Salmon Ford

  A WIDE brown dirt road lay straight out beyond the Thunder-chicken Ford hood ornament. Two young men in the car had left their barracks on Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. They were traveling fast in the rising sun, casting for a few days of walleye fishing. Andy and Bart drove across the prairie quickly toward Devil’s Lake. The first hour had sprinted them in missile-like fashion across miles of smooth, recently-scraped and firmly packed dirt road. They were almost halfway to their destination.

 Andy had a home-spun theory about traveling fast on straight gravel roads. As he taught it, Bart.., a California boy, did not argue the point. Not being from a Midwest prairie state, he did not fault his friend’s prairie logic. Andy’s strategy seemed to work. The driver said, “When you drive a dry prairie gravel road, you’ve got to play around until you find a speed that won’t pick up stones.”

  Andy’s strategy was well-planned. At too-low speeds the car would fill with dust. So he said they needed to go a bit faster. Then gravel started to bounce from the tires toward the floor board and rockers, but the dust in the car lessened. As he increased speed, they heard fewer “clinks” and “chinks” as gravel missed the bottom of Andy’s ’56 Ford hardtop.

 Thus, varying speed a bit according to the humidity and other natural wheat field factors that only Andy could talk about at length, they sped up... and the noise stopped. On that morning at precisely 62 mph, Bart noted that relative quiet settled into what had been a dust-raising drill. No longer was dirt coming in, but was seen curling up far behind. He became very glad that there was no oncoming traffic. They would make the two men slow enough to keep stones from hitting windshields.

 Andy explained to Bart that the centrifugal force of the tires overcame any “stickiness” of small pebbles clamped in the tread. The ideal speed threshold was therefore detected only by the relative quiet. With just a slight rumble of rolling wheels, they could then listen to Hank Williams on the radio, and talk to one another at a normal fish-monger's volume.

 Once the two young men achieved that ideal speed with the wide smooth gravel road still allowing safety, Andy maintained a rate just a few mph above the “quiet” speed zone. This took a bit of old-fashioned, astute mid-western throttle play that could make many modern, electronic cruise control envious.

 Andy had sought to get them right up to that ideal speed quickly. He had just paid a body man big bucks to refinish the lower panels of the Ford with the original salmon-like, coral color he liked so much. After the paint restoration was so ably completed and dried for a time at the base hobby shop, he’d attached small rubber mud flaps on the front wheel wells. Andy topped off his work with a bug screen bought at the Western Auto. The screen graced the front of the car to protect the grille. Though Bart had not said so, he thought Andy’s bug catcher a bit much for the beautifully-kept Ford hardtop. However, the bug screen was not just to protect the grill. The screen helped to keep the radiator from being clogged by a bumper crop of grasshoppers. While the overhead valve Ford V-8 did run clean and cool thanks to the regularly washed screen.

 On that day, Andy had more in mind. His prairie practicalities were at work. You see, Andy hailed from South Dakota. He was raised in Mobridge. In his youth he had learned to fish for pike prairie-style. Given that history, he knew exactly what he was doing with his bug screen. While Bart had wondered why they weren’t taking a paved road toward the east that morning, Andy had acquiring bait in his mind.

  Bart was to learn that almost every prairie dusty road they traveled had wide ditches on both sides. In winter, drifted snow would fill them. Those wide, shallow areas Andy used as a resource. Bart discovered his strategy when they drew up to a lonely stop sign.

 The two men sat there for a moment idling at a prairie intersection. There was not a house or barn anywhere in sight. Andy then drove slowly across the rural intersection, and went down the gradual slope into the wide ditch paralleling the road. He started to drive slowly along in the very bottom of the ditch. He picked up a little speed through the still wet grass. Soon minor taps on the front of the car and the splats on the windshield told the tale.

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You see, Andy had picked the right road, the right ditch, and had the right height to the rising sun. After a quarter mile or so of ditch running, at the field’s next tractor access road, Andy pulled up out of the ditch and stopped. He quickly jumped out with the keys in his hand. He opened the trunk lid and handed Bart two big empty coffee cans and a pair of gloves. They went to the front grill’s bug screen and started picking live bait! Live, stunned and splattered grasshoppers, beetles, moths and bugs were there! Some of those nasties Bart still can’t describe or identify. Andy grinned, and said, “Now we’ve got bait!”

 I remembered this scene described from Bart many years ago as I strolled through a car show. The show was held next to a little lake in the town where I now live. There I saw a Ford hardtop of the same color as my friend’s former ride. The hardtop sparkled in the morning sun. Beautifully preserved, the Ford Victoria lured both my attention and the focus of my camera lens. I was not, however, the only person gathered by the sight.

 Though it did not have the stone deflecting mud flaps, nor a massive bug screen attached to its grille… the car was a magnet. It worked quite like a bug zapper lit up at night. People gathered around the car. Amid them was a man passing out Christian pamphlets.

 As a minister, I wondered why I hadn’t thought of that witness method. I thought of my Air Force buddies and those prairie fishing methods. So I asked the man with the Christian gospel tracts, “What kind of fishing bait did the disciples use?

 He said, “Lord knows…”

 Andy had taught me, “Find a ditch on a lightly traveled road; move at just the right speed, and the bait gathered will be right.”

 Those words tapped into my mind like the bait on his bug screen. I thought about them again as I later unfolded my lawn chair next to the lake. I opened my fishing box after casting out a tasty bug as bait. I looked at the tract the man had given.

 The booklet he was passing to others told about Jesus teaching folks down at the lakeshore. I read a few lessons taught about faith.

 Oddly, only now I remember that Andy had taken that road for a reason. I remembered that I knew him after meeting him in a Lutheran church in Mohall, ND. I realize now that those two young servicemen carried on long conversations about fishing, faith and God’s love supplied. It was three-hook bait given freely by God like bugs in a ditch, but far more profound. 

You see, during many excursions in North Dakota for land-locked salmon, pike, muskies, pickerel and more, Andy had been instrumental in laying the foundation for faith understanding in many people. In quiet trips to Devil’s Lake my fisherman friend shared his faith on more than one occasion, with Bart and others.

 Andy, in somewhat regular practice grown of his mid-western Norwegian Lutheran roots, showed that he lived a baptized life of hooked Christian freedom every day. Whenever possible, he’d gone about prayerfully fishing, hunting and harvesting… gathering the sinful and un-nameable bugs that God had laid out before him. They were like the manna bread given by God to the people of Israel in the desert so long ago.

 I do remember that conversations about Jesus as Lord were spoken easily by Andy. They certainly became part of the day for anyone who sat in a boat with him on a farm pond. The story of Jesus calming the seas seemed fit to be laughed about as he would row hard to beat a rain storm sweeping across the Garrison Reservoir. Through all his witness, Andy would find that a fishing buddy would slowly be brought to know the grace of God.

 I wonder now, “What does the Holy Trinity have in common with a treble hook?” Maybe very little, but it makes for great debate as we might sit alongside each other on the banks of a cold Dakota lake. I think of this after my many years in the pulpit. Andy taught me that it’s amazing who you can catch just by driving slowly through the ditches of life... trolling along... catching devilish bugs maimed… and using them as bait.

Here's a video for those who like to try fishing for people...

About Liking Fish!

 

Clouds Surrounded...

A LATE night fog slowed progress. I drove home from a distant church meeting. Each time the fog rolled in I tried to use the high beam headlights. The mist would glare back, so that only low beams would allow me to wend my way. Occasionally, I could not see through the clouds at all. I kept stepping on the brake, but the fog’s swirling made it look like the car was still rolling right along. I opened the driver’s door and looked down. The car had indeed stopped. Then rolling slowly forward with the door’s interior light shining on the roadway’s double yellow line, I felt pressed. Remaining there stopped in the road was not an option… for fear of another driver crawling up behind me. I was tense in the darkness, but kept going. By the time I could see and arrived at my hometown street it was close to midnight.

 I rolled up my street toward home and became aware that a glow highlighted a garage doorway in a house located about three doors before my own. Knowing the gear head that called the bi-level place his own, I knew that I’d likely find Nick beneath the hood of his favorite project. Sure enough, the door to the garage was wide open.

 Dressed in a NASCAR tee-shirt and droopy jeans, Nick was draped over the engine housed beneath the open hood. Plenteous fender covers protected the deep metallic blue paint on his Mustang. Engulfed by the V-8 beneath the hood, he worked intently on the ignition system.

 The engine was beautiful. Tasteful appointments of stock and aftermarket baubles accented two chromed, custom rocker arm covers. A tricked out high-performance 4-bbl carb nested nicely on top of a hi-rise aluminum manifold. I knew from previous conversations that the manifold sat ever so lightly between cylinder heads that had been ported, polished, relieved and tulip valve matched by Nick for maximum air flow. He had built this engine over the period of a year, with countless hours of exacting and painstaking work.

 Indeed like the rest of the car, most work in the engine was done personally by Nick. Several years of late night hours had formed his gorgeous set of wheels, given as a hand-me down Ford from his father. He had given the car to Nick while the boy was in high school.

Out of the Mist!

 “Watcha doin, Nick?” I asked.

 Deeply committed to the task, he didn’t even look up to see who it was.

 Apparently recognizing my voice, he said, “I just reworked the distributor. It had a bit too much play in the shaft bushing, so I thought I’d do the whole job once over. While in there, I re-curved the stock centrifugal advance and shimmed the vacuum advance at the speed shop last week. Now I’m dropping the whole works back in.”

 Nick then straightened up from the old couch cushion that supported him, keeping his weight off the radiator housing. He wiped his hands with a shop towel, though not a spot of dirt could be found anywhere in the engine bay.

  A tall young man in his late twenties, Nick looked eyeball-to-eyeball with me as he stood. With a “Pfft”, he blew dark hair back from his brow and said, “Reverend, I had to index and reseat the distributor to the oil pump drive rod again, so I though it should get another shot of oil to the crank and bearings before I fire up this old snake.”

 I nodded, knowing that using an electric drill and a home-made adapter rod, Nick could work the pump until engine oil pressure showed on the dash gauge. I also coldly noted his rather official “Reverend” reference to me as his neighbor, and the pet name “snake” as he spoke about his project car. Though in the past he said that he knew the car wasn’t a “Cobra”, he treated the Mustang like he was a fluted hypnotist entreating his king snake into a wheel stand. I wondered many a time about whether he was the one being hypnotized. Often, on late summer nights, it seems the snake played the flute.

 “How are Jennie and the kids?” I asked quietly, thinking that I’d better keep our voices low or I’d awaken the sleeping home.

 “They’re okay I guess. Jennie has the girls with her down to her parents in Atlanta. I haven’t talked to them for a while.”

  “Oh, when did they go?” I queried.

 He wiped the bent wrench especially angle-made for tightening the Ford engine’s distributor clamp bolt. And without looking up from his task, he said… “They’ve been gone more than a month” He paused a bit… “I don’t know when… or if they’ll come back.”

 I thought for a minute or two about what he said. Then I asked, “Is there a problem, Nick?” 

 He shrugged a little. “Yeah.., I guess. Jennie says she’s going to stay there for a while. She said I don’t spend enough time with her and the girls.”

 He bent over the engine again and started putting the distributor cap in place, turning it slowly so to index it properly.

  “I’m home all the time. It’s not like I’m going out to a bar or clubbin’ or nothing like that.” He then continued, “I’m always out here in the garage every night. She knew where to find me.”

 Usually reluctant to comment casually on marital troubles, I stood trying to do what every friend should do… just listen. But somehow.., what he’d told me was just like that little lifter click people would sometimes hear beneath the forward portion of the right valve cover on a 455cid V-8 Olds. Hearing it, I’d asked myself while listening… is it just a bit of dirt, a bad lifter, a rocker, or is the whole train starting to wobble?

 So boldly I asked… “Nick, when’s the last time you went anywhere on a date with your wife… just the two of you?”

 “I took her to the movies over Thanksgiving.” he said.

 “That’s many months ago. And you both sat there watching the screen, I imagine.., not talking. Did you go somewhere together to talk afterward?"

 Hearing no answer as he clicked the cap’s metal snaps in place, I continued, “I’m no marriage counselor, but it sounds like you folks could use some alone time to talk and share.., every week.”

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 Without waiting for an answer, I quickly said “Nick, when’s the last time you took the girls to a car show?”

 He looked up from trying to figure the firing order of the plug wires. He said, “They’re girls. What would they get from a car show?”

 “Lots!” I answered. “My wife goes to shows with me. She, the one who is always shopping, tells me which car she wants. My daughter munches hot dogs, drinks soda and takes pictures of bumpers, hubcaps, and any cute animal hood ornaments she sees. Best of all, we get to bum around, have fun and spend time together.”

 “I spend time with my family right here,” he returned.

  I then struggled to find the right words. “Nick.., please don’t continue to make an idol out of this car. It’s not a god, but it sounds like it does take away your time and energy from your family. Maybe you need to think a bit about some priorities.”

 He straightened up slowly. He kept looking at the engine for a long time. I thought he was getting angry. Finally he said, "You know Reverend, the fog is nearly gone. Your timing seems to be just about right.”

Stop in and view our YouTube video...

 May the Holy Spirit Guide You Over the Hills and Through the Dips!

Paint Hiding Problems...

WANTING A LATE model finish on a custom car can seem dim. Indeed, a modern clear coat can put the final touch on a color and protective, high technology beneath the finish. Any automotive refinisher worth road salt will tell you, however, that cars must have good initial protection applied to the vehicle's exterior panels. You first need to properly prepare the base surface! This is done with an anti-corrosion material. If you’re refinishing a modern vehicle, you may find the lower panels are galvanized and many upper panels were treated using a zinc phosphate coating. Throw in the fact that some aluminum and various plastics exist, and you have a complex formula that cooks the minds of many custom car painters.

 First know that considerable differences between finishes exist depending on make, model and years of production. Occasionally, changes may have even been done at the factory during mid-year. Know that car makers may have initially covered zinc-coated steel with an electro-deposition primer; or may have used a baked polyester, epoxy, or one-step primer. This was done before they applied a topcoat to the metal. Some foreign car makers, the Japanese in particular, may have used a surfacer as a base for a high-solids, solid-colored paint. Then these were followed by a three-step paint system, using a clear topcoat that included tinting.

 During the 80’s, some Ford plants laid on a polyester base coat paint followed by an acrylic clear coat. As well, a few 1980's vintage GM cars may wear a waterborne enamel. You may also find a high-tech polybutyl primer covered by solid color alkyd enamel flavored certain European finishes. During that era, car makers went toward the use of a metallic, high solids-low solvent coating… or water-based lacquer basecoat followed by a polyurethane clear coat. Exotic formulas became the taste for many car makers in order to comply with Federal EPA regulations.  As of 1988, finishes became enamored with three-stage paints. These were built using pearlescent solid base coat colors over-coated with clear paint that contained mica-flakes. A final clear coat topped the cake for a very deep, pearlescent, high gloss luster.

 You can see that when in the restoration arena, we've got to cook up a duplicate of all this special flow and reflow, computer-controlled, robot-applied hi-tech… using a pot, a mixing stick, and a hand-controlled spray gun. We then throw-in some simple air-drying or surface heating magic with infra-red technology. Unless we plan the job, these differing technologies can quickly ruin the look.

 Additionally, today's automotive refinishing materials spray as water-based materials from low pressure guns that atomize liquid droplets. These droplets quickly convert to hard, durable films. The products depend on evaporation to dry.

 Paints, primers, primer surfacers and such. . . normally contain three components. First, pigments are responsible for color. Next, binders are the chemicals that form the film, Lastly, solvents keep the whole concoction a liquid while you magically do the application. However, like when making tasty soup or stew, you must use good ingredients.

 For example, strong latent solvent provides a good gloss. Many color cooks get sloppy right away with solvents. A mess can occur in a topcoat because of too slow, latent solvents. Since a cheap thinner has weak latent solvent it causes poor gloss and adhesion. Poor solvents also may cause cracking, dull finish, chalking, cracks or splits, blisters, sand-scratch swell, blush, pinholes, and most of all... a poor color match is likely for repair jobs.

Be aware of... and obey local, state and federal regulations concerning all spray evaporative emissions!

 Consequently, if you inadvertently mix cheap thinner used for cleaning a paint gun into your primer coat, that poor solvent dries too slowly. Thus your topcoat is usually affected. A quality thinner contains a balanced mix of active and latent solvents and certain diluting liquids.

 Know this! Active solvents blend with a latent solvent to give drying control for the spraying of lacquers and enamel. Each thinner or reducer is uniquely rated for a given range of refinishing needs. Therefore your solvent should always match spraying conditions.

 Your binder can spoil the pot too. Primer and paint binders can vary widely from simple nitrocellulose lacquers to alkyds, acrylics, urethanes and polyurethanes. Obviously, when you use these, we recommend using a whole system of matching products. Follow exact formulas to ensure proper chemical reactions. Color matching can be difficult at best since a myriad of distinct base pigments now exist to reproduce factory colors.Take note that the use of these may be restricted, or downright illegal in a given setting.

Metallic, mica, and pearl flakes of various sizes are now available. Though metallics and micas must contain additives to prevent mottling, if they don't settle just right your car can look like a chameleon, tiger, or zebra. Also, if you choose to use a factory pack premixed at the paint supplier, you should have tinting knowledge.

 

 If you choose a mixing system using base colors, follow the exact mixing formula recommended. Also remember! If you’re going for a factory restoration, use a quality refinishing system designed to match, but not necessarily duplicate, various original finishes. Be careful here! Some car show judging asks that a vehicle be refinished in the exact materials of the original coating! However, for the Sunday ride to the local show, go for long lasting and best results. Work from the metal up with products from a single refinishing product manufacturer.

  If you're starting with bare metal that's not galvanized, first remove all rust, oil, grease, and water. Don't prime untreated metal! Condition the surface. Mix your metal conditioners and let the conversion occur according to the material's recommendations. Afterward, make sure you rinse the surface thoroughly with clean water. A brownish-hued coating should remain on the surface.

 To apply your primer, you have several choices. Nitro-cellulose primer derives from natural cellulose. This primer has good adhesion properties, but poor anti-corrosion and filling. You may instead choose zinc chromate or vinyl-wash primer applied prior to a primer-sealer or primer-surfacer. Vinyl wash primer consists of two-components-the primer. . . and a plasticizer. Just know that this stew has a limited pot life. If not applied within the recommended time, you must redo the mix. Also know that the use of these chemicals demands a sure knowledge of personal contact and inhalation protection!

 Epoxy primers are also two-component materials used for priming aluminum, steel, galvanizing, plastic fillers, and fiberglass. Also, know that you can also use an alkyd enamel primer-sealer under enamel topcoats.

 If you're working on a flexible part, remember that solvents in the primer may attack the plastic. Wet sand the part using No. 320 or 400 waterproof paper. Use a little very mild soap put into the water as a lubricant. When the plastic surface is smooth and featheredged, apply a water-based primer coat especially formulated for plastic parts. Let the coating dry and sand the surface lightly. Don't break through to the plastic! Lastly, coat once again using a quality primer-surfacer. Primer-surfacers are primers which contain polyester fillers. Many shops prefer using them for steel or plastic priming because they offer better filling of minor surface imperfections. You’ll find most modern primer-surfacers provide previously unheard of filler adhesive properties.

 You may find that a nitrocellulose primer-surfacer provides good filling, dries fast, sands nicely, and is great for spot repairs. However, for good corrosion resistance use an epoxy primer, alkyd, acrylic, or urethane primer-surfacer. Use these products for full panel refinishing. However, this stuff won't do well for doing spot repairs because of the short pot life and long dry times. For these, consider a universal primer surfacer that holds up beneath several different topcoats. Consult your paint supplier for recommendations.

 Consider using a sealer where chemical incompatibilities may arise. Remember that many old finishes, especially lacquers, are susceptible to lifting because of the attack of strong solvents. However, know that sealers have a recoat time limit. If you fail to recoat the surface in the time allotted, peeling may occur. You can use a high quality sealer beneath most topcoat products.

 If you are working with an oldie but goodie, to determine whether the paint is lacquer or enamel, wet a cloth with thinner and rub the paint. If it dissolves after a few rubs it's most likely a lacquer. On the other hand, if there's no color transfer. . , enamel is the ingredient. What kind of enamel, colored or clear? You can detect a clear enamel by sanding lightly on a remote area with No. 220 sandpaper. If this action brings up white powder on the paper, you have a clear coat enamel.

 When working with restoration of an old surface, sand-scratch swelling may be a problem for you unless you seal new solvents from reaching the old sanded surface. Examine the old finish closely. If it's cracked, crazed, or otherwise badly damaged, you have to remove the paint. Use a dual action orbital sander with No. 220 paper or a quality paint remover to take it down. NOTE: Always wear a respirator when working with removers! Also, protect your hands by using rubber gloves, and your eyes with goggles. When using a remover, scrape the paint off and wash the panel with water after the old paint lifts. Be sure not to use a remover on plastic, aluminum, fiber-glass, rubber, upholstery, or flexible plastic parts!

 Use wax and grease remover after paint removal and before sanding an original primer. Use some tricks from the ingredient bag. If paint damage isn't too severe a hand sanding block or solvent can featheredge a chip. If you’re working with a lacquer, for example, form a small ball using a shop towel. Soak the cloth with solvent. Hold the ball against the surface for a minute. Now rub the spot with circular motion until the metal shows slightly through the primer. Now lightly clean to a featheredge using light, fine sanding. Clean the area with wax and grease remover and mask it off. Once done, prime and refinish sand.

 Now you're ready to mix your paint. Follow the thinning/reducing formula exactly when mixing. Be aware that temperatures influence viscosity and drying times greatly. Store paint at room temperature and use a viscosimeter and cup filters during mixing. Add the recommended solvents very carefully! Incorrect reduction can cause excessive orange peel, sags and runs, metallic flip-flop and poor hiding. Wear a positive pressure air-supplied respirator or an equivalent when mixing and spraying. I recommend that you protect yourself and the surface you spray by wearing a painting coverall equipped with a hood.

 If used, add all necessary flexers, hardeners, and fish-eye eliminators last. Mix well and then do a color check. Remember! If you’re using a basecoat/clearcoat finish, the base color coat dries with a low gloss and the high gloss comes out with the clearcoat. A color coat-plus-clear coat system on the other hand, is a conventional coat of lacquer or enamel with a clear coat of lacquer or enamel applied over it. In this application the color coat does achieve a gloss, so the clear topcoat simply enhances the finish. Note that in any multi-stage finish, film thickness is critical or cracking may occur.

 However, before laying on any coating... if your test panel color isn’t what you desire, before you grab a tinting can and start throwing more color in, realize that many controllable items can cause a tint trouble. The first is application technique! Before anything else, read the instructions again. Is gun air pressure correct? Excess pressures can lighten a color coat; whereas, low pressures tends to darken. Make sure of the proper solvents or reducers. Hot weather or fast dry solvents may also lighten a finish. Make sure of your spray gun settings and the spray pattern. Recheck your spray booth conditions.

  Finally, before phoning your supplier, know that color pack paints and paint formulas are usually very accurate to the original, requiring very little tinting or blending. Look to the supplier only when you have checked and rechecked paint application methods. Also, know that paint manufacturers usually have Internet access or troubleshooting phone hotlines. Check them out! They are master’s when it comes to dealing with automotive refinishing.