He loves family, gemstones, mineral specimens, mining, old cars, and close friends.
He has traveled to many countries in search of gemstones, exotic minerals and new friendships.
Frank Hines
Frank was born in Bainbridge Maryland and grew up in San Diego California roaming the hills of its many famous Mining Districts with his friend Glen Frost. Glen taught him the value of a hard day’s work and respect. Along with many other life lessons that have made the foundation of who he is today.
Frank has 4 children. He feels blessed because his children have grown up to be responsible and caring adults that any parent would be proud of. His youngest is just graduating high school and is planning on studying engineering in college. Frank has coached high school football and wrestling for many years.
Frank spent 27 years in the military (Army) and is now retired. This allowed him the freedom of travel and of meeting many people he would have not of otherwise encountered. With proper planning he fully retired at age 47.
Frank has traveled the world and enjoys experiencing exotic places in faraway lands. You can read about Frank's adventures via links within this website.
Frank’s newest interest is in rebuilding Ford Model A cars. He has recently rebuilt one and is in the process of doing a complete off frame restoration on another. Continue on to see pictures and video of his 1928 Model A-AR Ford completely restored in 2017.
I'm really good at:
Travel
95%
Working With My Head and Hands
90%
Gems, Minerals, & Mining
85%
14+
Partners
55+
Projects Done
89+
Happy Clients
150+
Meetings
TRAVEL
FRANK'S TRAVELS
I have traveled to many countries buying and selling gem stones, jewelry, mineral specimens, art, and lapidary equipment. Those countries include Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Cambodia, India, and Saudi Arabia. I have experience with diamonds, moissanite (synthetic diamond), beryl (emerald, aquamarine, morganite), zircon, tourmaline, chrysoberyl, garnet, quartz (ametrine), and corundum (ruby and saphire).
Here are links to web pages about various adventures I have taken.
How to Start and Drive 1928 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan.
The Model A Ford
Model A Ford Engine Valve Adjustment.
Ford Model A Assembly.
Rare Film: Introduction Of The 1928 Ford Model A.
John Karal: Ford Model A Transmission.
THE UNIVERSE
THE UNIVERSE
Here is some information about the universe that I thought was worth sharing.
Now let me blow your mind! Try to wrap your head around this.
The earth spins at around 1000 miles per hour at the equator..
The earth rotates around the sun at about 67,000 miles per hour.
The sun is rotating around the galaxy about 559,000 miles per hour (250 km/s according to Vera Rubin, the lady who discovered this in the 1970's). In fact, the majority of the suns in all galaxies rotate around their respective galaxy very close to this same speed. No one really knows exactly why this is. It is being explained as the result of dark matter.
Our galaxy along with the local group of galaxies nearest to our galaxy are moving through space at about 1,340,000 miles per hour.
Space itself is expanding at about 152,112 miles per hour.
Add it all up and we are traveling through space at more than 2,000,000 miles per hour. Other estimates say upwards of 2.8 million miles per hour. The estimated speed of our galaxy depends on what reference in space is used to make the measurement which gives us this potential 0.8 million mile per hour variation in speed. Anyway, that is somewhere between 550 and 800 miles per second. In any case it is fast - damn fast.
It's hard to imagine traveling that fast. It's impossible to relate to these speeds especially when we feel like we are not moving at all.
As a comparison, the speed of light is 6.706e+8 mph or 670,600,000 miles per hour.
That is about 300 times faster than we are traveling through space.
How about a look at another mind blowing feature of our universe - the smallest to the biggest.
The Smallest to the Biggest thing in the Universe!
