11/12/07

Well, here we are on another Monday. I did a little work on George this weekend while John cleaned and painted the wheels for Marty. They look soooooooooo good. I wasn’t sure about the mesh being all black until he had one done. Oh yeah, they look tits! Thank you for doing that Mr. Roper. Now you can go back to giving Jack, Chrissie, and Janet a hard time. [ I surely wouldn 't mind giving Janet a hard time, if you know what I mean... - SM ] What I accomplished was the removal of the 3.90:1 ring and pinion third member in preparation for the installation of the welded differential 4.11:1 R&P unit. I didn’t go ahead with the installation for two reasons. One, I was flat “wore out” from removing the old unit and B) John finished with my wheels and was ready to go to lunch. George, the dude rather than the car this time, is probably laughing at me for being a wuss and tiring out after only one differential. Well, “Go soak yer head ya old coot!” is all I have to say to him about that. After lunch, Marty Smith and I went to the Motorsport Ranch to see if Ray was there so I could buy the oil to do an oil change in Matilda. He was and he had the oil I wanted. He didn’t have the filter though so I said I'd get it at O’Reilley’s on the way back. I paid for the oil and we headed north. I decided I didn’t really feel like changing the oil after all and drove Mr. Wiggly home. Marty wanted to check out an Equipe Rapide autocross in Mineral Wells on Sunday so we decided that he’d call me when he was done running errands with his mom. I stopped at O’Reilley’s for the oil filter and bought the one Ray’s book listed for the Versa. I asked the guy to check the computer and it showed Ray had transposed the last two numbers. I bought the filter their computer said was right. Marty called while I was en route so I didn’t hear him. I called back and he said he was on his way. I changed and waited for him. He arrived and I hopped in the truck. We drove to MW and he spoke to all the people he knew. It was weird being the fifth wheel for a change. Lately it has been the case where I know the crowd of gearheads and whoever is with me is the outsider. Not this time. I felt like a slack-jawed yokel hanging out with his big-city cousin at that event. Everyone started packing up so we headed to a scary little hamburger joint he knew about for lunch. It was pretty good, for what it was. From there we headed back to the shop and I started looking for a place to change Matilda’s oil. Wasn’t that a movie back in the eighties? Oh wait, I've used that “joke” before. Never mind. I decided against trying to do it behind the Seven in that bay and drove one wheel up onto the “porch” in front of the door. I had a look under the hood and could see the old filter. Guess what; remember the transposed numbers up above? Well, the filter on the car had the number Ray gave me, not the number the computer said. I decided to look at the oil itself on the dipstick to see if I could wait another week. It looked good so I decided I could. I'll buy the other filter and compare the three when I do change the oil. I think the only difference is the total height of the filter but we’ll see. I cleaned up and went home. I finished watching “The Venture Brothers, Season II” on DVD and eventually went to bed. Oh, mom and I went to Taco Casa for dinner at some point as well. So, that get’s y'all up to speed with me I guess. I have more about the gauges for Marty but I think I'll save it for tomorrow. Toodles.