Father/Daughter project truck

fixit said:
You are my HERO! For working with your daughter teaching her MANY things about cars and LIFE.
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My main goal with this lesson was to convey that you don't have to know how to do to a thing (more importantly you don't have to wait around for someone to train you to do a thing), in order to do that thing (*). That is a lesson that I identified as being important while working with others in a professional setting. Too often people don't advance because they haven't been trained for the next step, and too often people want me to train them for something that I have never been trained for. It's like they expect to be spoon fed information that I had to harvest manually.

The ability and willingness to step out and try something, teach yourself something, learn from your own mistakes, is something I think is more valuable than any given skill. It's more like, the "seed" of skill. It's 2022 and there is nothing new under the sun; it's all out there on the internet if you're willing to put in the time to find it. Or if you're as impatient as me, just jump in and screw up, then go to the internet to find out why.

So I made a point to express at each step of this process that I am not the ultimate source of knowledge that informs our actions, but rather "we are doing this because..." either "tribal knowledge or past experience indicates that it should be done" or "I read on the internet to do it this way" or "I have no idea what I'm doing but this seemed logical" and "let's just try this and see what happens. If it doesn't work, we can try something else."

Before we ever got started sanding and priming, I went on YouTube and I had her go on YouTube and we both independently watched enough car painting videos that we could watch them together and discuss if we thought the advice in a given video was good or bad, and why.

(*) EDIT: within reason of course, wouldn't recommend attempting DIY brain surgery, even if brain surgery was pioneered by trial & error self-teaching. Better to leave that grizzly truth in the past and learn from a textbook.
 
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Wow, great job! I like how you went about the project with her.

Also, I have a perspective on college. I was lucky to know generally what I wanted to do, probably since I was 13 or 14, but that is not that common. I had several college friends who switched gears half way through because they figured out that their idea of what the profession was and the reality of the profession were completely different. (Not to mention that the training and the profession are often pretty different too.) Most figured it out and became successful. Some graduated but didn't pursue the profession but "succeeded" anyway. There were a few that dropped out and went a different direction. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the "finding yourself" step is necessary and valuable for some. Regardless, I think the ambition shown by your daughter and your care and engagement are two positive predictors of her future success.

Anyway, I rambled there. Sorry.
 
Reddinr said:
Wow, great job! I like how you went about the project with her.

Also, I have a perspective on college. I was lucky to know generally what I wanted to do, probably since I was 13 or 14, but that is not that common. I had several college friends who switched gears half way through because they figured out that their idea of what the profession was and the reality of the profession were completely different. (Not to mention that the training and the profession are often pretty different too.) Most figured it out and became successful. Some graduated but didn't pursue the profession but "succeeded" anyway. There were a few that dropped out and went a different direction. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the "finding yourself" step is necessary and valuable for some. Regardless, I think the ambition shown by your daughter and your care and engagement are two positive predictors of her future success.

Anyway, I rambled there. Sorry.
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I get that "finding yourself" is an important step and I agree, not everyone (dare I say "hardly anyone") knows what they want to be when they grow up, at age 16 or 18. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, until I was already mostly grown up (25 and married with 2 kids). And I understand that you don't always know what you're getting into when you get into something. My point is that there are ways of exploring your options that don't require signing up for indentured servitude.

The time leading up to graduation is one of the most stressful times in the life of anyone who isn't among the few who can clearly see their own future. You're made to feel as if you've just become an "adult" and have to make the most important decision you'll ever make as an adult, and make it right now, based on the least amount of information you'll ever have in your adult life. Colleges know this, foster it, and thrive on it. It's predatory and unscrupulous, and tragically perpetuated by the public servants in every high school across the nation.

Think you want to be a veterinarian? You could pay for the privilege of going to school for it, only to find out it's not what you'd hoped. Or you could go work in a veterinary hospital as a receptionist or whoever who cleans up after dogs have explosive releases in the exam rooms. Talk to the vets, find out what they actually do, ask if they recommend pursuing their career. Get paid to find out it's not for you. Or heck, even an unpaid internship is a better deal than taking on debt to find yourself.

When I was near to graduating high school I faced a lot of external pressure to go to college (everyone does, but I faced more than most) and a lot of internal pressure to do the exact opposite of whatever was expected of me. So I joined the military. In retrospect, that turned out to be exactly what I needed. I think my 4 years in the military served me better than 4 years in any kind of educational institution could have, and it earned me a free ride to college after I got out.

When I went to college after the military (only for a year, long story) I saw far too many kids who were pressured into going to college when they weren't ready for it. They're clueless. They don't know what they want. They're only there because "that's what you do" or "that's what everyone else did." It's just an extension of high school for them and they don't take it seriously. Complaining about assignments, skipping class, coming to class hung over. They don't learn anything because they aren't there to learn. They don't appreciate the fact that they or their parents are going into crippling debt for them to be in that place at that time because, having never had debt, they can't fully realize what it means. Education is wasted on them.

The decision to take on debt to go to college (and going to college almost always means taking on debt these days) is one that should be limited to actual adults in my opinion. Adults who have experienced the world a little bit and even if they still don't know what they want to be, might at least have some informed ideas about what they don't want to be. IMO most people should go out into the world for a while before going to college; that step was invaluable for me and I think would be equally for most people. And people who are destined for Engineering roles should spend their educational rumspringa in a technician role.
 
I sure wish my dad would have taken an interest in anything I had interest in.
All 3 of my daughters learned how to work on cars, and in the process learned that you do not have to know how to do something to be able to do it.

I will turn 65 in a few months and I still have not figured out what I want to do when I grow up.
 
If you want to lift the front, get a set of lift spindles, not longer springs. Lift spindles are the same as drop spindles, it just moves the apindle down on the knuckle instead of up.

Longer springs will throw the camber all out of whack, place undue stress on things like ball joints and steering linkage and it will probably ride rough. You may or may not have enough camber adjustment to fix it. Either way, everything is going to be running at its maximum, if not over it.

Lift spindles just move the wheels lower so oem alignment and ride are retained.
 
great white said:
If you want to lift the front, get a set of lift spindles, not longer springs. Lift spindles are the same as drop spindles, it just moves the apindle down on the knuckle instead of up.

Longer springs will throw the camber all out of whack, place undue stress on things like ball joints and steering linkage and it will probably ride rough. You may or may not have enough camber adjustment to fix it. Either way, everything is going to be running at its maximum, if not over it.

Lift spindles just move the wheels lower so oem alignment and ride are retained.
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Yes sir, lift spindles is the direction I will go if I decide to lift it more in the front. I'm surprised that the kit came with springs rather than spindles.
 
Working odds & ends, the little details. Discovered you can (90%) restore aged thermoplastics the same way you fix orange peeled paint. Wet sand off discoloration with 320 grit, sand out scratches with 600, then 1200, 2000, and buff with cutting compound.

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For transparent plastics like light assemblies, better to start with 1200 then 2000. (After cleaning the pond scum out of them)

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On the tail lights I started by giving one of them a glancing blow from a MAPP Gas torch - a trick I have successfully used in the past to chase off that "chalky" look from textured plastics. BAD CALL. Don't do that. The one on the right is the one I torched and it's hazy compared to the other one. I wasn't able to sand that out.

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Nevr-Dull on the chrome makes it shiny again.

Left side Nevr-Dull'd, right side not:
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Right side Nevr-Dull'd, left side not
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