Life Over-Torqued

Something I have always been guilty of is not following the sage advice ‘all things in moderation;’ whether it be big things like overloading schoolwork, the buffet-line plate, or simple things such as over-tightening screws until I strip out the grooves. With school starting up and now trying to balance it with work, Shelley, Valarie, and sleep – there is hardly time to actually dedicate to all of them. It is all coming back to me now of just how hard it is to actually work on my car while keeping up with everything else.

So please allow me to apologize about the lack of posts recently as well as the lateness of the two guides I have been talking about for a couple of weeks now, it isn’t that the guides are hard, just that I haven’t had any time in which to write them up. Now for a little update on the car: Shelley and I went out to work on the car, a rebonding that needed to take place between Shelley, Valarie, and I. We pulled out the drivers seat to better work on the car, checked out the front suspension over good, and looked at the problems with the parking break. We found out that the front suspension is good, except it needs springs an shocks replaced – something I already knew – but everything else is in order, which is great and will save some money.

I have plans to go out with Shelley this weekend if I can find the time and we plan on working on fixing the parking brake, resecuring the ram air scoops, and a few other things. As I have said before, I am dedicated to making everything work this time.

I’m only stopping to regain feeling
–Sooner Dead

A Side Of Life

I have kind of neglected posting anything remotely related to my personal life in the past couple posts, and it is something I will try to avoid posting about because most people could care less; though every now and then I do actually have something worth posting about. I am currently going on a diet, I have been on it for a little less than a weak. For the most part I have ignored my poor physical condition because I enjoy food and it really hasn’t affected me. Being short-sighted common problem with people, myself included, and I am finally realizing the consequences my life will have if I don’t start changing my habits. An added perk of the this weight loss is that after I am able to lose all the weight I need to to be at a healthy weight and Valarie is running, I will of dropped a tenth of a second of the quarter mile time just by my own weight losses.

Both of my AMS abstracts are now done and submitted, and I should hear if they are approved in a month or so. School is starting on Monday and I expect the free time I have enjoyed with working full time over the summer will disappear as I still work part time and have a full load of coursework. If history is any indicator, this will hurt my work on Valarie, but like my previous attempts at auto restoration and dieting, this time I am really really serious. I have thing set up pretty good in my life so now I am going to focus on the things I have let slip to the side in order to better round my life. A good career and a wonderful woman is great and can really make life worth living, but there is health and that little place you need to go to relieve some stress and clear the mind that is also important to have

One final note of temptation: Valve (makers of the Half-Life series) have announced they will be selling BioShock, an absolutely amazing looking first person shooter hybrid through Steam, Valve’s internet distributed gaming software. I was going to avoid going to the stores and picking it up, but now I don’t know how I can resist.

Oh yeah, and I am marrying a model – booyah
–Sooner Dead

Small Steps

Last night was good. Really, really good. It may of not of been real mechanically based jobs, but I got things done on the car and I didn’t make matters worse for what feels like the first time since I have owned the car.

After finding out I needed to remove the radiator to get the fan shroud out, I was all ready to go and yank that radiator, and then I stopped. This would mean I would need to drain the majority of the cooling system, and that was not something I was prepared to do. So instead I put things back how they were and decided the car could live without a new shroud for awhile, as 3/4 of the shroud is fine, and I could make a temporary fix on the top 1/4 if the car is over heating.

Once I got the radiator back in place, I went to my second job: figuring out that valve cover breather that had been bothering me for some time. Instead of trying to push it through the valve cover hole, I removed the valve cover and used the extra leverage to put my weight against it. It didn’t go perfectly at first and I had to reposition the rubber grommet once or twice, but eventually it got itself into place! One job done. A guide will be coming on that soon.

Coming off a small victory, I pushed on and replaced the license plate light holder that was broken. The previous one had been broken off and the pieces still remained on the screws, but I replaced it. Two jobs done in one night and not one setback! A guide will be coming out on this job soon as well.

So here I am, 2 jobs closer to driving the car in the wedding. Tonight I am turning my sights on enjoying the victory and studying up on 8 more jobs I hope to be getting closer to finishing by the end of the weekend. The actual goal is to have the car able to run again by next weekend, but we shall see if that is a little too ambitious. Getting two small things done without a setback can really really make you feel like yo u can do anything again and really helps the momentum.

The trip of a thousand miles begins with a single burnout
–Sooner Dead

Tick-Tock

So here is the deal: I made a promise to my fiancé that I would do my best to have my car presentable before our wedding so we could drive off in that. We have 676 days and a couple until we get married. I have about 50 major jobs to get done on the car before it is “presentable” by both her and my definition Of course each of these major jobs have sub-jobs and there is always unexpected things cropping up to complicate matters, but let’s ignore those right now and say it will all boil down to 50 major jobs. A little quick math (676/50) says I can average about 13 days between accomplishing a single job. Sounds easy then, right? WRONG!

While some jobs will be quick and easy, such as resecuring the ram air vents, others will be much more time-consuming and complicated, such as bodywork. The jobs will run the spectrum in difficulty, cost, and time-consumption. So this is how I figure it: do any job you can currently do asap and after that, start working to being able to do the others. Job by job is the only way to restore a car, it doesn’t all just fall into place by itself.

I visited Valarie Sunday night, with the help from the guys over at TransAmCountry I was able to remove the key that has been stuck in the ignition for sometime. Sure it took some swallowing of pride, but at least it was stuck in the ignition due to something I doubt most people would have ever though of: a pseudo-column shift key lock when the base of the steering column is twisted to the right. Twisted it back to the left (putting it where the ‘park’ position would be if you had a column shift), turned the key back and it fell right out!

I also worked on getting the fan shroud out and replacing it with one that didn’t have a huge chunk out of the top. Come to find out (again from the guys at TransAmCountry) that due to the steering box, I have to remove the whole radiator. Oh well, in order to learn how to work on cars I am supposed to play with everything, and a radiator falls into that category. I plan on going back tonight and doing some more stuff, including replacing the fan shroud. I will keep y’all updated.

I lost my pride asking how to pull the key out of the ignition
–Sooner Dead

Marriage Counseling

Shelley is to thank for the idea for the title of this entry. Restoring a car is quite like a marriage if you think about it. You meet through some chance coincidence – be it a friend’s tip or just searching at the local hotspots, you see her and must have her. You spend a lot of money on her just to sign a certificate and take her back to your home. Just like in some marriages, sometimes things do not always match up the grandeur plans that were in your head though and you need a little couple’s therapy.

Valarie and me have our moments, grandeur plans and frustrating failures. Sometimes you have to wonder if she likes me at all with as difficult as she is always giving me all kinds of trouble. Get her a nice new garage so I can work on her and she is protected from the elements – she won’t start, and then gets the key stuck in the ignition! I hope that soon we will start seeing eye to eye so I can really get to work on her. I visited her today, gave the garage a good cleaning, hooked up an electric splitter so I can run electric stuff and bought a high output fan to keep the air circulating on hot days (like today). Both front tires were flattening, so I lifted her up and put jack stands under her – which I am going to need to do to work on her anyway.

Tomorrow’s plan is to change out the fan shroud, get the key out of the ignition, and check out all the front suspension to see which parts should be replace. The goal is to be able to drive it locally as soon as possible just in case the garage falls through sometime (though I doubt it will, it is always nice to be prepared).

Why should I pay someone to tell me I’m wrong when you do it for free?
–Sooner Dead

Dog Days

The summer heat is back from the very welcome below-average temperatures we had been seeing down here in Oklahoma. It has been an interesting time at work, we are finishing up on the initial results as well as preparing for the big next steps and finishing up the AMS abstracts. Speaking of which, my AMS abstracts can be seen here and here. I am also going on a diet so when I have to present these papers, I will look better and be healthier.

I have a list of things I would like to do with Valarie, and I plan on starting on those this weekend. I know it is going to be hot, but I will try working in the mornings and evenings when it isn’t so hot. School is also starting soon, so time may begin to get limited but I am really ready to start making time to work on my car.

Hopefully me and Valarie won’t need couples therapy
–Sooner Dead

Money Power Glory

Well it is official: I will be writing and submitting two abstracts for the American Meteorological Society 88th Conference in New Orleans, LA. The first paper will be over primarily my coauthor’s work about using data mining to better understand tornadogenesis. The new work going on with the project I am heavily involved in and I will be giving an oral presentation over the whole project if it is accepted. The second paper is primarily my work and will be over a statistical analysis of the variance in tornado prediction performance, and I will be presenting a poster for this research if it is accepted.

This is really an exciting time for me and I am so happy I have been able to get involved with this as it has rejuvenated my love of all things meteorology as well as pushed me to really take on challenges again. Sometimes, when you get into a habit with school you can forget why you are there and where you are going, and this is just what I needed to re-awaken the person that I really am inside.

Another pushing factor has been my fiancée, Shelley, as I know she wants to live and work in Oklahoma, and the only way I can make sure I can live and work here is to make myself one of the most desirable candidates for both graduate school and the private sector. In racing, if you are not on the razors edge between control and out of control, you are not going fast enough. I am beginning to remember how much I liked pushing that edge through my life, and this next year is going to get quite interesting.

What we don’t do for love we do for money or fame
–Sooner Dead