5/7/07

I was really busy Friday. I've been kind of busy this morning as well but I've finally gotten a chance to sit down and talk to y'all. First off, John is on board with a storefront shop except for the location I had picked out. It is too close to my house apparently. Gregg shot the idea down entirely saying that with a storefront I'm always going to have slack jawed yokels wandering in looking to buy stuff and bothering me. I had, but then again hadn’t, thought of that fact so I'm going to forget the storefront idea. Of course, while talking to Gregg we discussed building a place in Boyd again and he has me all fired up to do that. I guess that’s fair since I have him all fired up to build a Seven. We’ll see. So, Saturday morning I meet John at the shop and find he has already done a bunch of work on his 510. I get there with every intention of putting George on stands and working underneath. I wind up playing with that supercharger. I found an A-12 water pump pulley and sized it up to the snout of the blower. I liked it. I took the snout to the drill press and drilled out, duh, the rest of the rivets from the old pulley assembly. Then I took it to the wire brush and wire brushed, duh again, the rubber off so I could do some welding. I sized up how I wanted it all zooked and held it in the vice. I zooked it together. With it back on the supercharger I gave it a spin to see how straight I got it. I did pretty well if I do say so myself. I did finally grab the jack and put George on stands eventually. We both messed around with stuff for a while then went to Freebird’s for some free burritos. We each still had a free burrito card from that time they ran out of meat right before we got there. The chick recognized us and apologized again. We ordered and ate. John went, I assume, home and I went back to the shop. My brother and sister-in-law were at the house with their grandbaby thing so I didn’t really want to return there. Have I mentioned I don’t like babies? Well I don’t like infants, babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, or young adults up to about twenty-five. In fact, I'm all for abortions up through the 104^th trimester. Do the math I'll wait. Ok, so I didn’t want to go home and went to the shop instead. I decided to continue wasting time with the supercharger. I thought about it for some time and finally decided on the blow through system. I took the aluminum pipe with the blow-off valve flange and squished the end a tad. With that oval, I welded it to the top-hat carburetor thingy. It turned out pretty well. Not beautiful, but really nice for my aluminum welding ability. I moved on to the discharge housing and tube. I tried to weld those together and wound up making a huge mess. I cut it apart and started over. I used another piece of the tubing like I'd used on the top hat because it was thicker. I got them zooked but it isn’t pretty. It is in serious need of some port work. I cooled the parts and assembled them. I spun the blower with the drill motor and played with closing off the suction and discharge sides. It really does require a remarkable amount of energy to spin that thing when it is making boost or trying to pump vacuum. I finally got tired of messing with all of that and decided to brave the family. I went home. I said, “Hi,” to everyone and went up to take a shower. When I was clean again I came back down and hung out with them until they left. Mom and I went to Sonic for hamburgers and I wasted the rest of the evening. Sunday morning I decided I was going to buy a slide hammer so I could pull those axles and zook up the spider gears on the 4.11 R&P differential. At 0900 h I went to Harbor Freight. I walked all the isles at least three times. I searched the entire store. Finally, I asked someone and got a blank stare. “What’s a slide hammer?” he said. I described it and he pointed to an isle I had looked at four times. I left. I went to O’Reilly’s. I walked the tool isle and searched. I was asked if I needed help so I told him what I was looking for. “What’s a slide hammer?” he said. I described it and he shrugged. He looked in the back and said they didn’t have any. I left. I went to Lowe’s. I searched the tool section and was asked if I needed help. “What’s a slide hammer?” he said. I described it and he asked someone else. Nope, they don’t carry them either. I was beginning to think 1) the government had banned slide hammers because they were dangerous and therefore no one could sell them anymore, or B) I was high and there really wasn’t such a tool. But I've used one before; I know they do exist! I moved on. I headed for Tractor Supply on 377 but got sidetracked by Jack-In-The-Box tacos, two for 99 cents. I stopped and ate eight. There was a catfight in the drive through between two women in their cars. It was broadcast throughout the restaurant. Have I ever mentioned how I have a problem with fast-food joints being called “restaurants?” Anyhoo, when I'm finished I decide to go home and help mom get her stuff out to her car so she can go to Granbury to see my sister. At home I watch a little TV and nap a bit until she gets home from church. My sister called while I was waiting and said to have mom call her, as they weren’t going to College Station after all so mom didn’t need to come to Granbury. I relayed the message and then left for the shop again. Oh, by now it is about 1300 h or so. I decided to try Southerland’s Hardware out by my house to look for the slide hammer. “What’s a slide hammer?” he said. I described it and he also said they didn’t have one. I went to the BoP. This guy at least knew what one was and searched the isle with me before declaring that they must have sold the last one. I left. I went to Vato-Zone. I searched the isles and guess what I found on the bottom shelf of the bodywork isle! Nothing. Just kidding, I found not one but TWO slide hammers! I bought one and a pair of bolt cutters just because I've always wanted some. So, five hours and six locations later, I have a slide hammer. I head for the shop finally. I pull the axles, which it turns out didn’t really need the hammer after all, oh well. I get the third member in the vice and hose it down with carburetor cleaner. I let it dry for a bit and start zooking. I melt the teeth together on one side gear and the other gear to the housing then flip the differential to do the same on the other side. I let it cool so as to not be glowing then pour on oil to cool it more. I turn the pinion to rotate the ring gear through the oil and watch as the remaining carburetor cleaner boils off in a spectacular display. As I'm turning it it tumps over and pours hot oil all over my arm. I clean it up and dump more oil in to continue the cooling. I do this a few more times, avoiding the hot oil on the arm bit as much as possible, and finally get the thing cooled down. I continue to play with it for a while and finally get tired of being hot, sweaty, oily, and dirty. I clean up and go home. I shave and shower then waste the rest of the evening in front of the TV. Now I'm back at work but I want to build a shop in Boyd so I can “retire” and build T-Buckets, Track T Roadsters, hot rod Datsuns, and Lotus Seven replicas. By the way, all of those would be built for sale, except for the Datsuns and the existing Seven of course. Well, I'm just about out of stuff to say and it is lunchtime. I think I'll stop now.