Nick's Transformation Of His Mustang Ranch
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This is where it all started, the home of Manic Mechanic Wekiva. After the death of our '98 Jeep Wrangler, which Nick had just gotten done rebuilding a month or two earlier, we took the insurance money and purchased Nick's '67 Mustang. Ann, Nick and I went to check it out... Well, Nick checked over the car while Ann and I watched. He looked it over and under and everywhere else. Then the question, "What do you think?" It was a 200 cu in inline six, so my answer was, "If you're looking for a V8, then I think you should keep looking." Well, obviously the search was over...
This is the condensed version, mainly since the Mustang has moved a number of times since then. First to our new home in Mount Dora, where Nick bought one of those "temporary" carport tent thingies to put it under since the car really wasn't weathertight anymore. He tried his hand at repairing the rusted sheet metal he found every time he removed something else. The deeper he went, the more he found needed replaced. He soon found that every time he needed to get under the car, it was mud, not dirt under there.
The Original Mustang Ranch...
That prompted the move to the original Mustang Ranch, a commercial space Nick rented, larger than a two car garage with high ceilings. The first thing was to add some air conditoning... Well, actually, the first thing was to get the electrical working. It seems the other hot of the single phase 240v wasn't working. We made some "modifications" to the electrical panel and got it all working. He fashioned a frame to mount the body shell to so he could "tilt" it up off of the frame to work on the floor pan. Eventually he added another Mustang during his stay there, a '72 or '73 Mach One, I can't remember which.
The Now One And Only Mustang Ranch...
Finally we moved them to the now one and only Nick's Mustang Ranch, their current home. He bought a house of his own with a big two car garage and an attached single car garage! Over time he added a lift to the detached two car garage. I've helped him when I could, but he's really very self sufficient. I am very proud of Nick. He has stuck with it and continually progressed on his '67, albeit with other things taking priority over it at times. He is doing what I only wished I could do when I was his age... Talk about living vicariously through your children!
Over time, he's made quite a few improvements to both his ranch and his house. The biggest, most involved improvement by far has been refinishing his wood floors throughout the entire house, save the kitchen, because sometimes people shouldn't be allowed to do their own remodelling... As in previous owner(s). There was, and still is, some seriously stupid floor covering work in the kitchen. The kind with linoleum and tar and God knows what else. The kind that hours and hours with a heat gun and a scraper can only put a dent in removing. But I digress...
The most benificial improvement, and the one with the biggest impact on both the house and the ranch, was upgrading the electrical service. Again, some people should not be allowed to do their own work. We did everything we could with what was there, but Nick soon became so frustrated with it, he had an electrical contractor install a brand new serviceon the side of the attached garage. From there, he was able to rewire the house, and even trenched a new underground service to the detached garage!
We had some fun for 4th of July, with our patriotic car display.
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(Friday, 28 September 2018)
While I intended to fill out this account from the beginning of the establishment of the one and only,
I have not yet had the time to fill it all in from my rememberings, so to speak. To avoid the constant
looking back, I've captured at least this event in "near real time", to borrow a euphemism from a company
I'm glad I no longer work for. I had already agreed to help Nick grab some more firestop drywall for his
detached garage last night, so as we're sitting in my living room talking, Ann tells us she's had a late
lunch. We have two choices for dinner, make burgers on the grill or get something to eat while we're out
getting the drywall. We opt for getting dinner at Jeremiah's, a couple blocks down the street.
That goes well, and once again home at my house, we're swapping cars from the driveway to the curb to allow access to the truck to go get the drywall. I let Nick drive since I'd already had a few beers with dinner, and he comments on how "heavy" the steering feels compared to his other vehicles. I tell him that may be so, but it still goes in the direction you point it, and once again bore him with the story of test driving it and buying it. We're soon to Lowe's and hoping the weather holds out long enough to get them back to the ranch. These are some heavy chunks of drywall, taped together at the ends into a twosome, like most all drywall is delivered.
This is 5⁄8" thick, compared to what I consider the standard interior drywall at ½", but with the added whammy of having a fire retarding masonry type additive. What I'm trying to say is these mugs are heavy! But we manage to get four sheets on the cart. I ask Nick if he has drywall screws, and the extra moment it takes him to think about it decides the matter, and I'm off at a brisk pace to the other side of the store to grab a new box. By the time I make it back to the register, he's already payed for the drywall and just pays for the screws. He fetches the truck while I move the no parking, loading zone sign out of the way to make room for the truck, and the sign immediately falls off the post. I just set the heavy concrete base of the pole on top of the sign so it doesn't blow away. Nick gets out of the truck, laughing.
We decide to take the tape off the ends that holds the two sheets together so that we only have to load one sheet at a time. We get the first sheet in as an associate is walking toward us, probably not laughing as much about the sign as we were, but asks if we were the people that asked for help loading... I tell him no, but we could use his help since he's there. We quickly get the rest of the sheets in the bed of the truck and head home. Nick says he'll drop me at the house then head over to the ranch to unload. I tell him we might as well just go the ranch and I'll help him unload, so he quickly changes lanes and we're on our way there. The thunder is still threatening as Nick backs the truck up to the detached garage. I'm thinking we're just going to unload the truck, but he asks if I'm coming in the garage or not.
Next he's heading over to the shed, where he grabs to old circular saw and an extension cord. I'm chuckling that the saw still works. The bearings have been growling since I used it to cut the backer board for our bathroom remodel a couple years back. We use it now just to cut masonry and drywall stuff since it's already "ruined" anyway. Back in the garage, he measures the height, and we head back out to cut the sheets to length. One at a time he cuts and I stack. After the second sheet, I think to move them off to the side so the lift door can swing out and open once we're ready to move them inside. They are soon all cut and ready to go in.
We head back in and he starts ridding up the place, I'm thinking to be able to move them where they'll go, but he says he was just planning on stacking them along the wall until he can get to it later. I grab the first one and stack it in standing up fashion, struggling with it the whole time. Nick says we can lay them on their sides too. So the rest of them are laying down on the job. We finish up and are soon on our way back to the nest. Nick backs the truck in all the way to the carriage house and I move my car back in the drive then head inside to cool off. It's not quite 7:00 PM but it's still 92° outside! Yep, it's Fall weather in Florida... Maybe come November!
Looking back, perhaps I should explain that he's installing foam panel insulation, as he slowly repairs and rebuilds the termite damage to the wall studs and sill plates of the detached garage. He's already trenched around the outside of it and treated for termites. The problem is the concrete blocks that make up the footing, or foundation, are still hollow. That is, they have not been filled solid, except where the anchor bolts were installed. Unfortunately, this is the perfect environment for subterrainian termites to thrive in. It hides them from view and protects them from disturbance so they can continue to do their damage, unfettered and unseen.
He found a great source of generic 2" foam insulation and was able to cover much of the wall space and most of the "attic" space over the rafters. The reason for the insulation is to help stop the A/C from running constantly, trying to keep up with the summer heat here in Florida. He's pretty much finished as much as he can with the mustang still sitting pretty much where it has sat since we moved it here, in the way of getting to the wall on that side and getting it finished.
The Mustang Ranch Get's New Roller Doors...
(Monday, 19 November 2018)
Taking today off. Was planning on taking the week off, but need to be available for everyone else on the team and save the
PTO for Christmas. Picked up Nick's new roller doors. Watching the pups so Nick and Ann can go to PetSmart and Wally World.
(Wednesday, 21 November 2018)
Got the roller door framed in. Called it quits to go out for dinner and regroup on the door installation. Swung by Lowe's to
get different hardware since the instructions called out the wrong sized lag screws for the rails. Ann got another string of
LED lights like the spool of 225 I gave her that she had already strung up. When we got home, Ann had to string up the
second reel of them. And so begins the tale of the "poopy shoes"...
(Thursday, 22 November 2018 - Happy Thanksgiving!)
Started out the morning by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Courtney joined us shortly after the parade started
and we had some pumpkin spice and orange rolls with our coffee. The National Dog show comes on after Santa shows up and the
parade is over, but I've never really cared much for the dog show, and neither does Courtney. Once she left for home, Nick
and I got started installing his roller doors... We pretty much spend the remaining time off for Thanksgiving finishing up
the door installation and hanging the Christmas decorations, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Nick and I head over to his house to finish installing the roller door in his garage. This thing was enough of a pain in the @$$ yesterday, but today takes the cake! This thing has been the worst ever! The instructions are poorly written and just plain wrong in places. Every place we need to use a lag screw is right between the 2x6s and 2x8s we used to rough in the frame. Had I thought it through enough, I would have realized using a 1x8 next to the 2x6 and 2x8 would have landed the fasteners dead square in the middle of the 2x6 and 2x8. Unfortunately, it would not have helped in the case of the 2x6...
Whether we would have gone through the 2x6 or along the edge of the 2x6, the 2x6 would force us to use longer carriage bolts or drill through the 2x6 to the back of the header it was added to support. Since it's Thanksgiving and Lowe's is closed, we opt to the drill through the 2x6, crippling it and any kind of support we could have expected from it. So much for carefully measuring, cutting, and fitting it to support that side of the center beam. I told Nick that 4x6 we talked about optionally placing under the center beam just became a necessity.
We finally manage to get the first door installed and adjusted, but the hardware supplied doesn't match what the instructions call for, and the approach they call out for some of the items is just plain stupid. Like using an oversized nut over a bolt as a standoff for the base locking bars to slide along, instead of an actual hollow tube sleeve standoff... What a bunch of shit! Typical fine quality Chinesium sold at made in America prices. What a racket. We make it back to the house pretty much just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Court and Es join us, bringing the cranberry relish and the candied yams. Ann cooked the turkey and stuffing, and I think the garlic mashed potatos. What a feast!
After dinner, Nick and Ann head out to do some shopping while I keep an eye on the pups. They don't find many bargains, and what they do find aren't that notable. I am told they got something for me too, but I'll have to wait for Christmas to see what that may be... In any case, Nick is thinking it's going to be a while before we can get that second roller door installed and I'm a bit concerned that the old door is no longer solidly attached to anything... Waving in the breeze so to speak. The issue is the mustang will be right in the way of doing anything on that side of the garage, and short of moving everything from that side to the side we just finished, it's just not feasible.
So we're thinking that until we get the new window installed, on the side we just installed the door on, we shouldn't plan on moving everything to that side of the garage. It could easily take us another day or two just to do that, which wouldn't leave any time to move everything and install the other door. The more I think about, the more I think if we could just spin the mustang around sideways, along the back of the garage, it would give us plenty of room to do everything! Not just enough room to install a window or a door, but all of them, and still have room to get to the tools and cabinets along the back wall and the side door... But I forget to mention it to Nick before he heads home for the night.
(Friday, 23 November 2018)
First thing this morning, as I'm checking Facebook, I see Nick has posted a picture of the progress so far. I quickly comment
on it that if we could spin the mustang around, we should be able to get to everything. He says it might just work, so we spend
the entire day working on Nick's garage. It's takes the entire morning, and part of the afternoon, to get his garage cleaned out
enough to set the mustang body on rollers and move it out of the way. Then after a nice late lunch of leftovers, Nick is off to
get his haircut, which leaves time for Ann and I to take a nap! He's back about an hour later, and it's off to Lowe's to get the
lumber and bolts that we'll need to frame in the second roller door. Ann joins us, but drives separately so she can get the
Christmas decorations and lights she needs for the half dozen Norfolk Pine Christmas trees in the barkyard.
We formulate our plan to allow Nick to replace the sill plate in the front corner of the garage, starting with framing in the other side of the doorway... The plan is to get the 2x8 on the other side in place first, then measure and cut the top 2x8 to size and install it, then cut the 2x8 for the corner tall enough to support that side by resting directly on the concrete floor. That way, Nick can get in there and cut out the old, termite eaten plate and get the new one put in. So the side that was waving in the wind now has a solidly attached 2x8 to hold it in place. With that in place, I cut the overhead 2x8 and we lift it into place, resting on temporary blocks on both ends as Nick screws it into place.
We run into a bit of a snag with part of the concrete block foundation needing filled with mortar first. This is to stop any new termites from just coming up through the ground, protected inside the hollow block, and eating away the new wood. Nope. Not going to happen anymore. It's filled solid with mortar that Nick just mixed up and put in place. We cut the new plate to fit and daughter in a chunk of 2x4 next to what used to be the good 2x4 supporting the wall. The one Nick had to cut out of the way to fit the new sill plate without having to notch the new plate to fit around the existing anchor bolt.
While he was filling the block, I was cutting the 1x8 to trim the other side of the opening. I fit that as Nick marks and drills the new sill plate to fit over the anchor bolt and tightens it in place. Now that the 2x4 can once again support that side of the doorway, I cut that 2x8 to rest on the new sill plate and support the overhead 2x8 and fit it in place. Nick screws it into the daughtered 2x4 to add an extra measure of strength to the now crippled support member. With that, we're done for the night. It's dark at six o'clock now since the time change, and we're an hour and a half beyond that!
(Saturday, 24 November 2018)
Brigel barks us awake just a bit before seven o'clock this morning. Nick is up too, texting Ann as I'm sitting down in my
chair in the living room, before either of us has our coffee! He's over with the puppy before either of us is really moving.
Good thing we got to sleep in a little. I'm moving slow, but he and Ann are hanging the icicle lights out front. Ann would
have hung them yesterday, but didn't want to be up on the ladder with no one else around, while Nick and I were working on
his garage. With that, I think our Christmas decorations are complete.
Then they're off to Lowe's to get a few more pieces of lumber and the missing hardware for the door stops we'll need to finish them up later this morning. I'm sitting here updating this account, still trying to wake up. We've been working on these doors pretty much non stop for the last three days now. Nick and I were both really tired last night by the time we knocked off. I down the last cup of coffee and we head over to his place, without making more coffee to take with me. Right off we're discussing the plan of attack, and how to divide and conquer. That is, how to keep us both busy, without one standing and watching the other do something.
2x4 over the ledgers to close the gap to the outside wall?
We're pretty much ready to assemble the side rails to the second door and lift it into position, once the shiplap is removed to allow access to install the carriage bolts that is... As Nick places the new washers over the anchor bolts and tightens down the nuts, I pry the last pieces of shiplap loose to get us behind the 2x8 ledger we'll be attaching the door brackets to using the carriage bolts. We just didn't trust the lag screws to hold the door up over time. The last thing we want is for the door brackets to pull out and have the door fall, potentially hurting someone, destroying the door in the process.
Once again we're cursing the stupid tabs on the side rails trying to assemble them to the roller brackets. They're supposed to be die punched enough to bend them out and act as a keeper against the bracket. Nope. I had to punch through all of them, both this door and the first, using a screwdriver and a hammer - breaking the acetate handle of one of Nick's horrible freight specials. It's a screwed up design, and an even worse implementation. I think I would rather have to use a handful of sheet metal screws just to hold it together long enough to lift it into place using the side rails as legs.
As we're lifting it into place, I feel it start shifting dangerously toward Nick and stop my lifting, asking if he has it, as he's shifting his grip. Once he's regained his hold, we lift it the rest of the way up. He drills a hole for a carriage bolt on his side while I stand holding my side. Because he can't hold his side and walk around to the outside to insert the carriage bolt, first he clamps the rail in position, then drills a pilot hole for a lag screw and winds one in to hold it in place for him.
The carriage bolt needs some persuasion, but eventually is bolted in place. Now for my side. Nick drills the hole and holds that side while I go inspect the old 2x4 that's in the way, cutting it out of the way with the sawzall. It needs a few taps from the hammer as well. There. We're pretty much "hands free" at this point. Nick is ready to drill for the remaining carriage bolts when he discovers one of them will miss the ledger entirely. Looks like one cariage bolt and two lags will have to suffice. Time to feed the door into the rails, install the door stops, and adjust the spring tension. We're pretty much done with this door just after noon.
Next is to add the foam insulation and put the shiplap back up over the first door. While Nick cuts the foam to size and installs it, I cut the shiplap we got at RoMac the other day to size to replace the old beadboard between the doors. He finishes about the time I do. I put the old piece back in place to see how it fits. It takes a bit of coercion, and extraction of the nail in the trim I bent over when I ripped this piece out from behind the trim to begin with. Nick connects his air nailer, turns on the compressor, and nails it back in place. I have a piece of the new shiplap that just covers the rest of the foam and over to the gap between the door where the rest of the new shiplap will go on.
We decide to break for lunch since it's already past one o'clock and Nick is out of foam insulation. I tell him he's more than welcome to the rest of what I have over in my garage, but he reminds me he still needs to get more sheets to finish the inside walls we just moved the mustang out of the way of. Once he gets the old sill plate out, fills in the concrete blocks, replaces the sill plate, and repairs the termite eaten studs that is... A job for another time.
We head back to the house and Nick has a discussion with Ann about what to do for lunch. He tells me he's letting me off the hook fro the rest of the day and we're going out for lunch. Good idea! He's been wanting to go the the "new" pizza place that went in where the BBQ places used to be. I agree... I'm pretty beat already and we've been at this four days now. Time for a break. He can finish up all the rest of the cosmetic stuff without me. The only major thing left is adding a post beneath the main beam that runs down the center of the garage, as added support beyond the 2x8 ledger.
I can't remember if we saw an "engineered" 4x6 at RoMac or if it was at Lowe's, but essentially it's multiple 2x members "glued" together into a single 4x6 or 6x6 or 6x8 or whatever size you need... Anyway, the idea is we'll make our own "engineered" 4x6 out of three of the 2x4s we already have, glued and screwed together. Not today. By the time we get home, we're stuffed. As we're sitting out in the barkyard, enjoying the puppies and the trains, Nick decides he's going to go get those new pieces of shiplap linseed oiled and installed... While we watch the puppies of course!
(Sunday, 25 November 2018)
I tried to sleep in a little this morning, but Brigel had other thoughts, barking me awake just as I was drifting off for
(hopefully) another half an hour. Oh well, I'm up now! I think I'm done helping with the rollup doors... We shall see. Nick
is over with Klaus a bit later than usual, mainly because he wanted to get everything put back away that we had moved out of
his garage to get the mustang mobile. I forget why I was heading out to my garage, but I find him poking at that piece of
foam insulation I told him he could have, to get it down from "over the rafters".
Next he's asking me if we can get that 4x6 in place this morning. Guess I'm not done helping... I figure what the hell? It shouldn't take that long to do. And it doesn't. While I'm measuring, cutting, and fitting the individual 2x4s for making up the 4x6, Nick is measuring, cutting, and fitting the foam insulation. I figure it's better to get it in place before getting the 4x6 in place, and in the way. Once I know I have the fit I want, I screw the 2x4s together, with a defined center stud. Nick wants to be prepared for installation of the "in use" electrical box in the new shiplap, so he measures up to the board where he wants it located, then slices the foam into two pieces to fit.
After trying to force fit our "engineered" 4x6 into place and failing, I ask Nick to raise the beam on the jacking post about another 1⁄8", and now it's just a tight fit using a mallet. I spend almost five minutes trying to get the doggone thing plumb in both directions. I keep tapping at the top and tapping at the bottom, checking it with the level, then tapping it some more, but I don't seem to be making any progress. Nick mentions that when I tap at one end, the other is twisting. With that tidbit of information, I'm able to watch the movement closely, and finally get it plumb. Nick winds in some screws to secure it and we're done. I don't think it even took half an hour all told, leaving me the rest of the day to do whatever I want.
(Sunday, 16 December 2018)
Nick's been finishing up the inside of his garage ever since we got the roller doors installed. Almost all of the insulation
and drywall is in place. He's talking about moving the lift to the other side to avoid the "S" curve when pulling in. He hasn't
asked for my help once. He doesn't need it. He knows how he wants it to be and he's making it that way. I'm very proud of him.
More to come, so stay tuned...
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