looking for new values, but nuthin comes my way

....er maybe so!  Can you figger out the connection of these three photos?  Does it make any sense at all without explanation?  Here are a couple of clues for you all besides the walrus was Paul:  The problem is/was merging two disparate automotive entities.  We got here a Velvet drive transmission and need to match it up with a 1955 Buick Nailhead engine.....how can that happen?...well, that's enough clues for now. 

Chris Craft Cobra

It's got a big fin that's hard to tell from the sketch.

Sanding remains the same

This is what I'm doing a lot of these days.  I'm using the neumatically driven Hutchins sander.  I sand for about 4 minutes until the compressor runs down on air, go back in the house for awhile then come back after the compressor tank is full again then repeat the process....I'm going back and forth between the garage tent and the house so much I've gotta be losing weight with all the calories i must be burning.

still sanding

but takin' a 'lil time to sketch as well.

sand, sand, sand, sand, sand

....as I listen to the sounds of the Animals 2nd? album......don't let me be misunderstood.

New Hybrid engine!

I'm developing a new concept in marine engines, this baby is going to run on pomegranate juice.  I'm going to apply for a patent tomorrow.

have camera phone, will take pictures

My camera broke but realised the camera phone sometimes can take an adequate picture, so here's one that barely shows how the cockpit trim (a thin piece of wood wrapped around the inner "lip" of the inside deck) is completed! Wow, you must be as excited about it as i am!....another milestone on the journey.

Something goes wrong again!

My frickin' digital camera broke when I was in key west.  Asking the question why me? Why my camera? How am I going to do the Pain in the butt boats blog now?....without a camera I am totally screwed!....Then I thought of something, hey! I know how to draw reasonably well don't I?  I don need no stinkin' camera, I'll just sketch 'em out instead! ...so here's the first one where the trim on the inner cockpit is being glued and held on using clamps in case my drawing isn't good enough for you to recognise them.  One thing about boatbuilding is you can never have enough clamps.

no progress zone

Yes, there's been no progress on the boat(s) for quite awhile - 2 weeks in key west, then a root canal, then a court hearing, then add in what it takes just to live in the city and you add it up and that means no progress!

I did manage to squeek out a sketch though. 

back from Key West

Here's a typical scene on a typical day on Duval St.  I hated to say good bye to all my new perverted friends but a guy just has to get back to the hum drum regular life in Santa Cruz especially since that's where I live and that's where I keep my pain in the butt boats!

sketch break....and announcement!

going to Key West for a coupla weeks, no working on the boats for a little while.

With the other boat out of commission for awhile, been focusing on the 1953 Correct Craft project boat.  This leg of the project entails cutting off the "bastard wild edges" of the planking that overhangs the cockpit which entails cutting around a curve and working around the steering wheel (it gets in the way of power tools). 

The steam bending apperatus (pictured) has been fired up to bend the mahogany trim that needs to follow the tight curves.  Without steam: forget about it buddy!

Ta-Da!

I finished the decking, just put on the final "plank".   This thing may in fact be finished some day!  A lot of the time in the last year plus that I've been working on it I knew that the completion date would be a long timeline.....or never finished at all.....Yet, with this leg of the journey complete,  it might just in fact be completed, the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to glow, dimly for sure, but I will follow that light and hopefully be on the water listening to the hum of the engine as I carve through the glassy water in search of that magical moment when all is well with the world and my place in it.

Out of the muck the lotus begins growing.

You are looking at two pictures:

The top image is the business card of the guy that is going to put back together the engine pictured in the other picture.  That engine is a powerful 1955 322 cubic inch Buick "nailhead engine."  I'm almost happy the 350 chevy engine took a crap....In my opinion it was "a turd" of a setup.....i don't want to get into now, let's have a pint together and I will bad mouth that engine to no end....right now I'm excited about the nailhead going back where it belongs, it's going back home, i think i'm going to cry!



to learn more about nailhead engines: http://www.carcraft.com/thehistoryof/65502_buick_nailhead/index.html

Engine is broken!

Not too much time to explain now but water is in the engine oil, somehow, the dip stick mark raised up enough to indicate a gain of 1 quart of water!  ....bummer!.....more on this later.

Been Campin'

...but not boatin'.  Where we were, although incredibly beautiful, is no place to take a boat.  You would simply not be able to launch it for one thing.  No, sometimes you have to take a break from boating and become one with a place called "Hell's half acre." ...which aught to be renamed "Heaven's Half Acre!"  It's located on the Stanislaus River near Sonora CA.

Repetition

Back to laying down the planks. After you've done a bunch of them (such as I) it can get tedious but exciting (to me) probably not for you though.  I'm only mildly excited though, not really excited.  Anyway here's the progress picture.  See if you can spot the changes since the last progress picture!  Give yourself strokes for that!  I sure am giving myself strokes so you should have that oppurtunity as well!

Back from lake Tulloch

Here's what it looked like every morning until we figgered out they let out water every night (dropping the lake level 2 feet). The second picture was the last morning compensating for that fact.

A better look

A better look at the zebra wood, you can almost smell it! Just wait til it gets varnished, then the zebra quality will really come out!

Goin up to Lake Tullock (near Sonora) for the week end, gonna have a whole lotta fun. And fun is what it's all about isn't it?

sketch break

I love old boats!

More progress

Continuing on continues on on the ongoing saga of the Correct Craft project boat. This week I actually went to a lumber yard and bought a 50 dollar piece of zebra wood that I shaved down and laid down on the deck (see picture). Some day this boat might even be finished!...knock on mahogony.

More progress

It's amazing what can happen when you have a head of steam and don't get sidetracked at the local bar.....laid down more planks. One bad thing though, the band saw blade snapped, gonna have to get a new one, what a bummer.

At long last, work continues on the Correct Craft!

Overcoming inertia, ...bigtime inertia, the kind of inertia that makes it seem that doing anything is a waste of time. Anyway, i suited up in my best work clothes and planed down some planks man! Not only that but glued down the first two courses of the bow decking! Hey!, if I ain't on a roll, then grits ain't groceries!

Back from Scotts Flat Lake

Had a real good time, the weather and lake water were ideal....campin' and boatin', that's what it's all about isn't it?

Gettin' er ready!

Been scrapin' and sandin' down the worn out varnish, then putting on some refresher coats of varnish gettin' the boat ready for this weekends trip to a place called scotts flat lake near Grass valley, CA . I have never been there before but hear it's a real good lake for campin' 'n boatin'....lookin' f'ward toit!

I spent this past week patching the bottom and varnishing the chines. It's done now and I can resume boating although I will be going out of town for a week and where I'm going there's no boating to be.

It's never nuthin'!

Here I am lifting up a 3000 pound boat with a 1/2 to chain hoist. All because I have to crawl under the boat (once again), contorting myself to work around the trailer support beams and such because the freaking fiberglass skin peeled off while I was ripping it up at lake Commanche last week....If you play, you gotta pay!

been away for awhile

just got back from a trip with the boat, feeling good, checked the mail where her lawyer sent a filing that took me down. the lies. Are we going for the truth or using every weapon to get as much as we possibly can regardless of how we get it?

Here's where we are right now

Now that the chicken wing contest has passed, I have had a chance to resume the Correct Craft project boat. The "covering boards" being complete, have now vacuumed off the deck in preparation for the next step: filling in the area with straight planking. Gotta make decisions, though, whether to have seams inbween planks or not....too bad Stanley isn't around anymore for consultation.

3rd place!...and had a lotta fun!

Well, I did it. Took third place in the contest....now am free to continue on wid da boat but haven't yet.

chicken wing cookoff

That's what I been doing lately...ever since in a three pint buzz, I signed up for the "wing ding cookoff". that was 2 and a half weeks ago. Since then I've been working on my special Icelandic Viking wings that will blow your fxxk'n mind man! tommorrow, Jan 20th, the event happens. Please pray that I achieve 3rd place. FYI: I had never cooked wings before signing up for this. Vote for me, the underdog.

Away, I went away, to the town of Chico

Been out of town for about a week, boat project to be resumed shortly, thanks for your patience.

23 strips of wood...

...went into the bow "covering boards", (i use this term gingerly). Let's shout out YOO-HOO!! for finishing this pain inthe butt portion of the boat! think about it, 23 little pieces of wood forced into bending around a curve, a curve so-o-o tight I was worried about them snapping! Anyway, this is not a time for complaining, for dwelling on bad things that could have happened (but didn't) ...nay, now is a time for celebration for plowing through this thing! Please help me celebrate by raising your glasses high and saying "Skol" in a grand Danish/Icelandic/Nordic tradition!

While we're waiting...

...for the current leg of the Correct Craft resto to be finished, here's a sketch of a boatload of people in a 1950 Century Seamaid.

ACTION HAPPENS!!!!

Here's an action shot of me working the chisel on the boat for the first time in over a month! Maybe i'm recovering from the marital blow my psyche suffered....let's hope so!

1946 Garwood sketch

I may be on the verge of picking up steam on the Correct Craft project boat, by slowly sketching back into it.

it's no-action!

UPDATE: may 18....finished interoggatories, took 27 hours and is .75 inches thick legal size paper.


Been answering interrogatories required of me by soon to be ex-wifes lawyer who wants to know: In your own words describe your social security number. and other questions of that caliber. After 23 hours + I am still working on this, hence, no action on the pain in the butt boats!

What was I thinking?

Of course I will continue. Why not? I just get agitated sometimes.

It's all over now, baby blue.

...that's the thing of this gig, I'm giving it up to live it up. this is the last posting. If you want to receive the sketch of the week email me at emikk@aol.com

Back from vacation

If your wondering where the new posts have gone, well, wonder no longer!.....Went to Key West, then to New Orleans. Obviously Iwasn't working on the boat project. Now that I'm back I may still not proceed for awhile. Need to deal with some stuff.....y'know, divorce and such, but don't get depressed because I haven't given up!...not entirely anyway. Keep the faith that, God willing, it will continue. Rock and Roll will never die and neither will my pain in the butt boat project....here's a sketch from Key West at a restaurant at the marina. enjoy.

Boat saga continues

todays vinyl is Johnny Rivers and his album Live at the Whisky A Go Go