Cost: no object

Bought a little bit for the Red Lady today. Wasn't anything significant, just some exhaust manifold studs and two sets of gaskets. A hundred bucks all up. I was offered a few different styles of exhaust manifold fastener and I unthinkingly chose the most expensive. This attitude has pervaded my ownership of this car, this sort of 'cost no object' attitude, though it was tempered by restraint, I never spent money for the sake of it, but I have never cut corners either. I've done what made sense and would yield a good result, with cost playing a lesser role in my decision making.

None of the other cars work this way. They've all been stingy affairs, built by the ethos of what was cheap, though never sacrificing safety or making the car crappy in a functional way, but I've cut plenty of corners where style or appearance was concerned. I think this is why I've been able to have the other cars at all- they're done on the cheap. The upshot though, is that I've learned to be frugal and resourceful. For example, Toddy needed some rust repairs last year when I put the new motor in, and rather than buying new steel, I just cut up a guard of a Commodore I had recently wrecked out. It's also cooled by the electric fan off the truck I wrecked out.

These lessons are valuable, and I am appreciative of the opportunity to have them. I learned how to spend money with the Red Lady, but I've learned how to actually DO things with the others.

Teddy's Tachometer

I stuck the tacho in Teddy last week. I love the quick little jobs that yeild a satisfying result after a breif effort. I think it took about 30, maybe 45 minutes, something like that. It looks pretty cool, works well, and oddly enough, revealed that I've been shifting really early in Teddy- he starts to sound a bit asthmatic above 3800 rpm or so (hey, it's only an old 2-barrel 253) but he'll actually willingly turn to 5500. This'll be interesting next time I take him to the track- whether it's actually any quicker to take him past what seems to be his comfort zone...

Anyway, on reflection of this little accomplishment, I thought about how I would have done this in the past. Like I said, it didn't really take very long to wire this thing up, 45 minutes tops, though having previously wired up a takeoff for keyed power and lights (for the CD player I breifly had in the glovebox) saved a bit of time. In the past, I would have taken longer to do it and cut more corners. The results would have been messy, visible wires hanging around, hastily twiddled together ends, that sort of thing. This time I routed the wiring intelligently, cable-tied away neatly, cut it to length and crimped on a proper terminal. It's almost professional, though I must admit I haven't completely finished- I intended to connect a terminal block between the gauge and the light and power connections, so that I can quickly wire in the oil pressure and temperature gauges I will add later, before the 383 goes in. I bought the terminal blocks at jaycar a few days ago so I can do that now, though it's only a couple of minutes work.

The result of this pleasing accomplishment, and of others like it, is that my confidence in my own ability to yeild a job well done is bouyed. I've started to think, audaciously, in the past 18 months that I can do not only as good a job as a professional, but better. The difference is my always escalating experience, of course, but also my newfound attention to detail. And as always, there's the perfectionism that comes from truly caring about the outcome. Teddy is more than just a lump of steel, glass, rubber and vinyl. He's almost alive, has a personality, a history, a story to tell. Maybe I'm the only one that sees it, but the consequence of it is that I am enabled to do a good job.

Learning to Paint

It's the holidays soon, just a few more days of work, then the ridiculousness of christmas... but after that it's all me-time, and one of the things I've stuck on the to-do list (there's always a lot at this time of the year, usually more than is reasonable to expect to do) is primering up the panels for BillyBob.

I've had limited experience with painting already, and the results have been surprisingly good, especially considering the first attempt involved an old electric gun of my dad's that must be at least 30, maybe 35 years old. That was the rear quarter and bootlid of the Dodge, and it still looks alright today, ten years after it was laid down. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look like a professional job. It does look alright though, and if you're starting off with something truly shit, then it's actually pretty cool to make it look "alright".

The title of this entry is "learning to paint", and you might think it's a bit of a misleading title since I've already painted a bit, but painting a car is something that can be attempted immediately but mastered only after years of practice. So, getting back to my intentions, throwing a bit of primer on the panels of this old truck (and probably some of the panels from the Dodge- I want to get a cool paintjob laid down on that thing in the next year or two as well) will further my abilities and who knows, some day I might have a go at improving a car that's already "alright". Maybe Vlad.