The Ford Barn - View Single Post

Flathead Fever · 05-02-2023, 01:02 PM

Hey Pete, I wish I had your god like powers to enlarge photos. That garage was built in 1950, in San Bernardino, CA. There were still few flathead tools there when I arrived fresh out of high school in 1980. It started off as Cal Water and Telephone with green trucks, Then General telephone (GTE) with mustard and white painted trucks, then silver trucks ,then all white trucks, then it switched to Verizon and now its Frontier. I will never be able to buy a silver or white vehicle again it would cause PTSD. That Weaver twin post hoist would lift 36,000 lbs. The trucks would sway back and forth when they reach the top. You sign a document every year, drop a truck lose your job. The San Andreas earthquake fault is right there. We used to joke about should we runout of that old brick building or grab the hoist cylinder. The trucks can't fall straight down. You had to have a smog license because we did the state inspections in-house. Another document you signed, let your smog license expire and lose your job in 60-days. I had 17 ASE licenses, Smog License, Class A truck license with a hazmat endorsement. all of that for the whopping sum of $32.00 an hour by the time I retired. That shop had six bays with five hoists. When I arrived, it had around 400 vehicles, a supervisor, five mechanics and four helpers. They kept downsizing until each supervisor had ten garages, the helpers were all let go. My last two years' I ended up in a three-bay garage in Hemet, CA with 157 vehicles working by myself at night. No time to goof off like in the early years. Nobody to prank at night. We had a lot of fun in the early years. Most of us ended up with blown-out shoulders from working overhead so much. I've had three shoulder surgeries and now I get lidocaine injections in the left one every few months. Two back surgeries, they fused my lower vertebrates, the discs were gone, and it was bone on bone. The only thing I will bend over for is if I drop my daily hydrocodone. My fingers are starting to curve like a roller coaster at Six Flags. Working on all that stuff beat the crap out of me. We used to jump off the sides of those bins on those boom trucks rather than walk to the back. Lift that entire booms off with forklifts to replace rotation bearings. It takes everything you have to stand one of those wheels and tires up. My toes are mangled from steel toe boots for 30-years. France just raised the retirement age to 70 and I was thinking, not all jobs are created equal, I was worn-out at 50.

05-02-2023, 01:02 PM	#19
Flathead Fever Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Yucaipa, CA Posts: 1,101	Re: 1936 Ford Telephone Truck Hey Pete, I wish I had your god like powers to enlarge photos. That garage was built in 1950, in San Bernardino, CA. There were still few flathead tools there when I arrived fresh out of high school in 1980. It started off as Cal Water and Telephone with green trucks, Then General telephone (GTE) with mustard and white painted trucks, then silver trucks ,then all white trucks, then it switched to Verizon and now its Frontier. I will never be able to buy a silver or white vehicle again it would cause PTSD. That Weaver twin post hoist would lift 36,000 lbs. The trucks would sway back and forth when they reach the top. You sign a document every year, drop a truck lose your job. The San Andreas earthquake fault is right there. We used to joke about should we runout of that old brick building or grab the hoist cylinder. The trucks can't fall straight down. You had to have a smog license because we did the state inspections in-house. Another document you signed, let your smog license expire and lose your job in 60-days. I had 17 ASE licenses, Smog License, Class A truck license with a hazmat endorsement. all of that for the whopping sum of $32.00 an hour by the time I retired. That shop had six bays with five hoists. When I arrived, it had around 400 vehicles, a supervisor, five mechanics and four helpers. They kept downsizing until each supervisor had ten garages, the helpers were all let go. My last two years' I ended up in a three-bay garage in Hemet, CA with 157 vehicles working by myself at night. No time to goof off like in the early years. Nobody to prank at night. We had a lot of fun in the early years. Most of us ended up with blown-out shoulders from working overhead so much. I've had three shoulder surgeries and now I get lidocaine injections in the left one every few months. Two back surgeries, they fused my lower vertebrates, the discs were gone, and it was bone on bone. The only thing I will bend over for is if I drop my daily hydrocodone. My fingers are starting to curve like a roller coaster at Six Flags. Working on all that stuff beat the crap out of me. We used to jump off the sides of those bins on those boom trucks rather than walk to the back. Lift that entire booms off with forklifts to replace rotation bearings. It takes everything you have to stand one of those wheels and tires up. My toes are mangled from steel toe boots for 30-years. France just raised the retirement age to 70 and I was thinking, not all jobs are created equal, I was worn-out at 50.