Father's Day

It's that time of the year when on one day, the third Sunday in June that we are supposed to pay homage to our fathers. On this day, I want to honor fathers in a different way. Instead of just paying homage to just my biological father, I'd like to also give thanks to those men who inspired me to wrench and be a gear head.

From an early age, I've always had a fascination with cars and mechanical things in general. I am a tactile learner, so may be that has something to do with it. Even at the age of four or five, I could tell my dad the make, model and year of any given car. I knew the minutia of the design differences and used them to differentiate the different models and years. At an early age, I had two influences, my Uncle Carmine AKA Uncle Cam, and his son Robert AKA Bobby. Uncle Cam was a class A or master auto mechanic for Mack Markowitz Olds in Hempstead NY. He did it for 38 years and was a treasure trove of knowledge. His son Bobby became the chairman of the Automotive Technologies department at SUNY Farmingdale. Bobby could not only tell you what the right thing was, but also why, from an engineering point of view.

A remember a couple instances where they came to the rescue. I was doing a upper end job on the 400 CI small block in my 1983 Camaro. The threads in the bolt holes of the block were rusty, so I thought I would chase them with a tap, using WD-40 as a lubricant, backing out every couple turns to clear the rust and grime. Well, as luck would have it I used a little too much force and aggressiveness in turning the tap in that it snapped. I will in defense say that I am big guy and sometimes don't know my own strength, which used to bite me in the ass at times, from which I've learned to take a more gentle approach. Still, I was befuddled on how to get the tap out. Taps are made of tool steel and it isn't something you can drill out. I called Uncle Cam, who told me, oh, just buy a tap extractor and you should he able to get it out. A tap extractor? What's that? A tap extractor has fingers that go into the flutes on a tap and it has a ring that slides down to secure the fingers in the flutes. All I can say is that it worked.

Another time, I was helping a friend work in his 1980 GMC Jimmy, which is the same as a K-5 Blazer. Chris Cerlenko bought the Jimmy with the infamous 5.7L diesel. In the process of changing the fuel filter, he disconnected the fuel lines and reconnected them. Anyway, the engine wouldn't start. The 5.7 diesel is a creation of Oldsmobile. I placed a call to Uncle Cam and found out that there was probably air in the fuel lines. He told us how to bleed them and voilá, then engine started. These are just two example of the fatherly help I and others received from Uncle Cam, there are many others.

There are others I'd like to thank too. Thanks to cousins Don Seals and Don Ness (East Coast Restoration), Freddy Schenck who introduced me to Volkswagen, and a couple friends, Phil Saccio and Chris Modugno, all of whom taught me more than they ever realized. Happy Father's day to all of you and thank you for being there when I needed you. I'd also like to thank my real dad, who taught me the best skill of all: Patience.

Thank you for reading this blog.