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Thread: Scotsman new on the forum

  1. #1
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    Scotsman new on the forum

    Hello everyone on the forum,

    My name is Harry, I am actually Scottish but my accent is northern English, as Leeds, Yorkshire, England was where I spent most of my life. I moved to Tucson Arizona five years ago this month, and almost 2 years ago I moved to where I live now in Dublin Ohio, the weather here is much more what I am normally accustomed to ha-ha.

    I have reached the tender age of 50 (do not feel like it), my experience around cars has always been a need to fix basis because of costs, to say I have had some shockers is an understatement, I had to quickly learn how to fix everything, lucky for me my father was a great all around do anything type of guy, he could fix almost anything from TVs with the old valves in the back to Singer sewing machines, I remember way back when I was 18 I think it was my second ever vehicle, big ends went and with that vehicle I think it was a Dodge Commer van, which had a Hillman Hunter engine which we replaced from a breakers yard, another distinctive car I remember owning was a very proud one as well, I had a BMW 2002 with twin carburetor and not long after taking ownership of this the engine started knocking, so under my father’s guidance I decided to do a complete strip down of the engine little did I know he would leave me to my own devices most of the time, we discovered a cracked shell so we had the big ends reground and I basically rebuild a new engine including all gaskets and piston rings, I remember it well as if it was yesterday that it was 28 years ago on that Sunday late afternoon I managed on my own to get the engine and everything back in all connected up and the incredible thing it started first time. In later years I had much better employment financially speaking and it made good sense for me to have most of my repairs done at a garage locally.

    In recent years or mainly since I moved to America five years ago, I tend to now do most of my own repairs and maintenance, and now with the help of many forums, YouTube, books & manuals etc. most amateur mechanics like myself can get by, one of my other great experiences was been involved in a project with a group of 10 friends all from different parts of Great Britain, in 2005 I was contacted and asked if I would like to be involved in saving a former Royal Air Force jet Provost aircraft, thankfully we did save the aircraft from become alu-cans this is a non-flying machine built in 1960 and it did need extensive work to bring it up to a display standard, at that time I had a job in the printing industry which allowed me lots of time to go on spent on the project, so I became known as Harry the riveter, The aircraft is on display in the beer garden of the Standard Inn Northallerton, England, also this year I made friends with a young guy who lives in Columbus Ohio and he is originally from New York, he is building an Excalibur Challenger 2 light sport aircraft, he is amazed that I can help him and I don’t want any financial reward for helping him, and repeatedly tell him I really do enjoy building things, he has promised to take me up many times in the aircraft, so I guess I have always been interested in building a Kit car even when I lived in the UK, living in America my dream looks like happening.

    This forum is pretty incredible I’ve spent the best part of for a five months reading watching learning, and I have so much more of this to do, when I first set out on this quest I always believed I want to build the roadster or something with so much muscle, this for me was never affordable while I lived in the UK just the gas price alone is scary, but future plans could involve moving back to the UK for a period, so the car I build I would like to take with me if possible, so the Kit car I am favoring at the moment is the 818S, this project will not start for me until maybe April/May of next year but that gives me lots of time to find a donor vehicle and use the winter to prepare all the parts etc. Also I still have a home in England which is just gone up for sale so my project will be financed from some of the proceeds.
    I work as a self-employed photographer covering mainly weddings and portraits, but I can usually my hands to complete most things just like my father, I was a carpenter and also I had seven years experience as an electrician’s mate but auto electrical work is not a thing I enjoy too much but I will just suck it up. I look forward to becoming a member of the forum and may be asking questions in the near future.

    Thanks for getting this far sorry for the life story.

    Harry Morrow

    Currently driving Toyota Sienna 3.0l V6 (just about broke in at 158k miles)
    Occasionally Drive my fiancées Dodge Avenger.

  2. #2
    Administrator David Hodgkins's Avatar
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    Harry,

    Welcome to the forum! Do you have any pics of the aircraft? Sounds like a couple of fun projects.

    You can't go wrong choosing any of the FFR offerings. Have you had a chance to see any yet? There are a great number of folks who Visit London Ohio every spring for a BIG weekend show. You should check it out. Also, there are clubs (Ohio cobra club comes to mind) where you can meet some locals and see some Factory Fives up close.

    Again, welcome to the forum. I look forward to watching your journey!


    FFR 5369 Pin Drive, IRS, Trigos, Torsen, Wilwoods, FMS BOSS 302 "B" cam , Mass-flo. CA SB100 (SPCN) Registered
    Delivered 4/23/06. "Finished" 4/2012 (still not done!)


  3. #3
    Senior Member 68GT500MAN's Avatar
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    Welcome Harry. I too look forward to learning more about you build.
    Doug

  4. #4
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    Hey Thanks David & Doug for the welcome,

    Realistically my project will not probably start until late May or early June next year, I am getting married near the end of April 2015, so this gives me plenty of time to get all my ducks in a row, I will need some equipment and will possibly purchase the donor car and get working on the parts and see what I will need, I joined the forum early so I could take part in discussions relating to my future build, must admit I have spent many many hours trawling through the 1000's of posts and pictures every evening rather than watching advert after advert on the TV.

    So here are some pictures of the other project I am currently helping my friend with, he has also promised to help me with anything on the car build if I need his help.

    JODYS AIRCRAFT 1.jpg
    This is the aircraft before we finally attached the wings, but a lot to do.

    For some reason it does not want to let me add more pictures

    Harry
    Attached Images Attached Images

  5. #5
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    Guess I messed it up but still will not let me put up the other images, the attach image instructions seems to be down but anyway, the other image attached is not the finished item but very similar apart from the fact the engine on this bird will be a lot higher up.

    Harry

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