10/10/06

I’ve got nothing. Seriously, I can’t think of a single thing I want to talk about. Oh wait. I need to finish the story of the weekend, don’t I? Ok, let me run to the archive and see where I left off. All right, I had made it back to the shop from the Motorsport Ranch but wasn’t ready to call it a day yet. I decided to go to the Boys of Pep and buy the lug nuts for the 15x10 wheels. Before going though I did a little math to see what size tires I wanted. I had a list of several from 235/70-15 up through 335/50-15. I knew a 235 would be on the narrow side for a 10” wheel but had it on the list nonetheless. I drove Mr. Wiggly to the BoP and parked next to a mid-seventies Corvette way off at the far edge of the lot. Tee hee. Inside I found the lug nuts I wanted, well 16 of the 20 at least. I also looked at the tire selection. I decided on a set of 275/60-15s at $64.00 a piece. I wandered around for a bit and finally talked myself out of buying them because I wasn’t sure just how much I had in my checking account. I bought the 16 lug nuts and asked if they might have more in the back. They did not but told me the Hwy 80 store did. I headed back to the shop. I began playing with the lug nuts trying to decide the best way to take up the small gap around them. See, the holes in the wheels are huge and even these over sized nuts were a loose fit. It turns out that conduit is just about the right thickness to take up the slack. Unfortunately the only conduit I had was too small in diameter. I did have a piece of bigger stuff but it got used in John's seat bracket the other day. I decided that I'd make a cut down the side of each bit of conduit and spread it out to make my shims. I may change my mind when installation time comes though. I cut out a shim the right length, opened it up, and slid it on a lug nut. I tried it in the wheel and it fit nicely. I bolted it to the adapter and it looked good except the lug nuts are too long. I decided against using extra washers because I'd need three per nut. I decided to go ahead and cut off the lug nuts. I used the shim as a guide and cut off the excess length on the first lug nut. I chased the threads and chamfered the end. I tried it on the wheel and adapter and it snugged up nicely. I think it is going to work. I sat down and looked at the other 15 lug nuts I'd have to cut and decided to call it a day. I went home and goofed off the rest of the evening. Mom wanted to go to lunch Sunday so I waited for her to get home from church. We went to Saltgrass for steaks. I took a quick nap with the cat on my lap afterwards and headed out at about 1500h. I went to the Hwy 80 BoP and bought another eight lug nuts. Why eight, you ask, because one of the packages from Saturday was missing its washers. I may take it back for my $8.00 and I may not. We’ll see. I went to the shop and got ready to work. I cut out the 20 little sections of conduit then made the cuts in all the sides. I grabbed lug nuts one by one and began cutting off excess. When I had the first set of five done I decided that since I wasn’t buying tires for another week or two there was no reason to wear myself out cutting all of the lug nuts at once. I put them away and went to work on the heater block plate for the Seven. I had bought a piano hinge at Lowe’s when I bought the studs for Mr. Wiggly's air filter on Saturday. I took that to the car and sized up how long I'd need it. I'm going to need it for a long time; I'm installing it on my car! I decided that cutting it in half would be perfect. I did that. I began to think about how I wanted to make the door. Aluminum would be the lightest but I could weld steel to the hinge. I looked around for inspiration. I saw the metal plate I had bought to make the base of the velocity stack air filter for Mr. Wiggly. It was perfect. I took some more measurements and cut out a piece. I clamped it in the vice and turned down the voltage on the welder. I zooked it together. I got greedy and burned a hole at the edge. I got pissed and burned “FUK” through the middle of the door and threw it outside. I cut out another steel door and zooked it to the other half of the hinge. This time I kept my entire weld to the middle of the hinge. I wire brushed the slag off and taped up the chrome hinge then painted the bare steel with Hammer Time. When it was just almost dry, I took the tape off and riveted the hinge to the scuttle. I installed the Velcro to hold it shut, almost, and the Velcro to hold it open, slightly better, then had a look. Yep, lots of fingerprints to annoy John, my work is done. I decided to go ahead and cut one more set of five lug nuts for Mr. Wiggly then called it a weekend. So, there you have it. I'll probably buy the tires and get them on Mr. Wiggly soon. You’ll hear about it when it happens. Have a day.