8/11/2011

Well first off, my server lady was not there yesterday. I do not like the way her replacement serves Chicken Tikka Masala. I love the CTM itself, but not the “skimpy” portions he served. I used quotes because it was a sufficient, and probably more healthful, serving but I like it so much... Anyhoo, I stopped in at the Fiat dealer on the way home last night. I took one for a test drive as well. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course I could feel the difference in torque between my semi-hot-rodded 1.8 liter in the Black Death and the stock 1.4 liter in the Fiat, but I'm sure I could live with it. I'd just have to remember to keep it on the boil more than I have to now. I also stopped in the Toyota dealer but they didn't have any five-speed Yari. In fact, they only had one Yaris at all on the lot... and it was sold. I suppose it is for the best though. I'm beginning to cool on the whole “new car” idea anyway. I took a sniff at the vent as I passed the Black Death and couldn't smell anything after it has sat for two days and nights with the windows down and the sunroof open. We'll see if it stinks Saturday afternoon when John and I drive it across town to take him home. See, here’s our plan for Saturday, I'll pick him up in Fifi first thing and we’ll go to Not Texas to buy that Gold Wing. I'll tell y'all about that in a minute. We'll drop the ‘Wing at the shop and go get the Black Death at my house. We'll see if the HVAC is still stinky while taking him home then. If so... hell, I don't know. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it, I guess. Anyhoo, why are we going to get another Gold Wing? Well, we’ve decided that a 1,000 cc ‘Wing motor and sequential-shift transmission will be pretty awesome in the N-600. John knows a dude who is trying to unload one before he moves to Minot North Dakota on Tuesday. Oh, John has also found a dude selling manifolds to mount Weber IDA carburetors on a ‘Wing. He’s also shown me pictures of a Weber DGV manifold for them as well as a video of a supercharged ‘Wing. Hmm, now where have I seen a supercharger laying around? Oh, that’s right. In my shop! So, we have a few ideas about induction for this monster. We’re thinking about a Datsun 1200 rear axle out back but we haven’t really talked about the front suspension. I imagine, to keep it simpler, we’ll just go with Datsun 1200 struts up front as well. We may not, I don't know. What I'm wondering is just how much wider the 1200 axle is than the car. I'm thinking that if it only sticks half the tire or less out of each side, we’ll flare the hell out of it and go. If it has the entire wheel and tire outside the car... hmm, cycle wings? No, we’ll have the axle narrowed probably. Although... hmm. We need to take a tape measure to it. I have a vision of a cross between a Morgan Aero 8 and something like a full bodied Lotus Seven in mind. It probably won't work, but I can see it being... well, interesting at the very least. I suppose we could ditch the “find the narrowest axle we have” plan and just build this wide-body thing from the start. Hmm. I need to cipher and figger on this some. OK, before you start riding my ass about starting another project before finishing one of the others, we won't start working on this until Lil' Wiggly is on the road and Nadine at least has an engine and transmission mounted up. Yes, I should “finish” Nadine before starting on this. I know that. And hopefully John will make me do that. Actually, we’ve done pretty well at ignoring the Honduh project for a couple years now. What may do us in is if John gets all hot-shit to do this one first. I need to get him back on his 1200 project. Lil' Wiggly and Barbecue Bob have taken him away from that car for far too long. Ring-ring. Hmm, caller ID says it is the pot. Kettle, do you want to take this call? Anyhoo, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here. But that is what we’re planning for Saturday. Oh crap, I just remembered that party for Randy and Jana’s twentieth wedding anniversary Saturday evening. Feh, I hate having plans for things like that. For instance, there is a happy hour get together tonight for Maggie Shoop who’s leaving the railroad. I've agreed to go, because she’s really hot, but having done so, I'm dreading the event. Oh well. Oh, the fire control group and bolt on guard for my shotgun arrived yesterday. It was all I could do to not go to the shop and install it. The rest of my conversion parts should arrive today and Larry’s otter be here today or tomorrow. We’re planning to do some amateur gun-smithing on Sunday. I don't remember if I ranted about a part I bought the other day. See, there are these two pins in a Kalashnikov pattern gun, one for the hammer and the other for the fire control group. They are held in place with a tiny little spring which snakes its way under one and over the other. This guy sells a plate to replace this spring. The instructions... well, there weren’t any instructions with the part, but what I read on the dubya-googles was that to install it you just remove the safety lever and plop it in. Well, on a Saiga in sporting configuration, you cannot remove the safety lever without removing the fire control group. Upon inspection of the new FCG, I see that there is some material missing from the disconnector which might allow the safety to come out. On the other hand, that missing material prevents Juan from making the gun “select fire” easily. Perhaps that was part of the design philosophy, I don't know. For those in the back, “select fire” is the gumment’s euphemism for a gun which can fire full auto. A machine gun, if you will. See, while looking in the works of the Saiga, I fingered out a pretty simple way to convert one to “select fire.” I won't ever do it, mainly because I don't want to have my ass raped in prison. But if the shit really hits the fan and civilization as we know it collapses... On the plus side, only my 12 gauge will be effected, the 7.62x39 will still have a Russian disconnector in it. So come *TEOTWAWKI, I could have a “select fire” 7.62x39 with just a few hour’s work. But I've digressed once again. Like I said, the plan right now is for Larry and I to go to the shop Sunday to do trigger conversions on our two shotguns. Not “select fire” conversions, “moving the trigger group up to the traditional AK position” conversions. Remember? Saigas are imported as “Sporting” guns with “Monte Carlo” butt stocks. To install a Monte on a Saiga, they have to move the trigger back to the rear of the receiver with a monkey-motion series of levers. Some people think this detracts from the look of the gun. I'm easy either way. The only reason I'm converting my shotgun is, because of said monkey-motion levers, the trigger SUCKS! The trigger on the 7.62x39 however is nice and crisp. Therefore I am not planning to convert it. Besides, I like the “thumb hole stock” I have on there. It makes it look sort of like a mini-Dragunov. Well, apparently by doing this rant over the course of the day I've gotten a little long-winded. I guess I'll shut the hell up now. Have a day.

*The End Of The World As We Know It.