10/25/13

I think I've come to a decision.  I think I'm going to keep both the Mini and the Spit, but I'm going to reverse the order of completion.  Here’s my thinking, since the Spit will be so much cheaper to build, I'll make finishing it for my fiftieth birthday the goal but I'll piddle with the Mini as well when the Spit gets me down and stuff.  Once the Spit is going, I'll start in on the Chickenhawk with a goal of two years or so for its completion… again, piddling with the Mini in between.  Then, once the Chickenhawk is going, get into the full-boat restovation of the Mini with the goal being my fifty-fifth birthday when the Mini is sixty years old.  This plan allows me to keep Lil' Wiggly as well… unless I hate the way it drives of course.  I think that putting off the Mini another five years will allow me to gopher a much better cosmetic restovation as well.  I won’t say the two year plan would have been a slap-dash job but… ok, I will say exactly that.  I think by having it as a secondary project, we can get in and really do a good ground-up job.  I don’t know that I'd go so far as to say “rotisserie” but something close is what I have in mind.  Yeah, that’s easy for me to claim while sitting here at my desk typing in a computer.  We’ll see what happens when the fecal matter comes into contact with the rotary air circulation device.  Oh, I got an e-mail back from the Spitfire suspension guru today!  I guess some history is in order.  I found on them intergooglewebs an article on performance enhancements for Spitfires and the bit I found most interesting was what he had to say about the rear suspension.  The first fix was simply lower the car, which I was planning to do anyway.  By lowering the car, the swing axles are put in an upward (toward the wheel) angle and the rear tires gain negative camber.  This situation lessens the car’s tendency to “jack up” in turns causing the tires to go positive camber and lose traction dramastically.  He then went on to describe a system for “camber compensation” using a few different methods.  What it didn’t say was whether or not just lowering the car would be enough for a street hooning car.  I sent an e-mail asking that very question.  His reply was something to the effect that it would probably be enough for a fast street car but he recommended the camber compensator be used as well.  Fortunately, there is a simple design camber compensator, so I will probably gopher it eventually.  We’ll see.  Tomorrow, John and I are planning to take the last of the stuff we want to save from Beenbroke and leave the rest for the junk guy and the facility folk to deal with.  I've just told Gregg that if he wants that Hunter alignment machine and engine hoist, he’d better come claim them tomorrow.  Sorry John.  We’ll see what happens.  And finally, I got a call from the gunsmith saying that Thumper was ready to be picked up.  I asked how much it was going to be and he said, “Twenty five plus tax.”  I'm quite chuffed at that.  I'll probably swing by on my way to the shop after work when I go pick up the trailer.  So I guess that is about all I have to say for this week.  We’ll talk again Monday.