Citizens:

This is an extremely belated thanks to all of those who responded to my 
questions concerning air compressors a while back.  The volume and 
quality of the responses surprised me even though I'd been reading the 
list for a while and knew before hand that youz were a friendly and 
knowledgeable bunch.  As suggested by more than one list member, I've 
been buying air tools for the last several weeks and am only now about to 
go buy the compressor itself.  

What had me hesitating was when Bob Hoover and a couple of others 
validated my apprehension by responding that perhaps an investment in a 
compressed air system was too much for "one restoration project."  True 
to my character, I thought about it too much. I thought about it all that 
first weekend after receiving the list's responses while I was busy 
changing out the rear bearings on the Honkeymobile ( aka Der 
Honkenvagen), my shrimpboat of a 4-door mid-seventies American car I use 
to drive back and forth to work.  I thought about it some more the next 
weekend when I was changing her front bearings. I thought about it even 
more the following weekend as I was changing out the rear brakes of my 
wife's SCANFEB (Sub-Compact, American Nameplate/Far-East Built) vehicle. 
That's when, after cracking my knuckes for the second time while fighting 
one of the return springs, it finally hit me: buying a bus was never 
about "one restoration project," it was about embarking on an entire 
*lifestyle.*  Duh!  

I decided then and their that getting a compressed air system would do 
nothing but increase the Quality of my lifestyle; that's big-Q Persigian 
"Zen and the Art" type Quality.

Concerning whether to air or not to air, I received many personal 
responses from list memebers who had compressed air saying that they were 
very pleased with it, if for nothing else then blowing crud out of nooks 
and crannies.  I didn't receive a single response from anyone who had air 
expressing any regrets whatsoever. 

I'm getting the Compresssor from Sam's Club, a six HP 60-gallon jobbie.  
I have looked and looked and looked again at what was available and Sears 
had a tempting 6.5 HP 33-gallon portable but it was a direct drive 
"oiless" jobbie and someone had commented in one of the responses I'd 
received how he'd brought back the one he'd purchased because it was so 
LOUD.  Oiless?  Loud?  Something wrong with that picture...

Chris Chubb:

Last weekend at Home Depot they were running a special on a 6 HP 
30-gallon 2-cylinder belt-drive portable for only $327!  The only problem 
with the less powerful ones is that the tank is smaller.  Several members 
suggested bigger tanks are always better because they don't require the 
engine to run as much.

Anyway, thanks again everybody!

peter.