12/3/10

Well, it appears as though I was a bit hasty with my assessment of my google-net banishment. I guess the inter-webs were down for that moment I was trying to access stuff because it seems to be working fine now. I don't know, and I don't care. Onward and upward. The plan for tomorrow is to attack the front suspension of John's 1200 first thing. We'll swap out the cross members and I'll get to work modifying the one coming out to fit Nadine. We may try to turn Nadine around and plop the Z-20 in for a test fit, but I'm not going to get my hopes up for that much progress. I don't remember if we decided on the dog-leg five-speed or what. I'm thinking that’s probably the way we ort to go. I hope, but I'm not holding my breath for it, that John ordered the wheels and that he’ll show up with them. That would be whey cool. Oh, did I mention we’ve decided on full “Rat Rod” for this revival? Yarp, I think we’re going minimalist on the interior, flat red paint on the exterior, black under the bonnet, Brookland Aeroscreens, no bumpers, and black (for now, maybe yellow soon) steel wheels. OK, I said “maybe yellow soon,” well, I'm beginning to talk myself into jumping straight to yellow wheels. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like that idea. We’re trying to think of what to do about the holes in the scuttle where the windshield used to mount. John suggested welding them up but I countered with some sort of scoop or louvers or something. That got John really excited. We’ll be looking at that tomorrow I'm sure. I still think I'll take the thing to Northside Upholstery and have a tonneau cover made for it. I might, but probably won't, have them cover the seats as well. I think uncovered “bomber” seats with just a butt pad ort to work pretty well. I don't know. Thing is, if they were true aluminum “bomber” seats there would be no question, but with them being factory Triumph seat shells... well, I just don't know. Of course I'll paint them silver as if they were actual aluminum “bomber” seats so maybe they’ll still look OK. We'll see. OK, y'all do know that any time I say “I’ll paint...” I do mean “John will paint...” right? He won't let me near a paint can. Meh, what are you going to do? Speaking of paint, I'm also in a quandary about the trim between the rear fenders and the body. Right now it is “chrome.” John wants to paint it... hmm, I don't remember if he said black or body color now. I'm wondering if we can't just delete it. They are gone from the front fenders. Of course that would mean removing the rear fenders. Hmm, I don't know about that. Then again, with the fenders off, we might be able to do something about the rear shocks. OK, we need to look at what is involved with removing the rear fenders. Or we might just scuff them and paint them body color. That is a more likely scenario. Well, I think I'm just about bored with this conversation. I’ll talk to y'all again on Monday.