True true.

Well hopefully you'd videotape that for us to see.

Can you get some cash for it at the scrap metal yard?

Go get yourself some phosphoric acid...metal etch...and pour it over the rust. It will convert the rust from iron oxide to iron phosphate, which doesn't rust. Pour it inside the rack...or not.

At the end of the day, trying to unfuck the rack by sandblasting and painting and acid etching may be less cost effective than buying a new one...I don't know though. I'd probably just roll with it...it takes substantial rust and time to actually eat away at the strength of the metal. Look at construction sites where they are using steel beams...those are out in the elements and it's not that big of a deal.

Just something to think about.

I think Bush had something to do with Jason's power rack collapse. There had to have been explosives involved....

Jason-
I got a response from Matt Rhodes...check your PM.

Rack and bar is fuct! Bar ends don't rotate at all now. The top part of the rack seems somewhat solid or at least it was about to hold my weight swinging around and pulling on it. But as I was swinging around the entire thing kind of lurched to one side a little. I figure the entire thing was under water for about 2 days but the bottom part was under that crap for about 6 days. As the water was down after about 3 days but there was still knee high water in the basement for at least another three days.

Jason,

Take an allen wrench and pull the bar apart, see if you can't lube up the bearings and at least salvage the bar for light work. I'd be hard pressed to believe that you couldn't still use the bar for rows or overhead presses, even with substantial rust on it.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Rhodes. I'll let you know if I do.

yeah that's a decent deal on the barbell. Like I mentioned previously, get ahold of some phosphoric acid, run a wire brush over the bar to knock off the heavy rust and then scrub it down with phosphoric acid...same stuff as NAVAL JELLY if you can find it at the hardware store.

It will leave a parkerized-like finish on the barbell and should inhibit any future rust.

HTH

Some updates. We've talked to a couple lawyers now. It's going to come down to what the bank will accept and want to go through really. Either a short-sale, deed in lieu of, or a full blown foreclosure/bankruptcy. Before we do any of that though we were advised that if we want to be able to buy a house with in the next 3-7 years depending on what happens we need to do it now while we have good credit.

Luckily we do have really good credit. I went to a guy that I've dealt with several times before for realestate and trust a lot. He works with a particular Mortgage broker that has always done a great job and got us pre-approved to buy another home.

We looked at about 12 homes and most all of them were complete junk. One was interesting and one was just about perfect. We went for the just about perfect one. It's a one story with a detached garage. The two bedrooms on the main floor and the living room have nice oak hardwood floors. It is smaller then what we had but the basement is partially finished and I'll probably finish off the rest to help make a little difference.

The family that is selling the house is extremely excited that we are buying the house as they were hoping that they could sell it to someone that was in the flood. It was an inheritance and the daughter and her husband has been fixing it up the past year. They put a new roof on the house last year and a new roof on the garage this year. New siding, new light fixtures, new fans, newer appliances, newly refinished bathroom, new window treatments, new storm windows, new fencing, new carpet in the basement and stairs, and new paint everywhere. They have put a lot of work into the house. They were super nice too. They are leaving everything behind that we need. Lawn mower, weed eater, trimmer, edger, rakes, shovels, dishes, all appliances, lawn chairs, picnic table w/ umbrella, towels, and anything that we need for the house that they don't have there they said they can get and leave there. They are incredible people.

Good shit bro.

How much do houses go for in your area?

Or here where you're looking at 400k and up for something similar.

Word, they've come down a lot here so it's a great time to buy if you're a renter because if you own a home then naturally you won't get as much for it when you sell and move.

Already got the chucks and I just ordered the power rack. I broke down and couldn't help myself. Been saving for the past three months for it and ordered an EliteFTS Power Rack. Only down side is it wont be here for another 6-8 weeks. Bummer. I can't wait to get it. I'll take a trip up to Jesup here in the next few weeks and pick up a really nice barbell and a bench. Then go get some matting to put down on top of some plywood. I'm going to save up now for the Seguin reverse hyper and GHR.

Never heard anything back from Matt Rhodes...but I'm glad you got your trash ordered up anyways.

since you can't train, I've got some bands-theory for you.

Obviously the bands (similarly to the chains) increase resistance as the leverages increase. So in a typical bench setup, the bands would provide the least amount of resistance while the barbell is in the lowest position on the chest. As the weight is pressed out to arms length, the resistance would increase, thus overloading the movement.

For an equipped lifter, I can see where this might be advantageous because the bench shirt is going to provide you with the most support off of the chest and as you press the weight, your body takes on more. In some ways you can say that the bench shirt equalizes the movement to some extent because the weight of the barbell actually differs at various points throughout the movement...at the top of the movement the leverages are the greatest and the weight is no problem, whereas at the bottom of the movement the leverages are the weakest and the weight is perceived to be the heaviest (explains why many folk do not bring the weight all the way to the chest).

Anyhow, I question the value of bands (and chains) to the unequipped lifter. Consider this:

If you can raw bench 300 lbs. from top to bottom and back up again. But you can hit 350 or even 400 on a 3 or 4 board...what value does that have? You still can't get 305 or 310 out of the hole to that 3-4 board point. Same idea with the bands. If the weight is 300 at the bottom but then it increases to say 400 at lockout...yeah it's cool that you can press that, but getting more than 300 out of the hole is what is important.

It almost seems like there'd be a considerable value to working that 0-2 board range somehow.

Unequipped benching definitely needs to hit those lower board ranges and doesn't need to hit lockout strength as much. I've still seen it though where people lifting with out shirts have fatigued at lockout too.

I really liked using bands for speed and repetition work and starting using them for about two to three weeks at a time on DE and RE days. I also used the reverse bands on the bench for supplemental work and really overload the top end just to feel a lot more weight in my hands up there. I think that help psychologically as well. Seeing four wheels on there and being able to press it up regardless of resistance helps trick up the mind.