muggiedays of summer

Been a bit since my last post, as much as I try I just am not writing as much as I'd like. Lack of time is a bitch.
About 3 months ago we lost the RT , It was totaled at a stop light by some yaho not applying he brakes at a stop light, The truck is now 6" shorter.
 So the hunt began for a replacement tow rig. As much as I loved that RT , the only thing missing is the 4x4, They made a Darango , and a 4 seater and a short cab but no crewcabs. Guess what  I am building
 I hunted around for a while and found a 2K dakota with a motor that would not start, It was a 4.7 slt,
dragged it and the wrecked RT up to a buddies shop, They are more of a mech. shop and handle primarily  domestic autos and big rigs,  After the truck is done with its heart and brain transplant it will come back to Airkooled for paint and body,. Some of the panels are already here being reworked on my very limited off time. If you want to follow the build pics they are here , if not, I have been updating on the twitter account.
 Oh the muggie part you ask,
 damn near swimming out there

unzenfull day

This is part of an on going email conversation that I am having with some one who wants to start a company
a bug shop no less
The biz side of things 
You need to look at at the hidden cost that need to be factored in to you pricing. You have the paint, abrasives, fillers, thinners, cleaners, cost, ( your cost) do you mark up your cost to the client?, or do they get it for what you buy it for? If thats the case, Do you charge them for the time to order it, and get it? What about the fuel that you pay for when you pick it up?or the time that it takes you? What about the cost of the power that you are using while working on the client car, you pay that... your tools, how do they get payed for? who pays when the compressor goes down. what about the building that you are in, does it need maintaining, who pays for that. both mat and time? Licenses, insurance, how bout the te-shirts and jeans that get ruined , ( thats why we went to dickies work shirts) It all ads up All that stuff is overhead, the cost of doing biz. Then there is your time, what is it worth? What is your knowledge and skills worth to you?How many years/decades of learning do you have under your belt got to figure all that up something to think about.....
Then can you really charge what it should be vrs what the client will pay with out going in to shock If you want to make a living doing this, then this is the price, If you want to do it on the side, or as a hobbyist then you don't need to think about any of this. It doesn't matter what a company does, if it doesn't pay for it self, then its the government.............. i.e. you pay


This got me pondering..
With out the priv sector none of this crap is posable . My job at AirkooledKustoms is to make sure that the company has enough coming in to cover what's going out. Just like every other company, with out that basic job duty the company will not exist...


Now with all that being said
I have to do that part of the job to
do the fun parts

Fillers

fillers

bondo- while it is a generic term for body fillers, ie plastic epoxies
the actual product 'bondo'tends to have a higher solvent content
while this make it easer to spread, it leads to more shrink, as the solvent
evaporate and the product cures.
If you are going to use plastic fillers then buy a good quality ( we use evercoat rage,and then sparingly )
while body fillers have there place in auto resto, they are usally not used
correctly. If it is applied to thick it shrink and crack as it out gasses and cures.Thin coats of correctly mixed filler is the way ,curing then sanding between coats.
There are dif types( chem makeups) of plastic filler.
talc-
most fillers are talc based,talc being the main solid component
typically use by 90% of the industry for filling small areas and feathering repairs.
alm-
also called metal to metal filled, main solid is alm power typically used in areas of the car that have a higher vibration or shock loads
we use it primarily around doors/trunks and deck lids
kitty hair-
epoxy resin filler with short, fiberglass strands and talc for for its main solids og designed for fiberglass ,it is mostly used to pack it to bad repairs.(we see alot of this.) We use it... to make molds for shaping complex curves out of steel, or on fiber glass
out of those 3 kittyhair is the only one that is NOT hydroscopic .

lead-
to og filler, old skool, not much use today, we still do lead work for some clients, while it is a lost art, it is actually very simple to do.
non lead lead-
same as above but it is a tim based alloy with no lead in it
working temp is slightly lower than true lead
(thanks EPA)

the best way to do a repair, is to do it and not use ANY fillers and metal finish . this is unrealistic for most peeps , their check book, or skill level.
(most people do not have the patience to do this).
the final thickness on filler ( for our shop) can be no more than .075" (1/16"), I want it thiner than that

glazing putty-
talc based, but with much smaller particulate size than standard plastic filler. use primarily for pin holes, ( if you use good fillers correctly you wont have pin holes) and small repairs has a high solvent content -so it will shrink if used incorrectly .
NEVER use one part glazing compound EVER

I still HATE Bondo

highs and lows

this was written by a guy I know talking about sound and vibrations in cars

Hey guys, I saw this thread and thought I'd chime in. I'm an acoustician and av designer by profession and it seems there is alot of misunderstanding about how sound energy works in this thread. So, I thought I'd shed some light for you all... Praises to the OP for actually using an SPL meter, but I think the fundamentals of acoustics are not being acknowledged. There are only four ways to reduce noise level (i.e. make things quieter) for direct sound in a car cabin, and the term "direct" here is key: 1. Make the source quieter (not many ways to make your engine quieter here aside from a milder muffler). If it's wind noise you're concerned with, then replace all your weatherstripping the right way so that it's water-tight everywhere. From here on out, I'll assume you're talking about engine noise though. 2. Move the source further away from the listener (not practical or advised) 3. Block the Sound from entering the cabin with massive material (i.e. thick metal, not absorptive padding). 4. Reduce any noises caused by engine vibrations by reducing vibration. (ok, 5 would be to wear noise cancelling headphones). Notice how I did not mention absorptive padding in this list? This is due to a couple of reasons. Sound waves are made up of different frequencies: high frequencies have short wavelengths that are easy to absorb and low frequencies have long wavelengths that are difficult to absorb. By "easy to absorb," I mean that absorptive padding on the order of 1-6" thick will reduce the level of sound energy (probably above 1-2kHz) from being transferred through the material. By "hard to absorb," I mean that absorptive padding needs to be on the order of 1-10 FEET thick to reduce the sound energy. Because absorptive padding is very inefficient at absorbing low frequencies and low wavelengths diffract around just about anything it comes into contact with, it is not worthwhile or even possible to try to absorb low frequencies with absorptive padding that can fit within the cabin. So, when you guys add all of this sound deadener and padding to your car, you're effectively only reducing high-frequency energy. This is all well and good, but lower-frequencies are typically the ones that are the most annoying when you drive. As it is, your car is naturally absorbing the higher frequencies from the engine with the stock firewall, rear set, headliner, etc. If I had to wager a guess, those of you who have added lots of padding have reduced the high frequency noise in your car (i.e. it will sound dead inside with the car off), but you're still getting alot of muffled rumbling from the engine when it runs. This has to do with the ineffeciency of absorptive padding and also what is termed "direct" sound. Direct sound is sound that travels from the sound source to your ears without bouncing off of anything. Direct sound in the case of a car cabin can be considered sound that is reaching your ear once it's in the cabin without bouncing off of seats, glass, headliner etc. If you have a ton of padding and you're still annoyed by loud engine noise, odds are you have a lot of direct noise penetrating the engine bay into the cabin and the absorptive padding in the cabin is not absorbing it very well. I.e. if you're hearing a rumbling make it to your ears in the cabin, the padding within the cabin will only absorb reflections of that sound, not the direct sound. The direct sound is coming through your fire-wall, which is a more crucial point of sound penetration. If your firewall was sufficiently massive to block engine noise, you wouldn't really need much absoprtive padding on the interior of the cabin. So! Solutions to get rid of low-freq engine noise are few, costly, evasive, and perhaps expensive. I would recommend increasing the mass of the wall between the engine bay and the cabin. For instance, you could buy another firewall and weld it onto the existing one, but even this won't help much until you're about 4 layers thick. Also make air-tight any passages from the engine bay into the car. This includes heater ducts as they penetrate into the cabin. One thing that is frequently overlooked are the vibrations that cause noise. These are often significant and can be reduced by making sure your engine hangers/vibration isolator mount rubber is fresh, free-floating, and not short-circuiting. This will go a long way to transferring noise-inducing vibration to the frame of the car. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but keep in mind you have a series of explosions happening many times a second within 8 feet of you. Keeping that quiet is no easy task... So, if I had to recommend a quieter engine, I'd recommend taking the money you'd waste on sound "deadener" and buy a newer BMW, they are quiet. Scientific enough for you?

zen

A moment of Zen, Fridays at the shop



got to love being at the church of the wholly dub

Mondays around the shop ,for the greater zen

Most people hate Mondays. that must suck
Our hours of 'open to the public' are tue through fri 6 am to 6 pm. Mon and Sat are by appt only.
This might seem odd, but it makes since from a operational perspective .Airkooled Kustoms is a restoration
shop. Our core cliental are nut and bolt restorations. That means every nut/bolt and component is eather restored to better than factory or replaced with new, and then detailed. We do do service work, build suspensions as well as build one off kustom trikes , but primarily it ocd restorations . And for that to happen
planning, timing, and part prep is critical.
  The four day work week is a good thing for us, on the personal side, 3 days off..... can't beat that, for the staff here it is a bonus day to take care of life in gen, doc appt, kids , yard work, long weekend at the beach,  less day in traffic, one less day gas cost.
 On the professional side the type of work we do lends  itself to a longer day. Before you get in an up roar
the staff is set to 10 hrs per day 4 days a week, and can set there own hrs, with in reason. I , the evil corporate owner, am the only one who puts in insane hrs. most days I am in the shop by 430 am and I try to get out by 5 p.m., at least for dinner. Plus I have 4 acres worth of yard to mow.
Sorry digressing a bit
 The longer day provides the craftsmen to lose himself in his work, For Zens  sake ,

 Mondays provide me with time to get caught up, on projects, paperwork, cleaning the shop, you would not believe just how dirty the shop gets, I know "Its a shop" but DAMNNNNNNN.
anyway
 back to pushing the broom

being that I run a small biz, certain realties are always present , cost of doing biz and compliance with
local, state, and fed.  While I haven't really touched on the subject   the feds are getting more .... lets say nosier  .
 With the passage of min wage last year ( 7.50 per hr). Our cost of op went up, sales didn't, but thats not important, ( yes it is) never mind that the actual cost of employment is not reflected in that min wage, ( add 15 to 40 % of what you make per hr, and that what it cost your employer, go figure ....
 I came across an op ed piece that is reality for most of us who are the back bone of this funding of gov parasites.
web site  http://tinyurl.com/24qp79n

article  by DON BOUDREAUX on APRIL 29, 2010

in PRICES, REALITY IS NOT OPTIONAL, REGULATION, WORK

An Entrepreneur and the Minimum-Wage

by DON BOUDREAUX on APRIL 29, 2010

in PRICES, REALITY IS NOT OPTIONAL, REGULATION, WORK

A.G. (who asks me to use, in this post, only his initials) is a regular reader of Cafe Hayek.  He’s 28 years old and is an entrepreneur in Charlotte, North Carolina.  His firm employs 25 people, 21 of whom are low-skilled workers.  A.G. just sent this memo to his employees:

To All Team Members:

The schedule for next week has been posted. You may notice that hours have been cut back on your schedule. This is across the board, not just you. I don’t want anyone to think they’ve done something wrong to deserve a cut in hours, so I wanted to explain why it’s happening.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) May and September are very slow months for our business. Anyone who has worked Sundays recently has seen the drop off in traffic. Now that we’re entering May, that drop off will continue on to other days as well, and it will get worse.

2) The recent increase in the minimum wage to $7.25/hour. Since we’ve opened, I’ve had a lot of people ask why they can’t get more hours, and it’s a great question.

I would LOVE to give everyone all the hours they want, and then some. Our customers would be happier across the board, we could accomplish much more every day, our business would grow, I could hire even more people, and on and on. However, we operate on a tight budget just like any other business, and in order to survive, we have to make money. That means our labor cost (the total amount you are all paid) must stay below a certain percentage of our total sales. If it doesn’t, we go broke and everyone loses their jobs.

Our brilliant Congressmen in Washington, D.C. decided a couple years ago that it would be a good idea to raise the minimum wage by about 40% to $7.25/hour. It just took effect last year. That probably sounds like great news for everyone – more money in everyone’s pockets can only be good, right?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way in the real world. If I’m forced to pay everyone 40% more, I can’t afford to schedule as many employees for as many hours, since our sales aren’t going up by 40%. Remember, I can only afford to pay you guys a certain percentage of all the money coming in the door. That means hours get cut, and everyone ends up poorer.

In a perfect world, it should work the opposite way: you should be free to choose how much you think your skills and time are worth (since you know best), and I should be free to pay you whatever that amount is if I want to hire you. Everyone wins in that case. I get as many good employees as I want that I can afford to pay, and you get valuable job training, references, and relationships to carry into the future.

To prove how bad of a deal minimum wage is for you guys as hard-working job-seekers, just look at this way:

I’m not being forced to pay $7.25/hour; YOU are being forced to accept $7.25/hour no matter what, even if you’d be willing to take less in order to get (or keep) a job.

You can thank our elected officials in Raleigh and Washington for sticking you with such a raw deal.

If you have any questions about any of this or want to talk more about it, please feel free to come see me, the door is always open.

(Note: A.G.’s reference to a 40-percent increase in the national minimum-wage seems to refer to that wage’s increase since 2006.  The increase since 2008 is 11 percent; the increase since 2007 is 24 percent.  But even an arbitrary 11-percent increase is enough to lead to the effects that A.G. describes.)

nice show this weekend will post pics  later,

stop by and say hi

Show season is starting, I suppose it has already started for some, But the first one for us is this weekend. Bap is this weekend, It is put on by the Middle Tenn VW club, and the charity event helping The Ronald McDonald House. Almost all of the car shows are charity events. It is a good excuse to to have a car show.
 We are a sponsor again this year, this will be the third year that we have helped out with that show, and we enjoy doing it. While it is good exposure for the company, it takes some effort for us to do it. It is work.
but we enjoy it
 see ya there

the napkin contract

A story nothing more, but it made me chuckle

Thxs Master G

Good read.

I was in my neighborhood restaurant this morning and was seated
behind a group of jubilant individuals celebrating the successful
passing of the recent health care bill. I could not finish my breakfast.
This is what ensued:

They were a diverse group of several races and both sexes. I
heard the young man exclaim, "Isn't Obama like Jesus Christ? I mean,
after all, he is healing the sick." The young woman enthusiastically
proclaimed, "Yeah, and he does it for free. I cannot believe anyone
would think that a free market would work for health care. They are all
crooks and thieves and don't deserve all of that money." Another said,
'The stupid Republicans want us all to starve to death so they can
inherit all of the power. Obama should be made a Saint for what he did
for those of us less fortunate." At this, I had had enough.

I arose from my seat, mustering all the restraint I could find,
and approached their table. "Please excuse me; may I impose upon you for
one moment?" They smiled and welcomed me to the conversation. I stood at
the end of their table, smiled as best I could and began an experiment.

"I would like to give one of you my house. It will cost you no
money and I will pay all of the expenses and taxes for as long as you
live there. Anyone interested?" They looked at each other in
astonishment. "Why would you do something like that?" asked a young man,
"There isn't anything for free in this world." They began to laugh at
me, as they did not realize this man had just made my point. "I am
serious, I will give you my house for free, no money what so ever.
Anyone interested?" In unison, a resounding "Hell Yeah" fills the room.

"Since there are too many of you, I will have to make a choice
as to who receives this money free bargain." I noticed an elderly couple
was paying attention to the spectacle unfolding before their eyes, the
old man shaking his head in apparent disgust. "I tell you what; I will
give it to the one of you most willing to obey my rules." Again, they
looked at one another, an expression of bewilderment on their faces. The
perky young woman asked, "What are the rules?" I smiled and said, "I
don't know. I have not yet defined them. However, it is a free home that
I offer you." They giggled amongst themselves, the youngest of which
said, "What an old coot. He must be crazy to give away his home. Go take
your meds, old man." I smiled and leaned into the table a bit further.
"I am serious, this is a legitimate offer." They gaped at me for a
moment.

"Hell, I'll take it you old fool. Where are the keys?" boasted
the youngest among them. "Then I presume you accept ALL of my terms
then?" I asked. The elderly couple seemed amused and entertained as they
watched from the privacy of their table. "Oh hell yeah! Where do I sign
up?" I took a napkin and wrote, "I give this man my home, without the
burden of financial obligation, so long as he accepts and abides by the
terms that I shall set forth upon consummation of this transaction." I
signed it and handed it to the young man who eagerly scratched out his
signature. "Where are the keys to my new house?" he asked in a mocking
tone of voice. All eyes were upon us as I stepped back from the table,
pulling the keys from pocket and dangling them before the excited new
homeowner.

"Now that we have entered into this binding contract, witnessed
by all of your friends, I have decided upon the conditions you are
obligated to adhere from this point forward. You may only live in the
house for one hour a day. You will not use anything inside of the home.
You will obey me without question or resistance. I expect complete
loyalty and admiration for this gift I bestow upon you. You will accept
my commands and wishes with enthusiasm, no matter the nature. Your
morals and principles shall be as mine. You will vote as I do, think as
I do and do it with blind faith. These are my terms. Here are your
keys." I reached the keys forward and the young man looked at me dumb
founded.

"Are you out of your freaking mind? Who would ever agree to
those ridiculous terms?" the young man appeared irritated. "You did when
you signed this contract before reading it, understanding it and with
the full knowledge that I would provide my conditions only after you
committed to the agreement." Was all I said. The elderly man chuckled as
his wife tried to restrain him. I was looking at a now silenced and
bewildered group of people. "You can shove that stupid deal up you're
a** old man, I want no part of it" exclaimed the now infuriated young
man. "You have committed to the contract, as witnessed by all of your
friends; you cannot get out of the deal unless I agree to it. I do not
intend to let you free now that I have you ensnared. I am the power you
agreed to. I am the one you blindly and without thought chose to enslave
yourself to. In short, I am your Master." At this, the table of
celebrating individuals became a unified group against the unfairness of
the deal.

After a few moments of unrepeatable comments and slurs, I
revealed my true intent. "What I did to you is what this administration
and congress did to you with the health care legislation. I easily
suckered you in and then revealed the real cost of the bargain. Your
folly was in the belief that you can have something you did not earn;
that you are entitled to that which you did not earn; that you willingly
allowed someone else to think for you. Your failure to research, study
and inform yourself permitted reason to escape you. You have entered
into a trap from which you cannot flee. Your only chance of freedom is
if your new Master gives it unto you. A freedom that is given can also
be taken away; therefore, it is not freedom." With that, I tore up the
napkin and placed it before the astonished young man. "This is the
nature of your new health care legislation."

I turned away to leave these few in thought and contemplation
and was surprised by applause. The elderly gentleman, who was clearly
entertained, shook my hand enthusiastically and said, "Thank you Sir,
these kids don't understand Liberty these days." He refused to allow me
to pay my bill as he said, "You earned this one, it is an honor to
pickup the tab." I shook his hand in thanks, leaving the restaurant
somewhat humbled, and sensing a glimmer of hope for my beloved country.


Use reason, it is the closest you are going to get to Godly
conduct
Clifford A. Wright

jim rocks

our new booth for this show season

prunes are tastie

Marc and Dena's , ( really Dena's ) 77 SuperVert is finally out of polish. Color sanding

is a great process , but time consuming , and physically demanding. Just think of it as a

solid two week isometric work out, but with pruney hands and wet feet.

Almost Spring

Man it has been a bit since my last update,

I have found that the shorter format of micro-blog

works well for me, Which means that I need to work on

my long form.

Airkooled is still alive, and running, granted at half throttle

It has been a productive winter, R&D wise, I have gotten

2 beam jigs and built a proto type for a front T-1 beam truss.

I have been driving with it for little over a week. I like it.

Jim has a few new designs for this year, and has been working

AKK.com 3.5 I have seen some of raw pages, and even though

its rough , it is way kool.