2/11/13

And more progress was made on Lil' Wiggly.  Friday evening I get a text from John asking if we can move shop day to Sunday.  He goes on to say that the dude buying the brown 210 can't make it on Saturday but can Sunday.  I say that is fine and we carve that plan in stone.  Saturday morning I head to the shop in Fifi since Fiona is low on gas and I feel the need to drive Fifi from time to time.  My plan is to take the new parking brake master cylinder, and the old proportioning valve from the Fauxbra, to the Boys of Pep to buy adapters and brake lines so I can install everything.  I piddle around at the shop and talk myself out of and back into the proportioning valve several times.  I can’t find anything at the shop to make any of the connections between the two parts nor the car.  Well, I did find that the rubber line from the 10mm hard line to a caliper would thread into the flare fitting of the PB master and I knew the other end would fit the 10mm hard line.  I fingered worst case I could get from the master to a hard line that way.  Finally I take the PB master and proportioning valve, along with a section of Datsun brake line and Datsun brake “T” fitting, to the BoP.  There are three guys working inside the BoP and a few folks waiting for parts ahead of me.  I settle in to wait.  When it is me and another dude, I shrug and say, “Go ahead, mine’s going to take a while.”  When the cash register guy attempts to help, I look back to the front of the store and say, “No, you’d better keep an eye on the register, mine’s going to take a while.”  He’s the guy who helped me with the fitting last week and understood when I half-assed showed him what I was doing.  He went back to the register.  Eventually Bob, the store manager, was free to help so I showed him what I wanted to do.  He directed me to the very same rack of fittings the other guy had shown me last week.  We tucked in to fingering out my needs.  First we found the adapters to go from 1/2” to 3/8” flare fittings for the proportioning valve.  We found a short section of brake line with the puffy nipple fitting for the gazinta of the PB master then found the tube nut for the flare fitting on the proportioning valve.  I said, “I can cut off and flare this end, not the other,” and set the line aside with the adapters and tube nuts.  Then we found the tube nuts for the 10mm flare fittings the Datsun parts wanted.  We looked for an adapter to go from the ??? flare fitting on the gazowta of the PB master but finally gave up.  I told him I had something which would make that connection back at the shop.  Oh, while I was messing with the fingering out the fittings, I sent Bob off to help other customers since I pretty much knew for what I was looking.  Several times I had to tell people, “Sorry, I don’t work here.  Someone will be along in a moment,” since I was behind the counter.  Anyhoo, eventually I had all the stuff I needed and went to pay.  At the register I was asked if I'd found everything.  “I did, thank you,” I said.  A guy in line said, “No you didn’t.”  I laughed and said, “You’re probably…  Oh!  I forgot the nuts and bolts!”  He laughed and said, “Told ya!”  I went to the back and found the N&B too bolt the proportioning valve to the parking brake bracket.  Back at the register we rung me up and I paid.  I went back to the shop and began putting stuff together.  I drilled the holes to mount the Proportioning valve to the MC bracket then cleaned up the PV before installing it.  I cut off one puffy nipple from the short hard line and flared the end.  Yes, I put the tube nut on first.  I bent and installed that line.  It looked really bitchin’.  Next I went to the car and disassembled the factory braking system… as much as I could without crawling under the car that is.  I rerouted the lines for the front brakes and stood back to give things a think.  I didn’t want to jack up and crawl under the car by myself so I fingered I was done for the day.  I cleaned up to leave… then I looked at the clock.  It was still early so I had a look at the fuel cell.  I decided I'd build the fittings for that project and make the fuel gauge.  I went to Ace Hardware on Hulen and Sycamore School Road.  I bought two 90° and one straight 3/8” hose nipple to 3/8” NPT fittings and four feet of clear vinyl hose.  I also bought three rubber “O” rings fingering they would seal the bulkhead bungs I'd bought at McMaster Carr.  Back at the shop I installed everything.  I took the cell outside and filled it with water.  Yeah, the fittings leaked.  I drained it and went home.  Mom and I went to dinner at West Side Café then she had me watch a Lifetime Movie she’d recorded on the BVD.  She sat there with me waiting for me to finger out what the story was.  I'm sure I would have seen it but she pointed out Julia Stiles’ character was named “Hannah Higgins,” Camryn Manheim’s was “Colleen Pickering,” and the beer vendor being made over was “Elliott Doolittle.”  Yep, it was George Bernard Shaw’s classic “Pygmalion” or if you prefer, as I do, the Lerner and Lowe musical “My Fair Lady.”  It was pretty good, if you can get past Julia Stiles’ stilted accent and… um, interesting looks.  She just doesn’t do it for me. [ She does it for me in a big way. Seriously... - SM ] Manheim Steamroller… I mean Camryn Manheim actually looked pretty good, but I digress.  The story worked pretty well and wasn’t a bad rendition of the tale.  If you are a chick, or a “Pygmalion” or “My Fair Lady” fan, it is worth the couple hours out of your life.  If however, you are a Sci-Fi nerd, the Simon Pegg movie “Paul” is higgin’ filarious!  I watched that after the chick flick.  But I've gone on long enough for today.  I'll tell y'all about that later.