4/10/06

The Pimpmobile is one cross-country, mileage-throwin’-down machine! John and I took a run to Houston on Saturday to bring a car back and once again were amazed at how easy the trip was on us. We got there and both couldn’t believe we had just spent five hours on the road. If I ever have to do a long trip again in a car, I hope I still have this one. Oh sure, we were beat down by the trip by the end but we also spent two hours, somehow, loading the car on the trailer. That was another “time warp” situation we had trouble believing. It felt like maybe half an hour there but it was a solid two. I'm still not convinced we weren’t abducted by aliens at some point. I did ask John if we still had four kidneys between us. But anyhoo, the drive was easy peasy. I mentioned mileage above but want to differentiate gas mileage from distance-traveled mileage. The gas mileage SUCKED as usual once we had a car on the trailer. John managed to get nearly the same mileage on the way down as I get without the trailer on a daily basis, around 22 to 23 MPG, but it dropped to around 14 MPG with a car on the trailer. I'd go into the whole story of the trip to Houston, but you pretty much have the gist of it already. In other words, Saturday was a total wash with a drive to Houston and back. Sunday I decided to go for a hoon in the Seven, big surprise! I hoon for a bit but I'm still a little road-weary from Saturday so I make it a short hoon. I head out Old Granbury Road to 1187 to 377 to 1187 again and the FM5 in Aledo. There are no cars heading onto FM5 so I turn left and begin my run backwards from my usual route. I make the entire run without catching slower traffic and feel pretty good about it. I decide to head back via I-20 so I take FM5 all the way there. On the access road and up the ramp I rev up through 6,500 RPM in the first three gears. That car sounds so sweet with the dual SU carburetors! By the time I shift to third I'm already over the speed limit but pull third to the top of the tachometer anyway. I shoot onto the freeway and around a Hardly-Dumbasson and a big rig. I finally grab fifth at about 80 MPH and let the car settle into traffic speed. At the I-20/I-30 split, I roll into the gas again to shoost past some slower cars and the thing just flies up to 90! Downshift my ass; it isn’t necessary. I settle back down to a more reasonable speed when the wind buffeting my eardrums gets on my nerves. No, I didn’t have the earplugs in as a matter of fact. Yes, I should have but I didn’t. So I head back to the shop with the intention of parking the Seven and then welding up the hole in Mr. Wiggly's header. I do just that. Well, I didn’t park the Seven right away, I left it outside just in case I needed to go for another hoon. I made a patch for the hole in the header and zook it on. I hit the hot spot with some black paint to match the rest of the header and declare it “ready to install.” I then go looking for the 32/36 I'm going to use on Mr. Wiggly. I find the one I had cut the choke tower off of along with the albatross. I begin to take it apart to see what kind of idle jets it has. You don’t have to take a DGV apart to see what kind of idle jets it has. They are under the screw caps on the side of the carburetor. I discovered that after having it all apart. Live and learn. “Why did you need to know what kind of idle jets it had?” I hear you asking. Well, let me tell you. I found a website selling re-jet kits for the 32/36 but they require information such as that to send the right stuff. I made the mental note and ordered my kit this morning. Once I had it all back together I started looking at fabricating a synchronous opening throttle linkage. I had zero luck with that by the way. Hey! It’s noon! I'm going to lunch now. And I'm back. So I had no success with the synchronous linkage and put it all back together as a progressive carburetor. I then decided to go ahead and bolt it to the adapter just to keep it all together. I threaded the studs into the adapter and then attached the carburetor. Mom called while I was doing that and the new holster for my phone terminally pissed me off. The clip was a pain in the ass to get on the belt but came off the belt before the phone came out of the holster. I burned the fucker on the front porch of the shop. It didn’t even survive a week with me. Now I'm carrying my phone in my pocket because I'm too pissed off about the whole situation to buy another holster. Oh, mom was just calling to say she was home from church and we could do dinner whenever I came home, no emergency or anything. I finished up with the DGV and stood back to look at the manifold for Barbecue Bob. Oh, by the way, the DGV adapter, Edelbrock Torker II, and valve springs all arrived Friday. I took them, along with the header and valves that arrived Thursday, to the shop Friday when I went to get the trailer for the trip Saturday. The head should be arriving Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. So, I'm still grokking the manifold when I decide I've had enough shop time. I shut off the welder, park the Seven, wash up, and lock up. Mom and I decide to not go out but have some Spam and macaroni & cheese for dinner instead. The rest of the evening is a non-event. Well, that about wraps it up for today’s entry. Buh bye.