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Wednesday, February 1, 2012
A little of this, a little of that. I put up more signs to
decorate the shop, prepped and painted three timers, bought cat food,
paid the water bill, cleaned up the wall clock and installed a new
power cord, fixed a loose electrical outlet, and did more
cleaning. Some days you do a big thing, and some days you
do a bunch of little things.
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Thursday, February 2, 2012
That's
better. This morning I did three miles in 30:58, which is more
than half a minute better than Tuesday's time. Now I just have to get
in decent enough shape to do it consistently. When I got out to
the
shop I got started on more cleaning and organizing. I
was putting
away power tools when I came to the big old Sioux drill that belonged
to my uncle Charles Miller. Charles died in 1960, and I would
guess
that this drill is 55 to 60 years old. It still works as well as
ever, but the old cord was falling apart. So I went to town and bought ten
feet of new cord and a plug, and spent most of the afternoon installing
a new power cord. Now the old drill should be good to go for another
sixty years.
Friday, February 3, 2012
This morning I was off to Wichita for the annual Sunflower Swap Meet. I
always find something to bring home, but not always what I went looking
for. This was one of those times. I was hoping to find a 1973 Cowley
County plate for the Suburban. I saw lots of 1973 plates, but all for
the wrong counties. It would have been nice to find some demountable
clincher rims, but I didn't see one in the place. What I did come home
with was a pair of pre-1920 Champion X spark plugs, a Ford #1349 Model
T wrench, and a can of Boraxo hand cleaner.
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Charles & Patch, late
fifties
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Saturday, February 4, 2012
Yesterday the UPS man delivered a box of two dozen new hickory spokes
for a pair of Model T wheels I'm going to assemble, so one of my jobs
today was applying metal prep to the steel felloes before painting.
I'll prime the pieces before assembly, then do painting when the wheels
are together. A lot of my time today went into more cleaning and
organizing in the shop, and also a little research on parts. This
evening I went and saw Red Tails.
I liked it. Some of the reviews panned it as disappointing, but I
thought it was a well made traditional war movie. From the previews I
was afraid it might be one of those CGI extravaganzas that defy the
laws of physics and resemble an arcade game, but the aerial scenes were
quite realistic.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Elation and deflation walked upon the scene today. I was cleaning up in
the workshop and decided to take a sprayer and store it in the other
end of the building. When I entered the other room with it I found
three demountable clincher rims I had forgotten I had. I thought I had
two pretty good rims and seven others ranging from marginal to sorry.
But these made a full set of five good ones. How wonderful! But then I
took a closer look and noticed that a couple of these rims aren't
exactly like the others. Eventually I figured out that these are a pair
of Chevrolet rims, and don't quite fit the Ford wheel. So instead of
having three more good rims than I thought, I have one more and two to
trade.
Monday, February 6, 2012
There were two main activities today. One was hunting up conduit and
fittings I used to carry to swap meets for a frame to make a shelter
with tarps. I want to make a frame that will sit in my workshop, and
cover it with plastic sheeting for a temporary paint booth. I got a
good start on that project, then I turned to preparing for my trip to
California. I'm going out to pick up some new windows for the house
because the ones I want are sold only on the west coast. So this
afternoon I started unloading the stuff that's been sitting in the
Suburban since an auction over a year ago. It's good to do a little
cleaning and putting away occasionally. I often find things I forgot I
had, like the split rim spreader and the runnng board luggage rack I
found today.T
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Tuesday,
February 7, 2012
At last I unloaded the drill press that's been riding around in the
back of the Suburban approximately forever. It's been in there so long
I don't even remember the auction where I bought it, along with all the
stuff piled in there with it. I got the drill press into the
building and
most of the other stuff out of the vehicle, then went grocery shopping,
and spent a lot of the afternoon playing on the Model T forum. I should
have the rest of the unloading done tomorrow, then I'll get the car
serviced and ready to go to California.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
This morning I finished setting up the frame for my temporary paint
booth in the shop. Tomorrow I'll buy some plastic sheeting to put over
it, and may even get as far as using it for painting some parts. By
noon the temperature warmed up to freezing, and I went out and took
more stuff out of the Suburban. I didn't finish cleaning it out, but
the job's mostly done. I took it into town so the guys at the garage
can check it out and make sure it's ready to go to California. Daisy
rode along with me and we got some exercise walking home.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The best laid plans... I paid bills, did more cleaning in the shop then
went to run errands. By the time I made seven stops then went and
gassed up the car it was 2:30. A light sprinkle started while I was out
and about, and soon after I got home it started changing to snow. After
a half hour or so it became a pretty heavy snowfall and I wanted to
take a picture. But my camera wasn't where I thought I left it. While I
brought in wood for the evening I tried to think of where I might have
left that camera. About five I went to turn on the TV for some news,
and the TV was gone! Then I knew why I couldn't find my camera. I had a
sheriff's deputy out to take a report, and I gave him the TV model and
serial number. Every day or two the detectives check all the pawn
tickets for stolen goods, so if I'm lucky the stolen stuff will turn up
and some worthless trash druggy loser will do some jail time.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Somehow I got through the day without accomplishing much of anything. A
little more cleaning in the shop, then bringing in wood for the
evening, then a walk to town to bring home the Suburban. Maybe I can be
a little more productive tomorrow.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
This was the day I finally got that temporary paint booth set up in the
shop. I'd show you a picture of it but the digital camera I ordered to
replace the stolen one hasn't arrived yet. Anyway, with the booth set
up I made some hangers, hung a steel felloe in the booth, and sprayed
primer all over it. Tomorrow I'll take that felloe out for sanding and
spray the other one. After rebuilding the rear axle I thought the next
project on the '23 would be getting a top on it, but it turns out
that's going to wait until it has four good wheels with demountable
rims.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
While waiting for the outdoors to warm up from its start at 15º to
something a little more comfortable, I stayed in the shop keeping warm.
I took that steel felloe I primed yestyerday out of the paint booth and
did some sandng on it. I hung the other one up and shot primer on it
too. This temporary booth will be fine for painting small items when
it's too cold outside for painting, but I think the large items will
have to wait until I can paint them outside. In the booth I have to
wear a hood to keep from breathing paint, and that makes it hard to see
what I'm doing. By late afternoon the outside had warmed up to the high
twenties, so I finished most of cleaning out the Suburban. I still have
to take out a few items, then vacuum, then clean up a little oil spill
in the back. All that should take less than an hour.
Monday, February 13, 2012
An overnight storm dropped about six inches of snow. That will be good
for the wheat. I never went off the place today. Keeping my toes
thawed, I stayed in the shop all morning. I sanded one steel felloe and
sprayed another coat of primer on the other one. Then I turned to
sewing. My shop coat dropped a button, which I sewed back on. This was
the third button that's fallen off, indicating that none of them are
particularly well attached. So I cut off all the others and resewed
them. In the afternoon the temperature climbed up to freezing and I
finished unloading and vacuuming the Suburban, and used lacquer thinner
to clean up the oil spills in the back.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
This is the last blog post for awhile. I'm going to be busy. But
like Arnold, I'll be back.
I'm posting the following February entries in March because I couldn't
post while on the road. Now that I'm home I'll fill in some of the
missing adventures from my trip.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
This was getaway day. I ordered some new windows for the house, but
they're only sold on the west coast. So I decided to drive the Suburban
west and fetch them, and do some visiting. On this first day of driving
I got to New Mexico. My motel was my Suburban parked at the Wal-Mart
parking lot in Roswell. The price was perfect.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
On my second travel day I reached the Phoenix area, where I stopped to
visit a few of my multiple cousins then went to Tempe to look at a
Model T for sale. The T looked good. I decded to get it, made an offer
to the owner, and he said OK. If nobody buys it for more than I offered before I head
home, I'll stop and pick it up on my way back. I chose this car for a
couple of reasons. It's one of the relatively few aluminum bodied cars
Ford made, and I'd like to have an enclosed Model T for cold weather.
This one appears to be pretty solid, and the price is right.
Friday, February 17, 2012
I arrived in the belly of the beast, teeming southern California,
seething with apocalyptic traffic, filling station price shock, smog, and
Seven Elevens. My first stop was in Signal Hill where I picked up the
new windows for the house. I divided my time between my buddy Herb's
place in
Woodland Hills and my brother's in Lomita. I went shopping and
sightseeing, and spent one day working on the Chevy.
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