12/13/13

As promised, here is a rundown of what happened with cars at the shop over the last three weeks.  Thanksgiving week I did not go to the shop.  I hung out with mom doing stuff with and for her… as well as spending retarded amounts of money on guns and shit at Bloodbath & Beyond, Military Gun Supply, and Academy… oh, and shooting the KT S2K, and new .38 revolver of course.  Saturday after T-giving I think we went to the shop but I don’t really remember what we accomplished.  I think John tore down the A-14 for his 1200 and I monkeyed with Lil' Wiggly I'm sure.  Oh, I remember buying and installing spacers under the alternator to get some more tension in the serpentine belt and reinstalling the strengthened motor mounts.  I think I futzed with the radiator a bit as well.  Yeah, that sounds about right.  Monday John was helping out Steve-John at A&B Muffler with a 510 wagon he’s putting back together.  I stopped in and went to lunch with John.  I think I went back to our shop and fiddled with the radiator on Lil' Wiggly some more after that.  Oh, I stopped in at Metal Supermarket and bought an aluminum pipe to make the right angle upper hose nipple on the radiator that day as well.  I went back to the shop, after lunch with John on Monday, and fabricated the pipe work for that.  That evening I went on line and found an aluminum welder in Fort Worth.  I called and left a message asking if he would be willing to take a look and give me an estimate.  He was willing.  I headed his way Tuesday morning, after one of my stops at Bloodbath & Beyond, and got said estimate.  He wanted $80.00 to zook the 90°elbow together and then that to the radiator or $120.00 to do the two 90s and longish straight section.  I fingered a single 90 otter suffice and took my center section piece home with me when I left the other bits.  Back at the house, mom was ready to go to lunch.  As we were headed out, the guy called to say the radiator was ready.  I suggested to mom that we eat at El Rancho Grande on North Main so I could go pick it up.  We did that… except we picked up the radiator first.  After lunch I think I took the radiator to the shop but I'm not ready to commit to that 100%.  Wednesday I went to the shop and built the lower radiator mount and rebuilt the core support we had cut out to make installing the engine easier/possible.  What I did was take a section of ¾” square tubing, installed seven threaded inserts into it, and bolted that to the car and the cut out piece to it.  I also made some tabs for the front near the grille to support that part.  It is very nice.  I cut a big assed hole in it for the radiator cap and began thinking about how I was going to lock the radiator into the car.  I made a bracket and welded it to the part of the core support I'd cut out and fitted it that way.  Once I was happy, more or less, with the radiator installation, I went home.  Thursday was supposed to be but-assed butt-butt cold… and it was.  John was not going to go work on the 510 wagon so we were going to go to the shop.  Wednesday evening I thought, “I sure wish I still had those coveralls I left at the Beenbroke shop.”  I decided I'd buy a new pair at Tractor Supply.  Rather than stop in the morning, I went on line and found out the closing time for the Benbrook store.  I hauled ass over there to buy a new suit.  Back at the house, with my $100.00 suit in hand, I noticed a gym bag on the floor of my room.  “I wonder,” I thought to myself, “if there is an old pair of insulated coveralls in that bag.”  There was.  I packed them and some other stuff up and got ready to go to the shop in the morning.  In the morning I went to the shop with all that stuff.  It was butt-assed butt-butt cold… outside.  John had the heater going in the shop so it was just cold in there.  He used the old suit to crawl under his car and take out the engine cross member while I continued to mess with the radiator in Lil' Wiggly.  With a slight redesign of my upper mount to tilt the radiator more forward, it looked like I could get a fan under the hood.  This we did.  John bent up some motor mounts for his 1200 which I zooked together for him.  Oh, that was another thing I did Wednesday!  I took the argon bottle for the TIG welder and bought more argon.  Anyhoo, around 1800 h we decided we’d had enough fun and left just as the ice storm was moving in.  Friday morning I was iced in and could not leave the house if I'd wanted to… but didn’t know it.  John was without power and had to stay with the family so the shop was out of the question.  Saturday John was still without power so we blew off the shop again.  By the afternoon I was stir-crazy enough that I wanted to get out of the house.  I backed Fifi out of the driveway, after spending half an hour scraping ice from the windshield.  I got into the street and just spun my wheels trying to get up the hill.  I turned back towards the driveway and pulled right in.  “What the fuck?” I said to myself.  If the thing will pull up into the driveway, it otter make it up the hill.  I tried again.  It did not pull up the hill… in fact; it slid further down the hill.  I was stuck.  I got some kitty litter and made enough traction to get back into the driveway.  I went in and told mom we weren’t going anywhere.  Sunday the road in front of the house had cleared enough that I was sure I could get moving.  I headed out to reconnoiter the roads.  They were passible.  I filled the truck’s gas tank and went back home.  Later in the day, my replacement dude here at work called to ask how I wanted to get the phone and keys back from him.  I said I'd come get them and we set a place to meet.  Loop 820 was passible for the most part but I got stuck behind the scraper trucks just past Lake Worth at the bottom of the hill up to Jacksboro Highway.  We sat dead still on the freeway for half a fucking hour!  Eventually I made it to the rendezvous and got my phone and keys back.  I went home and went to bed dreading having to come back to work… not the roads, the job.  I was in a state where I was just about ready to quit and try to finger out some other job I'd rather do, but I went in anyway.  Good thing too because… well, I'll tell that story Monday.