10/29/09

Well, I figure I ought to jot down a bit of an update for y'all. Let’s see, I told y'all about the Honda engine, right? If so, here it is again. Thursday last, I was hanging out at Lexutech talking to Kevin about the electric Honda plan. His boss, who also owns a Honda repair shop, walks in and Kevin tells him what we’re thinking. He, Steve, the boss, says something to the effect of, “I’ve got this 1.5 liter Civic VX engine I've been tripping over for years. The only things of value to me are the distributor, alternator, and starter.” He does some quick calculations and finishes with, “Give me $200.00 and you can have it.” He went on to tell me that it would come with a complete intake tract, exhaust manifold, and ECU. I said I'd come see him the next day. Friday I got $100.00 out of the credit onion and went to see him. We loaded it into the back of Fifi and I paid him that half of the money. Saturday’s plan was to “help” John work on that 510 in his garage again but when I called, he wasn't in the mood for that. We decided to go to the swap meet instead. We walked the meet and met up with Pat about 2/3 of the way through. When we’d finished, we went to lunch and then John and I took the engine to the shop. We dropped it next to Roku-Hyaku in the paint booth. We took some rudimentary measurements and decided it ought to fit in the back. It ain’t going to be easy, but it ought to fit. From the shop we went downtown and had dinner then saw “Zombie Land.” I liked it. It was quite funny and rather sick. I finally dropped him off an went home. Sunday I didn't do much of anything. Monday, mom and I went to the credit onion to talk about a mortgage so I could buy the house. We also shopped for some closet doors and other things but all in all the day was a waste. While hanging out with mom, she told me of a conversation she had with a couple from the church. See, they had come over for Thanksgiving while I was originally building Shichi. Nadine and I got to talking cars and she told me of a Triumph TR3 she had in her garage. I mentioned it to mom and then forgot about it. So the other day mom asked Willie, Nadine’s husband, what they were planning to do with it. “We were discussing that,” says Willie. “We were thinking of giving it to Tim.” Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback by this. Mom goes on to tell me that we’re having dinner with them on Tuesday evening to discuss it. Tuesday morning I decide to mess around with Lil' Wiggly a little bit. I buy an electric fuel pump, a relay, some wiring, and probably some other stuff at the Boys of Pep then head for the shop. About halfway there I think, “I’ll need a fuel pump block off plate,” and stop in at O’Reilley’s on 377. I buy some hood pins and some super glue but they don't have the block off plate I want. At the shop I install the pins and sit back to contemplate the fuel pump install. I decided I wasn't really in the mood for it after all and closed up. Oh, the reason for the electric fuel pump is: when you let Lil' Wiggly sit for a few days, the float bowl dries up. It takes quite a bit of cranking to fill it and by then there isn't enough juice to fire the engine. I figure an electric pump to fill ‘er up ought to fix that while freeing up a pony or two. Instead, I bought a can of ether. The super glue was to re-stick some of the vinyl Hello Kitties which were beginning to peel already. From the shop, I took a hoon and wound up at Lexutech. George was there. I heard from Kevin that it really annoyed him, George, when I came by. Tee hee. I told Kevin about the TR3, which at this time I was still calling “an old Triumph” because I couldn't actually remember what it was. I bailed out of there and went home to get ready for dinner. At dinner, Nadine told me a lot about the car. It is a 1958 TR3, she bought it from a dealer here in Fort Worth but took delivery in Coventry England! They drove it all over England, Scotland, and Wales, then had it shipped back here. Then they drove it all over the US and Canada. It has 90,000 miles and has been parked in a garage since the Fourth of July... nineteen seventy two! At some point they had the head milled for higher compression, and to true it up, but for the most part it is stock. It is red with wire wheels and I am beginning to get excited about it. I gave her my cell phone number and she said she’d call when she had cleared out enough around it so I could see it. Yesterday I went to talk to Jeff Sloan at the local British car shop and he got me even more excited. “It’s just an old tractor engine,” he said. “It was designed for the farmer to fire up at dawn, plow until sunset, and shut it down. Solid as a rock.” He said there are a few rust spots to look out for but that there really aren't any “deal breaker” things to look for, especially on a deal like this, on a car like this, with a story like this. So now I'm just waiting to hear back from Nadine to go see it. I'm guessing we’ll be picking it up in the next few weeks and taking it to the shop. I'm beginning to look forward to this project.