Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 OOPs !  I think my roots (blue collar) are showing!

That's a big pile of dirt, and that's not all of it!

It's my DIY state of mind.

You don't have to scratch too deep to find the blue.

I grew up with a Dad that could, and would, do everything himself. He taught himself how to fix everything around the house. He took a correspondence course to learn to fix electronics back in the 1960's and ran a side business for many years fixing TVs. If he couldn't figure something out on his own, he'd find a book at the library to explain it, read it, then he'd tackle the job. 

Saving money was a big part of it. My Dad said that you lived on your paycheck. You worked overtime to get extra money to save towards the future. Fixing things yourself also freed up money for saving. Frugality was the third leg of the stool. My parents were very careful in how they spent their money, and seldom indulged themselves in any kind of luxury. 

I can't say that I've ever been as hard a worker as my Dad, or as frugal as my Mom. but I did inherit the idea that i should be able to fix things around the house. 

I was waxing the wheels on my truck, when I remembered that I should have rotated the tires a while ago.  Front tires usually wear on the inside since they are doing the steering, It's important to rotate the tires to even out the wear, and get the most mileage from the tires. 

To make things easier, not to mention safer, I dropped the spare tire. This way I would never leave a corner of the truck without a wheel, while I removed the opposite wheel. I supported the corner with a floor jack and didn't use any jack stands. I removed the wheel, replacing it with the spare, then the wheel to the appropriate spot. 

I performed this job at the curb in front of the house. This wasn't going to be messy or take a lot of time. I wouldn't do a lengthy procedure at the curb. 

Could I have paid a shop to do this work? Sure I could. But I didn't see any reason for that. 

It isn't just about the cost. like most blue collar guys saving money is important, but so is the feeling that we can take care of things ourselves. 

So I paint the house, build fences, trim trees, fix the cars, and whatever else needs to be done. 

Here the bricks are just laid on top of the dirt.
They actually bonded to each other over the years!

Currently I'm in the middle of a pretty big yard project. I'm laying down brick walkways in the backyard. Originally, I'd simply laid the bricks directly on the level dirt to form the path. I had previously laid brick pathways in front of the house as well as along the side of the house, it never had cement walkways poured.

In front I made wooden rails to contain the bricks which were laid over a sand base, in running bond. These walkways had stood up to decades of use. 

I bought a new pallet of "used" bricks from Home Depot and went to work. 

Mismatched bricks of different sizes and types.
Artfully blended together to form a rustic pathway.

In the backyard I had originally laid the bricks on grade. The bricks mostly came from free ads on CL. I've been gathering them over the years, laying out more paths over that time. I finally decided to lay them on sand at grade. In other words I dug out the dirt, and laid the bricks so they would be level with the adjacent dirt. The dirt serves as a retainer. It's cheap and it works, and there's no wood that ever needs to be replaced. 

This portion had been in place for over a decade.

I had done a short section here and there, then put it off ( for years!) until I managed to forget. The problem with loose bricks is that even though they will bond with dirt between them, the edges are prone to move and flip on their side as you are walking on them. Kind of hard on the ankles, especially my Wife's, and I heard about it. 

Now that I'm retired and I know that i'm not moving anywhere, it's now time to get the house squared away. 

So I've been spending my days digging down five inches to lay the bricks on an inch of sand. That's quite a bit of digging with a pick and shovel, leveling, and moving piles of dug up dirt. I've been buying loading, unloading, and lugging 60 lbs. sacks of sand. I haven't done that much manual labor in years!

I used 4x4s as rails to guide the leveling board.
They have enough mass to be stable without staking.

I decided to build a brick patio in front of the shed doors. I used 4x4 posts as temporary rails to level the sand base. After the bricks were laid, the 4x4s gave the edges a finished appearance. The lumber has enough weight and mass to be stable without staking it down, especially when dirt is piled up on the outside. I placed another run of bricks next to the first incorporating the 4x4. This gave me a surface that is 10 rows of bricks in width. 

This is the first five runs, the next will start to the right of this 4x4.

Finished with wooden platform/step.

This was the last connecting segment.

This section is finished,
but more remains to be done.

I'm very pleased with my work, the little patio and path is quite attractive. I've learned that by working with old, used, "free," mis-matched materials, a lot of "finagling" has to be done to compensate. Still, it is cheaper that way!

After this it's time to play with my cars!

My neighbors are all middle class, and college educated, many of them work in the electronics industry. They don't engage in a lot of manual labor or DIY. I suppose that I'm a bit of an oddity, I'm the only guy that rode motorcycles or is interested in cars. You don't see guys working on their cars in their driveways, doing their own yard work, certainly not building hot rods. However, I've cleaned up my act over the years.

No matter what my situation is, I know that I'll always identify as blue collar. It's a major part of my heritage. It's who I am, and it's who I want to remain.