Amish Elegance
Schadenfreude
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 3,465
Rumspriga--a period of time after the 16th birthday during which children who have grown up in the Amish community are freed from the rules of the church and allowed a taste of the "real" world.:hehe:
Real world, here I come.
With several life changing events on the horizon, I have decided to finally do the lion’s share of finishing my truck off the way I always wanted to. If all goes well, in several months I will become an undeserving father to a little baby girl and in short, have to grow up. But... before someone else in the house gets to be the kid, I’m giving it one last hurrah. LOL
This thread will chronicle the build and detail as much as possible: the pleasure, pain, and hopefully humor of the build and one approach to my goal: The 11 second fuel only quarter.
Before I go any further, I want to be clear: I am not making any claims that this will be the end all, be all project where history will be rewritten and chassis dyno’s broken. But it will be done right. It will exhibit fit and finish that will be to the best of my OCD abilities and those helping me with respect to my budget. I hope to end up with performance and looks that are ‘out of this world’, but with the help of some great friends and industry experts, do so with a budget that is very much in it.
Besides conveying the details of the build, I hope this thread will entertain. I’ll give it my all to make it fun. Even if at times it isn’t for me, I hope it is for you all on Comp D. I’ve got some great stories about people in this industry I’ve grown to call friend. I hope to highlight these folks as I’ve come to know them, and how they have helped or will help with my ‘quest.’
Enough precursors. Lets get on with it.
Some great ideas and innovations start with engineers working on cad stations with huge monitors, and super computers manipulating 3D images. On the other end of the spectrum, some start with country boys in a humble neighborhood bar on a napkin. The idea for this quest was actually somewhere in-between.
One afternoon several weeks ago, I picked up the phone and called Chris at Engineered Diesel.
Our paths crossed several years ago at a dyno event for HTS Transmissions, well before Engineered Diesel was in the mix. Chris was a jovial cat who provided some good bench racing and drank the same beer as I. I believe I also met Glenn that day, but as I remember he was a bit more subdued only breaking typical stoic character to laugh at one of my jokes or shots at Dusty. I digress.
Scores of events and diesel related gatherings since then have provided opportunity for more bench racing and good times with Chris and Glenn. Every time I came away with something new; a new idea, a different way of doing things, a question answered, a good time, and occasionally a mild hangover. LOL
In light of the good times, the knowledge exhibited, and frankly the flat out trick chit I’ve seen these guys do; I decided to entrust them, their advice, and their tools to end my ‘quest.’
Back to the phone call: given our history of good times with beer in hand, Chris was more than accommodating and roused Glenn into meeting me at a watering hole somewhere between our abodes.
We ended up with a lop-sided halfway with me getting the short trip and them getting the short end of the stick with regard to distance; The Waldorf Brewpub. (If you have the means, I highly recommend it. They have their own brews on tap to suit the taste of almost everyone and pour it ice-cold for three bucks a pint on Thursdays. Yay, cheap beer day!)
The Waldorf Brewpub.
As it turns out, this day was not a Thursday. With our appetites so voracious for their chilled nectar and the details itemized on our check, we promised each other it would be next time. LOL Even so, the food was delicious, the drinks satisfying, and the conversation like many others before, only my end included the twinge of nervous excitement as this was my dreams culminated in a notepad and napkins on the table.
As the evening progressed functional goals, component specifications, performance characteristics were simplified at one point in dialogue where I uttered:
“Dis eees gunna bee bad ahss!”
The 'Pub' Side where the details were formulated.
The "On Tap" board that wooed our tastes.
And so it was: Several fellows, accustomed to CAD stations and formal business, under the veil of alcohol and the aspiration of speed found common ground with country boys everywhere, drawing on napkins, drinking, and cipherin' ways to make a pickup-truck fast.
Eat your heart out, Ricky Bobby.
You can ‘want’, I’m GONNA go fast! :hehe:
Stay tuned, more details to follow.:ft:
Real world, here I come.
With several life changing events on the horizon, I have decided to finally do the lion’s share of finishing my truck off the way I always wanted to. If all goes well, in several months I will become an undeserving father to a little baby girl and in short, have to grow up. But... before someone else in the house gets to be the kid, I’m giving it one last hurrah. LOL
This thread will chronicle the build and detail as much as possible: the pleasure, pain, and hopefully humor of the build and one approach to my goal: The 11 second fuel only quarter.
Before I go any further, I want to be clear: I am not making any claims that this will be the end all, be all project where history will be rewritten and chassis dyno’s broken. But it will be done right. It will exhibit fit and finish that will be to the best of my OCD abilities and those helping me with respect to my budget. I hope to end up with performance and looks that are ‘out of this world’, but with the help of some great friends and industry experts, do so with a budget that is very much in it.
Besides conveying the details of the build, I hope this thread will entertain. I’ll give it my all to make it fun. Even if at times it isn’t for me, I hope it is for you all on Comp D. I’ve got some great stories about people in this industry I’ve grown to call friend. I hope to highlight these folks as I’ve come to know them, and how they have helped or will help with my ‘quest.’
Enough precursors. Lets get on with it.
Some great ideas and innovations start with engineers working on cad stations with huge monitors, and super computers manipulating 3D images. On the other end of the spectrum, some start with country boys in a humble neighborhood bar on a napkin. The idea for this quest was actually somewhere in-between.
One afternoon several weeks ago, I picked up the phone and called Chris at Engineered Diesel.
Our paths crossed several years ago at a dyno event for HTS Transmissions, well before Engineered Diesel was in the mix. Chris was a jovial cat who provided some good bench racing and drank the same beer as I. I believe I also met Glenn that day, but as I remember he was a bit more subdued only breaking typical stoic character to laugh at one of my jokes or shots at Dusty. I digress.
Scores of events and diesel related gatherings since then have provided opportunity for more bench racing and good times with Chris and Glenn. Every time I came away with something new; a new idea, a different way of doing things, a question answered, a good time, and occasionally a mild hangover. LOL
In light of the good times, the knowledge exhibited, and frankly the flat out trick chit I’ve seen these guys do; I decided to entrust them, their advice, and their tools to end my ‘quest.’
Back to the phone call: given our history of good times with beer in hand, Chris was more than accommodating and roused Glenn into meeting me at a watering hole somewhere between our abodes.
We ended up with a lop-sided halfway with me getting the short trip and them getting the short end of the stick with regard to distance; The Waldorf Brewpub. (If you have the means, I highly recommend it. They have their own brews on tap to suit the taste of almost everyone and pour it ice-cold for three bucks a pint on Thursdays. Yay, cheap beer day!)
The Waldorf Brewpub.
As it turns out, this day was not a Thursday. With our appetites so voracious for their chilled nectar and the details itemized on our check, we promised each other it would be next time. LOL Even so, the food was delicious, the drinks satisfying, and the conversation like many others before, only my end included the twinge of nervous excitement as this was my dreams culminated in a notepad and napkins on the table.
As the evening progressed functional goals, component specifications, performance characteristics were simplified at one point in dialogue where I uttered:
“Dis eees gunna bee bad ahss!”
The 'Pub' Side where the details were formulated.
The "On Tap" board that wooed our tastes.
And so it was: Several fellows, accustomed to CAD stations and formal business, under the veil of alcohol and the aspiration of speed found common ground with country boys everywhere, drawing on napkins, drinking, and cipherin' ways to make a pickup-truck fast.
Eat your heart out, Ricky Bobby.
Ricky Bobby said:
You can ‘want’, I’m GONNA go fast! :hehe:
Stay tuned, more details to follow.:ft:
