12/6/07

Ok, so here’s what I couldn’t tell y'all yesterday. I'm babysitting a Board Meeting outside the Bored Room. We’re supposed to keep those things on the QT beforehand but since the thing will be over before any of y'all read this, I figure it won’t matter now. Last night I went to the shop to “help” Pat put his KA-24 on an engine stand. While waiting for him to arrive I hit my “Sunny Coupe” badge with some steel wool and re-painted what I was calling the “French flag.” Turns out it isn't blue, white, and red after all, it is red, white, and blue. No, I didn’t do it for jingoistic reasons; it really was colored in the non-French fashion originally. Once the paint was dry enough to handle, I cut off the mounting pins from the back and round the nubs flat. I then applied some double sticky emblem tape to the back and trimmed it to be less obtrusive between the letters. Pat arrived and began assembling his new engine stand. I cleaned off a spot on the hatch of Matilda and installed the badge. I missed slightly on the height but it was already pretty well stuck to the car. It will annoy me enough soon and I'll either move the “Datsun” up or the “Sunny Coupe” down. Well, it will actually be more likely that it will annoy John to the point where HE moves one or the other. We’ll see. Once I had that in place I went in to “help” Pat with his project. He had the stand mostly built and was ready to assembly the head. I watched as he did that then we had a look for mounting bolts. The ones he bought were just a tad too short but I figured it was like most other Nissan engines and found four A-series head bolts for him. They were a tad too long so I slipped a lug nut over each and they were just right. When he balked I pointed out the NAPS-Z engine right next to him mounted the same way and said, “Dude, I hang them like this all the time.” He accepted that and bolted the stand’s head to the block. We hoisted the engine up to the stand and pinned it in place. With that done we had both accomplished the tasks we had set out to do and decided to go get some dinner. We chose Taco Bueno and headed out. In the parking lot I could hear the bass from his truck and when I got to his window I recognized “My Posse’s on Broadway” by Sir Mix-A-Lot. We “sang” along for a bit then went inside. I asked him if he’d e-mail that to me and he did. Oh, I guess I should go look to see if it actually downloaded to the laptop. Hang on, I'll be right back. Ok, it worked. I'm actually a bit surprised. Of course now I need “Hoopty” and “Baby Got Back” by SMaL to complete the trifecta. What the hell? Tiny and Flaccid doesn’t recognize the word “trifecta.” Stupid assed geek programmers. Of course they also don’t know the word “bueno” either. I hate computer programmers as much, or more, than I hate computers. Ok, so I had an idea about the air conditioner in Marty. I don’t like knee knocker air conditioners, mainly because I don’t want to finger out how to install one. So I was thinking that I have all that space where I'm not going to install a rear seat, why not put the A/C back there? I'm thinking that the return air could suck from under the front seats and the cold air can blow over the occupant’s shoulders to cool the cockpit. You wouldn’t get the blast of air in your face but most knee knocker systems don’t do that either. I think it will work. If I built the “box” for it the right way I could also incorporate the stereo into it. I'm thinking an MDF box that comes up from the floor to the bottom of the windows and extends back to the bottom of the rear glass. The back/bottom could be whatever shape is needed to maximize trunk space and minimize the weight of the MDF. Inside the box would be the A/C stuff, the amp, and the speakers. I guess the controls for the A/C, as well as the jack for the MP3 player, would be on a panel between the seats by the parking brake handle, or something. I'd rather not have them on the front of the A/C and stereo box for ergonomic reasons. I mean it would be a pain in the ass to have to reach back behind you to control the A/C blindly. I don’t know, we’ll see. I'll probably go ahead with the knee knocker and just mount some speakers and an amp separately. I asked John his thoughts on the behind the seat A/C but haven’t heard back with his opinion. Well, I really thought the emblem story and the discussion of the A/C system would take more time than it did. I think I'm going to go play solitaire and wait for the Board to leave. Have a day.