I hacked on bicycles for kids in grade school, I repaired lawn mowers in junior high, fiddled with old cars in high school and my Uncle owned a farm implement/tractor business.

I overhauled two engines before I was old enough get a license to drive. I used an old chain hoist, some scaffold jacks and walk boards from my dad’s construction company to pull engines.

Never professionally, just friends and family stuff. My best friend farms ~1000 acres, and my FIL was a dairy farmer, I have helped both with equipment repairs…

So, life, family and a real job… much more complicated autos, and some 50 years later, at 70, I no longer will have to roll around under a car on a f-;:”@g gravel driveway!

Now retired and at our forever home I had a pole barn, concrete floor and all built… and next Wednesday I get a 11,000 lb two post auto lift installed!

Glory hallelujah!

Ya’ll probably don’t care, and I’m certainly not boasting, but I had to share with someone as I just got the call… I know some of you Sig Forum brothers understand how huge this is for an old guy.

Just wish I had one decades ago!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cparktd,

Doing what you love , congratulations.

It reads like you were somehow cut off in mid-sentence.

I take it this means an auto lift. That, plus power tools, is the only reason, after a career working on cars, why my body survived relatively unscathed.

^^^

I think it was just about where he was going to say his friends bought him a '63 split window and a Viper.

I predict a lift in spirits.

If you anticipate pulling any engines, a gantry with an electric winch is light-years ahead of any "cherry picker" engine hoist.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:


It reads like you were somehow cut off in mid-sentence..

Yes, posting from iphone and apparently used an iphone specific symbol
And that’s where my text seems to have stopped? Even re-entering my text wouldn’t show up until I deleted the symbol. Sorry about that folks.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
If you anticipate pulling any engines, a gantry with an electric winch is light-years ahead of any "cherry picker" engine hoist.

Yes, but will only be a very few… I have one out now doing an overhaul and one sitting to do the same to but nothing else planned. I pulled the last one with pallet forks on my JD tractor!

I care cparktd, and I'm jealous. Congrats.

It took me many, many years and "shade tree work" before I finally got a workshop and a hydraulic 4 poster lift. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven!! I still have it and it works just fine.

A lift would be about the only thing that would make me interested in working on cars anymore. It started as necessity; I was young and broke, but had knowledge and tools. At 53 it’s more convenience because it’s not as easy on the body. I just can’t muscle through the really difficult tasks without paying the price for a few days. Sometimes it’s easier to write the check so some other young man’s kids can eat. But a shop with a lift would be an absolute joy. You’ve earned your toy my friend. Hope it makes you happy for years to come. Especially if your friends gift you a L84 split window!

Congratulations.

Enjoying your hobby with better technology, waking up the next morning and not hurting will be amazing.