| 5/21/03
Dr. Derek made it by today and uploaded #38 onto the site (you know
this as you read it), along with some more pix of my mom’s art,
and her sister’s as well. Check it out while you’re here.
Seriously. The Powerade Meet at LACR looks bleak for this weekend
as I have NO money whatsoever, not even able to withdraw $20 from
my ATM!!! Hard to imagine an operation of this size: web site, race
car, trailer, garage, business, and I can’t get a $20 bill from
the bank!! Ah, the glamorous world of general contracting…..
Jim Maher and I have discussed this several times: the race car can
wait-take care of business first. Ouch!!!!!!
It is looking SO bleak fiscally, I may just have to bail on Friday
and the weekend. Hate to do that, but you do what you gotta do. I’m
going to go through the motions tomorrow for preparing to go. I’ll
also find out if the Friday session requires the $100 entry, or if
I can wait for Saturday to pay. If so, I’ll test and tune Friday
and see how the beast runs. If I go and I’m right near the number,
I may go for it Saturday. I’ll take the Mercedes up there and
leave the truck, FC, and trailer at LACR.
5/24/03
Managed to get a deadbeat client to bring over money, but had to wait
here, which took LACR out of the picture. The money lasted about an
hour, but was critical for my guys. Did nothing on the FC today. Did
clean up the Ford 3.8 supercharged motor for a guy who did NOT show
to look at it. God, I just HATE that! Going to leave in a moment with
friend Dan for the Conejo Cruise at Wendy Drive. Nice bunch of cars,
and another venue to ply the Gremlin for sale. Had a situation last
night at Flames, the Friday night cruise, as Big K claims to be losing
business from all the cars in the lot. So we will cordon off a portion
of the lot next week, and restrict who gets in. The cops will come
and ask anyone “loitering” outside the ropes to take their
car and leave. I attempted to do a little engine compartment Zolotone
paint on the Gremlin, without success. That stuff won’t flow
through an ordinary sprayer. Tried mixing a custom batch to brush
on, no good. So I’ll order some cans next week from Modern Paint
and see how that works.
I have a few little tasks to do in the trailer: anchor the microwave
to its shelf (so it doesn’t end up on the hood of the FC), gas
up the generator, check the compressor lines, remount the light over
the bench (moved about 6” to the left to allow for the micro
mounting), close off the air gaps around the AC unit above the bench
(with aluminum angle material I’ve had here for a year). And
buffing the now pink paint would be nice (read on!!).
5/27/03
So didn’t go racing, did get some $, which were gone in minutes
(literally). Now midway through another week and another customer
wants to short me, after I’m already losing money on the job!
What a glamorous business!! I’ve sold some more speakers, another
amp, and the BIG electrostatic speakers as well, to a fellow in New
Zealand. As I’ve made utterly NO profit this year, it has been
VERY rough. I feel like I’m burning furniture to stay warm.
The headers are done, but will get a little cleanup brazing tomorrow
by Ziola, prior to going to Rewarder Headers in Camarillo. I called
Jim there asking if he knew who did coating in Camarillo. Turns out
HE is the guy! And he is dramatically cheaper than others. So a nice
turn for a change. Randy and I will be giving him our business, and
probably more stuff in the future. Coating some other engine compartment
pieces might be nice. We’ll study that one. That is, of course,
presuming I can actually make a profit soon enough to avoid total
collapse here.
5/30/03
The sales of my classic hifi equipment pieces is wonderful, but I
need to off the Gremlin and Benz to really clear things out, and provide
needed cash flow to complete the Bird, etc. Good old Mercedes buyer-to-be
Tony Schnedl has vanished, including at his address (no such person….).
I’m trying one more permutation of his address, then forgetting
about it, that is, once I get the phone log printout and try those
(323) area phone numbers.
Went to Flames tonight, and set up a perimeter “rope”
of caution tape, using some upended grocery carts, light poles, and
car bumpers. We are responding to an incident last week where some
jerkoff (not of our group or crowd) insulted a pregnant woman walking
to K-Mart, whereupon the manager at K-Mart called the police. The
cops approached us demanding we disperse. With an hour’s talking,
we convinced the police we would cordon off OUR area, and THEY would
kick out any “loitering” cars outside our area. It worked
pretty well, the low riders came after 8:30 PM, and we pulled the
tape down just before 9 PM. We have room for over 80 cars in our roped
area, so it is always a good show. It also cut out the “cruising”
of the bikes and hopper cars, a good thing, and concentrated the crowds
within our area. We will refine it more next week. This week I blocked
the main aisle with the Gremlin crossways, leaving only a narrow margin
for one car at a time to go by, if I let them. We will work on signage,
cones, etc. for next week.
Saturday (tomorrow) will be solid biz appointments, and Sunday is
the day-long Pacific Palisades Car Show. I would definitely not be
attending all these cruises and shows were I not wanting to sell the
Gremlin. If I do make the Las Vegas CIFCA race, I will have to forego
the LA Roadster Show Swap Meet at Pomona, and I really hate to do
that. I’m working on having someone take the Gremlin in my place
(NOT!).
Once the Condor is complete, I might start attending a few shows again,
but not like this. I have some serious crating and packaging of the
large hifi stuff to do for its trip to New Zealand!! And this tempts
me to pass on Sunday’s show. Tune in.
6/2/03
Did pass on the show, although Saul and I passed by to have a look.
Just had too much to do. Did a portion of one crate, finished it later,
did the second one today, and will have the third completed in about
2 hours. The Gremlin engine compartment came out great. Notwithstanding
the large amount of masking, I still got some overspray on the paint
and windshield. The window has not come perfectly clear. Yuk! Gotta
polish the hood again. It was suggested I use the FC trailer to haul
the Gremlin to Pomona for the LA Roadster Swap Meet. Won’t fit!
Might take a car hauler. We’ll see. It appears I am gonna pass
on Las Vegas as well, in favor of getting the Gremlin out to Pomona.
I hate doing that, but I NEED the bucks, and I feel Pomona is my best
shot at selling it.
6/8/03
Speakers are outa here and on their way to New Zealand, and the bucks
are in. Of course, they went RIGHT out! So the garage is getting yet
cleaner. Lining up Pomona, and going to cancel Vegas with my aunt
Mimi today. Such a shame. My birthday party went nicely, the house
looked great, a bunch (38) of wonderful friends dropped by, everyone
had a good time. Two days ago, I was NOT having a good time, NOT at
all. I had my first (and hopefully last) bout with kidney stones.
OUCH!! Everything you’ve heard about how incredibly painful
it is is true. It is NOT the stone that hurts, but the swelling of
the kidney being blocked by the stone that is killing. The kidney’s
trying to explode!! I passed 5 stones in a day and half. The culprit
is almost certainly the high protein-low carb diet I’m on, which
raises uric acid levels. My uric acid levels are historically VERY
low, so I guess I don’t like high levels (duh!). Having heard
from Randy about his horrible exploits with stones, when I was awakened
at midnight Friday AM with severe pains, I took a screen to my “voids”
immediately, and caught the first stones. Good thing, so the lab can
analyze them and find out which of 7 kinds they are (takes two weeks).
I dropped a HUGE rock last night during
my party (painless). Another wonderful chapter in the aging process.
The only people I wish this on are enemies. All seems well, and I
am FLOODING my system with liquids, and some carbs. My wife Millie
did a WONDERFUL job prepping the food for the party, so in her absence
I was able to have things go smoothly. She showed later from work,
to the delight of all. The FC was on display in the garage, looking
sweet with the new headers, which after HUGE grinding on the flanges
and gaskets, fit nicely. The body fits them fine, but the lower head
bolts interfere with the flanges, and require horrific relief to get
the flanges to bolt up. Maddeningly, this requires removing all but
a small sliver of copper from the gaskets in some areas. I have a
solution for later: Take off the heads, have the head bolt bosses
relieved about 1/2”, and shorten the studs. So the next outing
for the FC will be some test and tune either at Palmdale, Drag City,
or Famoso.
6/15/03
Got a few emails from Jerry Garrison, who a few months ago expressed
interest in crewing on the FC. We are close now to him having a chance
to come out and see it run.
Spent two days at Pomona, and still have the Gremlin. Had a VERY close
chance at a trade, but the fellow sold his Falcon/Ranchero pickup
with a setback 460 engine just before we were to do our thing. Quite
an interesting piece! Totally streetable, and just a weirdo setup.
Randy did sell his 69 Impala, to a fellow from new Zealand.
So great for Randy, just a waste of time for me. I did see John Beale,
who sold me the Gremlin three years ago. Sadly, his ex-wife, with
whom he was still wonderful friends, just died two weeks ago. He was
effusive in his praise for what I had done with the Gremlin. All great,
but no sale. John towed his Skylark with a BBC engine back to Kingman,
as he did not get his $6800, either. I have a seemingly interested
lady in Minnesota who wants me to put in an overdrive trans, make
the wipers work, and use it to blow “smaller minds” in
her community. I like her already. I strongly urged her NOT to come
out and drive it back. It will be WAY cheaper to truck or rail it
to Minnesota.
I left the Gremlin at Pomona overnight Saturday, and Saul brought
me home (almost) in his 90 Lexus. He had been squeezing the last bit
of copper on his penny by not replacing his radiator with a split
in the plastic upper tank. Just pushed it too far, and it cost him
a complete engine about 4 miles from home. Long story short, no compression,
puffing steam every turn of the engine on the starter, and it won’t
start. So I towed him home with the truck, gave him the Benz, and
we’re looking for a Japanese take out engine on the cheap. Knowing
him, he may just junk it and look for something else, although replacing
the motor is far and away the cheapest fix for him. Stay tuned. Did
get some neat buys on stuff at Pomona, including some very trick drills,
parts holding magnets for the shop, shop towels, rags, a jump suit
(overalls), and an electric pit bike. Got a KILLER deal, and it is
very neat. Folds up super small (put in the trunk of the Gremlin,
which was already loaded). This will allow me to sell the Gary Densham
pit bike, and get one more THING outa here. It will also relieve me
of another project.
6/18/03
After some surprising pissiness, and a two-day hiatus from each other,
I visited Saul and he did his damnedest to do his cheap fix. He did
get the thing to start, a MAJOR accomplishment, put in block fix,
changed the oil and filter, and the thing just rattles like heck.
So he sees his cheapest way out is just to replace the motor with
a used one.
On the FC front, Ron and I rolled out the beast, and tried the just-arrived
boat headers for size. They, too, will need flange-grinding if they
are to fit. They are also rather high and long, and will interfere
with the firewall. It may be possible to cut the flanges off, shorten
the tubes near the flanges, and turn the headers upside down so they
appear more like a standard low-slung design. If those approaches
don’t look workable, I will probably just sell them again on
ebay, and modify my old zoomies and be done with it.
Discovered a new toy yesterday: my 8” variable speed angle grinder.
This new Milwaukee tool, which has been sitting dormant for half a
year, was discovered during our organization blitz (just before I
was going to buy one), and is the PERFECT polishing tool for the trailer,
etc. Ron spent yesterday turning the trailer red chalk paint into
near perfect red Centari again. Of course, the innumerable dings,
scratches, etc. will need some kind of touch up to make it really
nice. But wow, just polishing the thing up is HUGE. Next will be the
aluminum trim. I need to find some buffing wheels to put on the drill
motors and whip on the trim. I may try some 2000# grit wet/dry sandpaper
to start off the process, maybe some steel wool, etc. Tried the Wax
Depot aluminum cleaner I got at the Pomona Swap, and it worked well
on the Gremlin supercharger plumbing. Also buffed out the Gremlin
hood and put a coat of Blitz wax on it-awesome. So I then took a shot
at the burned-up paint on the trunk of the Condor, and it, too, came
back nicely. There are some areas that are irretrievable, but it looks
immensely better. So another few days of aerobic polishing and the
stable will look brighter. I’d still like to buy the Hampton
Trailers yellow panels, but at over $1400 for the set, I’ll
have to hold off for now.
I took the Gremlin radiator out, had it checked (perfect), and reinstalled
it, somewhat improved. I ground off some gross cutting on the core
support (it had originally looked like a can opener install), added
some rubber bumpers on the radiator mounting, changed some bolts on
the shroud to nicer units, and mounted two 10” Hayden fans.
I added a relay, and found an unused wire in the firewall loom that
is switched on by the ignition. It all works fine now, good fan speed,
comes on with the key. I noticed the Mustang plastic shroud really
does not fit well, and I’m certainly losing some efficiency
there. I’ll likely get a cheapie chrome shroud unit that fits
that fan way better, and get some increased efficiency in the bargain.
Either that, or I may fill in some gaps on the existing shroud. I
also replaced some screws in the Gremlin grille with new ones. Every
little bit helps. And, I have just one more step in the re-VIN# process
on the Gremlin: changing the dash tag, requiring lifting and resetting
the windshield. That will probably wait until Friday, and I will let
Economy Glass do the honors on the glass.
The ceramic-coated headers are due back from Rewarder tomorrow night.
If so, I will bolt them on, and the car will be ready for some test
laps. We’ll need to fill up the fuel jugs, and do the previous
list of trailer catch-ups, but that’s about it. So all in all,
as I look back at these updates, I see a lot of talk ABOUT doing stuff,
MUCHO conversation about how it isn’t yet done, and a very surprising
amount of stuff that REALLY gets done. I guess this is the process:
huge jawing, constant gnawing, repetitive sawing, hemming and hawing,
and finally stuff gets done.
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