2/28/11

Frerbrurary 28, 2011 Whoa! It’s 1600h already! I guess I ort to get started talking to y'all. Then again, I could just bail and go home... tell y'all about the weekend tomorrow. Hmm, let me think that one over. Meh, I guess, since I'm already here, I'll at least tell a little bit of the story. Saturday morning I met John at Mimi’s for breakfast. After we ate, we went to Lowe’s. There I bought a cast iron “T” fitting and two brass nipples so we could install the water temp sender in the soon-to-be defunct heater hose. I fingered I'd run the line from the back of the head, past the sender, and into the lower radiator inlet to the water pump. Yes, it will constantly circulate hot water from the head right back into the water pump bypassing the radiator. I don't think it will be a problem, especially once the end of the story is known. After we’d picked out the pump bimg bits, we went to find the sheet metal. We found a couple 8”x24” 22 gauge sheets and headed to the register. I paid and we headed to the shop. I began working on the dash by trimming on of the sheets to “fit.” Just as I was finishing “ruining” the first sheet, I remembered the 1200 dash almost fitting. I laughed and mentioned it to John. He asked to see just how far off it was. We decided to ditch the B-210 dash and go with a “narrowed” 1200 dash instead. I trimmed off a bit from each end and retried it. It is so close. I trimmed a little more in another location and I think it is going to work. Oh, and it is going to be AWESOME! As I was changing plans, vis-a-vis the dash, Pat called to say he and Tony were headed that way. I asked if he’d mind swinging by Lowe’s and getting me another sheet of steel. He didn't... mind, that is. I kept messing with stuff while John replaced the struts in his B-210. Eventually I was ready to pull the heater core from my car. I debated how to keep all the coolant out of the cockpit and decided that I'd cut the hoses in the engine bay and blow as much coolant as I could out of the core with compressed air. This I did. It worked pretty well and the heater core, all twenty pounds of it, are now out of the car. Hoo doggies! That dash area looks so barren with all that stuff out of there. Anyhoo, I dug around until I found some hose to link the head port, temp gauge “T” and lower radiator inlet. I cut off the hose from the inlet and tried to put the new hose on. No luck. The air conditioner compressor is in the way... sort of. I decided it was time to remove the compressor. This was a bad decision... well, I say that... in the long run... OK, I'll ‘splain. The four bolts securing the compressor to the bracket are... difficult, to say the least. I got one off. The second pissed me off to the point that I... OK, I guess “temper tantrum” would be a reasonable assessment of the reaction. We parked Lil' Wiggly, cleaned ourselves, closed the shop, and left. Oh, at some point Pat and Tony arrived and headed to Pat's shop to load his Roadster to go to AUTOCOMP. After John left, I found the two of them just about to make loading. I “helped” them do that, in that I stood around and make snarky comments while they did the work. I followed them to the car wash where Pat sprayed off a few year’s worth of dust before we drove across town. We stopped and ate at Chicken Excess then went to AUTOCOMP. We unloaded the car and then stood around and talked until dark. I took Pat home while Tony headed off in the opposite direction. I got a text from John saying the strut swap was a success on his car. I'm happy for him... I guess. Sunday I figured, “What the fuck? I'm this far into stripping Lil' Wiggly, why don't we just dive in to the L-series swap?” I texted John that question and I think we’re going to dive in to the L-series swap. See, had I not gotten pissed off at the compressor, I wouldn't have come to that decision. So, there’s why it wasn't such a bad... OK, you’re right. I'm justifying it. Never mind.