10/4/13

Sunday I was dumb.  Now I am a shit-for-brains retard.  I ordered a scope mounting kit for Thumper the other day which included a hammer extension piece so Juan can cock the hammer with a scope in place.  Well, the screws for the scope base fit perfectly and I got that all mounted up nice and solid, huzzah!  Then I went to install the hammer extension.  It fouled the scope… badly!  If I'd pulled the trigger with that part on there, I would have dented the hell out of the bottom of the tube and probably knocked the shit out of everything inside.  I took it off and had a look at filing it to clear.  This I began to do.  After several minutes of filing and test fitting, I noticed that it was closer to fitting when installed upside-down.  I began to file the other side for clearance.  When I had it where it looked like it would work, I screwed it down and dry-fired the thing a few times.  On the third pull, I noticed that the gap I'd filed was getting smaller somehow.  It was then that I noticed that the extension was rotating upward.  I thought, “Well, if I just tap this down tighter onto the hammer to wedge it in, then it shouldn’t twist anymore.”  I loosened the setscrew and started tapping on the extension.  Suddenly everything disappeared!  “What the fuck?” I said and then noticed that the hammer had fallen as if the trigger had been pulled.  I tried to re-cock it to continue and then discovered what a fucktard I am.  Apparently I sheared off the sear from the hammer.  It will not cock anymore.  The hammer has nothing to catch on the trigger.  In fact, while futzing around with it, a wee little shaving of metal came falling out to tell me, “You sir, are one dumb fuck sack of shit.”  So, now I have a $300.00 mantle-piece gun and seventy two rounds of .45-70 ammo collecting dust… or so I thought.  This morning I went online and found a replacement trigger and hammer for the thing as well as instructions on how to install them.  I'll give y'all the short version of the thirteen page instructions: take the damned thing to a gunsmith.  I could do it, but it does look like a major pain in the ass getting all of the pins knocked out and back in again, aligning all the shit properly, and… um, everything else it had to say.  I'll just suck it up and pay a gunsmith… well, unless the quote is something ridiculous, price and/or time wise.  We’ll see.  Well, John has gone and done a bad thing, but he doesn’t know it yet.  He’s found another Datsun 1200 in Kansas.  He was thinking of buying it but other things have put the Kibosh on that plan… so now I want it.  The trouble is… or I should say, troubles are: 1) I don’t need another project, even one that is a runner which only needs the most minimal attention, and B) I don’t know where I'd come up with the $2,000.00 to get it.  Of course, if it is as nice as he says, mom would probably “loan” me the money… she’s getting good about that kind of thing.  Shit!  I need him to send me some pictures so I can cipher and figger on this a bit.  And now he has been alerted to the error of his ways.  He’s going to send me some pix.  I really should nip it in the bud before getting all emotionally invested in this car… oops, too late.  What I need to avoid is going in to the DLR Vehicle Inventory and adding it to the list.  John has just realized I've taken “mental ownership” of the car.  Not to worry me old son, it’ll probably all fall through anyway.  The pictures have come through and… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  It is an automatic!  I'm sure we’ll discuss it at length tomorrow but for now I'm thinking of letting sanity prevail.  John just suggested selling the Spit so I'd have a five speed.  Pshyeah, right!  He then volunteered the pedals from "Timmy!"  I don’t know, swapping in a manual kind of flies in the face of it being a runner which needs minimal work.  I wonder just how gutless and un-drivable it would be with 68 horsepower and a slush box.  Of course if we could rescue the 4.11 rear end from George it might be ok.  Freeway driving would be stressful, but how much of that would Juan really want to do?  Oh, and it also needs paint.  But it is a nice straight car from the looks of things.  I'm not totally out on the deal just yet.  We’ll see.  Hmm, another thought has just struck me, if it has an automatic, mom could drive it.  That might help in getting it financed through her.  It would REALLY need paint then.  Of course a $99.00 Maaco “fifty-fifty” re-spray would suffice.  “Fifty-fifty” as in it looks good from fifty feet or at fifty miles per hour… sort of thing.  Damn, I'm back in again.  Suffices to say, I don’t relish the idea of driving the thing back from Kansas now, knowing it isn’t a four-speed.  If we get it, it will mean a trip in Fifi.  John fingers that would be a whole-weekend adventure.  Drive up Saturday, grok the car, buy the car, load the car, spend the night, and come home Sunday.  Sounds fun, right?  Feh, I just don’t know what to think now.  It sure would be awesome if the seller would meet us in Oklahomo City!  I'm sure that thought crossed John's mind and might have been suggested to the dude to be soundly rejected for some reason.  I'll surely ask John tomorrow when we’re working at the shop.  And it is now lunchtime… or more precisely it is time to go hang out with Larry until lunchtime.  I think, therefore, I shall call this a rant and go do that.