The rag joint doesn’t contain any actual rags; it is made from iron and rubber, sometimes reclaimed from old tires. The edges of the rubber over time show the frayed layering of the original tire, giving the joint a “ragged” appearance.
This Corrosion
…we opted for removing the rusted spots with a rotary cutting tool and putting in new sheet metal patches. The new metal is thicker than the old, and has the benefit of a rust-resistant paint coat that the original lacked…
Restore, Repair, Revive?
Vehicles are artifacts, and old cars and trucks in particular are woven through with stories. Many repairs–and particularly restorations and modifications–set out to erase those stories and replace them with new ones. For my purposes, I want to keep as many of those old stories as I can. I want this truck to be narratively “thick”–packed with as many chapters and verses as I can fit into a single automobile.
Stuff about stuff
The thing is, fixing an old truck can be anthropology, too.
Ford F-100, Prologue
My daughter is now 11. A few weeks ago, she was watching a show on TV and part of the plot hook was that it is OK for girls to like cars. So already, as that kind of social science geek, I’m thinking about gender stereotypes, media, and how stories are told, resisted, and so on. Then, she turns to me:
Her: “Dad, can we build a car?”