10/7/10

Well, I just may be the dumbest person alive. But I'll get to that. I stopped by Lexutech on my way home from work so I could take a look at that Spitfire Kevin told me about. At first blush, my thought was, “Man, that is one beat-ass Spitfire.” However, upon further consideration it really isn't in worse shape than Nadine. In fact, it might be a little better than Nadine. Now comes the part where I'm a dumb ass, I just called Kevin and told him to tell them I'd buy it. The reasons are manifold. First off, I have always wanted a Spitfire. Second, I might be able to “flip it” as is and make a profit. Third, we have a rotary looking for a home. Fourth, how friggin’ bad ass would that hot rod A-14 be in a Spitfire? Would it be more bad ass than the rotary? I don't know. Anyhoo, either way it would go on the back burner until at least one Datsun is up and running. Yeah, I know I've said that before. This time I mean... OK, I'm not fooling anyone with that so I'll quit. Oh, I guess the title situation might have some say in how this thing gets handled. I don't know if there is one or not. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see I guess. Ooh, I wonder how many batteries I could stuff into a Spitfire. Maybe that ought to be the electric car. Interesting. See, I'm a dumb ass. What I really need to do is get the place in Boyd built ao that I can have all of these projects in their own little bays so that I can fiddle with whichever one strikes my fancy that day. I'd be like, “Meh, I don't want to work on Nadine today. I'll pop over to George's bay and see what I can accomplish there.” Or, “FUUUUUUUUUCK! Barbecue Bob is pissing me the hell off! I'd better do something with the Chickenhawk instead.” Or, “Let’s see what we can do with the N600 today, shall we?” Damn, how many project cars am I thinking about keeping now? I guess a list is in order. Projects: Nadine, Lil' Wiggly, the Chickenhawk, George, Barbecue Bob, Super Karate-Monkey Death Car, Roku-Hyaku (the Honduh), the Subaru from across the street, that Spitfire, and of course the runners: The Seven, Fifi, and Ms. Clio. Yikes, that’s an even dozen! So, if I allocate twelve by twenty feet for each bay, we’re looking at 2,880 square feet just for my project bays. If we add just one bay each for John, Pat, Gregg, and Larry (yeah, I'll probably make room for him to finally have a place to play with project cars), we’re looking at 3,840 square feet of bays. Of course we’ll need space for the “machine shop” and work bench area so another pair of bays brings the total up to 4,320 square feet. I'm thinking one roll up door on the end, so add in a center access drive of 2,160 square feet (18 bays, 9 per side of the drive, 12 feet each and 20 feet wide, 9x12x20=2,160), and we have 6,480 square feet of building. So I'm looking at 108 feet by 60 feet for the shop floor. Of course I'll need to add another 16 feet to the length of the slab (for a mobile home) giving us a final footprint of 112x60, minimum. I guess it is time to seriously “poop or get out of the Ganges” on this project. I'll call my cousin-in-law this weekend and discuss it. Yes, I think it is time.