Hello from Steve in Minneapolis

[skadisak]

Hello all,

I'm posting a long overdue intro. Read at your own risk as it's a long and boring one! I've had an interest in metalshaping since childhood though I didn't identify it as such back then. Worked on fixing up junk cars from about the age of 14. I worked through college doing auto body which included forming a good number of crude patch panels for rusty cars and trucks with only hammer and dolly. Didn't really understand shrinking and stretching, but made things fit good enough to pop rivet/weld and cover with bondo to hide the work.

Later on I attended a vintage racing event and talked with one of the crew member who was responsible for maintaining an aluminum bodied Jaguar D type that was unpainted to show off the metal work. The guy told me the body was built only a couple of years prior to the racing event over a wooden buck with hand tools - I fell in love with the concept.

After Terry Cowan and Wray Schelin established the first Yahoo group I joined up and started building a tool collection.

I attended a Metalmeet at Randy Ferguson's place in Illinios, made it to a gathering at Richard Kleinshmidt's and visited Dan Pate's a couple of years ago. Though my interest level has remained high, I've lacked shop space and time to really set up and tackle a project.

In 2005 I put up the shell of a 32x42 shop that completely unfinished and is still crammed full of tools and construction supplies related to an ongoing house remodel project that I also started in 2005.

Since 2005 we've added a 14'x32' addition onto the front of the house, added a foot onto the cieling height of the second story and put a new truss roof over the house, dug a basement under the existing structure, added a sunroom, etc., etc. This is still a work in progress and takes all my spare time and probably will some time into the future. I'm cash poor and doing most of the work myself.

Over the years I've met some great people including Kerry P., Richard K., Dan Pate, Terry Stolarski, John Forney, Wray Shelin, Gene Olson, Steve Hamilton and corresponded with others including Terry Cowan, John Buchtenkirch and Fay Butler. They may not remember me, but they made a huge impression on me. Without exception I would say these are quality people and I have deep respect for them all. I hope to get to know a whole lot more metal shapers and develop a little more depth to the relationships in the future.

I've studied most of the available video content from people like Kent White, Fay Butler, John Glover, Ron Covell and Ron Fornier. I sincerely want to start my projects (full frame up restorations for my '69 charger and '70 cuda owned and stored since '82 and '79, and a scratch build of a '64 ferrari 250LM) in the next few years. I'm pretty well tooled up now, but my tools need rebuilding and I haven't been able to get over the time/money crunch related to the house.

I've learned a ton lurking on this site and MM and metalshapers. My current knowledge level is light years ahead of my skill level and still growing.

So I hope that the moderators will continue to allow me to "lurk" and learn with full access to the site despite not having any shaping work to show the group for the time being. If not, I guess that's okay too. At some point I will become a more active member.

In closing, I want to say again how much I appreciate the great info that is freely shared on this site and at some point hope to give back to the group in a significant way.

Thanks!

Steve Kadisak