2/17/09

So here’s what we did and came up with over the weekend. Saturday morning I met John and Kevin at the shop. After we jump-started the Volvo and got air in all the requisite tires, we rolled everything out from the back of the shop. We loaded the orange four-door on the trailer and put the Chickenhawk back in that car’s spot. We moved Barbecue Bob out and into the Chickenhawk’s vacated position then put the Volvo back. The N600 got moved into the main bay of the shop and then John and I delivered the 510 to Dewey. On the way back, we stopped in at Steve’s Foreign Auto on Vickery to see what he had in stock for the N600. He had the Haynes manual. I bought it and we moved on. Oh, he had brake pads as well, I believe but I was under the impression the car had four wheel drums. I'll get back to that in a moment. From Steve’s we went to Northern to look at trailer wheels and fenders. We found a set of wheels I really liked. They were 10” by 8” with 205/60-10 DOT approved tires. I really liked them a lot. They only had two though and I wasn’t really ready to commit to them at the moment. The only fenders they had were steel so we decided to go to Tractor Supply to see what they had. Oh, I bought a set of taillights for the trailer since both are broken on mine right now. We had a look around Tractor Supply for the fenders and wheels but the selection was pretty much the same as Northern. Another thing I was looking for was a Go-Kart axle with a differential in the middle. I know I've seen one somewhere. Tractor Supply didn’t have it and I guess I assumed we looked for it at Northern. We went back to the shop to get the engine for the 510. By this point my back was killing me so I knew I wasn’t going to be worth much in a very short order. We loaded the engine and headed back to Dewey’s again. Well, we stopped at Benito’s for lunch and John’s to drop off the Bluebird then went to Dewey’s. All I could do was watch as John and Dewey manhandled the engine out of the truck and into the garage. I dropped John off at his house and went home. Sunday my back felt a little better. Mom wanted to go to lunch so I had to forego doing anything with the Honda until the afternoon. Of course as soon as I got in Ms. Clio I remembered it was time for an oil change. I bought the oil and filter then went to the full service car wash. Man that car looks good clean, but then black cars do. At the shop I nosed into the paint booth and changed the oil. I managed to stay pretty clean in the process and didn’t even make a mess on the floor. After that I cleaned and lubed the Pimp Gun and Big Millie. By now I was tired of stuff and didn’t feel like putting the Honda on jack stands. Monday morning I rolled out to go shopping for N600 stuff. The motorcycle shop I wanted to talk to wasn’t open so I had to settle for doing other things. I went to the Northern on I-35 at Risinger Road and found the same wheels as the other store, two of them, and the differential axle thingy! It was $100.00, which was a whole lot better than the $2,500.00 Quaiffe unit I found online! I, however, did not buy it. I headed back to the shop and got the nose of the car in the air. I removed a few things from under the hood and then took off a wheel. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw disk brakes on the front. I test fit one of the 12” alloy wheels which came with the car. They fit nicely but almost all of the wheel was outside the fender. It would take some really wide flares to cover them and even then I doubt the thing would steer. Now I'm really wishing I'd gone ahead and bought those wheels and tires at Northern. Damn. Mom called and wanted to go to Sears to look at a refrigerator so I cleaned up and went home. We found one we both like and then had lunch at Applebee’s. Oh, one of the other stops I made while running around in the morning was at Wal-Mart where I bought 100 rounds of 9mm and .45 ACP ammo. I realized after doing that that I was still sixty rounds short of full capacity on .45 ACP. I dropped mom off and went back to see if the motorcycle shop was open yet. They were not. I then went to Northern and found the differential/axle thingy one isle over from where we were looking at fenders and wheels the other day. D’oh! I still didn’t buy it or the wheels. From Northern I went to Elk Castle and bought sixty rounds of Hornady JHP ammo for Big Millie. I didn’t feel like doing anything else so I went home and took a nap. Pat texted me around 1600 h to say he was thinking of going to Winchester after work. I said I'd meet him there. I blew through the 100 rounds of 9mm ammo I'd bought earlier and then watched as he shot for a while. We grabbed some chicken at Chicken Excess in Kennedale then had a look around his place of employment. They don’t do anything dainty on an oil well. After that tour I went home and crashed out for the evening. Now I'm back at work talking to y'all. And I've got to go. So I guess I'll call it a rant. Toodles.