The Apprentice

SMYDA

SMYDA

Knuckle Dragger
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Messages
508
Location
Arizona
I gave the '81 Vette to my son shortly before his 13th birthday (3/3/08).
But the goal is for him to do 80+% of the work while I sit on my ass and supervise.
If he sticks it out all the way to completion .......... the car is his.
Yesterday was our official starting day :thumbs: (y'all got this forum started just in time,)
But there is no time line on this project.

I'm having him dry strip the car with a DA (aka palm sander), I generally don't recommend
this for a newbie but I'm keeping a close eye and by the time he has it done he
should be well experienced at how to properly handle a DA. We use about 5 sheets of
paper an evening and then stop ...... I want him to have time to let the lesson soak in.
( I've already strip the hood several months ago. )

We will be replacing the bumpers with fiberglass units and plan to mold them in.
We're also brainstorming over a possible custom headlamp set up.
Something I've never seen before ........ but yet subtle.

I knew the car had had some left front end damage in the past.
We're uncovering it now....bubba used a crap load of body filler to make up for
some piss-poor fiberglass work. ( More on that later )

I hope to have some good how-to threads come from this project.

These shots were made today.

3-25-08-apprentice-01.jpg

3-25-08-apprentice-02.jpg
 
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Great idea. Are you doing any mechanical work too or just the body work? My 14 year old son helps me out loads and apart from being a bloody good helper, he loves it. Where I can, get him to unbolt stuff or bolt it back up, all the time explaining what the parts are and what they do...
 
My intentions are for him to do it ALL.
This car should be a good character building project. ;)

On the days he is out of school he will go to work with me and hang out
at the shop doing odd jobs. He likes playing with Bondo ....... he is sure
going to get his fill on this baby ......... :D .......... that C3 body is as
wavy as the ocean.
 
I used to HAVE to help my father when he worked on his cars. All my mates would be playing and doing cool shit, and I'd be a lacky for my grumpy old prick of a father. He never explained anything to me and if I ever brought the wrong tool, I'd get back handed or have the tool thrown at me!:mad:

When I joined the air force and we were covering piston (aero) engines, we'd bring our cars up to put theory into practice. It was there that I started understanding what made cars work and how to fix them.

My turn with a young helper now and I'm trying to make it as fun and informative as I can for him and hopefully he'll learn something he can use himself one day - whether as a hobby or trying to avoid paying a mechanic. I think you'll get a great deal of enjoyment seeing your young fella doing stuff himself and you're setting him up with skills he can use later. Good job :thumbs:
 
I can certainly relate to your story, my father was retired Navy (23 Yrs.)
and not a very patient man either. Though I have never served in the
Military I have a lot of it in my ways :) at least that is what everyone saids.

Kids most certainly teach you a lot about yourself..........In just two days
I find myself wanting to just go over and do the car myself......BUT.....
I have to make myself stop and let HIM do it. That's the tough part about
Body Work......... you just can't TELL someone HOW to do it ...... you can
only learn it by DOING it. Like riding a bicycle.

This project is going to be GOOD for BOTH of us......:thumbs:
 
SMYDA said:
I can certainly relate to your story, my father was retired Navy (23 Yrs.)
and not a very patient man either. Though I have never served in the
Military I have a lot of it in my ways :) at least that is what everyone saids.

Kids most certainly teach you a lot about yourself..........In just two days
I find myself wanting to just go over and do the car myself......BUT.....
I have to make myself stop and let HIM do it. That's the tough part about
Body Work......... you just can't TELL someone HOW to do it ...... you can
only learn it by DOING it. Like riding a bicycle.

This project is going to be GOOD for BOTH of us......:thumbs:
Click to expand...
That it should mate, keep us posted. He'll probably get a kick out if it too, if you tell him you're posting pics on here for us all to see his handywork. Or better yet, tell him to join himself so he can post his pics, and questions, once he starts doing mechanical work :thumbs:
 
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Just a little update............

My son was getting a little frustrated with me because I kept stalling
the progress on the car. The thing was.....I didn't want the car disassembled
any further because his Mother and I have been looking at buying another
house. We didn't want the kids knowing right now because we have had
the worst luck with sellers backing out and taking their house off the market.
They get all excited and then "crap".

We finally broke down and let the kids in on what is going on.
(They're smart.........they KNEW something was up....didn't want to post for fear my son would see it.)

Not to bore you with long stories ......... that's were we're at.

Have made some progress on the daughters 4x4. Mainly cause half of it is at
the shop. Got the late model floor welded in the bed. Now working on the rear fenders.
Need to build a tailgate.
 
We have a contract..........offer accepted :D
Landed a heck of a deal on a forecloser.

6/4 on 5 acres with garage in basement......very secluded.
About 7 miles from where I live now.
The 1.2 mile road ends at the property. All for less than 100K.
If all goes well we'll close July 30th. :yahoo:

Yellow arrow Property
Red arrows Road to property
Green arrows clear cut for power lines.

House-Overhead-View.jpg
 
Yes it is heavily wooded.
Most of the surrounding land belongs to hunting clubs, the yard has plenty of deer tracks.
th774aae6f.gif

Here's a few pics a made today.
As you can see all the landscaping still needs to be done, also
this house has not been lived in in over a year.

Photo-01.jpg


Rear Deck area.
Photo-03.jpg


Business End....garage area is 20x30.....and air conditioned :yahoo:
Photo-06.jpg


Creek behind house.....water is usually clear, but we had a good rain last night.
This will work great in keeping the horses watered.
There will be plenty of places for my daughter to ride in off season.
Photo-04.jpg
 
Well........we finally closed on the deal yesterday. :yahoo:
I have been doing some remodeling work on the inside for the last couple of
weeks. Still more to be done but Momma can't wait any longer so we are
going to do the major part of the move Sunday. Will not have DSL at the
new place.....haven't decided whether to go back to dial-up or get a
satellite hook up. Was hoping to not even have a regular phone line at the new place.
Tired of hearing it ring off the wall. :sos:

Got to build a pad for the air compressor so Jonathan can get back on his Vette.

He had some surgery done to his right ear Monday and things turn out to be
far worse than we had expected (more than I can explain.....I don't speak that
language...(MD) but he'll have to go back in a year for more and hopefully they
will be able to restore his hearing to normal.
He is pretty bummed out right now cause he is not allowed to do "anything" for
3 weeks and we're in the middle of a major move.

So that's where we're at right now........definitely got our work cut out for us
for a good long while. So once I shut down here not sure when I'll be back
up and running at the new place.

Till then.........salute-3.gif
 
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