MAGAZINE

"26 1/2" says I.

Half the real number, just to mix him up.(He knew it was bull-roar). But I felt that youthful, in my zeal for this iron and in my learning curve. Got a long way to go, Boys. But some days I feel 106 (like getting up off the creeper for the 16th time) when I realize that plans and dreams that may be attainable financially, and attainable because ya got the parts chased down, may not percolate down out of the dream-state because you've run out of time.

WE HAD TO TAKE TIME OUT TO GO TO THE DRAGS

One of your future projects may be toe-nailed as a stack of parts, or a primered/ rolling/assembled hulk, or even just a body that has a title and a file folder of it's own. You might have the geeters to have the next step done, but you're waiting for your favorite sub-contractor to finish something for a celebrity, or you take a vacation away from cars (another editorial subject, altogether), or if it's time for you to work on it yourself, you might be obligated to work on the project that is in front of you NOW. Detractors make snide suggestions to third parties that you're a Schizo-Rodder (our word, their dig) but they're just leaking. No vision.

It's plenty OK to have futures planned out.

Do travel addicts have a stack of resort brochures and flight schedules on their desks? Yup. Did Don Quixote think maybe he could whip a windmill? Yup. Does a mystery novelist makes notes to himself about a future novel when he's writing the current project? Of course, he does.

It's that old dreamin' in the daytime boys. And Hop Up Guys do it. You have to think out your projects, get some parts if you can, and then touch them. Rust. Layers of old paint - some of which may have been brushed-on. Pieces of stainless that need a little dinging and polishing. Fasteners that you would love to restore and re-use, but ya know that time won't allow it. You'll buy new ones. A lump of sheetmetal you couldn't pass up at a swap meet around which you'd have to build a whole car. So what. Caress those contours that had been stamped out by some pre-depression manufacturer who had a dream of his own. With enough time they can happen, can't they, you hairy-legged, dangerous ol' dawg, you!

THIS ONE RUNS. WHAT'S NEXT? NOT METAL WORK!

There are projects that have varying priorities and we jump to the element that gives us the best buzz at that particular moment; or to the one we want done now, before it gets more expensive, or the one for which the sub-contractor has time available. You can do something on one project for the satisfaction of seeing it done, and also to avoid paying for something that you dread paying for on one of the others. You're doing it to please YOU. If it doesn't please some leaky, needling observer, then he's out.

Your reach has to exceed your grasp. Else, how ya gonna get ahead? Hmmmmm?

****en hopup verita****