9/21/09

16,016 nights without CPAP, still not dead. Well, that was an interesting weekend. Saturday morning I met John at the shop and we had a quick look at Shichi. We marked where the hood needed to be cut and discussed it some. The tentative plan was that I'd work on Shichi while John tarted up Lil' Wiggly some more. When John grabbed some tool or other to work on Shichi I stood up and walked back outside to Lil' Wiggly. He got the hint and joined me. While he vacuumed the interior some more, I got cracking on removing the taillights and stuff from the rear panel so we could paint. While John taped and painted the rear, I removed and “cleaned” the little pop-out windows. I use quotes because John had to go back and re-clean them. I wasn't done, but apparently I'd used the wrong cleaning utensil. With the back panel painted, we had a look at the “Sunny DeLuxe” badge to replace the “Datsun B-210” badge. Unfortunately the black paint pen ran out before we could finish touching it up. We decided to look at how it would be all black. John painted it. We reassembled the lights and stuff on the rear panel, leaving off the little reflector thingies, and stood back to have a look. It looks much better. Even the missing bumpers aren't as noticeable. Speaking of bumpers, we had a look at 1200 bumpers as well as 510 bumpers and think we may have a plan. It appears that perhaps a set of 510 bumpers will fit with minor trimming. We’ll see. When the “Sunny DeLuxe” badge was dry, we had a look at it. I didn't like it. I suggested the white paint pen on the tops of the letters. John ran with the idea. He did make an artistic decision which turned out to be the right one in that he painted the “DeLuxe” red and the “Sunny” white. The way the white paint pen laid down, with thick and thin spots, it does, sort of, from a distance, kind of, look something like chrome, at first glance. The red “DeLuxe” looks awesome. Oh, the white looks awesome too. That negative-sounding sentence before describing it is actually praise of the effect. I like it. We installed that and moved on to painting the floor. We discussed the fender humps and whether or not they should be painted. I asked what would happen if we peeled the vinyl off of them. The pristine white paint under that vinyl was so beautiful, it almost made me choke up with emotion. Of course I'm using the definition of “almost” that means “not at all.” It was some pretty white paint though. We decided to mask off the humps and leave them white. John first hit any rusty spots with that “rust converting” paint then laid down a nice coat of satin black. It looks awesome. We ran out of time before we, meaning John, could wash the exterior of the car, or paint the “Oh, those really do tie the scruffiness of the exterior together” accents. Actually, John had decided when we started that we didn't have time for those anyway. Oh well. We closed up and didn't go to lunch. I hung out the rest of the evening until mom and I went to dinner were I saw a guy who looked just like Charles Napier. Yeah, I know, “Who the hell is Charles Napier?” I had to look him up actually. He was the general in the Austin Powers movies. Big, square-jawed southern tough guy character actor. Don't bother with IMDb because they don't have a picture. I'm sure it wasn't him because the guy at the Black Eyed Pea was a fruity looking little pipsqueak, not to mention he was eating at a Black Eyed Pea in Fort Worth, Texas on a Saturday evening with an entourage not becoming of a “B” list Hollywood actor. Oh, and he appeared to be too young. But he did look just like CN in the face. Anyhoo, that gets us caught up through Saturday. Sunday Roger and I went to the Maharaja for some Indian food. Man it was good. I probably stink of curry right now. From there I went to the shop to steal the “Hello Kitty” horn button from Shichi. I realized as I pulled up it was George with the HK horn button so I stole it from there instead. I was a bit bummed to discover that the background had faded from pink to white. The kitty was fine but it had truly faded. I installed it anyway. I did something else, I think, but I don't remember what. As I was leaving, I saw Marty Smith getting his Miata out for, I assumed, a hoon. I pulled up because I wanted to see the “new” Roadster he just bought. We went to that car’s location and he fired it up for me. It was pretty cool. I congratulated him on it and we both left. I went for a hoon myself. I felt like the seat was gaining “Gangsta’ Lean” as the ride progressed so I decided to go back to the shop to have a look at triangulating the support rod better. I also tightened the bolts on the steering wheel I'd left loose when installing the horn button. Oops. My idea for triangulating the rod was that I'd make it so the end attached to the seat could not move up or down setting the angle right where I liked it. Unfortunately the floor of the car didn't cooperate. Looking back, there was a better solution to what I made, and I might go back and redo it later. What I made was another rod which attached to the seatbelt anchor I originally wanted to use but didn't in favor of John's mounting location. Look back a few weeks to see what I'm talking about. This rod I zooked to the original rod making a three-point support structure. It looks cool, but it doesn't really address the issue of the headrest end moving upward. I should have triangulated to the seatbelt anchor right under John's anchor point. Then it would have been a truly triangulated structure and would have been perfect. Yes, I could go back and add a fourth rod to triangulate it properly, but I'll probably just make another unit from scratch. Hmm, maybe Wednesday evening. As I was buttoning up everything, Marty drove by to see what was up. We talked for a bit then he left. As he was driving away, and I was washing my hands, I heard a big jet approaching from the north. I looked up to see a really big jet approaching from the north. Then I noticed it had a space shuttle on its back! Of course my hands were covered in Agent Orange hand cleaner so I couldn't get my camera out. I watched as it banked away to the south-east and disappeared. It was really cool. I texted John to tell him and got a call from Marty asking if I'd seen it. Did I mention it was really cool? Oh, I see it there now. OK, so that’s about it for my weekend. We didn't get anything done on Shichi, except for a little trimming of the hood but it wasn't really worth mentioning, so I guess I'm showing Lil' Wiggly at the BNSF Family Day Car Show on Friday. Oh well, so be it.