9/8/08

I think this was a successful weekend. Saturday morning I was asked if I could go with John to Mesquite to pick up his newest purchase. Well, he asked Friday actually. While talking to him, I asked if we could locate a junk Honduh radiator. Wait, let me go back a bit right quick. Thursday John sent me a link to a Mishimoto all aluminum radiator for a Honduh Civic on e-Bay. Looking at it, and comparing dimension, we (mostly John) decided it would fit. Also, if that wee little thing will cool a hot rod Civic, it ought to cool an A-15. I went ahead and ordered it. Oh, I see I told y'all that on Friday. Well, he apparently also sent me a link to a local dude selling a stock radiator cheap. He, John, suggested we grab it for mock up porpoises and then we’d be ready when the real radiator arrived. I concurred. We made arrangements for that to happen and rolled to Mesquite Saturday morning. We found the depot for the shipping company and picked up his “new” car. It’s pretty cool. As we’re dragging it back home, we get a call that our arrangements for the radiator are falling through. We now need to swing by Lamborghini of Not Texas and pick up the radiator. This we do. Now we head for the shop. The dude who bought that four-door B-210 a few weeks back was in town to go to the Japanese Old School Car Meet on Sunday. He was also selling some wheels to the dude with the Honduh radiator and was going to pick that up for us but his B-210 began overheating on his way in to town. That was the unraveling of the arrangements I mentioned just now. We agreed to sell him that B-210 radiator I just had cleaned and checked so a plan was in effect. We all met at the shop and John said I wasn’t allowed to touch Aaron’s car until Shi-Chi’s radiator mounts were done. So, I started cipherin’ and figgerin’ on my radiator mount, John started swapping wheels on his “new” car, and Aaron began swapping radiators. It was just a regular workaholic’s dream shop. Unless of course said workaholic was also a neat-freak, then he’d just be a quivering mass in the corner upon seeing the state of my shop, but we won’t get into that. I finger out how I am going to mount the radiator and it looks like the hoses are even going to line up pretty well. I have to extend the lower and shorten the upper, but it ought to work. John gets his wheels on and is as giddy and giggly as a little schoolgirl. Aaron gets his radiator swapped and it seems to be holding, unlike my last radiator attempt, but we won’t go there either. We clean up and go to lunch. Well, since it is halfway between lunch and supper, I suppose it could be called “lupper” or “sunch” or something. Anyhoo, we wind up at Mercado Juarez. From there, John and I take the car dolly back to U-Haul and then go to his house where I parked Darth Versa earlier. I head home and waste the rest of the day. Sunday, mom and I go to the Rose Garden Tea Room in the Camp Bowie Mercantile Antique Mall. Yes, it is as hoity toity and gay as it sounds. What is really sad though is it was my idea. Meh, so I like a good hunk of quiche from time to time, deal with it. From there I went to the shop to make one last bracket and the lower hose extension for the radiator installation. When done, I paint the steel bracket I made and got to work checking the lights in John’s “newest” so I could drive it to the Japanese Old School Car Meet. All the lights checked out, at least the outside ones did since I forgot to look at the dash lights, so I hopped in and drove to the house. I had a couple hours before the meet so I took a shower and hung out for a bit. I'd told Marty Smith about the show and he said he’d try to make it. He called at about 1820 h to ask where everyone was. I said it wasn’t until 1900 h but that I was on my way. When I arrived Aaron was there too. Soon John showed up as well as the dude from the January Houston trip with the First Gen MR-2, Jeff. We hung out in the parking lot where John’s car was “the belle of the ball.” Marty decided he’d had enough after about an hour and went home, the rest of us went into The Purple Cow and had dinner and ice cream. We hung out until about 2130 h and left. Well, I left and assume the rest of them did as well. I drove back to the shop and parked “the pickle.” Oh, I'm calling John’s “new” car the pickle behind his back… oh, I guess not any more, oh well. I'm calling John’s car the pickle because he’s fickle like a pickle with his old cars and will be tired of this one in a few months. Fortunately, this one is rare enough that he ought to make a killing on it when he does sell it in time to buy Christmas stuff. Oh, for what he paid, he practically stole the thing. I know that last bit just annoyed the hell out of him, but I calls it like I sees it. Sorry. And another thing, while rooting around the shop last night guess what I found hanging from the shelf: an A-14/15 intake/exhaust gasket. I remember hanging it there thinking, “I'm going to need this when I go to put Shi-Chi back together. I'd better hang it here to keep it safe.” Well, it was safe alright, safe from being used! If the radiator hadn’t further slowed me down on this project, I'd be more annoyed. As it stands, John and I are looking at it as a spare. So, I guess that’s about all I have to say today. The downstairs toilet backed up and flooded the lower level of the house so I might be calling it an early day and going home to do plumbing work. We’ll see.