Here we are again, I am I don’t know how many days late with my column and I have no idea what to write about, but I’m sure that if I ramble on long enough some sort of topic will pop up. So let’s see what I come up with… I realize that I have a rich, colorful imagination that will eventually do me right and I will come up with something, but I’m not near as free flowing with the libretto as other people that I know. Take Mr. Johnny O’ for instance. He can pull a 1000 word column out of his ass in a few minutes that will likely entertain and possibly even make you laugh or at very least giggle along the way. There is a good chance that it will be about something completely off-the-wall like the many uses for frog shit in gourmet cooking or the gambling habits of underage Japanese girls and its effect on the Russian economy, but on my best day I can’t write a 1000 words in an hour if I had to, even if it is a subject that I’m excited about or inspired by.
Although having the skill of being able to pull a story out of my ass at a moments notice might be nice, I am not bothered by my inability in any way. This is because I have my own talents that I am quite fond of. What I can do that even the great Johnny O’ can’t is come up with a crazy suspension design that has a good chance at working properly and looking good in the process, and I can also find cures to mechanical conundrums that most people can’t. And even better than both of those put together, if and when I do find a cure or dream up some wild (or simple design for that matter), I can build the ideas that I cobble together in my brain’s synapses using the tools that I own in my shop. Now that makes me smile!
Although I will admit that I have often found myself in a position where my dreams are bigger than I am capable of building. Quite often my situationally limited tools are the issue but not always. I usually find my way around it by simply trying or I keep the idea and wait until I have the tooling or the talent. I am finding that most of my limits are more lack of tools rather than talent right now (Don’t take that wrong, I’m lacking plenty of talent too, just more so tools at the moment). Once I get the tools I then realize that talent is also needed to use them properly. This lack of tools has led me to believe that this year is going to be the “Year of the Tool” (it’s in the Japanese-Russian astrological calendar) for me and my shop. Actually I’ve already doubled my big tool count in just the last three months. It’s by no stretch cheap to buy nice tools, but good god they are making fab-life so much easier and our finish work worlds nicer. 		I no longer have to pay people to fuck things up for me, we can fuck stuff up ourselves now, for free too and of course bill the customer for time spent messing things up. Truthfully though, it’s amazing how much nicer a few good tools and a little direction from someone that knows how to use them can make your work.
And this brings me to my story…
A few months ago I got a call from a high-end client of mine that needed a favor. The nature of the favor is of little concern, but where the favor needed me to go is. The car was being kept in a shop located in Vista, California and I was instructed to be as unobtrusive as possible because the owner of the business where the car that needed the favor resided supposedly did not like outsiders. So it turns out that this owner’s name is Jake and he is simply the most amazing sheetmetal fabricator I have ever seen. He was building an early Bugatti from scratch and you couldn’t find a flaw anywhere. You would typically assume that someone that is light-years ahead of you talent wise would be older, but it turns out that Jake is my age, just blessed with divine sheetmetal skills. I think that a sheetmetal god had sex with his mother and thus making Jake a demi-sheetmetal god… For reals though, his work is absolutely inspiring and being that he is my age makes me feel as if I haven’t learned anything in my lifetime. After talking with him for a while it turns out that he is not the recluse shop owner that we were once led to believe. He is a really nice guy that is willing to share his talents with someone that will use it to better themselves as builders. The few things that he showed me has probably doubled my sheetmetal shaping and finishing skills on top of inspiring me to want to be so much better at it.
Guys like Jake have been such a boost to my abilities as a fabricator and are probably why I am always willing to help out as much as I can. I just hope that the people that I have had the opportunity the help out appreciate the help as much as I did from Jake…
Until next time…