Photo 3 of 5: Rear View What’s Left of The Welding, & Motorcycle Repair Machine Shop Of Mr. Sandy McGregor, Which VERY Likely, Is The Shop Where The ZMM Narrator Went To Have His Honda Cycle Chain Guard Welded.

This McGregor Welding Shop, Is A Few Miles Out Of Grants Pass, OR.
Mr Blue Nelson of Gold Hill, OR, emailed the Above /\ Photo, showing the back of Sandy McGregor’s Shop, where he rescued an abandoned car => “ …a Fintail Mercedes recently from behind the shop .. “

….… " "There’s some solvent in that pan over there." … I see the flat pan and get out the remaining grease with some leaves and the solvent. …
….When I show it to him he nods and slowly goes over and sets the regulators for his gas torch. Then he looks at the tip and selects another one. Absolutely no hurry. He picks up a steel filler rod and I wonder if he’s actually going to try to weld that thin metal. Sheet metal I don’t weld. I braze it with a brass rod. When I try to weld it I punch holes in it and then have to patch them up with huge blobs of filler rod. "Aren’t you going to braze it?" I ask.
…."No," he says. Talkative fellow.
….He sparks the torch, and sets a tiny little blue flame and then, it’s hard to describe, actually dances the torch and the rod in separate little rhythms over the thin sheet metal, the whole spot a uniform luminous orange-yellow, dropping the torch and filler rod down at the exact right moment and then removing them. No holes. You can hardly see the weld. "That’s beautiful," I say ……

A Sandy McGregor Story, Emailed By Bill (Kodiak Bill), Quaccia
…“Around 1980 I wanted to repair the steel rear fender of 1956 Triumph. Dave Lorenz said, Let’s take it to Sandy. ... OK. … I unbolted the fender and started to clean it up. Stripping the paint off it I notice that it had previously been repaired with brass. … It had been brazed. … Dave took a look at that and said, Don’t take it to Sandy, he will have a fit if he saw it had been brazed. .. I found another fender and sold the brazed item at a swap meet.
Thus McGregor: Not A Fan Of Brazing Sheet-Metal!” [Of course all of this “fits” what the ZMM Narrator said about the welder’s work, & personality.

Essential Clues At To WHY Mr Alexander Henry (Sandy) McGregor, Is VERY, VERY, VERY, LIKELY To Be The ZMM Narrator’s Grants Pass, OR Welder.
..A) Not only was he an expert welder, but an excellent motorcycle repairman: .
..B) Able to do the really, really, tough repair & welding jobs, especially the exceedingly tricky torch & filler-rod, welding of very thin sheet metal. ATTENTION => Here it must be realized (As The Narrator recognizes) => Torch & Filler-Rod Welding, is exceedingly difficult to do. => Either 1) The sheet metal is not heated enough for the rod to melt & flow correctly, Or 2) The sheet metal is slightly over heated, and the sheet metal quickly melts, and drops out, leaving a gaping hole. It is exceedingly rare to find a welder with the skill to actually do this, let alone this very well, such that there are =>
No holes. You can hardly see the weld. "That’s beautiful," I say “
..C) Well-known to be skilled & good enough that Bill Quaccia & friend Dave Lorenz would have Sandy do the welding of their thin sheet metal cycle fender.
..D) Has a large aversion to brazing which is, lumpy-ugly and inferior weak. As Dave stated re Sandy => “He will have a fit if he saw it had been brazed.”
..E) “A Cranky Guy”, Grumpy, non-communicative personality.
..F). All this closely fits what the ZMM Narrator said => "Aren’t you going to braze it?" I ask. …."No," he says. => No holes. You can hardly see the weld. "That’s beautiful," I say “

CONCLUSION:
For all of these “Fits” to The ZMM Narrator’s description => To all occur in one small town, means => Mr Alexander Henry (Sandy) McGregor, Is VERY, VERY, VERY, LIKELY To Be The ZMM Narrator’s Grants Pass, OR Welder.
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(Photo = Blue Nelson 2 ...... ZMM Page = 320 ...... WayPt = 397w 1114ft)