Builds Poppy- '84 FJ60

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So many have asked where I'm going (not divulging the new locale yet) and what will be the new Trail Tailor offerings.

I can say with 100% certainty that the 60 rear, 60 sliders and racks will be available. Front bumpers will either be discontinued or redesigned (I'm thinking discontinued) C-channels and antenna mounts will still be offered. Carpet and vinyl kits will still be offered. A few other products released or maintained as well.

I plan to limit my bumper/armor products (build as I want and offer up these on occasion when I feel like building things) and focus on more of the things I like to do. Custom cruiser and offroad trailer builds. Misc R&D items and honestly just enjoy myself.

Several of you know I do this for fun and to keep me busy more than anything. Andrea and I have been blessed and at 44 and 47 respectfully we are semi-retired. We want to enjoy some more things in life. So, we will be adding a few things into our daily lives. I want to learn Solidworks better (especially 3D) and become more efficient with it. I will be taking a few classes for this and also getting back to one thing I truly LOVE to do and that is teach young people how to weld. I have been part of the Wyoming high school and college SkillsUSA welding training and competitions for the past 10 years. It gives me so much joy to work with and help these young people strive to accomplish what they love to do as well and to help prolong a truly dying skill/craft.

Andrea wants to add to her already many college degrees and go back and study water/air-- environmental law. Then donate her knowledge and time to people in need for organic farming and setting up organic CSA's (community supported agriculture). Not to mention her love to help and volunteer at any grizzly or black bear refuge center across the country.

I figure we will stay pretty busy as usual and continue to want to do more as the new location opens our eyes and hearts to the needs around our new community.

J
 
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Sounds great, follow your dreams!
And what you're saying about teaching welding, I respect that! There's no doubt that you have some lessons to pass on, and best do it while you're still active.
It's part of what I'm into, too, just with traditional building techniques, and I'm at both ends of that table. Learning, and passing it on.
We call it 'handlingsbåren kunnskap' , Xiong know how to translate that, would be something in the lines of lessons through action. Working together with knowledgeable people has not just been about learning crafts, but learning to respect the many different crafts and their masters.

Good luck to both of you!!

P
 
TLC Norway said:
Sounds great, follow your dreams!
And what you're saying about teaching welding, I respect that! There's no doubt that you have some lessons to pass on, and best do it while you're still active.
It's part of what I'm into, too, just with traditional building techniques, and I'm at both ends of that table. Learning, and passing it on.
We call it 'handlingsbåren kunnskap' , Xiong know how to translate that, would be something in the lines of lessons through action. Working together with knowledgeable people has not just been about learning crafts, but learning to respect the many different crafts and their masters.

Good luck to both of you!!

P
Click to expand...

Most of the time when I step into a school the teacher is a multi-purpose solution for a low school budget. Our governments pitiful excuse for education is to give our youth a person that has a degree in something they don't even understand themselves. Some schools don't even require a teacher to hold a degree to teach anymore.

The "shop" teachers as I call them are usually good at one or two of the things they are teaching our children. Then they stumble through and either don't teach them anything because they don't know or they give them bad information and our kids get frustrated and give up.

EX...
The local high school here has I'm going to guess a $3-5 million dollar shop for machining, welding, wood working and automotive. They have two teachers. Both couldn't make two pieces of metal stick together if GOD WANTED THEM TO! One is an old Honda mechanic, but all the motors, transmissions and frames are American. This guy drives an AUDI and bitches incessantly about American made cars.. But, he is the lead automotive teacher.... The other guy is a wiz at lathe work and talks to the tune of 3 words a minute in what I assume is mumblenese... I ask the kids in that class what they do and they say watch him make stuff for his friends. I've never smelled cut wood in 9 years from the wood working shop.

My oldest daughter went to school here for her junior year. Her and her sister came to live with me from Colorado where they were both in a private school. When we transferred their transcripts from Colorado to here my oldest only needed 1 English class and a government class to graduate as a junior. We talked about it all summer and she wanted to go to school. So, she started school... IN THE WHOLE DAMN YEAR she never brought home one book, or one homework assignment, or had to cram with friends for a test. I asked what she did in class and she said we talk to the teachers and for the most part surf the internet or watch movies and discuss the movie... WTF is that. After many arguments with the school staff and school board, basically I was told I could remove my children if I wasn't satisfied with their teaching regiment. WELL HELL NO... I can give my kid a laptop and throw them in front of the DVD player at my own house... IDIOTS..

My oldest graduated at the end of her junior year and my second daughter moved with us to Texas. She was ahead in the WY schools as well and when we got to Texas she was behind in history and everything else was even or slightly ahead. WELL WHAT DO YOU KNOW!! NO BETTER THERE. Movies, "movie reports" and sourcing things on the web. She did bring home a TRIG book a few times, which I think I used more than she did... :rolleyes: I used to read the kids history books and it was the same crap I read 30-35 years ago. Has there not been ANY historical changes to note in 30 years??? I asked her about more recent events... even 911... NOPE NOTHING LIKE THAT DAD.

Sorry for this rant , but it goes to one of the many reasons our skilled trades are dwindling and our education status in the world keeps dropping. Its a damn shame. The US is 14th in education AND 2nd in ignorance, our kids know English when they graduate, some a little Spanish maybe. Most of our kids read at a 7-8th grade level.

I worked with a 24 year old engineer from Japan that spoke 9 languages by the time he was 18. Could write in several languages and tell jokes like a drunken sailor ( CRUISERHEAD TO BOOT...) Not a weirdo or freak... just a hard working, good family values and ethical type of human being. Said he doesn't understand how Americans can have so much and give so little back.

Basically, if we don't start giving back our skills, knowledge and ethics to our kids it will be lost forever.

J
 
...and then people complain why the US is in decline.....education, skills, values....all dropping like a lead brick.
 
So much truth there J... and coming from a line of educators it is amazing what the teachers are given to work with. I can remember the days of sitting with my mom while she BUILT lesson plans for the school year during the summer. She was a 3rd grade teacher. Then all this crap about teachers being responsible for the upbringing and not the discipline or education of people's children started happening. Teachers started getting blamed for LOTS of stupid stuff and eventually it became that schools were no longer about education, rather they were a place for people to drop their kids off for babysitting while they went to work and really nothing more.

When my mom was still alive she talked about how she taught and administered three and four generations of students as she was at the same school for almost 35yrs. And just how much things had changed over those years, how they constantly had to make cuts here and there but were expected to do more with less. Now my sister, a special ed. teacher, says the same things about how she TRIES to help these student get through and learn but ultimately the students know they don't have to do anything as they will just be pushed through the system. This is then where this whole generation of $15+/hr burger flippers starts.

Good friend of mine stated something very strong lately about the whole political race... Mr. Sanders keeps going on about free education for all. Yeah that sounds great on paper, but look at our work force and young people today. How much do you think they valued and learned from that "free" high school education.
 
One set of arch repair panels remaining.

Get it while you can!

J

sam_1068-jpg.1242279
 
Trapper50cal said:
Those went quick.... ;)
Click to expand...

I almost bought 10 sets.... But, was afraid I wouldn't be able to sell them all before the move.

Poppy's carpet is stripped out, boxed and headed to its new owner. Shifter boots are pulled. All parts loaded up and will head to my buddy at Toyota tomorrow along with my 100 for a water pump and baselining.

J
 
Andrea is pretty smahrtt.
 
Jason , your rants sound like mine. I wanted to get involved with our local high school weld shop but when I suggested that the kids' passing grade depended on them building something they could sell at the end of the year the present shop teacher threw a fit. There was no criteria as
to what the project could be as long as it wasn't drug paraphernelia or weapons. It could be art, roof racks, bumpers, or flagpoles. The key was they design and build something and at the end of the year have a school fair and display their works for sale. Whether 1.00 or 100.00 dollars
they could learn design, manufacture and marketing in one fell swoop.
 
reevesci said:
M,

Hell, she has 2 other sewing machines...... BUT, I LIKEY THIS ONE!!!

J
Click to expand...

Awesome!
The machine I have , I keep breaking needles trying to make it do more than it is capable of... :hillbilly:

By the way the steel arch panels arrived today!
Thanks!
 
lcwizard said:
Jason , your rants sound like mine. I wanted to get involved with our local high school weld shop but when I suggested that the kids' passing grade depended on them building something they could sell at the end of the year the present shop teacher threw a fit. There was no criteria as
to what the project could be as long as it wasn't drug paraphernelia or weapons. It could be art, roof racks, bumpers, or flagpoles. The key was they design and build something and at the end of the year have a school fair and display their works for sale. Whether 1.00 or 100.00 dollars
they could learn design, manufacture and marketing in one fell swoop.
Click to expand...


Bet ya 1000$ that teacher has his kids make stuff and HE SELLS IT OR CHARGES PEOPLE FOR REPAIRS. That was a huge issue around here until the 2012 SkillsUSA and myself and 3 other helpers/assistants brought it up in a letter to the Wyoming Dept of Education. Stated facts, actual products bought and repaired and names/witnesses.

The old shop teacher when I first moved here was AWESOME. He cared about the kids and the trade. He and I got the Sweetwater County School district to approve an API Code Pipeline Class. I supplied all the WPS' and PQR's from my old code shop, taught the kids how to layout, cut, prep and take a 12" Butt and Branch test, cut and prepare test straps, tensile tests, Charpy impact tests, hydrotesting, understanding milltest reports and metallurgy of the pipe to filler metals and understand why DOT/API is so important for gas and liquid petroleum lines.

The class is still offered but, it was moved to the local community college (college students wanted the class as well and the college could make more money). The high schools allow the kids to get college credit for it now I'm told. The kids loved the class and I always heard them talking about how they were talking with the dad or uncle or... It was exciting that they could relate to what their parent did for a living.

The school board asked what the materials cost was knowing the oil and gas' reputation for HIGH COSTS in this area, not to mention the mining as well. I told them the numbers and it pretty much got thrown in the trash. So I asked if I could get local companies to donate materials and supplies would they approve it. They agreed.

Within a week I had contacted all my contacts at the local companies. Another week or so passed and we had over a mile of 6"-24" pipe and fitting, flanges, line up clamps, straps.. the list kept going. Norco, US Welding and AirGas donated 2500#s of 6010, 7010 and 8010 rods, grinding disc and wire wheels by the box fulls. Companies even gave a copy of the MTR's if they had them handy.

Pipeline is a huge industry around here and a trade you can take with you worldwide.

I'm glad I could help get that going for the community. Like I said, it doesn't take much to make a difference. I'd do it everywhere I went, but the shop teachers are in it for themselves it seems and don't seem interested at all.

J
 
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micruz60 said:
Awesome!
The machine I have , I keep breaking needles trying to make it do more than it is capable of... :hillbilly:

By the way the steel arch panels arrived today!
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yep I think I use a 16/100 needle (leather) and I still break them from time to time. But, not near as many as I used to.

Box arrive in good condition?

J
 
I tried once to donate materials because this school district is dirt poor. I went into the shop , all the kids but one were goofing off in a corner
with no supervision. The one kid that was busy by himself welding, or at least trying to, was the only one that would help me unload the truck.
I asked him what was going on and he said it's like that every day. The shop teacher is the football coach. Coaching isn't full time so they stuck him there to get his 40 hours . He couldn't weld to save his life so no one there could really learn to weld unless they taught themselves. A week later the material I dropped was still in a pile untouched. I hired the one kid for the summer so he could learn something. His dad got transferred to Nevada . I talked to him a couple years later. He was welding for a sign company... but he bought a Jeep
 
reevesci said:
Yep I think I use a 16/100 needle (leather) and I still break them from time to time. But, not near as many as I used to.

Box arrive in good condition?

J
Click to expand...

Box had one small perforation 1" square, middle of long edge. No biggie.
 
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