FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => FE Technical Forum => Topic started by: fryedaddy on May 11, 2021, 02:40:13 PM
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i have been working on putting the 428 4 speed in my 66 comet for a couple weeks now.im down to the pass side header and starter.but,everything i touch or install is beating me up.i have banged my fingers wrists,arms,elbows.i have cuts and bruises all over.people at the store probably think im on drugs or have some kind of skin problem.my skin is getting thinner too the older i get,thats makes it to where every little bump or nick bleeds or bruises.thats part of it.i might have some arm skin left when i get done. p.s. i just got out from under my car,a spring was hanging from my z bar and when i crawled out it snagged my arm and was stretching it as i slid out.another nice hole in my arm.
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Getting old sucks. My hands always have some kind of cut or scratch. It looks terrible in uniform. If it's not the cats rough housing with me, it's the car.
The big block in tight confines makes it all that much worse. I try and wear gloves but they aren't practical for working blind and starting fasteners.
I feel your pain..
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Same problem here.
But it does give the local gossips something to talk about.
Greg
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Chicks dig scars
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Try doing that on blood thinners it will look like a crime scene.
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Hahaha!! I had open heart to repair an atrial septal defect and was on blood thinners for about two months. The cat swatted my ankle and punctured a small capillary. I felt a sting and looked down and thought I had a small drill bit sticking out. When I reached down to remove it I found out it was a small stream of blood. I had a puddle in two places and had squirted it all over the area rug before I noticed it. I sat down and applied pressure to try and get it stopped. I ended up walking to the bathroom and putting my leg under cold water in the bathtub. My wife came home from work and started screaming. I walked out to see what all the commotion was about. She was white as a ghost. She said she the first thing that came to mind was that my chest had popped open. I couldn't stop laughing and she was more angry than a wet hen.
On a more serious note; As we get older we are much more prone to injury that wouldn't have been an issue in our 30's and 40's. After 50 the whole world changes and you get aches and pains from the most simple of activities. I just got here but getting old isn't for sissies!
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one thing is for sure.its worth every scar,bump,bruise,cut when you fire the FE up.
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I agree with the getting old thing. My knuckles are swollen at all times, I have psoriatic arthritis that sometimes is just brutal. Remember when you stuck your arm somewhere were it should never be able to get into and you took it out and didnt even have a scratch. Now like someone said my arm would be bruised and scratched up and probably bleeding. But you have to admit our pain tolerance is triple the amount of a regular person. Us mechanics very rarely miss work no matter what happens. I owned my own business for 23 years and maybe missed 10 days and that was because of my three hernias. Im now a truck mechanic and lifting even heavier shit and Ive been here 8 years and havent missed a day. That being said I wouldnt trade a minute cause then I probably wouldnt have my Stang.
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I hear you all. It seems for the last few years, when working around and under cars, I keep muttering "This is a young man's game!"
Speaking of gushers, I had one yesterday with the oil pump test rig. I blew a 1/2" high pressure line out of a fitting when it was running 80 psi. A whole lot of oil got to a whole lot of places in a big hurry :-[ With age comes patience, I guess, because today everything is cleaned up and running fine.
I haven't posted on that in awhile, because I'm working on a really hard development project. It's very interesting and I will be sharing with you guys when it's a bit further along...
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Chicks dig scars
I wondered why so many hot young women kept hanging around and drooling over me, now I know.
They are 300 year old vampires !!!
Me to, I can get close to a bush and I bleed under my skin.
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It takes me 5 hours to install the Crites tubes in my 67 Fairlane. I write down on a note pad how many times I go in and out from under the car and show it to friends who own Chevelles for a laugh. After laying out all the necessary assorted wrenches, ratchets and sockets on a fender it looks like a surgeons table getting ready for an operation.
Of course this leads to loss of skin off knuckles, wrists and forearms. Forget about gloves in those confines. No shortage of blue words being uttered either!
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My problem isn't bleeding so much as it is the fact that on every project I attempt, I end up with every tool I own under the car. Even on an oil change, I need to get out from under the car three times b4 I have the correct drain plug socket. After that, I can't find the drain plug which inevitably fell into the drain pan.
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My problem isn't bleeding so much as it is the fact that on every project I attempt, I end up with every tool I own under the car. Even on an oil change, I need to get out from under the car three times b4 I have the correct drain plug socket. After that, I can't find the drain plug which inevitably fell into the drain pan.
Which is why we often find rounded off pan drain plugs, from people using an adjustable wrench...lol I think I put more miles on, heading back and forth from the job to the tool chest, than I do actual miles driving.
I don't know about the patience though, Mr. Bill. Newer stuff is a pain in the ass to work on...no matter WHAT it is. I find my patience getting less and less with that crap. Older stuff? No problem. But I just want to chuck the newer equipment into the nearest trash bin. It's all disposable junk these days anyway.
I've been pulling out a lot of vintage parts to sell, and there are loads of water pump rebuild kits (flatheads), brake re-lining kits ('40s/'50s) etc. If I mentioned a "brake re-lining kit" to anyone today, I'd probably get some strange looks, but that's what used to be done.
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Brake relining kits that just before my time Doug I gotta be older than you. And yes I agree the newer stuff is a pain in the ass to. A lot more troubleshooting and electrical. And it always seems like the part that needs to be changed is in the worst spot.
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Us youngings are hoping to have enough time and money to be you guys some day. ;D I did a number on my knees while redoing the interior in the Cougar. Less flexible these days so my hands tend to cramp up at random. Less agile too so misjudge and bump my head on stuff. A good cup of coffee after some gearhead victory helps. I am trying not to joint the "Ibuprofen gang" but it's probably only a matter of time.
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Brake relining kits that just before my time Doug I gotta be older than you.
I grew up around '40s & '50s stuff, Joe. My first car, even before my Mustang, was a '49 Merc.
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I used to work with an older guy and he would tell me that when you get old that your skin would rot. I laughed him. Now I’m his age then and my skin is doing the exact same thing. Just like you guys. I done a transmission in and out on a new holland backhoe a couple months ago. That was worse than FE headers. Arms looked real bad
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Wife always asks after any kind of work on the Mustang if I bled on it. If not she says I'll have to do the procedure again until I do because it won't run right. Damn if she isn't right most of the time.
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I'll be 44 in August. I can tell quite a difference in myself in the past 5 years. I know there's more coming too....
So far, with car/engine stuff, aside from the normal nicks/scratches, I had to get 4 stitches in my thumb from a sharp edge on a BBF connecting rod. Also cut a piece of duct tape off of an aluminum bar and managed somehow to sever a tendon in my left pointer finger. Required surgery.
My biggest issue has been my back though. Two years ago, I was afraid I was going to have to quit building engines. I'm 5'6" and about 140 lbs on a good day, but used to pick engine blocks up off the floor by myself. In May of 2019, I picked a 302 block up to put it on an engine stand. A few days later I noticed a nervy pain in my hip. Went to a chiropractor who proceeded to "adjust" me without taking X-rays or an MRI. Apparently I had a small disc herniation on L5S1, but after a few days of his "adjustments", it became a 12mm protrusion and that's the worst pain I've ever been in. Finally begged him for an MRI. When we found out what it was, I ditched him and started seeing a physical therapist who specialized in spine injuries. Took 12 weeks of physical therapy to get it under control.
As of right now, I still feel it down my leg when I pick up an FE crank to set it in a block, but I can move around pretty good. I do daily exercises to control the herniation.
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Yep, I figure if the car work didn't draw a little blood, there wasn't much effort in it. Sucks but is. Not on blood thinners at least, so there's that. But have noticed it doesn't take much to rip a hole open. Fortunately, I have always scabbed over real quick and that hasn't changed. I've had the two Pfizer shots and didn't even bleed on either and zero side effects. Told the doc all those years of getting cut and digging in the dirt, grease/oil/carb cleaner/misc hazardous chemicals in cuts and using duct tape/shop rag bandages has probably kept my immune system in peak form.
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Just wait until you fellows get past 70, and everything you touch bruises, tears, and hurts. I can't trim a bush without getting a cut or a bunch of bruises. Now when I work on engines, I wear 6 or 7mil gloves because if I didn't, my hands would be covered in bandages. I keep band aids just about everywhere I happen to be for the simple reason that my skin tears so easily now, at 75. I always told myself that I would be the exception and stay healthy and free from pains, aches, and be able to run, lift things, and work until I was 100. Age doesn't listen. Joe-JDC
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As I age I have observed the emergence of an ever-expanding black hole that follows me to where ever I'm working. With disturbingly increasing frequency, I continually drop parts that seem to disappear without hitting the floor. I, literally, feel that I now spend more hours crawling on the floor, searching for dropped pieces than I do working, productively, on projects. Often it would be expeditious to simply begin by working from the floor to start since the magnetic force attracting the parts apparently grows exponentially whenever working against any sort of time constraint.
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The fact I don't have a lift...(yet)...is a testament that I'm not ready to give up!!
Couples weeks ago I needed to replace the rear fuel pump in my '95 F150. I did the front pump last summer. I finally get the tank down to realize I don't have a new lock ring for it so I put everything back up(ugh). On Monday I then call my local shop that does my shops repair work and ask them to do the actual pump install. I just was not up to fighting with that tank a second time. Never thought I would see the day I paid someone to repair my stuff. Geez, getting old is not for the faint of heart.
My lower back has been issues for years. My stiff neck makes it impossible to get into a small car. The knees are starting to talk back about doing certain chores. WTH?
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The fact I don't have a lift...(yet)...is a testament that I'm not ready to give up!!
Amen to that
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About 5 years ago I had just about decided to give up the Hobby. I just could not get up and down from the floor to an erect position with out a lot of pain. I am a 100% disabled since about 2004 and it is a real pain to do anything that requires me to get on and off the floor alot.
Decided I wanted to finish my dads 71 Ranchero and my 63 Galaxie before I quit so I bought a lift.
Best thing I ever did.
Makes it so much easier to work on my projects and I don't hurt as much at the end of the job.
If you are having a hard time working on your cars I can't recommend enough a lift. Makes the job so much easier.
When I was younger and worked as a line mechanic we had lifts at the shops I worked at but I hardly used them as I could do the job faster from the floor and we got paided by the book hour rate so I just crawled around the car.
I might be in better shape now if I had used the lifts more.
Greg
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Us youngings are hoping to have enough time and money to be you guys some day. ;D I did a number on my knees while redoing the interior in the Cougar. Less flexible these days so my hands tend to cramp up at random. Less agile too so misjudge and bump my head on stuff. A good cup of coffee after some gearhead victory helps. I am trying not to joint the "Ibuprofen gang" but it's probably only a matter of time.
What qualifies as a "Youngin'" here? I would venture the average age is 60+. I am am in my early 50's. There are no shortage of curmudgeons here at times.
I'm here to learn some of the stuff that simply comes from experience. You can't live from a book. I fly for a living and I don't care what you've read in a book most of it is simply knowledge from doing. I enjoy learning, and I know I am not going to be able to pick up tuning and other tricks that fall outside of the service manual. It's learned the hard way. Hopefully you cranky old guys share your wisdom so when I get older I can do the same. I'm already cranky and I am getting older, just not ancient yet..
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With thinning skin on the back of the hands and now even lower arms (normal with age per my doc) I bruise very easily. Even trying to be careful, those bruises appear regularly after a spark plug change or after banging (not too hard either) the back-oh-the-hands or forearms while doing car work. They do eventually fade away but look crappy until then.
Went on a 2 week FL vacation recently (and bought a great house too!) and upon my return noticed almost all bruises had faded away. 'Course I never touched a wrench then! :o
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Just wait until you fellows get past 70, and everything you touch bruises, tears, and hurts. I can't trim a bush without getting a cut or a bunch of bruises. Now when I work on engines, I wear 6 or 7mil gloves because if I didn't, my hands would be covered in bandages. I keep band aids just about everywhere I happen to be for the simple reason that my skin tears so easily now, at 75. I always told myself that I would be the exception and stay healthy and free from pains, aches, and be able to run, lift things, and work until I was 100. Age doesn't listen. Joe-JDC
Yep, easy skin tears at 69 1/2 here!
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I have to say, growing old is so much better than the alternative.
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Us youngings are hoping to have enough time and money to be you guys some day. ;D I did a number on my knees while redoing the interior in the Cougar. Less flexible these days so my hands tend to cramp up at random. Less agile too so misjudge and bump my head on stuff. A good cup of coffee after some gearhead victory helps. I am trying not to joint the "Ibuprofen gang" but it's probably only a matter of time.
What qualifies as a "Youngin'" here? I would venture the average age is 60+. I am am in my early 50's. There are no shortage of curmudgeons here at times.
I'm here to learn some of the stuff that simply comes from experience. You can't live from a book. I fly for a living and I don't care what you've read in a book most of it is simply knowledge from doing. I enjoy learning, and I know I am not going to be able to pick up tuning and other tricks that fall outside of the service manual. It's learned the hard way. Hopefully you cranky old guys share your wisdom so when I get older I can do the same. I'm already cranky and I am getting older, just not ancient yet..
I'm 46 but already have a lift. Have a bulged disk in my neck that's probably from an Ozzfest concert. We should all remember the old car saying..... It's not the age but the milage.
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The older you get, the better you should get at risk management. Sometimes you just have to work through the pain. Just no two ways about it. But you are also more careful about putting yourself in a risk environment since you know the recovery period is going to be longer and probably more painful that when you were young. So, yeah, as you get older, you do whatever you can to stay healthy but they day will come when that check engine light gonna come on. It happens to us all.
I think the one thing I hate that I can't do a damn thing about is my vision. I wear bifocals and it always seems that whatever I need clear definition on is right in that zone where bifocals and normal lenses don't cover...about two feet from my face. Might as well be looking through a towel.
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The vision thing is funny Gerry
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It is called TRI-focals. LOL. Been wearing them for the last 15 years or so. I was disabled back in 1976 while on active duty in USAF, given up for dead by military Doctor, and I was told by the ICU Dr. one night that I would not live until morning. God has blessed me with life, and I will take the glasses, bruises, tears, aches and pains over the alternative any day. My wife and I will be celebrating our 55th Anniversary next month, Lord willing, and I have enjoyed getting older with her more and more each day. Working on cars and building engines has been a great way to keep the mind and body active and healthy. Joe-JDC
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What he ^ said.
The last part.
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I've read the whole of the above with a smile. Later this month I'll hit the decade that starts with eight. I've been doing it all, and really noticed that I wasn't working as well as I used to about 15 years ago. But I'm actually about 29. It's just that my body doesn't see it that way. I expect to go until about 120!!! ;)
KS
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Sounds like to need one of these then:
https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Rotatingand-Magnetic-Furniture-Damaged/dp/B085Q4J8B2/ref=asc_df_B085Q4J8B2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459730407112&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18270892066841011092&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1026836&hvtargid=pla-942898353962&psc=1
My problem isn't bleeding so much as it is the fact that on every project I attempt, I end up with every tool I own under the car. Even on an oil change, I need to get out from under the car three times b4 I have the correct drain plug socket. After that, I can't find the drain plug which inevitably fell into the drain pan.
Which is why we often find rounded off pan drain plugs, from people using an adjustable wrench...lol I think I put more miles on, heading back and forth from the job to the tool chest, than I do actual miles driving.
I don't know about the patience though, Mr. Bill. Newer stuff is a pain in the ass to work on...no matter WHAT it is. I find my patience getting less and less with that crap. Older stuff? No problem. But I just want to chuck the newer equipment into the nearest trash bin. It's all disposable junk these days anyway.
I've been pulling out a lot of vintage parts to sell, and there are loads of water pump rebuild kits (flatheads), brake re-lining kits ('40s/'50s) etc. If I mentioned a "brake re-lining kit" to anyone today, I'd probably get some strange looks, but that's what used to be done.
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Congratulations Joe on 55 years. I tell anyone who will listen radiofrequency ablation saved me. We don't realize the damage we are doing standing and walking on that concrete floor 12 hours a day at work then everything we do after work. I also went and picked up some mats at tractor supply and put in front of my benches to stand on.
Mark.
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What he ^ said.
The last part.
+1 here! Keeping your mind focused and curious is key! Take care of your body as best you can. Henry Ford famously said, "Anybody who stops learning is old."
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I'm about 2 1/2 years behind Cammer and my body isn't to bad for my age. I'm sore, all the time and it's hard to get up and down and I can't do things as fast as I once did but, I manage. I'm grateful, for my good fortune.
I now, take to heart, what my mom used to say, "I'm in pretty good shape, for the shape I'm in".
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You 'older' (no disrespect meant) fellas here are still pretty sharp. Count your blessings and thank the good Lord above. When you see what happens with people who develop Dementia or Alzheimer's, you start to think that getting "old" may not be such a good alternative after all. Quality of life matters, to me anyway. I don't want to end up hidden in some home where a stranger is wiping my butt and spoon feeding me. But I think I have at least a few more good years left on this marble. ;D
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The Henry Ford quote is key.
Also little things like washing your own cars.
Good exercise.
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I am a caregiver for my mom who has dementia. She will be 90 next November.
The men in my family live to be about 70 so I expect the same for me. I'm 61 so that is a motivator for me to get things done 'cause time is running out. The somedays need to be cashed in.
Like everybody else, my skin bruises and tears easily, and if I even look at a piece of sheetmetal blood starts coming out of my arms or hands somewhere. Still pretty strong but not like I used to be. Don't want a lift or pneumatic tools, after working on cars for 40 years those things remind me of work which I was able to retire from.
Love to go outside and work on my hot rod...just at my own pace.
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This year I'll be '69 and some actions that never hurt are begining to hurt now. Dad lived to 96 so I still have a few years left in the bank. I'll re evaluate at 80 , until then , full speed ahead.
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My father lived with me until he passed away last year at 92 1/2yrs. You guys in you 60's and 70's haven't seen thin skin yet (it only gets worse). I found I couldn't even help him get up off the couch unless I was very careful of how I touched him. I'm getting the usual cuts and bruises at 65 that I expected but I sure don't look forward to it getting worse. I think I'm going to finish this one last car build and then just enjoy it as long as I can, after that it's paying people to do it. (I hope the 401K holds out)