2/7/14

Today would have been my father’s eighty seventh birthday.  I'm not sure where to go with that so we’ll just move on.  I have come to a realization: It isn’t the summer heat that makes me get in a “Sell all this crap and get out of the car hobby” funk… because I'm in one right now.  I think it is the “whelm” level gets too high when projects enter that boring “piddly little gotta get them done jobs” portion of the build… like where Lil' Wiggly is right now.  That is why I spent all that time unwiring John's 1200 last weekend.  THAT was a job I could sink my teeth into.  Sure, building the zorst down pipes for Lil' Wiggly otter be that sort of meaty fabrication job, but I know why it isn’t.  I still don’t like the half-assed “going under the cross member” aspect of it.  I don’t know what else I can do, but I know I don’t like that.  Actually, I do know what I could do, I could build from scratch a set of headers and zorst which doesn’t go under the cross member… somehow.  Wait, it doesn’t have to be from scratch.  I could, theoretically, come out that front-facing manifold on the driver’s side, across the front of the engine, under an identical rear facing manifold on the passenger side, through the firewall with both pipes, and build the zorst to go through the cockpit!  Hmm, of course another option which wouldn’t throw away one brand new manifold would be to “Y” the zorst together after the driver’s side routes around the front and run one big assed pipe back through the firewall… and thence out the back.  I'll have a look at those options tomorrow.  This car is already a one-seater, what harm would it do to have the zorst run inside?  Other than the heat of course, but that is what asbestos is for, insulation.  Sitting here, twenty some-odd miles away from the car, this sounds like a workable solution.  Another option we never really investigated would be to do fender-well zorst and side pipes.  I like side pipes… until I burn my ankle on one, but that is the price of admission.  Thing is, I doubt there is enough room behind the wheels to get a pipe out and still have full lock on the steering.  Then again, the tire is going to want to hit the inner fender/foot well relatively high.  It might be possible to route the zorst down low, just above the control arm, and then out below where the tire would make contact.  Hmm, interesting.  I will look at that as well tomorrow.  Ok, all it took was a little… oh damn, this would have been so much better if I'd remembered what that old-timey saying for… Wool Gathering!  All it took was a little wool gathering about the project to get me fired up again.  Of course when/if neither of these ideas will work, it might make the funk that much worse… but I don’t see how it could be worse than it was ten minutes ago.  We’ll see.  If I announce a “FIRE SALE” on Monday, you’ll know that plans went to shit and the funk has multiplied beyond my endurance.  And so we move on to guns.  I don’t remember what the last report about the 90/22 was so I'll just jump in.  I don’t like the way the muzzle brake looks on the 18” barrel.  I want a shorter barrel so I want to permanently attach a flash hider to a 16” barrel.  The other night I took a measurement of the FH which came with my Ruger MkIII pistol and I think it will add enough length to a 16” barrel to be legal.  So I went shopping.  I found a threaded 16” factory taper barrel WITH a MkIII FH on e-Bay and bought it.  It has shipped and should arrive next Tuesday or Wednesday.  I'll take it to the shop and zook on the FH once I determine whether or not it is long enough to be legal.  I had been thinking that I'd try to sell the 18” barrel once I made the change but I think I want to hang onto it as an optional “accuracy” barrel… sort of thing.  Of course that assumes it IS the doddle they say it is to change barrels in a Ruger 10/22.  We shall see.  Cabela’s is having a sale.  They sent me a flyer.  On the back of said flyer was the following… paraphrased of course, “Mosin Nagant rifles, $50.00 off!  Was $199.00 now $149.00.”  Now, having just been to Cabela’s within the last few weeks, I know that they were selling Mosin Nagants for $161.00 or thereabouts.  So, the ad is clearly a lie, but they are still twelve bucks off so I'm thinking of pulling the proverbial trigger on getting the Mosin Nagant I've “always” wanted.  I'm literally sitting on my part of the Frerbruraryr rent, so I'll give that to John first, and I need to pay some bills before doing anything frivolous, but I might do it Saturday evening or Sunday.  Perhaps I'll invite Larry to go shopping at the Cabela’s so we can both grok the guns and pick out a good one.  It would make more sense to go up there from here tonight after work, but then the rent might get spent… and then I'd have to avoid John tomorrow.  I really want to go to the shop tomorrow to look at Lil' Wiggly's zorst though so I'm going to be a responsible adult for a change.  Well, I guess I've gassed on long enough.  I'll talk to y'all again on Monday so… continue to continue to suck it!  Once again.