Pinch Me, it it real?

[i8tokyo]

Just saw this build after being gone for a while. Very nice shop but i have to saw that i thought I hurt myself alot. You sir take the cake.

 

[motormitch]

Just saw this build after being gone for a while. Very nice shop but i have to saw that i thought I hurt myself alot. You sir take the cake.

I saw this post this morning and started laughing because last night while attempting to complete a brake job on a 1965 Riviera I cut and mashed up three fingers on the same hand. Each injury wasn't very bad, but added together, I have a pretty sore hand this morning and I have blood under two nails. This picture doesn't really show the damage because I have band-aids on a couple of them and don;t want to take them off, but I show it just to point out the timing of your post.

PS. I hate, hate, hate drum brakes.....

 

[slik560]

For the suggestion box: if there is a spare corner, lease it to a local paramedic unit.

 

[Morio]

Mitch, thanks again for showing your amazing shop!!! My wife and I truly appreciate the time you were able to spend with us answering questions and of course the wonderful stories! I am sure we will have plenty more once we get started with the process!

Thanks again!

Morio

 

[motormitch]

News alert: Spider threat increased to include MASSIVE Black Window! That's right folks, after facing the Tarantula from Hell, I faced even more certain death from the dreaded Southern Black Widow this weekend.

I was removing the rear brake drums on a 65 Riviera that had been sitting in a field for 4 years. I reached around the back of the drum and pulled and pulled and was able to finally get the drum off. I had felt some spider webbing with my hand after reaching around to grasp the drum, but rather then squeal like a baby and stop working, I channeled my fear and revulsion into super human strength like a woman lifting a car off of a baby and removed the stuck drum. Afterward, I scrubbed my hand clean with a belt sander and everything was good. Right? WRONG.

I little bit later, my friend Allen wanted to bleed the brakes and wanted to do it with the car up on the lift to make it easy. Someone has to sit in the car and serve as pedal pusher, so that duty fell to me. After opening the door to get in the car, I knew this was going to be a test of my strength because there were spider webs INSIDE the car. INSIDE the car that I was supposed SIT in and push the pedal. Due to the fear of mockery, I decide to man up and get in the car. Up goes the lift so now I am trapped up 6' in the air with a car door that will only open a foot or two waiting on Allen to say, "pump it three times and hold it" over and over. After what seemed like a year or two, instead of asking me to pump it, Allen says," Oh my God, Dude, you have got to see this spider. You will die when you see it." When you have a phobia like mine and everyone knows it, you face repeated trickery so you generally don't get worked up over promises of horror like that. However, when Allen lowered the lift enough for me to climb out, I was starting to get worried he might not be fooling. I climbed out and then looked under the car where he was shinning a flash light and there was the biggest Black Window spider I've ever seen, exactly where my hand had been just a bit before. It was clear that was where the webbing I got on my hand came from.

As I stood transfixed in total HORROR, Allen gets the shop vac and says,"I'm gotta **** it in the vacuum and sell it to a pet shop." All I heard was the sound of someone speaking in tongues because the thought of actually trying to capture something like this alive and then make money from it doesn't even compute in my little monkey like brain.

He did it, and when he opened the vacuum (a feat of bravery I can't imagine) it was clear the process had killed the spider. That will happen when something is large to clog a shop vac. Sidper dead story over, right. Wrong.

Now Allen asks me to resume my position in the car to bleed the brakes. What? Not gonna happen. Sit in that infested car for hours. On what planet? Well, after hours of taunting and belittlement with numerous references to the size of my testicles (or lack thereof) I did the impossible and got back in the car. Up goes the lift. With heart racing and eyes darting everywhere at once we start to bleed the brakes. I am trying Zen, Budda, anything can think of to relax. Just when I have the terrible thought that repeated pumping on the brake pedal might be like a either a mating call or signal that food is ready to most spiders, something lands in my hair. I slowly reach up while praying feverishly to see what it is. (it was moving, I swear) When I feel something large on top of my head, I go into a slapping fit, yelling, swearing at everything in the world. The thing turns out to be not be a monster spider, but just a piece of insulation from a small rip in the headliner. Doesn't matter. I'm done, like in stick a fork in me done. I tell Allen, "F the brakes, I'll use the the transmission and parking brake." True to my word, that was how Allen test drove the car to test the new water pump and fan clutch. It didn't stop him from throwing the hammer down and drifting the car all over the road, but hey, boys will be boys right?

Here is picture proof....

Gotta to go see my therapist now.....

 

[Dugan]

Better you than me... been there done that... F THAT

 

[motormitch]

Better you than me... been there done that... F THAT

I wonder if it is a good idea to set a bug bomb off inside a car?

 

[DelayedZ]

F that...that car would be outside the shop on fire...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[skully67]

This thread is f-ing awesome.

 

[i8tokyo]

Spiders and snakes, not my bag baby. This is why i live where it freezes. The only black Widow i am letting near me is the chick at the comic con giving massages dressed as the comic book character. I couldn't live down there. even picyures freek me out. I am going to have to purge my brain of the bad black widow with images of scarlett johansson now.

 

[motormitch]

Spiders and snakes, not my bag baby. This is why i live where it freezes. The only black Widow i am letting near me is the chick at the comic con giving massages dressed as the comic book character. I couldn't live down there. even picyures freek me out. I am going to have to purge my brain of the bad black widow with images of scarlett johansson now.

That's actually helping me deal with it a little better.... Thanks for the Black Window recovery treatment picture. I am still in therapy for PTSD (post tarantula stress disorder) Maybe if someone had a picture a hot female Ms. Tarantula superhero that would help, but I'm betting that one doesn't exist.

BTW. My use of PTSD in a humorous way is not intended to belittle what our Vetrans have gone through. Our country owes them our eternal respect and graditude. I hope one of them sees this post and gets a laugh. Laugher really is the best medicine.

 

[thetastelingers]

I recently kept a black widow in a jar and fed it for a few months. I let it go out back because I didn't have time to hunt for food to feed it.

 

[thetastelingers]

As much as I am happy to hear my spider story amuses you, I hope not to have many more to share. I did have an encounter with a gigantic centipede Saturday, but it didn't end badly for me They creep me out, but I am not terrified of them like I am the eight legged demons. Eight legs is just enough to appear horrifying, but much more than that just reminds me of a catapillar.

Just bringing this back up about the spider stories.

 

[CNGsaves]

Maybe having a "cat" around the shop would scare off that little spider ??

 

[Chatter boss]

Hey Motor Mitch nice shop you have, excellent read ! Very funny with Insects controlling you ! lol. Maybe change name to " Black Widow's Shop" this shop is protected by Black Widows ! Yea you certainly need a Cat-women there with a Nursing degree full time to mend you up when ever you get mechanical assault ...Keep up the good work.

 

[motormitch]

****. The sensor for the water level in the parts washed burned out and will have to be replaced (if I can even get one) or just by passed which then rules out leaving the unit on all the time so the cleaner will always be hot and ready. Since this thing can draw 48A at 220V, I would not want to have the water level drop to low without knowing it. The sensor is strange. It is a long sealed stick that sits inside a long tube next to another one that has a rod that moves up or down inside the adjacent tube depending on water level. The rod has a magnet on the end. The inside of the stick had two sections welded in with a long glass tube and a flat copper stripe inside. Both had broken. Here is a picture.

I just finished wiring it to by pass the sensor and always read water level OK. I am going to try and repair the sensor with new reed switches later because they want $400 for a new set up.

 

[Zengineer]

Arggh, and I was just patting myself on the back for trapping a completely benign little spider in a cup on my floor a few minutes ago.

Of course, now that he's trapped under the cup (which is weighted down with 1,000,000X the spiders own weight, just to be sure) I have no idea what to do other than wait 3 or 4 years (just to be sure) before moving the cup again.

 

[motormitch]

Arggh, and I was just patting myself on the back for trapping a completely benign little spider in a cup on my floor a few minutes ago.

Of course, now that he's trapped under the cup (which is weighted down with 1,000,000X the spiders own weight, just to be sure) I have no idea what to do other than wait 3 or 4 years (just to be sure) before moving the cup again.

"BENIGN SPIDER" = oxymoron

 

[admactanium]

Mitch, if you need a graphic designer to tune up your logo for you just give me a shout. I've gotten enough entertainment out of this thread that it warrants some pay back.

 

[motormitch]

Mitch, if you need a graphic designer to tune up your logo for you just give me a shout. I've gotten enough entertainment out of this thread that it warrants some pay back.

I've seen what help from other GJ members who clearly don't have professional skills could get me when earlier in the thread YELLOWHSS decided the logo would look better with a f-ing spider on it. Not a professional improvement in my opinion.

I would love to see what a professional graphics designer could do with my logo. I must warn you up front that I used state of the art, cutting edge tools like Power Point and Paint to get it to this point so there may not be room for improvement

Also be warned that the followers are this thread are CLEARLY judgmental and are sure to mock and belittle your efforts no matter how great.

 

[Zengineer]

Arggh, and I was just patting myself on the back for trapping a completely benign little spider in a cup on my floor a few minutes ago.

Of course, now that he's trapped under the cup (which is weighted down with 1,000,000X the spiders own weight, just to be sure) I have no idea what to do other than wait 3 or 4 years (just to be sure) before moving the cup again.

Status Update: My wife removed the trapped spider and took it outside. I can now sleep in the house again.

 

[motormitch]

Life, stranger than fiction.

My friend Marty knows that I have a borescope because we used it together to look inside a engine cylinder a while back. I recently packed up everything in my garage to move it into the new shop. I am determined to unpack everything in an orderly manner ensuring that I at least start out organized. I get a text from Marty asking if he a borrow the borescope. I reply that it is packed up in one of several dozen boxes that I am not ready to unpack yet. He then replies with a request to come over and look through all the boxes. I politely tell him I would rather not start that because it will lead to a bunch of open and partially unpacked boxes. The next day, I get the same request. I give the same answer. Then Monday at work he stops by and basically asks again. I am starting to feel really bad about saying no so I ask what is so important that he needs the borescope to fix, hoping I can suggest a different path to resolution.

I need to point out that Marty is the cheapest guy I know. If he were a superhero, his super power would be the power to haggle the bad guys into selling him their super weapons for like a $1.25. He once haggled with a telesales ******* phone selling the local Sunday newspaper using the angle of "I don't read all of the paper so why should I pay full price?" I'm pretty she that quit the job after a couple of hours of haggling with Marty and developed a drinking problem. He once got a scammer to drive 400 miles across Africa to pick up a Western union payment (not real of course) and then actually got the guy to send him some money before realizing that Marty was scam baiting him as part of his weekly haggling workout regiment. Got to keep those skills sharp you know.

Anyway, Marty has a daughter who is going to college in another state and he wanted to surprise her with a totally unexpected massive cash gift. Being of such a generous nature and understanding how expensive it can be out on your own, he dipped into the family trust fund and put (2) twenty dollar bills into an envelope to mail her just knowing this completely unexpected gift would forever change her life and start her off on a strong financial footing. He then proceeds to drive over to the mailbox center for his neighborhood and put the envelope into the outgoing mail slot. Done. Daughter will be happy and sing Daddy's praises!

How does this fit with the request for a borescope you might ask? Here it comes. After some time passes, Marty begins to wonder why he never gets the phone call from his little girl crying with happiness for such an unexpected windfall and telling him she had submitted his name to the Father of the year USA committee. He decides that he must have put the envelop into the wrong slot, soooooooooooo he wants to borrow the borescope to validate his theory by looking to the mail slot. Of course when I asked what he would do to retrieve the envelop, if against all odds he was right and the envelop was just sitting in the bottom of an unused mail slot, he replied, "a piece of coat hanger with chewing gum on the end should do the trick." I looked at him for a while and then asked what McGyver boy thought might happen if a policeman just happened to see him probing the inside of a federal mailbox with an electronic device and then fishing around in it with a coat hanger and gum? His answer? "I'll just explain and he'll understand why I would try to get some much money back. With this answer, I could only agree to helping him locate the scope and put this plan into action. I now needed to see how this would play out. I might even call the cops myself just to see him work his magic.

BTW... As he left the office and turned around and asked with a straight face if I had any old coat hangers around the shop.

Here is an update to this story. Marty did in fact help me find the scope and took it to continue his quest for the missing money. However, the charger to the scope was missing. He thought he had an old universal one he could use so he took the scope anyway. Long story short, the money wasn't in the slot, he didn't get arrested but I did get a new factory correct power supply when he returned the scope as a thank you for lending him the tool. You see Marty is old school like I am about borrowing tools. My father drove it into me that when you borrow something and someone is nice enough to lend it to you, it MUST come back in better shape than when you took it. Even if that is only a good cleaning.

A lady next door loaned me her push mower when mine broke on summer until I could get the parts to fix it so that I could keep up my mowing schedule. Later when I was ready to return it, I hosed it off and started to take it back when my Father said to me, "wait son, that's not her mower." I said, "yes it Dad." He replied, "No it isn't because hers had a fresh new red paint job on it." One can of red spray paint later, he agreed that now it was her mower. That stuck with it forever. Marty had the same upbringing.

 

[thetastelingers]

Here is an update to this story. Marty did in fact help me find the scope and took it to continue his quest for the missing money. However, the charger to the scope was missing. He thought he had an old universal one he could use so he took the scope anyway. Long story short, the money wasn't in the slot, he didn't get arrested but I did get a new factory correct power supply when he returned the scope as a thank you for lending him the tool. You see Marty is old school like I am about borrowing tools. My father drove it into me that when you borrow something and someone is nice enough to lend it to you, it MUST come back in better shape than when you took it. Even if that is only a good cleaning.

A lady next door loaned me her push mower when mine broke on summer until I could get the parts to fix it so that I could keep up my mowing schedule. Later when I was ready to return it, I hosed it off and started to take it back when my Father said to me, "wait son, that's not her mower." I said, "yes it Dad." He replied, "No it isn't because hers had a fresh new red paint job on it." One can of red spray paint later, he agreed that now it was her mower. That stuck with it forever. Marty had the same upbringing.

Great story. I like this a lot. I shall apply it if I have to borrow something.

Long ago when I used to borrow tools, I decided if I needed it, I would just buy it, then I would have it. Now I have lots of stuff! LOL

 

[motormitch]

Great story. I like this a lot. I shall apply it if I have to borrow something.

Long ago when I used to borrow tools, I decided if I needed it, I would just buy it, then I would have it. Now I have lots of stuff! LOL

I too share your philosophy. Whenever possible $$ wise, I buy it and then never need it again Hence the large tool collection. Yesterday I picked up a ball joint separator fork and press kit.

 

[Kevin54]

I saw this post this morning and started laughing because last night while attempting to complete a brake job on a 1965 Riviera I cut and mashed up three fingers on the same hand. Each injury wasn't very bad, but added together, I have a pretty sore hand this morning and I have blood under two nails. This picture doesn't really show the damage because I have band-aids on a couple of them and don;t want to take them off, but I show it just to point out the timing of your post.

PS. I hate, hate, hate drum brakes.....

My nephews work on heavy equipment, and large equipment. One nephew was putting new brakes onto a large custom horse trailer. THe brakes sort of cam over somehow. He kept trying to get a spring hooked and just about every time it would hook, the thing would cam over and snap. It was real close to his thumb each time. I was standing there watching him, the thing snapped and I saw something flip out from the spring and cam. I asked him if that was his thumbnail I just saw. Sure enough, when it snapped, it caught his thumbnail and popped it right off completely back into the thumb. He goes over to the sink, washes his hands, takes a piece of shop towel to wrap it up and right back to work. About an hour later, he was finishing up the trailer, hit his thumb and just about passed out from the pain. Myself, I would have passed out when the nail came off in the first place.

 

[motormitch]

If you've been reading this thread, you know that I have told a couple of stories about my life long battle with electricity. I thought that I would show a couple of pictures perfectly illustrate three things.
1) why the shop is named the Blood-Shed
2) why electricity finds me to be an easy target
3) my hillbilly roots (family tree does matter)

Quick setup for pics. I bought a Hypertherm Powermax 600 plasma cutter off the back of a truck for a GREAT price and REALLY REALLY REALLY need to fire it up and see if it works. I know you feel me on this. While it is a 30A machine, it has a 50A plug end on it. I don't have the correct plug outlet. I have plenty of 30A 220v plugs so I just need to swap out a receptacle. I run to HD and return with receptacle in hand. Realize I had picked up the cover for a dual outlet box instead of the quad that I had. Now I have to run all the way back to HD to find out if the plasma cutter was a deal or rip off. Wrong. Hillbilly blood takes over and here you go. As I probe the circuit, I hear a soft evil laugh coming from the wires and a soft voice whispers "this is too easy Mitch, at least make me work for it to shock your ***".

Tell the truth. Would you have quick rigged it to test the cutter?

 

[duggie]

I don't know what is more entertaining in the this thread .... the garage build or the numerous stories of your "adventures" ??

Keep them both coming ...

p.s. -- Look behind you, there's a spider watching ...

 

[mo2872]

Holy ****, this thread ROCKS!

(and I am also a card-carrying member of the HeMan Spider Haters Club)

 

[motormitch]

To honor Thanksgiving I thought I would share another installment in my great war with "jugo de diablo" or "Mean ol' mister electricity".

When I was dating the girl who later became my wife, I would jump at the chance to **** up to her parents to stay in their good graces and win my beloved's heart. I'm a "all in" kind of guy on most anything I get involved in.
Her mother, it turns was a bit of a college student slum lord who had built up a large collection of cheap trailers in a trailer park close to the campus of WCU. Her father, it turns out was the reluctant super for all of these trailers which between being older, were abused by college students and so were consistently in a state of repair. Did I mention the man had a day job. All of this means there was a bit of unseen tension in the marriage over the issue of adding more trailers to the collection.

One day by beloved's mother asked me if I knew how to unhook a trailer from utilities to get it ready for moving and if so would I mind cutting one loose for her? While in fact I had never attempted such a task I replied, "absolutely, no problem, be glad to help, (**** up **** up)". I missed electricity's soft evil laugh off in the distance. The trailer in question was at a car dealership that was moving locations. Tools in hand, metal saw with a metal handle being the largest (again I missed electricity's little giggle as I selected the saw), I headed to the dealership to win favor with the mother and thus win my beloved's heart.

Having been abused by my life long enemy numinous times by now, I was determined to do all of the necessary preparations to escape this little adventure unscathed. Turns out good preparation might should have involved non-conductive tools and safety gloves but we'll get to that in a minute. I went into the dealership and told them of my mission and was guided to the breaker box that controlled the power to the trailer. As if electricity can ever really be controlled by mere mortals. I triple checked that the breakers clearly labeled "sales trailer" were in fact set to the off position. I went to the trailer and went inside. I flipped the light switch on and off and the lights stayed off. I turned to leave and thought "Ha! I'll check to see if the light actually has a blub in it. Thought you could get me didn't you electric devil?" There was and now I knew the coast was clear to cutting the trailer loose.

The trailer was backed up to large dirt ravine. I went to the back, knelt down in the soft dirt facing the trailer's water, sewer and power conduits with my back to the ravine. I grasp the saw and briskly sawed through the water and sewer PVC pipes, which of course poured water all over me. Let's review. Soaking wet, knelling on exposed earth and a metal saw with a metal handle in my naked hand. Somehow I missed electricity whispering, "this is just too easy Mitch." I began to cut into the power conduit. About 1/3 of the way in I saw a flash of light, heard a roaring sound and then everything went dark.

I woke up some time later (several days I'm sure) at the bottom of the ravine (OK, it was a 8 foot deep ditch, but ravine just sounds better) with my arm twitching, my eyes wouldn't focus right, I was hearing a ringing sound and there was a strong taste of metal in my mouth. I crawled up the bank and staggered, relearning the ability to walk as I went, across the parking lot to the building where the breaker was located. I went in and told the guys what had just happened. The shop foreman laughed and said, "hell, we moved that old trailer to a different set of breakers a couple of years ago." I tried to fake laugh with them to preserve some degree of manhood. I then said, "wait, I tested the lights and they didn't work!" The foreman relied, "Oh, the bulbs burned out a long time ago." More laughter. I sulked to the car and comforted myself with the knowledge that at least I had worked myself into her mother's good graces.

What's this got to do with Thanksgiving. Years later at a Thanksgiving gathering at our house in Texas with her mother and father there, I retold the story to amuse everyone. Her father got a stern look on his face, turned to his wife and said, "what trailer is he talking about? You said you weren't buying anymore trailers back then and you almost killed him?" Yep, he never even knew about the purchase and the fact that his wife's backdoor business dealing almost deprived him of the greatest son-in-law a man could hope for....

 

[motormitch]

My GT500 and 1990 496SS pickup both got robbed last night. I keep about $40 in ones and fives in the center console of all my cars in case I need emergency gas or snack money and I don;t usually lock my doors because I have had windows smashed in before. They came in my driveway and went through the cars and took the money. No biggie because I take that risk leaving the doors unlocked. However, they tried to steal the radio out of the 496SS

 

[slik560]

Damn. Any security cams in use? I hate it when this happens to anyone.

 

[madison069]

Sorry to hear of the robbery, I had that happen one time in my driveway. Someone who apprently was drunk cause i could smell the acohol in the cab, raided my console and glovebox. They took the change out of my change despensor and left the dispensor in the seat and almost pulled everything out of the glovebox but abandoned it before they got to the $50 bill and silver coin i kept in there.

No smashed windows since it was unlock so I considered myself lucky that it was just some change they took.

 

[thetastelingers]

Great Thanksgiving story there.

Sorry to hear about the theft, but good thing you left the doors unlocked.
You may be cleaning out glass.

A few months ago, my wife calls me asking if I had come to her work in her parking garage and got something out of the car. I said "no, why?"
She said glove box, cubby holes and center console was open and looks like someone went through it. They didn't take anything, because there was nothing to take except baby seats.
She left the car unlocked.

 

[mrgm]

Let's review. Soaking wet, knelling on exposed earth and a metal saw with a metal handle in my naked hand.

3 strikes and you were out...hilarious.

 

[motormitch]

My GT500 and 1990 496SS pickup both got robbed last night. I keep about $40 in ones and fives in the center console of all my cars in case I need emergency gas or snack money and I don;t usually lock my doors because I have had windows smashed in before. They came in my driveway and went through the cars and took the money. No biggie because I take that risk leaving the doors unlocked. However, they tried to steal the radio out of the 496SS

I hit the send button before I was finished. They tried for the radio out of the truck and left this for me....

 

[madison069]

hmm, seems odd they went through that trouble to only stop after just one connection?

Must have gotten spooked.

 

[thetastelingers]

I hit the send button before I was finished. They tried for the radio out of the truck and left this for me....

I'd watch out. they know you leave the doors unlocked. They'll be back.

At least you still have the radio!

 

[Todd.Brock]

Shame you don't have a shop or garage to lock your collection up

 

[motormitch]

Shame you don't have a shop or garage to lock your collection up

Binford boy, do I detect some sarcasm ? I pride myself on being observant

You would think a man would use a big old shop as a place to keep his nice cars wouldn't you.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Nothin gets past your spidey sense!!!