10/15/2012

Well, we’re committed now.  Friday after work, I stopped by the credit onion and pulled $350.00 out so’s I could buy that transmission Saturday morning.  Gregg called to ask what my plans were and if we could meet so he could buy the Judge and Kurt Corto from me.  I told him I'd be picking up John and going to the Mustang dude’s shop first thing in the morning.  Saturday morning I picked John up and we went to the Mustang dude’s shop.  I texted Gregg to say we were on our way and he called back immediately for directions.  John directed us to meet at a gas station since he doesn’t like bringing too many strangers to someone else’s shop.  Since I already had the cash for the transmission in hand and neither of us believed Gregg's time estimate, we went to the Mustang dude’s place first.  A T-5 five-speed is much smaller than I expected.  We loaded the stuff in the back of Fifi and headed to meet Gregg.  We wound up waiting for a few minutes on him even after going to do the other deal first.  Since the landlord of the shop had called to request we clean up a potential environmental catastrophe, we begged off hanging out with Gregg any longer than necessary to make our deal happen.  We took off to the shop to clean up the “Exxon Valdez” situation… I'd left an oil drain pan under the 620 truck and it had filled with rain water.  The ounce or so of oil floating on top of the rain water made it look like a totally full pan of oil.  It had not overflowed so all the oil was still contained.  We dumped the oily water into a container and called the “disaster” averted.  We then began the search for a 510 cross member.  We could not find the one that John was sure he had there at the shop and wound up removing the one from the 510 wagon/dumpster out back.  I took it inside and test fit it against the 289’s motor mounts and pan.  It looks like it is going to work.  I made a set of preliminary motor mounts but John made me promise to not weld them to the cross member until we have better measurements from the engine bay without the A-series in the way.  Sunday I went back to the shop and zooked the mounts to the cross member.  Ok, relax John!  I didn’t really.  After we’d looked at the mounting situation, we had a closer look at the transmission compared to a Datsun tranny.  Again, a T-5 is much smaller than I expected it to be… about the same size as the L-16 four-speed to which we were comparing it.  I think it is going to work.  John asked a question at this point.  “Since we have a transmission now,” he asked, “are we still going to move the ‘Spit in once the engine is out of Lil' Wiggly?”  I emphatically shook my head “No” to that suggestion.  We’re moving straight into the V8 swap.  So next week we’re planning to yank the A-series from Lil' Wiggly, along with the fenders and wheel hubs I believe.  Once we’d done all the damage we felt we were going to do, we went to lunch.  I'm not even going to say where… ‘cuz y'all know already.  I took John back home and headed north towards Cabela’s.  Yeah, with a bunch of money burning a hole in my wallet, I had to go look at guns and stuff.  I wound up turning off of 377 at the Academy instead and looked at guns there.  I was a good boy and didn’t buy anything.  From there I went to Bloodbath & Beyond and bought a butt stock with pistol grip for the Pumpenstein.  At the house, I tossed Pumpenstein into Fiona and headed back to the shop.  A butt stock for a Mossberg 500 will bolt up to a Tri Star Cobra Tactical shotgun… but not perfectly.  I had to trim the adapter piece a little to make it fit but it doesn’t quite line up right.  There is a step from the receiver to the stock.  I went ahead and assembled it and took it home to see how I was going to like it.  It will work, I think, and it feels ok, but I think I'm going back to the stock… um, stock.  Oh, I took some of the “spare” parts from the butt stock kit and tried to see if any of them would help the Bullpup shotgun feel less flollopy.  They did not.  I'm now convinced that that gun has got to go.  I'm going to try and sell it next weekend at the gun show.  I'll probably take a loss on it, but I almost always do.  Sunday I hung out and went to lunch with mom.  We ate WAY too much at Papadeaux’s so I went back and took a nap.  Around 1530 h I took off in Fiona for a hoon… and wound up at Academy again looking at guns.  I resisted the urge to buy the Mossberg Maverick pump, just like the one I sold to John, or the Taurus .38 Special snub nose revolver I could almost afford.  I'm going to wait until next week.  I'm not sure why I want a .38 revolver all of a sudden… I just do.  What makes more sense, even though it makes no sense whatsoever, would be to buy a single action Cowboy revolver in .45 Colt to go with the two western stylee lever guns I own.  In fact, I think I might just go that route… unless I buy a long barreled Judge to replace the one I sold to Gregg.  Of course then I'll be kicking myself for “giving” him all my .410 shotgun ammo and those speed loaders full of “Flying Ashtrays.”  Ok, I think I've just talked myself into a single action Cowboy gun.  I'll probably be shopping for that this weekend.  So, there you have it.  I guess I'll try to come up with something to say tomorrow… if you’re lucky.