The two main things I was anxious to get to working on were finishing up some Ebay projects, and processing the parts that I got with "Johnny". The Ebay projects were a pair of Smokey and the Bandit semis. Since the custom monster truck gravy train had come to an end, I thought I would go back to an old stand-by. I did my first replica of the Smokey and the Bandit almost 10 years ago now, and there has still yet to be a mass-produced version, despite about a half-dozen versions of the Trans-Am in that same time span. From time to time, I've made copies of the trucks I have in my collection and sold them on Ebay. I think the last ones I sold were in 2006, and even though I had unfinished stock, I never got around to doing any more. When Farm and Fleet Toy Land opened, I found a couple black Kenworth Semis that were just begging for some gold stripes and a stage coach hold-up mural. I sold the pair right before Christmas, or so I thought. Unfortunately, the buyer of the second truck never paid, and I quickly found out there was absolutely nothing I could do about it except wait. As I waited, two other people jumped in doing the same thing I was. Prices now are about half what they were before Christmas, which still makes them worth doing, but not as lucrative as they were. While I was working on the Farm and Fleet trucks, I also found the motivation to finish the two other trucks I bought 5 years ago to turn into Bandit Semis. They are higher quality truck models than the Farm and Fleet trucks, so I hope they will stand out from the other ones out there. At this point, I might even wait until next Christmas to put them up for sale, but it is nice to have them done.
The other project this weekend was getting the John Deere parts sorted and figuring out what to do with them. This required stripping anything valuable off of the parts tractor that I got with my 110. Taking it apart wasn't too bad, and in doing so I was able to get it down to a weight I could load into my truck by myself to take to the scrap yard. I ended up with a spare transaxle and set of wheels that I will keep. Of the remaining stuff, the parts that are easy to ship I put up on Ebay. Some of the other bulky stuff I sold to a guy at work. The 140lbs of frame and other misc parts I took to the scrap yard netted me a whopping $4.20. I sure thought scrap prices were higher than that. My hope for all the surplus parts was to recoup enough to cover the cost of some new tires for my tractor. Although I think I did pretty well on the parts I've sold, I've learned the small size of garden tractor tires does not mean they are necessarily cheap. Of course I couldn't settle for just any tires either, and while I've got the rims off I'm having them sand blasted and painted. It's a good thing I've got those Bandit semis to add to the tire fund.
I'm looking forward to seeing the tractor all finished. In the meantime, the boys are just having fun going out in the garage and sitting on it every night. L has added "outside" to his vocabulary, meaning he wants to go out to the garage, and although it sounds alot like his word for "cracker", he is starting to point and say "tractor". Johnny has turned out to be a fun addition for all the boys.
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