cool that they keep making the name more & more terrible. My dad always said the NRL in DC got all the good work and respect because they had the better name...

 

[HOTFR8]

Thank you! Glad to be posting. Forums like this are great and I want to help keep them alive.

I have a friend here in the states who is into Aussie Falcons but he's far away in North Carolina so I've never seen his cars. I have indirectly worked on the Barra engine in a way - at least on the internally wastegated GT35R turbocharger that was OE on the Turbo models, in its later life as an aftermarket unit away from that engine.

Sadly that engine is no longer built with the demise of Ford, Holden & Toyota manufacturing in this country.

 

[The Tool Tyrant]

Hi Chris, from another Sandy Egg'n! Glad to see that you've come out of hiding!

 

[Dodge]

Chris: You sound like an ambitious, interesting young man, as well as your Dad and Grandpa. Keep posting and keep us up to date on your projects, when time allows.

 

[cfloren]

Thank you guys for the warm welcome. I will start a thread in the garage gallery soon to share my various exploits. I'm looking forward to getting feedback on some ideas for my home garage and also in the layout and ideas for the shared workshop.