project ideas?

For money or for fun? To learn something or just to make?

My personal queue (which I'll die before I empty, I'm sure) includes building at least one model airplane engine (and flying it), and learning how to hammer weld well enough to replace the bottom 6" of my 1963 Suburban and/or make an all-steel Morgan Trike replica (well, a replica of a 2009 Morgan trike, which means I have to design it first :-) (and yes, fabricating sheet metal car parts needs more skills than just hammer welding, but you get the idea).

Build some street rods. Start with a 23 T-Bucket. Don't buy a frame, though, for crying out loud! That's got to be the easiest frame to build in the _world_, with model A frames being a close second -- all you need is the right sized stock, a flat floor a tape measure and the right attitude.

I don't know who you'd ask for plans to build a T bucket frame. The Wescott's Auto Restyling catalog has frame drawings for the stock frames for T's, A's, '32's, '33/34's and '40's, but a T bucket is a different animal. (On the other hand, you have a lot of latitude with a T bucket, too; as long as it goes down the road straight and looks good you can make just about any old frame).

...

This is the most useful home project I've built:

framework is 2" square tubing, attached to the tractor frame at the side rails and the (added) front bumper. The hydraulics are all salvaged; the cylinders were worn-out import Porta-Power clones. The bucket is 16 gauge stainless to resist road salt. I had to make an adjustable pressure regulator for the control valve to limit it to

1000 PSI, more will break things, starting with the front tires.

I originally designed it to lift 500 Lbs but 200 raised 4 feet puts it near the limit of stability. That's a Garden Tractor with a frame that's stronger than a Lawn or Yard tractor's.

Jim W