Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Back on my feet again

Kinda funny that this title popped in my head, while my friend Wes is layed up off his feet again. Any way, my new career is finally leading to brighter days, and with over time, I'm making more money than I ever was in the auto industry. With that extra cash will it will allow me to slowly but surely begin purchasing parts in order to get my Camaro back on the road. That being said, money will also have to be set aside for my wedding in 2009 (at a date yet to be determined), as well as to support my fiancee while she student teaches in the fall, and won't be able to hold a job during those months that actually pays. So while I wouldn't say I'll be stock piling parts in great quantities, I do hope to get some of the most needed parts in the very near future. Perhaps over this upcoming winter I will purchase the pistons for my 454, get all the machine work done, and have it ready for assebly. Or maybe even get the short block assembled this winter, as there really aren't many parts I need in order to do so. I'll have to see how things work out this year.

As for my 89 Formula, my recent valve seal job has proven sucessful. Well over 1,000 miles later and still the oil level hasn't dropped a bit. With an upcoming vacation in a few weeks, I have some further maintenance planned for the car. I just ordered up a used headlamp motor assembly for the passenger side, a rebuild kit for the driver side, a used headlamp switch, and sunvisor sleeves. I also plan on getting a can of Por-15 and tackle the underside before the rust gets the better of it. Nothing too exciting I know, but stuff that needs to be done in order to assure a 20 year old car can keep on running for many more decades.

I'm a bit pressed for time today, so I won't even touch on the happenings throughout the auto industry. God only knows what the next year will entail, and whether or not all 3 of the Big 3 will survive. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to hear news of any one of them going under. I only hope that the new Camaro makes it to production, and I get a chance to either buy one, or pick up a used one in a few years. This could be the last years for the pony cars, so enjoy the days while we still have a Mustang, Challenger, and hopefully Camaro doing battle.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Roadblock.

As I have mentioned before I was involved in a pretty nasty motorcycle accident in April 2007 which resulted in a broken ankle and a busted up shoulder. After multiple surgeries and countless physical therapy sessions I found myself in pretty good shape.

Or so I thought.

Over the course of the summer I irritated that ankle numerous times by doing normal everyday activities, like just standing up from the ground or and walking down stairs, and that was starting to concern me. Then about three weeks ago I was just casually walking around the church in between services and my ankle started hurting something fierce, which left me almost unable to walk. This inability to walk persisted for a couple of days which warranted a trip to the doctors’ office. A MRI reveled that something appeared to be going on in there, so surgery #4 was scheduled.

So I had that surgery this morning and am sitting at my parents house recovering. Ahh, I love my moms home cooked meals.

At this time you might be asking yourself, “Why is he telling me kind of stuff on a muscle car blog – GET BACK TO THE FAIRMONT RADIO DELETE PLATE DISCUSSION ALREADY!!!”

Hold on one second and I'll tell you why I’m talking about it. My doctor is not an automotive mechanic (he probably has no idea where to find the oil filter on his 12 cylinder BMW), but he is a mechanic in every sense of the word. This guy is absolutely amazing when it comes to his knowledge of the mechanics of the human body. If you think about it his job is to diagnose a problem and find a solution to fix it. Sounds a lot like what I do when working on a car.

Now while I am worried about main bearing clearances, he is worried about ankle joint clearances. And although blowing up an engine is not cool, blowing up an ankle is WAY not cool. The biggest difference is he gets paid the big bucks to fix people, and people pay big bucks to blow up their engines. HAHA – Supersport knows what I’m talking about!!

This also demonstrates how roadblocks sometimes pop up in life which put our car projects on hold. I was making such great progress on my car (and ankle) and now it looks like I won’t be working on it (or working out the ankle) for the next couple of months. But that’s no big deal. I don’t have a set goal as to when I want to have the car finished by (although this decade would be nice). I would like to fire the engine up next year, but I won’t take any shortcuts to get there.
But summer 2008 will still go down as the year I got the most work done on my car. I can actually see a light at the end of the tunnel (although I’m looking thru a high powered 13” Newtonian telescope).

Peace.
We$leyJ
Psalms 119:50



You don't want to strip out one of these fasteners.

Recovering.