Homegrown FUN!

[FinsnFur]

Unlike 90% of todays kids, I spent my entire youth growing up seeking out everything I could possibly learn about motors and power trains.
My life long dream when I was a kid was to be a mechanic, and even though at the age of 15, there wasn't a car or truck in the county that I could not make run regardless of the circumstances, I still couldn't pursue that as a career because I was never SEA certified.
When I was 13 years old I pulled, rebuilt and reinstalled my first engine. A 1981 Dodge van. I 'll never forget it, and how proud I was that everything went exactly as planned.
While the remainder of my peers at the time spent there time and money seeing how many bars they could get into, and sampling little ole Mary Jane, I spent every single dime I earned on more tools and more parts, pulling more motors, and building more trucks.
It was like heroin. I wanted more motors to work on, more vehicles and more parts.

My first vehicle was the rattiest ford 4 wheel drive you could ever imagine, bought it for $800 bucks. It look just like Jesse's truck from the Dukes of hazzard.
Within one year I made a fully decked out show truck out of it and showed it off at the truck nationals all over the state. Some of you have seen the pics.

We used to have four wheel drive rallys, held in some of Wisconsin's roughest forests for weeks on end, to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy. It was unlike anything you ever experienced in your life.
Unfortunately, getting married and raising children placed a financial damper on a lot of that, but a buddy sent this video to me tonight, and I gotta say, to me anyway, it was like looking through the glass walls in the paternity ward at my first born. Completely incomparable to any feeling I've ever experienced, and what takes place in this video was literally my entire life for the first 23 years of it.

Who da thunk I would have turned out to be a computer geek uh?

[pitw]

That was fairly extreme.  Not hard to imagine you switching from one to the other as they are both about learning what makes something tick. 

[alscalls]

  I love it..Thanks for sharing Jim.

[iahntr]

 
We want more, we want more,,,,,
Had to watch it a couple times.
It's crazy what some of those things can do.
Thanks

[Frogman]

WOW!!!

Jim

[Silencer]

Capital CRAZY !!!! no freakin way would you catch me in some of them vehicles.

[Hidehunter]

  I LOVED IT

[slagmaker]

Testosterone at its finest!!

Way cool. I have been mudding and rockclimbing but never anything even close to that

[HaMeR]

 

Does this make you a "GEEK head"?? 

[Hawks Feather]

Maybe you can get a computer to run one of those cars and have the best of both worlds.  Either that or get a match box car and set it on top of your computer.  That might be easier.   

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

Actually there already is Jerry 

I've got tons, I should say I had tons, of pics around that were all on 110 film. I should scan some some day and post em.
mannnnnn those were the days

[FinsnFur]

Found some pics to scan. Keep in mind these pics are like centurys old














My first toy truck (pictured below). It came with a stock, half worn, 351m
I pulled it and replaced it with a 400cid that I had bored. Removed the timing chain and replaced it with gear drive, domed pistons, Mallory ignition, Edelbrock performer plus cam and lifters, Edelbrock Highrise intake, and a 650 cfm 4bbl.

Believe it or not I had a buddy here that claimed he was good with heads. I took my heads to him and told him what I did to the motor and that I wanted the heads to be rebuilt to match, with all new valves, seats, porting etc.
I couldn't believe it, but he told me his brother worked for Busch Series down in South Carolina and that they would be sent out first thing in the morning. I was like  :shck:
Only cost me $1100 for that head job.







I knew with the motor the way it was, that the rear end was never going to hold up, and it didn't
I blew that out about 3 months later and replaced both axles with lockers.

Soon after, I decided to stop beating this one, so I moved on to the body. My step father at the time worked for Case tractor plant and was in good with one of the painters.
I hired him to come over and spray it for me to my design. After that I kinda quit pounding this one, and just showed it off.
This is the white Ford pictured above.





I had pics of the engine, as I was putting it back together and once it was back in the truck. But I can't for the life of me figure out which kid ate them.

[alscalls]

Cool picks Jimbo....we do a lot of that around here.....a lot of places to run......you would like it!

[coyote101]

Nice looking truck. Looks like alot of fun.

Only cost me $1100 for that head job.

Sounds a little steep. 

[FinsnFur]

Yea compared to a regular head job, it would be steep.
But with stainless steel valves having a street value of $90 bucks each at their lowest, I made out pretty good.
Plus they dyno matched and replaced every part, from the valve seals, to the spring spacers. Ported and polished.

I miss that truck

[R Buker]

VERY COOL!

[iahntr]

Like the added pics Jim.
I'll have to see if I can find some of my old pics too.
I know I had some before and after pics somewhere too.   

[coyote101]

Your pictures made me dig out some old photos of mine. Some friends came to visit me in Colorado in the spring of '77. We went 4 wheeling up in the mountains west of Colorado Springs. A good time was had by all.

[alscalls]

I learned to drive in a ford like that....3 speed on the column..........

[FinsnFur]

Spring of 77! Those trucks musta been like brand new

Cool pics seriously  Looks like that silver-gray 1/2 ton half ton has 33's on it
I just love the stuff....it runs through my veins.