Intro from an old Assembly Plant guy

[Keith Seymore]

Public Service Safety Reminder!


Always use jackstands when working under a vehicle:




and use caution when backing trailers:



(lol) -

K

[JohnC]

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Public Service Safety Reminder!


Always use jackstands when working under a vehicle:




and use caution when backing trailers:



(lol) -

K

Ha, ha. These pics reminded me of a couple that I have.

I was doing some work under the front end of my wife's T10 Blazer and came in the house to find this:



He's got all the right tools, a saw, a screwdriver, wrench, and he is fumbling around with a hammer--what more do you need??

Your tractor pic reminded me of this one:



This was my pedal tractor when I was his age, so I dug it out of my Mom's shed and restored it for him a few years back and gave it to him for Christmas. After I got done with it I told my mom if she ever buys her boy another pedal tractor to buy two of them to save me a ton of restoration money later on.

I enjoy reading your posts. It sounds like you have ahd a helluva run there at GM. Does GM still build trucks at Flint??

[Keith Seymore]

Ok - I kind of set you guys up with those previous pictures. I was looking for this one when I found those others.....

This is my oldest son - back in October of 1987.




...and here he is today:





Here's an outtake where we both look a little more happy about the whole thing:










Since many of the old vehicles and locations are still available in my life, I'm kind of on a mission to re-visit those places and retake some of those old pictures. It's one of the top projects I have in mind for this summer.

Here's another example -

Me, with Dad's '63 Super Duty Catalina, in September of 1963:




Me, with my '63 Grand Prix, winter of 2010:




I guess it's pretty obvious now why I like those aluminum wheels so much!

K

[Keith Seymore]

The pictures of my son are from last night; today we are getting pounded with snow.

My wife is a schoolteacher, so she and the kids are pulling out all the stops with their "voodoo magic", hoping for a snow day tomorrow.

I told her "...babe, that's the downside of working for GM Full Size Truck. You don't get any snowdays."












She said "honey, you don't work for GM Full Size Truck...."

















I was like "hey! That's right!!"

I guess those old habits die hard -

K

[Chief Bail]

No Sir thank you for the trip down memory lane. Huh yes I do. I have some family in Waterford, Troy, and Warren. They are my fathers family.

[Chevy-Art]

I just finished reading this. That had to be an awesome experience to work at GM and see your vehicle built. Nice truck.

[Keith Seymore]

I told you guys I was gonna' drive it:

[JohnC]

Uh Keith I hate to tell you this, but that is just parked.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by JohnC

Uh Keith I hate to tell you this, but that is just parked.

LOL! - I need to get some "rollin'" pics....

K

[Keith Seymore]

Wendy's story -

I had something funny happen a few weeks ago, back in the November timeframe, that I haven't shared with you guys yet.

I had some errands to run in support of getting ready to go to Chicago (to the Muscle Car Nationals) so I decided to grab some lunch and take the afternoon off. I almost never go out for lunch and I never EVER stop at the Wendy's closest to my house - but - a bacon cheeseburger sounded pretty good so I stopped in. I pulled into the parking lot and parked way in the back, away from everybody else, as is my custom now that I am driving my restored pickup.

If you've been following this thread than you already know my little truck is a red Chevy regular cab 2wd shortbox. Because of that it was only natural I noticed, as I pulled in, a guy followed me in a newer (GMT800 style) pickup, also a red Chevy regular cab 2wd shortbox. He parked back kind of where I was, next to me but leaving a respectful distance between his truck and mine.

After I finished my burger (...which was excellent, by the way...) I walked back out and I noticed his truck was still sitting there. I didn't see him come or go so I looked around a bit as I was walking and right then he came out of the restaurant. He caught up to me and spoke first, saying "...hey, that's a sweet little truck!" or something like that.

I confided that I had noticed his truck , too, so we spent several minutes talking about (red) Chevy pickups, then onto working for GM and living in the area. I told him (gradually) about restoring the truck through the summer, giving him short snippets of info and then responding in more detail as he asked more follow up questions.

I haven't mentioned this yet but, because I was heading to the Muscle Car Nats that weekend, and because I wanted the author Darwin Holmstrom to sign my book, I had my big GTO book laying in the front seat of the truck.



As the pickup truck conversation died down a bit, he said "....I see you've got the new GTO book. Have you had a chance to look at it much?".

I didn't tell him that I'd had it since May but did indicate that I had flipped through it a time or two.

At that point he said, matter of factly: "My car is in it". Surprised, I said "really, which one!?!".

His car is the red '61 Catalina, shown early in the book on pages 40 - 45. He got pretty good coverage spanning over several pages.





So now the conversation was off and running again, this time talking about Pontiacs, and how he got the car painted a year ago, and how the motor is out now (spun a cam bearing) and going back together. I told him my car was on page 99 and that we did the photo shoot in November of '07 pretty much across the street from where we were currently standing. We marveled at the fact that we lived only a few miles apart and never had met before, and how unusual it was for us to meet under these circumstances.

My car:







I bet we stood in that Wendy's parking lot for almost an hour before we finally decided we'd better get going, parting ways but vowing to stay in touch.

That was one of the most bizarre chance encounters (and one of the most enjoyable) in recent memory....

K

[dan76]

I can relate to your experience. I've moved several times to different areas of the country in past years. Each time the new friends I make are the guys I've met at car shows or chance parking lot encounters. Almost without exception we've maintained contact even though several have relocated throughout the world.

[JohnC]

That's a cool story Keith. That's what makes this vehicle obsession we have so enjoyable. So we can expect pics from the Nationals right?

[DBLSPRT68]

Great story Keith! My wife dosen't understand how I can talk to a total stranger for hours about cars..... She thinks I'm crazy. Well, I am CAR CRAZY! LOVE the GTO; but I have a PONTIAC also....

[Big Block]

Originally Posted by DBLSPRT68

Great story Keith! My wife dosen't understand how I can talk to a total stranger for hours about cars..... She thinks I'm crazy. Well, I am CAR CRAZY! LOVE the GTO; but I have a PONTIAC also....

I can second all of the above! I also own a 1965 Tempest, I am the second owner.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Big Block

I can second all of the above! I also own a 1965 Tempest, I am the second owner.

Very nice. I like the Corvette rallys, too (I have pictures of our car with Corvette rallys - painted black - installed. I still have those wheels, too).

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by JohnC

That's a cool story Keith. That's what makes this vehicle obsession we have so enjoyable. So we can expect pics from the Nationals right?

They are sort of buried in this thread:

http://forums.performanceyears.com/f...=594667&page=2

K

[menace121978]

another awesome story Keith! i love it just another reason i cannot wait to get my truck done!!

[menace121978]

Keith, i was just looking through your pics and i happen to see the front end of a blue 73+ square body in the back ground of a white 60's chevelle (i think). do you happen to have any pics of it?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by menace121978

Keith, i was just looking through your pics and i happen to see the front end of a blue 73+ square body in the back ground of a white 60's chevelle (i think). do you happen to have any pics of it?

Not if they are not shown in that thread; I remember seeing it and being intrigued but (in my defense ) my son took most of those pictures.

Sorry, Dennis -

K

[menace121978]

here...

[menace121978]

good excuse buddy! i'll have to remember that one

tell your son great pics anyway!!

[McMurray76]

You had me at GMI! Very cool story overall though.

[3r!c84]

thats some cool pics

[JohnC]

Those are some cool pics Keith. Looks like your son has grown just a little bit.

I think that's cool that you are taking pics in the same spot, or at least similar settings as some of the old pics. There is a fellow board member here that did that with his truck back in the day, and after the restoration.