First thank you Gary for the invite also thank you to the admins for making this site, I know it is a lot of work.
My name is David Grant Born in April of 1960 in Stamford, CT. Spent most of my life there till 2015 when the wife, of 18 years now, and I picked up everything and moved to Angier, NC. it's about 30 min outside Raleigh, NC.
My dad was a body and fender man and he made sure I knew that trade and did before I started high school. High School was a state technical high school to repair cars and get a diploma.
I was top in my shop class and turned down a scholarship as I was not going to collage as dad and I had a shop repairing cars, dad body work me everything else.
A few years after school with dad & shop and as a kid(we know it all right?) not making money I left dad and did a summer of truck driver/grunt with a paving Co. Paving
Being hot/hard work I went into HVAC at a hospital for 15 years, last 10 as a foreman of 6 guys 24/7.
After hours my dept. did everything the 4 other shops did besides all incoming power & 2 gen set, in house fire, medical gases you name it we did it and that takes its toll.
So I then did 15 years in I.T. in the desk side support & break/fix side of things. Most was contract work to get my foot in the door but many days/months without work. My wife was also in I.T. going on 21 years and her job offered for the 3rd time a package.
Me not working and not knowing if she would get a 4th package we decided that was the time to move as we were looking a few years before.
I now drive a trailer truck with in the state with cement to the plants and in winter LP to tank farms. Crazy hours so not much time for the projects.
Now being I had a back ground in autos, when I had the shop with dad I built a Datsun 510 for road racing & SCCA auto cross, never road raced but did a lot of auto cross.
Also built a Toyota LC for racing off road – flat sand & hill drags, hill climbs and what I liked the most 10 trucks for 10 laps on a moto cross track.
After I left the shop and out on my own I got into American Motors Corp. (AMC) cars and still have them, 75 factory v8 Gremlin, 70 Javelin drag car built ground up, 70 Javelin street car.
I drag raced the Gremlin in street trim till the drag car was built. Most of the Javelin racing was with AMC groups or old time drag & rod runs at some big name tracks.
The street car is also a ground up rebuild but doing upgrades like swap 4sp for a 5sp w/OD, full custom gauges that look like stock and same with the custom dash overlay in silver carbon fiber that also looks like a base model one. I have the body work done on the front & doors, under hood is all restored. I am flush mounting the front and rear glass. But that has been put on hold for now!
I got into Bullnose truck(s) when I moved to NC and did not want to put the stinky weekly trash in my SUV or some other yard supplies.
Found an 81 F100 flare side 300 six/T18 that needed work. Well knowing the “right way” it should be fixed and the OCD in me it turned into a frame off rebuild. I also picked up a 2nd 81 F100 LB style side roll over for parts.
One of the things between the 2 trucks was the parts truck had AC and the project did not. The fix was to swap the fire wall over and after replacing the floors, rockers, rear door posts & cab corners the wall was not that bad.
I have also done some upgrades like EFI exh manifolds, adding duel tanks and will do a 3G ALT swap to name a few.
One day I will get the truck & Javelin on the road – it only takes time & a lot of money!
I also try and help others when they post an issue when I can. I also have given some parts I know I will not used away to help others too.
Sorry for being so long, think that's it for now.
Dave ----
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