After our time spent in Ocean City and the surrounding areas, it was time to start making our way to the last destination in our east coast tour and that is Virginia Beach. It's a little less than three hours away from Ocean City and the route would take us through the Chesapeake Bay route that goes through a couple of tunnels and a long long over water roadway spanning the whole bay. This route is scenic and almost hypnotic as you travel over it, making for a fun drive between these two tourist destinations. Our travels would have us arrive at night since we left OC in the late evening. We planned on touching down in VB at night where we could check in to the hotel, grab a late night snack, maybe check out something that's still open along the main drag before shutting down for the night so we could wake up, do a couple of things in the morning before checking out then checking out a couple of tourist spots before hitting the road to head on back home. After settling in at the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised at the facility, it was newly remodeled and the suite was more than nice. Yes it costs a little something but it was plenty worth it, facing the ocean with its own balcony, had a sofa bed and small kitchenette along with a divider for if you have more than two people staying in the room, and nice hard floors. It would've been perfect for a family who's vacationing here to use. Our room was on the 9th floor, which gave us a commanding view of both the city from the hallway side and an A-1 view from the balcony of the ocean and the boardwalk down below. The name of the hotel is the Coastal Hotel and Suites. After checking in there was still enough time for us to take a little walk. We walked over to the local amusement park which had a Ferris wheel among other rides. Of course we let our inner kid out and rode the Ferris wheel and bumper cars since that's all we had time for before the park closed down. After getting some nice shots of the city from atop the Wheel, we went ahead and got us some ice cream and went for a walk on the beach just to see what we could see, maybe see if we could spot something in the sand that someone left behind after leaving the area for the evening. Even though we didn't see anything we did get to do the same again in the morning, walking along a good stretch of beach over to the pier, gathering some shells along the way and just enjoying the water splashing on our feet some. One thing that I was impressed with was the view in the morning when we woke up. The day time starting up over the ocean from that balcony was definitely worth the money spent for this room. I always try to make it a habit when staying in any hotel in a coastal destination to have a room that faces the ocean, and this is why. After taking a little time to take in the scenery and enjoy this popular tourist spot, we had to accept reality and start packing so we can head out from this nice hotel. We did take advantage of the free breakfast which was not a bag lunch like many hotels are still doing. We was able to get a real breakfast that was prepared like old times. After filling up good, we got everything packed up and checked out so we can head to our next tourist spot, the Military Aviation Museum. Onward we go...
0 Comments
While hanging out in Ocean City spending money on tourist stuff and carnival stuff, especially food, we had to check out a couple of other tourist traps in this area. As a side note, if you ever go to Ocean City, the Thrasher fries are bloody awesome! Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Assateague Island is in the same string of barrier islands which includes the one Ocean City sits on. This island has a history that dates back to an age old American pasttime - fucking the tax man. Farmers who owned horses did not want to get reamed by the Man for taxes for the number of horses they had on their properties, so to help trick the tax man they would swim their horses across a short distance of the bay to the island where they would hide them for the time being until the tax man made his rounds. In this time since their extra animals were hiding on the island, even when the tax man knew there were horses on the island, he couldn't prove they belonged to any of the farmers so he couldn't tax them for any of the animals. Once gone, the farmers would go back for the horses. Problem was, unlike legitimate farmers, they couldn't tag the beasts to identify them or they'd give themselves away to what they really own so they would just hope that all their animals could be recovered. Obviously this wasn't always the case so some of the animals stayed free and hence ended up wild. Fast forward and these horses would breed and be wild on the island. Today there are still multiple wild horses on the island but they are for all intents, accounted for and after a certain time some are actually sold off to horse trainers who break them in to domesticate them. This of course is for population control as well as for bringing in extra revenue to keeping up the island since the island stretches from VA to MD. State and federal grounds exist on the island so they get extra revenue from the sale of these animals. Another thing about this island is that its a big camping/outdoor sportsman's area. People come here all the time to camp out either by tent or RV, enjoying the beaches that do exist, or just hiking around the island and even fishing for fish and crabs in the shallow saltwater marshes of the island. With a permit one can also bring offroad vehicles for limited use in campgrounds and other permitted areas. With our time on the island coming to a close and our wallets a little lighter after getting some souvenir shirts and postcards, our next stop is The Sunken Ship Museum. This place is located on Fenwick Island, which is the same barrier island that Ocean City sets on. Driving along the main drag from Ocean City you'll cross over into Delaware and hence, Fenwick Island, they're right next door to one another. This museum is actually located in a local souvenir shop, upstairs in its own area. It's a free museum that accepts donations and gets money from its own souvenir sales. This museum is set up by this professional scuba diver who explores shipwrecks along the coast, gathering artifacts from the sites and displaying what he's able to keep. This place was pretty interesting in itself since the stuff that was pulled up from these different shipwrecks ranged from stuff pulled from galleons that sunk all the way to ships that sunk well after the industrial revolution. While the blind would look at the idea that these artifacts amount to buried treasure since a lot of it is indeed gold and silver artifacts and others are just items that came from 150+ years ago, making the items valuable in just that fact, the fact that this diver was able to experience something that most will probably never be able to experience in their lifetimes is worth way more than what one can get from selling the stuff for its numismatic value. Only an ass would think about doing something like melting down gold and silver coins or religious artifacts for their weight in the metal and to not relish in the fact that they're holding items that were once handled by people from 300 years ago is like once in a lifetime shit. Just like with seeing the other items in the other museums, seeing these recovered items from old ships opens my imagination to those times of yesteryear when things were made a certain way, usually simpler, with less exotic materials and with a simple purpose in mind. Its always interesting again to see how things were made by industry back then, and these recovered items are no exception. Its always an interesting thought wondering what life would be like using this type of tech in an everyday capacity. Of course with holding up to the idea of possible post apocalyptic or post crash survival, living a life that is a mix of old and new tech is always an interesting thought. Well with this interesting run of touring, we learned a lot, experienced a lot, photographed a lot, and dreamt a lot with regard to what we could've been experiencing in life had we had more opportunities. Of course we can all dream about if we won the lottery or something and been able to do whatever we like, I'd be actively into a lot of things such as scuba diving shipwrecks and even on the simpler end, just being able to have vacation spots in many of the locations we would like to frequent through the year which would allow us to be able to have somewhere to stay and even rent out for extra income when we're not there. I guess that's what vacations are really for, reflecting on life and the things that we could be doing especially if we just push a little further. Well we still have one more stop in our east coast tour, and that's Virginia Beach. After having spent some time in the ole lady's home town and around her family, as well as visiting the couple of previously mentioned tourist spots, we are moving on to the next leg of our tour. The next destination is Ocean CIty, MD. This city is located on a barrier island that stretches for many miles and extends into the state of Delaware. The island is a completely developed tourist destination with everything from hotels and condos to restaurants and amusement spots to museums and gaming venues. The beachfront has a boardwalk that stretches for many miles and has an amusement park, different games, refreshment booths, and other carnival activities. The beachfront hotels allow you to stay right where all the action is. We went in with the ole lady's aunt and uncle, who also took us to Harpers Ferry. Our plan was to go in, check out a couple of things, hang out, take advantage of some overpriced carnival food, spend the night then do some more activities before riding out once again for the final leg of the tour. Now you might ask, "what does this have to do with The Improvisation Center and the idea of self reliance and self sufficiency?". Well the first place that we came here to visit was the Ocean City Life Saving Museum. This place is built in an old life saving/water rescue house that was used a long time ago for the people who would go out to rescue people who were in trouble on the sea when their ships would be caught in rough water off short or close to rocks or what not. The museum featured some hardware that was used by these men such as the large rescue rowboat that the rescuers would launch into the water to head out to rescue those in the water. Other items are some equipment used for getting life lines to a sinking ship to move sailors to a rescue ship. There was a lot of placards to read regarding the different history regarding the life saving service along the east coast as well as the history of Ocean City and the people who had a hand in the development of the city through the years. These were the biggest highlights when it comes to what we typically focus on at The Improvisation Center. Funny thing, looking at the boats allowed me to imagine how I could've used the same equipment for purposes around here. Funny thing I thought about with regard to the watertight rescue boat was how this would make a good submarine since its able to be sealed off. One thing I can say is that I do have a vivid enough imagination that I can see multiple uses for different equipment outside of its original use. I sometimes like to look at this different hardware, especially this historic hardware and think about how I could replicate this same hardware for more specialized uses. Looking at the construction of the items interests me since I always like to study how industry operated back then when it comes to building things. This is mainly from the perspective of being able to duplicate the same methods in a hypothetical post apocalyptic scenario where we can't just go to the local hardware store or walmart to get the things we take for granted today. Well we do have a couple of other stops to make while in Ocean City that I will document in the next entry. One of those places is Assateague Island and the other is The Sunken Ship Museum in Fenwick Island, DE. Stay tuned for more of our east coast tour. Our next stop in our tour is of the historic mountain town of Harper's Ferry. This town started off as an industrial town built at a point where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers come together, also where the states of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia come together. The historic portion of the town has been restored/reconstructed by the gov't due to its being in ruins after past floods and of course the destruction during the Civil War. If you're a history buff, you may know of this town from its significance in the Civil War, but it also has another significance with regard to the abolition movement. A fellow by the name of John Brown, at an early age come to despise slavery after seeing how a couple of slaves were being mistreated. He made it his life's quest to do what he could to fight against slavery, up to and including the murder of those who were supporters of slavery as well as those in the gov't who sought to stop him by any means necessary. Brown and his group planned to acquire more arms from the armory that was stationed at the town of Harper's Ferry to further his goals but things didn't work out according to plan. Ironically one of the first people to fall at his hand happened to be a black free man who happened to stumble upon his group at a train station. Others would fall at his hand who were slavery sympathizers but in the end the US gov't corralled Brown and his group in Harper's Ferry. A fierce shootout would ensue, trapping the Brown group in the firehouse where they would meet their last stand. After several of Brown's group had fallen, including his son, Brown was captured, barely alive and brought to trial. After being convicted for treason, among other things, he was hanged, ending the saga of John Brown, just shy of the beginning of the Civil War. Even if you're not a super history buff, just visiting this place is pretty cool due to the views of the town and how its set up. Since the town is built in the mountains, the roads and walking paths are at serious grades, not much flat area through here. All of the buildings are crammed together to take advantage of the limited flat space in the mountains. Now the thing about the historic part of this town is that its all under the National Parks Service so its federally protected land, preserved from its last civilian use a long time ago. Even as a national park, this old preserved town still functions as a town complete with restaurants, souvenir shops, and even a few bed and breakfasts. But I can and will say it again, the views are awesome! Of course within the town there has to be a church and a nice church it is. While we couldn't go inside the building, just the outside speaks volumes enough to say that it has to be nice inside. What was also interesting was the ruins of an old church long since fallen in, leaving just the stones used in the building of the structure. Being able to look at this building is literally like looking into a portal in time. Another thing that runs through Harper's Ferry is the Appalachian trail, which stretches along the span of the Appalachian mountains for those who want to take on the hike through some of the most scenic nature one can find. The views are awesome from the various points you find yourself and plenty of spots exist along the river where one can go fishing or launch a raft or kayak to further explore by water. Even along the water's edge are some old ruins of water tunnels, which were channels that were built to funnel moving river water into tunnels in town where small industrial buildings were set up to harness the moving water to power equipment for the local industry, in much the same way as we seen at the farm museum before. All of this was interesting, seeing how industry operated in this town during the old days in America, building up the nation so it can grow to be what it is today. As for the town's significance during the Civil War, at the beginning when the Confederacy started making its advances through Union territory, the town of Harper's Ferry was a strategic point due to its location on the two rivers which allowed it to serve as a trade route both by river and by rail as river barges had been running the river route already and newly laid rail lines allowed rail traffic to pass through. The biggest thing that made this town important was the fact that it was really an industrial town, with the US armory being a focal point in said industry. When the rebels advanced, the Union, rather than let this armory fall into the hands of the Confederacy, losing the weapons and the tooling to produce even more weapons, pulled a scorched earth policy, firing the armory to destroy everything of value inside before the rebels could get to it. While it was a major loss in monetary value, it was a strategic win as it kept arms out of the hands of the rebels and drastically slowed down their ability to produce new arms on site. The grounds where the armory can be toured along with multiple buildings that house the same type of equipment that existed within for producing arms. The water tunnels provided the water power to run this equipment. As the Civil war progressed, the fighting would find its way through the surrounding countryside near the town in the later episodes of the war, eventually bringing the town and of course the state back into the Union. Of course the armory was never rebuilt but the town still existed with a new emphasis on boosting the advancement of both freed black slaves and those who were already free but wanted to preserve the legacy of John Brown. This eventually lead Harpers Ferry turning into more of a tourist town and a mecca for those in the abolitionist and later civil rights struggle. As can be seen, the little bit that I've noted here and shown via the photographs does not do this place any justice. You can easily spend a few days here really checking out everything in the town, going through the buildings that are impromptu museums, reading up on all of the history of the town from the early beginnings along with its significance in the Civil War and the later years. You can do a lot of walking just checking things out, whether for historic purposes or for exploratory purposes (as we seen many hikers passing through as they followed the Appalachian trail). All in all, this is a place that has to be seen to be believed. One of the stops we made during our trip was to the Carroll County Farm Museum. This place, just like our own local Ag Museum back home, features everything pertaining to the farming/agriculture life, going back from the early days in this country to the near past. Of course they don't really focus on the modern big business agriculture we know of today because its nothing like what farming used to be, its more industrialized. This place does have animals that they raise but the biggest thing is the history behind farming. This place has a lot of artifacts, be it old machinery that was used all the way to replica buildings that were around back then. My obvious fascination is in the historic machinery, seeing how farmers got things done using the more primitive equipment that existed back then. One of the first things that I found interesting was a spring house, which was used as a primitive form of refrigeration. The running water running through the cavity that the spring house was built over acts as a heat sink to drop the temperature within in order to keep things like eggs and butter or milk cool. Simple ideal that got the job done as needed. I also find the transportation that was used back then interesting in a simple way. Of course what we're talking about here is the old horse and buggy. Of course a buggy could be a simple box with some wheels all the way to a nicely made enclosed cab with windows and doors and a comfortable seat. What does interest me is the construction of these things and how they were probably made, using simple bearings for the wheels and taking time to assemble the wheels to ensure that they stay perfectly round. Even the glass for the doors and the latches and hinges used for the doors is all an interesting thing to look at. Even the art of blacksmithing is a very important part of the farm life. When tools need to be made or parts need to be fabricated, that's where the blacksmith comes in. Being a simple ancient art that at its core hasn't really changed, blacksmithing is just as important today in the modern world of solid state electronics as it was in the ancient world when metal was only being worked into swords and knives and spikes and nails and other simple metal items. Even as advancements in farming made some way, other areas had to play catch up. When certain machines were created to help in processing things harvested or for making other products, more power was needed to operate said machinery. For a while water power was harnessed to turn water wheels to power large machinery or route power to a whole shop. Other simple advancements actually used animals on treadmills to turn engines for powering equipment in farm shops. These apparatus I found fascinating just because it was simple, yet effective for harnessing a large amount of power for machinery. Of course then came steam engines which as history showed us, revolutionized everything on an industrial scale as it allowed for the powering of larger and larger machinery. Around the museum the replica houses and buildings housed things that would've been commonplace in that day. Old furniture, potbelly wood stoves and the like graced all these buildings. Just seeing how people functioned back then would make some appreciate what they have today in regard to technology since our ancestors had way less to work with. Working by lantern and having to stoke a wood stove fire is more taxing than just flicking a switch and picking up the phone to command perform a number of tasks via bluetooth technology. Even as the internal combustion engine became the focal point of the industrial revolution, the advancements remained relatively unchanged. Tractors came into being starting with steam engines then worked their way up to gas powered machines, mimicking their automotive counterparts on the early 20th century streets. As technology advanced to bigger and better engines, including diesel powerplants and electronic fuel injection with their modern complexities, the overall design of the tractor remained relatively unchanged. The tractor had large rear wheels with a driveline geared down a lot for maximum torque to pull equipment through the muddy fields of a large farm. Jobs once performed by teams of horses or oxen could now be performed by one tractor powered by one simple engine running on the liquid fuel that we all come to know and love, known as petroleum. Obviously the significance of my recording of our visit to this museum was to point out the technological aspects of farming. Since we do our own level of farming and use different tech, especially improvised tech, to accomplish different tasks around here, including farming tasks, being able to look at how other people got the job done is relevant in our book. Being able to just stare at and digest this history helps in being able to build a better future, whether on the homefront or in the world as a whole. Stay tuned for more of our exploits out of town! As we closed the gap going through VA, we saw a billboard on the road that was advertising a little tourist trap called Cooter's Place. For those of you who don't know or are just culturally deprived to some fun old school TV, Cooter's Place is a museum of everything pertaining to the Dukes Of Hazzard TV show that aired in the 80s for around five years. One of the actors, Ben Jones, who played the mechanic for the Duke Boys, Cooter, became a politician in VA a while back and in the process set up this museum for us all to enjoy. Now while entry into the museum is free, they get you on the souvenirs, which is fine, since there is plenty that you will want to take home with you once you look around. There's everything from T-shirts and hats, to posters and signed pictures to toy cars and models and even postcards, decorative license plates and fridge magnets. If you're a Dukes fan, you'll find yourself gladly shelling out a bunch of money to take home some of this Dukes memorabilia. You can even get you a good lunch at the little restaurant in the facility. One of the first things that catches your attention at the place is of course the General Lee. Now while anyone who knows this show knows the iconic car to be a 69 Charger, the car that they had in front of the building is actually a stunt car that they used for performing jumps at the annual Dukes Fest that's held. In the very beginning actual Chargers were still being used (and of course fucked up) to perform the jumps but after a short time someone got smart and realized that the older these cars get the harder they are to come by and hence expensive. I would also like to hope that just the idea of trying to preserve the cars would trump entertaining people in the end. Either way, some enterprising people figured out that late model Ford (go figure) Crown Victoria cars share the same wheelbase as the 69 Charger, making them the perfect donor platform for a Charger clone. A custom company took the time to chop the body off a Crown Vic, leaving just the floor/frame of the car along with the interior dash assembly and suspension along with the engine, then adding a roll cage around the cab area and building a Charger skin around the stripped down frame. The job was done rather well, taking into detail all aspects of the 69 Charger, including the bumpers, grille, all sheet metal, you name it. Now just like the show car, the doors are welded shut, since on this stunt car the doors are just skins welded up to make the overall shell. When the car is jumped, any damage done can be repaired as the sheet metal is more easily replaced thanks to the aftermarket. Even if the base car/frame itself were damaged beyond use, replacing it with another Crown Vic is a lot easier than paying for and wrecking another real Charger. Seeing how they did this car was plenty inspiring enough that it tempts me to want to try something like this one day. Even if it isn't this actual conversion, building an old car body around a newer car is an unique concept that I have actually seen done to some degree on another website where someone morphed a Toyota Prius that was chopped down into an old 40's pickup truck, doing essentially the same thing as these guys did right here. They get to enjoy the environmentally conscious aspects of driving a newer hybrid while enjoying having what looks like an old vehicle. As for the inside of the museum, we did get to see an actual 69 Charger General Lee equipped with a big block Mopar engine with performance parts and restored very well. Along with the General was Boss Hogg's Cadillac and Daisy's Jeep along with a cameo guest Studebaker race car that was on one of the episodes. As you well know, around here we are car nuts and enjoy seeing a nicely done classic car. As the pics show, the inside is set up like an older style country garage complete with tools and work benches as well as other equipment staged around the cars, along with different pictures and other memorabilia pertaining to the car culture that this show was centered around. Most of the hardware in this garage would be the older style tooling that you would've seen in 1982, not the modern plastic stuff that we would typically have in modern garages today. It's almost like going into a time machine. Moving into another section of the building there was more memorabilia in a more museum like environment that was set up with the intent of putting the focus on the items within versus the surrounding environment. Plenty of pictures line the walls along with other posters and plaques pertaining to the show and the actors. Even some more period correct hardware is staged around the floor for your viewing pleasure. A lot of the memorabilia that was displayed in the museum was actual toys and other stuff that was sold during the time that the TV show aired back in the 80s. A lot of different toys, well preserved still in packages, is displayed in cases for your viewing pleasure. Just like any iconic show, a slew of products follow behind to further promote the show to get more kids and adults to watch the show. The more ratings means more seasons. The show aired from 79 through 85. As with the trip through VA, getting to this museum involved us taking a little drive through the mountains, following country roads snaking through the local turf. After taking a fun detour to check this place out and grab some souvenirs and an awesome pulled pork and grilled cheese sandwich, we made our way back to the interstate to continue our way on into MD. More to come. After all kinds of work being done around here for so long this year and having taken a short time to hit TX for some R&R and some business, we're taking another trip to the east coast. This is mainly an R&R trip to see family and play tourist. As with most of our domestic trips, we drive. But unlike the TX run, this drive will take a while. Our first stop in this east coast tour is the ole lady's home state of Maryland to visit her family, where we will be crashing with some of her folks. The trip to this destination if driven straight through without stopping and doing some risky hauling ass would take approximately 16 hours. Because of this, we plan on staying the night at a hotel somewhere about a little better than halfways, so when we hit the road again we can have just a few hours left in the run. We planned on leaving in the morning early enough that it would give us a good amount of the day to travel. In our situation we will more than likely be stopping often between bathroom breaks and fuel and food. This inbound trip will take us through the states of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia then Maryland. This particular run is rather scenic as it takes us through the Appalachian mountains which is some of the most scenic road tripping that one can experience. We won't really catch this view until we hit eastern Tennessee and start heading into the mountains going through the Virginias. Its kind of funny that as we passed through the mountainous areas our ears would pop on and off as we went through the change in altitudes from our original level back home. Even with the slight discomfort, the views were still awesome. The best part of the trip again was in the 2nd leg going through eastern TN but since that was at night, we had to pick up where we left off in the Virginias the following morning. Being able to see these views in daylight does this type of travel a lot of justice as you get to take in all of the views of the countryside. Of course travelling this long can be potentially dangerous if you're not used to this as you can easily get fatigued enough to hurt yourself or others. Stopping periodically is necessary not just for bathroom breaks but for stretching and just moving around so your body doesn't get so used to being in that same sitting position for hours on end. For some who go on trips, they would rather just fly to their destination and immediately get started with the activities they planned on doing while there. I can understand that, but for some like me, the road trip is a major activity of the whole trip in and of itself since it does involve actually travelling over hundreds of miles of land, in much the same way our forefathers did a long time ago by horse and wagon, seeing different sights and landscapes, meeting different peoples and cultures. Seeing all this is worth the extra day of travel needed to go by road versus just flying 6 miles up over the clouds where you never get to see any of this as you would now. Another thing we noticed the higher up we got in the mountains, especially in the morning is the low lying clouds hovering around the mountains and terrain as we passed through. Along with the ear popping and the funky feelings in my head I had a few times, it fully reminded us that we were at a higher altitude than in the flat lands of MS. A dose of dramamine and some Advil helped a little bit in keeping my head from doing backflips while trying to drive through the landscape. Still, I wouldn't have missed this for anything. Because of the size of this trip and the number of destinations we plan on stopping along with our visiting with the fam, there will be several posts on the different tourist destinations that we check out that pertain to tech stuff and historic stuff, even in a slight manner to what we are into when it comes to how people lived or what some are into or how people do things to get things done for different purposes. Stay tuned for plenty more to come.
The last time I visited the idea of moving the El Camino I had two issues. One was building up the other half of the side path where we had a boat trailer and a small boat parked at for a long time. That area being super muddy needed gravel (and still does) in order to make it be able to support the weight of a 2 ton vehicle being parked over it, even more so moving one over this mess. Well, the other problem was moving the car into a staging position to be able to pull it into place over this newly paved area of the yard. I managed to get the 2nd problem addressed as I got the Elco moved and staged within the yard but there's still the matter of that patch of ground the car needs to go. I had already laid some gravel down and tried to stamp it down some, even rolled the wheels from the F250 over some of it until a wheel damn near disappeared in mud. I came over that area with concrete, establishing a patch that should be enough to keep tires from sinking to China. Now it was time to move the car. The plan was to hook a chain to the back of the Elco and drag it from its staging spot across the midway over to the new parking spot on the side path. I went ahead and took this on with the Tracker since it was the smaller vehicle and more able to maneuver between the LUV and the new gravel patch. We went ahead and hooked the chain up and started to drag the car over to the new spot but as soon as the rear tires really started digging in, things got hairy real quick. The mud under the gravel started moving, causing the gravel to spill out from the sides of the tires, allowing the tires to dig in more, making it more difficult to move the car with the weak Tracker. Out came the F250. I attempted to pull the Elco back some more with the F250 to no avail. It too started spinning tires on the grassy ground while the Elco's wheels stayed well planted. I even tried to pull the car back out some to restage it to get it to roll on some more fresh gravel and even that failed. The ground was just too soft still, even with the gravel down, even with the concrete down. After pulling the Elco back out into the midway, we had even worse trouble due to the fact that the area next to the new patch was not the greatest either. Wheels still spun as we tried to pull the car back into the side path, closer to the garden fence. The biggest problem that we kept having was the idea that when we tried to pull the car at an angle while turning the car's front wheels to guide it in place, the car would either self steer away from the direction we wanted it to go or it would just straight drag, causing even more ruts as the wheels dragged into the soft ground at an angle. Finally enough was enough, by God's good grace our neighbor came home for lunch. He's got a Kubota diesel tractor with 4x4 capability and large tires all the way around, just the thing to pull a car out of the mud or through the mud, in our case. After he showed me the basic controls for operating the machine I drove on around and got the tractor staged in front of the Elco, hooking the chain up to the tractor's grille guard bar. It was a night and day difference. The tractor effortlessly pulled the Elco right back off the soft gravelly ground back into the midway. With the Elco's front wheels cocked to steer it closer towards the fence on its way out from the side path, I was quickly able to get the car staged where I can go behind it and pull the car into the side path, steering it in to park it once and for all where we wanted it. Once staged behind the Elco, hooking up the other chain to the tractor, even though the machine was on soft ground, the low end torque and the large tires allowed the machine to effortlessly pull the Elco right on into the parking spot on the side path. The ole lady did have to hold the steering wheel to keep the car from self steering in the opposite direction but other than that, the tractor did all of the heavy lifting, pulling the car right in where we wanted it to go. Once we got the Elco parked like we wanted it, with enough room between it and the LUV and the storage trailer, the ole lady was able to pull the F250 out between the two with room to spare and park it, along with the Tracker. Poor trucks couldn't even take care of pulling this car along the ground, we needed a tractor to do a man's job. Anyway, after parking the trucks, we took the tractor back to our neighbor's house then pushed all the chewed up mud and gravel back into the ruts we created during this whole mess of a process. Obviously we're going to have to come back over all of this area with a lot of gravel to cover up the bad spots we created while trying to move the Elco into place. Since this car is not going to move anymore until its actually in running and driving mode, this means being able to go underneath the car and jack it up, all while on this shitty spot. I'm going to have to throw gravel underneath, maybe even go so far as to jack the car up to throw gravel under the tires before setting it back down. Even when I use jacks and they sink into the mud I will have to push gravel back into these spots. Obviously after this debacle, I already decided I'm going to have to use the tractor again when we get ready to pull the 51 Chevy into its parking spot behind the Elco, as well as when we bring back the 46 Ford. Unless I'm rolling over nice solid ground, never again am I going to attempt to pull a car and have to deal with the headache that we dealt with today. It also means that another major purchase I need to seriously look at is a tractor since this piece of equipment has proven itself to be very essential.
After having to deal with the soft ground under the newly patched area in the side path, I had already laid concrete in the worst spot but of course that's not the end of it. I'll still have to lay more gravel and just like in the midway, I'd have to drive over this ground to mash the gravel into the mud and lay more gravel back over the newly created ruts. I got another load of gravel to help make this patch get more solid so when we pull the El Camino over that spot it won't get stuck on the soft ground. Now I will continue to lay gravel on the rest of the side path spanning the width from the garden fence to the storage trailer, having to mash it down, maybe even lay more concrete in some of the worst spots since in order for me to park one of the other cars in this area I would have to pull the El Camino further back onto the newly laid gravel until its all the way in the back.
I did take some time to roll the F250 over some of the soft ground to mash the gravel in and lay some more in the ruts but so far I did manage to get a good spread over the area. Of course some of the newer area I was able to throw gravel down will need a second dose as its still pretty mushy ground. Man I hate mud.... Since I still had some time left in the day I moved on to the FMT. I did receive the door handles the day before and that was the last thing I needed to get the doors back together. These components really didn't take any effort to put on as they're held on by a single bolt for either handle. This obviously went quickly. I am glad to have gotten the metal ones because the plastic ones require you to kinda be easy on them since they will break pretty easy. Installing the door panels was pretty easy as well as these components are a single piece that just snaps on. After working the door handle through the hole and the lock knob through its hole the panel I was able to mate the panels up to their respective doors. Since these are old panels, most of the time people will have put screws through spots in the panels to help hold them in place. The plastic pegs typically used for these panels are either worn out or missing or even the mounts for the pegs are broken on the door panel and rather than replace an entire door panel people will just install screws through spots near the corners, typically out of the way where they won't be noticeable to anyone who isn't really looking for them. These panels are no different as they had some pegs to help hold them in but there were a couple extra screws in the bottom corners that held them on. I went ahead and reinstalled these components to get the panels solidly mated to the doors then verified the opening of the doors to make sure the handle and latch mechanisms were working properly. With that the doors on the FMT are back together. As for the rest of the interior I do need to get a replacement panel for the dash/gauge cluster and I still have to trace out the circuits for the gauges in the engine compartment so I can isolate those circuits for when I hook them up to the new engine in order to retain the stock look versus having all these aftermarket gauges hanging in different spots of the cab. The work continues.
After finally receiving the replacement motors for the window regulators on the FMT, I set out to change the motors out on each unit. These motors are a straightforward swap out with nothing special like clocking the motors to coincide with the position of the regulator arms. The units are held in with three bolts each so that part of the process went pretty fast. But my biggest concern is reinstalling the units since they were riveted in, and whenever you encounter something that seemingly makes no sense, you have to look at it from the perspective of, "they did it for a reason". And there surely was a reason for this buffoonery.
The reason for Ford riveting these units in place was because in their infinite wisdom they designed the components to have a tight tolerance. The mounting bracket portion of the regulator is mated real close to the moving gear of the regulator, meaning that I would have to move the regulator to expose the mounting holes in order to place the bolts through the mounting plate and into the door from the inside so the head of the bolt doesn't pass through the path of the moving gear. The nut would be placed on the outside onto the bolt. This of course provided its own challenges since we're talking about trying to put a wrench on the head of the bolt from the inside of the door where I couldn't see anything. I was able to get three of the four bolts on but had the hardest time getting the fourth bolt on because that one actually did require me to put a short bolt on from the outside and somehow hold the nut in place in the super tight space to get the nut threaded on. After losing three nuts in the door and even losing the wrench in a spot of the door where stuff can fall in between the metal and be lost forever, I had to resort to one of those retractable magnetic wands for retrieving lost bolts. I was able to get the nuts back but the wrench is gone. I used the magnet to hold the nut in place while I put the bolt in, then had to use a flathead screwdriver to to wedge it on the nut to hold it in place while I tightened the bolt down. Even with the four bolts in place I ended up having to spray some lubricant grease in the window tracks to slick things up since the window would bind at some points, a common thing with super old power window setups. After the oil worked its way down through both sides, the window moved up and down effortlessly. With that I put the door panel mount back up with a nut and bolt and moved on to the other door. As with the first door, I ran into the same issues with regard to placing the bolts through the regulator base and the door shell. After having to manipulate the regulator to get three bolts in and tightened down, after testing the unit for functionality I determined that the fourth bolt was not needed nor worth the headache to install. I then moved on to the other little, um inconsistency. Because the motors were exact duplicates and not side specific, the placement of one of the motors essentially had it in reverse of what a motor that was side specific should be. Even though everything bolted up properly (in reverse mind you), it had the system working in reverse. Now while I could've just left well enough alone, I felt it was stupid to have one window switch work in the right polarity and the other one work in reverse. I would have to pull the wires out of the plug and reverse them in order to have everything work in the right direction. After trying to pop the female terminals from the plug end and damaging one of the terminals inside the plug, I just aborted that particular mission and took one of the old motors and cut the plug end off of it to use and snipped the terminal ends from the new motor. Even though the wires were color coded, I still had to swap them around so as to achieve the polarity reversal of this motor. I used regular crimp couplings to connect the plug end to the wires from the new motor. After plugging everything back up I tested the window regulator successfully. As with the first side I lubricated the window tracks in order to allow the window to slide up and down effortlessly through the whole distance of travel. With that, I can move forward knowing the windows are now fixed on the FMT. I'm still waiting for the door handles so I can bolt them in place to allow me to be able to open the doors from the inside of the truck. Unlike the factory handles that are plastic, I went ahead and bought metal ones so they would be way more likely to last especially when the heat of the sun typically degrades plastic inside vehicles. Once I get these door handles in place I can remount the door panels and fully conclude the work with the doors.
|
Archives
May 2023
|