2/24/11

Frerbrurary 24, 2011 I knew if I didn't tell the tale of the weekend in one fell swoop on Monday I'd forget what went down at some point. I'm wracking my brain trying to remember what all I did on Monday. I know I went to the shop, eventually, and stripped the dash out of Lil' Wiggly, but that doesn't seem like enough activity to fill a whole day. Oh right, I remember now. I slept in again and didn't even head to the shop until noon. OK, things are falling into place again. I got to the shop and fired up Lil' Wiggly to bring it around front. I started pulling the screws securing the dash and finally got it out. I removed the gauges and started looking at the hole left behind. I decided, “Fuck it!” and yanked the whole dash frame. It wasn't too bad getting that out and it allowed me to carefully remove “John’s” dash pad topper thingy. I set that on top of his 1200 for safe keeping and got back at Lil' Wiggly. With the while dash out, I had a look at just making something simple to go back in with the gauges. I didn't like anything my mind came up with. I had a look at the nekkid frame and decided a skeletal look was in order. I played around, in my mind, with options and finally decided that if I trimmed off one protuberance, I could make a relatively flat panel all the way across. I did the trimming and had another look. Hmm, not quite what I expected. I then saw a nekked 1200 dash frame and took it out to the car. I knew I could make a truly flat panel on that frame. Too bad it was too wide to fit in the car. No, I didn't type that wrong. The 1200 dash is WIDER than the B-210 dash. I wouldn’t have believed that. Oh sure, I could probably trim the 1200 dash to fit, but I might as well continue with the stock frame and semi-flat panel dash. I decided that I would pick up a 7” wide by 48” long piece of sheet metal, cut it to shape, and zook it in place. Yeah, I might rivet it, I haven’t decided yet. Anyhoo, with that decision made, I decided to go to Blank’s Welding Supply and refill my argon bottle so I can zook if I decide to go that route. I disconnected the bottle from the welder and then searched for the tank cap. I eventually found it and took the bottle to the back of Fifi. Oh, I had cleaned up and re-parked Lil' Wiggly by this point as well, I might add. I closed up the shop and headed to Blank’s. For some dumb ass reason, I took surface streets. It took three times as long as it should have. When I got there, the one dude behind the counter was finishing up with another customer. When my time came, I told him what I needed and he went to the truck to get my tank. He didn't have one the same size so I got the next size bigger. I paid and headed back to the shop. Yep, the bigger tank didn't fit my welding cart. I took the “jumping up and down” saw and made the hole a little bigger until it did fit. I'm not sure what will happen if I get a smaller bottle in the future, but I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. I reconnected the regulator but didn't fire the thing up. I didn't really feel like welding anything so I trusted that it would be fine until Saturday. I closed up the shop again and went home. About 1/3 of the way home I thought, “Did I disconnect Lil' Wiggly's battery?” I called Marty Smith to see if he was home. He was not. I left him a message asking if he would mind going back and 1) checking to see if I'd done it and b) disconnecting it if I hadn't. He called me back a little while later and said he would go back there when he got home from work. I assume he did but he never called back. Oh well, what are you going to do? So, I guess that’s all there is to the story. My speedo and tach arrived yesterday. John pointed out that the stock 0-100 Ohm fuel level sending unit works pretty well with an Autometer 0-90 Ohm gauge. I ordered one today. I went ahead and sprung for the overnight shipping so I’ll have it Saturday... I hope. I'll be pissed if I paid an extra $25.00 just to get in on Monday. Oh yes, pissed I will be! Anyhoo, I guess that’s about it. We'll see if I have anything to say tomorrow.