12/12/12

So I get an e-mail from Dick Brink the other day asking for all of us who own Sevens to come to the Toys for Tarts Motorcycle Rally thing this Saturday.  Initially I was thinking, “Hey, that might be kinda cool.”  I asked John if he were interested and was told that he was told he had to take a couple weekends off from the shop this month.  He was initially planning to come to the shop this Saturday, the 15^th, and take off the next two, the 22^nd and 29^th.  I began thinking that it would behoove us to get the 302 this Friday and take it to the shop Saturday.  I also realized that 6,000 Hardley Dumbassed-ones in one place would probably cause me to oblige some idiot in need of a good killin’ so I fingered I would pass on the Toy for Tarts thing.  Well, I have now been informed that the two weekends John will be taking off from the shop are this one, the 15^th and the next, the 22^nd.  We will be picking up the engine on the 28^th to take to the shop on the 29^th now.  So, I have to fill two weeks somehow… and I'm free to go to the Toys for Tarts deal.  I don’t know if I will or not.  Anyhoo, the plan for me at the shop these next few weeks is to make the brake brackets for the 8” axle and, hopefully, get it installed in the car so it will roll.  I'm thinking I might take the calipers to Smiley’s in Kennedale and just see if there is a Sprint Car or Circle Track caliper bracket “close enough” to adapt.  And by “the calipers” I of course mean “A caliper.”  I imagine I won't find anything and will have to make it all from scratch though.  I'm thinking that a hunk of, like, eighth inch thick plate otter suffice.  What is going to be a bitch is making the parking brake calipers “slide.”  I have an idea which otter work.  What I'm thinking is two long bolts and a plate which will encircle the parking brake caliper and hold it while allowing it to slide.  Imagine a piece of flat metal poking out from the axle.  Perpendicular from that are two bolts which sit in the grooves on the sides of the parking brake caliper.  Out at the ends of the bolts, there is a plate which keeps the bolts from spreading and thereby holding them in the grooves of the caliper.  Again, I think it will work.  If everything is held semi-rigid by proximity and stuff, there shouldn’t be too much stress on the bolts… well, except for shear load.  If the parking brake were only used for parking, it otter suffice I would think.  If I ever have to yank the e-brake for and emergency, or to do a “Rockford,” it might be another story.  Yes, I know that a “Rockford” is technically a J-turn, going from reverse to forward, but I can't remember what the slang term for an e-brake turn is.  Perhaps Spiderman has told us.  I guess I'll see tomorrow.  So, what else is there to talk about?  I think I'm going to consider this the plan of attack for the cars… at this point in time.  Of course we’ll finish Lil' Wiggly with the 302, T-5, and Falcon 8” rear axle.  Then, in no particular order, we’ll move on to a turbo A-14, dog-leg five-speed, and either welded 4.11 Datsun 1200 axle or the Toyota AE-86 axle in the Spit’, the VG-33, wide-body, and either the Mustang 8.8” axle or the axle from the 510 Wagon in George, and a KA-24, and S-110 (200SX) axle in the Chickenhawk.  According to my math, that makes Lil' Wiggly the fastest, followed by George, Fiona, the Chickenhawk, the Spit’, The Seven, and finally Fifi as the slowest.  I'm not 100% sure I believe that ranking because Fifi “feels” faster than these numbers imply, whereas Fiona “feels” a lot slower.  Oh, that list would also give me a different car to drive every day of the week.  How goofy is that?  And now that I've put it in writing, I'm beginning to rethink it.  I suppose the wide body car doesn’t necessarily have to be the fastest of the 1200s.  We could gopher the VG in the Chickenhawk, to keep it the fastest 1200, at least in my fleet, and put the KA in George with the wide body.  Hell’s bells!  We don’t even have to do the wide body, now that I think about it.  Yes, it would be cool, but it would also be a shit-ton of work.  Hmm, I know I keep asking John if the S-110 (200 SX) axle is strong enough for the VG but I keep forgetting his answer.  I'd be willing to bet that it is and that we probably should think VG-Chickenhawk and KA-George.  Of course the 1200 axle in George is in no way strong enough so it has to come out.  Hmm, now I'm beginning to reconsider the turbo engine in George and the KA in the Spit’!  No no no no no!  If the turbo engine doesn’t go in the Spit’, it will get the A-14 which came out of Lil' Wiggly, as was the original plan.  Suffices to say, the Spit’ will get an A-14, perhaps with a turbo.  We’ll see.  Well, I'm getting a headache from all this waffling.  I think I'm going to call it a rant.