4/18/06

Ok, so here’s what happened. It seems as though I forgot to send the rant to Spiderman yesterday. Oops. So instead of spreading the story of the weekend out to two or three days, it will all hit you at once, albeit in separate dates in the archive. Having said that, we move on with the narrative. Saturday morning I slept in a bit. I went straight to Lowe’s for license mounting hardware and another phone holster. Oh, I forgot to mention that part. Before going to the shop Friday I stopped at Lowe’s for some “R” clips to secure the new latches on the hood of the Seven. While waiting in line I noticed the display of phone holsters they had. I tried my phone in the smallest one and liked it so I bought one. When I got home I tried the company phone in it and it fit even better. I decided to buy one for that phone as well. So, I have the hardware for the license and another phone holster and I'm heading for the shop. As I'm passing the Ford/Mazda/Lexus dealer I notice a Lotus Elise sitting out front. It is obviously not a customer’s car as it is sitting on the grassy knoll by the road to entice folks like me. I bust a “U” turn and head back. It is a 2005 with a hardtop. It is purple. I'm in love. I go in to ask about it and find out they want $45,000.00 for it. He tells me to have a look, sit in it, and see what I think. I do that. I have heard horror stories about ingress and egress with the Elise but it wasn’t nearly as hard as Pat's Miata with a roll cage. It pinches my butt just a bit but other than that it is awesome. I go back in to tell him I don’t think I could buy it because of the seat but he offers me the keys before I can say anything. Well, I'm not going to let a little discomfort keep me from driving it! I take the keys and head back out to the car. I fold myself in again and fire it up. I wait for a gap and take off down Bryant Irvin Road. It pulls nicely and attracts a lot of attention. I row through the gears and head for the Dam Road to Benbrook. I get to 377 and head for the freeway. Crossing the railroad tracks at speed I realize I need slightly softer springs in the Seven. I rip up onto the freeway and head for the house to show mom. She’s not there. Damn! I head back out to the freeway and back to the dealership. I really dig the car and I think with a little massaging the seat could be made to fit my butt. There are two blind spots where the rear sails go down from the roof to the deck that I'd have to get used to as well. The air works but there is some wind noise with the windows up. I'm not sure if it is inherent or if the hardtop was not fit properly. Anyhoo, all complaints aside, it was one sweet ride! I hand the keys back and tell him that I couldn’t really justify it because of the seat. I didn’t really want to go into everything and left it at that. I had mentioned seeing how it drove compared to my Lotus before taking off so I decided I would come back with the Seven. I drove back to the dealer in the Seven and decided that it pulls a little better, is easier to get in and out of (believe it or not), and won’t cost me an additional $45,000.00 to have. I figured if I sold all of my cars, got rid of the shop, and made that my only vehicle, I could afford the Elise. I'm not doing that. The sales guy is busy when I get back so I leave to install the front plate. I get back to the shop and park the car inside. I walk to the front and take a look at the nose to see how and where I can install a front plate. The radiator is closer to the front than I remembered so my plan for a swinging plate behind the grille is right out. I go ahead and pull the nose cone and take it to the bench to see what I can see. I experiment with various places for the plate. I decide against putting it behind the grille for fear I'd block too much cooling air from the radiator. I look at my secondary swinging plate location under the nose and decide I really don’t like that all that much either. I ditch plans to trim the plate down to just the numbers to make it somewhat of a European style plate behind the grille. I look at, but not very seriously, mounting it on top of the nose in front of the Datsun emblem. Perhaps it would work if it was trimmed down to a Euro-style, but I'm not sure of the legality of trimming the plate. I finally decided to just mount the damned thing down at the bottom of the nose under the grille and let it hang. I may in the future come back and put the hinges in, but I doubt it. I reinstall the nose and stand back for a look. It will grow on me because it doesn’t look totally like ass now. Next I decide to fix the side marker light that hasn’t worked right from the beginning. I pull the headlight and check the wiring. It is fine. I swap the wires and the light still doesn’t work. I remove the light socket to discover the lamp inside is rattling around. It had broken loose from itself and was no good. I lock up and head for the Boys of Pep to buy another light. While there I decide to go ahead and buy some more car wash soap and a sprayer for the hose. I head back to the shop and put the Seven’s headlight back together. It works now! I roll the car out and wash it. I do it like the one time I did the Cobra. I tried to keep water incursions in the cockpit to a minimum, but didn’t really sweat it all that much. With the car clean, or at least cleaner than it was, and rinsed I realized I had nothing to dry it with. I found a flannel shirt and used it as a chamois. It worked pretty well too. I climbed in the driver’s seat to wipe down the dash and gauges and they look 100% better. I decided that since I was already in the seat I might as well park it. I turned the key and fired up the engine. It started and ran even with all the water I had sprayed on it, oh and the shower caps still on the carburetor trumpets. Of course as soon as I touched the throttle they sucked flat against the screens and choked it to near-death. I got out and removed the caps then got back in and parked it. I wiped off a few more water drips and stood back to look it over. It looks good clean, or at least clean-er than it was, but it still has water spots on the aluminum. I'm not going to do anything about them though because I'm just that lazy and it is just a “hammer.” Well, I need to go do some actual work for a bit and I've gone way past my two-page cutoff point. I'll talk to y’all tomorrow, if I remember to send this in today!