GAINING ON IT.

Now it was time to start with those pesky cabinets. The plan on my yellow lap top was to have cabinets all the way around the box, attached to the ceiling and outside wall.

As you can see from these pics, the cabinets, installed by the previous owner, were all different designs, heights and sizes.

 

That bothered me a lot. Not that I am one  that insist on  uniformity but in this case, I couldn't walk under the the cabinets without getting knots the size of a pineapple on my head. The previous owner of Blackine could just  about  walk under my arm  if I held it straight out. low cabinets were not a problem for him.

With the help of  my X- Brother in law,  the best Brother in law I ever had, we removed the cabinets. We cut the bigger cabinets to the same height as the shorter ones so we ending up getting 2 for one on several cabinets. With the help of knee braces,glue and drywall screws I only had to buy one cabinet to fill the walls.

Time was getting a tad on the short side. I had started this project in mid February and here it was late October, in fact almost November.I had just come from a Major shoot at National Gun club in San Antonio and stopped just north of Austin at My X- Brother in Law's place to do the cabinet work before going to FT Worth to a Shoot.By the time we had gotten the cabinets out ,cut and rebuilt I didn't have time to reinstall them before I needed to high tail it to Ft. Worth for the next shoot. We stacked them in his shop and I was on the way. Thanks Richard .

I had been constantly on the look out for the Right truck to transfer the box to once I was done on the inside. I watched all the truck lots from San Antonio to D/FW and had not seen anything that I wanted to stop and look at. As I came up on another lot that usually never had over 4-5 trucks on it in, Alvarado, TX  I got goose bumps THERE IT WAS, a Volvo condo. I was running about 70 or so and couldn't just lock it up. I went to the next exit and  turned around.I was so excited and when I got parked and walked across the street every step was Just a little faster. 

Dang it, nobody on the lot. I opened the hood and there was a Big cam 400 Cummins with Jake brake. I was guessing that the transmission was a 13 or 15 speed since it had been a road truck.The tires weren't that great but that didn't matter because they were 24.5's and I was going to change them to 22.5's. I called the number listed at the truck lot and got an answering machine. I left a message  that said, "you have my truck on your lot and I have come to pick it up".

D.J. called me back that night and we discussed the truck. It had less than 50,000 miles on a out of frame overhaul, rebuilt 13 speed transmission and new clutch when the motor was put back in. It was road ready and It was a done Deal. I picked it up on the day before thanksgiving 2003 exactly one year to the day since I had met Jeanie at the airport.

 

The future "Jeanie's Bottle"

 Tomorrow: Hanging cabinets

I plan to have a great day,I hope you will join me

Rojo