Hello from North Carolina...

[brn agn]

I've been lurking for awhile, and thought that it was about time that I introduced myself.

I currently live in Youngsville, NC, but grew up in central Missouri. My Dad is a mechanic, so I grew up swinging wrenches on old cars. I can't quite get it out of my system!

My first car was a 1974 Nova, which I still own. I moved it out to North Carolina a few years ago, and started working on it with the intent for it to accelerate, turn and stop better than it ever had. Here is a picture of it:

..and here is some more information on it: http://home.earthlink.net/~kjcooper13/id3.html

I had to stop working on it about a year ago, because I was led to start a car ministry at our local church. The purpose of the ministry is to help people who cannot afford to fix their own vehicles. We also accept donated cars, fix them, then give them to people in need. Here is a link to our website:

https://www.northwake.com/public/ser...me_final2.html

My wife is also a gear head. Last summer, I restored her first car, which is a 1985 Camaro. I spent 3 months of nights and weekends fixing it without her knowing it. Then, I gave it to her for her 30th birthday. If you are interested in her reaction, I have it on You Tube. Here is a picture of her with her baby:


Finally...the reason I am here (the website, not earth, ha, ha). A few months ago, our car ministry needed a full size truck so we could move donated cars from place to place. I figured if I was going to spend a few thousand dollars on something, I wanted to move cars in style. Ha, ha. So, I bought a 69 SWB from a fellow board member. It is relatively stock with a 307 and a Powerglide. Since this is going to be a 3rd vehicle for us as well as a vehicle for the car ministry, I have been working on making it reliable. The truck had sit for quite some time, so I have rebuilt the carb, ran new fuel line, gave it a tune up, etc... It is starting to get to the point where I can drive it, which has been a lot of fun. My next step is to fix some rust in the firewall, add some modern rubber and lower it a little. Here is a picture of how it sits today:



I've learned a lot already from reading the posts on here. I hope to contribute a little myself also.