SWMBO had a '14 Mustang which was a nice car, which she traded in a '19 (I told her "now or never"). That's a nice car. She looked at the electric mustang and laughed. "That's not a Mustang!" I's bug ugly, for one.
The mustang started as a really nice car, which grew into a monster, into a sissy, then dead. They did a really good job of bring back the retro-Mustang and improved it a lot over the decade or so. Then...
OTOH, the Thunderbird was a HOT car, which grew into a monster, then poof. The retro version skipped the retro phase and went straight to bug ugly. They just can't leave well enough alone.
Well, Ford still has the F150 (I wonder where the F100 went?).
snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2021 13:13:43 -0400 typed in rec.woodworking the following:
After the success of the "Prowler" I repeated: Ford should bring back the "sheet metal" for the 66-68 Mustang, and put 40 (fifty) years of actual technology and material improvement underneath.
Me too. I also wonder about getting a Truck, Pickup, One Each" which does not have all the bells, whistles, doodads, dual overhead windshield wipers knobs, chromed twin muffler bearings, in cab movie theatre, and a turntable for the stereo.
J. Clarke snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2021 06:05:17
-0400 typed in rec.woodworking the following:
Operative term "flashy thing". Everybody is looking for the magic pill which will solve the problem if not in this quarter, then by the time for the annual report.
When I ran into the terms "lean manufacturing" I was retraining in tech school I kept thinking "I've heard this before, but where?" It quickly came to me, "Ach Ja! 'Onkel Jan's Werkstat!' and all those bossisms": if you haven't got time to do it right, when will you have time to fix it? if you haven't got time to put it away, what makes you feel you'll have time to look for it? Every place with it's thing, every thing with it's place. Well begun is half done. Etc.
Others: "Only Customers pay wages. The Company is here to collect my wages from the customer. But paychecks can't come in until good product ship." "You can't make scrap fast enough to show a profit."
"Lean" like 5S, like just about everything, is a "process". not a quick fix, but a means to an end. A series of little things which can make production "easier". As I said of a new layout "every step I take away from the machine (to get the parts to load into the machine) is another step closer to the coffeepot." It boils down to "work smart, not hard." But what is "smart"? Depends on the situation.
Again,we're back to "how much planning is enough?" The proverb is old, "Well begun is half done". Carlin got a certain amount of static for his meticulous arraying of the parts to be worked on before he started. Until it was noticed that his over all run times were well within 'spec'. And that he had the eerie ability to when all were laid out, to spot the out of tolerance part before he started. I figured out that if I lined up the "in" parts and the out parts, I could "see" how many to go, how many done, and have a ready answer to "How much longer?" when the foreman asked. (My record is when I got things set up "just so" and was able to get two work orders done in 6 hours, when the schedule called for 12. Yeah me.)
snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2021 13:13:43 -0400 typed in rec.woodworking the following:
I got an assignment as The Stocker. I was to go round the floor, pick up the empty parts bins, refill them and take them back. The idea being that the guys on the floor would not have to go looking for parts {nuts, bolts, flanges, decals, etc}. "Lean Manufacturing / Five5. But I got let go after two days [remember, temp agency], then called back, and even offered to let me come in an hour later. First time I ever got "recruited". Seems there had been a great deal of outrage on the floor "we finally get someone who 'gets it' and you got ride of him!" Yeah me. Then someone in manglement got the Brilliant Idea to have the suppliers stock their part of the supply room. Fair enough. But then came the idea that those bins needed to be consolidated elsewhere to make restocking easier. Excellent idea! Lets have me check _three_ places for parts! "And then they came up short in the orders, either bad scheduling or lack of sale, what ever." and that was the end of that assignment.
snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com on Tue, 27 Apr 2021 20:59:45 -0400 typed in rec.woodworking the following:
Had a friend who had at one time a 1946 Travelal. With the vacuum wipers. Fortunately, they also had the lever inside to operate the wipers when there wasn't enough vacuum, which was often. It was painted battleship / primer grey, and someone as a lark had hung some go cart tires on the sides as "fenders' (like the sort you see on the side of ships tying up at a wharf). "Funny, no matter how backed up traffic might be, there always seemed to be room for her to merge..."
[snip]
Try push starting a diesel bus. The one time it was Mark and me ... fortunately, we were parked on a slope. {starter failed, we were long way from home. "It seemed normal" to us.}
[chop]
"Negatyory on the cost of this mo-cheen. Might say I picked it up at the factory.."
Believe that the F100 became the Ranger, which brings me to my former
2019 Ranger. It got totaled, was behind a septic pumper truck, at a stop sign on a down hill approach. the truck back into me sitting still.
When the intial repair estimate was $29,500 (Blue truck value $32k) I said total it. So after trying to get a new Ranger through the dealer, via trades from other dealers bought a F150.
They kind of did that. They can't make it look identical because they have a bunch of new regulations they have to comply with, and some of those affect exterior appearance.
I'm toying with the idea of getting a Honda Acty. Google it. It's cute as hell, tiny, and has a bed bigger than a short-bed F-150 (and the bed converts into a flatbed).
Saw one on the street the other day and said "WTF is _that_" so I looked it up. Japan-only, can import to the US after 25 years.
Not a lot of load but I don't really need a lot of load.
After the Rustang II, we had a '78 Granada. It was probably the best car we had until at least 2000. No issues, other than rust. V-6,
4-door and stick transmission (three on the tree). Nothing to go wrong, except the $@## 1 bbl Carter carb. The thing would die at least once a year and it would take at least two to find one that worked. When it failed the screwedriver in the choke trick ended up pumping a stream of gas on the windshield. "I don't think this is supposed to happen, says I". Of course, the air cleaner was soaked with gas. Anyway, back to the story... There was a hole in the door that the water caused a rust stain down the side of the door. Friends called it my "Liberian Tanker". (OK, the carb was a better story.)
J. Clarke snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com on Thu, 29 Apr 2021 12:02:35
-0400 typed in rec.woodworking the following:
Hmmm, will look it up.
What I want is a "beater" - something I can haul stuff home from the store, the side of the road or to the dump, the second hand store, or the recycle.
It's certainly not a beater but that's why I have an F150. I certainly don't want to pay to register, insure, and house another vehicle, just to go to the BORG.
Some guys can turn ANYTHING into a "beater" in short order. I do all of the above with my 25 year old truck but try REALLY HARD not to make a "beater" out of it!!
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