30 Years....whoa!

            Time flies when your having fun, one minute your graduating university and getting married, the next your back at the spot where you said "I do" thirty years later to recreate your wedding photos!

With the help of the expert Poppy Morrish of  Wild Poppy Photography we had a fantastic day skiing and laughing and enjoying a surreal moment in time 30 years later

    

Michelle sit fit her dress.....my tux was a little less forgiving, but fortunately the love is stronger than ever. Here's hoping that in another 30 years at 82 we can do it again for the 60th anniversary!

Spring has sprung in the rockies......which means one day your looking for a tee time, the next day your looking for a snow shovel! It also means all the university students are finishing exams for the year so that means I get to spend more time with my kids!<3

The ladder mounting continues. When I had the ladder made I was pretty loosey-goosey with how it was going to be mounted and had them fabricate the ladder using the body of another clipper as a working template. The fact that things are as good as they are is a testament to their attention to detail.

So I needed to become creative in a mounting option that also allows the quick and relatively frequent unmounting with ease 

So I fabricated two mounting platforms that will bolt onto the back. The ladder will then bolt down to the platforms with knurled finger bolts 

 

Being Married for 30 years is one achievement, but having a set or Sorel winter boots for 30 years is some sort of record. The boot tops long since ripped/melted/wore out, so I cut the top off and used them as, what Cecil Smith used to refer to as, pee rubbers.......its a Thompson/setting lake thing.....if you have to ask you don't want to know. But after time....it was time. In Michelle's opinion it was time 10 years ago but....I'm stubborn. NONE THE LESS! I bought new shop shoes....and they are even steel toed!

A step up

Back in 2016...ish, I was convinced that my work shop could be shared. By 2017 I had gotten the boot. Half of my shop had been taken over for a family gym area, and the sharing of the space wasn't working for either area me or the exercise area. So between that and a desire not to lay on the ground outside when working on Fillmore, I created a storage/work space for my shop and Fillmore. So you can probably appreciate then my trepidation when I come home from work and find someone

 "sharing" my work space. I will admit it is for woodworking/painting project which does fall into the 'dog house' mission statement.

Although admittedly I was a little disappointed she was drinking neither hot coffee or cold beer. 

None the less, my work continues on the ladder installation. I have mapped out where it will be situated.

Next was creating mounting gaskets/pads

A wee challenge as the mounting foot is flat and the surface is curved. I ended up making a multi layer wedged footing and shaping it with good ol' sandpaper.

 

The easiest way to access the underside was through the top. The ladder is mounted to the skin....the body panel, but it is unsupported. As soon as you put significant weight on the ladder the skin will deflect (and bend) if not supported from underneath.

Getting my upper body in there was a wee bit comical. Although I just about slid down onto the engine at one point, this was actually a stable balance position...

In the end I got a really compact and super stable support.

Which I then celebrated with a hot cuppa joe and CBC classical music!

Next will be doing a double support for the bottom of the top section and the top of the lower hinged section.....stay tuned.

The house that is never finished...

 I used to shake my head in wonder how someone could build a house and then for years seem to stall out finishing it by leaving small jobs undone! But here I am! And now I'm "that guy". The more we use the bus there less I feel there is an urgent need to get done.....or better put the less I'm willing to keep Fillmore out of commission due to a job started but not finished.

Not wanting to sound like I'm making excuses but I also have spent a great deal of time this past few months rebuilding the upper end of the 1970 VW bug engine which will be our tow vehicle

It was basically a big game of leggo, take pieces apart, put them back together again....albeit with a lot of new pieces that weren't cracked or warped.

And in the end have a functional little gem!

It was a little challenge to get it from the work shop to my garage where the beetle is on the lift, but I managed with a little standing in the sun and thinking about it.

Meanwhile as I was cleaning up the workshop making space for whatever comes next.....I thought...."its time, time to see what this will look like. So I built a platform to help me reach up and position the ladder for the back end of Fillmore.

I have some wiggle room as to where I can mount things, but it has become evident that it cant just hang on the skin. I will have to develop an internal support mechanism to transfer the load onto the frame.

After a lot of humming and haw-ing.....I think I have a plan. Not concrete yet but lets say a soft road map of action.