Chapter 46

Day Forty-six - Thursday

I couldn't move. Arms and legs wrapped me up. A husky voice was whispering in my ear, "I love you, I love you, I love you," over and over.

I turned my head and kissed the smiling mouth, while peering into the deep brown eyes of my sweet Sue.

"It's time to wake up, honey, I'm sorry for not waking you with my mouth or pussy. They're both a little tender and overworked from last night. We sure did do some serious playing in the tub last night. Those two lezzies are insatiable. I guess they're not really lesbians, they just act the part."

We got out of the still damp sheets and pulled them off the bed. I started coffee while Sue sat on the commode, then got into the shower. I used the toilet and followed her into the big shower, which was well worth any extra it cost.

We washed, with me making sure Sue's breasts and nipples were rinsed properly by giving them the taste test. Sue moaned, "You make me want you so bad, but I'm still a little sore. Maybe our Hanna will help you out this morning. I'm sure she would like to have some of your breakfast drink."

"Don't need anyone but you, my love. I'll just enjoy waiting."

I was rewarded with some good kisses.

Sue and I dressed for work, knowing the crew would probably be in a teasing mode after a hot time in the hot tub.

Ruth and Tiny were already on the patio with Martin and Glenda, as were both Hanna and Shawna. It was not even six-thirty yet. Sue and I joined them, with cups of coffee, to welcome Charlie, Jim, and the two young couples, Al and Joan with Tom and Betty. We weren't through with our first cups of coffee when Phil and Judy pulled up, carrying in a box full of egg Mc-Muffin's. Right behind them was a bright red Chevy S-10 pickup with our two new motor builders.

I wondered if we were getting some additions to the patio group.

Phil said, "Judy and I were so excited about getting back to work that we thought we would join you guys in your morning ritual. Thanks for the great celebration and dinner last night. You sure know how to welcome new employees."

"You can say that again," Sandy and Mandy said together. Sue showed them where the cups were and fixed coffee for Phil and Judy.

Tom and Al said they needed to get into the shop early and clean up from yesterday so it didn't look like they were slackers. "It's so nice to start the day with the place shining. You really want to go to work in a place like that."

Phil said he wanted to take a bunch of pictures this morning before folks got in, so he could have pictures of the place when it is straight and clean. He talked to Sue about the Internet website programmer. She said for him to dream up what he wanted and we would get it up on the site as soon as possible. Today the computer guy was going to set up everyone's e-mail accounts on our new site, S&Senterprises.com. Phil and Judy were going to be in charge of the new stuff, Abe, Phil, and Judy would work on the rebuilds, Shawna would work on the motor and paint shop, and that left me with the welding and race car areas.

I mentioned the name that had come to mind, the 'Racecar support division.' Everyone thought that was a great sounding name for one of our groups. Tiny even said, "You'll have to come up with more we can do within that market." I just smiled and winked at him.

Sue said she had some work to do in her office and would try to get down to the shop for lunch. Betty and Joan were raring to go as they wanted to show Sue some ideas they had.

Sue had made a deal with Glenda to help Sue with the house. Glenda was excited to help as well as make a little extra money. I had asked Martin if he could make the lawn area around the patio more attractive with plants and flowers like he had done around his place. He was happy to do it for the same reasons Glenda was.

Sandy and Mandy were grousing about the apartment they had. They said it was just a tiny one bedroom with nasty neighbors and a landlord that was snoopy. Their lease was up and they wanted to move.

Sue said, "Come with me, I may have something for you." Then led them back to her old place. Five minutes later, the three of them came back excited about the two girls moving in next to Tiny and Ruth.

Tiny said he needed to go in and give his notice. Ruth said she would get ready and go in as she had to do the paperwork on Sandy and Mandy.

Those two already had a big Snap-On toolbox set in their truck and were ready to get started. I told them that I had some work for them that I had to go pick up before coming in.

Shawna had to pick up the new parts washer and bead blaster on the way in, and said the big compressor was due to be installed this morning. She had purchased a new dryer for the giant used compressor she bought from a dealer. That should keep everyone busy until I brought in the two motors.

Gene said he was really excited about the prospect of what I was trying to do. His men loaded the two motors and the broken motor stands, then Gene wheeled out an old V-twin motor. He pointed at it and said, "you know what this is don't you?"

"Sure, Gene, it's an old 45 cubic inch side valve flat head. A good motor, not fast, but used a long time by the military and also in the old three wheelers the meter people used to ride."

"Exactly right. I'm rebuilding an old one. You have that girl that built your bike. Think she can rebuild this one?"

"She sure can. Why not let her do your transmission too and if you want, you could let her rebuild the whole thing for you."

"I want to do a lot of the work on this myself, but I will let her do the transmission too. I'll go get it."

Now I had something for all three girls to do. Shawna would have more this afternoon, as we needed to paint the frames when they were done. Abe probably had some sheet metal that would need primer as well.

I pulled up to the big door by the welding area. Inside Al and Tom were hoisting frames onto the hooks of the paint cart. I had the two of them pull the motor stands out while I got a gas torch out to clean up the bad welds from before. After that I used the wire feed arc to reattach the broken pieces. I re-welded all of the joints to make sure they wouldn't break again. I used the grinder to clean up the welds so they looked nice. I slid some paper under the stands and spray painted the two stands real quick with an international orange.

I had Tom and Al push the stands into Shawna's area while I backed up to her door.

The girls were messing with the bead blaster, pouring in plastic beads. A guy was finishing connecting the compressor that was in an alcove right outside the shop area.

The girls were commenting that it was nice I had bought them new engine stands. I told them that they weren't new, I had just repainted them to look nice. Then said, "Come on, all three of you, I have something for all of you to do."

I walked back to the big rear overhead door for this shop and pushed the button to open the door. When it opened, it revealed the crate engine, still in the crate, the used motor that really looked used, the tranny, and the forty-five cubic inch Flathead engine.

Sandy was looking at the used motor, "This is a racing motor of some kind. I'll bet this thing was seven, eight hundred horses. Wonder what's wrong with it?"

I got the big spec sheets and blueprints for the motor from the truck, "This is a Winston cup engine. I want you two to build a new one from the crate to these specs. What I really want is to have that engine perfect. I want it so it can run wide open all day at a track and want to run the next day. I want it so it is just that little bit faster than the other engines that have to be built like it. Make it happen, make it perfect, and document exactly what you do.

"This other engine didn't work so well. It isn't blown, so it should be able to be rebuilt. Find out what made it not good, then build it to be as fast and as dependable as the new one. Again, document what you find and what you do.

"Give the paint on those stands a couple of more minutes to dry then we'll get the motors on the stands. We'll need some nuts for the bolts. You probably should use a tool to clean up those threads first too."

I pointed at the transmission and the Flathead motor and said, "These are for you, Shawna. Make them new again so this guy can ride his new toy trouble free. There is no rush on it, just regular, perfect, speed.

We mounted the motors and tightened the nuts to hold them on for the work process.

I pulled my truck around to the front and came in. When I got to my office I thought it would be neat to have a video of the building of the motors by the three women. It took a couple of minutes but I was able to finally start recording the two cameras in that shop. I would have to buy a bunch of tapes to get all of it so I could edit what I wanted to show off to Gene.

Two guys walked in the showroom, one young, one older. I went out to see how I could help them. The older man introduced himself as Tim, the brother of the supply house owner. He also introduced Bob, the son of the same supply house owner.

I turned to Bob and said slowly, "Thank you for coming in."

He smiled and nodded.

They took a minute to carefully look at the frame hanging from the ceiling. Bob was running his hand over the welds, smiling and nodding to his uncle.

Tim said, "That's nice work. Takes extra time to do that type of work."

"Come on. I want you to show me what you can do." I led them back to the welding area that was now freshly cleaned with the balance of the finished frames in a row. I pulled out four short pieces of pipe from the scrap bin and set up the clamps on the table. I got out some files, a drill with a grinding bit and some sandpaper then gave the instructions. While I talked, Tim used signs to tell Bob what I wanted.

"We do perfect work. Each cut, each bend, each weld has to be perfect, no exceptions. I don't measure productivity on speed. I measure it on how good the work is." I pointed to a sign, "We do perfect work."

"I want to see what you do to prepare these pieces and how well you put them together. Speed is not important, good work is. You two start either together or independently and weld those two pieces at right angles. When you're satisfied you have a perfect connection show me when I return. Use any and all of the tools in the box and around the bench."

I walked over to the rebuild shop to now see the two new guys working on two big mobile compressors. Abe was moving between the various jobs but coming back to help do the finish up on a bright orange generator. Now I knew where the orange paint came from. The thing did look good.

Abe and the man working on the generator pushed it back through the rear door out to the concrete apron outside the door. The man went through the ritual of all the pre-start inspection items. Abe nodded and the guy turned the key and hit the start button. The engine whirred twice then caught, sputtered a few seconds, and smoothed out like it was brand new.

Abe came over to me and said, "That was the worst one we had from the other place. I wanted to see what it would take to do a really rough one. Most people would have scrapped it, but as you can see, it's running nice. We'll test it under load now for a couple of hours. I need to get Phil down here and show him a before photo so he can see what we do."

I left them to find both Tim and Bob working on cleaning up their welds to look like the work Al and Tom did. Bob handed me his piece. It was nicely done. The weld was very even and smooth making it look like one piece grew out of the other.

Tim's work wasn't as nice. It would have been cleaner if he had prepped the end he welded. It had a jagged edge that showed on the weld that you couldn't clean up. I pointed out to Tim that his welding was decent and that he had tried to do a good clean up but he needed to prep the end he was welding better.

Tim said that doing that type of prep took a lot of time and didn't necessarily make the end product any better. I smiled, "That isn't the point. I want the finished product to look good and to appeal to the customer, to make him want to come to me for more of my product. I don't care how long it takes to do a job if it is exact and nice looking. I went over to the scrap box and got out six pieces. I gave two to Tim and told him to see if he could make them perfect.

I took Bob to another bench then laid them on the bench to show him what I wanted. Next I took the work pad and a pencil drawing a picture of how I wanted it to look like when he was done. I showed Bob where the cutting tools and the torch were.

As I left the area, I noticed Tim using a file to clean the ragged edges from the end he was going to weld. It looked like he had already cleaned up the spot he was going to weld the end to.

Al and Tom were busily measuring and marking sheet metal. They had established a numbering system. I watched them a few minutes, noting that they were careful with the sheet metal and with the cutting. Safety is paramount when you work with sharp steel.

Sandy and Mandy were working on the crate engine together. They had it totally apart. When I came up to see how they were doing they showed me how imperfect the crate engine was from the factory. They pointed out numerous little flaws that I would never have noticed, saying it was those little things that threw the motor out of balance.

The girls had two different scales, a beam scale and a digital scale that measured weights to a tenth of a gram. They gave me a lesson, telling me that a minute difference in weight between parts is what caused small vibrations to wear out an engine. A big part of good engine building is to find all of the vibrations and remove them.

When I asked about Shawna they pointed at the door where she was coming back from the paint booths, still dressed in her coveralls. She said, "I have those first four frames in the dryer. Where are you going to put them when they are done?"

I told her I would prepare an area in the welding area for them to stay till we shipped them. I also told her to have Al and Tom reload the rack for her when the ones she had been working on were dry. We needed another one of those racks. We could use the racks for the sheet metal and panels from the rebuild shop too. Maybe we needed two more racks. I could see that if we ramped up production very high, we would need a full time painter.

Back in the welding area Tim was looking over his piece. He saw me and handed it to me with a smile. It was very nice.

"Didn't take you any longer to do a good job did it?" I asked.

Tim nodded, "Actually it took less time to do it right. The weld took faster and it was cleaner so I could draw faster with a lower bead. That's some of the best work I've ever done. Mind if I keep that?"

"You should," I said with a smile. "That piece is the sample of work that got you hired."

Tim started to thank me, almost crying. "Don't get to excited, I'm a real slave driver. You haven't seen tight supervision till you start a frame."

Bob was finishing up the four-sided creation I had him make. It came out exactly how I wanted. I wanted several different types of shapes to hang in the show room to show people how versatile we were. Bob was going to be an asset. Tim would be too, but he would take some work.

I had them come with me to see Ruth for paperwork. There were men carrying furniture up the stairs into Tiny's new office, and Tiny was in it. Wonder what he's doing here already.

When I introduced Tim and Bob to Ruth, Tim signed to Bob telling him Ruth's name and her job. Ruth saw that Bob was deaf and immediately began signing to Bob what she needed him to do. Bob was really excited that someone from our company could sign to him. I think Tim was relieved so he didn't have to do it all the time.

I walked back down to Tiny's office to see what was up, "Taking the day off, Tiny?"

"Nope, starting my new job. When I turned in my resignation, the chief partner gave me my exit interview. He agreed with my choice and asked if I thought their company might be considered for an accounting firm to work with us. When I told him I would definitely recommend them, he made sure I was reimbursed for all of the vacation and sick days I had never used. I really did mean it too, that I would recommend them because they are a good firm."

"I see Ruth didn't take long to get you your furniture. Is it what you wanted?"

"Of course it is, Ruth picked it out. I know it's good stuff if she picks it out. She's a better shopper for stuff like this than I could ever be."

Tiny reached for a stack of paper, "I helped Phil complete this dealership agreement and got it faxed back to Onan. They have already called and gave us the verbal approval. We will have the signed agreement tomorrow by FedEx. Those people will have a fit when you submit your big order. Judy is doing well too, she's over a million already this morning. She's going to need help just completing all the orders.

Phil came out of the break room from coming up the shop stairs, "I have to call the supply house guy to tell him we have a unit ready. Abe says you're selling them for fifteen. That's pretty cheap for something that looks that good, and then you give a year's warranty too. I'm going to market them for more. I saw the picture of how it looked before. You guys are doing a great job resurrecting that old equipment. Making a profit at it too."

Ruth was done with the guys so I took them back downstairs. I brought Tom over and told him, to begin with these two by building one frame from start to finish. To show them each step with each angle and each length, to double-check each piece before and after it was attached. I told him to make sure he always looked at Bob when he talked to him.

Tom was pumped up about showing the two new guys how to do our work.

I apologized to Al for stealing his helper. He said it shouldn't slow him down much. He hoped he would have the whole order ready to ship by tomorrow. I thanked him for the good work, as that would put us ahead of schedule.

A tractor-trailer was at the back door with another load of materials. I got Abe to use a forklift to unload it. Abe was struggling with a batch of materials trying to spin it a little to get it off the truck.

Bob came out gesturing that he wanted to do it. I waved down Abe and told him about Bob. Abe's one of those guys that will give anyone a chance. Bob maneuvered the forklift a couple of inches each way then hoisted the bundle off the truck and then set it down gently continuing the row of materials that Abe had started. In just a couple of minutes, Bob was done unloading the steel tubing, the blanks, and the sheet metal. Bob was really going to be valuable. Abe already liked him.

Tom said that as soon as he had them started on some of the pieces to clean before cutting and bending, he would separate the materials into bundles per frame and load them on the rack. I told him to hold out two sets for two more racks.

I heard another motor start and walked over to the rear of the rebuild shop to see another big generator ready to ship. I was amazed that they were such good technicians and mechanics. With six guys working with Abe, we were going to run through some equipment fast.

Another thought occurred to me. If these guys got tied up on a motor, I'll bet Sandy and Mandy could rebuild it as fast as they could. I would ask them about their diesel experience.

I went to my office to find Sue going through a stack of faxes. How did people get my fax number so fast? She had a stack of equipment orders that should go up to Judy, as well as a small stack of welding orders for NASCAR frames. Gene was right, the word was getting out. What was funny, or bad, or something, was that I had just received material for twenty frames, and a stack of orders for almost thirty had arrived.

I called the metal supply company and ordered material for forty frames. The sales clerk said that was the maximum for one truckload. Wow, I was buying materials by the truckload now. I asked if that quantity and the quantities I was buying was eligible for a higher discount. The clerk said I would have to talk to a sales supervisor.

The sales supervisor was not the most congenial person I had ever spoken with. He didn't seem to feel my volume was all that much. When I gave him the total I had ordered during this last month, he said he had to check his records then put me on hold. I didn't understand someone being rude to a customer who was buying from your company.

I almost hung up on him when he came back on the line and said he still didn't think I was eligible for a bigger discount. I told him to hold my order and to not ship it. If he did, I would refuse it. I wanted to compare prices from other vendors. He sputtered around, but I told him I would get back with him and hung up.

Something wasn't right with that conversation. These people had always worked with me on product.

I did call two more companies and received quotes on both tubing and sheet metal along with discounts and shipping discounts for volume. With either of these companies I would be close to their maximum discount, which made them considerably cheaper.

There was one guy who knew what was going on. He was the salesman that used to sell to Exxon when I was working for them. Good ole' George answered on the first ring, just like always. He was Good ole' George because he reminded you of George Gobel with his actions and his voice. He always had a smile in his voice and on his face.

We had a long conversation as we caught up on things. It had only been a little over six weeks since I had worked for the big oil company but a lot of water had run under the bridge since then. He complimented me on my new business and congratulated me on my new marriage. He knew I used to be a loner and workaholic so was happy to see I was adjusting to life with friends.

I described what I had just experienced with his company and what I had discovered when I called two of their competitors. He said he was ashamed to tell me but the company had been bought out by a couple of guys whose middle name was greed. They had canceled company benefits and rescinded the 401K program. He had already been given notice that his days were numbered.

I asked if he was going to retire?

He said he was only fifty and had no intention of retiring. He said he thought he could get on with another company pretty fast. I told him I would help. Which company do you want to go to work for and I'll make my order conditional on your employment. One of the companies was even closer to his house than the one where he had worked for so long. I told him to make sure he called his old customers as he was under no professional obligation to stay away from his old customers.

I called the supply house that George wanted to work for and asked for the owner. After explaining what I knew and what I wanted, the man said he would give me an additional five percent on this order with free freight for being a good friend and for getting him an ace salesman. He personally took my order and bank information saying the order would roll this evening and that it would arrive within forty-eight hours.

George again answered on the first ring. I told him to go get his final pay and get over to the other supply house. The owner was waiting for him. I could have heard him laugh from that distance without the phone. He said he had looked up my order and made sure it was cancelled because of poor pricing and rude customer relations. After thanking me profusely, he said he had his cigar box packed and was ready to leave.

As a last thought, I told him that if they refused to give him his accumulated 401K funds that he should have them put that in a letter and to call me. I had a guy who would love to take on that company. He was to call me anyway to tell me how he made out.

I called Ben and gave him a brief summary of the company and what I knew. If they stiffed a bunch of employees of their 401K and retirement he would have a pretty good class action suit. Ben thanked me, saying he would investigate. Love those lawyers. When they smell blood, they attack.

Sue took me to lunch at the little Greek restaurant telling me how Joan had submitted three designs to the manufacturer already. She said Joan was smart enough to protect her designs by some kind of copyright that was available to clothing designers. She said the manufacturer was now running at maximum capacity and considering more space. Sue thought that she could double her business during this coming year.

Back at the shop, I checked on folks to see how they were doing. Abe had already taken the two units down to the welding supply house and picked up a check, as well as two trade-ins. Tom was teaching how to do the tacking of pieces together while continuing to double and triple check angles and lengths. Al was on his fourth set of sheet metal. Shawna had the forty-five in pieces. Sandy and Mandy were honing the bore on the motor, saying the raw material was pretty sad. They said they had found a couple of water jacket lines clogged from factory waste and that the heads had obviously never been flow tested. I suggested they list all the deficiencies so we could advise the manufacturer. We also could look to see if the other engine failure could have come from one of the problems they were finding. I thanked them for being thorough. Sandy winked at me and pointed to the sign, "We do perfect work."

Upstairs, I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat with Phil asking him how much stuff would I have to warehouse for these orders to reship them. He assured me that everything so far could and would be drop shipped directly to the customer. He said Tiny was checking each of the sales to make sure the customer was viable and would pay. I told him to let me know if something changed.

Judy said she already had three orders for welding equipment. Customers had responded well when she told them we were dealers for the equipment. I looked over what was sold, knowing the customer knew what they were doing to order the pieces we were shipping. She said she was trying to turn orders around in a day.

I looked at Phil and made the statement, "You need help. You not only need at least one more like you, you may need two or three more like you. Judy needs help too. With her calling on customers over the phone and getting the volume of orders she is getting, it means that no one has been working the territory and the territory is growing and expanding. We probably need three or four more Judy's.

"What do you think, Phil? Can we find you some road guys? Guys that want to travel all the time to see these dealers in person, and to find me equipment to rebuild. You and Judy would still go out to see some customers and on big deals that needed your oversight and knowledge. Perhaps we could have another guy inside but I don't know that we need one. You decide, keeping in mind, I want our growth to be open-ended.

"Judy, I'm going to make the big conference room into four offices. I'll have Ruth find you and Phil some people to interview. I'll have the offices ready quick, and some people ready as well. Divide up territories for telemarketing and customer service sales calls and let's get the business that's out there. Sound good to you? You'll have to share your many years of knowledge with them and teach them how to get started."

Judy answered with, "Two of the guys that work with Abe have wives that used to work in customer service. I'll call them and ask if they want to come in to look at our operation."

"Do it girl, I like the way you think."

I went to Tiny and told him what I wanted to have done to the conference room. I told him that Ruth had the contractor, the computer guy, and the telephone guy's number. Ruth could order the furniture.

"You know, we could just use dividers in there for right now and not do any remodeling. We'll still need phones and computer lines but perhaps we could divide it up into six spaces. That way we would have two office areas to grow with."

"Could you get the contractor to give me a number to build an office annex on the side of the building that the conference room is on. This building would be to hold some road salesmen and their support staff. We might even need more administrative staff one of these days soon. Let's find out how much it is and if it's feasible."

I left Tiny with a pile of notes, thinking he was going to be busy keeping numbers sorted out. At least we would have the income to support the expansion.

I asked Ruth about the billing program. She said the billing was being created by Judy's order input. All she had to do was to tear them off the printer, stuff the envelopes and run the envelope through the postage meter.

I didn't know we had a postage meter.

The other race car builder called saying he wanted me to come by and build him a couple of frames. I asked if he could come to my new shop and bring his blueprints or at least real usable copies. He said he would be by in fifteen minutes, as he needed the frames.