11/17/09

OK, so I promised to tell y'all about running around with John after dropping Nadine off at the house, right? Well, I've thought about it and it is just about as boring a story as the rescue of Nadine. So here it is. After we left the shop, we discussed lunch. I felt that I owed John lunch for helping me with Nadine and he felt I shouldn't have to buy lunch for him on my birthday. We compromised, we went “Dutch” but as a reward for helping me I acquiesced to eating at Sticker Shock Mexican Food. They remodeled the place and it was kind of freaky. From SSMF we went to Blood Bath & Beyond because John has a gun he wants to trade in on another. BB&B didn't offer him the kind of money he needed for the gun, not to mention didn't have the other gun he wanted, so we left. From there we went to look at a car for someone. A friend of a friend had found a Datsun Roadster for sale on Craig’s List, or something, and wanted John to go look at it and give his opinion. This we did. Out in the middle of Bumfuk Nowhere we looked at the car. It was pretty nice, much nicer than Nadine, but I digress. John call the FOAF and gave details. FOAF spoke to the seller and a deal was struck. From there we went to Cabela’s so John could, once again, try to trade in the gun. They offered about the same money as BB&B, which bummed John out considerably. I'm pretty sure that was it for the day then. Yes, from Cabela’s we went to my house and John went home. As I said yesterday, I declined an invitation to dine with the Ropers and had a steak with mom at Outback. Sunday I slept in. After church, mom and I had some lunch and then I decided I'd get cracking on Nadine. I took Lil' Wiggly to the Boys of Pep and began shopping. I grabbed a new aluminum jack and jack stand kit, as well as another matching pair of stands, and started looking for the ingredients of a “Pickling Solution.” I found the automatic transmission fluid but couldn't locate the Marvel Mystery Oil. Then I remembered another aisle with all the voodoo potions in another part of the store. I found the MMO and grabbed two ½ quart bottles to match the quart of ATF I'd grabbed before. I then had a flash of conscience and put the jack and jack stands back since I really didn't need to drop $175.00 on them after all. I did pick up a drop light for the garage though. Next, I went to the parts counter to ask what size spark plugs did a Triumph TR-3 use. The dude didn't know so I bought the “Tune Up Kit” which consisted of a ratchet handle, 3” extension, and both a 3/8” and a 13/16” spark plug socket. What car uses a 3/8” spark plug? Anyhoo, after getting in the car and messing with the seatbelt, I went back in to ask if they had replacement belts. They did not. I tried Northern Tool and Supply but they didn't have them either. As I was leaving Northern, it started to sprinkle. As I approached the exit to southbound Loop 820, it began to rain. I forwent the hoon I had planned and went home instead. I parked Lil' Wiggly and opened up the garage. I hooked up my drop light and got to work removing the spark plugs. They didn't look too bad, perhaps a little rich fouling, but all in all not too bad. The wires were very brittle, as was to be expected, but I was going to replace them eventually anyway. Oh, speaking of wires, I have noticed several bare wires on the car where rodents have eaten the insulation. As if I hadn't needed an excuse to rewire the car before (Lucas Electrics with a positive ground?) I did now. OK, so with the plugs out I began looking around for a squirt bottle of some ilk. I finally found a little squeeze bottle thingy and filled it with a 50/50 mix of Pickling Solution. I squirted it into the number one cylinder until my hand got tired and had a look. I'd put about half the bottle in there, let’s say 4 oz or so. I moved on to number two. I put the rest of the bottle in there and mixed up another batch. Half of it went in three and the other half in four, duh. I stood back and had a look around. I pulled the dipstick and had a look at the oil in the crankcase. It looked really good! I mean, it looked nice and fresh, still clear and stuff. I'm beginning to get more and more optimistic about this engine. I mixed up another batch of Pickling Solution and put it into three and four then did one and two as well. All in all, I think I have about 8 oz of Pickling Solution in each cylinder. By this point my back was beginning to hurt a little so I called it a day. I closed up the garage and went inside. I think I took a shower. When mom left to go do something at the church, I went down and took some pictures of the engine and the two bottles of Pickling Solution ingredients. Why? Why not? Mom suggested I make a journal of the process so I started one elsewhere in this laptop. Perhaps I'll copy it as a rant one of these days when I don't have anything to say. Well, that gets us all caught up. I'm going to go meet Nadine, the person, to transfer the title over to me one of these afternoon/evenings. In fact, since I was here at 0700 h this morning, I might just leave early today. Yeah, I think I will. Have a day.