7/27/09

Lil' Wiggly is looking good! We went to the Boy of Pep Friday evening looking for those 175/70-13 tires. Well, turns out there was a set of 185/70-13s sitting there so I bought them instead. I am ever so glad I did too. They have just a bit too much Ghetto stretch for my taste. John, of course, loves them. From the BoP we went to Mexican Inn and had dinner then called it an evening. Saturday morning I headed to the shop around 0800 h and got cracking on the car. By 0845 I had the nose in the air and the front tires off. I texted John to see what his status was but never heard back. He pulled up just as I was changing out the brake line on the driver’s side caliper. It was leaking and we were worried about it. I had stolen a hose from the Violet a few weeks back but hadn’t installed it yet. He did a test fit of the wheels on a 280ZX rotor and we think they might just fit over the caliper as well. We shall see. He painted the passenger side hub and installed a wheel while I finished up with the hose on the driver’s side. We bled that brake line and he painted that hub. Before we put that wheel on though, I used a scissor jack to push out the dent in the driver’s side fender. It popped out and I massaged the last little bit asbestos I could. It looks a lot better. With both front wheels on, we lowered the car and had a look. Of course the suspension needed to settle so no opinion could be fut forth at that time. We rolled the car forward and he jacked up the ass. The stock wheels came off and he painted the drums then installed the new wheels. They fill the wells nicely, but it still needs a drop of an inch or two. He had me drive it around the building to settle the suspension and then we had a look. Yep, needs a couple inches less altitude. It does look a quabizillion times better though. While looking at the car, I grabbed the finishing piece which used to live between the grille and the bumper and we had a look at it as a chin spoiler. It was decided that removing a section from the middle should suffice. I took it to the chop saw and cut it where John marked. We installed it with drill-point screws and moved on to the other side. He marked it and I cut it off. We installed that and had a look at how to bridge the gap. He found a piece of metal and drilled it for rivets. They didn't pull up as well as we’d hoped they would so we removed the whole shebang and took it inside for better rivet installation. Once we had it riveted the way we liked, more or less, John hung it up to paint it while I ran to the store for some bolts. We decided that we didn't like the drill-point screws and didn't want to use rivets. When I got back we installed the spoiler and it looked really good. Much better than a free, ghetto, Afro-American Engineered spoiler had any right to. Well, some douche bag needs help hooking up a projector. I guess I ought to go do what I'm being paid to do. I’ll be back. And now it is 1610 h. I'm not sure just how much more I want to talk about. Let me think a moment. OK, so we have the spoiler on Lil' Wiggly and it is looking good. The wheels and tires look good but the car needs a drop. We rolled the fender lips with a baseball bat and then I drilled out the rivets on the side molding rub strip thingies. Once we had the car tarted up as much as we were going to that day, I parked it and we headed out to lunch. We wound up at Kincaid’s for burgers then went our separate ways. I had to go to a birthday party at the Women’s Club at 1400 h and it was already 1300 or so. I ran home and cleaned up then got dressed. Yeah, mom didn't even want to leave until 1430 h. I was just a tad annoyed but didn't say anything. It was a godawful boring family time waste. I saw a bunch of relatives from dad’s side of the family and hung out trying to look pleasant for a couple hours. Eventually we left. Mom and I went to Chicken Excess for “Cluck in a Bucket” as mom kept putting it. The girl behind the counter was so friggin’ gorgeous... I was just about speechless. I think I drank four glasses of sweet tea just so I could go back and see her again, and again, and again... Eventually we went home. I'll save Sunday’s tale for tomorrow.