4/11/08

I got nothin’. I was going to talk about my internal debate about building the shop in Boyd or next to the house, but I don’t want to. I was going to mention not going to the hill country with Shi-Chi, but I don’t want to. I suppose I could talk about George. Um, yeah, so George is what I need to work on tomorrow. I mentioned buttoning up the bottom of the car the other day. I remember saying something about a superfluous rubber zorst hanger but didn’t go into detail. Here’s what I'm talking about. Way back when, when I built the dual zorst for George, I was in a quandary as to how I was going to hang the system. At one point I took a rubber bungee cord thingy which was missing its hooks and bolted it to the floor to support the zorst. It “worked” but only just. Actually, it made no provision for rotation and would have probably allowed the zorst to work itself into a position where one tip was hitting the rocker panel while the other drug the ground. I decided to go to the store and buy a pair of muffler hangers and clamps and such and hung the thing right. Well, while fabricating the proper hangers, I left the bungee thing in place. Now I'm concerned that it is going to melt through and dangle. Oh yeah, that was the other problem with the bungee design, I didn’t think it was going to last. So, while George is in the air, I need to unbolt that bungee cord from under there. Well that story, while boring and pointless, was a total waste of time. John sent me a picture of John Ullom’s progress on the V6 installation in his 510. I'm so totally pissed off with myself for not painting George’s engine bay before installing that engine. John’s car looks awesome while mine looks like hammered dog shit. I think I had intended for this installation to be temporary while fabricating all of the bits and pieces. I seem to remember thinking I'd put the engine and transmission in, make the motor and transmission mounts, build all the turbo piping and such, then remove it all for final painting. I'm not sure when the project became whatever it is now. In fact, I know that was my plan because I remember talking to John Roper about it. He couldn’t understand why I wanted to do a “mock up” installation. I guess I let him talk me into this being the final assembly. Thing is, I don’t remember that decision being made. Well, it’s too late now. There are way too many things hooked up and/or filled with fluids to remove it now. I'll just have to live with it I guess. Oh, I had a re-think about the paint scheme as well. John and I were discussing doing it Chickenhawk style with flat black sides and a shiny top. We were thinking pink on top by the way. I think however, I'm going to go back to just schpritzing on a coat or two of matte white and calling it a day. Why? Well mainly because of the Hello Kitty Imperial Stormtrooper we stuck on the back window. Had that decal been pink, there’d be no question as to the color, but with it white I think making the rest of the car solid white is the way to go. I also think going with a matte finish will help to distinguish George from Timmy. Of course Timmy has those bitchin’ flares and will be right hand drive to further set them apart. Yeah, so with those factors in mind, I think George will be matte white for a while. Then again, pissing off the car’s namesake by painting it pink does speak to me. I'm secure enough in my sexuality to drive a pink car. It’ll keep my friends from borrowing it! Then again, it might not. Juan never knows with that bunch. Hey, how about a pair of huge assed black Hello Kitty decals on the black doors? They would show up at the right angles but wouldn’t be too obvious. One thing is for sure, those rhinestone “bling” Hello Kitties are going on there somewhere! Then again, I am also thinking about one of them on the back of Shi-Chi near that “Tail of the Dragon” sticker. We’ll see. John gave me a Hello Kitty makeup case/lunch box thingy at Christmas to use as a tool box. I need to get a set of hand tools for that and load it in the car. Ok, I'm beginning to actually get excited about this car. I mentioned a few times that I'm “driving” the car in my head while walking around campus in an attempt to psych myself up about it. Well, I think it is finally starting to work. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think that car, if it runs at all and doesn’t blow up right off the bat, is going to be really fun. Sure, it’s only going to have about 110 horsepower, but it should still be pretty quick with the 4.11:1 rear end gears. Hell, it was a total hoot to drive with only 68 horsepower and the taller 3.90:1 gears! I think it should feel like Gil did when he was running on all four cylinders, perhaps even a bit better. I doubt that car had more than 100 horsepower, probably not even that much. So yeah, it ought to be just shy of Shi-Chi’s power to weight performance level. If we assume Shi-Chi’s engine is making 100 horsepower and the car weighs 1,150 pounds, that’s 11.5 pounds per horsepower. If we assume George’s engine will make 110 horsepower at 8 psi and the car weighs 1400 pounds, that’s 12.7 pounds per horsepower. Tweak George’s boost up to just 10 psi and we’re knocking on 120 horsepower, each of which would be hauling 11.6 pounds around. A 1200 which runs like a mild Lotus Seven? I can live with that. Ok, I think I can call it a rant now. Y'all have a nice weekend. I'll talk to you again Monday.