Spring Returns

The landlord finally returned from the lower 48 today and rushed over to the house to fix the furnace for the baseboard heating system. Which I really appreciate now that it's seventy five fucking degrees outside! I was actually so cold the other day in my own house that when I went to take a warm shower my toes felt like they were on FIRE. Thanks for nothing, Chuck. ;-) The good news is that Winter is gone and Spring seems to be rapidly transitioning into Summer. You can just see the whole town coming back to life. Men are wearing shorts, women are running around in tank tops with cute little skirts, the fields are exploding with dandelions, and the forests of birch are once again a very exciting shade of youthful green.

So, too, has my life been in a state of change. Where it will go, I've no clue. I've got so much to say and share, but theere is much conflict within me as to the necessity, theraputic value, and risk involved in getting all of this off of my chest. I've got a bunch of pictures to post, too, but Wifey and I have to run a few errands for the time being. Back in a flash . . .

Bulkhead Stripping

Ruby and I got along well today and I got alot done. Here's some pictures from my cell phone. Got the wiring harness out of the engine bay and removed the heater. Also removed all of the dash from the inside finally. The rust bug got the dash pretty bad. I even found some 22LR bullets and a turkey feather. . .

750ml later . . . remembering good times

This is my reminder to myself that I still know how to have fun . . . November 2005 TDY to Tokyo . . . a city that never sleeps . . . at least not at night . . .

Land Rover Tricks

Got up early this morning to drive out to Birchwood and sight in my new sniper scope for the AK. It works quite well, but I will need to tighten up all of the screws so it will stay sighted in. I met some dude from the DEA there that suggested I use loc-tite on them. Cops (and federal agents ever more so) crack me up. They are seriously gun crazy. From what this guy said, he owns more fully automatic weapons than UBL. I laugh a little to think that the ATF has decided that charging exorbitant registration fees for assault weapons and components like silencers and high capacity magazines is better for business than banning them altogether. Charging the good guys to finance the war on the bad guys . . . Democracy has its price. It's an interesting tradeoff. I wonder if it was an accountant versus a policy-maker that came up with that idea. I wonder if in D.C. there's a difference anymore?

200 rounds of 5.45 and 45 ACP later, I pull into the auto hobby shop to give Ruby some well-deserved attention. After giving up on stripping rust from the doors (wrong tools for the job), I turned my attention to removing more of the dash components. The fight began with the spade connectors on the rear of the instrument cluster; apparently they were designed to stay in place. This is an admirable quality, but not of much utility when it comes time to remove them. Jim suggested a pair of pliers and a bladed screwdriver, which did the trick eventually, though my clumsiness yielded the usual assortment of gashes and cuts to knuckles and fingers. That done, I removed what was left of the plastic backing (came out in four our five pieces) and set to work on the stamped metal piece that retains the upper dash.

Anyone who's worked on cars long enough knows that working on dashboards is a royal pain in the arse. On sight, the Spartan nature of the Land Rover Series III dash assembly seems to offer a break from the usual hassle. In practice, this turns out not to be the case. I am convinced that Solihull must have employed a shop full of midgets whose sole purpose was to drive screws into the smallest of places at the godawfulest (is that a word?) angles. The mere thirty minutes spent arguing with those screws is sure to contribute greatly to arthritis or carpal tunnel later in life. The fresh air vents (poor man's air conditioner) turned out to be quite a puzzle. Once everything else had been removed, the controls to these vents remained the only things holding the dash piece. After removing their mounting plate, hinge nut and bolt, and studying them carefully for a good twenty minutes I was pretty much out of ideas. Save for one. I tried to open the vents (now loose but still attached to their controls) from the outside. No good; bonnet in the way. Removed the bonnet (30 second job thanks to no frills open hinge). Took a moment to pat Ruby's windscreen and assure her I would put her back together good as new. Hope nobody saw that. Strained head to look under open vent. Eureka! The vent control is bolted to the vent with two 8mm nuts. Once removed, the vent controls let go and the metal piece came out as planned. These are the funny little Land Rover games I will remember (and perhaps even cherish) for many years to come . . .

Knik River Recovery

So after a very late poker night (which Adam and I finally ended with a handshake and $50 in each of our pockets), Wifey made waffles and we made ready to head out to Birchwood for some target practice. About the time I was headed for the shower, Coyote called up and changed all of our plans. As the story goes, a kid from the Army side had gotten his Dodge stuck out by the Knik River bridge north of town. Over the years Coyote has developed a working relationship with the gents over at the Fort Rich auto hobby shop, which is why he is one of the first they call when someone needs more than an idiot with a winch and an out-of-the-box 4x4.

The chain goes like this. Austin (aforementioned Army kid) calls Dwayne (hobby shop boss), Dwayne calls Coyote, Coyote calls Alex with the "Titanic" Suburban for backup pulling power, and me for a third perspective, and off we go toward the Knik River and another challenge. Though the shooting plans were seemingly foiled, I got another call on the road from the dudes I was supposed to meet out at Birchwood. Apparently, the proprietors of the Birchwood Skeet and Rifle Range were the only ones among the lot of us that remembered a little-known Christian celebration known as Easter. So with the shooting moved to next weekend, we dug tires into the silty bed of the Knik River and pulled up to a very derelict Dodge pickup. After digging out the tires and trying a jump, we did a little precautionary maintenance and pulled the plugs (along with a few cups of silt), hotwired the starter with a brilliant show of sparks, and blew a sandstorm out of the plug sleeves. A little reassembly and some manual labor removing rocks from every possible open space between the backing plate, calipers, and brake discs, and the Dodge was back on the road.

Someone suggested we open a recovery service and charge. Naw. A willing hand when I need it is all I want. That and a chance to learn something new. . .

EXTRA! EXTRA! Man proven wrong by wife. . .AGAIN

It's Tuesday at 10:30 in the morning and I am still in pajamas . . . it's going to be a good day. Having been away in Japan or hiding under a desk in chem gear for the last three weeks, school has been on the back burner. I took the beginning of this week off of work in a last-ditch attempt to catch up on schoolwork. We'll see how the next twelve hours go and have another look into the magic eight ball for the chances of that actually happening. Oh well. It'll all turn out.
Work on the Land Rover has been slow as of late. Shortly before I left for Japan, my friend Alex and I set to and managed to remove the engine in about three hours. We trailered the dirty old thing up to AC Machine next to the Birchwood airport, where it has been for the last three weeks being machined and awaiting parts. All told it has been acid tanked, bored .020, heads have been resurfaced, con rods rebalanced, pistons and rings replaced with new ones, crank shaft resurfaced, gotten a new water pump, new gaskets/seals, and all bearings replaced. Out the door this will cost way too much, but in the interests of a long term investment, I am excited to see the rebuilt engine. As I get over to the hobby shop on Fort Richardson I am cycling the other engine components through the parts washer, learning how to weld from Coyote, and learning humility from Redbeard and the rest of the staff.
I have slowly built up a stockpile of parts through Summit and eBay purchases. I now have laying in the basement:

• the "hot rod" intake components (for after the IM has passed)
• a tailgate and lift gate (both requiring additional parts for a proper installation)
• an ex-MoT 12V NATO "Arctic Heater" from Canada (working but needs some paint)
• the freshly painted emissions components (still needing ducting of proper size)
• the refurbished fuel tank and the salvage fuel filler neck to replace the rusted out one
• the rebuilt Stromberg carbs
• four of six replacement floor stiffener crossmembers (others on order)

Of course, there is still much to be done. Ruby is still gutted and hasn't gotten any attention to her rust issues. I may do that this coming weekend, though I imagine school will take priority. I still need to negotiate with the local metal supplier to get a new floor cut and bent. I also still want to take it down to the chassis to get that treated for rust before it gets any worse. A new chassis is out of the question for at least a good while.

To boot, I have now confirmed that Ruby was fraudulently imported. I have filed a report with the Hertfordshire police and the US Customs Bureau, for whatever good it might do. The registration and VIN number were swapped with an older Rover to make her eligible for import. She is acually a 1981, not a 1980. I have found the proper registration information through some investigative work, but have not yet ascertained the correct full VIN number. The good news is, I am only missing two digits. The bad news is no one in the UK seems to be interested in helping me find the correct VIN. Wifey says, "I told you so." Well wife, you did indeed. Congratulations. Let it be known to all; that's one more point for the women, and another cringing defeat for the men. Oh well. I take comfort in knowing it won't be that last time. I have plenty more years of being wrong before I die. . .

Oatmeal and Snowfall

Today the standard Saturday routine commenced, with the usual self-generated interruptions. After staying up much too late and sleeping in an equal amount, I awoke and set the kettle for tea and oatmeal. Although tea has more or less fallen out of my breakfast diet, oatmeal has become somewhat of a staple. I’ve finally made the switch to raw oatmeal after much urging by coworkers to kick those sugar filled bags of favored instant oatmeal to the curb. Surprisingly, the raw stuff isn’t as bad as I thought. Maybe not good, but not bad. At any rate, after opening the windows to let some sun in and help wake me up I took a seat in the dining room and admired the fresh powder on the ground. There is something still very magical to me about a good snow shower. Today the snow fell steadily until well into the afternoon. Ironically, the Iditarod restart scheduled for next week has been moved farther north due to a lack of adequate snow cover. Go figure. Gllloooobaaaallll waaarrmmmmiiiiing . . . . wooooooooo . . . rubbish.

This must be a sign. I’ve managed to delete two paragraphs in a row and am about out of patience. Score another one for the tech gremlins. I didn’t want to talk about my day anyway . . .

Honorable Mentions

As an after thought, honorable mentions go out to:

DAP-Inc www.dap-inc.com for providing me with a fuel sender unit, lock ring, gasket, fuel filler hose, and carbeurator rebuild kits much more cheaply than anyone else was willing to . . . check them out

Dingocroft-UK www.dingocroft.co.uk for finding a very unique emissions part and charging me a mere $15 dollars for it . . . check them out as well

Jonnyboy from www.stage1v8.org.uk for finding a very rare emissions part that lists for $450 and mailing it to me from the UK for FREE . . . you rock even if your rover looks like a rusted rainbow ----------------------------------------------->

My wife, for snaking out the tiolet because I am too chicken to stick my hands in the water

Pennies from Hell (or Tax Return time!)

Well, it's that time of year again and the Maker has smiled benevolently upon my pocketbook. Seeing as how I've paid taxes through the nose this past year, taken a massive loss on the rental property, and thickly lined the pockets of my university. . .well, let's just say it was a fair refund. First and foremost, I did the responsible thing and reduced my student loan balance by a fair amount. That helped pave the way for the irresponsibility to follow. Of course, the wife got her 50%. It's about time to look into opening up more closet space; my wife has a unique talent (albeit a desirable one) for unlocking that secret wormhole on eBay that offers designer jeans and tops for a penny. She's a bargain shopper, for sure. Speaking of shopping, I did some eBaying myself (on Ruby's behalf, of course). She doesn't really care for computers. . .

eBay offered up a few things I have been searching for lately, to include the diaphragms that fit into the top of the Stromberg 175s, the mixture adjustment tool (Rover calls it a "special" tool), and a new electric fuel pump. Oddly enough, the fuel pump is made in the USA by a Bendix spin-off company but can't be found anywhere commercially other than the UK. The good news is I got it for half off list price. I was discouraged by the outrageous prices I was seeing from www.rpiv8.com (RPi Engineering-UK) and their US copycat www.offroadexperience.com/wcb (West Coast British) on the Mallory Unilite electronic ignition system. RPi wanted like $700 plus and WCB wanted about $500. Enter www.summitracing.com, where I found the distributor, coil, ballast resistor, and a K&N oil filter for a total of $375 dollars. There's something to be said for volume retailers.

I also stripped down and painted the air filter housing in gloss black and stripped the fuel filter sediment bowl down to be repainted in some facsimilie of the light blue I found chipping off of it. I will probably continue along those lines today. . . ciao!

Fuel Tank, Interrupted

I hate technology sometimes. I just spent 20 minutes cranking out an eloquent review of the work I did restoring the fuel tank and of course Internet Explorer decided to have heart burn with pop-ups and ended up erasing my whole post without so much as a warning. In protest, I'm not going to write it again, so here's the short version:

1. Dirty, rusty tank
2. POR-15 Fuel Tank Kit ($50 USD)
3. POR-15 Rust Preventative Paint ($40 USD/quart)
4. 4 hours labor stripping paint/rust off of tank exterior with orbital wire brush (WARNING: FILL TANK WITH WATER TO PREVENT FUEL VAPOR IGNITION)
5. Untold hours of hosing out tank, rolling tank around with caustic/acidic substances leaking out all over the basement floor (concrete)
6. Even more hours waiting for tank to dry (blow dryer or heat gun will help immensely)
7. 72-96 hours waiting for sealant to cure
8. 2 hours labor to paint tank exterior during sealant curing period

All of this equals one sore back and a slightly-better-than-half-ass looking reconditioned fuel tank. My best advice with POR is to READ AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY, or you will have wasted $90 and a lot of your time for an unusable fuel tank. Thankfully, I am somewhat timid when it comes to this kind of thing so I made sure I rear and re-read the directions before every step. I'll leave you to decide on the results:

before after