10/10/2012

Sunday was almost a total waste.  Mom and I went to lunch then I spent the afternoon debating whether or not I was going to go for a hoon in Fiona.  I did not.  Around 1600h, Gregg calls to ask if I still had The Judge, a Taurus revolver chambered for either .45 Colt or .410 shotgun shells.  I told him I did and he told me a “sob story” about going to construction sites in rattlesnake country.  Apparently he doesn’t feel comfortable toting a full sized shotgun around while working, go figure.  A Judge, loaded with .410 birdshot shells, would be perfect hanging from a belt holster.  I told him he caught me at the prefect time; I need money more than a Judge.  We came to an agreement on price.  He then asked about Kurt Korto, my .380 caliber Kel-Tec P3-AT pistol.  I said I'd be willing to let that go as well and he made an offer for the pair.  Can I replace them for that money?  No.  Is it enough money to get the 289 for Lil' Wiggly rebuilt?  No, but it is a good start.  I said I was bored and willing to head his way to make the deal but he had something else he was about to do.  We set Monday evening as the time.  I mentioned in Monday’s rant that I drove The Seven to the “Japanese” car thing Sunday evening.  That was what happened next in the narrative.  I was uncomfortably cool all over starting out, but my legs warmed up to comfortably cool as engine temps rose.  My left arm and face were still cold the whole way.  Standing around in the parking lot I was warm enough.  Driving home was similar to heading out.  So now we are at Monday in the narrative.  Work was the usual and I was anticipating meeting up with Gregg so’s I'd have some folding money.  Yeah, he flaked on me.  Monday night, as I was doing my usual before bed intergooglenet browsing, the intergooglewebs quit on me.  It almost got the laptop killed.  Of course it put me in the foulest mood for Tuesday’s commute and EVERY person on the freeway piqued my wrath.  I was feeling truly misanthropic.  I understood why all those evil geniuses wanted to destroy humanity.  If I'd had a button, I'd have pushed it.  Boom!  All y'all are dead.  Ha ha.  Then, in the middle of the afternoon, John sends me a text.  “What about the Pathfinder brakes up front and the Kia brakes out back for the B-210?”  Holy crap!  I had never even thought about putting his huge-assed braked on Lil' Wiggly.  Ok, a little history might be in order here.  A few months back, John found a set of Nissan Pathfinder front brake rotors and calipers which he wanted to install on his 1200.  We fought with them for a while but he finally decided they just wouldn’t work… on that car.  They were just too huge for any appropriate wheels.  They were set aside.  Last Saturday, or the one before actually, he showed up at the shop with a set of Kia/Hyundai front rotors and calipers for the same project.  These we messed with for a bit but came across the same issue: wheels which will clear the calipers are too big for a 1200.  They were also set aside.  By the way, the Pathfinder rotors are 12.3" in diameter, while the Kia/Hyundai ones are 10.5".  As for why they will work on a B-210 but not on a 1200, a B-210 can more easily swallow the 16” Gram Lite wheels we’re planning to use.  With their “front wheel drive” offset, these wheels should allow us to fit the Ford 8.8” axle without having to narrow it… we hope.  We will swap in some 300ZX hubs onto my 280ZX struts to widen the front track in order to use them while we’re at it.  So, while we were discussing the installation of huge-assed brakes on Lil' Wiggly, I forgot that I wanted to destroy the human race.  You may thank John at your leisure for that.  After we were settled on a plan, sort of, I went shopping for mechanical brake calipers to make the parking brake system work.  John suggested hydraulic but I'm not really comfortable with that.  I found several sources for the Wilwood parking brake calipers.  $129.00 for a pair on e-Bay was the best price.  Jeg’s and Speedway both had them for $71.00 each and other sites were similar.  So, it looks like in addition to a huge-assed engine, Lil' Wiggly is going to have huge-assed brakes as well.  I'm excited about that.  Ok, it is 1110 h so I'm going to call it a rant and go hang out with Larry until lunch.