I guess it's safe to update the sign

Haven't been posting because I've been working on getting stuff done.  Rest assured, if the stuff I've been doing lately was worth writing about again, I'd have been posting it.  Slow news is good news, right?

Anyway, I will have a pretty pleasant update in the coming days -- once I manage to stop bandsawing  windows in my fingers, burning parts of my hands to bacon fat whiteness, setting my workbench on fire with my face several inches away, and letting spiders crawl into the armpits of my shirts.  

Vertebrae for keeps

Last three days have been solidly locked up in my neck.  Went to bed, feeling as fine as I usually do, then woke up the next morning with my shoulder pinned to my ear.  It's just a thing, happens now and again.  Usually, though, it's my lower back that's decided to quit without giving notice.  Those situations tend to take a week or so to clear up, though, so I guess I'm ahead of the game.

Back in the shop today, at least.  Been cutting and welding, fitting and spitting, fussin and cussin.  I don't really want to talk exhaust, but I guess I'm talking exhaust.

Long/short, the pipes I had just weren't going to fit.  I used every means I could think of to make that shit work, but it just wasn't happening.  I eventually had to make the call that I was going to need to pony up and get a new solution, because trying to make something out of what I had was getting more and more into diminishing returns country.

I figured out what seems so far to be a pretty good solution: I got a few mandrel bent 90s and a pair of woodpecker-flavor straight tube glasspacks.  In light of having recovered my cats, I think I made a pretty solid decision.  As of close of business, I'm back to where I was a few weeks ago.  That is to say, I've fit everything together on the driver's side correctly, verified clearances, and am now working to get hangers sorted out before I make some tack welds to retain exact placement.  Afterwards, I'll do the same to the right side of the car, pull everything off, finish the welds, paint, and wrap as appropriate. 

What a pain in the ass.  Still, gonna be worth it when it's done!

Defying odds, one wheel at a time.

Walked out to get in Eagle and feed it before going to the shop.  When I got to the wagon, the front passenger tire was flat.  Totally flat.  Earth flat.

Don't get me wrong -- from the moment I bought it, my expectations for this tire were as low as it currently sits.  I don't think anyone would buy a used tire from Les Schwab and hang any heavy hopes on it being long-lived.  I mean, the damn thing already had fuzzy sidewalls when I bought it, but I wasn't in a position to be too choosy.

The part of this that's throwing me for a loop is how I've now had two situations occur where all 4 tires are holding air when I park and go inside for the night, though I discover a totally deflated front tire when I return the next day.  Same street, even. 

When I get done with the Gremlin and finally get the hell out of here, ain't nobody gonna be able to tell what I'm driving.  The entire exterior is just going to be covered with spare tires

Solvent quill, controlled foam dissolver.

Note: this post has been written over several days, so contradictory temporal references and information/statements that were already covered in prior posts will be even more common than usual.

I found my cats.

I don't know how the hell I didn't find them the last 5 times I looked in the place where they were, but at this point I'm not putting much thought into that.  You'll probably also notice some u bends in the picture as well, along with the fact that none of it is welded together yet.  I'm sure it won't take a lot of thinking to figure out what's been going on with the exhaust.  Still don't want to talk about it beyond that, though.

The heater core box is as done as things have been getting lately.  It took a little more time than I'd have liked on account of needing to track down what parts it should and shouldn't have, but I got all that ironed out.  It's now fixed in place (I wouldn't say installed, because I have a suspicion that it'll be coming back out at least once).

I had to cut some foam gaskets for it, due to not having a couple that were needed (probably lost over the last couple years).  It was pretty straightforward, except there was a small hole needed in a place where a neat cut would've been beyond my abilities.  After thinking about it for a few minutes, I decided to see if I could etch it out with a solvent.  Results weren't too bad; certainly better than if I had used a blade.

To do this, I snipped off a couple inches of spare brake line with my side cutters.  This gave me a sharp edge and collapsed the tube walls, which was almost perfect.  I used a pair of pliers to squeeze the end open just a hair, and the result was something kinda like a quill pen.  I dipped the tube in some acetone and capped the open end with my thumb, using the interior of the tube as a reservoir.

I drew the circle on the foam using the acetone as "ink", and confirmed that the foam started to slowly dissolve.  From there, I just refilled the tube with acetone periodically and gently rubbed away the foam with the sharp end.  I thought it was a neat trick, even if the results aren't laser sharp.

Here's a shot of the bay the end of the (yester)day:

Left a little length in the hoses until everything's nice and in place.

In other news, the A/C evap isn't going to work. More on that in a future update.  Maybe.  You can read about my crazy-ass attempts to investigate it here:

http://theamcforum.com/forum/topic95637_post843546.html#843546