Re: Should I save it. (priorities)

["Eddie Stakes" <eddiestakes@xxxx>]

Hi David, I'm glad to hear of no problems with parents, as I was a AMC
'Rebel' and did a lot of things I am not proud of, from steaing cars to
burglary to larceny to theft.....all before 18. My parents didn't have the
money to bail my stupid ass out of jail every time I got my one phone call.
Dad was making as I mentioned in earlier post, about $156 a week working for
AMC. One thing most fellows your age/generation have a HUGE advantage is
what you typed this email on....a computer. By simply turning the "on"
switch, you have a wonderful opportunity us 'ids of the 70s' did not have!
We had, uh 8Tracks! Yea! Here is a site to annoy many of you (or bring back
fond memories) www.8trackheaven.com .We had, uh, CB radios! Breaker, breaker
good buddy and all that communism. Sure, a case could be made that we had
'musclecars' but even our brute strength can't comprehend some of the 200mph
street machines of today, or even getting 400hp our of a four cylinder! To
me, if if ain't a 8, well, it is a driver!

But back to the cars.....I wished I could somehow go back in time and simply
'watch' and 'listen' to what all my dad, Homer T. Stakes SR, who is now 76
years old, his driving days and AMCing days have long since past, I wished I
would have simply listenen to him and learned his knowledge. This was my
very first Javelin, actually I BOUGHT the car for $600 a little red/red Mark
Donohue 360/AT. And this is big brother Tommy and dad pulling the engine
from it after I uh, dumped some cans of STP oil treatment in it, instead of
simply changing a gasket, my thought/reasoning was that the damned oil would
not drip out so fast of the engine if it was thicker, duh. Well, not shown
here was a hole in the engine also where a piston didn't want no mo STP:
http://www.planethoustonamx.com/Photo_Gallery_AMX/images/1976javelintranspla
nt_jpg.jpg

Sure wished I would have watched and learned even simple things that day
like motor mounts, dropping a driveshaft, that annoying ground cable from
engine to frame, and so on. I would learn it later but sure could have saved
a lot of money down the road by just observing. John Mellencamp has a line
in a wonderful song called "minutes to memories" I believe the line is "I've
done it my way and paid a high price" sort of like Frank Sinatra!

But what is impressive is that in your letter below, you already have seemed
to have evaluated each vehicle. And no, there is noting wrong with being
impatient. However! As a dad (and I never saw myself as a 'father' believe
me) who now at 44 has 7 kids, and 2 grandkids, I have had to relearn all
sorts of things......AGAIN, with these two little ones.
Like patience. Kiddie songs. Bible stories. Names of those hideous looking
Telletubbie things I can't understand what the hell they are saying
(tinky winky, dipsy, lala and po for you keeping track!), new formulas and
food that were not even invented yet when Jennifer was born in 1978. So as
was mentioned above, life will be a learning experience, and you have a
awesome head start on many things like, well, the computer!

And while dad may be concientious and maybe a little greedy(?) for lack of a
better term on what you may or may work on, there has to be a reson behind
it, and as usual, it will be for the better. But you also might want to
point out to him that 'you would love to take your driving test' in a AMC
powered vehicle in a year or two! This might make him realize that time is
indeed of the essence, and maybe ya'll can jump on one of them that would be
a nice daily driver, not a racecar, but driver, something not only you can
take the test, but also he can drive around with you teaching you traffic
safety (if you don't already know!) and later, something YOU can drive alone
to school in, not the old SUV, not the Toiletota, but a AMC, and you can
tell your buds that YOU built it, a real pride of ownership thing you know,
again, good luck with your studies, and projects, thanks for reading.
Eddie Stakes'
Planet Houston AMX
website crashed last night when I was working on it, some files are still
down and have to be reloaded, hey, another learning experience!
----- Original Message -----
From: "David G." <servermaster13@xxxx>
To: <BaadAssGremlins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: [BaadAssGremlins] Re: Should I save it. (priorities)


> Okay, well, I don't know about anyone else, but my
> eyes sting after reading that. I was so tuned into
> that writing of yours Eddie, that I didn't blink while
> reading it. You are very right. However, unlike most
> would think, I don't have problems with my parents. At
> all. Nor anyone in my family. School isn't that much
> of a burden. I don't have that busy of a life. Hell, I
> wake up, go to school, come home, eat, hop on the PC
> for a while, because I'm trying to get it finished.
> Once the PC is out of the way, and I have some cash to
> put towards a car, or my Dad buys the carb for his
> race car or something I can do comes along, I'll come
> home, and work on one of those projects. About our 4
> AMCs. 1 is my Dad's strip/nice day car. It is a 75
> Gremlin X 304, and usually at this time it is in
> storage.. well, it is now too, only its outside for
> its winter storage for the first year since hes owned
> it. The Donohue.. well, thats sitting outside on a
> trailer. That needs a lot of work. Too much to list. I
> don't know too much about the car, except since we've
> owned it, it hasnt gotten worked on a whole lot. Sorry
> to say. That car is also my Dads, and he doesnt want
> me screwing with it. I don't want me screwing with it
> ethier, and his Gremlin, doesn't need work, except
> maybe vaccum it out, which I'll do sooner or later,
> maybe when its nicer out, as it is in storage and not
> going anywhere. his strip car, a 70 Javelin SST, needs
> work that cant be done to it without cleaning off the
> whole car which is covered in both dust and tools and
> stuff, and then cleaning it out of all the boxes of
> stuff. The left rear fender needs a bit more body
> work. I forget what he did to the fenders but he had
> to modify them to get the slicks to fit, so he needs
> to finish up the driver side. The interior needs to be
> sealed off from the trunk, and the engine needs a
> smaller carb, and the rear end needs to be rebuilt.
> Mod the axle for racing and new gears and a locker.
> Then go around and fill in the holes and prime it, and
> it wouldn't look too bad going down the track. Theres
> only a few things I can help out with on that car, and
> I've already begun to clean it off and what not, but
> he stopped work on it because he needed a certain
> tool, and when he got it, it was too cold in the
> garage to be working, and eventually he got more
> involved with his job, working alot of OT and put the
> project on the side for a while.. 6 years I think so
> far. Then my car.. needs to be disassembled, both
> engine, and interior, and it needs body work and an
> exhaust and engine rebuild to get it back on the road,
> but if I'm gonna go that far, I might as well go
> further and get it painted, the seats reapolstered,
> carpet cleaned(I hope I wont need to replace it, I'm
> aiming for original here, and its in good condition,
> just dirty). But I don't know how much of that I can
> start doing now. I can do things like battery tray and
> vaccum the carpet again. But the carpet really needs
> to be pulled out and thoroughly cleaned and I don't
> have the money for a battery tray at the moment. The
> body work can't be done until its warmer, so meanwhile
> it will have to wait. It's waited 11 years, I've had
> to wait maybe 11 months so far, and I'm just too
> impaitient. So thats really why I haven't done much to
> any of the cars so far. Oh, and a place to work on the
> cars would be nice. Our driveway is occupied, our
> garage is narrow, we lost our other garage where our
> cars were stored.. my grandfather lost his job for
> having his stuff on the 2nd floor of the parking
> garage, cause he really wasnt suposed to be storing
> his stuff there, and we used to keep our cars there as
> well. Things will clear up and get better from here.
>
> =====
> D.G. 713
>
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