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Norm, unfortunately I did hear about it, it has been on the local news for a couple of days, they just resumed their search this morning for the girl. High winds and waves hindered their effort yesterday. I believe that they may have been out on the pier when they were swept into the water. I have been out on Muskegon's pier only once in the winter, I was wearing the ice grips on my boots, and we had calm waters, but it was just too dangerous out there, It did not take me long to retreat.
We finished earlier at work than I thought we would. Somewhere around 1230. Again, on a Friday, no one seemed real motivated. But hey that's over with and now it's the weekend.
Dan that is too bad about those kids. And it would really be too bad if they didn't find the girl. Assuming the worst is one thing, having no "closure" I think is just as bad.
So you guys know how much I love the 68 Plymouth Valiant. I found out they made a wagon of that car by shipping an Australian wagon body to S. Africa and putting on a US front clip. You may have seen on facebook where I said I was going to get one. Several people thought I was serious, including this one guy at work, who saw me today and said, as serious as can be, I thought you were going to Africa to get that car. How funny is that. Nope, not going, yet. But now that I know there's actually a wagon...
Rain seems to have ended. The lake came up quite a bit, I may be at the end of the line for working on the wall. That's okay, I'm pleased with what I got done. I will be able to continue some parts of it from the yard.
We had a 2.0 earthquake in the Greater Stockbridge Area last night around 815 and wouldn't you know it I missed it. About that time the lights dimmed and a distant transformer blew out, but I didn't feel the house shake or anything like that. I must be immune to that sort of thing. All the time I've spent in California I've never been in an earthquake. We had one years ago when I lived up home and everyone knew it but me. Eh, I guess that's okay. I don't want to be in one where the house crumbles around me.
I think it will be a quiet evening. Meeting with a realtor tomorrow to go see a small house on 6 acres. I'm really only interested in this one place and of course she is sending me half the Atlanta area's listings asking me what I think of them. We'll get all that straightened out tomorrow.
Okay have a good afternoon. I'm 10-8 10-10. That's CB lingo.
Never in a million F'ing years purchase or attempt to use this coil spring compressor on a 71 CS - most likely, any GM A-Body. The metal components are fine enough, the unit itself is rather well constructed - but, the bottom piece (which looks like a spatula) gets in the way of everything & it doesn't pull the spring equally on both sides. I am so out of my head right now w/ this damn thing, I won't say any more.
I am just now getting to bed, I was going to lay down to take a short nap about 5:00pm. That wasn't working so I elected to make a pot of coffee and mount the passenger side UCA & LCA. The bushing I lost arrived yesterday, I pressed it in before I began this evening. I wrestled w/ that F'ing coil spring compressor for nearly 4 hours - enough said about that.
The most difficult components on the front suspension have been replaced - coil springs, bushings & ball joints. Installing the new tie-rods, new adjusting sleeves, new steering linkages & new idler arm will be a cake walk compared to my recent battle. I need to remount my (last year's purchase) shocks, brake calipers & front sway bar - new rubber bushings for the front sway bar. I installed new rubber bumpers on the UCA and LCA, as well.
I'm hoping to have the entire (front & rear) suspension completed by end of the weekend - fingers crossed (I completed the new rear suspension a couple weeks ago). I need to torque all the new bushings at ride height. I'm going to replace all the rubber fuel lines from the fuel tank forward. I've already replaced rubber fuel lines in the engine bay. I have I believe a fuel leak around the fuel pump - I'm not really certain - it's going to require further evaluation - could be only the fuel pump gasket, or possibly something else (carburetor fuel filter housing might need tightening). Not sure.
However, I'm going to drop it off the jack stands and take it down the road to evaluate the alignment, get a little feel for how the new suspension has hopefully improved vehicle handling & ride. I'll take measurements on caster, camber & toe and see how the alignment looks after my ride. I'll put the car back on jack stands to tackle the rubber fuel lines.
Did I mention how much I hate the F'ing coil spring compressor?
Nice out but everything is wet. Hope things dry up today. That's supposed to be it for the rain for awhile.
Norm that sucks when you're fighting the tool that's supposed to help things. My spring compressor doesn't have that spatula looking thing.
Headed to Summit in a minute to get some brake lines for the Chev. I labored over not being able to make it to Year One, and here Summit has them and they're pretty much always open. Then it's meet that realtor woman this afternoon.
The lake is just about up to the wall. I'm going to wait a couple days to see if they draw it back down at all, and if they don't I can take down my temporary fence. It has been a pain in the neck but necessary to keep Tiger in the yard. Now they say it will be years before they bring down the lake again. What am I supposed to do with 60 feet of garden fence until then?
Well if that wasn't a big waste of my afternoon. We met at this house that looked like where the humanoids would spend daylight hours in I Am Legend, this place was so gross. She says, okay this isn't for you, the next one I think you'll like. The next one was little better. She said, no you won't like this one. I said, what about the one I initially inquired about. She didn't have that one. So on my way home I went past that one myself. It was not a good place, which is too bad because it had 7 acres with it. Ah well. Didn't ever make it to Summit, either. I could have stayed home and in bed all day the end result would be the same.
Norm one would think it's kind of hard to mess up a spring compressor. Not much to them. If you ever need another one go rent it at Advance Auto.
Been wanting to buy a set of Silvertowns for the Chev, for when it's drivable again, but the only place I can find them is ridiculously over priced Coker. Now, I could drive the two hours to Chattanooga and save shipping, but they will still be about a grand for the set. That's just dumb. Maybe I'll get regular black walls and some porta walls.
Might move the couch and watch a movie. It's cold and windy out and I still don't have any firewood. Have a good night everyone.
Small glitch to the front-end rebuild. Amazon sent me one incorrect part. Instead of x2 ea. inboard tie rods and x2 ea. outboard tie-rods, they sent me x3 ea. inboard tie rods and x1 ea. outboard tie rod. Supposedly, a new outboard tie rod will arrive this coming Tuesday.
I re-installed the shocks, installed the new idler arm & assembled the passenger side tie rods. On hold until Tuesday.
Hi guys, I haven't contributed for a while. It's been touch and go for my brother in law who had open heart surgery. He came super close to dying on the table. But I think he will make it now. Wife and I spent half of the last 2 weeks first at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, and then at U of M Hospital. Too long of a story to try to peck out here. Anyway, so many surgeries now a days are so routine and no problem, that I guess we weren't prepared for what happened.. Now he has to come off respirator and we hope kidney, liver and lung functions are ok. Also risk of a stroke.
--Mike, I remember when we were looking for a place the pictures on the net were so good but then when we actually looked at them they were sh*t...
-- Norm, you'll be done with your project soon, and have to start another. Have a Happy new year all!!
Dan - I was looking at manufacturers and availability of red stripe sidewall bias-ply tires and you're correct, indeed. Coker owns that market from my limited research; and, holy snot-rockets, the prices they want for those tires.
Greg - I feel I'm rounding the corner on the suspension. This small break waiting on the tie-rod replacement has provided me an opportunity to clean up the shop (man-cave), clean-up some tools & get things back to some semblance of organization. I'm going to reinstall the brake calipers today.
My [hopefully ] enlarged dock/boat house is now permitted and I've been talking to a few guys about how to do step 1 [add additional post while the lake is down] / The options are a] dig the footings by hand.b.] dig the footing with a track hoe, c.Pound the footing in. Step 2 is going [unfortunately] have to wait util the water rises. I'm going to have to remove my attached floating swim dock and float it out of the way
This is gonna be a couple year project but it time to get started
Gonna smack whitey after the frost delay in the morning
I wish I could remember the town in Holland I went to by the ocean. [It may come to me] but all the ocean front buildings had glass to keep the spray and sand from blowing in. The wind up north was really howling even in the summer
James - Regarding the footings. What is the minimal and optimal depth for the footings? I would think a pile driver to push them in would be optimal. Doing it yourself or hiring a contractor? You can rent a tractor with a front end loader bucket to drive them in or rent one of those mini skidsteers to drive them in. Personally I’d drive them in at depth.
Norm, [As so often is the case] It depends. A few years ago I dredged out a good bit of silt, So, Closer to shore is good old Georgia red clay [so not much depth require there] . Maybe a few feet, 40' out the lake, some silt as settled back in so maybe 5', down to get a good foundation.
As I mentioned the floating dock is in the way. So after I move it the only option are wait until the lake goes down again next winter or bring in [an expensive] barge in an drive the post furtherest out at the end of the dock.
Yesterday, my friend had another idea, he has a bud with a tiny track hoe that might be able to drive it out on the "new" section of the dock and set the post on the end [where the floating dock is currently in the way] w/o bringing in a barge. I like it
Part of the problem [as I've mentioned before] is the Crazy Atlanta people have the made labor pool gone absolutely nuts. Some of these guys want $500 per post [plus materiel] to drive post, That's jes not part of my austerity program
I thought I'd have to leave work before we were finished today. Things got drug out until the last minute, and some people still stayed to build up for the morning. If 230 rolls around I'm out regardless. I think I left at 227.
Haven't heard from the realtor woman and it's been two days. Maybe I won't hear from her ever. That would be fine by me. Was looking around on the internet and saw a quaint little church for sale. I could live there, just think of all the people I could have over and parking for them, too.
Glenn hope your brother in law continues to improve.
Gonna spend the afternoon with Tiger. We might go out and take down the temporary fence, he'll like that. The water doesn't seem to be going back down, so I think we're safe.
The only good news was I got to shed my long Johns on 7 before the cart girl [babe] showed up. I axed for Tequila but she didn't have any. Had to settle for water
One of my cousins [now retired] ran the golf program at Columbus college. The head coach is Mark Immelman [Trevor's older brother [who won the masters in 2008] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Immelman
I've played golf with Mark a few times He thinks I'm funny cause I axed him he he considered himself "African American" He's a white dude from South Africa
Anywho, One of the team players that has graduated has moved to Atlanta and wants to meet some folks. He's from Ireland. So, I'm gonna drive to the big city and take him to lunch with sum golf people [who know more golf people than I ever care to] kinda help the kid network a little while doing my cousin a favor
James - That sounds like a great offering of your time and hopefully a great experience. It would certainly behoove you to ensure the cart girls are present.
Norm, The cart girls at the intown course aren't near the ones out near me. Poor hiring priorities. I guess. I hardly ever play in town. but the last one I saw down there, If ya dressed her up like a pork roast and made her crawl to Macon, a dog wouldn't bite her
Was nice out after work but now it's cold and windy. And of course dark. But I notice the extra minutes of daylight we have and I know it will only get better.
Trying to get the stove to light, but the only two pieces of firewood I have are fairly wet. Maybe I can get enough newspaper to burn and dry it out a little. Eh fat chance. Gonna go to bed soon anyway.
Jamesbo if that guy ends up making it big you can say "I knew him when..."
After I got home from work this afternoon I kept thinking it was Monday. I don't know why I forgot all about yesterday but I looked at the phone and it said Tuesday, which makes tomorrow Hump Day and we're half way done with the work week. How about that. And I thought it would be a slow week because we have to work all five days.
Well I'll get a couple things ready for the morning and that will be it for the evening. Have a good evening everyone.
There were some annoyances and minor struggles along the way but - I just dropped the car off jack-stands & onto concrete. Holy bejeezers, holy guacamole, holy snot rockets slap your grandma what a difference in the stature of the vehicle, and the firmness of the suspension. The last thing I did was to ensure all the nuts were torqued, cotter pins inserted, and filled all the dust covers with ample grease. Hell, when I (re)assemble stuff I grease the living snot out of everything much like a five month old child dripping buckets of snot from his/her nose. I am one happy camper at the moment.
Finalizing the assembly over the next couple of days will involve torquing everything @ ride-height - UCA center/pivot shaft end bushings, top nut on each shock absorber, front sway bar links and attachment to frame bolts and wheel lug nuts. Then I'll pull some measurements on caster, camber and toe before making any final adjustments before heading for a front-end alignment. After that's complete, it will be back on jack-stands again performing an R&R of the rubber fuel line hoses connecting to the gas tank & troubleshooting w/ more detail the small leakage near the fuel pump - maybe just the gasket or perhaps the carburetor fuel filter housing fuel line needs to be snugged up - we'll see. After that I'm going to replace the windshield/door pillar rubber seals on both sides.
Norm, As I was going to the 1st tee on Monday I passed Matt Ryan[ Falcon's QB] head to warm up on the range, Out curiosity, I looked up his handicap. He's a + 2 [ in my dreams I'm that good]
Beautiful day out. Supposed to start raining here I think tomorrow. I've come up with plenty to keep me busy inside though.
We finished up fairly early today, and left around 2. I had an idea about why we are always dragging things to the end. Over the summer the fat clown that thinks he runs the place(he actually does because the lead doesn't do anything)was against our daily output being 160 wheels. It seems feasible to me that he's instructed his minions to work slowly and finish right at the end, thus demonstrating to the leads and manager that 160 is not possible, or is unrealistic. Hey if we struggle at 132 how can we do 160 when springtime comes? Never mind that we've shown we can do 160 and still get out by 2.
I've heard the Oscar Mayer company is looking for drivers for the Wienermobiles. I would love, love to drive one of those. Not forever, just a little while. I'm gonna look up what happens to the old ones when they get replaced. Maybe I can snag one. (That was actually a joke. Sausages in Australia are called snags and they look like hot dogs.) I read an article years ago about a Wienermobile sliding into the ditch in the winter time. Full of lame jokes but hysterical.
Well we're past the hump. I might see if I can swap out with the extra guy tomorrow and do nothing after lunch. I actually need to go down to the credit union and I could walk through the hangar and look up some people. I still have the slow wall guy, but someone else called him out about being slow so he's picked it up a little.
Okay have a good evening everyone. Gonna light up the stove and settle in for the evening.
Happy Birthday Jamesbo. There's a guy at work today is his birthday as well. That's three people I know with a birthday today. As for the Marilyn Monroe video, my speakers weren't working very well, but I thought I heard her sing, Happy Birthday Mr. President, I'll see you tonight.
The slow wall guy was extra slow today. I asked him if he was all right. He said his stomach hurt. I thought to my self, it must have been hurting for a long time. Eh, we finished just after 2 and we all skedaddled.
Such a nice day out. I think Tiger and I will go take the fence down in the back yard. I also need to grab some more firewood while it's semi-dry. The rain pushed back to the weekend.
One more then the weekend. Sounds good to me. Have a good afternoon everyone.
January 3rd, 2020, 10:12 AM
A fine day to you Gentlemen!
