The End of Chapter 1 - Part 1

Eric got the engine!

I'll keep you posted!

The Motor's been sent to Eric!

Eric's taken on the task of going through the motor.  I wish him luck.  And it isn't that expensive to ship a 12a engine to Seattle, especially if you divide it into three boxes.....now getting it back....hmmmm

Are You Ready for Some Football!

Fun weekend! Paul and Eric came down to tear apart the car.  We hadn't really done anything like this since college when we were tearing apart scooters and playing with gravity propelled vehicles.  Sadly, we didn't "live on our bikes" and moved to where there were jobs and schools.  So, it's been a 20+ year hiatus since our last project.

The good part about working with engineers - Eric immediately organized my tools but was sensitive enough to my needs to keep the flourescent recorder and wood glue on the tool box.
The bad part about working with engineers -  Both Paul and Eric fell madly in love with the rotary engine.

In the end I got to play the role of the pessimist "maybe we should think about a different car?"  Eric got to be the enthusiast "we can fix this car!"  And Paul got to be the nihilist "it's going to be impossible no matter what so why not just stick with this one."

So, we'll see what happens.  I'm going to attempt to send the engine to Eric to go through and he'll deliver the verdict.

the car's back - Minor Threat

I got the car back yesterday and can't say I'm thrilled to see it.  

This morning, I needed some motivation.  So I put on Minor Threat's complete discography cd to get me moving (actually, I played it on my ipod, but that's a different post).  It did.  This was the first CD I ever purchased way back in 1991(?).  I was a teeny bit of a hold out when it comes to CDs and I can't say I will miss them.  At the time, the complete discography made the conversion worth it, I had all the lps/eps but I was in grad school and as I've learned over and over again, playing vinyl while working in my studio is a horrible idea.  

So, the team is still recovering from our collapse.  People are coming together and sort of enthused but also need a little of a time out.   I think some of us are going to tear apart this engine and look at it.  There's an extremely slight chance we can get it running.  Then again taking it apart is free.

party with me punker,

Surly Captain

Paint Job

Glimmer of hope

It's been a long weekend and the car's been hinting at starting but.....ugh....I'll post about it later.  I'm going to watch Grand Prix.

London Calling - the week in working on the car

The Happiest Belt - In order to remove the smog pump I needed to replace the belt it used with a lawn mower belt.  To do this usually requires a lot of wedging, shoving and pinching.  Unless you're me this week.  Then you drape the belt over the pulleys and forget about it.  Later you work on the starter and the pulley catches the belt and you're done!
Custom Ignition - We have two electrical engineers on our team (this means you Paul and Eric).  So, who wires up the ignition....me. Who can complain about getting shocked....no one.
Custom Block off Plates - So to remove the smog stuff I made some snazzy aluminum block of plates and used extra washers to hold them on.

Green Disclaimer - I've been removing all the smog equipment and was feeling a bit guilty. Until I realized what the 1979 equipment did.  It basically added air to the exhaust so it would come out cleaner.  Well, not really "cleaner", it has the same amount of pollutants,  just with a higher air to exhaust ratio.  Now I don't feel so bad.
Vacuum Hose Clean Up - It may not look like it but nine tenths of the vacuum tubes have been removed.  I owe a huge thanks to a site that gave a how two on this operation, but they're not getting it until this thing starts.

London Calling has wound up on the ipod more than I thought possible.  I can't quite explain it but it's definitely music for working on cars.

Screwdriver Party!!!

When Jack was 3 he used to play "screwdriver party." It involved taking all the screwdrivers out of my rolling tool box and  puting them all over the garage and the house (if he was lucky).

I never throw away screwdrivers and because of that I have I wide assortment of broken, bent, rusty and glue covered models.  I don't throw them away because I know I'll use them at some point.  As in the case of the Mazda's carburator.
I needed to put the throttle back on.  Of all my screwdrivers there was only one that had a long enough shaft to reach the tiny philips screw but a short enough handle not to hit the fire wall.  Screwdriver party!

In other news the motor created exhaust today!!!! more on that soon....

Dusty in Memphis

With the fires and everything I spent Saturday working on the car all by myself.  I decided to focus on putting the carburator back together.  The problem is, that in our fit to yank the engine out we didn't really pay attention to what went where.  And I hate carburators.  Luckily I put on Dusty in Memphis.
The advantage of working alone is you can listen to whatever you want.  And sure I could feel sad a discouraged by the carburator but I really couldn't feel as sad as Dusty.  Plus the album is slow and soothing enough that you really don't feel bad taking things apart and putting them back together three or four times.
Punker Solution - I couldn't find that teeny cotter pin, luckily I did find that rusty safety pin.
Another advantage of working alone....you can work wherever you want.

The roll cage is in!

Wow, what a Sunday.  Rhonda, Dennis, George and I took on the roll cage.  Gutting the car was easy.  Getting the roll cage together was more of a challenge than we thought.  After employing everything we had including child labor we realized that the generic looking brackets were actually for specific places.  So we took it out assembled it in the driveway marked everything and then took it apart and put it together in the car.  It turned out great!  we have something that looks like a race car!!!

More on the car

George, Dennis and I spent Sunday putting the engine back in the car.  Maybe not so much "putting", maybe more cramming, jiggling and stuffing.  Even with so much room and such a small engine, it still took forever. 

Well, now it's in and as you can hopefully see it turns.  So it's pretty much all uphill from here.

Spray Paint Therapy

I needed to get away from the finicky engine and clean out my spray paint shelf.  I went with the half full cans of orange, "real orange" and an "apple red."  

Owned By an Aircraft Mechanic- pts 1-3

     Out here on the edge of the Antelope Valley, the old hub of the aircraft industry,  you often see "previously owned by an aircraft mechanic" or "engineer" or some kind of technician in a $500 car add.  It's never "previously owned by a meth lab technician" or "deranged survivalist" which would be more likely.

    So when the seller for the RX7 proclaimed it was "owned by an aircraft mechanic" I took it with a grain of salt. Sure the car seemed clean and tidy but I wasn't convinced until I found.

1. Stack of various aircraft oriented business cards, FAA hotline numbers and shipping weight charts (but really doesn't everyone have one of those)

2. The Xanadu - I nearly threw it away thinking it was just a broken hockey stick.  But it's actually a handcrafted rear hatch holder with a custom rubber tip.....nice.

3.  The tidy pile of fast food wrappers.  In the glove box under everything was a McDonalds bag filled with neatly folded other bags and wrappers, some still glowing with grease after 8 years in the desert....super nice.

Comfortize Thyself!

It has been done.
On Sunday October 5th I made an extremely low offer of $300 on a 1979 (or maybe 80) Mazda RX7 and it was excepted!

We just need to get it running and safe by December 26th.  How hard could that be?  It's only been sitting for eight years.  And the guy who runs the storage lot it was abandoned at was pretty sure it came in under its own power.  Easy

So far it needs

a battery

radiator hoses

tires

brake pads

-Surly Captain