Buying The Engine

Sunday (8-13-06) we filmed buying the engine from Rick Rethamel in Perry Michigan. I have gone from wanting a small four cylinder engine to a V6 to a Ford V8 and finally to a 350 Chevy engine. I was always concerned about fuel consumption on such a long journey and tried to kid myself that I could be happy building a hotrod with something other than a small block Chevy motor.
After a year of indecision a small voice in my head said “Steve, stop being an idiot! you know you want a 350 Chevy engine so just go and find one.

With me on the shoot at Rick’s place was John Gerametta and Rob Zeless. They did all the camera work. Rob is the professional who used to work for Fox 66 in Flint and filmed and edited most of my “Simple Cyber” shows. He now works for a TV station in Lansing. John was learning all he could from Rob and I will then learn what I need to know about the camera from John.

Old Ford Wheels

Yesterday I found a gentleman who has four 1934 Ford wheels for sale. I am considering using them because they do look good and would certainly add a vintage appearance to the vehicle.
I just have to make sure that I can use them in conjunction with Pirelli Run Flats.

The gentleman is Gary McConnell and along with his wife Dawn is very knowledgeable about things automotive. They own a few old vehicles and Dawns is a 1953 MG that they are half way through restoring.

It also turns out that they are currently having a frame powder coated at Multi Blast in Montrose. They had good things to say about Jeff and the guys over there and told me about Jeff’s Model A coupe project.

Back On Track

I have been far too busy recently and so it has not been possible to keep the website up to date. I will be posting daily progress here instead.

All last year things slowed down on the Hotrod project as my wife and I concentrated our efforts on bill reduction. Because I will be gone for 4 months in the hotrod we spent 2005 and the first half of 2006 in a determined effort to reduce our monthly financial nut and so we have now paid off most of our bills.It feels goooood.

We now have a camera and this last week the wireless microphones and tripod arrived.

My colleague John Gerametta will be filming a lot of the movie and he his learning all about the new camera, a Canon XL1s.