[David Jones]

I have 2 great boys.

Thomas, my oldest, graduated college a couple of years ago and now works as an engineer for a crane and automation company.

Daniel, the subject of this brag thread is a senior at college and is working a co-op in his field at the Honda plant in Lincoln Ala. He recently bought a used Civic cheap and of course it proved to need a head gasket. After a bit of research Daniel decided he was going to do it. $1000 was to much, considering the car. He seemed to know what was involved and Thursday night he drove it home from school. 90 miles. 90 degrees. It made it. Friday morning he started, last night about 8 he finished. He had the head trued Friday evening late. Approx 24 hours work. His prior experience was oil changes and tire rotations.
He drove it to his girl friends, wearing the clothes he worked on it in. Spent the night.
I helped him fix a couple of connectors that broke and retighten the crank shaft pulley but otherwise he did it all.

[njsteve]

Awesome! You should be proud (and so should he). Nice job raising both those boys.

[The Boss]

That first open heart surgery is always the biggest! Congratulations David!

[PeppergreenGTO]

Very cool David. I too have a son who graduated as an engineer and has a fantastic job now and is looking for,his first house. Then his first GTO.

[b-man]

Now there's a young man who can handle any kind of obstacle and will do fine on his own.

Good job rasing him David, he'll go far just like his older brother.

[hurryinhoosier62]

You should be proud of him. You've done a good job as a father.

[goatmanmitch]

That's great! My 15 year old has been helping me change the heads in my LeMans and pride swells with this sort of work.

Good job, Daniel!

[David Jones]

Thanks guys.

It was interesting to watch. He pulled the car into the basement Thursday night and left it where the GTO would normally be. Friday morning he woke at 6 and as I left for work at 6:30 he was beginning to put the car on jack stands. He said "it begins". I got back from the office about 4 and he had 4 of the head bolts out. Removed stuff was neatly arranged on the work bench and small loose items were in baggies labeled. He had a Civic repair manual (it came with the car....an omen?) and his laptop. He used the laptop for a thread on a Civic forum detailing a head gasket replacement and he looked at a couple of YouTube videos. He finished with the head bolts and borrowed my truck and drove over to Cylinder Head Services (about 4 miles, local guy owns it) to drop the head off. He walked in and a guy that he'd gone to high school with took care of him (dad owned the co). He checked it out and said it was warped. "have you got a few minutes?". They went out to the shop, the Darabaris kid did whatever you do to straighten one out and said "how you paying" Daniel said cash and $40 later he was headed back to the house, ready to put the engine back together. About this time the big brown truck dropped off the parts from Amazon. Daniel took a break, we ate a bit later and then he went back downstairs to look the parts over, clean the various surfaces, read over the put it back together info and tidy up a bit. Saturday morning I had a load of things to get done, so I headed out at 6:45 for breakfast and then to get a set of tires I'd bought off of Craigslist put on my wife's car. He was busy when I got back about 8:30. I continued my chores and as I was cutting the front yard he came out. He'd noticed a bare wire, that turned out to be the oil pressure sender wire. He'd pulled it out of the connector when either taking off or putting on the intake. We engineered around that and he went back to work. A bit later he was putting the timing belt cover pieces back on and all the 12 year old bolt holes broke out. A couple of pieces of strapping and a few washers and better than new. Lunch arrived about 1. We ate. He went back to work. I took a short nap. By 5:30, it was looking like a Honda engine again. About then I gathered up charcoal fire stuff and started a fire in the grill. That got his attention! We ate about 7 and he was pretty much at the fill the fluids back up, scratch your head a while pondering what you didn't do and lite it up stage. He flipped the key on for a few seconds then turned it to crank and in short order, it started and settled into an idle.
Where there was a really nervous kid just a few seconds before there was now a grinning fool.
15 minutes of a test drive and then a lite hand and arm washing to get a couple of layers of Civic off of him (otherwise wearing 2 day old work clothes and about 5 pounds of dirt/grease) and he was gone to Scotti's house with his overnight bag. He passed back through on Sunday and then drove the 90 miles back to school. I'm assuming he made it to work at Honda this morning at 6. That's a 45 minute drive from his house at school.
He took a personal day off at Honda on Friday. When he was setting that up with his boss, his boss asked what he had planned. Daniel explained. His boss asked if he could do that.
Daniel told him he'd let him know on Monday.

[The Boss]

That's a great story and so many points in there that bring back memories of our early days - especially the how you paying part!

No sit down over a beer to contemplate the world anywhere in there David?

[David Jones]

Originally Posted by The Boss

That's a great story and so many points in there that bring back memories of our early days - especially the how you paying part!

No sit down over a beer to contemplate the world anywhere in there David?

My Dad made this rocking chair about 30 years ago and it's spent a good number of years doing duty beside the workbench and in front of the GTO. It doesn't look like much but it's supremely comfortable and I treasure it. I did spend a while parked in it on and off as Daniel worked but I noticed his focus struggled and I hated to do that to him to much with so many hours facing him. Mostly he had the workbench tv on or the stereo rocking while he turned wrenches or sat in the rocker looking for some tidbit online.

I talked to Daniel after his shift today.....the car's doing great.

[Ben M.]

You're much more supportive than my dad was at that age ("no you can't do it, especially not here so don't ask and find a shop to do it\buy another car"). Glad it went well. Hopefully this gives him confidence to actually tackle big jobs like this in the future.

[66bonne]

Great sons, great father.

Jim

[David Jones]

Thank you Jim.
When they're little you wonder what they're going to be like when they grow up.
I'm liking what I'm seeing.

[Bob Rutledge]

Great job on the kids David. Now how about an update on the GTO. Suspense is killing me.

[David Jones]

I talked to him a few days ago. Last Monday afternoon. He'd actually called me the Friday before and left a call me back message and I missed it some how. He called after unsuccessfully trying to contact the adjuster for a couple of days. He had a couple of additions to the estimate to make and also had a couple of other little insurance questions that I was able to answer. How long before it's done? Dunno. They're fitting the inner fender and I'm sure that's getting done as it fits in with his bread and butter work. I believe the rest of the car is basically ready for paint. I'm not sure how the new roof gets done. Tommy's talked to somebody but I'm not sure how that's going to work.

[vidguy]

Very nice feeling for you Dad.

[Squidward]

Great moment for sure. I will bet you are on track for many other proud moments.

[sdbob]

You taught him,both sons,well. Work for what you want.

[Firedup6975]

Way to go Davey.