Hall of Shame Stories-Preservation Restoration Projects

Thread Starter

PICNewbee

Joined Mar 31, 2017
355
Quick version. Fender Made in USA strat. Rare paint finish. Floyd Rose Tremelo.Mint condition.Bought it in the 90's.

Sold it! When I lost interest in music. I ought to be shot for that!

Jump to today. Preserving Ford V8 engine only. Grind the ports on my engine?. Over my dead body!

Those engines don't grow on trees anymore!

Point is. I've learned. There's no fool like an old fool.

I shake my head when I see a 'pullout' on Ebay. Complete drivetrain from a classic.

That means they are taking an original car and turning into a collection of parts.
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
Jump to today. Preserving Ford V8 engine only. Grind the ports on my engine?. Over my dead body!

Those engines don't grow on trees anymore!

Point is. I've learned. There's no fool like an old fool.

I shake my head when I see a 'pullout' on Ebay.

That means they are taking an original car and turning into a collection of parts.

I don't follow that logic.

Aftermarket manufacturing makes every major component of those engines now. Plus given the 10's of millions of every base engine design made they are hardly rare either. Kinda like trees.
 

Thread Starter

PICNewbee

Joined Mar 31, 2017
355
TCM

'I don't follow that logic.'

The point is.

About what happened in the past.

'Nothing I can do about it now.' Line from an old country western song.

Well. Yes there is something. Learn from it!

I've learned. Don't get anything unless I plan on hanging on to it.
 
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tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
I'm guessing there must be more to this story. :confused:

I hold onto things I know are hard to find but stuff that is common and can be replaced for the same or less than repairing/rebuilding is seen as a consumable.

Which to me Ford V8's are cheap and easy to acquire in my area so tearing one up as a learning experience/consumable for an experiment has never really been much of an issue to me.

To me they're like lawnmower engines. If it isn't a basic and cheap fix, just get another one out of another junk vehicle and try again. ;)
 

Thread Starter

PICNewbee

Joined Mar 31, 2017
355
TCM

The old ones are dwindling down.

My Ford engine is one of the old type. '52-64 overhead valve V8.

Let's try a tech 'Hall of Shame' story.

One whole wall of a 10 x 20 garage.

Shelves filled with IBM 8086 computers and accessories.

It all went out by the dumpster.

Now it's your turn TCM.
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
I've lost too many things I wish I hadn't to even begin to make a coherent short story about it. Don't really want to bother recalling them (the major hits anyway) now either. :(

Lets just say most of it came from taking advice from people I now know not to or from someone who liked to 'do me favors and clean up my place' while I was gone. Pickup loads of gear, specialty tools, stock materials and parts to things I was build ign ro fixing ( not all my own either) went to the dumpster or scrap due to someone else not being able reign is his OCD cleaning issues or respect other people's property for why they value it more than he would if it was his own. :mad:
 

Thread Starter

PICNewbee

Joined Mar 31, 2017
355
TCM

Okay. Come on out to Southern California.Bring a couple hundred bucks and

we'll get you some new stuff.

There's a laundry list of stuff I've passed on that is still sitting there.

One of my worst hall of shame stories.

'62 Pontiac Gran Prix. 2 piece cast turbine wheels. Original mint condition.

I didn't pull the trigger on that one. Knocked once on their door and didn't get back to them.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
The older I get, the less I care about "stuff". I have little to no nostalgia over inanimate objects, and spend quite a bit of time trying to get rid of stuff. My problem is I hate to throw away things that still work, so I spend (waste?) time trying to find homes for it all. I wish I could just haul it all away but I just can't.

Why revel in the obsolete? The future seems a lot more interesting than the past.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
The older I get, the less I care about "stuff". I have little to no nostalgia over inanimate objects, and spend quite a bit of time trying to get rid of stuff. My problem is I hate to throw away things that still work, so I spend (waste?) time trying to find homes for it all. I wish I could just haul it all away but I just can't.

Why revel in the obsolete? The future seems a lot more interesting than the past.
My philosophy exactly:

“Only fools prefer the past!” ― Frank Herbert
 

Thread Starter

PICNewbee

Joined Mar 31, 2017
355
Wayne

'I spend (waste?) time trying to find homes for it all'

You can PM me with a list and see what I could take off your hands.

C Martinez

Thanks for your input!
 

Thread Starter

PICNewbee

Joined Mar 31, 2017
355
Okay. Let's back in the flow here.

I owned a BSA Beagle.

It was what looked like a 50cc engine. So you say what's the big deal?

It was owned by the secretary for the head of BSA North America.

It had 20 miles on the odometer. It was given to her.

It had been one of the show bikes.

Had a funny looking engine. It had castings for overhead valves but there was no valve train in them.

Sold it. Yikes!
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
Okay. Come on out to Southern California.Bring a couple hundred bucks and

we'll get you some new stuff.
Unfortunately , "a couple hundred bucks" and a trip to california won't replace much of what I lost over the years. Some of the things that were lost were one of a kind antique tools and parts for things that I have never seen since.

Others had modern equivalents of which I had to buy to replace them but the fact that losing something like the main components to a flatbed trailer axle suspension and brake system I already had that then cost me near $1000 to replace with new because someone thought they were doing me a favor by throwing the old ones out "because they didn't look important and they were heavy so they would have more value in scrap than other things' is stupid.

Now multiply that out by a dozen or more other similar instances any you can see how a" a few hundred dollars' won't cover the replacement costs. Even more so when y have to replace customers items with whatever you can find at the time out of your own pocket because someone didn't feel that that pile of assorted old nuts bolts and misc odd and ends on a workbench 'were anything important' and I would have been happy to have gotten that ~ 2 square feet of bench space back. That bench space cost me about $500 plus a very lengthy explanation to who owned what was piled their that time because it was the guts from a guy's coal fired furnace gearbox that just needed to be redone to fit a new style of shaft bearing and seal set in it worth maybe $20 in parts and $50 for the repair. :mad:
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
i guess he never faced prison, humiliation, execution, bankruptcy or million other unpleasant things...
Not really following the thought process there either given our whole world culture and human sense of who we are is based on our ties to the past.

By far we celebrate and uphold the things of the past as much and in may case far more than anyting of new modern equivalents to them.

Most of us decorate our homes with things of old, we preserve and celebrate much of the remaining bits and pieces of our past cultures, heritages and even our own personal family lineages as well even when those very items we hold onto are by all rational definition 'old junk of no value to anyone' any more because something far newer and likely batter in many ways could replace it.

Its why many of us collect old electronics even. I have a modern sound system head unit in my pickup that does 100X the functions any of my old vacuum tube stuff does and on less power than 1 - 2 tubes take as well. Yet the old vacuum tube radio and amplifiers I have just recently got working still hold some sort of value and interests to me and many others like me anyway. :cool:
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
When you're young, you never know what will be a monument, or a monument to your stupidity.
I have a simple water color drawing in a cheap plastic frame, about 6" x 8" and it's completely worthless...except for the memory of the girl that gave it to me.
I built a rack for the laundry room the day I moved into this house because I needed a shelf for soap and bleach. What was laying around was some particle board and some 1 x 2 that I could cut. It's a total POS, but it's still there, uglier than the day it was born, 37 years ago.:(

Wanna talk guitars? I bought a Guild 12 string in 1977 for $750. It's still worth $750. Great investment, huh?
Same day, I bought a Les Paul Deluxe because I thought, "Deluxe" meant, "better than the average". I was wrong. It's still a second class citizen in the price department.:(

On the other hand, I got an old, used, air conditioner from a customer when I installed Central Air in his house 25 years ago. I installed in in my shed. It's still working!

I have at least 400 vinyl records. Originals, mostly from the '60's. But I never play them because they make me time travel in my mind. I'd rather be in the here and now. I guess I'll sell them some day.

One of the lessons I learned from my puppies: When you ask a dog what time it is, he always knows. The time is NOW.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
Yeah... nothing wrong with keeping some relics or memorabilia... as long as they're a source of learned lessons and ways to remember history more clearly and in a more tangible way... it's nostalgia that is the real enemy
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
Yeah... nothing wrong with keeping some relics or memorabilia... as long as they're a source of learned lessons and ways to remember history more clearly and in a more tangible way... it's nostalgia that is the real enemy
Drawing the line is really hard. The flag that adorned my grandfather's casket (WW I veteran military service) sits on my mantle next to an oil lamp that was in the room when my mother was born. These are objects that have great value only because of their context and I'll do my best to pass them to my grandchildren. If you don't know the story, they're just junk. Well, mostly, if they're not "antique ".

But what about many other possessions your parents or grandparents might have passed down? Most are just things, and your ancestors do not reside in those mere things. You can't keep all of it. How do you choose?
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
Drawing the line is really hard. The flag that adorned my grandfather's casket (WW I veteran military service) sits on my mantle next to an oil lamp that was in the room when my mother was born. These are objects that have great value only because of their context and I'll do my best to pass them to my grandchildren. If you don't know the story, they're just junk. Well, mostly, if they're not "antique ".

But what about many other possessions your parents or grandparents might have passed down? Most are just things, and your ancestors do not reside in those mere things. You can't keep all of it. How do you choose?
Not that hard to choose... they're not junk, they're witness to history and should be preserved... but yes, drawing the line can be hard. Especially regarding personal items.
 
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