11/2/07

I'm dumb. I just ordered fuel level, oil pressure, and water temperature gauges, an aluminum mounting panel for them, and a battery relocation kit for Marty. I also bought an MSD High Vibration Blaster coil for the Seven while I was throwing away money. So, in addition to the $200.00 worth of tires and the $175.00 or so for the speedometer and tachometer, none of which I need right now, I just dropped another $275.00 for more car parts which are going to sit there until I'm ready to use them. Well, it isn’t like this is a new thing. There is several hundreds of dollars worth of parts sitting in Barbecue Bob for that V8 project. Oh, have I mentioned I'm probably not going to build a V8 powered 610 after all? On the plus side, I may be able to recoup a fraction of my money back on those bits. I'll pop them up on e-Bay as a “performance kit” or something. Let’s see, what do I have in that pile? Well in no particular order, there’s the used Edelbrock Torker II intake manifold, a used Edelbrock 600 cfm carburetor, a pair of used GM “ram’s horn” exhaust manifolds, a new Edelbrock cam & lifter kit matched to that intake manifold, a new electric water pump for a small block Chevy, a new gear drive for the cam, that new HEI distributor which started all of this, a transmission bell housing, and I'm sure more. I wonder what all of that will fetch on auction. Pennies on the dollar, I'm sure. Oh well, something is better than it all wasting away in my shop. I need to remember to ask John to bring his camera tomorrow so we can get some shots of all that and post it up. Oh, I guess I just did since I'll be sending this off to him tonight. Well, there you go. I guess I should have got a spot at the swap meet and tried to sell them there. Perhaps the next one if I can’t get rid of the stuff on e-Bay. I know someone is going to suggest Craig’s list. Well, I still haven’t made that list part of my internot repertoire. Yes, I am exactly that lazy. Perhaps John will figure out a way to trick me into using it. We’ll see. Ok, so what else can I say today? Oh, I know. I just thought of another couple of examples of buying parts I don’t need yet. First off is the turbo engine that is going in George. I dropped $1,500.00 on machine shop work for an engine which sat for many years and still hasn’t run. I also bought that SDS fuel injection system for it, that’s going to waste. And there’s the VG-33 sitting in the corner waiting to go in the Chickenhawk. At least I didn’t pay a lot for that. Damn, I am just a money hemorrhage, am I not? I just did a little cipherin’ and figgerin’ and I'm pretty sure I have frittered away over $300,000.00, with damned little to show for it, in the last several years. That’s well over a quarter of a million dollars! I guess I'm good for the economy. I could hang my hat on that nail. Ok, this line of thinking is depressing me. Well, actually it really isn’t but I'm ready to move on. So I was thinking about George’s paint the other day. I think I'm going to go with flat black. I just need to be careful to not get zebra stripes when I do it. I think I know how to avoid them: ask John to paint it! I know if I start in with a spray can, he’ll take it away and do it. Of course I could go to Pearl Harbor, er I mean Harbor Fright, make that Harbor Freight and buy a spray gun so we could do it “right” but that just isn't the Dimlight Racing way. So, yeah, flat black will, for the time being, be the color for George. Of course if we did buy a spray gun I could probably do Plum Crazy after all. The $1,000,000.00 question is: is George straight enough to be painted with a shiny color? Probably not. I know I'm not going to invest the time and/or money to make it straight enough so perhaps I'll stick with flat black after all, even if we do it with a proper spray gun. Yes, a “Rat Rod” is how I want to build George. There, as it is written, so let it be! Oz has spoken! Ok, on a different note, remember how I was listening to Leon Redbone and then The Little River Band yesterday? Well, so far today I've been through Manhattan Transfer and now I'm listening to Milli Vanilli’s “Girl You Know It’s True.” [ You are such a queen... - SM ] Yes, you read that right. It really isn't a bad album. So what if Rob and Fab didn’t really sing it? The studio artists who did were really good. Ok, so it is a little dated now but it isn't bad, that’s all I'm saying. Well, I think I'm just about talked out for the week. Perhaps I'll have something interesting to say Monday. We’ll see.