2009 Cub Cadet LTX1045

I hope this new toy lasts a very long time. After blowing up a cheap 10-year old tractor I thought I would finally buy a good one. I really need to take care of it. I usually just run all lawn equipment into the ground without any maintenance whatsoever. I'm hoping the 20hp 46" cut gets me off the lawn and back in the garage a little quicker than my 14.5hp 42" MTD.

This was the cake I got for my wife's 40th. Unfortunately, my vertically challenged 7-year old took what is possibly the only pics of it. I still have to check with her friends to see if they have any. I made the Maxine pic and the "Don't get crabby" message and took it to the bakery where they laminated it and put it on their awesome cake. What was amazing is that I was able to find the 4-0 candle a year and a half later.

I brought the deviled eggs with black olives for the Championship game and the jumbo cheesecake for the Super Bowl. Spending hours on this stuff would give one the idea that I have too much time on my hands but that just isn't the case. I started making the helmet shaped cheesecakes for Super Bowl XLII with a New York Giant one. I'm always a fan of whoever is playing the Patriots. So far I'm 2-0 with my winning cheesecake helmets. I was going to make one for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to give the Penguins some good luck but ran out of time. They didn't need it anyway.

On the way to the Steeler's 6th Super Bowl title we got together with friends for a few parties. I had my friend Mike paint up the 5-gal bucket to hold some ice and beer. I made a hinge to bolt on one of his Steeler toilet seats. He sold over 75 of these, mostly different patterns, during the 2008 season. Enough to pay the way for him and his wife to be able to go to the Super Bowl. I need to come up with a foam insulator of some sort because it sweats too much to leave sitting on a hard wood floor.

Ian was pestering me to let him help while I was repairing a couple of bumper covers. He didn't do to bad in his first attempt at using an orbital sander. Hopefully I'm not violating any child labor laws because he is very cheap help.

Here are a couple of pics of my son's batting helmet and a couple of my racing helmet. I basecoated them black and had a friend of mine do the real fire and airbrushing. It definitely comes in handy knowing someone with this kind of talent. Mike was the one I had mask off the hood stripes on the '69 Mach 1 restoration job I'm doing just so I knew they were right.

In April '08 I got to visit Hendrick's Motorsports facility right outside Charlotte, N.C. It was one of the most awesome things I have ever seen. Even someone that isn't a race fan couldn't help but be impressed. I went for work to attend a Lord Fusor clinic on their automotive adhesives. Numerous times throughout this website you'll see mention of their products. I'm a huge fan of just about all of them.

The pic on the left is of the race shops. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are located in the right side and Dale Jr. and Casey Mears in the left side. These are open to the public. The right pic is of the chassis engineering and engine/cnc machine buildings as viewed from the race shops. Unfortunately, these aren't accesible to the public and we weren't able to take photos. Inside those buildings was indescribable. With 30+ cnc machines and 5 dyno rooms, plus adding 2 more, it was just incredible. Plus, seeing all of the motors, too many to count. There is the museum and team store that can be visited in the chassis building. It was closed as they are adding all the Dale Jr. stuff.

These were the 2 cars in our class room. Dale Jr. is one of the drivers I'm always rooting for so this was really cool.

These were taken inside the race shops where photos were allowed. They didn't want us taking pictures of cars in bare metal for some reason. The guy in the yellow shirt is Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief. I didn't expect to see anyone I recognized with the race coming up in a couple of days. By the time I got the camera on all I got was the back of his head. I guess he was heading to Texas Motorplex right after I saw him.

The pic on the left is the remains of Jeff Gordon's after he hit the inside wall at Las Vegas with less than 5 laps to go. He said that it was the hardest he has ever hit a wall. The right pic is of a couple of Dale Jr's cars and some Casey Mears' cars needing attention before going to the paint and body shop.
Besides the Hendrick's Experience another thing that made this a great couple of days was the fact the boss covered our travel expenses down there and we got paid. Once there, the Fusor guys treated us like kings. The Embassy Suites they put us up in was awesome! Thursday night they took us to Victory Karting where we had an absolute blast! The 6 minute practice session got me a little winded but the 40 minute 2-man race was a real workout. It was a 1/3 mile track with about a dozen bends and karts that went almost 40 mph. I learned one thing... I need to stick to straight line racing.

This was the view from the Speedway Club located at Lowe's Motor Speedway where they took us to lunch right before we left on Friday. There just happened to be a spring car show/swap meet going on at the time so we all got into that for free. I always wanted to do the Richard Petty Driving Experience and thought this would have been a perfect opportunity if I would have stayed there a for another day. It just wasn't meant to be as a side job, from where the money was coming, didn't get finished and the car show was there anyhow.

This is the cake my wife bought for my surprise 40th birthday party. It was a real surprise considering my birthday was over a month before. She just combined it with Ian's Birthday/Halloween party.

This is our home away from home at the Fun Ford Weekend in July '07. The tent is the only thing that resembles roughing it. If you follow the extention cord you'll find a tv/vcr combo, dvd player, playstation and toaster all sitting on the mini fridge taken out of my garage. My brother bought a motor home that maybe I can borrow when he isn't using it so we won't have to "rough it" anymore.

Kate in April' 07 as I was working on Eddie's '68 Camaro hood. Check out the details on this 9-second street car on page 9.

Here's Kate trying to be helpful. A couple of months before her 4th birthday in the spring of '05.

Ian and Kate in spring of '04.

Kate and Ian in their train at Christmas time '03. My dad made this in the winter of '71-'72 for my brother and me. I ended up with countless hours restoring it off and on over a 4 year period. I finished the outside and put it in the yard in the summer of '03. It still needs the seats, dash, steering wheels and misc. interior stuff. I hoped it would be finished before they were too old to care but I didn't make it.

Kate and Ian keeping warm in my friend's trailer during the Fall Round-up at Quaker City Raceway in Oct '03. It appears that Ian, aka Mr. Fryburgular, is stealing some from his sister by the look on her face. Andy, owner of the trailer, is very familiar with Ian's french fry addiction.

FFW at Norwalk in July '04. This was the last time I ran in the True Street class. I've fallen asleep at a Nascar Race, Motley Crue concert, Pirate and Steeler games so it was impossible to stay awake for the ridiculously long time in between rounds. Don't get me wrong, I still sleep while running Quick Ford, just not as long.

Stolen from the Fun Ford Weekend website. Leaving on the 30 mile trip in the True Street class in July '03. I ran True Street once more in '04 and have ran Quick Ford since. Quick Ford seems to get 3 times the passes True Street does and since I have a 300 mile round trip involved, the extra 30 is nothing I need to do.

Kate and Ian in spring of '03.

This picture of ugly mugs was taken when I went with the boss and a couple co-workers to my one and only PPG Annual Conference in 2002. The conference is for certain jobber stores that exclusively sell PPG Paint products. It was in Scotsdale, Arizona that year. That was the farthest west I've gone so far. With the exception of my luggage getting mauled somehow it was an awesome weekend.

These pics were taken in May '99. I was putting the radials back on for the Power Tour and installing my Airlift bags to keep the car level with all the tools and luggage in it. Ian, only 19 months old at the time, figured out that the lug nuts and the lower shock stud are the same thread. If I hadn't caught him threading the nut on I probably would still be looking for it.

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Engine/Drivetrain Pics-Page 3
Exterior/Interior Pics-Page 4
Serpentine Belt Set ups-Page 5
Lorne's '85 Big Block Oldsmobile Powered Truck-Page 6
'01 Big Block Mach 1 Clone/Other Projects-Page 7
Friend's Rides-Page 9
My Side Work-Page 10
Drag Week '09 Pics-Page 11
Power Tour Pics-Page 12