I got a soft spot for ’38 Fords. Always have… And I’m in love with Chris’ new aquisition.

Check it out here.

Well, as of today I’m the official owner of Ford Barn. It took me exactly a year to pay off Shelly with crisp green backs, but here I am… Owner. Editor. Moderator. Target of jokes. And it has been a great year. We’ve done a complete redesign. We’ve completely changed the site’s software. We’ve protected the past. We’ve protected the future.

In any case, I thought it would be interesting on this special day to go back and look at the stats of the site to see how we’ve done numerically. All of the changes we’ve done over the past year were actually quite risky. It’s amazingly easy to drive folks off with change and we did a whole lot of it… And you know what, I think we did a smash up job. These numbers prove it:

Pageview growth in the past 365 days: 72.34%
Unique visitor growth in the past 365 days: 49.5%
Average time spent on site growth in the past 365 days: 86.51%
Average number of posts per day growth in the past 365 days: 64%

Not too bad, huh?

Anyway, a special thanks to all of you fellas that have been so patient with me over the past year. This was a big hurdle to jump and we couldn’t have done it without all of you guys being understanding, willing to learn, and willing to give me a shot. I owe ya all…

In September of 1931, the New York Times asked Henry Ford what he thought life would be like in 2011. His answer was forgotten and mostly lost until recently when a South Carolina Law Firm stumbled upon the script. Henry’s answer was not specific so much as it was emotional and I thought you guys might get a kick out of it.

I love before and after shots… They are tangible evidence of dedication, hard work, passion, and everything else it takes to restore an old Ford. If a single picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is two worth?

Check out this great thread.

Have a pesky head on your banger that refuses to budge? No sweat… ElRod has the answer.

Check it out.