Surf boards? No thanks

[GB SISSON]

Ever since I put this thing together I have people (friends from So Cal, strangers on the street etc) come up and tell me almost the same thing over and over.... "Now all you need is a roof rack with a couple of longboards on it". I usually shrugg it off but sometimes they get my lecture on how wood wagons were not produced for the enjoyment of the surf crowd. Even if we did have surf on the Puget Sound, you still woulda found me laying on my back after school, not on a beach blanket, but under the hull of a fishing boat at the marine railway where I worked, grinding off years of copper bottom paint with a 36 grit disc on a 10" Black and Decker angle grinder with no mask or goggles. Anyhow I HAVE wanted a rood rack so I could take an old wood extension ladder to a couple of car shows this summer. A week ago I took the old gal (the woodie) off island and went to some old time junk, ok antique stores, but junky ones. Just before I had to race back to the ferry terminal I asked the owner of the third store if he had any roof racks for cars. ( I had pawed through his inventory indoors and out for a half hour). He said "Like Quick-N-Easy?" , "My favorite", I replied. He said they were in his garage behind the shop and he'd put them there in 1990, the year he started the shop. He produced a ricketey wood step ladder and we retrieved them from the garage's collar ties. He handed me the first bar and I asked how much. He said he was cleaning out so "how bout 25 bucks?" .... "So 50 bucks for both bars?", "No, 25 for the whole set". I couldn't believe my sudden streak of luck. And just in time for the ferry to boot. Since I don't have an extension ladder yet, the next morning I grabbed a couple of 10' 1x10s. Not sure if tens are considered long so gonna put a couple of 14's up there, take the sharpie and write Puget Sound Longboards. And no Hobie Stickers.

 

[Seth Swoboda]

Looks like a lumber hauler to me. A working mans utility vehicle. NOT a SUV.

 

[petehoovie]

Ever since I put this thing together I have people (friends from So Cal, strangers on the street etc) come up and tell me almost the same thing over and over.... "Now all you need is a roof rack with a couple of longboards on it". I usually shrugg it off but sometimes they get my lecture on how wood wagons were not produced for the enjoyment of the surf crowd. Even if we did have surf on the Puget Sound, you still woulda found me laying on my back after school, not on a beach blanket, but under the hull of a fishing boat at the marine railway where I worked, grinding off years of copper bottom paint with a 36 grit disc on a 10" Black and Decker angle grinder with no mask or goggles. Anyhow I HAVE wanted a rood rack so I could take an old wood extension ladder to a couple of car shows this summer. A week ago I took the old gal (the woodie) off island and went to some old time junk, ok antique stores, but junky ones. Just before I had to race back to the ferry terminal I asked the owner of the third store if he had any roof racks for cars. ( I had pawed through his inventory indoors and out for a half hour). He said "Like Quick-N-Easy?" , "My favorite", I replied. He said they were in his garage behind the shop and he'd put them there in 1990, the year he started the shop. He produced a ricketey wood step ladder and we retrieved them from the garage's collar ties. He handed me the first bar and I asked how much. He said he was cleaning out so "how bout 25 bucks?" .... "So 50 bucks for both bars?", "No, 25 for the whole set". I couldn't believe my sudden streak of luck. And just in time for the ferry to boot. Since I don't have an extension ladder yet, the next morning I grabbed a couple of 10' 1x10s. Not sure if tens are considered long so gonna put a couple of 14's up there, take the sharpie and write Puget Sound Longboards. And no Hobie Stickers.

 

[51504bat]

This the rack I plan to use on Lucille, my '54 Ranch Wagon. But with the rate my shoulder rehab is going, not sure if i'll ever finish the wagon let around getting to the rack.

 

[flatford8]

Gary….if I’d known you were looking for a set, I’d a sent you one…..
51504bat…I don’t know what those racks with the side rails are called….but those are perfect on a Wagon!….Love the wagon too! …….always loved the 2dr Wagons…….Mark

 

[cas3]

Yeah, nice wagon there Bat. GB, maybe a 2 man chain saw, or 6' pipe wrench would do?

No surf boards for sure.

 

[Karl Wescott]

Yeah, nice wagon there Bat. GB, maybe a 2 man chain saw, or 6' pipe wrench would do?

No surf boards for sure.

How about a large wooden airplane propeller???


I do admit that a wooden 35 foot 3 fly ladder with tormentors would look great too.

 

[GB SISSON]

Thanks Pete! And to all my nice friends here too. Thanks for the offer Mark, and Skip , how 'bout a 2 man pipe wrench? I have a gun rack on the driver side rear with a small camp axe in it, the wrench can go below. Tim, nice wagon and nice rack! Karl, I have an aluminum propeller on my aerothrust bike. I did take the woodie to a car show over at Friday Harbor with the aerothrust in the back. I have a school bus seat in the rear that I remove and it fits right in. The original coils in the hub are shot so I mounted a rechargeble drill battery in a rusty can under the seat to a dual fire coil from a kawasaki which is out of view under the crankcase. Causes quite a stir when I fire it up, and no, I have not ridden it yet.

 

[petehoovie]

Thanks Pete! And to all my nice friends here too. Thanks for the offer Mark, and Skip , how 'bout a 2 man pipe wrench? I have a gun rack on the driver side rear with a small camp axe in it, the wrench can go below. Tim, nice wagon and nice rack! Karl, I have an aluminum propeller on my aerothrust bike. I did take the woodie to a car show over at Friday Harbor with the aerothrust in the back. I have a school bus seat in the rear that I remove and it fits right in. The original coils in the hub are shot so I mounted a rechargeble drill battery in a rusty can under the seat to a dual fire coil from a kawasaki which is out of view under the crankcase. Causes quite a stir when I fire it up, and no, I have not ridden it yet.

 

[leon bee]

all those years working out of the back of my truck, I almost miss it. Great pictures!

 

[cas3]

The AeroThrust could provide a whole new meaning to the term " cycling accident" !

Gb, you got the coolest stuff. I think you should man up and take it for a ride. Just keep your feet on the pedals, and hands on the bars, and keep the spectators at a distance

 

[GB SISSON]

The AeroThrust could provide a whole new meaning to the term " cycling accident" !

Gb, you got the coolest stuff. I think you should man up and take it for a ride. Just keep your feet on the pedals, and hands on the bars, and keep the spectators at a distance

Or perhaps a new meaning to the phrase "Pull a head from the crowd"....

The majority of that contraption came from a yard sale in one of the foothill towns this side of the Cascades. The old gal said she found it hidden under a bunch of junk after her husband passed. "Almost like he'd been hiding it from me". Duh.

But back to surf boards, roof racks, lumber and working outa the back of a truck, When I was adjusting the cross tubes to fit the woodie's gutter, one of the steel clamps that hook under the gutter fell off from the cast aluminum stantion and dropped to the ground. I found the threaded eye bolt and the cam tightener that connects it, but no steel tab with the gutter hook to be found anywhere. I surmised that it never was there, just the cam and eye bolt, and the eye was bent open enough that the tab probably slipped off years ago or in that garage. Because I'm nuts, I spent at the very least, four hours fabricating a new part that looked correct as there were 3 others to pattern from. The darker one is my pounded out rendering with some black sikaflex from a caulking tube as the rubber coating.
Two days later I found the original, which had bounced off a tire and wheel laying nearby, the eye and cam seperated from the square clip and ended up alongside the running board, but the missing piece went down the center hole of the wheel.....

 

[Scotty's 52 F3]

Great job on the reproduction piece. I too make parts my own parts that are time suckers but very satisfying to accomplish. Now you have a spare.

 

[petehoovie]

Or perhaps a new meaning to the phrase "Pull a head from the crowd"....

The majority of that contraption came from a yard sale in one of the foothill towns this side of the Cascades. The old gal said she found it hidden under a bunch of junk after her husband passed. "Almost like he'd been hiding it from me". Duh.

But back to surf boards, roof racks, lumber and working outa the back of a truck, When I was adjusting the cross tubes to fit the woodie's gutter, one of the steel clamps that hook under the gutter fell off from the cast aluminum stantion and dropped to the ground. I found the threaded eye bolt and the cam tightener that connects it, but no steel tab with the gutter hook to be found anywhere. I surmised that it never was there, just the cam and eye bolt, and the eye was bent open enough that the tab probably slipped off years ago or in that garage. Because I'm nuts, I spent at the very least, four hours fabricating a new part that looked correct as there were 3 others to pattern from. The darker one is my pounded out rendering with some black sikaflex from a caulking tube as the rubber coating.
Two days later I found the original, which had bounced off a tire and wheel laying nearby, the eye and cam seperated from the square clip and ended up alongside the running board, but the missing piece went down the center hole of the wheel.....

 

[ford38v8]

Gary, you got me beat with your repro hook. I've always been reluctant to fork out the green on something i could fabricate from junk I saved, so I made a rack for my old Suburban from a steel bed frame and sections of left-over fence posts for the uprights. The first time I used it, I drove down the driveway and took out the rain gutter from my basement door roof. The rack survived, and was still on the Burb when I sold it years later.

 

[GB SISSON]

Thanks again Pete, and I bought another gun rack for the starboard side so I can continue to accerorize with my favorite junk. I found I need to carry a shorty step ladder in order to tie stuff down on the roof rack. Maybe that should hang on the inside of one of the barn doors. Oh great, more brackets to fabricate. I'm in a funny place right now, where the 'old' younger Gary would be dragging home another project, but the 'funny place' is that I don't have a vehicle I want to part with, and four already seems a lot to care for. Therefore I am planning to continue working on the ones I already have, and sort of finishing them. With an emphisis on the sort of.

 

[Ray in La Mesa]

All this talk about roof racks reminded me of one I bought at a garage sale for my '70 VW bus for $15. It is a heavy duty style of stamped steel but needed to be modified to fit the bus as the roof has about a 7" rise from the rain gutters. I completed the modifications including new gutter clamps & it fit perfectly. THEN it dawned on me , I'll probably never use it as my 80 year young body won't allow it! Oh well, a great accessory for the next fellow who owns the bus.

 

[ford38v8]

All this talk about roof racks reminded me of one I bought at a garage sale for my '70 VW bus for $15. It is a heavy duty style of stamped steel but needed to be modified to fit the bus as the roof has about a 7" rise from the rain gutters. I completed the modifications including new gutter clamps & it fit perfectly. THEN it dawned on me , I'll probably never use it as my 80 year young body won't allow it! Oh well, a great accessory for the next fellow who owns the bus.

Ray, you’re not thinking straight. For your next trip to the beach, you can request your caretaker to strap your rocking chair to the roof rack, and you can have a clear view of all the girlies.

 

[GB SISSON]

Ray, you’re not thinking straight. For your next trip to the beach, you can request your caretaker to strap your rocking chair to the roof rack, and you can have a clear view of all the girlies.

I think I'd leave the rocker on the porch and mount the barcalounger up there. But the rest of the plan makes perfect sense.

 

[51504bat]

Thanks again Pete, and I bought another gun rack for the starboard side so I can continue to accerorize with my favorite junk. I found I need to carry a shorty step ladder in order to tie stuff down on the roof rack. Maybe that should hang on the inside of one of the barn doors. Oh great, more brackets to fabricate. I'm in a funny place right now, where the 'old' younger Gary would be dragging home another project, but the 'funny place' is that I don't have a vehicle I want to part with, and four already seems a lot to care for. Therefore I am planning to continue working on the ones I already have, and sort of finishing them. With an emphisis on the sort of.

Gary, that '37 panel is still listed on MP. My shoulder sling comes off mid May and it might drop even more by than and I can drive up and scope it out for ya