12/7/07

Well, let’s see. What is new? Well, mom has hired a contractor to redo the bathrooms in the house. She’s having the toilets replaced with what I like to call “handi-crappers.” Those are the extra tall units Juan finds in the extra large stalls in public restrooms. No, I don’t have a problem using the handicapped stalls and here’s why. If I park in a handicap spot and walk away from my car, then there is no way an actual handicapped person can use that spot. On the other hand, if I'm sitting on the tall throne and see some wheels roll up, I can do some quick paperwork and get out of his way. I'm not leaving my body unattended; well, not very often at least. So there, choke on that you Political Correctness Nazis. And another thing, screw the environment! I'm going to burn gas, waste electricity, and not recycle just to have a large carbon foot print. Up yours, ecosystem! Oh, but back to the contractor, it looks like I'm going to be stuck at the house to “help” all weekend. Come on! If I wanted to do home improvements we wouldn’t have needed the contractor! I'm intentionally not saying anything about who the contractor is because he doesn’t want people to know he does bathroom work. Of course if he screws it up somehow I will be sure to tell y'all all about it. By the way, Ashley Furniture can still eat a bag of dicks. Ok, so I was telling y'all what mom is having done to the bathrooms. I mentioned the “handi-crappers” but it is actually a little more involved. He's moving my pooper downstairs and putting two new units, the aforementioned “handi-crappers,” in mine and mom’s bathrooms. He’s also installing a grab bar and new floor in hers. There was talk of new cabinet faces but I think that has been put on hold. They talked about the kitchen as well and he’s trying to talk her into keeping the separate oven and stove top. Apparently a house is worth more with the divorced units. I'm not sure why. I'm against the single unit idea because of all the remodeling that will be required to make it fit. Not to mention I don’t like the idea of mom trying to lift heavy, hot items from a knee-level oven. With the waist-high unit we have now she can slide stuff to the door and then onto the counter. Easy peasy. All she sees is the bottom line where the single unit is $500.00 and the two others total almost a grand. Well, we’ll see I guess. Anyhoo, I was thinking again this morning that life sure would be simpler if I just had a “fire sale” at DLR and got rid of everything. Of course I'd want to keep my tools because I'll have a garage here soon. And if I'm keeping tools I might as well keep the mill, welders, and other fabrication stuff. And since I “built it” myself I'd need to keep the Seven. And I've had the Chickenhawk practically forever so I can’t really sell it. And since I only paid $5.00 for it I need to keep George. And if I've got George and the Chickenhawk I might as well have a really nice 1200 so I'd need to keep Marty. And if I've got a bunch of cars crowding four decades old I really need a rig to rescue them from time to time so I need to keep Fifi and the trailer. Um, I just want to keep Mr. Wiggly, I can’t really justify that. I'm not ready to daily-drive a 35 year old car or a full-sized pickup so I need Matilda. And we’re right back to where we started with me keeping a fleet of cars. Yeah, it is a sickness. Oh, John sent out an e-mail about a car show in Houston sometime next month. I think it is a Datsun thing but it might be an all Japanese car thing, I don’t remember. Let’s see if he puts in a link to it, shall we? Anyhoo, I told him I was going to follow his lead as to whether or not “we” were going. He replied and asked if I was going to trailer George or the Seven down. I reiterated my lead following, him thereof and said, “Or I could drive my 2007 Datsun Sunny Coupe.” We’ll see what he has to say about that. If it weren’t for the contractor tying me to the house, he’d probably force me to get something done on George. George really isn't all that far from “complete.” I mean he’s FAR from complete, but he could be made “ready enough” for this event. I need to go look at the list again. Hang on. Ok, so I decided to just attach the list for y'all to peruse. Items which are “struck through” have been completed. And I can obviously forego bullets 6, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, and 23 for the time being. Ok, since it is four pages in Word, I'm going to call the rant complete at this point. Y'all have a day and I'll talk to you again Monday.

George to do list

Main bullet points in no particular order

1) Install welded 4.11:1 differential

a. Drain oil

b. Disconnect brakes

i. Hydraulic lines

1. Left

2. Right

ii. Parking brake cables

1. Left

2. Right

iii. Remove drums

1. Left

2. Right

c. Unbolt backing plates

i. Left

ii. Right

d. Pull axles

i. Left

ii. right

e. Pull diff center section

f. Clean housing surface

g. Install 4.11:1 housing

h. Install axles

i. Left

ii. right

i. Tighten backing plates

i. Left

ii. Right

j. Reconnect brakes

i. Hydraulic lines

1. Left

2. Right

ii. Parking brake cables

1. Left

2. Right

iii. Install drums

1. Left

2. right

2) Install braided steel brake lines

a. Left front

b. Right front

3) Install new clutch master

4) Bleed hydraulics

a. Clutch

b. Brakes

i. Front

1. Left

2. Right

ii. Rear

1. Left

2. Right

5) Install gauges

a. Water temp

i. Mount

ii. Wire

b. Oil pressure

i. Mount

ii. Wire (light)

iii. Plumb

c. Boost

i. Mount

ii. Wire (light)

iii. plumb

d. Mixture

i. Mount

ii. Wire

6) Clean interior

a. Replace Eclipse seats with blue Corbeau seats from Marty

i. Fabricate brackets

1. Driver’s

2. Passenger’s

ii. Mount seats

1. Driver’s

2. Passenger’s

b. Floors

i. Clean

ii. Lay fiberglass cloth on floor and cover with resin

c. Dashboard

7) Install driveshaft

8) Fill transmission with oil

9) Fill engine with oil

10) Fill rear axle with oil

11) Fill tank with gas

12) Top off coolant

13) Install battery

14) Install air horns (honking kind)

a. Mount horns

b. Mount compressor

c. Wire compressor

d. Plumb compressor to horns

15) Fix weather strip on driver’s side rear window

a. Remove bad stuff

b. Replace?

16) Install shift boot

17) Install trim around steering column

18) Install grille

19) Replace hood

a. Install hood with turbo vents

b. Trim vent to clear carburetor

c. Drill hood pin holes

d. Install stainless hood pin scuff plates

20) Mask windows and trim

21) Paint car

a. Solid white? Probably not with Marty in fleet, maybe matte white

b. White with ‘George stripes’? Probably not due to “turbo hood”

c. Flat black? A likely candidate, possibly with gloss black “George stripes”

d. ‘Plum Crazy’? Probably not due to car’s general cosmetic condition

e. Electric green? See “Plum Crazy” reasoning

f. Matte blue to “match” Corbeau seats? A likely candidate

22) Tint windows

23) Install speakers

a. Mount

b. Wire

24) Install wheels and tires

a. Left front

b. Right front

c. Left rear

i. Install wheel spacer if necessary

d. Right rear

i. Install wheel spacer if necessary

25) Clearance front fenders

a. Left

b. Right

26) Legalize car

a. Insurance

b. License/registration

c. Inspection