Showing off my boys work

[moonpool145]

Gents

Please indulge me for a moment as I would like to show off my sons work just a tad. First, a little background is in order. My son lived with his mom in North Dakota until he was 16, and she hated cars and his desire to work on them. After adding a shock tower brace to his Subaru (done on the QT) and not getting the coolant hose back on properly, he toasted the motor. At that point, his mom had enough and dropped him off at social services. She decided to quit being his mom, forever. Now please understand, that my boy is a great kid. No drinking or partying. He was a straight A student at that time, an Eagle Scout, Black belt and active in church. He just liked cars. Such a terrible thing, NOT. After a bit of work, I got custody and he came to Florida to live with me. Long story short, I supported his passion. Nevertheless, he longed for North Dakota and his friends, which had been his support group. on the day of his 18th birthday (1 week after starting his senior year), he covertly leaves FL and goes back to ND. Yes, I was hurt, but I understood. He made sure to work and support himself (I helped too of course), and finished his senior year. Since then, he has been going to college and working his **** off. He and a few friends rented a shop space where they work on their cars. He has helped finance everything buy buying/selling something like 35 cars over the last year. That was just over 1 year ago, which brings us to today.

My kiddo is teaching himself to build the wild cars he dreams of. By teaching himself, I mean that he has nobody around him to teach welding/fab, engines, electrical. What he learns, he does so through Youtube, and I give pointers where I can. His current project is a turbo LS3 in a Nissan 350Z. He had built the stock motor to something like 700hp (with dyno runs), but then decided he wanted to go another route. Like all young guys, he loves turbo's. Putting this whole thing together meant that he needed to build manifolds, engine mounts, and lots of brackets. So alot of welding. He started with HF MIG, which was of course not that great. So for Christmas, I bought him an Eastwood TIG. 5 Weeks ago he started teaching himself how to TIG. The following pics show what he has accomplished. This is all done at 110v (all the shop has) and he has it set up to back purge.

I don't know about the validity of the turbo setup, or the weight dynamics of the car, but I am damned impressed with his motivation. He built those headers and manifold on his own, with no help, as he learned to weld over the last 5 weeks. He is also (almost) completely supporting this passion financially by himself.

I am damned proud.

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[mike13u]

Excellent!

 

[930dreamer]

Nice fab work.

 

[LXCam]

Wow I really got into the story and was REALLY looking forwards to the pics. But damn the bad luck they aren't showing for me

 

[moonpool145]

Give me some guidance LX. I have them on photobucket which is the only way I have ever done it on GJ. Can I attach them another way?

 

[colt zantop]

Awesome stuff! Keep us updated with this build!

 

[jw3]

As well you should be sir!!! My father was a depression era hardass. We always knew we were loved, but he would keep his foot in our tail for motivation. He was educated and trained in many fields. Anytime I showed a remote interest in learning a new skill, he would always go over the top to make shire I had suitable equipment to learn with. Go for you, and your son, for having enough gumption to stick it out and learn how to function outside of his everyday life. I have a stepson who recently made me a grandfather. That grandson of mine,14 months old, has to be elbow deep with me anytime I tear into something for repairs. My wife tells me "He's in your way". My reply " He can't learn a damn thing in there with y'all in front of the tv". I cherish every moment. Your are a lucky man to have a son like that. In the immortal word of my Old Man from so many years ago "Give Em Hell Son". If you can't be there in person, just make sure he knows you can be there if he needs you. It took a year for me to quit reaching for the phone when I got stuck on something. Now I just talk it out with the Old Man in my head. Tell him to keep it up. Good luck and God Bless


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[moonpool145]

Thought I would share a couple more pics

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[YotaGuy]

That is awesome!!!

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[moonpool145]

Thanks JW3, I truly appreciate those kind words.

 

[vavet]

He sounds like a young man with a lot of motivation to succeed. Give her m some time to perfect his craft. I'm sure he will go far.

Otoh...don't know if I could ever long for North Dakota....friends, especially serving as a support group as was his case, I understand, but North Dakota...wow... brrr.

 

[LXCam]

I have no idea what changed on my end moon but I can see the pics now. And am thoroughly impressed at you boys work for someone who has not had any professional guidance. I specialize in forced induction builds so I've had a few years of fabricating tubing work and I'm impressed

Have you given any consideration into covering his education costs? I'm pretty sure there are still a couple trade schools in that state where he could dial in the natural talent and still be close to his buddies.

Btw that's an awfully large snail your boy has there. Do you know what kind of build he's shooting for?

 

[moonpool145]

Glad to know you can see them LX. As to education cost, I am happy to provide them, but I think my son is still trying to figure out his direction. He started with Mech Engineering but just does not want to sit behind a computer, He wants to be hands on. So I stand in the background and try and support where he lets me. But I do not want to push. I let him know I am there and to simply ask, buttttt, he seems to want to do it his way. I cannot argue with it as he is doing well and making good decisions.

I am not sure on all the build details. The turbo is a Borg Warner S480 with race cover, 6 plus 6 blade and extended tip. I know that he is looking for something over 1000hp. I will see if I can find a pic of the last version of the car.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[moonpool145]

For those that are interested, this is the previous iteration of the car. Of course it started as a nice but high mileage stock vehicle.

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[Richard Cranium]

The boy has skills.

 

[M-technik-3]

Very impressive welding work. He has the potential to make some great money with those skills. I wished I had taken some more classes in welding besides the basics they offered when I went through FAA part 147 school.

Oh I would transition to a better photo host, photobuckect is miserable unless you pay to use it. I use flickr which is part of Yahoo. Only reason I didn't dump them was because of their better photo hosting. Plenty of other sites out there as well that host better resolution shots.

 

[moonpool145]

Thanks M-technik, I will certainly look at transitioning. I hate photobucket as its so problematic.

 

[Marcm157]

What an inspiring story. With all the emphasis on academics / college these days trade skills have been cast aside. Your boy has got talent in both areas. Great job raising him despite the separation...

 

[turbowoodworker]

Thanks for posting such a nice story, with pictures. You and your son are an inspiration.

 

[dirt_dobber]

I admire great looking welds as much as some people admire a great painting or sculpture - great looking welds = art to me. Nice job.

 

[jw3]

Marcm I tell my stepson everyday, with the emphasis on a college degree now a days, some folks look down on those of us that can function, troubleshoot, fabricate, build, and repair things. Once all of us old farts retire and die off, who will be left to repair and build our world. Those that can will be the ones drawing down the premium wages.


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[kazlx]

Awesome. He's only going to get better.

 

[Dirt Rider]

Man that looks good. Good story in a way. Sounds like a little rough for him in his teens. It looks like he had what it takes though!

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[Franz1.0©]

Kid's showing more potential than 95% of his generation I encounter, and the generation ten years prior to his as well. He's also showing the brains to learn, not sit in a classroom and buy paper.

Given that O/A welding is now seen as a dead craft, I suppose his learning to TIG is logical for this point in time. His bends also show he has an understanding of airflow, and has the savvy to do it right rather than fast & cheap. Either his observation skills are superior, or somebody talked to him. As long as he doesn't catch Golden Arm Disease he has a future. He's going to play hell finding a shop willing to pay for his skills though.

Buy him a die grinder and some good carbide burrs for his birthday and stand back.
You might want to drop the term Engineering Service Company in his bucket of knowledge in the not too distant future. Might also want to ask him about backpurging and tape & ask what system he's using. He'll either answer you or go do some more learning.

You got a rare kid there. He reminds me of a 16 year old girl some years back I hired to test "Certified weldors" who came in promoting their Golden Arms. She eliminated 90% of them.

 

[moonpool145]

Thanks Franz. He did set up to back purge and claims the insides are perfect. I have not seen that but I don't doubt him. Most of his learning is through youtube and online research.

 

[moonpool145]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys. I thought I would also post a pic of my son in his endeavors.

Cheers

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[royce]

Awesome work.
Always a treat to see young people creating and building something rather than playing on some electronic devise.
Royce

 

[jd_1138]

He's got mad skills. Beautiful work.

 

[kbs2244]

Like you, I don't know much about the science of turbos.
But if pretty counts he has a winner.

BTW, Mech Engineering doesn't have to be a desk job.
It is the piece of paper needed by the guys that are the go betweens on floor production people and the desk jockeys.

I have worked with them.
Nice, collage degree, but blue jeans job.
You get to work with both the line workers and the office people.

 

[Benw455]

Tell him nice work.

 

[RivennHewn]

Impressive.

Good on you for feeding his dream.

 

[Franz1.0©]

Upon seeing the picture; PLEASE get his undivided attention (bat to head if needed) and thoroughly aquatint him with the following.

1- Burns hurt like hell for a long time. Weldors do NOT wear sweatshirts in the shop. NOBODY wearing a new sweatshirt is allowed on the shop floor. Those little fuz things are IGNITORS, and they work too well.

2- First thing you do with a sweatshirt or any hooded garment is cut the dangle strings off. Them $%^&(*%$ will hurt you BAD!

3- Chiropractors cost money forever- It doesn't matter if you CAN carry something heavy, you DON'T carry heavy things. You especially Don't without a good back support system. There is damn little market for a crippled weldor.

4- Observe to see if he has the kid habit of snapping his helmet down. If he does, point out, It Ain't Macho, it's dumb. Chiropractors cost money forever- go look up Weldor's Fracture. It's real easy to avoid at his age.

5- Set the engine stand up right. The engine NEVER gets above center of gravity unless it's on a floor MOUNTED stand with a geared rotation system on the spindle. That engine in the picture is waiting to break somebody's knees real bad.

The one in the picture looks about ready to tip or fail.

6- you might want to mention the footgloves too. The ones he's wearing gonna get him burned or hurt in time. They do NOT come off fast while they are burning either.

He looks to still be young enough to teach.
Point out an old weldor 4 times his age saw all that in under 10 seconds.

 

[moonpool145]

I will do that Franz, thanks for the notes. We have talked about proper welding gear (which I have gotten him) but I didn't make not of the gloves. I also did not see the stand issue. I will pass this all on.

 

[Franz1.0©]

Gloves & TIG is a never ending pissin match. On one side you got primadona golden arms who weld in air conditioned booths who MUST have special gloves, and on the other end you have old hands plugging root passes in on the firing line next to a ditch 12 hours a day on pipelines who want what they want.

Your kid is close to the primadona end of the group, so he probably uses light gloves and burns em up.
ask him if he's heard of TigFinger.

The guy selling those is cleaning up selling about 2 bucks worth of fiberglass loom for a $20 bill. Most of his customers ain't swift enough to buy a roll of loom and a needle so stitch their own finger up. The kid can make a few bucks knocking them out on the side and peddling them on ebay.

 

[nine4gmc]

Your kid inspires me.

 

[Whiskeymike]

You should be proud, it's nice work and great that he's following his passion.

Where about in N. Dakota? My dad was a farm boy from Williston when population was 500 people. It's a little different now I hear. Funny part is after Navy, he moved to Florida where my siblings and I grew up in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Palm beach and I noticed you are down there. Did you relocate from ND as well? We left 3 years ago to Austin but often miss Florida. Anyways, small world.

 

[Superbec]

let him make an account here and ask questions , we are a few weldors around

he has a long way to go , I admire your enthusiasm but too much applause for anything could spoil a kid

@Franz1 ... Jody is a member here , the welding fingers are like a donation with a plus ... not a stand alone item ... donation from the army of noobs he trained via internet .

 

[JAKE-THE-TOOL-MAN]

I really enjoyed the read and your son has skill! Beautiful fab work

 

[moonpool145]

Thanks for all the comments guys

Franz - I have gotten him TIG fingers, though I could not swear he uses them. As to welding, I do not anticipate that he wants to specialize as a welder. I think he sees it as a necessary tool for building cars.

WhiskeyMike - He is in Bismarck. I grew up in that area (Mandan) but moved out right after high school. Since then I have bounced around the country and many places overseas.

Superbec - I realize there is still a great deal of learning for him to do. However, I was impressed with the neatness of the fab and the welding with only 5 weeks of self taught practice. While I am not one to blow excessive amounts of sunshine up anyones skirt, I do want him to know that I am proud of his effort.

Where will all of this take him is a looming question. He loves designing and building cars and bikes and I think that is his dream job. Still, he is pragmatic and realizes that he needs a degree and a more dependable job to fall back on. This is a thinking I applaud. Chase your dream but always have a backup plan. From my perspective, handling school, a job, a side job flipping 35 cars in a year and teaching yourself to build cars is a steep mountain to climb. Doing so completely on his own and asking for very little help is an admirable trait. I would happily help more, but he clearly desires to do this his way, and figure out his path. All the while he has to contend with the fact that his mom dumped him (she is a nut job) and yet he and I are very close. He is a tough guy, but loving and well adjusted.

Right, wrong or indifferent, I am very proud of him.

 

[Franz1.0©]

There is an old Russian saying; ככל שאתה יודע החיים כואבים יותר הוא
The more you know, the more painful life is. At my point on life's highway I tend to disagree more than I agree.

Way back in the last century I took a lot of heat for setting a School District record for skipping gym so I could be in Welding shop. I was pretty sure back then nobody was ever going to pay me to bounce a ball. I graduated with 2 skill sets, Industrial Electrician and Welding. I considered that a starting point. Those skills let me trade favors to learn more skills including enough machining, rigging, refrigeration, carpentry and crane operation along with running a cable trackhoe.

Over 7 decades I've watched a hell of a lot of manhours pissed away waiting for one specific trade to arrive and do 10 minutes of work.
I don't wait, I don't believe in wasting time waiting, and that basic concept has made me money when others were loosing money. Sometimes success is just a matter of being dumb enough to know it can't be done, and doing it anyhow.

Your kid has natural learning ability, and the sense to see a problem and hunt up a solution. It's a rare thing in people, and formal schooling will probably tax him to or beyond his limits. He doesn't need to buy a piece of paper to hang on the wall to make a living. Paper becomes obsolete in 7 years, less in electronics. If and when he does go to school he will know why he is there, and what he came to get.

Your biggest job at this point is to keep him from getting hurt, and stand back ready to help if he calls.