1/4/13

Ok, let me see if I can get my train of thought back on the rails.  First off, yesterday I had to babysit some service techs most of the day so I didn’t make it in here to finish the tale of the Über Long Weekend.  Now I think I can.  So, Wednesday the 26^th is accounted for, right?  Thursday I... um, what the hell did I do Thursday?  Damn, I had it typed out the other day and deleted it rather than “saving it for tomorrow” as I usually do.  I know at some point I went back to Smiley’s and bought a pair of coil over kit thingies and ordered a pair of springs for the front of Lil' Wiggly, but I thought that was on Friday.  I guess I didn’t do anything Thursday after all.  Why doesn’t that sound right?  I am pretty sure I didn’t go to the shop, at least not for any significant amount of time.  I may have gone for a hoon… but that doesn’t ring a bell either.  Hmm, I guess we’ll go with “I did nothing.”  As I said, I went to Smiley’s on Friday, probably, and dropped those parts off at the shop.  I had a look to see if the coil overs would fit the struts… they won't.  There are two little ridges inside the tubes which make the ID either the same as the strut’s OD or just a hair smaller.  I fingered that if I had a 1 1/16” hole saw I could ream them out and they would fit.  I did not go buy a hole saw at that time.  I looked around for solutions to the problem and finally gave up.  Saturday I met John at the shop and we got cracking on the front suspension.  I removed the driver’s side strut and lower ball joint.  John asked why I took the joint off.  “So’s we can break that recalcitrant tie rod loose from the steering link,” I says.  It wouldn’t break loose.  I fought with it for at least an hour.  I tried heat but, since it was about 20° in the shop, I think I was just pissing up a flagpole with the butane torch.  Finally I gave up and adjusted the other end of the link out ½” and hoped it would be enough.  I reassembled the lower ball joint and moved to the passenger side strut.  With both struts out, we went to the vice and got to work on the brakes.  With the Etcetera rotors and calipers in place, it appeared as though all we’d need is a 1.25” thick hunk of aluminum to bolt the caliper to the strut.  John is supposed to be calling a metal place today to see if we can get that tomorrow.  Oh, while I'm thinking about it, I was not as correct as I could have been the other day.  I said that the rears were also Etcetera calipers… they are not.  The rotors are Etcetera, but the calipers are Kia Optima.  Why not use Etcetera calipers?  1) John already had the Kia units and B) they are aluminum!  So, with the

front caliper mounts “designed” we got to work removing the spring cups.  John got me started with a hacksaw through the cup just above the weld.  I took over and he got a picture of it for the build thread.  If he didn’t put in another link, scroll down to our previous entry, there are two in that rant.  For that matter, bookmark the damned thing and keep up with it!  After making a few cuts, I decided that a cutoff wheel in the die grinder would be a better way to do it.  Unfortunately we were out of them.  We called it a day and I made a shopping list for Lowe’s… but I'll get to that when I tell y'all about Monday.  Sunday I met Larry at the credit onion so we could go to the gun show.  He’d gone the previous Sunday and said the place was packed.  He also said that “assault weapons” were selling for stupid money.  I decided that since I had the SKS and most of my 7.62x39 ammo is loaded on stripper clips, I could do without the Tactical 7.62x39 Saiga.  I ran out of time before I could make a sign to carry, but I packed up everything related to that gun… including some “spares.”  At the show, we saw the huge line outside the building but we lucked out in a huge way!  We parked about four spots away from our usual location in the garage and went up the escalator.  There was a table with a cop and a money guy at the top.  About four people were waiting for the show to open.  I had the cop tie off the gun, as we are supposed to, and waited with the others.  When they started letting people in from the other side of the building, where the huge line was, we waited for the four dudes ahead of us, paid and went in.  Do I feel guilty for “cutting” in line?  Not at all.  We went in a public entrance and waited at a ticket counter thing just like anyone who waited outside could have done.  Screw them if they don’t know about the parking garage.  Hells bells, there were enough cars in the garage that I'm really surprised there were ONLY six of us waiting to get in at the top of the escalator.  Anyhoo, the short version of the gun show story is this: while everyone agreed that my asking price of $1,500.00 was fair and that I should be able to sell it at that… no one bought it.  Feh, whatever.  It IS a cool gun and I don’t regret not selling it.  I'd have liked to have had the $1,500.00, but I just would have done something stupid with it.  In fact, I picked out the gun I would have bought had I sold the 7.62x39.  It was a Marlin lever action carbine in .45-70 Government.  Look it up, it is an impressive, if not a little bit scary looking cartridge.  But alas, t’was not to be.  After the show, Larry and I went to Benito’s for flaming cheese and cow-face tacos.  Oh!  I just remembered one of the things I did that Thursday!  Mom and I went to Two Brother’s Bistro for Greek flaming cheese and Gyros.  Ok, so with the gun show story all told, we move on to Monday.  I went to Lowe’s to get a 1 1/16” hole saw, a wire wheel for the bench grinder, and cutoff wheels for the die grinder.  They don’t make a 1 1/16” hole saw.  They jump from 2” to 2 1/8”… which I already had but is too big.  I went ahead and bought a 2” saw along with the other stuff and went to the shop.  The 2” saw did remove some metal from the ridges, but not enough.  I think if we put some sandpaper on the outside of the saw it will wear away until they will fit.  I installed the wire wheel on the bench grinder and then called it a day.  New Year’s Day was wasted in front of the TV… and now we’re back to work.  So there you have it.  I'll tell y'all about tomorrow’s progress on Monday.