Hey Guys! Long time no talkie!
The last few years have been a really, really, REALLY interesting bunch of years. I last posted in June 2012. I have been battling Ex's, neighbors, co-workers... I have moved 3 times in a year which included being screwed over by said co-worker, costing me thousands of $$. I have taken up a new hobby that involves hitting targets really far away (think 1k yards+). I have started a small home business to help fund that hobby and provide a service to my local group of shooters, but through it all... there has been the Locost.
After my encounter with poison oak in June 2012, I took the summer off and waited for the heat to subside. We had an amazing batch of thunder/wind storms come through and somehow my TIG welder got zapped. Price new... $1100 Quote to repair... $950!! So now I am without a welder and still have a frame to finish welding. Sigh!
The ex took that time to drain the "fun" account dry... she'd been watching my musings on-line and used that against me again (this woman needs to get a life!!). My atty suggested that I pause everything on-line, so here, FB, Myspace, Yahoo.. everything stopped. I literally turned off the computer/phone and went away for a while. I'm sorry to have disappeared so quickly as I now see there were a couple of messages I didn't get, but I really didn't have a choice if I wanted to keep my sanity and myself from doing something that usually results in jail time!
That next spring life was getting back to normal, I was offered a chance to buy a house. Nice old (1895) 3 acre 3400 sqft farm house. I instantly had dreams of a beautiful house, with a HUGE barn/shop. Oh... it was going to be grand!!! It needed work... Mom (his mother had died in the house) was a pac rat and he couldn't ever bring himself to clean it. So several months were invested and in Nov 2013, after months of cleaning, repairing and updating the basics and making the house livable.. I moved in. 3 weeks later he (encouraged by his psycho wife (documented)) decided that they really couldn't have someone living in Moms house (her ghost was unsettled (her words)) and asked us... me and my 14yo son.. to leave. Yes.. we had a contract and everything, but in the backwards state of NC, no court is going to make him follow through on it and I would have either had the neighbor from hell (they lived next door to Mom) or lost the house and $$ fighting it to only recoup the $$ spend fixing it up, so I moved back out (Still in pending litigation)....
I spent 8mo feeling sorry for myself while my son and I lived in my friends basement. I have found that I really hate being beholden to someone for my lodgings. I'll never, ever be the roommate again!! I eventually found a suitable house (read 1300sq ft open basement w garage door in addition to the 2 car garage upstairs!!) and moved once again! Now, don't get me wrong, I could have moved the next week or so, but I never realized just how hard it is to find a house with a garage that holds more than one car. They really don't exist around these parts in the price range I as a single parent, child support paying adult can afford!
While all the moving dust has long settled, the Locost has been sitting in the middle of this wonderful space while I have been deluged with projects from the new hobby (tactical long range shooting) and starting a new biz, Cerakoteing firearms (ceramic paint - tough as nails and hundreds of colors). It works for automotive uses too, so this might just work out!!
So that brings you to today. I have a new outlook at life. The ex can go stuff herself in a suitcase and get mailed. I'll never let her control my life again. I have a new job that I love... Chief Lab Rat of an R&D lab. Tinkering and playing all day making things from nothing. Perfect for me! I have met a wonderful lady that reminds me that a 2 seater needs to have someone better looking than me (not hard) in the other seat!! So with that said....
I don't know what happened, but the other day something sparked and all I want to do now is work on the Locost! Like that is a bad thing, huh? I started dusting off all the old boxes of parts. Wiped down the frame and seats. Dug out the engine/trans. Started putting bits where they should be... and damn... I realized that I'm about 65% done with this damn thing!
So now I have to step back for a moment and collect my thoughts (which have not involved a Locost for some time) and get my head back into the building game. I now have access to a complete manufacturing fabrication shop, so in addition to a new welder that is Alum capable, getting metal for free (Scrap stainless sheet) or cost on sheets of what ever, and access to a real shop with 3ft spot welders, tubing & rod benders, 200ton press breaks, CNC turret punches and 9ft 150t shears. I think I'm going to take a little step backwards and rethink a couple of things that I always wanted to do differently, but never had the skills or tools to do. These cars are always compromises and mine has been on the wrong end of a lot of them. I'm taking it back!!!
I'm sorry for the length of the drivel here today. It felt good to get it all out and helped to get me back in to a building mind. Reading all the old threads, seeing all the old names was great. I've missed you guys!!!
So, it'll be slow while I get it all back into gear, but....
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Never become a pessimist. A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.-Robert A. Heinlein