Lightning Performance
Here For The Long Haul!
- Local time
- 2:50 AM
- User ID
- 677
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2016
- Messages
- 10,991
- Reaction score
- 28,050
- Location
- East of Philly
MM inspired me to write this. If you have met me you know.... I have no agenda.
My short story among many that might explain a lot, maybe not. I know others who have been through far worse and are still better people than I.
Alex Zanardi is one of them. Read his story and quit *b-wording. Maybe we all should spend more time with injured Vets. I know so few.
I did my own therapy after this lil mishap. Maybe this will help you understand a bit more Randal.
Bear in mind I grew up in a auto collision, State Police listed towing and recovery outfit, plus private OSHA and NJ Forest Rangers requested, Fish and Game woods recovery of vehicles burnt or sunk or otherwise. In house was resto rod, street rod, hot tod, drag car and custom paint and/or body work by Carlos and my dad. We chopped old sedans....20's-40's....they did too many street or drag cars and ground up restorations. Built some nice rides there. Most of dads and his friends cars are chopped 36'-42' sedans and coupes with a few 47-8' tossed in. They wanted to cut my 39' Dodge Deluxe Buss Coupe five window....triple ripple window accents with laid down factory B posts
. The coupe looked chopped from the factory. My BIL had the four door Deluxe sedan. I don't do or finish body work or paint. I can paint a bit but don't like it. Plastic work sucks IMO. As some may know 39-40' Ford Tudoor Sedans are the hardest ones to chop, correctly. My father owns a that 39' Ford Tudoor Deluxe Sedan chopped. This is first one we knew of back then to be chopped, ever, the first. Billy, RIP, has a 40' Chevy Tudoor Deluxe Sedan chopped blood red and saweet! Goes well next to his white 55' Chevy Tudoor Belaire Sport coupe and his wifes 29' Model A in blue. I ate and lived street rods in their hay day. I weld sheet or plate or tube steel. I can work about any ferrous or iron related metal. Custom or factory auto and truck wiring is one of my strong suits. Stereo systems were second nature to me and pricy. Carbs and intake systems also. Nothing like a finely blended bowl on a good pair of heads with two-fours or trips or singles on ManOFree manifolds. In the end nothing beats Webers or Ingles Injection but blown motors with bug catchers.
I have two years, seventeen to nineteen, doing in-frames on heavy equipment at Haines Diesel. Another shop around the corner. The stock cars came later. I had everything from, my own cars, sleds to bikes and rail jobs on and off the street as a kid. I built my own steel tube bicycle frames, among other things, by ten years old. Trikes were new and quads didn't exist. Boats were fun but a whole nutter subject. 21ft triple digits I was "into" B&S heads at eight years old. B&S have weak cranks, they shatter. I had a mini bike at five. Go-carts are dangerous, trust me, get a dirt bike....more options to ride.
The story of "bruises" lol
Wish I had picks of my smashed ribs and face after a serious car wreck that should have killed me @ 27...the magic number, meh.
Hit a black walnut tree, dead five years, no top 66"w BDH, some bark. I hit bark cushioned the impact. Dead center hit. I awoke to rocker arms.... v6 80's something fwd Olds Cutlass, lil wagon....two feet shorter. Fifty five feet was where the cars landing marks appeared in the opposite lane, in the street facing the wrong direction of travel. Not pretty to say the least. The front and rear floor pans were tucked and rolled on both sides of the front seat tracks. You could not move any of the doors or the carpet
Bruises...
Broken nose we fixed that night, well kinda. No hospital. No cops, dad towed the car from the crash site. A phone call was made by the passenger. That was made at a near by house. They found me four to five hours later... two miles or so away walking down a ten foot deep ditch filled with three feet of water. When they found me and pulled up in the car....I remember this part and some other tid bits.
"Georgey".....a buddy, my best man at my wedding....worked for my dad at the auto collision shop way back when. "WFT you doing walking in a ditch?"
Me, "damned if I know but my face keeps bleeding, wtf man."
He says to me, " You'll live, gtf in car *a-hole."
Bruises, dislocated left should, broken nose, shredded lips and loose front teeth. That was fun to put back....again and the final time.....so far. Smashed mashed right side ribs, chunked knees from the dash...that was crushed. Bloody speedo stuck on 55mph. That was my nose. The wheel was folded in on top, right and left sides. I must have seen it coming, duno can not remember. Something to do with trauma they say. I did open up the safety glass before reseating myself. No seatbelt, stupid! The steering column was a lift out model. Just cut the wires and out it came.
All this BS because I hit a mud puddle on the right....go figure.
Bad day.
The other creepy part was I remember tripping over the tombstones at the local cemetery in the fog, late like 12:30 I'd guess. Thinking....I must be dead. Tracked my blood trail for over two miles the next week....no rain had come. I did eventually find the magnetic dealer plate. That was on the back of the "Bluewagoon." Took three nights to find it, bastage!
I was heading to Apple Pie Hill to drink some beers and maybe meet some guys to drop some venison....yummy.
The tree was right across the street from one of the local churches. I remember seeing the steeple when crawling out of the wreck. After that I must have just wondered off into the night.
I've also taken a 3/8" tow chain right in the forehead when it snapped straightening out the bent front wall on a roll-off body truck, not a rollback, different animals. That was bloody mess. Imprinted chain links and another three day headache. I was maybe twenty four then.
Bruises...
Some months later this happened. Mind you at the time my first daughter who was now one old needed a father who would be there. So.....I changed up all that stupid *s-word I was still doing in life. Went back to working full time and quit racing period. No more money nights in Philly or at Atco Dragway. Then this...I blew in, as imploded my L3-4 disc. Happens very rarely. I was at work....another shop known as aka: Hello, Beer Circus? After this my days as a wrench were over. Hanging over the fenders is brutal for me to do.
I was just reaching under a flat tired Honda....setting up a left side arm on an outdoor lift. A small pop sound and it was all over for my back. Recovery was two years but complete. I followed everything and then some.
The insurance company sent me to a young butcher who promised to fuse my back and you'll be good as new in six months. I crawled out of that butchers office quick as possible. I still don't have a fusion in my back, lucky.
Went to the surgical library at Penn State University in Philly to get educated and find my own surgeon. Two weeks laying on the floor reading up on whos who and who does what in Philly. He, Mr. Mario, was the very best who wrote the book on spinal surgery and had his own tools made for him and his brother.
Jefferson University Philly PA.
Mario J. Arena and his clone brother.
Simply the best of the best, period.
Does that help?
Everything is a double edge sword like my screen name implies
I may have brain damage but that didn't and doesn't stop me from enjoying building and tuning some serious engines....then testing them some
After being sick for the last five years, robbed twice at the old closed down collision shop I should own....got *f-worded out of it....I'm building my own shop at home.
The plan is to get back to where I belong and that ain't up a tree for the past ten years.
Burnt fingers, all greasyed up, I'll pass on the grease this time and sweating bullets Plus, missing gears
Destroying tires and diffs is where it's at!
Trading paint ain't bad either. I stayed off the street bikes and that is how I survive to get to here, today. Arthritis sucks chief....as you know.
Bonneville salts flats look interesting. I'm heading there in 2020 to check out the seen. I hear "fuelers" out there are an excepted and encourage practice
The "Grammar Police" can GFY
To Bruce:
This might be good or bad but in my head it rings true.
" This place in space is more like Toy Story than an OPE repair forum."
KAM 2019
#gitsum
My short story among many that might explain a lot, maybe not. I know others who have been through far worse and are still better people than I.
Alex Zanardi is one of them. Read his story and quit *b-wording. Maybe we all should spend more time with injured Vets. I know so few.
I did my own therapy after this lil mishap. Maybe this will help you understand a bit more Randal.
Bear in mind I grew up in a auto collision, State Police listed towing and recovery outfit, plus private OSHA and NJ Forest Rangers requested, Fish and Game woods recovery of vehicles burnt or sunk or otherwise. In house was resto rod, street rod, hot tod, drag car and custom paint and/or body work by Carlos and my dad. We chopped old sedans....20's-40's....they did too many street or drag cars and ground up restorations. Built some nice rides there. Most of dads and his friends cars are chopped 36'-42' sedans and coupes with a few 47-8' tossed in. They wanted to cut my 39' Dodge Deluxe Buss Coupe five window....triple ripple window accents with laid down factory B posts
. The coupe looked chopped from the factory. My BIL had the four door Deluxe sedan. I don't do or finish body work or paint. I can paint a bit but don't like it. Plastic work sucks IMO. As some may know 39-40' Ford Tudoor Sedans are the hardest ones to chop, correctly. My father owns a that 39' Ford Tudoor Deluxe Sedan chopped. This is first one we knew of back then to be chopped, ever, the first. Billy, RIP, has a 40' Chevy Tudoor Deluxe Sedan chopped blood red and saweet! Goes well next to his white 55' Chevy Tudoor Belaire Sport coupe and his wifes 29' Model A in blue. I ate and lived street rods in their hay day. I weld sheet or plate or tube steel. I can work about any ferrous or iron related metal. Custom or factory auto and truck wiring is one of my strong suits. Stereo systems were second nature to me and pricy. Carbs and intake systems also. Nothing like a finely blended bowl on a good pair of heads with two-fours or trips or singles on ManOFree manifolds. In the end nothing beats Webers or Ingles Injection but blown motors with bug catchers.I have two years, seventeen to nineteen, doing in-frames on heavy equipment at Haines Diesel. Another shop around the corner. The stock cars came later. I had everything from, my own cars, sleds to bikes and rail jobs on and off the street as a kid. I built my own steel tube bicycle frames, among other things, by ten years old. Trikes were new and quads didn't exist. Boats were fun but a whole nutter subject. 21ft triple digits
I was "into" B&S heads at eight years old. B&S have weak cranks, they shatter. I had a mini bike at five. Go-carts are dangerous, trust me, get a dirt bike....more options to ride.The story of "bruises" lol
Wish I had picks of my smashed ribs and face after a serious car wreck that should have killed me @ 27...the magic number, meh.
Hit a black walnut tree, dead five years, no top 66"w BDH, some bark. I hit bark
cushioned the impact. Dead center hit. I awoke to rocker arms.... v6 80's something fwd Olds Cutlass, lil wagon....two feet shorter. Fifty five feet was where the cars landing marks appeared in the opposite lane, in the street facing the wrong direction of travel. Not pretty to say the least. The front and rear floor pans were tucked and rolled on both sides of the front seat tracks. You could not move any of the doors or the carpet Bruises...
Broken nose we fixed that night, well kinda. No hospital. No cops, dad towed the car from the crash site. A phone call was made by the passenger. That was made at a near by house. They found me four to five hours later... two miles or so away walking down a ten foot deep ditch filled with three feet of water. When they found me and pulled up in the car....I remember this part and some other tid bits.
"Georgey".....a buddy, my best man at my wedding....worked for my dad at the auto collision shop way back when. "WFT you doing walking in a ditch?"
Me, "damned if I know but my face keeps bleeding, wtf man."
He says to me, " You'll live, gtf in car *a-hole."
Bruises, dislocated left should, broken nose, shredded lips and loose front teeth. That was fun to put back....again and the final time.....so far. Smashed mashed right side ribs, chunked knees from the dash...that was crushed. Bloody speedo stuck on 55mph. That was my nose. The wheel was folded in on top, right and left sides. I must have seen it coming, duno can not remember. Something to do with trauma they say. I did open up the safety glass before reseating myself. No seatbelt, stupid! The steering column was a lift out model. Just cut the wires and out it came.
All this BS because I hit a mud puddle on the right....go figure.
Bad day.
The other creepy part was I remember tripping over the tombstones at the local cemetery in the fog, late like 12:30 I'd guess. Thinking....I must be dead. Tracked my blood trail for over two miles the next week....no rain had come. I did eventually find the magnetic dealer plate. That was on the back of the "Bluewagoon." Took three nights to find it, bastage!
I was heading to Apple Pie Hill to drink some beers and maybe meet some guys to drop some venison....yummy.
The tree was right across the street from one of the local churches. I remember seeing the steeple when crawling out of the wreck. After that I must have just wondered off into the night.
I've also taken a 3/8" tow chain right in the forehead when it snapped straightening out the bent front wall on a roll-off body truck, not a rollback, different animals. That was bloody mess. Imprinted chain links and another three day headache. I was maybe twenty four then.
Bruises...
Some months later this happened. Mind you at the time my first daughter who was now one old needed a father who would be there. So.....I changed up all that stupid *s-word I was still doing in life. Went back to working full time and quit racing period. No more money nights in Philly or at Atco Dragway. Then this...I blew in, as imploded my L3-4 disc. Happens very rarely. I was at work....another shop known as aka: Hello, Beer Circus? After this my days as a wrench were over. Hanging over the fenders is brutal for me to do.
I was just reaching under a flat tired Honda....setting up a left side arm on an outdoor lift. A small pop sound and it was all over for my back. Recovery was two years but complete. I followed everything and then some.
The insurance company sent me to a young butcher who promised to fuse my back and you'll be good as new in six months. I crawled out of that butchers office quick as possible. I still don't have a fusion in my back, lucky.
Went to the surgical library at Penn State University in Philly to get educated and find my own surgeon. Two weeks laying on the floor reading up on whos who and who does what in Philly. He, Mr. Mario, was the very best who wrote the book on spinal surgery and had his own tools made for him and his brother.
Jefferson University Philly PA.
Mario J. Arena and his clone brother.
Simply the best of the best, period.
Does that help?
Everything is a double edge sword like my screen name implies
I may have
brain damage but that didn't and doesn't stop me from enjoying building and tuning some serious engines....then testing them some After being sick for the last five years, robbed twice at the old closed down collision shop I should own....got *f-worded out of it....I'm building my own shop at home.
The plan is to get back to where I belong and that ain't up a tree for the past ten years.
Burnt fingers, all greasyed up, I'll pass on the grease this time and sweating bullets
Plus, missing gears Destroying tires and diffs is where it's at!
Trading paint ain't bad either. I stayed off the street bikes and that is how I survive to get to here, today. Arthritis sucks chief....as you know.
Bonneville salts flats look interesting. I'm heading there in 2020 to check out the seen. I hear "fuelers" out there are an excepted and encourage practice
The "Grammar Police" can GFY
To Bruce:
This might be good or bad but in my head it rings true.
" This place in space is more like Toy Story than an OPE repair forum."
KAM 2019
#gitsum
