3/20/06

Well, Killer is gone. Long live Killer. Here’s how it went down. Saturday morning I awoke to rain. Joy. I drove to the shop and hooked up the trailer. I couldn’t remember if John and I agreed on 0800 or 0900 so I got there around 0830. I was in the process of rounding up all of Killer's bits when John arrived. Actually, I was searching for the chain we use for the engine hoist and come-along. I had loaded the straps and come-along in the Pimpmobile but couldn’t find the chain. I was just about convinced I had left it at Gregg’s when John asked if the chain on the table was long enough. It was the one I was looking for. We got in Pimpulus and drove to the dude’s house where John was buying the 510. John commented that it was greener than he remembered but I think he still had his St. Patrick’s Day contact lenses in or something. The car is baby, oh sorry, powder blue. I need to run for a bit. I'll be back. Ok, so where was I? Right, we’re at the dude’s house looking at the car. I back the trailer into the driveway and we start loading parts into it and then it onto the trailer. While John and the dude load more stuff, I tie the thing down to the trailer. Oh, the rain stopped as we pulled up and held off as we loaded. It started up again when we left. We jump out and wait for it to let up but it doesn’t. We decide to go ahead and unload in the rain. Once we have the car parked, trailer dropped, and stuff out of the back of the Pimpmobile, we call the guy from Austin. He’s about an hour and a half out yet so we go to lunch. We get back to the shop and sit in the car to wait. Just about the time I decide to restart the car to warm up the air and defog the windows, he calls to say he’s on Granbury road. We drive to the gate to meet him. I lead him back around to the shop and the rain lets up again. We grok the car for a bit and he pays me. They fill the float bowl with carburetor cleaner and drop in a battery. It fires right up, after a few cranks of course, and settles into an idle, after a few restarts of course. He drives it up to the trailer and breaks his 2x6 ramps in half. I offer to get the shorty ramps that came with my trailer and as we’re carrying them back from the shop John says, “We’re never going to use these. You might as well give them to him.” I do that. So they get the car on the trailer and tie it down then leave. John heads home and I do the same. I was only slightly bummed to see it go, but then again I never really did anything with it to get too attached. It was a cool looking car and it did sound good, but I think a V8 in Barbecue Bob will satisfy those needs. Having said that, I'm thinking of putting Barbecue Bob on e-Bay now. I'm not going to do it for a week or two, if ever, but it is on my mind. I've been shopping for engines to no avail. I think I'm going to have to make a solid commitment and tell John to find me an engine and transmission for it. He’ll want to see the money first I'll bet. Well, I'm going to wait until George is going, I think, before I “tell” John to find me something. Speaking of George, I did a few more things on the turbo project Sunday. Not much mind you, but a little. First off, I brought some little “shower caps” to cover the “tea strainers” on the trumpets of the Seven and popped them on. Next, I decided that no matter what carburetor I use on the turbo, I'm going to use the bend I made for it. I still needed to weld the bend to the flange piece with the PCV port. I fired up the TIG and zooked them together. I probably shouldn’t have been welding in that weather but hey, something’s going to kill me someday and it might as well be something I enjoy doing. I quenched the weld and started looking at the brace I was making last week. I went ahead and zooked it together as well. I installed all of that and I think I like the way it turned out. I think it will work. Next I began to look at making a heat shield for the intake manifold where it is in proximity to the up pipe. I didn’t like the nipple I had made for the boost signal so I began looking for something else. I wound up making a banjo bolt that would do the job. I was pushing my luck working in good pants so I decided to leave it at that. Oh, I did cut off the down pipe as well since it would never work in the orientation I had it. I'll re-weld that once I have the engine in the car and can see where it needs to go. Well, it is now 1110, I think I'm going to call it a day in the blog and go have some lunch. Buh bye.