4/5/12

Ok, once again I slipped up in my narrative. Yesterday I made note of the fact that the density of the fog was not its most commendable trait but the extent was. I then went on to comment on said thickness rather than the aforementioned scope. Allow me to rectify that. We were in pea-soup fog from Fort Worth to the Oklahomo border… at the very least. Tony had me on the phone when we crossed over into Oklahomo so I don’t really remember when exactly it dissipated. I know we were in clear air once we climbed into the “mountains.” I believe John said that the fog was enveloping Weatherford Oklahomo when he spoke to the dude from whom we were getting the car so… yeah, it was a big fog bank. That’s kind of what I'm trying to get across. Anyhoo, I think I've pretty much got all of that story out of my system now. On to new and different things. I think, at least I hope, we will finally try to get some more work done on Lil' Wiggly this Saturday. It would behoove me to go down there tomorrow and change the clutch slave… or something… anything. I'm really itching to get that car back on the road. I think, once it is back in service, I will park Fifi at the shop and bring Lil' Wiggly to the house. It will sure as hell take up less space in the driveway than Fifi! Then again, it doesn’t weigh nearly as much as Fifi so parking it on the back patio won't damage the lawn as much. Hmm, perhaps I will take them both to the house after all. I don’t know. I kind of wish it had been running when the guy from the church, not the “Obama supporter” but the white guy, needed to borrow a car for a few days. I would have put him in… no, no I wouldn’t. Fifi is a better “loaner” for folks whose mechanical sympathy I don’t know. Now, if Herman were available… Tee hee, that will be the best car to loan people. Hmm, I guess I will plan to make that “Slowster” I've been threatening to build after all. Here’s that plan again. I want to make the car run with as bone-stock an engine as I can suffer. Sure, it will have a better-than-stock carburetor, but I'm talking a plain-Jane, 68 horsepower, A-12 and a four-speed transmission. Ok, so I would remove the power sapping mechanical fuel pump and radiator fan… let’s call it a 72 horsepower A-12, shall we? I might, if there is a set of B-310 struts gathering dust in the shop, install the bigger struts and brakes for safety’s sake. I WILL NOT go out and purchase 280ZX struts for it though. In the rear… hmm, I'll probably leave the rear alone. At the most, I would remove some leaves from the springs to lower it some and soften the ride, but I'm not going to invest in lowering blocks. Now we get to the meat of Herman’s revival as the “Slowster.” I will zook in some bars to the door openings and skin them with the worst set of door skins we have. I will then take a Sawz-All to the roof. The “B” and “C” pillars will be chopped at their lowest point and the “A” pillars will be left just tall enough for a polycarbonate “windshield” tall enough for license and inspection stickers to reside. I will install four of those plastic “racing” bucket seats, two in the stock front seat location, and two as far back as they will go atop the rear axle hump. As an aside, the rear seats might get installed back-to-back with the fronts so the rear passengers ride “Tail Gunner” style. I'm not sure about that though. I probably won't do that, but it is a thought. As for ingress and egress, I'm thinking about putting a step in the side of the car under those little vents behind the doors. Hang on, I want to go to Aircraft Spruce and see how much one with a little spring-loaded door will cost. Ok, no luck. Well, a) this project is not going to happen for a little while and 2) it is lunchtime. I think I'll call it a rant for now and go eat. I might come back later. Well, I'm back. I'm so bored I thought I'd come talk to y'all a little more. So, where were we with the description of Herman? Ok, I think I've got the basic idea of the car described. As for wheels and tires, I just bought back a set of 14” turbine wheels with nice, if a little old, tires. I'll probably plan to stick them on there. Either that or I'll put the 13” turbines from George on there and run the 14s on George. Assuming the turbines on George are 13s and not 14s. I don’t remember. Anyhoo, the point is, both of them will be running 20 spoke turbines… or however many spokes they actually have. Damn, now I want to bump Herman up in line. I do have a complete A-12 and four-speed from Gigi sitting there on the floor. It could slip right in that chassis with very little effort. Of course I would want to crack the thing open and replace the rings, bearings, and gaskets before shoving it in the car. I think I have a complete gasket set, or two, for an A-12 lying around. Oh, and I repossessed the black poly fuel cell, originally in the Chickenhawk, from the grumpy old fart George at some time in the past. I'd probably put that in the trunk along with the electric fuel pump. I'd have to make sure the speedometer, or to be more precise, the odometer, worked because it wouldn’t have a fuel gauge. John! Talk me down from this ledge! I'm skeert! Ok, I need to stop talking about this project now or I will convince myself it is a good idea. In fact, I think I've gassed on long enough for today. Since tomorrow is a railroad holiday, I won't be making a rant. Y'all will just have to wait until Monday to hear from me again. So there.