4/9/12

So we got some work done on Lil' Wiggly! We are so friggin’ close. But first, Friday. I went to the shop around 1500 h to change the lug nuts on Fiona. The Sick Speed anodized aluminum lugs had faded from red to silvery pink and I was never really happy with the way they stuck out on the front wheels. I fired up the compressor and rounded up the impact wrench and sockets. When I had all the nuts changed, I hit them with the torque wrench and declared the job complete. Then I went around back and had a look at Herman. I had an epiphany. I wasn’t really excited about zooking bars into the door openings, thick metal to thin is a beeotch. I thought, “Why not weld the bars to plates which can be bolted in?” Then I thought, “And we’ll bolt them to the hinge and striker plate pickup points.” I think it will work. I also decided that instead of round bars, which I don’t have, I'll use that square tube stock, which I do have. This I did not do. I went home. Saturday morning I eventually drug my ass to the shop and met John. We jacked the ass of Lil' Wiggly back into the air and removed the wheels again. I yanked the drum from the driver’s side and we had a look at adjusting the shoes. The problem was the wear lip in the drums. It was decided that since the lip was obviously not in an area where the shoes ride, we could take the angle grinder and remove the lips. Oh, we had a look at using 240Z aluminum drums but they were too big. While John ground on the drum lips, I sat down and fingered out the adjusters. Juan cannot access them from the back due to (tee hee, I said "doo doo!") the lowering blocks so they have to be adjusted with the drum off. I fingered out which way to turn the adjuster and set the driver’s side… way too tight as it turns out. We did the passenger side a little looser and readjusted the driver’s side. They drag and can't be turned by hand, so they are probably still a little too tight, but we moved on. We bled the rears and had a go at the pedal. It was still a tad mushy. We hit the fronts and they finally felt good. Next, I crawled under to change the clutch slave. We bled it and now I think we’re just about ready to finish it up. We connected the dash wiring and “tested” out the gauge functionality. They all reacted to the ignition switch being turned on. The battery was just strong enough to fire the fuel pump and fan but wouldn’t turn the engine over. We decided to call it a day. George stopped by and we had a look at the limited slip differentials he had but couldn’t get the axle out of my narrowed housing to see which one I'd need. We’ll do that next week when he comes back with his axle puller thingy. John and I went to Benito’s for flaming cheese and cow-face tacos. We talked a little about the projects and he approved, I believe, of the door bar idea for Herman. I also decided that if no other car was going to have an A-series engine, I might as well use the single DCOE manifold on Herman. What the hell, right? We decided, and then undecided, to swap the “big” tires onto the gold Drag wheels for Lil' Wiggly. The “big” tires will fill the wheel wells a little better, but the “small” tires a) are already mounted, and 2) will give a better gear ratio for the high-strung engine we have in that car. Besides, it might inspire me to lower the car a little more. We’ll see. So, I think next Saturday we might be driving Lil' Wiggly again! If I didn’t just jinx the project.