Barn find.... today

As restrooms go, this one was pretty cool BUT... it was the nearest one to the dining area and every time I refused to eat my Beets I was sent there. My kid sister found a way to dispose of those damn Beets without Mom knowing..... but she likely turned the other way for her to hide them in a napkin. Right next to the Lord Kelvin quote was a plaque Dad got as being part of the Apollo program. I seem to remember it being from Apollo 11 because of the Eagle on it, and Dad was part of the design team on the Lunar Lander guidence system for that mission. As time progressed, every time Mom served Beets I just got up and headed to the restroom... better to make that choice myself than to be told to go there to wait out everyone finishing dinner! Stubborn... NO, why would you think such a thing?!

Moving beyond in house outhouse construction design and decorating.....

This weekend was filled with tasks from the HoneyDo novel, pages 321 to 327. I knew better than to whiddle on carbs after the ego deflation of last week. The Project Boss still thinks she has a life outside this project and continues to fill her social calander in the evenings and weekends. August is here and a celebrity drive by Joe is supposed to be coming up pretty quickly! I suspect she has a plan in place but alas... it must be a secret one that I am not privy to. A long way to go and not much time left... maybe she will share her plan on here. In the mean time, I am going to order up the DCN kits and shafts (I know full well were not ordered Yet!) as the replacement reamers arrived (that means I will likely find the originals today/tomorrow) and all we need to do is find time..... something there seems to be precious little extra of these days.

 

I would be tickled with just 1/3 win but these two limit my voting privilages.

A short lunch today and we actually accomplished finishing something I have wanted to do for a very long time. We researched the correct groove width and depth, found the right orings and mill bit and set out to eliminate carb base warpage once and for all.

Once the new insulator blocks were cut up in mass, the research and measuring was done and the correct orings sourced... the rest was just whiddling on the mill. This should be the FINAL solution to a lot of problems we have been chasing for years. Lightly torque it down to the solid blocks and there is no reason they should warp again and we surely wont experience any vacuum leaks in the bases ever again.

Now if I can get upper management to clean up the mill, we can bore the throttle shaft holes and make forward progress once again.
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I have a racoon tail for the antenna and a set of "NAPA" mud flaps with chrome naked lady silhouettes for the wheel pants, all saved for the day when I find one with enough hair on it! Even at the Sanford and Sons level, I suspect the survival odds increase beyond the low single digit numbers I was given on that Flying Squirrel Suit thing Bruce convinced me I need to try. I like the idea of "Powered", I remember my Science Prof opening a lecture with "Gravity is a Bltch"!

You gotta start somewhere, my list of "Needs" always led to something better... in time. Need a Tractor?..... No Big Deal, they built the fool thing around a tractor engine, close enough. Need a Pick Up?..... No Problem, got it covered. Need an Airplane?..... It boggles the mind to even imagine the possibilities! "No Dear, its fine.... Trust Me, jump on in, I used NAPA mud flaps"!

"Necessity is the Mother of Invention".....

Siebkens at Road America will be really pissed if they recognise the umbrella!
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Heck, the aluminum trailer in the foreground, that I built to haul your Quarter Midget race car... it was built up from a Crosley Hotshot front axle out of a D-Modified Sports Racer running wheels and tires from a H-Production Mini. If its in the shed... its fair game and if it has wheels on it... its meant to be raced!

Evolution came about when the umbrella scooter gave way to the windsurfer shod with wheelbarrow wheels.... I limped for a month after finding my steering device didnt work as designed and I met up with the post and rail fence. I thought the neighbor Cop was going to pee himself.....

Kinda makes you wonder how the 330 will turn out doesnt it?

 

... and the proof is in the facts! I figure I have a pass as I am on the backside of the bell curve and do have kids. Jenni is still climbing the ramp and to date, thanks to HER, I already have paid for and Own the rear half of the Summit County Flight for Life helicopter..... she isnt out of the woods yet. Given that logic path, its time for me to live large as somehow I bypassed Charles' selection process. Maybe that is the logic and reasoning Bruce used when he suggested the Flying Squirrel Suit would work out fine for me... what could go wrong?!

Yesterday the 6 cylinder lump dropped in place in the Froggigmobile and we can now see confirmed daylight ahead. A civilized work pace is now within reach and that should result in us having a modicum of energy and brain function where we can give some effort to the 330 at the end of the work day. It has been one of the most Challenging summers in memory but we were able to over come hurdles I never want to relive and resolve a great many issues and problems on the cars that have plagued us for a very long time. Given that is near behind us now, I also look forward to just normal work where we can make a living and make cars actually go back home. I see no way we will make our end of August drive with Joe but.... Fall is a beautiful season in the mountains for a drive and that is more realistic. That gives the project manager a few weeks to practice waving her Toilet Brush Scepter in front of the mirror to refine her Royal form while we actually get some work done to fund this crazy project of hers.

The time away from being hands dirty on the 330 has allowed some quality time to revise plans and deal with questions still remaining. Kerry did some great research which only managed to open up a host of other questions as to the out of sequence internal VS engine numbers, theories must still be refined as to what happened there and then the search for the truth sought. Just yesterday a customer looked at the worn and cracked seat bolsters, and then the transmission tunnel sitting next to the seats on the pallet rack and suggested... "Isnt there enough dated leather on that tunnel to replace the bolsters on the seats?" The very suggestion is something I never even considered when the blinders were pulled in tight..... I will have upper management broach that subject with Rich as I have already gone down that path and the very suggestion is sure to have him peeing blood! Dating new leather on a transmission tunnel down low to the floor, that is doable, but not on the seats. That could work (if Jen is capable of swaying Rich) but we have to spend some quality time reviewing the question is see if the efforts are merited over complete replacement of all the hides. I think the later is the most logical but I hate to loose patina when something is able to be saved. Surely it will be more cost effective to replace everything with new but once again I find myself speaking to a subject that is above my pay grade.

This coming weekend I plan to visit Joe and confirm plans to pick him up and bring him to the Morgan Adams Charity Car and Plane show towards the end of August. If all goes as planned, I will be able to fly in Dad and another very dear friend from TX and then plead with J and his Wife to attend as our guests. A Reunion.... albeit transportation will be via a soot flinging 6 wheel Ford Truck..... but that is only for the time being.

 

It's all good, nothing said here could possibly come close to the slap down I got from my 4' 11" Ad gal this week! I send her a rough idea of the message I want to convey and I get a one line "y? dont u gt bk n d shop n play n d grease U Suk".... Yah, OK..... I'm sure this abbreviated hogwash means something, what ever that is, it without question it is a slap down simply due to knowing the author and her intended target.

You are correct Norm, "Finger's" would qualify as (2), both middle ones as they are the only ones left that still bend as designed and aren't rebuilt using artificial parts or scared to the point of not flexing, they do wear out quickly these days. When time permits I will learn how to do this Texting thing so this all can be condensed into 3 lines, that should make for a riveting read! All in good fun, that is why its enjoyable to have my own thread, I can Royally screw it up and dont have to make apologies for doing so.

I have never written anything before, this is all new to me and for some odd reason I enjoy telling this story.... Why, I have no idea. What Ed writes has a deep meaning to me, as when I finish a rebuild of a Special Engine or ???, I hand over two legal pads filled front to back with rambling techno crap. The ultimate Yawner of a read, the owner knows what the shim thickness behind a water pump shaft bearing is and what the resulting vane to housing clearance is, along with the calculations arriving at that figure.... Big Whoop, no one ever reads them! Maybe I am so tired of writing those that this is a vent... who knows, Im not smart enough to understand it and dont care to.

There is so much going on behind the scenes right now and in a short time I will be able to share much of that. I have to find a way to tell a story about some really interesting and terrific people while still respecting their privacy. A story of folks helping one another without thinking about doing it, only because it is the right thing to do, one that is all to seldom heard these days. I too, want to tell a story of a young lady undertaking this $#&*!$ (yes, that did start and end with $) challenge and learning to do it Correctly. Now, if I can only get the 'one line wizard' to whip out HER CC when it comes time to buy parts.... THAT will make Headlines and take up some serious web space!

I get emails and PM's suggesting much of what we are doing with this car is ridiculous and over done. Based on the new norm of 'consumer acceptable'... yes, that critique is spot on correct, but one must remember, this project is a teaching tool for the next generation. These days most everyone wants instant gratification, a job done fast from start to finish, as cheap as humanly possible...... with perfect show quality results... In, Out, Done, Next! History and the stories behind a subject.... yah, one day that might be worth looking at.... but I want the car NOW. As an old, used up, never good enough to make the cut, wannabe racer turned mechanic/builder, frankly I couldnt care less of a car had paint on it, until it runs as designed (cant really say "as new" because many of these were delivered with problems), I dont consider it done. I was taught the fine points of doing this work by some of the most brilliant engineers/techs this industry will Ever know or see, and all that was asked of me was to find the right person to pass it on to one day so it is not lost. Right or Wrong, obviously unjustified given the subject 330, it will not be done quick, it will not be abbreviated, and I Will be upside down in it when done, hell, I knew that the moment Jen stated we were not cutting it up. What we will have is a 330 drive train that is as good as we can possibly make it with no regard given to the time or effort going into it, a tribute to my teachers. At that point I will let others be the judge of the results on how it runs and if the efforts were justified. I will also have one young person that will have been hands dirty in those struggles, who will then posses the knowledge on how to do it properly if she ever again finds a subject requiring those efforts in her future. One cant say it's 'Right', until it really IS, and all too often now that definition is covered up by Beautiful Paint. Not this time, this mutt will howl like a scalded dog before one could dream of seeing their reflection in it, and for Good or Bad, the real stories will be told.

 

Jen's reaction to watching the video was "Hell, Yes!", she is her fathers daughter! They all have wheels, hence..... "where Excess is barely Adequate" applies.

I reflect on my phone conversation with Jetfxr where he insisted I 'need' a 6 cylinder plane rather than a 4 cylinder......... Of Course I do, that stands only to reason. What fool would want to be able to auger one in at 110 if you can do it at 150 Knots?! As it stands already, Kris is setting aside a Rainy Day fund to be tapped into for a new Term Policy when either the 850 HP CanAm car or the V8 powered Lotus finally make Stink.

When we go flying and she hears me talking with Bill on the Icom about late apexing the next valley while powering up and climbing.... "the layout ahead looks exactly like Canada Corner at RA...."
This is a case where she knows too much.... she helped me pull the tree and shrub debris out of the race car when I set a new record on how far off track someone actually went off on CC years back, a little detail I forgot about. At some point here she will pull the plug and insist on some of these cars hanging on the wall being made saleable prior to me starting on a Pulse Jet project! Kiljoy!

 

Or... they have never experienced what the results feel like and hence cant justify the effort. Once again, I respect the opinion, we are doing this for ourselves and don't need to justify it. Flip side of the argument, given the market and the subject, They are right.

Funny how time changes one's opinion, I really do enjoy the look of this quad car now.... an acquired taste perhaps but either way, it has grown on me and I now find it a very interesting design. The 330 engine..... since the day I went out to break in a new engine on the GTO, driving the back roads of Minnesota with a bone stock fresh GTC as the chase car.... and couldn't shake it..... I have never thought of those the same since, and grew a very deep respect for them.

 

You Sir are a BAD influance, you are the one Mom cautioned me about! You have no idea how easily I could be talked into these types of things!

J stopped by the shop Friday evening and confirmed he will be attending the MA show with his wife. He took with him the reminder card to drop off with Joe so he keeps a slot open on his busy Social calander for that evening. Plane reservations are in place for Dad and our fingers are crossed our other friend will be able to clear his calander for a few days.

Sans a running 330, at least things are falling into place for a get together Reunioun for an evening of Cars and Planes... and a Great Cause.