Have you ever worked on a carburetor only to have it run worse after you finished it? yeah, me neither...

Have you ever used a wrench, set it down on the floor and then NOT be able to find it? Yeah, me neither.

Well all of us are probably sitting around this morning wondering if we should get up and..."do something"...meh. I plan to sit around in my sweats, load up our new version of Adobe Premiere and putter around in the shop. 

But before all that happens, I'd like to thank all of you who read this blog and watch our show. Without the support of you folks ARM would be nothing but an idea.

Thanks and let the festivities begin! Oh wait, that was yesterday....

Today is a day to play hooky in South Carolina. The sky is blue, the air is cool, but not cold and I wish that the '67 Mustang was finished. Because if it were finished I'd be in it running around Aiken with the windows down and the radio blaring Robert Randolf's super hot Ain't Nothin' Wrong With That.

I have a favorite little road here in Aiken that I love to run down in the spring or fall. Especially on days like today. It is a short run of not over four miles but it is pretty and twisty with curves in all the right places. And best of all it is on the way home from town.

Though I was shy my Mustang I pointed the Vic towards Dibble Rd. after leaving Wendy's on Richland Ave. and was not disappointed. Though most of the leaves have...well...left, I get a great deal of glee in blasting through them as they lay on the pavement awaiting one last dance with the buffeting wind from the ex-cruiser. On a day like today a good car and a slinky road can go a long way to making a car guy smile...a lot.

I guess I am picky when I build something. This next week we're starting on the PA Performance starter upgrade and the '67 was using hardware store bolts to hold the old Ford style starter on the car. Tacky. 

OK, ok, I get it; who is going to see these bolts? Most probably...nobody. But I will know they are there and all hardwareish. 

I guess my problem is that I tend to over-build (according to some folks) and get caught up in the minutia of a car. Which leads me to the mantra I always live by: try and restore each part of the car as though that were the only thing anyone will see. If you can manage that you will have a car that is going to be a show stopper.

Now I just have to find those freaking bolts...

I realized something yesterday. We are getting closer and closer to starting the 351. As of next week the starting charging system will be mounted on the car and all that will be left are the niggling details of buttoning up the wires and what not. Umm wow. While I know this won't happen in 2011, I feel pretty sure it will happen in the early weeks of 2012. So we have composed a song to the music from Camp Town Races:

Our Blue Mustangs' gonna start doo da, doo da
Our Blue Mustangs' gonna start one of these here days

Gonna run all night goonna   run       all           day....

Anyway, could someone pass that along to Bieber? I smell a HIT!

Most people don't listen. We do. We've had several viewers want to see us in HD (don't say we didn't warn you!) and up until now we're been kind of resistant to the idea. 

The main reason is encoding time (though with some streamlining that is not so bad now) and upload time. In car terns our upload times now will be kind of like having a little engine in a big ass car. Imagine say, a 170 six in a 1967 Country Squire station wagon with the late Heavy D and his crew, their equipment and some groupies shoved in the open spots. Then further stretch your cranium by having the temerity to go to the drag strip with that package...that is our way of expressing that the now 700meg file is slooooow to upload. How slow? Well, we have now gone from 1 hour and 20 minute uploads to 4 hour and 30 minute uploads. Effin' glacial. BUT, we agree. The videos do look better in HD, so it is worth the extra work--as most things are...

We realize that the HD video will give you a much clearer view of what we are doing in some instances. It will also allow those of you with HD TV, and an internet connection patched into it, the ability to watch us on a large screen while drinking a cold one and sitting in your comfy easy chair...this is how much we enjoy doing this for you. Sadly Vinnie and I don't get any better looking in HD. The nice thing is that we can't be any more paunchy and old looking than Clarkson over at Top Gear. Wow, I said that like it was a good thing...

Eisenhower spoke to the men of the 101st prior to the Normandy invasion, the man he is speaking to was my friends lieutenant. 


Lofty words falter and pale to pay the respect that I feel for those that serve and have served in our Armed Forces. Simple is best: Thank You.

I will convey one experience that happened several years ago.

He was old and but ramrod straight and just passing into his 80s; as a staff sergeant in a heavy weapons section, he had seen D-Day from a parachute, Market Garden from a ditch and Bastogne from a shell crater where he was nearly mortally wounded. I was in my late 30's and interested in becoming a Living Historian focused on WWII. Knowing his past and his interest in history, I took him to a Living History event in Florida. I'd asked if the event would bother him; he said no. So off we went. 

The "combatants" were reverent and nice to him, as they should be. There was to be a woodland "battle" that lead to a public display. Since there were no areas cordoned off we moved towards the edge of the woods. Off to our right a German MP40 rang out. His head snapped around to the direction of the noise and he stopped. I took his arm gently and watched him visibly relax. 

"You OK?" I asked softly.

"Yep," a small sad smile passed across his face, "as long as the don't drop mortars."

It had been a mortar round that had wounded him critically at Bastogne, then an extra morphine syrette,  applied at the aid station when the front line medic hadn't marked his forehead with an "M" in his own blood, had nearly finished him off.

He took shrapnel to the face, leg and arm and had several .45 caliber rounds driven into his leg and thigh by the blast. he came home, had several surgeries, raised a family and grew old...but 40 some odd year on, the warrior was there. 

As often as I can I thank vets and current servicemen. you should too.

We are back in the saddle and almost recovered. And I am posting this one just so camera goddess Gina can't use it against me in the future. Cameras are proof that what happens in Vegas doesn't STAY in Vegas. 

If there was ever an orgy of automotive excess it has to be SEMA. And no I don't mean that in a bad way. For instance...how often, as a car person, have you been on a flight to somewhere and had conversations about cars erupt all around you? or had multiple people on the flight ask about your car related outerwear? Nir-vana.

Then you hit the ground at the show and it is like a car-carnival with rides (Ford and Chevrolet had auto-cross courses set up) and fair food (really, really expensive fair food) and all manner of iron; from vintage to new it was there--and modified. 

There were also car celebs like Richard Petty, Carroll Shelby and John Force in attendance. We even got to eat lunch with Trucks TV host Kevin Tetz.

We had an awesome time, worked hard (no, really we did!) slept too little, ate too much and generally acted like Shriners and, well, SEMA attendees all week.

Now to wade through the 45 business cards...hey, who is Cherry Luv and why do I have a card from her? Uh oh.

We are up to our necks in hey is that who I think it is, wow  I want that and, dang I wish I could build that.

SEMA is a great place to recharge your car guy batteries. It is also a place where walking is a given. We'll be posting a video next week to show just a slice of what we saw. But today I'm going to just pitch out a few things that popped our cork.

1. Dynacorn has released the 1965-'67 convertible bodies. We'll be showing you a bit of that in our video.

2. We also chatted with our Friend Mary Jean Wesche, editor for the Mustang Times regarding a neat project that is being done for Breast cancer awareness more on that next week as well. 

3. Finally, a funny. We were leaving the show and looking for Gina and Carra and so started yelling "Marco"...to which a very male voice over to our right returned "Polo"...Never did find him.