Bob, aka Nothing Special

(No one ever accused me of being concise...)

I'm another cross-over from the FTE bulletin board where I go by the same user name (also same name on a Jeep Cherokee board).  I'm a 53 year old mechanical engineer.  My first job out of college was in an engine test lab at General Motors.  But I had been hired as a part of a head-count reduction program (it makes as little sense as it sounds) and was laid off after 2 years.  Since then I've worked at a privately owned manufacturing company that designs and builds stuff.

I got my first go-kart when I was about 8, rebuilt my first engine when I was about 12 and have been playing with cars ever since.  I started restoring a 1929 Model A Tudor Sedan when I was in high school.  Finished it and built a 1975 Jeep CJ5 after college.  Then built a 1971 Bronco more recently.  (Here's a link to a thread on "another forum" about the first two.  There are links in my sig line on that forum to my other build threads.)

Other than the Model A, my first "car" was a 1985 F-250HD that I got new in late 1984 (it's in that link above too).  I loved that truck, but 13 years later it was getting a little long in the tooth and my family had outgrown the regular cab so in 1997 I bought a '95 F-150 SuperCab.  I loved that truck too, but by '07 my 2 sons had outgrown the back seat and I bought an '08 F-250 crew cab.  I hated that truck, especially the ZF6 transmission which shifted bad enough that I was able to file a lemon law claim and get Ford to buy it back from me in '08.  I replaced it with an '02 F-350 crew cab diesel which I also didn't like much, so in '12 I got back into the older trucks with a '97 F-250 crew cab.

So I don't currently have an '80 - '86 truck, and in all likelihood I never will.  The Bronco is my toy  project vehicle, and if I get another project vehicle it'll probably be another rock crawler so my potentially growing family can all go along (one of my sons has a very serious girlfriend).  My '97 is my daily driver.  I'd like to get a smaller truck (an F-150 SuperCab short box) to be my daily driver, but, living in MN, I don't see it being a carbed vehicle, so if I get an '80 - '86 it would be a pretty big project.  If I do get a SuperCab I might POSSIBLY replace my crew cab with a dually crew cab, and that might POSSIBLY be an '80 - '86.  But in all honesty the odds are pretty slim that I'll even replace that truck much less with an '80 - '86.

So why did I join this forum?  I do like the '80 - '86 trucks (I prefer their looks to the '92 - '97 trucks that I'm more likely to keep owning), so I've been hanging out on the '80 - '86 forum on FTE ever since I joined it.  I've enjoyed the people there, and since many of them are now over here I thought I'd stop by too.

And by the way, I'm not big on jargon, abbreviations or nicknames.  In my opinion they all seem to make it harder for new people to know what the "insiders" are talking about, so they tend to keep "clubs" more exclusive, not a good thing in my book.  As such, I don't like the "Bullnose" nickname for '80 - '86 Ford trucks.  But that's just my opinion, and I'm not interested in foisting it on anyone else.  So as long as no one tries again to convince me that an '80 - '86 truck looks like a bull (I've seen the pictures, I just don't see it) I'll just keep calling them by the year range and won't complain that others use the nickname.

Other than trucks, I have two (now grown) sons, both of whom are Eagle Scouts.  I wasn't a Scout as a kid, but I was very involved when my kids were in, finishing off as their Scoutmaster for about 7 years.  I used to be very active in my church, but kind of dialed that back when Scouts was ramping up (I still sing in the church choir though).  I train my own bird dog (I'm on my third Gordon Setter, also had 1 Brittany) and I hunt grouse and woodcock.  And now that my kids are grown (the youngest just started his senior year of college) my wife and I are starting to figure out (and enjoy!) what being empty-nesters is about.  We've gone on one cruise, did a second with extended family, and are doing another late this fall.  And recently we bought a motorhome (hence the limitations on the number of project vehicles!).

Welcome, Bob!  

If being concise is a requirement of being on here then I'll be the first one to leave.  In fact, I appreciate the info that everyone is sharing, which makes me think I need to review my one "introduction".

And owning an 80 - 86 truck isn't a requirement to be on here, either.  I own enough of them to make up for several who don't, so it all averages out.

Anyway, I'm glad you are here!  Thanks for joining.  

Yeah Gary, I know you well enough to know you wouldn't be offended by my long-winded introduction!

I only talked about my lack of '80 - '86 trucks to explain that I probably won't be particularly active on this board (similar to how I was/am involved on the FTE '80 - '86 board).  I'll check in pretty frequently, but I probably won't have a lot to add to most threads, so I won't be posting a lot.  Not to say I'll be shy about posting (as an engineer I'm introverted, but I'm not shy).  But I don't expect to achieve "postmaster" status here!