Random pic thread.

Sometimes you just feel like playing chicken with the train!

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Then again, just jump on board and go for a ride. It was a restored steam engine. We went to Strasburg Train Station, there's also a train museum and a toy train museum there. My daughter and I had a blast with it

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There used to be a place there where you could spend the night in a converted caboose, they had a string of them used like hotel rooms. Our son was a train fan when little, took him and a friend there. It was kind of a craphole.
 
When your the VP of a lumber distributor and don't have time to run to the tire shop to dismount some tires...
@BigSouth and @Infamous1 y'all's wheels and tires are ready to pick up
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Damn I wish I could afford that bling.....

Rich people probs

Thank you Lord Treadway, I shall send my stable boy to retrieve them post haste!!
 
There used to be a place there where you could spend the night in a converted caboose, they had a string of them used like hotel rooms. Our son was a train fan when little, took him and a friend there. It was kind of a craphole.
Yep, it's still there. It's the Red Caboose Motel...seems that name could be a euphemism.... I kept joking with the wife saying that we should stay there. Her first response was something like "ew! no..." Then I kept persisting, saying "oh look at them, they could be fun!" I then got the f-you look...and I don't mean in the fun way. :lol: Everything else about the visit was pretty schweet, though. I think we'll be returning with the munchkin sometime.
 
It would be cheaper to rent a motel room just to go swimming.


That's the way I feel about the beach.

Every year the kids begged me to take them to the beach for a week. Every year I caved. And every year they spent the whole time in the pool. Maybe ONE day of the 7 I would lug all the crap to the beach, set up the EZ-up, chairs, blankets....etc, only for them to play in the water for 30 min and be ready to go back to the house and play in the pool :rolleyes:

Thought I'd outsmarted them and got a house without a pool. They made friends with the neighbors and spent the week in THEIR pool.

I told the wife, we'd come out MUCH cheaper renting a suite at Embassy in greensboro and just going to THEIR pool every day
 
That's the way I feel about the beach.

Every year the kids begged me to take them to the beach for a week. Every year I caved. And every year they spent the whole time in the pool. Maybe ONE day of the 7 I would lug all the crap to the beach, set up the EZ-up, chairs, blankets....etc, only for them to play in the water for 30 min and be ready to go back to the house and play in the pool :rolleyes:

Thought I'd outsmarted them and got a house without a pool. They made friends with the neighbors and spent the week in THEIR pool.

I told the wife, we'd come out MUCH cheaper renting a suite at Embassy in greensboro and just going to THEIR pool every day

Or, go somewhere other than the beach, and rent a house with a pool. My sister has rented a few places on AirBNB that are spacious pool houses (like 1200sqft) for bigass houses. Pool privileges included.
 
That's the way I feel about the beach.

Every year the kids begged me to take them to the beach for a week. Every year I caved. And every year they spent the whole time in the pool. Maybe ONE day of the 7 I would lug all the crap to the beach, set up the EZ-up, chairs, blankets....etc, only for them to play in the water for 30 min and be ready to go back to the house and play in the pool :rolleyes:

Thought I'd outsmarted them and got a house without a pool. They made friends with the neighbors and spent the week in THEIR pool.

I told the wife, we'd come out MUCH cheaper renting a suite at Embassy in greensboro and just going to THEIR pool every day
I've always said - the best pool is the one your neighbor owns.
 
My wife is wanting to build a pool. I'm on the fence about it. Her parents have one, and live 20 minutes away. I will mow the grass and do other random outdoor chores, and then just drive over to their house.
 
My wife is wanting to build a pool. I'm on the fence about it. Her parents have one, and live 20 minutes away. I will mow the grass and do other random outdoor chores, and then just drive over to their house.
My in-laws have a pool. That being said, I'd rather rent a hotel room to get pool privileges. F*ck the drama associated with going there. :shaking:
 
We got a deal ($100) on a 20' above ground pool. I absolutely love it. Its pretty low maintenance with the sand filter we were given. Once I got the water stable (I just used our tanker and dumped in pond water), Just check the chlorine float and back wash the filter every week when I finish mowing. Pump is on a timer adn does its thing automatically.
 
Or, go somewhere other than the beach


Negative ghostrider. Since they were babies there has always been a "beach trip"

Thankfully when the oldest graduated HS I was able to avoid any more mingling with the Ohio license plate mafia for hours on end and take those trips off the table. We've been beach free for 5 years now!
 
Another bit of history lives on!
Lately we've had the honor of restoring a few pieces of antique iron works from our very own Governor's mansion in downtown Columbia. They've been loyal customers of ours for a long time, and it's always a pleasure to offer our services to them. The grounds of the SC Governor's mansion is certainly worth seeing. These two old iron benches came to us in horrible condition. The old wooden slats were deteriorated beyond repair, the iron frame was broken in multiple places and half the hardware was missing. How old these are, I honestly have no idea. The only casting mark legible on either was the name "Birlant".
So to revive these gems took some very careful welding, replacing each custom fit slat with 3/4" 6061 aluminum solid cut out on our waterjet and finished out with sandblasting and application of B2 semi-gloss black powdercoat. It was a huge team effort, but these turned out incredible. Come to find out, these were a wedding present.
The old school details still bewilder me.
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Another bit of history lives on!
Lately we've had the honor of restoring a few pieces of antique iron works from our very own Governor's mansion in downtown Columbia. They've been loyal customers of ours for a long time, and it's always a pleasure to offer our services to them. The grounds of the SC Governor's mansion is certainly worth seeing. These two old iron benches came to us in horrible condition. The old wooden slats were deteriorated beyond repair, the iron frame was broken in multiple places and half the hardware was missing. How old these are, I honestly have no idea. The only casting mark legible on either was the name "Birlant".
So to revive these gems took some very careful welding, replacing each custom fit slat with 3/4" 6061 aluminum solid cut out on our waterjet and finished out with sandblasting and application of B2 semi-gloss black powdercoat. It was a huge team effort, but these turned out incredible. Come to find out, these were a wedding present.
The old school details still bewilder me.
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The bench with the upside down bird is the Charleston Battery Bench. We've got a couple in the common areas of our neighborhood. I was just looking at them a day or two ago thinking they needed some love. Aluminum slats and powdercoat would do the trick! Nice work!
 
enlighten us non "jeep guru's"

It's a needle bearing for certain GM 14-bolt pinions during a 2 year period (mid '80s sometime) that is different than the other years, and no one makes the bearing anymore (or anything that directly cross refs). I've heard people talk about this before, but have no personal experience. I'm no gear guru.
 
That pinion support bearing is supposedly totally obsolete. Period. Like no NOS, nobody makes a revised one, nothing.
When I pulled the pinion out of the housing, I may have said a very dirty word. Sorry Tony, I know you have virgin ears...
@woodrow spent 2.5 hours calling bearing manufacturers, bearing distributors, wholesalers, etc while I was building his tons. No luck.
There are a few options to correct this. Make a bronze bushing (like an input shaft pilot bearing) and install it where the roller bearing was. You can also bore the housing for the more common bearing.
Last option is to replace the entire rear housing assembly. Woody has a spare housing with the larger support bearing. But, replicating his 4 link and coilovers mounts will be a pretty major chore. He has like 1/4" of clearance around his tires and chassis as the suspension cycles. So it would have to jigged to a very tight tolerance.
 
That pinion support bearing is supposedly totally obsolete. Period. Like no NOS, nobody makes a revised one, nothing.
When I pulled the pinion out of the housing, I may have said a very dirty word. Sorry Tony, I know you have virgin ears...
@woodrow spent 2.5 hours calling bearing manufacturers, bearing distributors, wholesalers, etc while I was building his tons. No luck.
There are a few options to correct this. Make a bronze bushing (like an input shaft pilot bearing) and install it where the roller bearing was. You can also bore the housing for the more common bearing.
Last option is to replace the entire rear housing assembly. Woody has a spare housing with the larger support bearing. But, replicating his 4 link and coilovers mounts will be a pretty major chore. He has like 1/4" of clearance around his tires and chassis as the suspension cycles. So it would have to jigged to a very tight tolerance.
Can you get me some dimensions and info? Little Glenn works at the local RBC plant maybe able to help. There use to be a guy on here that worked there. I'm thinking he was an engineer.
 
The bench with the upside down bird is the Charleston Battery Bench. We've got a couple in the common areas of our neighborhood. I was just looking at them a day or two ago thinking they needed some love. Aluminum slats and powdercoat would do the trick! Nice work!

Really cool benches, They're still making them too...

The Charleston Battery Bench® - George C. Birlant and Company

Maybe @XJsavage should contact them about providing the aluminum slats as an upgrade option on the new ones?
 
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