OK, how old is everyone and what do you do for a living??

[HatchbackChevelle]

OK, So I borrower (stole) this idea from another site. No harm, No foul, but, I thought it a great idea. An idea to see our commonalities, our passion for the automobile and what we can bring to the table for this forum.

So without further ado I’ll start. I’m 55, wife, 1 daughter and a dog. I have 5 cars worth of garage and cars to fill them. No current projects. Have owned an operated an Auto Appraisal Business, was President of a local Chevy club (55-72) for 20 years. Organized a charitable car show for Make-A-Wish that ran for 18 years and have been around various versions of the hobby my whole life. I’m Medically retired and have way too much time on my hands, as you can tell.

Let’s hear from all of you.

[HatchbackChevelle]

So, I guess; no body wants to talk about this. (several have looked) I tried. Was just looking for a little dialog.

[Gary Tayman]

Well, seeing as my birthday is tomorrow the 11th, I'll be 54.

I used to be a Product Specialist for Canon Color Laser copiers. I actually worked for Xerox for 9 years in DC, then moved to Sarasota and worked for Ikon and later Danka.

I enjoyed the work; I liked the freedom of working in the field, but it seemed I was constantly at odds with managers; it seems my philosophy of doing business with customers differed from theirs. Although I had a great relationship with customers and consistently won awards for performance, when review time came around it was a different story. Uh-huh. I got quite sick of my livelihood being dependent on others who could care less about it.

About 12 years ago I bought a project 64 Thunderbird to fix up. One of the first things I did was pull the radio out and fix it -- and the thought came to me, why not offer this service to others? It would give me a little money for T-Bird parts. I indeed began offering this, and holy crap -- in almost no time I was inundated with radios from all over the country! At one point I counted 50 radios, in cabinets, on the floor, in the trunk of the car. Wow!

Visiting a major car show I met Dan Schulz of Antique Automobile Radio, Inc. He had just designed a circuit board that would allow an original radio to be converted to AM/FM stereo. In almost no time I became a dealer, and started offering these along with repair services.

Business has been good from the start. As for those copier dealers, I was fired from one and laid off from the other. With the layoff, three years ago, I decided it was time to quit trying to "get a job" and turn the radio business into a livelihood. Today I still work from home and have become one of the largest dealers for radio conversions. By the way, both of those copier outfits are now bankrupt. Nyah nyah, phhhhtt!

The unfortunate part of all this is the T-bird itself. Originally I did all the work and it has come a LONG way; eventually the day came when I bought a new motor and it was a disaster. So was much of the later work done on the car -- a very expensive disaster to be sure. What would have become an experimental car for testing speakers/ stereos/accessories, as well as a demo, has become a major thorn in my side. I wish I could sell it to pay the service bills, but it's now worthless. Every car cruise, people ask about the mess; I tell them it's still a mess and may never get fixed. I've opted to drop the project indefinitely -- just drive the car minimally and throw all of my efforts into the radio business.

So it seems most of what I earn from this is going to pay for ruining the car. However, I'm very thankful that the business is indeed strong, as others are not so fortunate. I'm also glad that, through sponsoring, I've been able to support the area shows which raise charity money for the community. So the car remains a piece of crap, but the community benefits. So be it; I can stand tall.

[HatchbackChevelle]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Gary.

[FW1]

43 yrs old........1st was a mechanic at Firestone for 11 yrs, 2nd a mechanic at Conley Buick for 9 yrs, Presently and for past 2 yrs working for the Dept Of Defense on prototype weapons ! Not a glamourous job but someone has to build these things for 'Our' Military !

Daddy of four ( 3 girls and a son ) and a new granddaddy !

One of my daughters is an MP in the U.S. Army at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo ( Alpha Co / 795th Battallion - Night Stalkers ) She'll be leaving for Iraq in a few months.

[HatchbackChevelle]

Your sig looks very much like the under hood of my 04 GTO.