Just kinda scanned through, but great write-up. I will go back and read it through ... one day! Short Question - I saw a still shot of the... ah,em... gorgeous truck; is there a "good story" on the louvers on, one side, of the hood?
Great wook, and thanks for documenting it.
In reply to 03Panther :
Maybe "good".
It is a Cummins. I made those louvers with some of these
and an angle grinder. They are over the turbo, and there is an intake on the fender just aft of the grille. The plan is that it cools the turbo, but who knows if it is at all effective.
There's a build thread somewhere on GRM that is another casualty of the Photobucket debacle. Maybe I'll clean it up one of these days.
Edit: here's a picture. The theory is the vertical slot feeds the intake cool air, blows across the turbo, then up and out. In reality, I'm sure all of it just worsens the truck's already abysmal aero.
Yep. An ol' school Cummins build def. counts as a good story. Home done louvers are also. Like you said MAY help, and even if not, who cares!!!
Yes...
yess....
Still yess...
... .. .
Aww, What the Berk!?!?
Yep. guess I over tightened. It was good for 10 or 15 minutes, then I heard a CRICK! from the other room. Oh well.
The master got insulation:
and drywall:
Now taping and mudding.
While my Special Lady Friend commenced painting the master, I got started on the bit of ceiling the electricians came through.
By the time I got the section I planned to replace with two 12X4 sheets of drywall down, along with a crap ton of "RockWool" insulation, another 4X8' section rained down, thankfully, on no one's head. So, tomorrow, basically a 8X16' section to replace. This is the dining room, by the way.
Maybe a good thing this was all screwed up, because, I found a broken truss.
Sistered it up, and on to the next.
Dining room ceiling back up. Gotta cut a hole for the light fixture yet, and a passel of screws.
Lots of slow, tedious E36 M3 has been going on. Trim, caulk, paint, closets in the master. I'll post a picture when it is near completion. My special Lady Friend's new job is demanding 10 hour days, on top of her near one hour (each way) commute, and the master is her baby.
In the meantime, I've been hanging more drywall.
Before:
Today:
You're a far more patient man than I am.
I hate drywall almost bad enough to pay someone to do it.
Looking good man. Making me feel lazy.
In reply to ShawnG :
I'm dragging. Paint all day at work. SLF at her job late. Winter doldrums. I'm down to putting two pieces of drywall up a day, and calling it good.
It is progress, and my "Do SOMETHING every day, no matter how small" rule keeps me moving. Slow and steady wins the race.
Only 4 sheets of drywall left to hang before the common area is ready for finish work.
The compliments are appreciated. Party on!
Props to your attitude of a little every day. Your progress may be slow some days, (like my wife) but still faster than putting it off (like me)... tomorrow can turn into weeks/months/years/decades WAY too easy!!!
That’s NEVER happened to her, I I’ve got many stories.
Looking good. And remember, winter is great... if you’re working indoors!!!!!
wheelsmithy said:In reply to ShawnG :
I'm dragging. Paint all day at work. SLF at her job late. Winter doldrums. I'm down to putting two pieces of drywall up a day, and calling it good.
It is progress, and my "Do SOMETHING every day, no matter how small" rule keeps me moving. Slow and steady wins the race.
Only 4 sheets of drywall left to hang before the common area is ready for finish work.
The compliments are appreciated. Party on!
That is my mantra when the exhaustion overcomes me. A little each day.
Do you mind if I ask your age? It gives me an idea of how hard things are for you.
I started actual construction at age 52. Back then it wasn't hard for me to put in 16-18 hour days of Income work and work on the house during the week and straight 16-18 hour days on the house on the weekends and holidays. To be fair I'd grab a sandwich or something and spend 3-5 minutes eating. Bathroom breaks as needed, and if friends or family stopped in I'd talk with them for however long we talked. By age 62 it was closer to 14-16 hour days. With the cancer of my late wife I struggled to put in 8 hour days and no time when she needed to go for treatment.
Following her passing and my financial stress work just stopped for almost 2 years. In my late 60's 4 hours a day. Was all I could manage, Now nearing 72. It's do a little work. Rest more than I worked. back to work, then rest.
Some days 20 minutes of work followed by 30 minutes of rest.
Thanks for shaming me into motivation.
Got back on my bathroom reno today.
In reply to frenchyd :
I'm 48. Pretty healthy, but 13 hour days are nowhere near as easy as they used to be.
Being a blue collar guy, my hands have been giving me problems for decades. Motorcycles, bicycles, grinders, welders, and all of it seem to be catching up quick. Angry's thread on Carpal tunnel surgery gives me hope.
The mind is still strong, but the body is weak. My grip is going, and my hands are numb most hours I'm awake. I have resolved myself to the idea that professional help is needed, just haven't done it. My job has great benefits, if not pay, so the timing is proper. Just a bit further.
To Shawn G: I'm from the South. Shame is our speciality.
In reply to wheelsmithy :
I know of what you speak. A large number of my customers were union carpenters. There you get full retirement benefits at age 55 and they really don't want you working past that except in management positions.
With the demands made on their bodies it's completely understandable. As a career salesman I had the opposite life. Long hours sitting in the "car" staring out the windshield. It was such a pleasure doing physical work after a near life time of sitting.
That and the joy of creating according to my own desires and whims. Free of interference. What's not to like.
But I can see how you are weary. When I was a professional mechanic it was less than a year later my "hobby" turned into work, heck drudgery.
I took a day off to give the truck some love. Patch a tire, modern wiper upgrade, diagnose, and order parts for the torque struts (Edit Strut Rods-I couldn't even figure out their name). You know, the bare minimum.
The next, I worked on the challenge donor, and made a pattern. For this:
Here's another "before picture:
Some insulation rained down on my face, but nothing went horribly awry.
And just like that, after about a year, there are no exposed trusses in the house.
There is still a small bit of drywall to be hung in the laundry room. Once finished, the master will become our temporary living room, and I can start finishing the common area. There will be trim, so corners get easier from here on in.
Oh yeah, one more place the electricians partially came through before mud.
Another day, a little more progress.
I drywalled the header in the laundry room, and some small patches in there.
Also, hung the replacement mirror in the bathroom.
Speaking of mirrors, the 5" fisheye on the truck has been broken for months. I accidentally ordered an 8-1/2".
Very Quadrophenia-if the Mods were rednecks.
And here's a non house-related rant.
Windshield wipers.
I swear They don't last. And what idiot decided they would no longer sell refills? And WHY did auto parts stores take the books or computers away so I can no longer look up what I need? (Same thing with Oil filters!). Here's the real pissah- All the wipers are Universal, but the connections for old stuff are so poorly made you're lucky to get them on without breaking them. Well, my third set of wipers in less than a year on the truck, which I don't drive much, and I finally wised up.
Not sure it is immediately apparent, but I cut the hooked ends off some Altima wipers I had hanging around, and welded them on. First thing I've welded since the move. I'm drunk on the power right now.
Very smart!
In reply to wheelsmithy :
Great plan. I have the same rants ‘bout what passes for parts stores and the no refills thing. As they were being faded out one store did have one brand of refills.... for more than the complete assembly! A lot more!
SLF painted a door,
and I've spent some time on the Challenge car, and several small house projects.
I don't always post this sort of thing, but there has been a lot of it. Stripping paint off light fixtures and door hardware. Painting every screw, hinge and pin. I wasn't doing this from the start, and though the hinges I painted door white do irk me, I'm not going back to redo the first ones completed. It takes all my will power. Everything that can be cleaned up and pressed back in to service is.
Ceiling fans were nice Hampton Bay units, quite pricey when new, but not the style we're shooting for. They got disassembled, sanded, primed, and painted.
These little jobs have enabled me to keep up my one thing a day, everyday goal, but I've sort of phoned it in the last couple of weeks. The next push starts in February.
I love it! A ceiling fan thread! Keep us posted... refurbing is always cooler than store bought.
02/23/19
Today, 02/06/20
Good times.
I really should dig a hole for that brand new sump pump I got over a year ago.
Fun fact, 2/3rds of the state schools are out due to flu/flooding.
I've been spackling. We settled on a random texturing for the ceilings in the common area. Mainly due to laziness.
In reply to wheelsmithy :
Wheel, I have been following this thread since you started it. I'm kind of a neighbor as I live in Alcoa, TN. If you have any interest I will give you a Wall Board Tools Texture Pro hopper Gun #57-001. I've not used it for 10 years and I'll never use it again. I used this at my previous residence for both ceiling texturing and walls for knockdown plaster texturing. I used this with an original Porter Cable pan cake compressor so just about anything will work.If you are interested let me know via e-mail srlaker@gmail.com.
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