1/5/15

I was going to say, “Happy Friggin’ New Year” but decided I don’t give enough of a damn to say it.  So I’m back at work fo’ realz now… and hating that fact with every fiber of my being.  But enough of that, what did I do over the weekend?  Well, at some point during the previous week, I sent to the courthouse and finally got the license plates for Scooby Two.  Also, that inline block heater arrived so I had to drive Scooby Two to the shop.  There I got tucked in to removing the old license sticker and replacing it with the new one.  I put them side by side rather than on top of one another because this way neither one blocked the fender mirror.  While I was replacing the plates themselves, John arrived and watched.  We discussed the ten minute warm up time and decided that the car either had a bad thermostat or no thermostat at all.  In order to check it, we’d have to remove it so we fingered we’d just go buy a new one anyway.  I removed the old unit, which seemed to move a bit too freely we thought, and cleaned up the mating surface.  I replaced the ‘stat and tightened everything up.  I had John watch as I filled to make sure we weren’t gushing water out and everything checked.  I fired it up and… it took ten minutes to get up to temp.  Hmm, annoying.  We had a look at the heater and decided there was probably no way it was going to fit in the tiny hose on the car.  Besides, we’d already refilled the radiator with new coolant and didn’t want to waste it.  I had a go at adjusting the clutch cable and now that system feels infinitely better.  I filled the brake fluid reservoirs and, wadda ya know, the “Low Brake Fluid” light went off… and the pedal felt better.  Who’d a thunk it?  While looking at how big a pain in the ass replacing the valve cover gaskets was going to be, we decided that the passenger side would be a dawdle while the driver’s side would be hampered slightly by the air conditioner compressor.  So, since we removed one of the hoses to make filling the brake reservoirs… possible, I decided to “Add Lightness” and remove the bastard.  This I did.  Oh, when we removed said brake reservoir obstructing A/C hose, it went “pssshhh” and released maybe one or two ounces of gas at maybe one or two PSI.  Had it gone “PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” and dumped several… um, units of gaseous measurement at fifty PSI, I would have been annoyed.  Amazed, but also annoyed.  With the compressor out of the way, it looks like both valve cover gaskets will be a dawdle to change.  I believe we’re planning to do that this weekend.  Finally, we added the dual pinstripes I bought right before Fiona went into the shop, on top of the ½” silver stripe covering the holes left from removing the rub strip.  I loved the addition, John… not so much.  He kept saying, as he was applying the stripes, “As long as YOU like it.”  Well, I do.  So there!  On the way home, and hooning around Sunday, I noticed that the volt meter sits up around 16v while cruising down the freeway.  It drops to 13-14v when I turn on the headlights so I’m afeared it might need a voltage regulator.  I guess I’ll see about getting one of those in the near future.  I also had a thought on how I could make the inline heater work.  I’m thinking that if I were to cut the existing hose off just past the nipple on the radiator and block, then put a 1 ¾” hose on top of those, I could make a new, bigger, lower hose with the heater inline.  It should work… I think.  I don’t know, we’ll see.  So, what else is there?  Oh, I put the Mosin Nagant up for sale on Texas Gun Trader and almost immediately got a reply.  It was three words: “Still got gun”.  No, I did not screw up the punctuation; there was none in his sentence either.  I assumed it was a question and replied in the affirmative and gave my phone number.  I also went back and edited the original advert to include my number.  I always forget that important bit o’ information.  Some 282 people have looked at it but that was the only response so far.  Feh, it’s only been up for three or four days.  I need to give it time.  We’ll see what goes down.  So, I guess that’s about all I have for y’all.  Have a day.