I’ve been chaffing of late at my lack of ‘direction’ during my free time. I’ve still not finished cleaning out the garage since the launching of Danga, for goodness sake! I was looking at a new boat project but I didn’t want to build out something that I wouldn’t be using or that I’d have to drag across the continent to our retirement locale, Nova Scotia.
So, on a whim one day, I mentioned to my mother that I liked the maroon Mustang her neighbor’s son had sitting in the driveway. I proclaimed that given the opportunity I’d like to get something like that and fix it up.
Well, my mother asked and the car was for sale - and for a price I could afford if I were to skip my trips to the local pub. Damn! My big mouth. I checked the car over and it looked essentially stock and in reasonable shape. No rust and only minor dents from an impact with some stationary object in the front left.
I bit the bullet. I bought the thing and presented it to my wife as her birthday present. I knew she always wanted a classic, red muscle car - so it was a hit. Now, of course, comes the hard part - doing the work.
Here are some pictures of the thing as it is today….
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Well, the Summer has arrived and I’ve done very little. After the storm my neighbor kindly stepped up and offered covered storage for DANGA in his garage until I could figure out what to do. I left the boat in his garage (which he carefully protected with a tarp over the entry!) until April. I felt guilty as Hell blocking his access to his stuff in the garage - he’s a gifted tinkered with a number of ingenious inventions, machines, and gadgets. I brought the boat home and found a decent boat cover for it.
The painted hull requried more attention that I had imagined. The paint on the bow was gone, along with the boot stripe, and on the stern around the drain plugs. I repainted and things look acceptable.
Lynn and I took the boat out for a ride around Puget Sound in May and I ran it around the little fresh-water lake to work the motor a bit as well.
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The wind blew the night before last and leveled the boat shelter. We awoke to a large “CRACK!” and a very loud wind storm. We took a quick look around but saw nothing amiss in the dark. I became concerned about the boat shelter and went out to take a look. The strong winds were blowing against the sides of the shelter lifting the legs off the ground. The shelter was going to bash the boat to bits! While Lynn and I were trying to figure out how to move the shelter, the fron cross strut gave way! I asked Lynn to get the dogs back in the house and I loosed the shelter tie downs. After a struggle I was able to push the collapsing shelter over the boat. It then became a big sail pulling the boat and trailer! I used a box knife and slashed each of the panels until the the pulling stopped… We were able to get the shelter jammed under the brush against a large tree. Here’s the result:
Heres’ a close-up of the carnage….
My neighbor, Byron, offered the use of his covered parking until I could come up with a new storage solution…
As it turned out, the loud crack was the snapping of a large, dead pine on the hill out back. It fell along the fence-line and some into the neighbor’s yard - the goat was unharmed - which required Lynn and I limbing and bucking the log yesterday… Very exciting!
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