Maiking the best of a crappy situation.....

Making the best of a crappy situation.....

a week or so ago I had posted about the old 1914 kumalae ukulele I had kicking around that had some pretty fierce damage. I was debating whether it was worth repairing, or selling or whether I should scrap it for parts. Well I had put it up in the marketplace figuring someone would maybe want to swap me something for it. Instead I ended up taking a cash offer for it. This past friday I had it wrapped up to ship planning on taking it to the post office after work....When I arrived home from work however I discovered one of my kids had climbed up into my office chair where I left the package and either knelt, or sat on it...I opened the box, and the top was crushed in, the bridge was popped loose, and broke, and it had a crack where the headstock met the top of the neck right above the nut...Ive been pissed off all weekend over it. Today however was such a nice day, and I had calmed down a bit I figured Id open up my little workshop, and spend the day outside tinkering with it, and catching some football on the radio. I thought about replacing the top, but the sides and the back had a bunch of cracks in them too (the damage from before) so I started with trying to fix the neck....I sawed off the headstock right above the nut, and drilled holes for 3 3/16 steel rods which I used to pin and glue the neck back together. That went pretty well, so now I had hopefully a usable neck I thought Id give building the cigar box ukulele I had considered before with it. My father in law is a big time cigar smoker, and has a ton of boxes so I zipped over there and picked out a box. 3 hours and three beers later I was done....just needs tuners, and strings...I built the bridge from one of the cedar spacer sticks that was inside the box....the first pic is just the parts set together..the last is the finished piece, after I poly-ed it... Obviously I havent had strings on it so god only knows if it will hold together,or even make a decent sound,but Im pretty stoked with the results I dont do alot of woodwork these days my workshop is mostly hot rod related now so it was nice to get back and do something different, you can barely tell where I fixed the neck I just hope under tension the head stock doesnt pop off.....

Nice uke... Crappy car

HaHa........ Awwww. Cmon man thats cold, hit a dude where he lives why dont you? I know it needs a paintjob, its on the list...Besides what are you drivin?

dont worry bro...I always take pictures using my mom's car too

Always know you audience! Great usage of the pieces. That should be a family story for year to come.

Wow a cigar box Kumalae..you have an original....thanks for sharing.. looks awesome..Happy Strummings... is that a sleeper?? ha ha

My tuppence, nice uke and nice car. 24 or 44? I sold my 24 on earlier this year as it just wasn't getting used.
Liking that bridge, simple yet effective. Be sure to post a sound clip/video when you get some strings on it.

shiftysquirrel said:

My tuppence, nice uke and nice car. 24 or 44? I sold my 24 on earlier this year as it just wasn't getting used.
Liking that bridge, simple yet effective. Be sure to post a sound clip/video when you get some strings on it.

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Thanks, the bridge design was just based off the old one, if it works dont screw with it right?
Im going to have to order tuners for it, I dont think the local guitar center will have any uke-like tuners, but since I need strings Ill pop out there and check, I dont have high hopes for sound quailty, and Im not sure the neck is going to hold, but it was fun to do.....
Finally someone has some taste, its a 944. Its a reasonably new project, I have been building mild 350 smallblocks for years, and wanted to try something different that I could drive to work without using half a tank of gas, and still be fast, and fun. Ended up totally falling for little euro cars, so much more ahead of its time than its american counterparts. Show me one american car from 1986 thats fuel injected, 4 cylinders, handles like a race car, and tops out near 140 mph naturally aspirated (though I admit mine has lost some horses, but still plenty quick). Plus its a manual, another thing thats rare to find in american cars these days which is sad.....

You certainly get a lot of car for your money and they have remained pretty cheap mainly because they are so under-rated. I loved my 924 over the 6 years that I owned it, regularly taking it on track and even taking it to the Nurbrugring 4 times. Despite the abuse it got it only ever suffered a snapped fan belt (my fault, I knew it was goosed but ignored it!) and a dead fuel pump. Not bad for a 25 year old car that was driven with "enthusiasm."

What type of joint did you use on the neck? I think there may be a lot less stress in that joint than you may think. The way I see it (and I am the first to admit I am no luthier and no expert!) most of the stress would be lateral? Effectively pulling the joint together.

The neck was cracked right at the nut....on this neck the nut is actually wooden and built into the neck......I just sawed through crack and took off the head stock on a bandsaw....the I drilled matching holes in both parts and used little lengths of steel rod as pins to hold it all together...then i glued, and used a ratchet strap wrapped around as a clamp...you may be right...Im no guitar builder either.

As for the car...If someone came to me and said they wanted a turnkey track day car, and they had 3 to 5 thousand to spend I would tell them without hesitation the 944 is their best option. Just get the 2.5 liter 16 valve NA version (the "s" designation I think) though....In my opinion the turbo version is way more complication, and cost to repair for very little gain....

by the way, Id kill to go the nurburgring.....you euros have all the luck..

This is pretty much a perfect "lemons -> lemonade" story I've heard in a long while.

Good for you!