1/29/07

I had a rather interesting weekend. Saturday, John and I met up at the butt crack of dawn to transport engines. We moved George out and backed Mr. Wiggly up to the door. We loaded the VG-30 and five-speed, along with some other bits, into the back and rolled towards John Ullom’s house. There we unloaded the engine and other bits then rolled to the other place to pick up the L-20b. That guy has some interesting stuff. We shot the breeze with him for a while and then headed to Dick Brink’s for the Tail of the Dragon meeting. I was an hour late but it didn’t matter all that much. We discussed stuff and then all took our leave. John and I headed towards the shop, had lunch at Sweet Home Chicago, and finally made it there. John wanted to swap wheels from his orange four-door to the 210 so he pulled into the bay. The next to the last lug nut spun the stud in the axle. He replaced the lug nuts on the other three, put the other four tires back on, and said the new owner would have to deal with it. While he was doing that, I installed my stress bars on Matilda. The one last item we were going to do Saturday was go look at a B-210 that a lady was trying to get rid of since the city was on her about it. We blew that off since we had started the day so early. I called her later to set a time to see the car on Sunday. We agreed on noon but she called later to bump it to 1700 h. I called Pat to see if he and his truck would be available to help get the thing and he said yes. Sunday morning, around 1100 h, I called him to see if he wanted to go to the swap meet at La Grave, or La Grange, or whatever the Cats baseball stadium thing is called. We went and froze out butts off walking the few remaining vendors. We go in knowing we won’t find anything but we go anyway. We didn’t find anything. About halfway through I remembered I do have a Slant Six and a small block Chevy so there were possible items to be found for me. I still didn’t find anything. We bailed out off there and went to Phu Lam for some Pho soup. He got a phone call and had to go home so I dropped him off. He said to call him when I was headed for the shop and he’d meet me there. I went home and took a nap. Around 1600 h I called him as I was headed to the shop. I arrived and moved the brown 210 out of the way. Pat backed up to the trailer and hooked up while I looked for the straps. They have grown legs. We decided to stop at Lowe’s on the way and buy new straps, which we did. I forgot the directions but thought I knew them well enough. I didn’t. We got lost and I had to call the lady. When we found the place I got out to have a look at the car. It was typical of a thirty-year-old car that has sat for a while. The lady’s husband was out in the yard and showed it to me. He reached in and fired it up. It started and ran really well. I was impressed. I climbed in and gave the pedals a try. Clutch and brakes went to the floor. Oh well, that was what she had told me over the phone. I asked if she’d take $200.00 for it wishing I had broken one of the twenties in my wallet earlier so I could offer $150.00 but not bad enough to ask Pat if he had a ten on him. I don’t like offering weird numbers like $140.00 or $160.00 so I went whole hog. It’s only money anyway. He went inside to see if she’d go for it and came back with a yes. I handed over the cash and we loaded it on the trailer. It rolls surprisingly well and we had little trouble pushing it on. We strapped it down and headed for the shop. I decided that it would take up a lot less space if we left it on the trailer for the time being so we did. And there you have it, my story about the latest addition to the DLR family. I'm seriously considering the faux rally car again. This one has a roof rack that would make a good starting point for spare tire rack. It has a four-speed so tall tires will help on the freeway. It is just nice enough but simultaneously just rough enough to be a rally beater. Well, that’s about all I have to say today. I'll talk to y'all tomorrow.