Meet Bruce Gray.

There is nothing Grey about this man. Once you talk to this man you soon get drawn into his positive outlook in life from his laughter to his high spirits.

Nothing will get in his way, not even one of life’s cruel mishaps that resulted in Bruce crushing his spine, cut his spinal cord, fractured skulland a broken jaw. The day that changed his life forever. His life changed in an instant.

I asked Bruce “how did you move forward from that terrible day in 1994”?

He answered I have had no smell, no taste and cannot walk but as long as I have a pulse, and a heartbeat it is a good day. I saw other people in the rehabilitation center that had no life left in them. So I made sure I pushed myself that much harder to get out of there faster. My hospital stay was suppose to be for six months but I was back on farm in 3 months.

Life Changes.

Selling my Stud horse farm was a change that I needed. although I thought to keep my one horse a Black Thoroughbred Gelding.

I made a special designed saddle that would hold me upright so all I had to do is hold on even with a severed spinal cord. How hard can it be? My past life as a young kid I would clean out stables to watch Tommy Harrison train. I managed to win 43 races back then. There I was again staring at the race that was ahead of me literally and in reality.My mind set was to just hang on and hope you don’t fall off. As you can imagine how well that ended so I sold the horse and went overseas.

WOULD BUNGEE JUMPING MAKE MY LEGS FALL OFF.

This is the question that I asked my local GP before heading overseas to try it. All good my eyes poped out a little but ended up all good.  Not enough challenges there so headed up to Queensland to try flying with Tiger moth joy rides. It wasn’t the rush I was after so tried jumping out of perfectly good plane. My disappointment was felt when I had to jump with an instructor as I could not land on my legs of course but it was just as amazing. Even white water rafting wasn’t a challenge I grab life with both hands and what drives me more and more are people saying ” Can I help you with that Bruce”? This makes me all the more determine to do it myself.

Heading back to Melbourne

Have I had my life’s fix yet? No way your not gone till the fat lady sings? There is a lot of me to give yet so on with the next adventure I went.

Then I found my love of American muscle car’s. I needed a car that matched my personality loud and full of muscle’s? well loud then. So I bought a 1969 soft top corvette but as I got into the car my head was higher than the windscreen. Not a good look so I sold it and imported rolling chassis direct form America. I found a motor builder in Campbellfield and they built my lumpy motor from the ground up.

Once that was done the Corvette Stingray was bought home to the farm and I put in a new T 400 gearbox replaced all bushes. I bought heaps of different parts from the US rewired all the instruments so i could steer and brake using the hand controls fitted for driving purposes. The modifications meet with Vic roads standards,so all good there. The project took a year and a half. I was stoked to drive her.

PROCESSION THAT STOPPED A CORVETTE

A very close friend of mine who was also into loud muscle cars and had a passion for the GT Mustang, FX Holden died suddenly only at the age of 47. We decided to gather some Classic and American muscle cars to make some noise as hearing the roar of a V8 motor, smelling the scent of burning rubber would be a great send off for him so we decided to take to the road in a procession and make the day a memorable one.

The funeral was in Warrigal and raining heavy. I was at a T-intersection and hit some water which made the Corvette Stingray slide sideways and kissed a nearby tree.. So that was that. The Corvette sat at home for a month and a half before I found a panel beater willing to take on such a repair.

The Corvette Stingray then came to PJ’s Panels for fiberglass repairs. One of the major challenges was finding a heat shield repair specialist and a new side exhaust as the existing one was too far gone. I had to source parts from the states. Apart from that the repair went without a worry.

This is a man that has had all life’s crap thrown at him at high speed but has never let it get to him. You are an inspiring person Bruce Gray .

Thank you for choosing PJ’s Panels are your preferred fiberglass repairer.

Author Sandra \All rights as mine.