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Father , Son Projects Or Just Passing on Useful Life Skills


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Interesting day today. I figured I would show my boys how to change the oil and filter on the Pagero after all, chances are some day they will need to do similar on there own machines if not the farm machines. Should take about an hour and they will learn something my thought was.

 

Didn't quite turn out like I thought. Pagero uses a sump guard and one bolt holding it was stripped. OK, cool. They now learn how to remove a stripped bolt from a blind hole. Add 3/4 hour removing the stripped bolt and finding a replacement.

Sump guard removed. Undo the sump plug. Senior got that job, what can go wrong? It took about a liter for him to feel the oil touching his back before he realized he didn't have the old oil catcher under the stream of oil.

Sweet, we can clean that up. Add 1/2 hour.

 

Filter, there it is up in there. Ow dear, gee that reminds me of how the Chev filter was located, straight up under the motor surrounded by exhaust pipes etc. OK, you grab it and turn and don't be surprised if it tight.

Yes, it was tight and considering only your finger tips could wrap around it, needless to say it wasn't coming off by hand.

 

Ow shit. Down to SupaCheap to see if they have a suitable oil filter wrench. They don't. Hmm, OK, now I need a special tool or remove the exhaust. Special tool it is. OK, special tool involves making the special tool and that involves welding. Excellent, I can now throw in a welding lesson. Turns out both boys wanted a go and they welded one side on each.

 

Not pretty but it was there first attempt at welding...Here is the Mitsubishi/ Chev small / big block special tool or metal tube with two spikes welded to it....

 

slrRMFll.jpg

 

OK, now for the special instructions that enable you to use the special tool. " Put spikes in center of bottom of oil filter someone tightened the snot out of and smack with a hammer". "Once spikes are inside filter body, use special factory tool a47512 or a shifter and turn to undo".

 

Sweet, she come straight out...

 

RZSVr6Ql.jpg

 

Put the sump plug back in and refit the oil filter, funnel in oil filler and pour in oil. Check oil level being careful not to over fill. These were my instructions and gladly the boys either did it or watched the other. Job done.

 

Now the verdict.

Could I have done the same job much faster by myself. Yes, to right I could have.

 

Did the boys enjoy spending time working with Dad. Hell yes and Dad had a great time knowing knowledge was being shared.

 

Nothing really unusual for me to try to pass knowledge on to my boys but do you? It was only about 3 months ago my oldest son got his first flat tire in his car. He was so excited to say, yes I changed it. I remembered exactly how you showed me and I had it swapped over in under 1/2 hour. Big smile appeared on Dad's face that day.

 

Youngest son is about to do a school project. Wanting something useful he decided with my help we will build a quad trailer for the farm. His teacher was pretty cool about it and just wants pictures of him doing the metal work at home, cutting and welding the frame and he will add those marks to the woodwork side of the project he is doing at school.

 

So that is our next father/ son project. Do you have any father son projects coming up?

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yer to many useless kids these days.

Due to Lazy parents who dont bother teaching their kids how todo real world things.

So good on you mate. My daughter is only a baby, but Im really looking forward to the day I can teach her todo shit like that.

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Great story Steve and some good memories for both you and your kids.

 

I started my son off when he was about 5, I used to get him to strip the parts from the doors of my derby cars, it progressed from there with him taking screws out of everything he saw until he was about 7, we have done many cars over the years and he has learnt some good skills along the way.

 

Moving forward to his first car I scored him, a E36 BMW 316 coupe, unlicenced, within a few weeks he had it ready for licence with only a little help from me (only the licence part) he even sold it himself, then using the money to buy his first keeper car, a Nissan 180 SX, it was a banged up grey auto shitbox, now its a tidy white manual, with all the work done by himself using everything in my shed :(.

 

He is 21 now and has 3 cars, sometimes I wish I showed him how to collect stamps instead :D

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"Your kids are only young once, and time passes fast. Sometimes later in life you regret that you had missed the opportunity to share some knowledge or advise because your focus was on something else you felt was more important at the time."

Something like this was said to me 2 years ago by an elderly couple whom i was doing some work for. This totally changed the way i spend my time now.

I thought i was doing the right thing by working hard and long hours so my wife & kids would be financially secure as a priority. What i realized was i was slowing seeing less and less of them as they were growing up and gaining their own independence and interests.

 

I ended up hiring a secretary and another staff member to ease my work burden which i only saw as a cost to my business. But in actual fact i have gained so much more value in family life & at work.

 

I actively try to make alot more time to spend with my kids now even if its things like sitting, watching them play a video game for 20mins as they tell me all about it. You can hear their enthusiasm that you are there and interested. This interest has come back to me in spades with both my son & daughter asking to help when i am out doing things from cleaning the car to fixing arcade cabs. My son who is now 9 is a wizz on the impact driver just replaced all the broken screws in our front verandah that my wife has been nagging me about for months and did a great job.

 

In my life so far i have had countless times where i have solved problems or used skills taught to me by my father & grandpa. Also made many tasty meals and patched holes in my clothes thanks to my mum & grandma.

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  • 6 months later...

Another couple of father/ son projects. My son needed to do a school project for construction so we thought why not a purpose built quad trailer for the farm?. I got him to cut the steel and have a go at mig welding on the chassis. If he stuffed up I could tidy it up a bit. Turns out he welded pretty good for his first go.

YuGqE3El.jpg

 

I got him to measure all the wood out and cut to size.

2xqIXFjl.jpg

 

Added the steel framing to make it strong yet light weight.

xwKmDlol.jpg

 

Paint job, well it had to be camo. This is the first of the 3 colours going on to form an alpine camo.

fPRk3otl.jpg

 

Last picture I took when it only had one colour camo so far but gives you some idea what the trailer looks like before it went back to school to have the upper frame put in place and many other things like chainsaw holder, fuel can holder. lights etc.

SPTyVY0l.jpg

 

His quad was still in it's red standard colour and I have learnt paint the plastic so the UV in the sun doesn't turn the plastic set brittle. Something the sun does rather quick so a matching alpine camo job for it plus his quad needed to be Australianised as I call it. Basically beef up everything using stronger bolts where needed and change a few things like the limited steering stops removed so the thing can turn sharp, 3 point turn compared to a 20 point turn. This makes a massive difference and stops the need to lift the quad around when in tight spots.

Standard quad....

tEUt2JWl.jpg

 

And now still waiting on a good bright spot light for night riding but other than that, ready for a life on the farm like the trailer once the school is finished marking it...

vrB2J0zl.jpg

 

We will use the trailer for transporting slabs cut with the Alaskan mill, the weed wacker from hell, chainsaws, tools, generators, water drums etc. Can't have to many good trailers on the farm and best of all, got to spend some good time teaching some useful trades to my son and that time is priceless.

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