12/01/09

Well, I got “The Call” today. Automotive Machine has the pre-work quote ready for me. Before doing any of the coatings, which I really want but really cannot justify, my engine is going to cost me $910 and some change. I knew it was going to be a thousand dollar engine, it always is, but it still hurts to hear it. I'd be sitting pretty if Nadine hadn't come into my life. Gregg's $1,000.00 for the "Screamin' Demon" would have paid in full the machine shop work. As it stands, I've frittered away almost $600.00 of it on stuff for Nadine. Kevin said something about Barbecue Bob the other day, perhaps I can sell it for enough to make Shichi run again. I really don't need Barbecue Bob in the stable, on my plate, in the queue, on the back burner, taking up space, wasting away, and/or any other phrase saying basically the same thing. I suppose Lil' Wiggly could be put up on the block, but I really like that car, and it runs and drives. Were we halfway through the L-18 swap in that car, I might sing a different tune. That swap sure as hell isn't going to happen anytime soon, unless John tackles it on his own for me, which I rather doubt he will, but Juan never knows. Nice “comma splice” eh? So, my A-15 should be ready to pick up next week, which means I can probably reassemble it the weekend of the 12th and try to get it back in the car. Perhaps I'll have it back at the house, and Nadine at the shop, by Christmas. I think if I plan to get cracking on Nadine after the first of the year, I'll have nine full months before the BNSF Family Day Car Show to get it up and running. I'll have eleven and a half months before my birthday though. Hmm, it doesn't seem like an impossible goal. Of course I'm sitting here twenty miles away from the car right now. Not to mention I haven’t even begun to plumb the depths of the car’s neglect. There could well be demons lurking in there the likes of which no one has ever before encountered. Well OK, someone restoring a “Barn Find” Triumph TR-3 may have encountered similar demons in the past, but they’d be demons I have never encountered. Yeah, we’ll go with that. I'm still in a quandary about how I want to do the interior. I know I want to “restore” the car as a “driver/survivor” not as a show queen, but how original do I want to keep it? I, personally, couldn't care less about the “right” seats, or the “right” carpet, or the “right” door panels, I just want a fun car to hoon. I'd be just as happy with aluminum panels surrounding the cockpit, a set of safe racing seats, and “Rhino-Liner” on the floor. Hell, for that matter, we could “Rhino-Liner” the door panels too for all I care. Come to think of it, a “Rough and Ready” interior like that wouldn't be too out of place with the, shall we say, “Rugged” patina the exterior has taken on over the years. Interesting, a true rat rod restoration, but on an old British car. It sure would come out cheaper that way. Of course I'd have to have some aged wheels for it then. New wheels wouldn't be right on a car like that. I wonder how an old set of American Racing Libra wheels would look on there. I suppose I could be on the lookout for an old set of Panaports or Super Lites or the like. Or we could try to “age” a set of Rota RB lookalikes. Feh, I just don't know. Well, I'm running out of stuff to talk about today. Perhaps I'll have something to say tomorrow.