2/12/08

As I said yesterday, I typed this out then but saved it for today. Enjoy. Sunday morning I went to the shop thinking I'd hear from Gregg about returning my trailer. I pulled the left rear wheel of Darth Versa up onto the porch in front of the shop and crawled under to remove the zorst. I took it in and heated up the hangers then bent them to raise the system. I cooled them and crawled under to reinstall. I couldn’t line up the front hanger. I took it out and straightened that one and bent the rear just a little more. Back under the car and it fit this time. I tightened the nuts and fired up the engine. I crawled under again to check for leaks and feel for the gap between the zorst and bumper. All seemed well so I declared that job done. I had another look at my Watanabe center caps. I decided that a couple layers of that double sticky foam trim tape would wedge them in and glue them in place. I did that. The caps will have to grow on me I think. Having not heard from Gregg, I decided to continue messing with Darth Versa. I popped the inner trim out and removed the nuts holding the third brake light. Of course it was also secured with some super sticky foam tape. I pried it loose and cleaned it off. I taped off the lens and hung it up then hit it with semi-gloss black paint. When the red plastic was all black, I removed the tape and dusted the lens with another thin coat of paint. It is now all black. I was a bit afeared I got the paint on the lens too thick but there was nothing I could do about it now. I let it dry while I had a look at the spare letters from the two Versas I debadged and tried to spell out things. My absolute favorite has to be “ASS SERVER.” I took a picture of it and sent it to John with the question, “Is this too cocky?” I laughed every time thought about having “ASS SERVER” on the back of my car. I'll wait until I have a supercharger of some sort on it though. I popped the hood and installed the NISMO oil and radiator caps and stuck a NISMO sticker on the underside of the hood. I set my Hello Kitty oil cap aside for future use. I did put a puffy Hello Kitty sticker on the inside of the gas door though. When the brake light was dry enough to handle, I reinstalled it and stepped back to have a look. I definitely did not get the lens too dark. In fact it was not dark enough in the sunlight. I held some cardboard up to protect from overspray and hit it again. It is now totally black. I propped the brake pedal and had a look. It still lights up just fine but is totally black when off. I was pleased. I took a look at a pair of Nissan hamburgers. I painted them semi-gloss black and waited for them to dry. I got a wild hair and decided to fill the Nissan with white paint. It didn’t work so I repainted it black. That ran and bubbled pretty badly so that emblem might be a goner. Marty Smith showed up and we chatted for a bit. I dug out the Renault badges and had a look at them. I think Darth Versa might become a Renault Clio. I looked at the spare grille and decided to fill the indentation where the front hamburger installs. I taped off the holes and dumped in a whole tube of JB Weld Metal and JB Weld hardener then mixed them up. I smoothed it out asbestos I could then laid a piece of plastic film over it to get it really smooth. It will still need some sanding to be perfect but I think it will work. We’ll see. I finally heard from Gregg and he said he’d call me when he was headed to drop off the trailer. I stopped at Sweet Home Chicago to pick up a Gyro for mom and a Cheesy Beef for me. We ate and I sat down to wait for Gregg’s call. I wanted to meet him for a couple reasons. Mainly I was out of gas and wanted the brake light to have more time to dry before filling up and going through the car wash. When he finally called he had already been to the shop and dropped off the trailer. I went for gas but forwent the car wash for now. When I pulled up to the pump I noticed I could see my taillights in the reflection in the glass. I tried the brake lights and they looked good. I tried the turn signals and they looked good. I tried the reverse lights and they looked good. I am officially declaring the taillights done. I'd worried a bit about them ever since installing them but really didn’t have any solid reasoning behind it. Well, I guess that about wraps up the story of my weekend. Have a day.