11/22/10

Welcome to Texas Mr. President. What, still too soon? Oh well. So Lil' Wiggly is almost legal again. Saturday morning I limped it to the shop... psh, who am I kidding? I drove it like I drive everything. I just made sure to leave myself a little more room for braking, that’s all. Anyhoo, at the shop we fingered out why the horn didn't work, the wires in the steering wheel were disconnected and it blew the fuse. With that fixed and the horn working, we moved on to bleeding the rear brakes. With the brakes working, if not properly at least better, we moved on to the choke. I found a Datsun 1200 choke cable and we installed it. I made a bracket and John installed that. Oh, by the way, John also did most of the “heavy lifting” on the brake bleeding as well. Many thanks to him for that. With the choke working we decided to call it quits and went to lunch. We stopped at my Kreblechistani tire store, the one where I've had almost all cars inspected for the last few years, and waited. Since there were two cars in front of me, we left the keys and insurance papers with the guy and went to Sticker Shock Mexican Food, AKA Caro’s. They have a new menu and the nachos John always orders wasn't on there. We also didn't see the owner hanging about like he usually does. “Has this place changed ownership?” we asked of each other. The owner did eventually show up and shot that theory down. John called him over and asked about the nachos. “Just order the combination nachos,” we were told. “You’ll get what you want.” This we did. And, true to his word, we got what we were expecting. I paid, to say “thanks again for all the help today” to John and then we headed back to get Lil' Wiggly. It was sitting in exactly the same spot. When I asked why, I was told the high beam indicator didn't work. I got in the car and tried it myself. Sure enough, it didn't. Of course neither did the high beams so... I thanked John again and sent him on his way while I went back to the shop. I took the cover off of the steering column to see what I could see. Everything looked kosher in there. I looked under the hood and noticed a white wire running from the driver’s side headlight into the firewall. I traced it under the dash but lost it when it went up towards the headlight switch. Kooky. I need to talk to Kevin and ask if he remembers what we did there. I seem to remember Jesse having to rig something up to make something work but I also think I remember the high beams working from the stalk switch as well. I just spoke to Kevin and he remembers running a wire but he thought it went from one headlight to the other. This it most certainly does not. He then suggested making sure there isn't corrosion in the fuse box preventing the high beams from getting juice. This I most certainly did not try... but I will. So, back to Saturday, after not fingering out the problem, I put the column cover back together and closed the car up. I washed up and locked the shop then went for a hoon. I really like that car. The brakes still need to be bled some more, and it “needs” more power, but I really like that car. Oh, speaking of more power, I've decided that I'm going to go with the L-16. My reasons are myriad. First off, the L-16 is at the shop. Second, the L-20b is at Dewey’s house, we hope. Third, I like the idea of doing less with more... wait, that’s not right. To quote the great Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, “Strike that, reverse it.” I like the idea of doing more with less. Fourth, even though the L-20b will probably rev high enough for my liking, I like the idea of being able to rev even higher, should I feel the need. So, I think I might get cracking on the head gasket job on the L-16 soon. I saw an L-series head gasket hanging on the shelf just yesterday in fact. I hope it is the right one. John, is there a difference in L-series head gaskets? Also to John, what are your plans for that “Smog Header” hanging on the wall? I'll zook up the air injection ports and use it in Lil' Wiggly if that’s OK with you. If not, feel free to tell me. I'll just use it behind your back. Just kidding. I won't use it if you say not to. OK, now that I have sufficiently digressed from the story, let’s see if I can back on track. I hooned Lil' Wiggly home from the shop and then did nothing else. OK, so I guess I was also sufficiently finished with the story. Sunday I decided I wanted Indian food for lunch. I also decided I wanted to shoost the two Beretta Storms. I packed up the Space Gun and half the magazines in the Space Gun’s case and Pixie and the rest of the magazines, along with a couple hundred more rounds of ammo, in the range bag. I debated taking the Judge and some .45 Colt ammo but vetoed the idea. I put it all in the back of Ms. Clio and headed out. I ate some very tasty Chicken Tikka Masala and other Indian delights at Maharaja then headed to the range in Whiskey Flats. I signed in and set a target up. I burned through four magazines in the Space Gun. It patterned really well but shot a few inches low. I tweaked the sight and got it shooting right where I aimed, more or less. I think I'm flinching still. Well, not so much flinching, as pulling the gun away with the trigger in anticipation of the shot. Yeah, I guess that is technically “flinching,” but I like to think I'm more manly than a flincher. The gun shot really well at 7, 15, and 20 yards. Unfortunately, the target system jammed at 25 yards so I couldn't pull it back in to see how I did out that far. I ain’t skeert though. I'm sure it was acceptable. When the range master couldn't get the target back either I said, “At least it wasn't an embarrassing target out there.” I moved on to another line and fired several magazines full through Pixie then went back to the Space Gun. I used three targets and about 350 rounds of ammo. All but about four shots were in the silhouette so I finger it was a successful shoost. Of course I've been blowing and pulling giant black boogers out of my head ever since. I don't think they have their ventilation system working right. I went back to the shop and cleaned both guns before heading home. And that’s about it for the weekend.