We removed the transmission tonight!

What a lot of work! Over 16 hours have been spent tearing the car apart to get it to a point where the transmission could be removed (shown above). Faced with three options; lifting the entire body, pulling the engine & front clip - not sure we could lift it high enough to clear the motor mounts without hitting the firewall, or removing the interior and trans tunnel. I decided that the later sounded like the best although every one of them would suck.

Sixteen hours doesn't sound like much and like every one of my friends, you're probably wondering why it's not finished already and on the road, so let me tell you... First off, it wasn't a bit enjoyable so I'd work until I was totally sick of it and quit. Ripping apart what I'd spent months putting together would get to me after an hour or two, so I only messed with it a few hours a week. This hobby (like any hobby) is SUPPOSE to be fun! so I'm attempting to keep it that way by not getting stressed or setting any more deadlines.

Here's an animated example of how we dropped the transmission without notching the frame or modifying anything on the car. The purple area represents the frame and the lighter area of the frame at the end of the transmission represents the hole in the center of the frame where the X-members meet.

My brother Reade and Jerry Justice (Project33's fire extinguisher Sponsor) came over to help and everything went smoothly. We pulled it out in less than an hour without scratching anything and that even included a short break to sip a cold one and discuss our plan of attack before the final drop.

The transmission is now in the back of the Durango, ready to go to the transmission shop in the morning. I'll post photos soon in the construction/destruction Articles covering it. Now I'm left with a big hole in the floor of the car that I can sit upright in so there'll never be a better time to install that new master cylinder. Now THAT's something I'm excited about!

It was a busy month at work. I don't talk much about what I do for a living but this time it involves street rods. As most of you know by now, I don't just build stuff as a hobby - I also build websites for a living. Building is my life! :)

We launched new websites for Dakota Digital and Flaming River (as well as a couple others) this month and I'm really excited. You can click on the images above to visit their new sites (and ours). They're both eTechGlobal sites. eTechGlobal is a company that was started back in 2002 with a good friend of mine in Denver, to compliment Scooter Designs, a web development and consulting firm that I established back in 1994.

The idea for the new business venture happened when I saw a job opening for a full-time web developer at Gateway Computers. It made me fantasize about how much easier my job would be if I only had one set of code to enhance and perfect. Then I thought, what if we developed a site with infinite features that could be turned on or off, depending on the client's needs? From this idea, eTechGlobal was born. My business partner Don, is a world-class programmer and D.B.A. with Midwestern work ethics, so we make a great team.

The beauty of the eTechGlobal system is that it uses a shared code base for every site however each website resides at a unique domain and has it's own custom look, images and data. This means that if client "A" requests a new feature, it will be available to client "B" after it's been added and vice-versa. The application keeps getting bigger and better with each new feature and update so every client benefits in the process. Best of all (as far as I'm concerned) we have one set of code to build on and perfect - and our clients always have the latest version.

Right now we're working on a new site for our business but like the story of the shoemaker's children who have no shoes, we're having trouble finding the time to work on our own stuff. Anyway, I apologize for going on about my business, but if I can't "toot my own horn" on this website - where can I? ;)

Scooter

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