Walks of life
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hackin'n'bashin

Original Poster:

45 posts

213 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
Just a thought of mine, I have them from time to time, usually leads to disaster or humiliation, or both.

What sort of background to people who've built an Ultima come from?

Wondered what kind of club I'm joining!!

Personally I'm an engineer, not one of those educated ones, I know that 'cos I'm currently sat in a field in Northumberland freezing trying to read drawings and erect steel.

H'n'S

Adam

Gulf -LS7

1,922 posts

233 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
hackin'n'bashin said:
Just a thought of mine, I have them from time to time, usually leads to disaster or humiliation, or both.

What sort of background to people who've built an Ultima come from?

Wondered what kind of club I'm joining!!

Personally I'm an engineer, not one of those educated ones, I know that 'cos I'm currently sat in a field in Northumberland freezing trying to read drawings and erect steel.

H'n'S

Adam
every background i think....

i have been a Golf Pro for 15 years but im currently looking at pastures new, yep i know great time to change professions!!!!

i also had a garage for 3 years but it was too cold in the winter and didn't mix well with the other job in the Summer

ps anyone got a job???

V8 Vum

3,206 posts

250 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
'Every job' just about fits me also! Heres the list:

Milk-man
Lab Technician
Buyer
New Car Salesman (Ford)
JCB Driver
Builder
Renault Mechanic (if there is such a thing!)
Renault Formula Technician - Worked on the very first F1 car RS01 (Fuel Injection)
Youth Councelor
Probation Officer
Life Insurance Salesman (Heh! now known more respectably as Financial Consultant.... Don't believe it! Still a Salesman!)
IT Software Developer
IT Manager
IT Director
Multiple small business owner/director (25 years)
Founding member of the 'Very Old' Club
PHEW! - All very true!

Do you get the impression I did not know what to do in life? YUP!
Did I mind chopping around? _ Nope, best thing I ever did! You learn a lot about the world, business and life that way!

Am I settled now? ....wel that would be telling!
...Now...what can I do next?


Keith


Edited by V8 Vum on Wednesday 7th January 14:57

Steve_D

13,802 posts

287 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
7 days into retirement.
Engineer before that.

Steve

Stig

11,823 posts

313 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
Steve_D said:
7 days into retirement.
Engineer before that.

Steve
Should we have a whip round for a clock for you Steve?

Smiths/Stack or VDO rather than carriage of course wink

738 driver

1,202 posts

222 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
Hackin, its another one of the great things about the forum/group... a real wide variety of backgrounds and experience......loads of academic and life qualifications on here! Bit like the old ships where they would have at least one of every tradesman within the crew.

Unfortunately, not quite as well-rounded as Keith or hi-profile as Kyle, I left a real good school with very little....to be honest more boredom than lack of basic ability. Went to Ford in the days of Mrs Thatcher, got a good education on their technical training programme and after being initailly promised a position in tech R+D was offered a Euro tech sales post. Didn't want to be a salesman ... wanted to build, modify and test stuff.....to destruction if possible. So left Ford...Went to a local tuning shop with machines, rolling road etc, learned machining and did quite a lot of personal performance testing during the recon/rebuild of a local fleet of ford vans. (Some of the drivers were well chuffed when they got their vans back after a recon motor was fitted!) TE-HE. Loved that job!
Then took a position with a largish company who had many irons in the motor trade fire.... worked my way up over 14 years to Ops Director looking after a group of repairers,sales, hire co's ,claims management and for the last 3 years residential/commecial property developers too. However, non of it had ever been what I really wanted to do (well maybe my own performance engine shop could have been good)! So 10 years ago started to self study (still whilst working) towards getting my flying licences. Was tough and quite slow as I always put it last in order of personal priorities (study midnight till 2 am up at 6.45 for work). When I got all the tickets and decided to start looking for a flying job the ex announced she did not want to be married to a pilot in any capacity and considered 400 hours of study, 15 exams and 40k worth of flying were just 'another phase in your life'.... Crazy woman never listened too well, how wrong she was!
Worked for a lo-cost operator now for the last couple of years.. did 6 years PPL instruction part time too... the jobs is great and very busy when at work but working 5 on 4 off is starting to steer me toward a part-time occupation too... doesn't seem like a full-time job when you have worked 6-7 days a week for many years.
Have always messed with performance engines from being 13, so was popular with the local ford escort/capri + mini gangs of the early-mid 80's, enjoyed every minute and always like to learn/ try something new... Engines being my weakness (or strength) is one of the main attractions of the Ultima for me... it makes a great test machine and looks stunning too! (had to give up the Blackbird though)
Enjoy the club......everyone seems to!

V8 Vum

3,206 posts

250 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
738 driver said:
Unfortunately, not quite as well-rounded as Keith...
S'cuse me Dave!redcard

...err! What are you trying to say?

Yes...I am officially OLD now, so metabolism is snail-pace! ...and errummmm..maybe a tad padded compared to what I used to be, but....

...you'll get there some day!


tongue out....getmecoat

keith


738 driver

1,202 posts

222 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
hehe
Sorry Keith,, no pop intended...tact was never a strong point...sales career would have been rubbish for me!
One of the girls (aged 62!!) I used to work with came out with a gem one day, she asked if I took sugar in mi tea, "two please" I replied, as she turned and left the room she muttured, "huh, two sugars! what a lost cause"

suntiger1965

3,547 posts

231 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
well i left public school after my parents re-morgaged the house to pay for my education with 2 failed A levels....whoops. i was supposed to go to Hatfield poly to study aeronaugtical engineering as i had Lotus interested after i had sent them some F1 designs....Double whoops....

Went away for a couple of years and studied m/c engineering and came away with a Btec, Hnd and city and guilds....WOW and a job at Suzuki HQ preping and testing m/c,atvs and powerboats.... yippee(Best 5 years ever(and Lucky P works with my old boss)!!). A quick interview on network 7 tv and a managering director woken up at 6am to see Dom on the TV explaining how to do burnouts and wheelies made my career hard after that(especially when they called it ''Death on the M4'' and had loads of footage of me playing silly buggers!!) so i left for the same job at Kawasaki... It went all down hill after that with a City Link managers job and courier company managers job in Sussex before relocating in Wales for the tranquil life restoring an old cottage and a mechanics job and w/shop controllers job in a Peugeot Dealer(hence no money and no pressure).

Luckily i am in the middle of a divorce and had the house on the market when i then got the double wammy and was made redundant along with the rest of the dealership.... So 1 unemployed/getting divorced/selling dream cottage with massive purpose built workshop guy looking to relocate and find a job....

However in all that i raced drag bikes for 5 years, won 3 british championships and have had so many petrol head thrills i could be here all day.Im a V8 nut through and through and after 2 V8 hotrods(one used to lift a front wheel off the ground under acceleration) and 1 classic car that really should never have gone so fast im still looking for an Ultima and still love anything mechanical and that can be made to go faster.

So another one looking for a job. Be nice if i found someone very rich, with a collection of cars including an Ultima who needed someone to maintain them and tune and test them...or even someone who wanted me to build them one.......Otherwise im looking for a change in career at really the wrong time... Id love an idea what to do. I love computers and would love to get involved but along with electricians and plummers ive been told too many people already training?????? So any ideas be much appreciated..

Either way what ever happens im getting an Ultima next and proud to be part of the best car club in the world.

Dom

hackin'n'bashin

Original Poster:

45 posts

213 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
wow, i was only expecting a couple of people to put random jobs up, then a post telling me politely to go away and stop being nosey, thanks fellas!!

I'll stick a bit more down now I've seen you are actually a friendly bunch!!

Left school at 16, no Q's either, it was either a job in a back street garage or the RAF, so off to the mob I went.

Stayed there for 7 years, having found that I had an aptitude for rebuilding planes after they'd found that there are things that are tougher than them (flocks of birds, bullets and a little thing called ground).
Unfortunately this meant a lot of time in warm places.

So took myself job hunting, and have designed MEWP and fitted them to all sorts of vehicles, been a train driver, managed a bakery and now building recycling centres around the U.K.

Not bad for the last 4 years!!

Don't know why I've decided to start building this thing while the country is getting itself in deep doo-doo, but IMHO it's better than savings and property (and a lot more fun)

Never been a V8 fan. Closest mate in the RAF used to import specialised Jap cars, so was "hooning" (I believe the PH phrase is) these around airfield perimeter tracks and runways since i joined.

But having seen one of these round Bruntingthorpe a few years ago (3-4, memory is terrible already, then learning a lot more about them, just had to build (not buy) one!!

H'n'S

Adam

V8 Vum

3,206 posts

250 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
Dom,

Suggest you contact Crafty!

A good friend of my Son a year ago lost his marriage (bad experience) got depressed as you do, and hadn't a clue how to move on....until he got an offer from a HongKong Company.

Obviously he was very sceptical, and worried about taking the plunge but.....

...a year on he came to visit with the most irritating grin you have ever seen! Tried insulting him, kicking him, the ussual you know...but it never slipped!

...he was extactic...Good job, more money than he had ever earned before, nice apartment...and girls...well, hes a shy one, but all I can say is that almost from the moment he landed he has been knee-deep in them!

And now he is shacked up with a stunner! ...or was it two?

? Well?

If I were fancy free...you can guess where I would be off to!

Keith

suntiger1965

3,547 posts

231 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
V8 Vum said:
Dom,

Suggest you contact Crafty!

A good friend of my Son a year ago lost his marriage (bad experience) got depressed as you do, and hadn't a clue how to move on....until he got an offer from a HongKong Company.

Obviously he was very sceptical, and worried about taking the plunge but.....

...a year on he came to visit with the most irritating grin you have ever seen! Tried insulting him, kicking him, the ussual you know...but it never slipped!


...he was extactic...Good job, more money than he had ever earned before, nice apartment...and girls...well, hes a shy one, but all I can say is that almost from the moment he landed he has been knee-deep in them!

And now he is shacked up with a stunner! ...or was it two?

? Well?

If I were fancy free...you can guess where I would be off to!

Keith
Crafty please are you on line...............please that sounds just up my street......yippee

Dom

Edited by suntiger1965 on Wednesday 7th January 19:18


Edited by suntiger1965 on Friday 9th January 17:56

Paul.B

3,949 posts

293 months

Wednesday 7th January 2009
quotequote all
Steve_D said:
7 days into retirement.
Engineer before that.

Steve
When the blazzers did all this happen? (I know, 7 days ago) I go on bloody holiday, come back and suddenly Steve.D has officialy got VERY OLD wink


All those nasty shake-ups at work finally found their way to you then Steve? I'll give you a call soon and you can tell me all about it.


Paul.B driving

GTRMikie

874 posts

277 months

Thursday 8th January 2009
quotequote all
Three years into retirement on a nice final salary pension (just had a 5% rise). Research pharmaceutical chemist before that (and Steve_D is older than me)

V8 Vum

3,206 posts

250 months

Thursday 8th January 2009
quotequote all
Pension?
PENSION?
furious

...Whassat?

No chance of me retiring, even though the normal appointed time is looming!
Got ripped off so many times by so-called FINANCIAL Consultants over the years my workin' life looks like continuing to the distant future...till I drop dead that is!

frown

Keith

738 driver

1,202 posts

222 months

Thursday 8th January 2009
quotequote all
Reading earlier posts Keith, you soon might be adding a relocation/eastern dating agency to your list of talents! Could be worth more than a pension...
you may eventually end up with a pair of Ultimas.

V8 Vum

3,206 posts

250 months

Thursday 8th January 2009
quotequote all
Hmmmm.....

Theres a thought! Crafty? Fancy a partnership?

Ohhh....Hang on! I - I - I appear to be going a little ....a little Blind?

hehe

keith

hackin'n'bashin

Original Poster:

45 posts

213 months

Thursday 8th January 2009
quotequote all
PENSION?!!!!!!!!! I've got 38 years to go at the present climate.

Even longer if the government has its way!!

(the far east sounds good though, does an Ultima race series in hong kong sound feasible?)

738 driver

1,202 posts

222 months

Thursday 8th January 2009
quotequote all
Lets all get rich and make a movie.....'Ultimatley Too Fast and Furuious'...it might encourage me to go out to the garage and get rivetting!

crafty

2,291 posts

266 months

Thursday 8th January 2009
quotequote all
.... Keith... all I can say is I TOLD YOU SO!!!

Dom, most guys that come to Asia married end up straying and ending in divorce.... running away with some spanky young Asian nympho many years their junior.....so if you're already divorced you're on the right track.

Me:
Did 1 year of Engineering at Uni, nobody wanted to party so I left to study for a Builder's licence. Worked for the old man for 2 years then left and got a bunch of boys together and did renovations/extensions etc (without a licence) while I did the Builder's licence course. In the last year a friend of Dad's who was working in China told me that BHP were looking for people in Hong Kong. I flew myself up for an interview.. it was a local position on crap money but though F-it if I dont go overseas now I'll never go, so packed up and came up to Hong Kong.

After 1 year was told I was a square peg in a round hole and didnt fit into the BHP corporate structure... took that as a compliment... left... started a construction company doing steelwork, roof cladding etc using BHP products and within 1 year was their biggest customer.

The timing was right, we started off in the leadup to the handover of Hong Kong, there was too much work and not enough contractors so we hit the ground running. Been here 15 years and love it www.cpint.hk

But seriously... the one great thing I love about living overseas (apart from the filthy young Asian nymphos) >>>>>













>>>> their sisters.