Happy Sunday!
Well, I'm finishing up week 2 on the road, and have some tales to tell. Flat tires, stinky stuff,the rig needs a diet and empty lakes. But that's for later telling. Right now, I want to tell you a tale of hot rods, neat people and a brush with celebrity.
I'm a car guy. That shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me. My dad owned a gas station/mechanic shop and I busted my first knuckle when I was about nine. In high school I had an old 67 Cougar that I tried to hot rod, but wasn't real successful. I changed my own oil, tuned up my own cars, fixed what broke, and helped my less mechanically inclined friends with their cars. From about ages 15 to 20 my hands were either greasy, covered in brake dust or stained from unknown car related fluids.
I never was much of a follow through type of guy, though, so didn't have one of the ground pounding, window shattering monsters that others did. But that didn't mean I didn't admire them. And I still do. Heck, I even helped a couple of those guys with engine rebuilds and other upgrades. I just never really had the patience or wherewithal to do my own car.
That brings me to this weeks missive. I had the opportunity to meet and talk to the guys at KC's Paint Shop in Ft. Worth. These guys do incredible work and are the nicest folks you ever want to meet.
I first discovered KC on Fast n' Loud, a TV show about Gas Monkey Garage, a Dallas hot rod and custom build shop. KC was their lead painter. In the first few seasons, Gas Monkey would build a car and send it to KC's shop to get it painted. Later, when GMG moved to it's current digs, they built a paint section in the shop and KC more or less moved in. A couple of seasons ago, KC left the show and GMG to focus on his own growing business of restoring old cars and building the best hot rods out there.
I think that was a good move. Anyone who is familiar with Fast n' Loud knows that they build fast. I'm not saying they don't do good work, mind you, but perfection takes a while, and I get the feeling that KC's focus is on the perfect, not the fast.
And that focus provides results. From a killer black '57 Bel Air to a couple of patinaed Trucks. From Frankenstein, a monster F-100 to a hot rod Ford roadster and an amazing '37 Lincoln Zephyr for Jesse James' Austin Speed Shop. All of the projects that come out of the shop are examples of automotive art in it's highest form.
That's because the guys at the shop love what they do. To a man, they all said they could probably make more money working somewhere else. In fact several of the mechanics, fabricators and painters that were there when I first started following them on YouTube have left for that very reason. But the ones that are still there do it out of a commitment to produce the best cars in the world.
Here's an example. When I dropped in, the first person I saw was KC himself, standing in a pool of water wet sanding an ashtray! You read that right, he was taking the time and effort to get that one little extra detail perfect. I mean, come on. Who wet sands the ashtray?
Of course that meant he didn't have on his trademark multi-colored knee socks, but OK.
Yeah, I sound like a fanboy. And maybe I am. But I see what they do, know I can't do it, and admire dedication.
KC comes by this naturally. His dad ran a paint and body shop, so you could say that he grew up around bondo and paint fumes. According to the bio on the shops website, he painted his first car at 12. I mean, come on! At twelve, I was tearing up a 10 speed bike trying to jump an old creek bed and chasing crawdads.
And the rest of the guys are obviously talented. From Keith, the shop manager, who is soft spoken, but has the skills to keep the craziness at bay, to Bruce Wayne (any guesses what his nickname is?) the body technician, who's attention to detail is nothing short of amazing and Doug, or Shop Dad, the mechanic who can literally make any engine fit in any car and run like a screamin' demon.
Yes, folks, Shop Dad does work. I caught him at it, See the pics above.
And these guys aren't primadonnas. I dropped in on the shop out of the blue, no call, no preparation. Yet they all took time from their busy day to talk to me. To be honest, I felt a little guilty. Here I am, just an old retired traveler, bugging them when they were obviously busy. But I never got the feeling I was bothering them.
And the paint shop isn't the only part of the KC empire. He also owns a mechanic shop/express lube/car wash complex in Burleson, a few miles away. I didn't make it over there during my visit, but will make the trip next time I'm in town.
Hey, KC, you think you could change the oil in my RV?
The latest on my journey
I've been here at Martin Dies, Jr. State Park near Jasper, TX for a week. This is the first part of my gradual move towards boondocking, which for the uninitiated means living off the grid, out in the wilderness with only what I can carry in the rig to support me.
The park has electric and water at the campsite, but no sewer connection, which means when my waste tanks fill, I have to go about 1/4 mile to get rid of the nasty stuff. Now, I could unhook the utilities, set the rig back down on its tires, pull in the slides and drive it over to the dump station. But there's an easier way. It's called a tote. It's basically a holding tank on wheels. Mine will hook to the tow hitch on the back of the car, so I can drive it over there.
I've been here for 7 days and have dumped twice. I'll probably have to dump one more time before leaving. That's not great performance if I want to spend a week or so off grid, but I've been hesitant to give up a few things (like daily showers - I'm still just a little too citified) just yet. And the tote really isn't big enough. At 28 gallons, it's about 2/3 the size of one of my tanks. I'll probably have to get a bigger one before I go for the real thing.
A stretch of cool weather early in the week provided the opportunity to test out the solar charging system. I turned off the electricity at the campsite pole for about 6 hours to see how well the rig would perform on just battery power.
I didn't do anything special, other than shut off the air conditioning (hence the nice day). But I did leave a few lights on and plugged in a couple of charges for my phone and my laptop, turned on the radio and ran the ventilation fans. I was trying to mimic normal life as much as possible.
I was quite impressed. Not only did the system perform, the solar panels actually increased the charge on the batteries! This despite the fact that the rig was in partial shade.
And yes, there were a couple of less than pleasurable things that happened. First, I took my rig over to Escapees to have it weighed. Not good news. I'm overweight. Er, I mean the rig is overweight. I need to trim some poundage and monitor the tire pressure closely.
Without getting in the weeds too much, the most important thing to an RV is tire pressure. The tires are the foundation, and they have to carry the weight of the full load. If the tires aren't inflated correctly very bad things happen. Same if they are asked to carry too much weight.
Don't get too shaky folks. I'm not in danger. I just need to closely monitor these things. That's why I went to Escapees. They're the experts on this, and I got some good tips.
And it was one of those tips that led to the other fun thing that happened. I had planned ahead and ordered a Tire Pressure Monitoring System. I knew I wanted to be able to keep an eye on the pressure and temp of the tires, and be alerted to a problem before it got too big. The car has one built in, but the rig doesn't. And I'm not driving the car from camp to camp. The TPMS lets me cover all of that.
The problem came with installation. Remember what I said earlier about lack of follow up? Well it bit me. I installed the little sensors on the valve stems of the car Thursday afternoon, but didn't leave the monitor turned on because I wasn't finished yet. Well, I didn't quite tighten the sensor on one of the tires quite enough. And yep, you guessed it. I woke up Friday morning to a flat tire.
I was headed in to town to get an air compressor anyway, so figured I could put the spare on and limp in to town and get the tire aired up while I was there. Fortunately, one of the Camp Hosts passed by while I was jacking up the car and jumped right in to help. He took the tire off and went over to the park shop, filled it up and mounted it back on the car. Quite a guy. Thanks, Joe!
(Note to self. I need a bigger impact driver in case this happens again.)
The park is fairly nice. It's older, having opened in 1965. It's aging gracefully, but has some disadvantages. The sites are nice and spacious, but the roads and parking pads are very tight. I had to unhook the car to make the last turn into my camping loop. And the pads are not the most level. It took me three tries to get my rig on a spot where the jacks would work.
The park is on B.A Steinhagen Lake, which I'm sure would be beautiful if full of water. With bald Cyprus trees sticking out of the water virtually throughout the lake, and Spanish moss along the edges, it would make for striking views, and I hear the fishing is great. Oh, and there be gators here! Nope - I didn't see one.
Unfortunately the lake was drained when I was there in order for the Corps of Engineers to do some work on the dam. It's still a pretty park though, with lots of tall pines, cedars, a few magnolias and the aforementioned Spanish moss.
There's a nature center, walking and paddling trails, canoe rentals, a boat ramp and docks scattered throughout the park.
The RV sites are nice, with lots of space, concrete picnic tables, fire rings and lantern hooks. Mine backed up to a channel off the lake. And my nearest neighbor all week was a quarter mile away.
In addition to RV sites there are primitive camping, a day use area and shelters available.
OK, so I've waxed eloquently enough for this week. Next week, Bastrop State Park. A little history, gotta do laundry and maybe a quick jaunt to Austin. After that, my first RV park! That's as far out as I have planned for now. I don't know if I want to head towards Abilene or Big Bend. I'll flip that coin in a week or so.
Later, folks.
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