8/17/09

I really like Lil' Wiggly. Saturday morning we met at the shop to do the brakes. I got there around 0800 h and checked all of the lighting to make sure it was up to snuff for the inspection. Oh, in case I forget to mention it later, no I never did get the inspection done. OK, where was I? Right, I checked the park lights and they were fine. I checked the turn signals and they were fine. I checked the brake lights, once I fingered out how to keep the pedal mashed while I walked to the back of the car, and they were fine. I checked the hazard flashers and they were fine. The headlights however, not so much. The battery had knocked the plug off of the light, pins and all. I was lucky the hot lead wasn't the one shorted out against the frame! I removed the grille and replaced the light. It was now fine. I fingered I ought to paint the grille while it was out. John pulled up just as I started painting. Much to my surprise, he did not take the can away from me! He actually let me paint something. Once I had a good coat on there, we got cracking on the brakes. I asked if he wanted front or rear. He chose rear. We got the side of the car up on stands and yanked the wheels. I had mine done before he even got the drum off. In his defense, there was a bit of a lip there. “A bit of a lip” sort of like the Grand Canyon is a bit of erosion. I helped as much as I could and he got the rear done. We forewent installing the helper springs at that point and lowered the car to the ground. We jacked up the other side and it went pretty much the same way except I'd already had that drum off once in the last few weeks. We then jacked the ass end up and I got to work on the springs. He shooed me out and adjusted the brakes then we installed the helper springs. Once back on the ground we decided the springs only lifter the rear a wee bit, if any at all, and declared them good. I pumped up the brakes and took the car around the building. The brakes will stop the car. They do not inspire a whole ton of confidence because they are so squishy, but they will stop the car. On a side note, once I got the pads bedded in on Sunday they stopped a lot better. They still are way too spongy, but they will threshold brake. But back to the narrative. While John was finishing up with the passenger side rear brake, I reinstalled the grille. It made such a huge difference in the looks of the car that John pulled the “Dragon Back” Venusian Blind thingy and painted it black too. Hoo dogies! That car is beginning to look really... um, well... it is beginning to look not as bad as it did before. By this time it was approaching noon and I needed to be at work at 1245 h. We went our separate ways. I was to call him when I was done at work and he might join Roger and me for lunch at the Eat All You Can barbecue place Roger is so fond of... er, I mean “of which Roger is so fond.” I was done at work by 1205 h and called but he was going to do family stuff for the rest of the day. Roger and I met up and ate. I managed to control myself and only hydraulically locked myself with sweet tea instead of cramming too much food down my neck. From there we went to the gun store where I'd bought the original Space Gun to see what they would offer me. I wasn't too surprised when he said he could give me $175.00 for it. I didn't have it with me anyway so it was kind of moo. Roger put a down payment on a Springfield XD with night sights and two spare magazines. It seemed to be a good deal at $450.00 so I said “Gopher it.” Of course he had to go shopping for more guns after that. We dropped Ms. Clio at John's house then went to the Shooster’s Club and thence to Cabela’s. After wasting most of the day I finally made it home around 1800 h or so. Sunday mom and I had more barbecue for lunch and then I napped for a bit before taking Lil' Wiggly out for a hoon. This was when I got the brakes bedded in and decided the car now needs more power. John and I are now talking about an L-18 and five-speed conversion. I instigated the talks but now feel I need to reign them in and redirect our energy towards putting the Mikunis on Shichi before we do anything more to Lil' Wiggly. So, I think that is where everything stands at this point. I'll let y'all know when plans change.