About This Website

Before I turned to writing as a career, I served in the U.S. Air Force as a Peacekeeper Security Force Airman at the Titan II missile silos surrounding Tucson, AZ; Graduated as a law enforcement officer at the Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy; and, earned a Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona.

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Using my life experiences, training, and education, I built a writing career publishing in newspapers, magazines, online, and business copy, covering a broad range of topics. In short, I am accurately described as a topic content expert. If there is a topic I am not an expert in, I'm the guy who uses his research and critical thinking skills to learn about it and then create content that is accurate and accessible to the lay reader.

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Today, I am semi-retired and work as an automotive journalist for Torque News. My focus is on new and used vehicles and DIY car repair advice for non-mechanics, which is unusual in one sense because I am not a trained and certified mechanic. However, not so unusual in the sense that I am a writer and content expert, have worked on cars and trucks in the past as a novice, and had some experience with vintage vehicle restorations, including a 1926 Model T, 1932 Model A, 1947 Packard, and a 1956 Chevy sedan.

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As an automotive journalist, I have been (and still am) involved in a rebuilding project of a 1973 Ford F-100 I bought after returning to the U.S. after a 4-year stay in Singapore. The misplaced desire to rebuild an old truck rather than buy a new vehicle upon my return to the U.S. became a fortunate timing coincidence that complemented each other: Not only was I approached by an editor who needed someone with my writing skills and abilities to write for his automotive website but I had also developed a renewed interest in cars and trucks now that I had a new project in my garage. Little did I know at the time, this rebuild project would turn into my own personal Odyssey as I battled one barrier after another toward the goal of rebuilding and improving the F-100 for potential camper towing capabilities.

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Today, I have decided that after a complete rebuild and upgrade of the 1973 FE engine followed by a successful dyno test, and given that I have been writing automotive-related content for the past three years, now is the perfect time to share what I have learned thus far during the rebuild and my automotive research and writing.

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Fear not, the project is not yet finished, and I have more monsters on the horizon to battle, the least not of which is a C6 transmission I paid someone to rebuild that turned into another James Joyce-esque obstacle. However, I am far enough into this misadventure to at least now see the distant shores of completion. Being too stubborn for anyone's good helps as well.

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To be clear, this is not a step-by-step instruction but rather an approach* that I believe is applicable not just to taking an old Ford truck apart and putting it back together again but can be applied to almost any project. Hence, the title of this blog: "The Zen of Rebuilding a 1973 Ford F-100 Truck."

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*Approach: to take preliminary steps toward accomplishment or full knowledge or experience of something especial.