Keep On Rollin’

What is this? Three journal entries within nearly one months times? Brilliant!

Tons of stuff to update, so let’s get on it. So far Bridgette is still around, but the end of school is approaching as of next week Friday, so that is when I will be going to buy a vehicle – assuming I find one. Also, the weekend after finals are over I plan on installing the gauges – bringing yet another in-depth guide – and this one will be take more than one ‘beverage’ probably. I have received the 15×8 snowflake wheels, along with the lug nuts and center caps. I also have saved around $200 from what I expected to pay for them, not including the equipment I have to buy in order to restore these, which will probably be $100, but still save me $300 from buying them refinished. When I visit home this late summer I will stop by The Tire Rack (~30 minutes from my house), and pick up some big tires to put on the newly refinished wheels, all shipping and handling free I might add. A guide that covers changing door locks has been posted in the automotive guide section. Overall it is about an hour or so worth of work if you have never done it before, piece of cake assuming nothing goes horribly horribly awry. With finals approaching I will probably not be able to update anything on this site until at least 5/15, but I guess that isn’t so bad as it is only 12 days away. As always, once this semester breaks I should have Valarie at my apartment complex and be able to get started on the list of around 30 items to work on and finish by the time next semester begins. This summer should be a real good staging point to get a lot of little stuff done as well as kick up some momentum, even though my next semester looks to be my hardest.

I also hope I will not be locked onto my computer for many weeks on end while playing Half Life 2: Episode 1. While this will in all likelihood be an excellent game, being only 6 or so hours in duration will allow me to finish playing it (three or four times) in only a couple days time – thusly allowing me to return to working on my car and preparing for next semester by relearning all of calculus and ordinary differential equations.

This week is called ‘dead week,’ and it is kind of like calling a huge guy ‘Tiny.’
–Sooner Dead

Bridgette’s Last Flight?

Well, it is time for yet another update. Progress with Valarie, though slow, has picked up a little bit as I now have another thing done on her: new door locks. Yes, that’s right, now my car is IMPENETRABLE to thieves and rabid raccoons, so long as they don’t have a slim jim… or a hanger… or rock… or anything heavy and blunt. The door locks also gave rise to a new “beast” if you will: the Shelley Car Beast. She got into this one and did the passenger side door lock all by herself. Sure it may seem like a small and trivial task, but this is only just the beginning and you must crawl before you can walk – and walk before you can run (and incidentally you must run before you can really fall and mess yourself up good). So today it may be door locks, but soon it could be springs and shocks, and then at some later date, camshafts and realigning full doors. Also, sticking true to my word, I will be making and posting a guide to redoing the door locks here within a week or so. The final update is that I have recently bought a set of 4 15×8 snowflake wheels that I will be refurbishing over the summer to but on some nice big meaty tires in the rear of the car probably sometime in August. That was the good news, but now its time for some bittersweet news. It looks ever likely that I will soon be selling the Trans Am in favor of buying a Ford F-150. With Valarie coming along, and with my career in Meteorology progressing, Bridgette is slowly losing her place as a useful vehicle to me. While she is quite a blast to drive and the first car I bought with my own money, she has lost her place as being my ‘fun’ car to Valarie and my growing desires to storm chase as well as needing a more versatile vehicle in which to haul things and drive in all kinds of weather has put Bridgette in what appears to be her final flight. Hopefully the new owner takes care of her and loves her as I have.

It’s time to unpimp de auto… oh snap
–Sooner Dead

New Apartment, New Progress

Well even though it has been a tough week for me, due to my Grandfather soon to be dying ( nurses give him less than two weeks ), trying to keep my head above water with school, moving into a new apartment, and debating as to whether or not sell my Trans Am in order to buy a Ford F-150 to use for storm chasing, etc. – I have still managed to get some progress done. While I was not able to directly work on the car, I was able to get the gauges all properly mounted. Now this did take some fabricating, and I have a guide up for this setup in the restoration guides section. Shelley even tried her hand at cutting a hole big enough for the tachometer and did great, we both are itching for a chance to get out to the car and get some real progress done. Now it is not technically all the way done because I need to drill some warning light holes and hood up some lights to represent the turn signals, but right now it is basically done. This represents a nice step forward as the main goal I have is to get these gauges in the car and up and working so I can legitimately drive the car home for the summer. But that is a few weeks down the road….

A spinning blade of death cutting metal between your legs can really wake you up in the morning.
–Sooner Dead

Changing Goals

My first pay check is in the bank, I have a solid budget which is completely laid out to the cent, and has a stable plan for working on Valarie. I now have a set goal for the completion of Valarie, which is that she must be done by the time I graduate. In conjunction with this goal, I have switched around my work list a lot in order to be able get my car running as well as a daily driver by next summer. Then the more ‘upgrade’ stuff will come on after that and lastly comes all the stuff that makes cars pretty and sound good. I will be updating both worklists to show these changes soon, as always this is subject to change. Also, I think I am going to add a section in the ‘Specs’ section that reflects what I want the car to have once its done. Overall, it should be no later than two months before I will be rebuilding the front end, then moving onto aftermarket gauges and the like, next comes wheels and tires, then by summer I hope to do a transmission swap. It would be nice being able to drive the car up to a COFBA meeting, maybe show the guys what a real muscle car is (especially the engine bay). Not that I am knocking the 4th gens – shoot I own one – but it is a completely different animal than Valarie. Also, thanks to the guys over at Trans Am Country for being so kind and answering all my stupid newbie questions.

Lauft, Lauft, Lauft Um Euer Leben!
–Sooner Dead