5/14/09

We didn’t make it to the shop last night so I don’t have a new Barbara report. I'll plan to drop the wheels and tires off at the Kreblechistani tire store on my way to the shop Saturday morning and do the swap then. John sent me a picture of a lift kit he saw for a Fjord F-250 4WD the other day. It is such a simple design it is a wonder we didn’t think of it. Imagine one of those big cable-spool thingies some white-trash folks use for a coffee table, it sort of looks like that, only smaller of course. Basically, it is a pair of flat plates separated by a length of, Juan would assume, thick-wall tubing. One plate bolts to the strut while the other has the studs to attach to the chassis. Elegant and simple. I like it. Of course I'm not 100% sure we’re going to need a lift, but we’ll see. I think if we put the B-310 struts and springs in uncut, there might be enough clearance. That’s the thing, clearance. I don’t want the jacked-up look of a Dodge 4WD truck with that hideous fender gap. No, I want just enough clearance for the tires, with a slight gap at the top of the fenders. I'm hoping that the B-310 stuff will raise us to a point where the shackles Marty Mary built, the ones currently under the back of Timmy, will suffice. I think we might be able to make that work. We’ll see. I think I'm going to make another ¾-hearted bid for the DCOE and header on Barbara and see what John’s objections are. She needs more power now, even on the stock sized tires. It’ll be a monumental turd with those 205/60-15s on there. That car really needs the turbo but the more I think about it, the more I remember what all would need to be swapped. Ok, so it’s the gauges that really bug me about the idea. I don’t want to rewire both cars again. Hopefully I can dispel John of any arguments he has against the DCOE/header combo, or just become belligerent and say, “It’s my car so go sit on a tack if you don’t like it, nyah!” and just do it anyway. The only reason I don’t go ahead and do that is because he does come up with nuggets of wisdom quite often and may convince me I'm not as right as I could be with that idea. Wait, I do have another Mitsubishi turbo, the twin sister to the one in George. Hmm, it doesn’t say anywhere that I can’t have two turbocharged cars, does it? I need to do some cypherin’ and figgerin’ on that. I'll get back to you. Well, I have to go pee so I think I'm going to call it a rant. Have a day.