Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
Hey everyone! Sorta got lost there for awhile, no good reason or excuse for me not stopping in now and then. Just, I dunno, kind of drifted off and failed to think of it.
I worked on the W2 340 for the Valiant (now officially referred to as "Agnes") pretty steadily through the winter until I discovered my garage furnace had failed. That caused the dehumidifier to freeze solid, and in the course of a couple of days' worth of warm weather, the garage slowly flooded (normally prevented by the dehumidifier) then re-froze, a solid 2" deep over much of the floor. It was too cold to wrench on anything out there, including the furnace... so I ignored it for 2 or 3 weeks. After repairing the furnace, the dehumidifier started working again--it's absolutely true they don't build those like they used to; I got this one from my Mom 16 years ago--and it took a little over a week for it to dry all the water. Work resumed right after that; I'll try to get an update or two in the build thread. The shortblock is back together and I'm currently trying to decipher the cylinder heads.
Nothing new has happened with Agnes' chassis since the fall; Stretch has been going great guns on the '29 Oakland roadster he's helping restore. For awhile there he had a survivor '30 V8 roadster next to it for use as reference; now that it's back in the owner's garage hopefully we can do the spring relocation and front inner-fender braces, which is really all we've left to do before final reassembly and installation of the drivetrain. She spent the winter darkening Sidekick's view out the kitchen window.
While I was ignoring the furnace, I distracted myself for awhile by re-acquainting myself with, and starting to collect, vintage car-audio equipment. It's primarily Alpine and Nakamichi stuff, and most of it dates from the glory days of car audio, 1985-'91. The only super-collectible, hyperexpensive item in the bunch is a rare Alpine 7620E tape deck/CD changer controller, a model never sold in the U.S. or Europe. I've started to refer to my spare bedroom/office as the "Alien Amp Farm" since it's literally covered in old car-audio bits: 12 decks (both CD and cassette), 16 amplifiers, 3 changers, 10 equalizers, 3 active crossovers and a couple of line drivers. No, I'm not done and yes, you can expect boring audio updates to be occasionally thrown into build updates.
In January, old lady Boozefighter was hospitalized for similar reasons that I was back in 2013. They had to perform surgery on her; I decided against sending a "Get Well Never" card (which turned out to be a good idea). She had to quit drinking, as did her brother shortly thereafter. Around 10 days ago, I found out that he (Bruce, a.k.a. Boots, a.k.a. Brucefighter or Brucist Monk), is a walkin' dead man. Large malignant growths in multiple locations. He might make it another six months if he's lucky. Clearly, I'm no fan of the Boozefighters but holy shit... I wouldn't wish actual death on the guy or his sister. I can't say I'm surprised, though. As an indicator of the rough life he's voluntarily lived: Among others, I was sure he was in his early/mid-60s, but it turns out he's about two years older than me. He's not even 50! So there is no longer any booze nor is there any fighting... the place could almost pass for abandoned were it not for that fuckin' dog of theirs--the toy dachsund upon which I do actually wish death. Vicious little fuck.
The real bitch of the Bruce situation is that he's always gone to the doctor a couple of times a year. His c_nt bull-dyke niece would give him rides, but wait in the car. Never asked anything, never went in with him. Bruce would only tell his sister or anyone who asked how the visit went that "it went OK". Well, the doctors apparently could've done something for him quite some time ago, but no one knew anything about his condition. Finally his cousin's girlfriend suggested someone else take him, and go inside. His nephew did. He listened. He asked questions, because Boots wouldn't. Then he had to tell the rest of the family that if Lickalottapus had bothered to go in with him, they probably could've helped him. Now it's just a wait until the end.
Some progress has been made in the driver's license reinstatement; still waiting on a couple of letters of recommendation (one from a friend with a lot of important letters after her name). Typical "hurry up and wait" bullshit. People are busy and I don't pester. Hell, were it not for my employee taking it upon herself to get the rest of the crew to write letters for me, I wouldn't have the ones I already do. I can't ask people to do shit like that for me; it's not in my nature.
Next month is the first of our semi-annual visits to 68R/T to terrorize the Mopar vendors at the spring Jefferson show. I'm really looking forward to getting out of town for the weekend, since I haven't done so since the fall meet. :doh: I literally have nothing that comes to mind that I need, though I'm picking up yet another 4-speed ('66 A-body, 3.09:1 first) for which I made arrangement months ago. On our way down to 68's place, we'll be stopping by Wegner Automotive to retrieve the heads for the wagon's 440 along with my two race-prepped 340 blocks. That'll probably be enough expenditure for the weekend anyhow, to be honest.
Still no drinkin', still no girlfriend... that's how I can afford all this silly bullshit! Why on Earth would I change such a good thing?! :dance:
I worked on the W2 340 for the Valiant (now officially referred to as "Agnes") pretty steadily through the winter until I discovered my garage furnace had failed. That caused the dehumidifier to freeze solid, and in the course of a couple of days' worth of warm weather, the garage slowly flooded (normally prevented by the dehumidifier) then re-froze, a solid 2" deep over much of the floor. It was too cold to wrench on anything out there, including the furnace... so I ignored it for 2 or 3 weeks. After repairing the furnace, the dehumidifier started working again--it's absolutely true they don't build those like they used to; I got this one from my Mom 16 years ago--and it took a little over a week for it to dry all the water. Work resumed right after that; I'll try to get an update or two in the build thread. The shortblock is back together and I'm currently trying to decipher the cylinder heads.
Nothing new has happened with Agnes' chassis since the fall; Stretch has been going great guns on the '29 Oakland roadster he's helping restore. For awhile there he had a survivor '30 V8 roadster next to it for use as reference; now that it's back in the owner's garage hopefully we can do the spring relocation and front inner-fender braces, which is really all we've left to do before final reassembly and installation of the drivetrain. She spent the winter darkening Sidekick's view out the kitchen window.
While I was ignoring the furnace, I distracted myself for awhile by re-acquainting myself with, and starting to collect, vintage car-audio equipment. It's primarily Alpine and Nakamichi stuff, and most of it dates from the glory days of car audio, 1985-'91. The only super-collectible, hyperexpensive item in the bunch is a rare Alpine 7620E tape deck/CD changer controller, a model never sold in the U.S. or Europe. I've started to refer to my spare bedroom/office as the "Alien Amp Farm" since it's literally covered in old car-audio bits: 12 decks (both CD and cassette), 16 amplifiers, 3 changers, 10 equalizers, 3 active crossovers and a couple of line drivers. No, I'm not done and yes, you can expect boring audio updates to be occasionally thrown into build updates.
In January, old lady Boozefighter was hospitalized for similar reasons that I was back in 2013. They had to perform surgery on her; I decided against sending a "Get Well Never" card (which turned out to be a good idea). She had to quit drinking, as did her brother shortly thereafter. Around 10 days ago, I found out that he (Bruce, a.k.a. Boots, a.k.a. Brucefighter or Brucist Monk), is a walkin' dead man. Large malignant growths in multiple locations. He might make it another six months if he's lucky. Clearly, I'm no fan of the Boozefighters but holy shit... I wouldn't wish actual death on the guy or his sister. I can't say I'm surprised, though. As an indicator of the rough life he's voluntarily lived: Among others, I was sure he was in his early/mid-60s, but it turns out he's about two years older than me. He's not even 50! So there is no longer any booze nor is there any fighting... the place could almost pass for abandoned were it not for that fuckin' dog of theirs--the toy dachsund upon which I do actually wish death. Vicious little fuck.
The real bitch of the Bruce situation is that he's always gone to the doctor a couple of times a year. His c_nt bull-dyke niece would give him rides, but wait in the car. Never asked anything, never went in with him. Bruce would only tell his sister or anyone who asked how the visit went that "it went OK". Well, the doctors apparently could've done something for him quite some time ago, but no one knew anything about his condition. Finally his cousin's girlfriend suggested someone else take him, and go inside. His nephew did. He listened. He asked questions, because Boots wouldn't. Then he had to tell the rest of the family that if Lickalottapus had bothered to go in with him, they probably could've helped him. Now it's just a wait until the end.
Some progress has been made in the driver's license reinstatement; still waiting on a couple of letters of recommendation (one from a friend with a lot of important letters after her name). Typical "hurry up and wait" bullshit. People are busy and I don't pester. Hell, were it not for my employee taking it upon herself to get the rest of the crew to write letters for me, I wouldn't have the ones I already do. I can't ask people to do shit like that for me; it's not in my nature.
Next month is the first of our semi-annual visits to 68R/T to terrorize the Mopar vendors at the spring Jefferson show. I'm really looking forward to getting out of town for the weekend, since I haven't done so since the fall meet. :doh: I literally have nothing that comes to mind that I need, though I'm picking up yet another 4-speed ('66 A-body, 3.09:1 first) for which I made arrangement months ago. On our way down to 68's place, we'll be stopping by Wegner Automotive to retrieve the heads for the wagon's 440 along with my two race-prepped 340 blocks. That'll probably be enough expenditure for the weekend anyhow, to be honest.
Still no drinkin', still no girlfriend... that's how I can afford all this silly bullshit! Why on Earth would I change such a good thing?! :dance:
