Trains, Covered Bridges, and a Noisy Ride Home

Last weekend I went down to Oregon to collect my little truck...

My friend I-fan came along for the voyage and to collect some stuff she had ordered from a US store that had arrived.

The plan was to take public transport down to the big town in Oregon near where the little truck was, on Saturday; Collect the little truck, stay the night, and then drive back to Vancover on Sunday with a bit of sight seeing and a stop to collect I-fan's stuff.

We decided to take the train... Its been such a long time since I took a train ride :))

It turned out the first leg of the "train ride" was by bus though! From Vancouver to Seattle (just over the boarder in the US) was a regular coach bus. Then there was a break while the train loaded which we used to go get breakfast and a coffee at a nice little cafe near the station. And then the rest of the day was a rather pleasant train ride through the Pacific NorthWest with all the fall colours of the countryside sliding pleasantly by :)

In due course we arrived at our destination and after a phone call or two, we took a cab to a local hotel and then set about finding a suitable dinner. A couple of hours later I heard the distinctive rumble of a V8 engine pull up in front of the hotel and a quick glance out the window confirmed that it was indeed Mike bringing my little truck over.

I hurried down to meet him and did a bit of a walk around the truck ... Niiiice! :)

Anyway, then I drove Mike back to his shop and we had a more thorough  look at all the work he had done. I was very pleased with it...

Then I drove back to the hotel  for the night.

Next morning, we headed off through the local countryside following a little road tour to a few of the local covered bridges...

There are about a half dozen of them in the area and it was just interesting to see them... 

The obvious question that springs to mind about these bridges is "Why cover them?"

And the answer is that without the cover, the bridge would last about 10-15 years, but with the cover they last 80 years or more... And, when these bridges were built, they were actually private business concerns. They were built by private citizens rather than local governments, and there was a small toll for the public to cross them (I read 5c for a horse-and-rider and 3c per head of livestock).

All that aside, we had a nice little tour of the local country side while the little truck got a bit of a run in before setting out on the long drive back North... Actually, its been about four years since I drove any vehicle with more than two wheels, so I was getting a bit of practice too :)

And there were some wild turkeys on the road ... Running for cover too .... I think the US thanksgiving holiday was only a week or two away (Turkey is the traditional main meal I believe!)

The truck was going fine after the little tour, so we got on the big I5 highway and headed North...
The trip went well but the little truck was quite a "handfull" to controll at highway speeds. The truck has such a short wheel-base that steering is very "twitchy". That just means you have to pay attention while driving, but the problem was greatly compounded by the absolutely terrible tires that it had on...
They are big tires with a high sidewall profile, and made from a really hard compound rubber with large lugs... They would be great for driving around in the mud, but they are about the roughest and noisiest things you could put on it and just to add to the challenge, they were quite baddly worn too... Wich all added up to about the worst highway handling possible...
So, I took it fairly slowly and planned to change the tires as soon as I got back to Vancouver.

Another unexpected and interesting experience on the drive North was all the attention from other people that the little truck gets! It actually became a bit of a sport for us... Spotting people in other cars on the highway staring at it.
I got more "thumbs up" and smiles and nods etc. in a few hours than I think I ever got riding my big motorbike with all the flags of the countries Id been to plastered on the panniers.
And whenever we stopped for fuel (which, saddly, was very frequently with the V8 engine!) or food, Id invariably end up in a short conversation with someone every few minutes about the little truck... It was mostly with guys but women also seem to like it and ask about it.
So it seems that my little truck is a "female"... Shes deffinitely "a bit of a flirt" with the boys... They all want to "get to know her" and come trotting over with their toungs hanging out, their eyes a bit wide, and big smiles on their faces... Its quite funny to watch :)

And Ive already had someone ask me if I want to sell it within a day of getting it back to Vancouver!
... But thats not at all why I did the project, and I dont think anyone has any real idea of what it actually cost to get the Bronco back to this kind of condition.
It is of course quite flattering that so many people like the little truck the way I like it, but Im not sure I like all the attention that it generates... Its a pretty repetetive conversation Im always having... "Yeah, its a 72... Yeah 302 V8 engine... Yeah thanks, I like it too..... More than you think it costs"...etc.etc.

No, Im not interested in selling it or even in the complements it gets. (Though those compliments really should go to Mike who did all the restoration work, not me!)
Ill just be happy to use it as my winter transport and tinker away on it for quite a while I think :)

About that little Truck...

Its been a while since I posted about it, but you might remember that I bought a beaten up little 4WD truck a couple of years back, with the intent of "restoring/renovating" it...
But, that was before I headed off South on my second motorcycle "odyssey".
Since then , the little truck has gone through a couple of "phases"...
Before I bought it, the poor little fellow was languishing in someones large back yard and being used by teenaged sons to "mess around in the mud". As far as I can tell, the last time the truck was officially registered for use on the road was back in 2001. After I bought it, the first phase was a little different to how it had been treated before because it was now "left alone" but still out in the same back yard. And it got no further attention till I came back from my long riding trip about a year later.





At that point, I spent a day doing some really basic and rough work just to get the little fellow running again. But there were significant problems with it, and I really didnt feel I could successfully drive it back to Vancouver without breaking down and then having to tow it... So, at that point I decided to enlist some local professional help to do the big mechanical and body work down in Oregon rather than up in Canada.
What I wanted to do with the little truck was basically a full "body off frame" restoration (in order to get rid of the inevitable rust patches after 40 years in the Pacific NorthWest), and even though this is a small, simple, old vehicle, I knew that this was going to be hundreds of hours of work that I was going to have to pay for... And I felt I really needed to earn some money before I started in on this big project...

And that was over a year ago.
And so, after I rode back North to Vancouver I got myself a contract job and then started working on the motorbike project through the winter and since then the big house renovation project and then the table top too...
And the little truck lived much the same life as it had for the previous year... Languishing in a back yard (although now it was in a different back yard).


... and so, working I have been...


But, earlier this year (In the Spring), I called up the workshop where the truck was waiting and I gave Mike (the professional ) the go-ahead to start working on it... And "work on it" he did!!!

First thing to happen was they rolled it into the big workshop and took off the old cab top... It was rusty and dented but fixable, but I had decided that I wanted it changed to the "half cab" version. So, the guy doing the work did some research and found a disused original steel half cab (much better and more authentic than the fibreglass after-market versions). So, the bolts were undone, and off came the old top and the new one was fitted on to see how it looked...

And sure enough, I like it better than with the old full cab :))

But that was just a trial fitting, and then the top came off a gain and they really went to work.

The rear tire carrier was removed and the holes were welded and patched.

And the auxiliary fuel-tank filler was removed and patched.

And the passenger side engine bay panels were rebuilt to fix extensive localised rust (presumably from spilled battery acid over the years).

 And then the body was removed from the frame and all the removable doors and panels were seperated and all the paint  was ground off, and the little dings and dents were patched and filled.

And the mechanicals of the suspension and chassis were given a going over too.
Its a V8 engine of almost 5litre capacity (Ford Widsor 302 "small block") with a three speed automatic (that was in very bad condition). I decided that I reallly didnt like the old auto transmission, and I comitted to paying $5000 for a new specially designed substitute 5-speed manual gearbox.

And then the engine got a going over... It was working OK but it was "rough" and you know how it goes with reno' projects of any sort... One thing leads to another and you may as well do this extra job while your doing the other stuff... etc...
So, the motor got its share of attention... Though the only major work it needed was a new competition cam cos the old one had a flattened lobe.

And then the body and the panels were ready for primer...

And then it was time for paint... I decided I wanted a dark but "deep" blue, and it took me quite a while to find a colour that I really liked. I just watched cars on the street till I found one that I liked in different weather conditions (Cloud and sun effect the appearance so much I find). It is a Toyota colour called "Indigo Ink Pearl".

And then it was time to bolt it all back together.
The whole process had taken well over six months by a professional shop, and unfortunately for me it had taken a lot more time and a lot more replacement parts than I had hoped (and than Mike the professional restorer had expected too), and that all added up to lots more cost.
I had initially hoped that I could do a basic restore for about $10K or so, but Mike had corrected me early on that it would definitely be more than that...Like probably TWICE that much!
It turned out to be even  "significantly more" than that! and I have to admit that I was quite stressed by the accumulating costs and felt that I probably made a mistake undertaking this project through a professional... Even though it was undoubtedly going to be a "top notch" job and Id get all the big fixing done in the one effort....rather than spending several years with the car alternately on and off the road etc.
But, what can ya do once you've got half way through the project?... You carry on and finish it of course :) ...

So, after monthly calls with Mike and monthly visa bills that always made my eyes water!, it was DONE!
And this is what that little truck looks like after all that work...

 The pictures dont do the colour justice, but in short Im "very" happy with it.

 Pretty much every lead and wire and hose in the engine bay as well as all the auxiliary systems like power steering, brake master unit, and alternator have been rebuilt or replaced new. But its still a pretty "Plain Jane" engine bay with the original "points" ignition system and old four barrel Webber carby... Nothing fancy in there.

And the interior of the cab is very rudimentary at the moment... No carpet or radio or liner panels at all, just the bare painted steel cab... I find I quite like it, and I think Ill probably keep it largely as it is.
Call it Simple, or Basic, or Utilitarian, or Spartan, or Rustic... you pick   :)

And so, thats the transformation of the little Truck...
And though I didnt end up doing all the work my-self as was the original idea, on review I have to say that I definitely made a good choice to work with Mike from NW-Autofab in Oregon to do the bulk of the work... He did an amazingly good job on it and having gone over the receipts for all the hours worked and the parts replaced,and looked at the quality of his workmanship over the entire vehicle, I have to say that I think I got a real bargain, despite the painfull cost.
And while Im probably never going to undertake another project like this, if I did, I would not hesitate to get Mike involved... I really appreciated what he did for me and the little truck :)


Now I just have to go down to Oregon and get it...

And Now its Shiny Too

Ive continued working on that table top, and with a bit more work than planned I now have a very pretty, flt, smooth , and shiny table top :)

I had quite a few options of how to finish the wood... Oil, Stain, Varnish, Epoxy etc.
I pretty much already knew that I didnt want to sttain the wood since it has a nice rich hue as it is and it will get darker and richer as time passes... Exposure to warmth/heat enhances the yellows in wood, while exposure to UV light enhances the reds... Though too much of either will degrade the wood.
So, the wood would be left its natural colour, but I still had to decide how to seal it.

After due consideration and some consultation with the guys down at the specialty wood shop where I bought the wood, I decided that I would try using an epoxy.
Ive used epoxy quite a lot for bonding things together in all sorts of applications, but this would be my first effort at using it as a coating.
The particular version of epoxy I was going to use is specifically designed for this type of application. It is "food safe", finishes very "hard" (not slightly soft like many epoxys), and shinny (miror like finish), and best of all, it is "self leveling".

So, the theory is that you carefully mix out the right proportions of the two componet liquids, mix them thoroughly together and then pour the resulting clear viscous goo onto the table top (which you have carefully leveled beforehand). spread the goo out over the surface ... and then you just watch and wait!...While it cures.
So, I set the table-top up in my spare room, and carefully leveled it. Then I made sure it was all clean and dust free.
Then I set about mixing up about 2.5 litres of the epoxy. It was easy to measure out but I didnt have quite the right set-up for thorough mixing, and I had to do it in two sb-batches. Anyway, one batch at a time I poured the goop onto the table and spread it around with the brush till it was right to the edge of the table and pretty even all over. Then I brushed over the edges and the epoxy then started to slowly drip off the sides...
That all took just about an hour to complete.
Over the next three hours I would visit the table and check on its progress about once every 15 minutes or so. Initially this was to ensure that the "self-leveling" was going well, but then it focussed more on "dabbing" out the few tiny little bubbles that were not coming out by them selves, and finaly I was just giving the edge a once over with the brush to remove a few "runs" on the sections where there was a bit more dripping.




And then I had to wait another two days before it was cured enough to handle...
At which point I discovered that I had a couple of issues.
First off, there were a few areas near the edge of the table that were a bit rough still and were sunken in from the rest of the level top... It was in areas of the lighter "sap -wood" rather than the "heart-wood", and the more pourous wood had absorbed the epoxy slowly and by the time it had absorbed, the rest of the epoxy was too "set" to flow back into the area and fill the void.
The second issue was that there was a fine swirled sheen on the to p surface of the table... I figured it was just resuidue and that it would "wipe" off, but it wasnt...



On closer inspection I found that it was lots of tiny pinpoint bubbles. Now they were not there when I was watching it set and only appeared once I cleaned the table after three days of curing time!.. I suspect they were little bubbles of the hardener component of the epoxy because I had not mixed it quite well enough.



They were extremely small however and Im sure they would hve quite easily been dealt with by applying a furniture wax on the table top. But that wouldnt fix the rough areas from the other problem, so I decided that a second coat of the epoxy was in order. So, a week later I went through the whole process one more time ... at a cost of about another $100  :)

And this time the finish was much better.



So, I left the epoxy cure for another week and then turned the table over (no mean feat to do by my-self !) and then I varnished the back side just to seal it so that humidity changes effect both the top and bottom surfaces in the same way... So there will be no warping :)
And now the table top is done.

 

I moved it out into the dining area where it is sitting on-top of a smaller dining table that I had.
Im really pleased with how it has turned out, and Im looking forward to finishing the project next Spring/Summer by building the legs for it :)