Perfection Smokeless Oil Heater Restoration

I have a model 530, Patent year 1918, Perfection Smokeless oil heater that i am restoring.  So far, i have mostly taken it apart, starting with unlatching the top from the bottom, taking out the hinge screws so that it is two main pieces, then taking out the bolts holding the lid to the top piece, and taking off the one bolt that holds the latch which i have sanded.  i also have sanded the piece i will hereby refer to as the shield as im not sure of its exact purpose. its the round piece between the top and bottom.  i have began sanding the top cylinder part, using 320 grit sandpaper.  im not sure of what the original colors were, but im thinking of painting the lid, shield and the 2nd shield at the bottom, as well as the legs silver, and the cylinder parts black.  the kerosene resevoir simply lifts out of the bottom piece, and im thinking of painting its outside black as well.  i havent taken that part apart, so i dont know its particular anatomy, but it might need a new wick.  basically the heater will be a show piece/decorative, but i want it to be complete and as far as i have researched the wicks are still widely available.  Its a tedious project to be doing by hand and makes me wish i had a sandblaster...

distracted driving.... stop. think. save lives.

It only takes a moment.  your life and/or the lives of others, can be drastically altered, or even ended.  You get a text, a phone call, you reach in the backseat for that bottle of soda rolling around on the floor, you check yourself in the mirror, you drop a quarter, your foot itches, you need a smoke, your friend tells a joke, you try to change the radio stations..... try to change the radio station.  that was the reason i had to borrow a vehicle for the rest of that summer.  Just ten minutes before that, I got home from vacation, changed into my work clothes in my laundry room, put my phone in my back pocket, left for work.  It was an ordinary day, i wasnt late, i was driving speed limit, wearing my seatbelt as always.  County road 12, barren stretch of tar between nowhere and a ghosttown.  There is a small creek that county rd 12 has to cross over, its not really a bridge persay, just a little strip of guardrail on each side, ten feet above water, if that.  Well, i didnt like the song that was playing, and in my mitsubishi, the tuner button was on the passenger side of the radio display.  I couldnt tell you, if the radio station ever changed, because the only thing i heard was metal on metal grinding coming from the passenger side of my car.  I looked back up, over corrected and lost control.  hitting the brakes did nothing and i slid helplessly straight down the embankment.  somewhere in those terror moments, my car turned sideways and started into a barrel roll.  There isnt a whole lot that goes through your mind after that, other than god please no im too young to die, and what do i do.  The only thing i could do was hold onto the wheel and wait.  when i felt it start to tip, i had thought ok maybe ill be lucky and just tip it on its side and stop.  and then i saw my windshield crack, heard my back window shatter behind me, and the sick sound of roof crushing inward.  I dont remember the rest, but my car came to rest on the passenger side, with my drivers side up in the air.  I remember just sitting there for a few seconds.  Then i thought, am i actuallly alive?  did i really just survive that?  that was the scariest thing ive ever encountered!  I walked away from that accident, my first car accident, and hopefully last, completely unscathed. which is amazing due to the fact of flying shattered glass, my xbox was rolling around in the backseat, easily couldve hit me, my door was bent so drastically that it was cutting sod and feeding it into the car.    I wasnt cut, i wasnt bruised, I wasnt even sore, besides my hips which only hurt bcuz with all the tension on my locked seatbelt, i couldnt push the button to get it off, and if i had, i wouldve fallen to the other side of the car, onto glass.  I cant help but think that god let me off with a warning that day... and i am so grateful.  My car however, my baby, my pride and joy, the galant didnt make it.   the tires were popped, the axles were bent the mirrors were gone, gascap ripped off, the entire sides of the body were crushed around the frame, the trunk was smashed, the roof was caved, my sliding sunroof was untouched somehow, and my front hood only took minor damage, and a busted bumper.  Unfortunately the only pictures i had of it are gone bcuz i broke my phone that they were on, but i dont need a picture, i have a horrific memory, just a remminder and a warning to drive carefully.  I havent been in fault of any other accidents so far, other than running over a walmart shopping cart due to low visibility in front of my truck.  Its been three years, and i still feel that day as if it was yesterday, i dont think that will ever change.  I was incredibly lucky, i couldve been injured or dead.  But even tho i was lucky, doesnt mean that u will be, and i wish that i could let others live the memory i have, to show them the danger iin driving distracted, but all i can do is tell them my story and hope it sticks with them, and they make good choices. 

New years!

happy new years, you have arrived in 2011.  Do you feel different? do you feel older? do you feel accomplished?  Have you made a resolution?  will you keep it? are you lying to yourself?  How did you bring in the new year?  did you float in gently like a feather and land softly in the security of knowing youve survived another year on our mother earth?  Or maybe, like me, you skidded in sideways, acheived maximum rugburn potential, and rolled to your feet ready to fight any dilemma that gets in the way of you having a good time.  Are you going to work harder to better your life this year, or is your plan to just lay back and slide? barely getting by is still getting by, right?       I took on a rather extensive resolution, but like anything, it will be done bcuz i actually want to do it.  Im going to get better grades this year in college if it kills me, plus to keep up my muscles from working on the farm, im going to start doing strength training, I dont have any weights yet, but there are ways of using your body.  along with that idea, im going to eat healthier, not so much out of boxes and cans anymore.  actual food.  and ive already been fighting my soda addiction, thats ok tho cuz i can drink tea.  i love tea. (rainforest red by goodearth is my fave)  and ill down some vitamins once in a while.  getting a job would also be ideal, but thats pretty much based on luck.