Welcome to my Work and Hobbies Entrance Page

Welcome
to my
Work and Hobbies
Entrance Page

NOTE: May take a few moments to load because it is picture intense.
Thank you for patience and taking a couple of minutes to visit with me... (smile)

Links box of my old car hobbies at the bottom of the page plus more. Updated July 12, 2008

Well this section of my site is going to be under construction for some time and is a work in progress. I'm hoping you'll enjoy this little bit of memory lane and I'd like to share some of my work experiences and some of the old cars I've played with and fixed up thru the years. Also, below will be a link's box section of the antique cars, & some I now have for sell/trade... I'm afraid my disability has taken it's toll and I'll not be able to fix up these oldies as I once did... Boy I sure do miss that let me tell you.... (smile) Here is the newest picture of my trusty pal, Panda Bear and me.

Pix taken in June 2006

Here are a few work pictures to start off with. I began my 32 year run as a Boilermaker working at the U. S. Steel Works in Gary, Indiana back in 1965. I served as an apprentice for 5 years until becoming a Master Craftsman Boilermaker. I accomplished this at the Coke Plant there in Gary. The picture on the left is a coke oven battery and you can see all the doors and the walkway with the coke guide machine which opens the doors and then moves down and lines up the guide with the door. Once everything is lined up the pusher ram machine which is on the other side of the coke oven battery pushes the coke thru and it falls into this transfer car... My job, by the way was to keep all of these machines, (the hopper cars, the pusher ram, coke guide, and the transfer car plus all the belt lines, storage tanks, hoppers, and all aspect of the plant in repair...

In the second picture on the right you can see a laborer replacing the lid on one of the holes after the hopper car had charged (filled) them with coal. The green smoke was a killer, let me tell you and the man working on top wore wooden shoes. When welding support rods or repairing gas mains we had to wear wooden shoes or our boots would melt... I do remember getting large blisters on my ears from working in between the gas mains... I worked for U. S. Steel for 8 years before moving to Kentucky and joining
Local 40 Boilermakers...

The coke oven battery in operation.

Coke is being pushed thru the oven and into the car. From there it goes to the a water quencher and then to be processed.

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Below: Yea that is yours truly working at Armco steel in Ashland, Ky. It was over 120 degrees down in that hole and we worked in the asbestos (the white insulation in the ring) for 2 weeks before OSHA came in and made them clean it up. As you can see by the light bulbs it wasn't a very large hole... (smile)

I'll have some more Boilermaker pictures on another page and link from the gallery button.

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They're about all gone now and being torn down.

This is the top of a coke oven battery. We had to wear wooden shoes over our boots when working to keep your feet from burning up.

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If your trying to read the name on my hat is says, 'Sweet Pea'. Yea, that was my nick name for over thirty years. I was working at Ghent Electrical Power when this picture was taken. The welding technician had me working on this piece of special stainless for over 3 months. I was the only one he would allow to weld on here and I welded every single seam by myself. They had to 100% x-ray it and it had to be perfect...
Yea, I was known as a golden arm...

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Getting ready to weld some tubes for the wet bottom at Shawnee Power in Paducah. Had to reach thru while laying on your side and weld.
Yea, 10 hours of fun in the sun... LOL

The above picture on the left is the one I'm going to tell you about. This picture was taken in Centertown when Local 40 built the powerhouse. The beams you're looking at are around 200 feet above the ground and they are 6" and 8". If you fell there was nothing but air to the ground. As it happened I was out there on the steel and a jib (crane arm) was on the corner of the building. The operator was on the ground and a fellow boilermaker talked to him on a phone line dropped over the side of the building to his control shack. The worker on the ground would hook up a 5' x 10' x 1/8th sheet of steel and the operator would then bring it up the building and swing it across to me. I in turn would grab the metal and guide it down thru the hole and two men would set the steel sheet in place. The phone man would try and keep the metal about 2 inches off the structure because the wind would sometime whip the metal around and it could get really dangerous for the fella guiding it down which in this case was yours truly.

Well the phone went dead on one of the trips and the operator, not hearing anything to the contrary kept the sheet of steel coming to me. Bubba Ensor was the phone man that day and he was screaming into the phone to stop but it kept on coming. I had nowhere to run so I grabbed the sheet and hung on for all I was worth. Fortunately the metal bowed but kept creeping up the steel work where my feet were. (see pix. it's only about a foot high where I was standing) It was within a whisper and I was hanging on at about a 45degree angle when the operator on the ground noticed that he had gone further than before and not being able to see he stopped and waited to find out what was going on. Another 1/4 inch and that sheet would have thrown me right off the top of the building... Anyway, the phone started working again and Bubba got the operator to back it up. As soon as I got straightened up I politely trotted off the steel to the side and told everyone good day and I came home. And Bubba, well he chucked that phone right off the top of the boiler... LOL Yes sir, that was one close call... I did fall later, on a job in Maryland and ended up in a hospital in Prince Federick and was off work for about 5 months but that's another story... Here is the view from the corner of building. looking straight down you can see the operator's shack (left picture)... I'm here today because of an alert operator. Both pictures were taken from the top of the boiler where I was working. Right one has a beautiful view of the Kentucky country side...

Was heli-arc welding stainless tube ends in that little plastic shack. It was bitter cold and we had a oxygen/acetylene gas cutting outfit to keep us warm and argon and welding fumes to breath. We had to keep the tent sealed to keep the wind from contaminating the argon and causing porosity which would make the tube bust out on the x-ray... Needless to say this was terribly unhealthful and sent several welders to the hospital. This was next to my last job before becoming totally disabled... Thanks to the 6 weeks of 6/10's I finished off my lungs and now have Toxic Chronic Bronchitis. Yea, I love my job.... (smile)

More work pictures coming. When I get them the gallery link will work... Check back OK?

Well Enough about work for now. How about some ole cars to brighten our day?

Yea I painted this back in '91' or '92' (my mind doesn't work as well as it once did) But don't tell anybody cuz I'm trying to keep it a secret. LOL It was a midnight blue and the paint had blown off the hood and some places on the top. Ford had a lousy paint back then. So I picked out a Dodge Royal blue and put some metal flake in it and painted the top half. I ran out of paint and ended up mixing a lighter shade of blue and faded it in but the bottom didn't look just right so I took some odds and ends paint and when I got it all mixed up it turned out to be this Aztec pink.
So I just called the truck my; "Blue, Blue, Pink Truck" LOL

Well here are a couple of before and after pictures I've found of cars I've painted when I was in between Boilermaker jobs and not doing the horses...

Yea it took me awhile on that Escort... In the background is an old wagon with the Bar-K-Ranch Logo... Made it look like a sign on top of the car... LOL

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This next one didn't take as long... It was my everyday truck. My 1984 Dodge was midnight blue first and I painted it Royal blue and got tired of that so I two toned in Royal blue and Mauve. Bet I had a quarter inch of paint on that truck by the time I traded it in for the 91 Ford. No way could it have rusted... I did have to put in three different motors and a couple of transmissions. Pulled a camper to the job sites and run the wheels off of her...

This next few pictures were taken in July of 2008 *smile*

And now for something very special thanks to my good buddy Steve.

To watch a short clip of my riding the motorcycle and panda chasing me to the barn.

Yea, both Panda Bear and I are hams... LOL

WOW! I've been having so much fun reminiscing I forgot about the length of this page.
So, I'll just place a box of links to some of the old cars I'm working on and to have for sale below. Plus take the sport car quiz about what kind of spot car you would be. And I have a few oldies music links below too. Lots and lots of stuff... LOL

The Oldies Restoration & Progress Pages!

1. 1956 Buick Special Updated Mar. 3, 2008	2. 1960 Ford 1/2 ton Pickup Updated Mar. 3, 2008	3. '1949' Chrysler 4 door
4. 1949 Chevy Dump Truck Finished and Going down the Road Mar. 2008 & For Sale!	5. 1974 Dodge 1ton Dully Nov.06, 2007	6. 1950 Chevy 4dr Sedan Finished and Going down the Road Feb.2008 & For Sale!
7. '51' Red Belly Ford Tractor	8. 1929 Model A Ford Pickup For Sale; For my son, Scott	9. coming soon
	~ More to Come ~

Check below and see what kind of sport's car you are... It tells what I am below the picture...
It's fun! *smile*

For you dirt track racing car enthusiasts; Beautiful Todd County, Kentucky's very own:
Hillbilly Race Way
Check it out!

Check out My Dot Spot for your
Internet Dial Up Service Provider. Great service and prices.

I'm a Ford Mustang!