2/9/15

The Chickenhawk has a floor again!  Well, on the passenger side at least.  Saturday morning I got to the shop and began thinking about zooking in the floors.  I still needed to remove the tar paper and fiberglass resin from most of the surrounding areas and asked John his opinion of those wire brushes for angle grinders.  He approved.  He needed some pipe fittings from the hardware store so we headed that direction.  I found a few brushes and once again asked John’s opinion.  We decided which one I wanted and I bought it.  Back at the shop I got to work eating away at the tar and fiberglass on the driver’s side.  At some point I realized I should be working on the passenger side since John had already bent the panel into shape for welding.  I moved sides and decided to try chipping at the tar with a chisel.  This worked much better than the brush, it turns out.  Who knew?  Eventually I had the area prepped so I got to welding.  I used that stage weight I stole from somewhere to hold the panel nice and flush and zooked several spots.  Some of the welds went well, others… not so much.  The panel is in and very secure, but it isn’t the prettiest thing ever.  I’m not sure what we’re planning for the underside, perhaps we’ll just let it be.  We’ll see.  Once I had the floor zooked and somewhat cleaned up, I moved on to the driver’s side.  I trimmed a piece of new material then John and I bent it.  I chipped away at the tar and fiberglass then was about to start thinking about getting ready to consider possibly preparing myself to weld.  John pointed out that it was 1345 h or thereabouts so I quit.  We went to lunch and called it a day.  Oh, we also put the car way up high on cinder blocks and floor ramps to alleviate some of my discomfort on kneeling, stooping, and squatting.  It didn’t work.  All day Sunday my butt-cheeks and thighs were so sore that I could hardly stand up.  Actually, sitting and standing weren’t the problem; it was the transition from sitting to standing, and vice versa, which gave me the most trouble.  They, the butt-cheeks and thighs, are still a bit tender, but not nearly as bad as yesterday.  So, there’s THAT going on.  In other news, I was thinking about Scooby Two and Lil' Wiggly Saturday evening and had an idea.  I asked John how big a dent did he think we could put in an electric conversion kit for Lil' Wiggly by selling Scooby Two.  I then began shopping for EV kits.  I have found them for as little as a couple grand for a pretty basic setup, to nearly nine G’s for a “Soup to Nuts” kit.  Of course none of them include the batteries so I’d need to figure… 12 times $150.00 equals, yikes!  Ok, so there’s another $1,800.00 in batteries.  Ok, don’t panic.  You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.  I’m sure we can find them cheaper.  I still think electric is the way to go with Lil' Wiggly.  I’m going to stick with that idea.  Of course nothing is going to happen until after the Chickenhawk is done.  This I promise!  So, what else is there to say?  Oh, I know.  I was watching “Good Eats” yesterday afternoon.  The first episode was about chicken and dumplings.  I’ve never, that I know of, had C&D so it didn’t do anything for me.  The next episode was about catfish.  I have had catfish.  I used to dislike catfish.  Of course it turns out that what I disliked was wild catfish.  Farm raised catfish doesn’t taste like dirt, so I now like catfish.  By the end of the show I had decided that I wanted catfish for dinner.  The next episode was about porterhouse steaks.  I’m not a big fan of T-bone type steaks because so much of the weight you’re paying for is bone.  That, along with the fact that mom and I had eaten at Applebee’s for lunch where I had a steak, kept me wanting catfish for dinner… until the next episode.  That one was about Eggs Benedict.  “Ok,” I said, “screw catfish, now I want Eggs Benedict!”  I called Mimi’s Bistro and asked, “Can I order Eggs Benedict for dinner?”  I was told that they usually stop serving them at 1500 h but that since it was a call-in order, she’d check with the chef.  She came back and said that if we asked for Sally to serve us, Chef Gregg would make us EB.  I thanked her and said we’d be in in a little bit.  I told mom, “Ok, either I have to move the Hyundai or we will have to take Scooby Two.”  She was on board with riding in Scooby Two so we headed to Mimi’s.  It’s funny how a car can seem so quiet when I’m by myself and yet be deafeningly noisy as soon as mom gets in the passenger seat!  The Pimpmobile, Matilda, Ms. Clio, Fifi, Fiona, and now Scooby Two have all had that affliction.  Sure, some of that is due to (tee hee, I said “doo doo”) the fact that I almost always put rorty zorsts on my cars, but they never seem that loud when I’m alone!  Well, I’ll practice them with Lil' Wiggly!  Muwahahahahahahaha!  Anyhoo, we went to Mimi’s and had our Eggs Benedict and they were quite the tasty.  So, on that note, I guess I’ll call it a rant.  Have a day.