Gary Lewis Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Well, I guess since I wrote the words "& Post A Blurb About Yourself" I'd better do so myself. I'm 70 as of this writing in Aug of 2017, and am retired from a career in Information Technology. But my background is really closer to engineering. I'm very involved at church, enjoy traveling (or doing anything for that matter) with my wife of 48 years, and also like Bullnose trucks. My father passed away about 3 years ago, but before he did he gave me his '81 F150 - "Dad's truck". However, I had known I was going to get the truck for some time, so decided to learn about them by buying a similar one. But I made the mistake of buying one that had been sitting for several years and proceeded to fix it up. Wow, was that costly! While doing that I bought a couple others that didn't run and parted them out - which is a much better idea. Then I found one I called Rusty and bought it as it was another '81 and was pretty cheap but just "needed a clutch". Nope, the rear end was blown up, the driveshafts were totally worn out, the engine ran well but leaked oil and coolant, and the transfer case needed rebuilt. Then, about the time I got those problems ironed out I fell into Big Blue, an '85 F250HD. You can read the stories on Dad's truck and Big Blue in their threads, but suffice to say that the Bullnose bug has bitten me very hard. To the point that I've created a website to house documentation on them - a web site that I like to say is the best in the world for Bullnose documentation, but it may also be the worst in the world as I think it is the only one in the world. And, I attribute it all to my father, who used to say that I'm "bull-headed". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fljab Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Dang Gary, I know that story! For as long as I've been into used cars/trucks, I still make mistakes by searching for "the deal". The only smart Bullnose deal I did was Joe's F100. I paid more for it, but he had done and documented so much of the bullwork, that I have to do very little other than regular maintenance. I need to get the AC done, but to be honest, the summer doesn't really bother me all that much. I just open the side windows and the rear slider, and it's OK. Of course, your Dad's truck is special and warrants the extra restoration costs. And don't get me started on parts trucks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted August 25, 2017 Author Share Posted August 25, 2017 Dang Gary, I know that story! For as long as I've been into used cars/trucks, I still make mistakes by searching for "the deal". The only smart Bullnose deal I did was Joe's F100. I paid more for it, but he had done and documented so much of the bullwork, that I have to do very little other than regular maintenance. I need to get the AC done, but to be honest, the summer doesn't really bother me all that much. I just open the side windows and the rear slider, and it's OK. Of course, your Dad's truck is special and warrants the extra restoration costs. And don't get me started on parts trucks! The only smart acquisition I've done was of Big Blue. And, if you know that story you'll understand how good that one was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rooster5673 Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 Yes as I said I bought the truck new in 83 has to be something that I have enjoyed ever since I got bit. I was into Chevy II Super Sports for years having 62 thru 66 wife then got sick so I had to retire to take care of her. That really keeps me busy and limits how much time I have with the truck. My wife loves this truck I guess as much as I do. Yes we have been together for 46 years and I am 67 years old. The truck will go back to my grandson when my day comes to an end. I am hoping that day he will continue to love and take care of this. He has said that he would love to restore it but is a lot of money. We try to attend church every time at the Salvation Army. We have seniors on Wednesday men's club on Thursday so yes we stay busy went we can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 10, 2019 Author Share Posted October 10, 2019 Yes as I said I bought the truck new in 83 has to be something that I have enjoyed ever since I got bit. I was into Chevy II Super Sports for years having 62 thru 66 wife then got sick so I had to retire to take care of her. That really keeps me busy and limits how much time I have with the truck. My wife loves this truck I guess as much as I do. Yes we have been together for 46 years and I am 67 years old. The truck will go back to my grandson when my day comes to an end. I am hoping that day he will continue to love and take care of this. He has said that he would love to restore it but is a lot of money. We try to attend church every time at the Salvation Army. We have seniors on Wednesday men's club on Thursday so yes we stay busy went we can. Rooster - I love stories where you still have your original truck. And, I love stories where people have been together that long. Takes commitment. Janey and I just celebrated our 50th. Better yet are stories about church. Glad you and your truck are here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rooster5673 Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 Rooster - I love stories where you still have your original truck. And, I love stories where people have been together that long. Takes commitment. Janey and I just celebrated our 50th. Better yet are stories about church. Glad you and your truck are here. thank you Gary I playing with the forum page trying to look up everything and then try to remember where I found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RenoHuskerDu Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Small world. I too am retired from IT. I was an Ingres techie out of Cal, then worked my way up the ranks to hands-on tech mgr. Shoulda stayed there. I got lateral promoted to run the data center, internal hotline and the backup crew. I hated it. Nothing to do but manage people and go to meetings. I fired myself upon the next layoffs and went back to DBA team leader. In 95 I was seduced by the Dark Side and began doing software marketing. A piece of creative writing that I did on a car forum - test driving a 3.8L E34 M5 on the Autobahn near Freiburg - caught the eye of the Marketing veep, and he hired me over lunch. I didn't have to kill any Jedi children. Marketing for me was telling the truth in the most positive way possible and don't become a slick lying weasel. I wound up doing very well, flew around yurrup every quarter training the sales force on new product features, most of which I'd spec'd because I did inbound and outbound mktg. Us IT guys are everware, eh? I wish I had a Dad's Ford story like yours to tell but my dad isn't a car guy, or a people guy, or even a dad guy. I mostly raised myself. I do have a Dad's 1970 Charger 440 RT story I can tell some day. He let me borrow it when I was only 15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 15, 2019 Author Share Posted October 15, 2019 Small world. I too am retired from IT. I was an Ingres techie out of Cal, then worked my way up the ranks to hands-on tech mgr. Shoulda stayed there. I got lateral promoted to run the data center, internal hotline and the backup crew. I hated it. Nothing to do but manage people and go to meetings. I fired myself upon the next layoffs and went back to DBA team leader. In 95 I was seduced by the Dark Side and began doing software marketing. A piece of creative writing that I did on a car forum - test driving a 3.8L E34 M5 on the Autobahn near Freiburg - caught the eye of the Marketing veep, and he hired me over lunch. I didn't have to kill any Jedi children. Marketing for me was telling the truth in the most positive way possible and don't become a slick lying weasel. I wound up doing very well, flew around yurrup every quarter training the sales force on new product features, most of which I'd spec'd because I did inbound and outbound mktg. Us IT guys are everware, eh? I wish I had a Dad's Ford story like yours to tell but my dad isn't a car guy, or a people guy, or even a dad guy. I mostly raised myself. I do have a Dad's 1970 Charger 440 RT story I can tell some day. He let me borrow it when I was only 15. Yes, we IT'ers are everware. An M5 on the Autobahn would be fun. Was it the black one always lurking in the left lane one hill back? The one that was always on me flashing its lights if I ever got in the left lane? Marketing? Not me. I don't have a creative bone in my body. I'm strictly a manager. Numbers. Budgets. Personnel. Ran a rather large infrastructure organization with data centers, help desks, networks, PC's, etc. Having said that, I was one of three people that gave sales presentations to a well known retailer and we won the bid for outsourcing their IT. One of the other companies in the competition was represented by Carly Fiorina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RenoHuskerDu Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 Yes, we IT'ers are everware. An M5 on the Autobahn would be fun. Was it the black one always lurking in the left lane one hill back? The one that was always on me flashing its lights if I ever got in the left lane? Marketing? Not me. I don't have a creative bone in my body. I'm strictly a manager. Numbers. Budgets. Personnel. Ran a rather large infrastructure organization with data centers, help desks, networks, PC's, etc. Having said that, I was one of three people that gave sales presentations to a well known retailer and we won the bid for outsourcing their IT. One of the other companies in the competition was represented by Carly Fiorina. It was silver. And it was the fastest car out there that day. Only a 928 S4 was able to keep up with me. The V12 Benzes went into the mirror. But this was 1995, before the serious HP races started. 340 hp with the relatively-small frontal area of an E34 was fast indeed. I saw 267 kph, but did not check for speedo error. Funny, as soon as I got promoted to pure management, I was a fish out of water. Cops woke me up at 3am once, two of my tape operators had gotten into a fistfight. They were both women. I fired the temp on the spot and made a mental note to get back into tech. Man that 3.8L S38B38 sang a lusty song right up to redline. I think she also drank $40 of fuel in an hour or so. Later BMWs became more frugal. My X5 40d was good for 245 kph but consumed half the fuel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westerj Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 Yes, we IT'ers are everware. An M5 on the Autobahn would be fun. Was it the black one always lurking in the left lane one hill back? The one that was always on me flashing its lights if I ever got in the left lane? Marketing? Not me. I don't have a creative bone in my body. I'm strictly a manager. Numbers. Budgets. Personnel. Ran a rather large infrastructure organization with data centers, help desks, networks, PC's, etc. Having said that, I was one of three people that gave sales presentations to a well known retailer and we won the bid for outsourcing their IT. One of the other companies in the competition was represented by Carly Fiorina. IT guy here too. Mechanical Engineer gone wrong!! Many college pals also jumped at opportunity for y2k. Anyone try megasquirt on these machines?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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