2/8/10

Well, we did go to the shop on Saturday. We did get some work done on The Seven. We got a bit of a late start because I wanted to drive Lil' Wiggly. I texted John to see what route he would be following and when he said, “Round the loop,” I asked if he’d mind stopping to assist me. He did. Well, he stopped, I'm not sure if he minded. Anyhoo, we pushed Lil' Wiggly halfway around the house and then I pulled Fifi up nose to nose so we could connect the jumpers. Somehow, I managed to trench the yard in the process. I was none too pleased with that. We got the car running and re-parked Fifi. Then we headed to Mimi’s for breakfast. By the time we finally made it to the shop, it was 1045 h or so. John got on the phone with the dude about the RX-4 and talked for half an hour while I got to work on The Seven. I pulled the switches from the console and began looking at options. It was conceivable that they could be placed in the one existing hole and then spaced under and between the gauges, at first glance. Upon further study, the wiring would be stretched just a bit and there is a bulkhead of some sort blocking the furthest switch location. I sat and pondered it until John got off the phone. We decided that the headlight switch would go in the existing choke hole with the dimmer/flash-to-pass switch above that and the hazard switch below it, all in a line. The horn would go in “the gap” between the oil pressure and water temperature gauges. That button doesn't look too out of place because it is almost centered with the car. What does look bad are the big black washers we decided to use behind the two flanking toggle switches. Are they “flanking” if they are above and below? Anyhoo, the holes I drilled for the switches were a tad too big so I felt we needed washers. The only thing we could find were some big black nylon things. They wouldn't be so bad if the turn signal switch on the opposite side if the steering wheel had them as well. As it sits now, they look like ass and I hate them. To paraphrase Anthony Bordain, “I hate them like poison.” John had to leave so I fiddled around with some other stuff. I made some load spreaders to... well, spread the load when bolting the scuttle back down and then bolted the scuttle back down. See, when I installed the ignition switch I had to cut into the area of the scuttle where it bolts to the frame. I thought I'd left enough metal but it fatigued through and the left front quarter of the scuttle was just flapping in the breeze. I took some aluminum strip, drilled it for the mounting studs, cut it to length, and set it on the passenger side studs. I took some more of that aluminum strip, drilled for the front stud, bent a hump to clear the ignition switch mounting bolts, drilled for the other stud and then grabbed the scuttle. I bolted the passenger side load spreader down nice and tight then moved to the driver’s side. I aligned the one hole I still have in the scuttle with the rear stud, the front of the scuttle pretty much went where it needed to, and then dropped my load spreader in place. I tightened that side down and had a look at my work. The aluminum strip grips the scuttle nicely and holds everything much more securely than ever. I'm happy. Of course it was at this point that I realized I hated the washers, now that it would be a lot more work to get rid of them. I'm going to see if I can live with them, knowing full well they have got to go. I finally called it a day and went home. Sunday, John and I were tentatively planning to go to Kileen to look at a car. He texted me right as I was about to get up to say we weren’t going. I went back to sleep for a while. I finally got up around 1000 h, because the cat was caterwauling up a storm! I finally deduced that she wanted a fresh pooper but I knew we were out of litter. I dressed and went to Wal Mart. I bought 100 pounds of litter and some kitty treats then went back home. I grumbled about the trenched yard as I dumped and cleaned the litter box. With her having a fresh poop house, I felt I could leave the cat alone for a while and went to the shop. I stopped at Chicken Excess and had some strips which were as hot as the surface of the sun. Finally I went to the shop. Oh, have I mentioned that Lil' Wiggly doesn't have a heater? Well, it is actually worse than that. The vents blow cold air on my right knee and up into my crotch. It is quite cold driving Lil' Wiggly when the temperature drops below 45. So I get to the shop cold. I walk around a little bit and look at stuff. I make a little pipe to connect the engine block vent hose to the K&N filter and install those items. I stick the PCV hose onto the valve cover and then decide it is too cold to continue. I close up and go home. As I'm driving home, I get a call from Randy telling me he’s a father. I let it go to voice mail because I can't talk when driving Lil' Wiggly and I figured mom would like to hear the news too. I played the message for her then erased it. I sent John a test so he could tell Samantha the news. Of course she had questions. One of which I couldn't answer due to (tee hee, I said doo doo) the said erasure of the message. Yep, totally forgot the name of the thing. I think it is Laney something... or something. I don't know. Oh, it’s a girl, I did remember that. And that’s about all I remember about it. Around 1730 h I texted John one last time to see if we were having the Old School Car Meet at The Purple Cow. There was some “Puppy Bowl” thing on Animal Planet that I guess everyone stayed home to watch. Apparently, it was “Super” too. I did catch the “Kitten Halftime Show,” that was pretty good. Last year’s was better though. Anyhoo, it was decided that we were not going to have our event so I had Arby’s with mom. I really like Arby’s roast beast sammiches. Especially with Horsey and Arby sauces! Yummo! After dinner, I wasted the evening in front of the TV, as I'm wont to do. Hopefully it will warm up some and we/I can finish up The Seven. I really need to get cracking on Nadine if I'm going to have it up and running by my forty-fifth birthday this November. Well, we’ll see.