Leak-End Weekend

Last weekend, I put some elbow grease into my "new" 1973 Ford F100.  It was quite productive, I think. First, I bought a new aftermarket exhaust manifold made to factory specs off of ebay.  It was surprisingly inexpensive and since it shipped from Texas, it got delivered less than 48 hours after purchasing it with free shipping.  That was a little added bonus I didn't expect. I finally broke down and made the investment for air tools and WOW, I'm glad that I did.  Especially, since I bought them at Harbor Freight and was able to get all set up for very little money.  Thank you, China!  I can confidently say that...

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Drum Brake Rebuild

This last Saturday, I got the chance to rebuild the drum brakes on our "new" 1973 Ford F-100.  They were pretty well-worn.  As a matter of fact, they weren't active at all.  Both wheel cylinders were leaking badly and when I pulled the drum off the rear-right side, two of the springs fell out to the ground in pieces. I also used a full can of brake clean getting the insides cleaned up.  I love the way that they turned out.  I forgot how much I actually enjoy rebuilding drum brakes.  Most people can't stand drum brakes for some reason, but I actually like them.  I didn't mess around with trying to salvage...

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Home Computing Power Station

Change is hard.  And, when it comes to my personal home computing setup, I find that it's way more difficult than it should be.  But, regardless of my hesitancy, it's well past due for a change of scenery on my physical desktop. For the past several years, I've maintained roughly the same setup for my computer at home.  I've had to make a few repairs, replace a few bad parts, upgrade several components, but for the most part my system has remained visually unchanged.  It looked pretty much like the illustration I threw together here.  I have had one computer tower running Windows XP, two CRT monitors, a printer, desktop...

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Critical Mass

Well, it's happened.  Jodi and I have officially hit our new record for number of vehicles owned.  With our newest purchase just last week, we have a total of eight motor vehicles in our possession, six of which are at our home in downtown Springfield. The list is as follows in order of oldest to newest: 1959 Ford F-100 1962 Plymouth Valiant 1973 Ford F-100 1985 Chevrolet Scottsdale 1991 Ford F-150 1992 Ford E-150 1996 Dodge Avenger 2006 Mazda 5 You might have noticed that we have at least one vehicle for every decade stretching all the way back to the 1950's. So, how did we come across owning a fleet of vehicles, you ask? ...

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