Jason's Ramble - Sept 12, 2022

[Jason Edge]

Between a major house addition project, parting two cars out at once, and spending more time doing Cadillac & LaSalle Club stuff now that I am VP I have been a bit quiet here and thought I would occasionally pop in and do a ramble. 

On the Cadillac Parts Car front, I have had two 1963 Cadillac Park Avenue Parts cars in the driveway forever and while there are advantages to having two of the exact same body style cars at the same time, I am basically blocked in from driving Dino, my 64 Coupe de Ville. I am actually parting out the last one, #58 first as it was the more complete and running car and well was off the car hauler. When I part a car out, while it is on the ground I remove the front clip, engine and transmission, doors, glass, interior, dash, seats, and strip almost everything off the car except the front end and rear end and wheels then it goes up on the car hauler for the last time and they come off!  The only thing left on this last car is the dash front bench seat, inside wiring and a few odds and ends. I am even thinking I may have it up on the car hauler tomorrow. We will see.

On Cadmium Plating Project front, my wife Cheryl had completed sorting the 6th batch of cadmium plated fasteners, etc. on our big 12 foot dining room table a couple weeks back and I am still sorting and putting up and occasionally like tonight and seen below swapping out some old fasteners with some fresh cadmium plated fasteners. I use my 64 Coupe de Ville as the guinea pig when applicable.  I have a large roll of linoleum flooring I put on the 100+ year old 12' 1", 7 leaf table to protect. Once it goes into the new dining room I have a feeling the in house bolt sorting will end.   Speaking of my wife Cheryl, since she retires she has been a huge help sorting and cleaning parts.  You have to keep in mind I have parted out 58 cars and I have a lot of stuff. I am pretty organized but a 2nd person to go through and clean and sort is a  huge help!  Here is a picture of the lower vent window trim she cleaned and sorted yesterday. 

On the Cadillac & LaSalle Club Front, as your new VP with a bit of an IT background I am involved with a lot of the background planning and work regarding day to day club activities but probably more so with upcoming National Events such as Driving Tours, Grand Nationals, and Winter Board meetings. Speaking of Winter Board Meetings the 2023 WBM is in Charlotte NC and me and the Carolina Region will be very active participants in that event!  My wife Cheryl has starting getting more involved and will be helping with the Hospitality Room and more!   In the Oct Self-Starter you will see an article by me regarding some rate changes for the CLC.  Getting more Cadillac enthusiasts from all the online social media outlets has been a passion of mine for a long time and think this may help steer new members to the club!  With that you will see a big push from me to get those of you that have yet to sign up to ... ah, well, SIGN UP!

And there is that 2022 National Driving Tour down the Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina Coast line Oct 30 to Nov 4.  I  be driving my 2013 Escalade EXT from end to end and hope to see some of you on the tour!  Click the link for more details. I did my first driving tour during the 2022 Chicago Grand National and it was a blast and can't wait until the one down our NC coast line!

On the home front, I am adding a dining room and pantry addition to our 1912 home.   The foundation, drainage and floor foundation is complete and am heavy into framing.  I'm doing 99% of the work and of course overbuilding it to match the quality of the rest of the house.  This framed with 2x6 wall studs, 2x12 floor and roof lumber, and sheathed with 3/4" plywood. Roof will end up with 7 layers like the last addition. There will not be any 1/2" OSB or wafer board or undersized lumber on this project!  Saturday Home Depot dropped off 46 sheets of 3/4" plywood and 40 16-foot 2x12's. I was tired just looking at it.  

So the 2 parts cars and house addition has really kept me busy, but it is a fun busy in that is doing the stuff I want to do!  

Until next time!

Jason.