9/17/08

Ok, I forgot to tell y'all one more thing I did to Shi-Chi Sunday. Remember me telling you that I released the clamp holding the zorst down because I didn’t want it to crack? Well, I fixed that. I removed the muffler section of the zorst and cut a kerf in the bottom side of the pipe. I then bent said kerf closed and zooked it back together. It took the rise out of the zorst and now it lines up perfectly. I contemplated cutting the inlet off and rotating the muffler 90° so that the turn-down at the end was a turn-out instead, but thought better of it. Getting it lined up and dropped down in one fell swoop would have been more work than my lazy ass was willing to undertake. Well, John and I are supposed to go to the shop to paint the fiberglass bits on Shi-Chi this evening. I think if we only get the nose done I'll still be satisfied. Yes, the right rear fender needs to be repainted, but if we don’t get around to it, it isn't going to break my heart. This isn't a show car after all. It is a fun hooning toy, a “hammer” if you will. Why “hammer?” Because no one thinks much about the æsthetics of a hammer, they just use it to pound in nails. Incidentally, while “pounding in the nails” of FM5 the other day, I discovered I could pretty much do the whole road, save for the tight “S” curve by the water tower, in fifth gear. And I don’t mean lugging along in fifth gear, I mean at actual fifth gear speed. And again I wonder why I'm not happier. Oh, I know why. I am still in “shakedown” mode. I'm listening for unusual noises, sniffing for unusual smells, feeling for unusual vibrations, watching for unusual occurrences, tasting for unusual flavors, that sort of thing. I did hear an odd high pitched sound when the car was very highly loaded in the turns. It wouldn’t worry so much except that it didn’t seem to want to roll as easily as I thought it should once I parked it. We’ll need to have a look tonight to see if my bearings are tightening up. That’ll annoy me. The way this project has been going, it won’t surprise me. We’ll see. Well, my alarm woke me from REM sleep three times this morning so I think I'm going to shut my eyes for a bit. I may come back later and I may not. Well, I guess I've said all I have to say today. It looks as though I'm picking John up when I leave work and we’re rolling together to the shop. I'll let y'all know what all we accomplished tonight tomorrow. Yeah, that’s what I meant to say. Ok, have a day.