Build Thread '83 T-top Coupe - Welding Holes in My Rear

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Just think,.......you're in your 40's,....Only 20+ years to go before it'll be like it was last month forever.:nice:

Yes! said the thumb.
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You know.. 20 years ago after saying something like "I wish Friday would hurry up and get here," a old mentor of mine scolded me and said to not "wish my life away." Apparently, I'm supposed to enjoy each day as if it were a gift. And he had a valid point I suppose.. but ya know what? I still look forward to the day I can walk out of the plant knowing I never have to set foot in it again. Ever. EEEEVVVVAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!
 
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You know.. 20 years ago after saying something like "I wish Friday would hurry up and get here," a old mentor of mine scolded me and said to not "wish my life away." Apparently, I'm supposed to enjoy each day as if it were a gift. And he had a valid point I suppose.. but ya know what? I still look forward to the day I can walk out of the plant knowing I never have to set foot in it again. Ever. EEEEVVVVAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!

Maybe one day things will change for you.

Maybe one day, you'll decide to go to work for yourself. Maybe that business will take off like a rocket, and you'll be sitting in December reconciling your checkbook, and see that you have an extra 12 grand profit for that month after all the purchases are made, and the bills are paid. Maybe that'll go on like that for years. Maybe then you'll build cars that you've only dreamed about. You'll dump 50k into some big assed turbo'd drag radial class drag car, and bail on it after you keep blowing it up. Maybe you'll buy some street rod project that you'll spend stupid money on, only to let it sit for 3 years before you bail on it for less than you paid for it.

Then maybe your work will take a turn for the worse when the economy, and housing mkt takes a dump. Maybe you'll keep holding on,...waiting for things to turn around. Maybe you'll neglect important things like taxes, and get the bills paid by the skin of your teeth and your good credit. Maybe when the economy refuses to turnaround, you have to take a job that you really hate, and you dread going to work again on Monday...Maybe you work that job until the economy recovers enough to make one last ditch effort at the old business.

Maybe it goes good for another couple of years.
Maybe it don't.

You decide to get back into the job market,...Maybe you reply to over 85 different job ad's and get no replies....Maybe your too old to get a good job anymore.

Then maybe one day you get another chance, and the job you get is the one that you shoulda had for the last 10 years. Maybe you're so thankful just to have a good job where you are happy, knowing that you do really good work, and that you are providing a service not easily duplicated by somebody else w/o significant training....

Maybe you sit sometimes, and reflect on all of what you just read.......Maybe you'll be glad to be able to go to work on Monday.
 
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Yeah, you are right. It's good to have a good job.

They do refer to it as the grind for a reason though. The thing with my situation is, there's the actual plant, and all of the people who operate the plant.. Then people like me, who fix stuff so the plant can keep running. Making money. MILLIONS of dollars. Then, there's the others. The ones that sit in the office building adjacent to the plant. There are quite literally twice as many people in that building as there are people tending to the money tree, er, plant. There are people who, when they decide they don't want to do their work, simply hire more people. So they can have them do their work for them, while they tell them how to do it. It's insane. Meanwhile, there's a group of people who know jack rabbit about anything in the plant.. but their job is to tell us how to do our job safely. How does that work??? It's a never ending clown show, and all too often has me feeling like this guy who is seated:
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To be honest, it's amazing how many people there are there that make six figure salaries who do absolutely nothing. It's obscene. It just goes to show how much money is in petrochemical business because every year we have record profits while hundreds of useless idiots like the one standing in the pic above do absolutely nothing. Literally.

But, I get to make a good living, do honest work and go home with a clear conscience and provide for my family. That is a good thing.
 
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As for me, I work with idiots. But at least we are a known quantity.

You don't run into a body shop asking for a doctor.

PLUS, there's always a good story to hear after the weekend as long as the people can make bail before Monday.

Even then though, there's rampant gossip on what they got caught for!

Last Monday the other painter didn't show up or call. We had really good conversations about that one. It seems they wouldn't let him use his cell phone while in the drunk tank. LOL

On Tuesday, he was happy as can be though since it was his buddy that got the dui and he only got a public intoxication charge.

So, my job can be a bit challenging at times, but it's so easy to see that things can always be worse than what you have. Then there is the bonus of getting to ridicule the other guy mercilessly when he gets back.

It's a whole different society than most are used to, welcome to my world......:cheers::puke::chair::fuss::banana:
 
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Yeah, you are right. It's good to have a good job.

They do refer to it as the grind for a reason though. The thing with my situation is, there's the actual plant, and all of the people who operate the plant.. Then people like me, who fix stuff so the plant can keep running. Making money. MILLIONS of dollars. Then, there's the others. The ones that sit in the office building adjacent to the plant. There are quite literally twice as many people in that building as there are people tending to the money tree, er, plant. There are people who, when they decide they don't want to do their work, simply hire more people. So they can have them do their work for them, while they tell them how to do it. It's insane. Meanwhile, there's a group of people who know jack rabbit about anything in the plant.. but their job is to tell us how to do our job safely. How does that work??? It's a never ending clown show, and all too often has me feeling like this guy who is seated:
image.jpeg


To be honest, it's amazing how many people there are there that make six figure salaries who do absolutely nothing. It's obscene. It just goes to show how much money is in petrochemical business because every year we have record profits while hundreds of useless idiots like the one standing in the pic above do absolutely nothing. Literally.

But, I get to make a good living, do honest work and go home with a clear conscience and provide for my family. That is a good thing.
It's in the machine shop industry too. The last place I worked was extremely lean, only about 5 people in the office with about 20 on the floor (machinists, sheet metal, saw guy, inspectors, assembly, shipping, etc). And even this company I work for before we merged and moved, there were only 3 office people (quoter, his assistant/recepcionist, and the gm) for the 10 or so of us actually touching parts. Now though, holy :poo:. Between the two companies in the building, and the three shifts, there's only about 20 people on the shop floor, and probably 25 or so in the office (who, btw, drive people crazy cause anytime there's and issue ANYWHERE, they cc every damn person in management even if they had nothing whatsoever to do with the issue). Couple that with all the other "oh lets change how everything works and watch it fail" that's been happening, and I have no idea how those guys actually make money.
 
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I just discovered a little hickie about my new door. the trim piece across the top of the door isn't on Robby. Guess I'll weld up some little holes.
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Yeah, you are right. It's good to have a good job.

They do refer to it as the grind for a reason though. The thing with my situation is, there's the actual plant, and all of the people who operate the plant.. Then people like me, who fix stuff so the plant can keep running. Making money. MILLIONS of dollars. Then, there's the others. The ones that sit in the office building adjacent to the plant. There are quite literally twice as many people in that building as there are people tending to the money tree, er, plant. There are people who, when they decide they don't want to do their work, simply hire more people. So they can have them do their work for them, while they tell them how to do it. It's insane. Meanwhile, there's a group of people who know jack rabbit about anything in the plant.. but their job is to tell us how to do our job safely. How does that work??? It's a never ending clown show, and all too often has me feeling like this guy who is seated:
image.jpeg


To be honest, it's amazing how many people there are there that make six figure salaries who do absolutely nothing. It's obscene. It just goes to show how much money is in petrochemical business because every year we have record profits while hundreds of useless idiots like the one standing in the pic above do absolutely nothing. Literally.

But, I get to make a good living, do honest work and go home with a clear conscience and provide for my family. That is a good thing.
noidea.jpg
 
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Since not much can be done till I access Robby, you'll just have to be satisfied with pictures like this. My new upper radiator hose and new fuel pump. Doesn't seem like much except they're new and I'm doing it without credit, WOOHOO!:banana::cheers:
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Since not much can be done till I access Robby, you'll just have to be satisfied with pictures like this. My new upper radiator hose and new fuel pump. Doesn't seem like much except they're new and I'm doing it without credit, WOOHOO!:banana::cheers:
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I.I.I.I....Just can't do it.

I thought about it, but I can't. I cannot "like" a picture of stock fuel pump and a radiator hose.

You'll forgive me then Dave?

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Friend good,....alone bad....

At least your three boys are there for you though.....they got your back.:rolleyes:
 

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I.I.I.I....Just can't do it.

I thought about it, but I can't. I cannot "like" a picture of stock fuel pump and a radiator hose.

You'll forgive me then Dave?

dqTsAs.gif


Friend good,....alone bad....

At least your three boys are there for you though.....they got your back.:rolleyes:
See Mike, I can like your posts even if they are biting.

You can't blame the other three guys for doing that though, they're what's called "nice people". You should google it sometime.

I think the likes might be more for the fact that I'm doing this with cash instead of credit. At least that's what I would like to believe.

I agree though, the excitement factor is pretty low when all I have to show for progress are a mechanical fuel pump and an upper radiator hose sitting in a box.

I did install a new radio in the truck yesterday, that was exciting. At least to my son, he bought it with money he earned working at sonic over the summer. I've been promising him for a month now to help him do it.

It's nice showing him how to do things like that, researching the wires and such. I think he actually listened to me as well, maybe I'm kidding myself there, but I'll go with it.

BTW, let's hold up the bus for a minute here anyhow. You said you "thought" about liking the post? I don't think I believe you Mike.:nono: What does the finger say?
 
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See Mike, I can like your posts even if they are biting.

You can't blame the other three guys for doing that though, they're what's called "nice people". You should google it sometime.

I think the likes might be more for the fact that I'm doing this with cash instead of credit. At least that's what I would like to believe.

I agree though, the excitement factor is pretty low when all I have to show for progress are a mechanical fuel pump and an upper radiator hose sitting in a box.

I did install a new radio in the truck yesterday, that was exciting. At least to my son, he bought it with money he earned working at sonic over the summer. I've been promising him for a month now to help him do it.

It's nice showing him how to do things like that, researching the wires and such. I think he actually listened to me as well, maybe I'm kidding myself there, but I'll go with it.

BTW, let's hold up the bus for a minute here anyhow. You said you "thought" about liking the post? I don't think I believe you Mike.:nono: What does the finger say?

Remember the little kid on the life cereal commercial?

The one brother says...."Let's give it to Mikey,...he'll eat it." Then the other brother says " He won't eat it, he hates everything"

My name is Mike,....maybe .......that Mikey was me....:chin

Yeah,....when reflecting on the "big picture" I knew that the likes were more than likely signs of approval of what you're doing rather than what you're showing. But hey,...it's the internet. I get to take a pass on the likelihood that I misinterpreted why they were doing the liking. (I'm guaranteeing you that raggedy would've like it if you posted a pic of the hose and pump and didn't say a word.)

"Let's show it to Raggedy,...he'll like it"

He's NOT like Mikey
 
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Remember the little kid on the life cereal commercial?

The one brother says...."Let's give it to Mikey,...he'll eat it." Then the other brother says " He won't eat it, he hates everything"

My name is Mike,....maybe .......that Mikey was me....:chin

Yeah,....when reflecting on the "big picture" I knew that the likes were more than likely signs of approval of what you're doing rather than what you're showing. But hey,...it's the internet. I get to take a pass on the likelihood that I misinterpreted why they were doing the liking. (I'm guaranteeing you that raggedy would've like it if you posted a pic of the hose and pump and didn't say a word.)

"Let's show it to Raggedy,...he'll like it"

He's NOT like Mikey

I'm Not going to "Like" that......

Jerk..:O_o:




:lol::rlaugh::D
 
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Yeah, you are right. It's good to have a good job.

They do refer to it as the grind for a reason though. The thing with my situation is, there's the actual plant, and all of the people who operate the plant.. Then people like me, who fix stuff so the plant can keep running. Making money. MILLIONS of dollars. Then, there's the others. The ones that sit in the office building adjacent to the plant. There are quite literally twice as many people in that building as there are people tending to the money tree, er, plant. There are people who, when they decide they don't want to do their work, simply hire more people. So they can have them do their work for them, while they tell them how to do it. It's insane. Meanwhile, there's a group of people who know jack rabbit about anything in the plant.. but their job is to tell us how to do our job safely. How does that work??? It's a never ending clown show, and all too often has me feeling like this guy who is seated:
image.jpeg


To be honest, it's amazing how many people there are there that make six figure salaries who do absolutely nothing. It's obscene. It just goes to show how much money is in petrochemical business because every year we have record profits while hundreds of useless idiots like the one standing in the pic above do absolutely nothing. Literally.

But, I get to make a good living, do honest work and go home with a clear conscience and provide for my family. That is a good thing.
I work in a similar environment to yours, kind of. I however am on the "office" side of the fence. Yes, fence! It seems there are always two sides of the fence, Office and plant (or laborer) type personnel. Typically each side disagrees with the other side. The "plant" employees at my work are Union, the office is not, which creates a divide. My company I work for is publicly traded on Nasdaq so we are pretty big. Anyways, there are 60+ plant employees and about 20+ office (not including outside sales). In the plant there is shipping/receiving, fab shop, liner crew, setup crew, cement finishers, stripping crew, prep line, painting crew, finish crew, yard crew that operate Mi-Jack cranes and loads trucks. None of these guys/gals would have a dang job if it wasn't for the office AND VISE VERSA. Can't sell product with out outside salesmen, can't have production drawings nor preliminary plans for customer approval with out designers and drafters, can't have state approved drawings without a PE stamped set of drawings so you need an Engineer, how is the building/product going to get from plant to site? You then have a logistics team to get the correct truck that needs to be the correct height to you can clear bridges and the correct weight capacity so you can get through the scales, field operations team to setup local general contractors to install building/product and coordinate cranes, underground utilities and pad prep, electrical/plumbing connections and local inspector visits. Once products is in customers hands final remaining payment is made to accounts receivables, this person also makes sure ALL companies bills are paid for and on time. Let's not forget purchasing which orders all proper materials for all projects, tools, saftey equipment, keep fill etc.

In short, it takes BOTH sides for a business to run. We need you guys and you guys need us. I'm an Engineer and I wear STEEL TOED BOOTS to work everyday and my hard hat is two feet away from me as i'm typing this. I can go out in the plant and do about 90% of the work that's being done right now expect for some of the crane operating like the Mi-Jack. I'm sorry you feel that way about your work and for the others dissing on Engineers that think we all are only book smart but that's not true. I however do have a wet behind the ears fresh out of college Mech. Eng that we hired (not to my liking) and he is an egotistical a-hole that when he gets asked the simplest questions he tells them he'll back to them with an answer shortly, they leave, he looks up an answer on the internet and then attempts to instruct the plant employees on what to do. This is what a $60k degree gets you, internet searches for Engineering support. This guy is your poster child for that picture that @02 281 GT posted except it should say "Google says you're doing it wrong"

Sorry for the long reply, carry on.
 
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