60Patrol

Well, let me tell you what he HASN'T been up to... He hasn't been working on his Nissan Patrol projects. At all.

He did take a road trip out to Cailfornia, to hang a canvas top on a friend's Patrol (I guess that counts) And then, kid #1 decided she wanted to start racing her little Mazda Miata (they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree), and despite Dad's warnings and cautions about how every car that gets put on a racetrack, eventually ends up being drug home on a trailer, she went for it. (side-note: Check out that ULTRA COOL hot rod parked behind her. At least THAT GUY has the sense to keep his classic car off a racetrack) So:
and... (of course):
Followed by:
And Mazda Miata engine being strewn about my workshop (shed? work-shed?)

Hey Look! a Nissan Patrol bumper in the foreground:
At least on this project, all I had to do was supervise (mostly) while the teenagers did (most of) the work

It does a father proud to see his baby girl with a grinder in her hands (and with gloves sitting on the ground RIGHT NEXT TO HER... WTH? Yeah, I chewed her pretty royally for that)

And since it looked like my 25 year old trailer was going to start getting more miles put on it towing around little japanese micro-cars, I decided it was time to give it some love...So I tore it down, and replaced all the bent, bowed, and sagging braces (and lifted the deck about 6 inches in the process, so that even a Mazda Miata door can clear the trailer fenders now, so we won't have to go all "Dukes of Hazard" style out the driver's window when we load up the car.

Also welded on a winch mount, since you know... broken cars (even tiny ones) are still a royal pain to push onto a trailer.
Some new lumber, new wiring and lights, a coat of gray paint, and some fancy aluminum ramps, and that trailer is ready to go another 25 years (I hope)

And, since welding and fabricating trailers is hard work, and makes one hungry, I took some of my old junk air compressor tanks, and made myself an offset smoker (because nothing tastes better after restoring a trailer, like some good Carolina-style pulled pork)
and, since that Miata engine project would have gone a LOT smoother if the car hadn't been on jackstands, with us laying underneath it on a creeper, I figured it was finally time for the one tool that every home automotive workshop/shed needs, in order to be complete... but first I had to break the welder back out and modify the steel truss to provide the necessary overhead clearance. I had to add a new horizonal brace, so that I could cut a notch in the bottom of the truss, to allow the necessary 13 feet of overhead clearance.
and I had to level the old concrete floor in my tin shed (Look! Nissan Patrol parts in the background)
and then we (finally) installed my 4 post lift. My nephew came over to help with that (yeah, that's him on the right, "helping")

But aside from that , there hasn't hasn't been much going on lately....

So much for morning accomplishments, what did you work on in the afternoon?

All kidding aside, the most memorable is the time spent with family and friends....working solo doesn't really create lasting memories.
Keith

Awesome that you’re helping your son with his racing endeavors. Your shop looks amazing. Hope the BBQ skills are on par!

zed wrote: the most memorable is the time spent with family and friends....working solo doesn't really create lasting memories.

true words...

Eventually, maybe I'll get these kids to the point that THEY can restore my Patrols, while I kick back with a beer, and tell them what to do next...

Esteban wrote:Awesome that you’re helping your son with his racing endeavors. Your shop looks amazing. Hope the BBQ skills are on par!

Daughter, actually... but yes- she is learning that even hobby-racing is not exactly "cheap"... I figure this might help inspire her to pick a good school, and a good major, because mom and dad aren't picking up the tab for racecar repairs, hahah...


My BBQ skills are improving gradually. I enjoy experimenting with different spice rubs, and bbq sauce recipes from around the world.

And just as the weather starts heating up you'll have time to work on the Patrol.

RiverPatrol wrote:And just as the weather starts heating up you'll have time to work on the Patrol.

EXACTLY....

{Sigh}

Do any of you remember when I USED to work on Nissan Patrols....?

Well, my days as a Nissan Patrol guru have been superseded by my recent foray into being a Mazda Miata guru.

My daughter, aka: the "apple that doesn't fall far from the tree" bought her little 95 Miata to do some track days with, then blew up the engine twice within 6 months, and then decided that racing actually WAS really expensive... Just like her old man told her it was... Of course, back then, she was still smarter than me, and knew for a fact that she was never going to blow up the engine, or hit the marbles and spin off into the tires...

Anyway... She decided that since she was retiring her Miata from its long, illustrious 8-month hot lapping career, that we had to make it beautiful again, and so, Once again, the Patrol projects were put on ice, and my workshop was absconded by the teenage brigade...

As with all projects, it had to begin with the sanding (and you all KNOW how I feel about sanding)... The dread of sanding is why my Patrol projects all take 10 years to complete. There's 2 months of actual work (1-1/2 months of which is sanding) surrounded by 9 years and 10 months of dread about sanding...)


But this time, THEY were the ones sanding... All I had to do was wave my well-trained fingers over the car every once in a while, and say: " Nope, too wavy- stop pressing so hard, and keep going..." (It was very cathartic)
and then came the priming, and a little repair on a few low spots... Followed by more sanding...:

and then, we sprayed (actually I sprayed... She chickened out at the last second)
And after spraying, and re-assembling came.... MORE SANDING! WOOOO!

and then cutting and buffing, and then... DONE.
The color is the original Montego Blue that car wore from the factory
And then, She cleaned up the interior and made it all pretty (keeping the weekend racecar seats and theme intact...


It actually is a pretty cool little car... I barely fit in it (and I'm 5'8) but for a 5'4, 20 year old girl, it's a sweet little sled, and she gets a lot of attention from the ricer-crowd at the weekend car shows...