KeithDickson.com

Cub Scouts and Brownies

Keith — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 12:41:34 +0000

Man, did Mary and I have a busy day yesterday! Friday night and Saturday morning was the big Cub Scout campout. Jake is joining Cub Scouts this year, so we got the big tent set up for all three of us. The low temps were predicted to reach the upper 30′s, but it wasn’t that bad, we all stayed warm. Did some fishing (didn’t catch anything again) and broke camp by noon. Then the Cub Scouts had their ‘Blitz Day’, where they go out enmasse all over town selling meat products, candles and popcorn as a fundraiser. Mary took over as chauffeur for that gig while I took Brianna and a friend to the local pumpkin patch for an afternoon out with the local Brownie troop.

I was beat by the time I got the kids to bed last night. They went to bed at 8PM…I was in bed by 8:30!

Got up this morning when the alarm went off at 6:30 AM and got ready for work. Was minutes away from getting all the kids up and ready for school when I hopped online to check the day’s weather reports. Noticed they were giving predictions for Sunday….and I’m thinking “Why are they giving out predictions for yesterday’s weather?” until it dawned on me that today was only SUNDAY!

Back from the doctor

Keith — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:15:58 +0000

I’ve always had seasonal allergies which typically hit the third week of August every year and last for a month or so. (The symptoms always start during the first week of school, so I’ve been telling people for years that I was allergic to school. Even after 28 years of not going, the ‘school allergy’ persisted. LOL

Well this year was no different. About a month ago was the ‘official’ beginning of hay fever season, and the ragweed was out in force. However, it wasn’t nearly as bad this year. I had the typical runny nose and itchy eyes, but not intolerable…until this past weekend.

Around Friday or Saturday, the head congestion went down into my lungs, making breathing increasingly difficult. My lung capacity was less than half of what it’s supposed to be. Whenever I tried taking a deep breath I’d start wheezing and coughing, which means that I pretty much wasn’t getting any sleep, since the body starts taking deep breaths as you fall asleep. Every time I’d start to fall asleep and attempt deep breathing, I’d start coughing…which of course would wake me up. I’d estimate I haven’t gotten more than 3 hours sleep each of the past 3-4 nights, and that’s actually a pretty generous estimate. And it’s been getting progressively worse, until I got up this morning after another long sleepless night and almost couldn’t breathe at all! I finally decided to make an appointment at the medical clinic to get some chest X-rays done and see WTH was going on.

I was actually anticipating the worst, because I’ve been a pack-a-day smoker for years, and knew that that wasn’t helping matters either…especially after the doctor listened to my lungs and made the comment “Your lungs sound AWFUL!”. But after checking out the X-rays, the doc seemed a little surprised that my lungs weren’t as bad as anticipated either. No pneumonia or obvious signs of lung damage caused by my smoking. However, I was told I did have a touch of bronchitis, so I was given a prescription for some antibiotics…and an inhaler, that the doc mentioned might be a permanent thing for me.

So anyway…since it was a pretty slow day at work today, I decided to take the rest of the day off and take it easy, and see if I can get some of my breathing capacity back.

Last Fling ‘Til Spring

Keith — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 14:45:47 +0000

Today is the Last Fling ‘Til Spring car show here in West Point, which is considered the largest one-day car show in the midwest. There are typically 600-700 cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc. being displayed along the city streets. I usually take the entire day to check them all out, and today will be no exception….except that as I type this, it’s only 46 degrees outside and overcast, with 97% humidity. It rained all morning and part of the afternoon yesterday (so I’d imagine a majority of the 50+ yard sales being held in conjunction with the Community Yard Sale day were a washout), and there’s a 20% chance of more rain today, with a projected high temperature of only 58 degrees.

It’ll be a great day for car pictures, however….overcast means no direct sun which creates shadows, reflections, etc.

I got the sides of the 442′s trunk painted on Friday and was going to finish up the trunk floorpans yesterday, but it was too wet and cold. So I figured I finish it up this morning instead before going to the car show, but it’s still to cold out to paint. The weatherman is predicting a high of 86 tomorrow, so I might just have to do the paint after work.

Just another week…

Keith — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:27:49 +0000

Hasn’t been anything to speak of going on this past week, nor did anything noteworthy happen. Just another week of going to work, coming home, taking care of kids, etc.

However, I did take the day off work yesterday because I seem to have caught a bug…I woke up with a sore throat and spent a majority of the day sneezing and blowing my nose. I’m feeling better today, but again there’s nothing special going on at work, so I’m taking another day off. I’ll be heading out to the garage in a few to get started getting the interior floorpans of the 442 cleaned up and ready for paint. Doubt I’ll get them painted today, but at least they’ll be ready.

The body is on…finally!

Keith — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:34:11 +0000

Got the body dropped back onto the chassis today! It was removed 11 years ago when I got started on this project, it’s really good to see it back where it belongs.

Just lots of the same when removing the body. Jack it up a little, remove the bars, then let the jack almost all the way down and block the body. Then jack it back up a little remove some blocks, let it back down. It actually went pretty fast, and I had no problems.

The body is now resting on the frame, without the bushings. Due to the extreme angles at which the body was coming down, I wasn’t able to insert the bushings, so I just made sure I had plenty of padding to protect the frame and the floorpans, and set it directly on the frame for now. By the end of this extended Labor Day weekend,though, I’ll have it centered and bolted down.

It’s actually starting to look like a car again!

Wednesday night…

Keith — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:04:04 +0000

Just spent some time over at FORDification.com for the first time in several months, something that was way overdue. I just got so wrapped up in working on the 442 and doing necessary research that I neglected popping in regularly like I’m supposed to, as the site owner/admin. If anyone over there is reading this…sorry about that! However, I’ve been accumulating some more cool old Ford truck memorabilia that I’ll be digitizing in the future to post to the site.

Bottom floorpans painted!

Keith — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:42:30 +0000

Well, today was painting day for the 442. I got an early start, since I had to put on three coats (two coats of rust-preventative paint and a final color topcoat) and it typically takes 3-4 hours between coats. However, because of the temps today (upper 80s) and a strong breeze, by the time I got done with the first coat it was already ready for the second, and by the time the second coat was done it was sufficiently dry enough for the topcoat. So the entire process only took about four hours total. Take a look:

I'm very pleased with how well this turned out!

Since I really should give it a minimum of a few days to fully cure, I’m tentatively planning on dropping the body back onto the frame this coming Friday. I’ll definitely be taking my time doing so, so I don’t scratch the paint any more than than absolutely necessary, so it’ll be an all-day process.

I can’t wait!

(For additional pictures, see my build-up thread at the RealOldsPower.com forums.)

Working on the 442

Keith — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:46:53 +0000

I’ve been working on the 442 all day today, getting some last-minute cleanup and repair done to the bottom of the car body, in preparation for paint tomorrow. After the repairs, I sprayed some metal-etch on, let it set for about 20 minutes and rinsed it off with the hose. By mid-morning tomorrow it should be ready to paint! Once that’s done, I can FINALLY get the body mounted back to the frame for the first time since it was removed back in 1999!

Here’s a shot taken about 10 minutes ago…compare that with the pic I’ll post tomorrow after getting it painted.

All cleaned up, repaired and etched...ready for paint (click to enlarge)

Unsuccessful house hunting

Keith — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:24:32 +0000

Well, Mary and I checked out the farmstead today, but decided that it really wasn’t what we were looking for. The room layout of the house wasn’t very well thought out and none of the outbuildings were usable. So we spent the rest of the afternoon driving by several other local small acreages that we’d seen listed, but we were either unimpressed or the asking price was out of reach. Oh well…we’ll still keep our eyes and ears open, and see what turns up. It’s not a huge priority right now…

Trevor is now mobile!

Keith — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:21:15 +0000

As of today, my 8-year-old son Trevor is now able to ride a two-wheel bike without training wheels! CONGRATS TREVOR!