put you left foot in.....

Thursday,

 by all rights better then wed, the beating of my head on the wall has stopped for now....... After fighting with the bus from hell,

The latest issue has been solved. A small counter weight on the pressure plate , installed during spin balancing, was interfering with the bell housing little work with the grinder,problem solved. Now to get back to the point that we were 3 days ago. Motor needs reinstalling and all the sub components need  to be reinstalled. 

2 steps forward 1 back

 On the shop trunk, nock in the motor,son of a porsh, thanks to Pat,a loaner will be going in next week, seams all of the shop loaner motors are out.... wonder how that happened

"And its only Wed"

Some days be that way, and some weeks all them days are clumped together .

this has been one of them weeks, and its only Wed.

 As I fight through today, doing battle with 50 year old auto, I have to remind myself

that I choose this, and am generally happy to do so. Showing up early, saying late, 

and in here on weekends. deadlines, paper work, gov regs, cold calls from tele-marketers .

and interruptions in the battle. All of it, I still like it, some not as  much. 

 Kustom work sucks sometimes, work a bit till you reach a bind, figuratively and literally . Then back up and figure out the bind, then the work around,  start again till the next bind. Then do it all again. The results are always worth the effort .

 Now if you will pardon me I need to go back to beating my head against the wall.

Sweeping the floor

Some times large projects cause a type of paralysis . Don't matter if is is cars , home improvement , projects at work what ever.....the way I get around this is to break it down in to smaller chunks . That is how we do it around here.

 Take it apart, tag it and bag it, clean it ,inspect it,fix it,  paint it ,and put it back together.  Repeat

 Most people take it apart, and put all parts in one place, usually a coffee can, then get overwhelmed or distracted , and lock up, They get stuck,Fear of f ing it up is usually the culprit . It is hard to get out of that frame mind, Even for professionals , even when it is recognize .

 Working through it is the only way to move to the next step. and that is the key ...... the next step. make a list , organize your thoughts , sweep the floor and think about it. 

well last sat Jim and I tore apart his  super vert. and it is still on the lift, no worries, 

I told Jim, you see he is stressing out on it, hope he has fun with that. The shop is a drama free zone, and homie don't play that.Don't get me wrong, we to stress out around here, but only on major shit, and this is minor.So I was all prepped to get the vert back together , Jim had painted all the parts, nuts and bolts, they look good, but there were a few pieces that need to have the old bushings pressed out, and we don't have a press,  got to build one, so back down to huntsville

they go to be pressed out. and the car sits on the lift. That is ok, cause I need to buy tires for it so it can go lower, way lower.Insert evil laugh here

Sat at the shop

Mcpherson strut front end,1303, super, fatchick, you either love 'm or you don't. There is luke warm ,

 If you have no clue what I am talking about then I shall explain, if you do have a clue, then skip this next part.

   The super beetle was introduced in the states in 1971,starting with the 1302, The Mcpherson strut   A fairly well designed piece of engineering . They had been standard on most cars of the time. but in order to put this in the vw design engineers changed the body lines a bit . The 1302 was a bit rounder and wider, the line of the car grew.

 in 1973 the 1303 was introduced , the front suspension was fine tuned a bit, the wind screen got wider and had a big curve and it got even rounder . I suppose as we age we get wider and rounder, so why not the vw bug. 

 Any way........

  Just Jim, (mad props, madder skills)is bringing over his daughters 79 fatchick  'vert

for some suspension work. What a surprise.......... we are lowering it. who would have thought it

'chuckle' .

 Top Line  is a bunch of guys who love the supers, and have figured out how to make better parts for these cars  in doing so, the car will handle better tighter and yes lower, lowering a cars CG makes them more stable at todays speeds. When the 1302 and 1303 were new the speed limit was 55, yes 55 and these little cars did just fine at 55, they had a 64 hp motor, 4 speed, with ok breaks.

 With todays traffic speeds, we do see more clients wanting to upgrade there breaks, motors,trans,suspension , basically making the bug a modern car. Jim has 4 wheel  disk and a 64 hp motor, and he has the "super shimmy". This shimmy  is caused by worn out parts, and there are alot of parts under there. We can do this with factory  or after-market parts. we are going with the top line kit, all new, all urethane .

 got to love it

FORE

back at it after a strange trip, I have heard that expression before, but never lived it. I have now.

As we grow up and have kids of our own, gasp grandkids now. our family ages with us. perhaps more so. My folks are getting settled in to there life after kids,  and I have been going through that as well. My kids are all grow and moved out, making my wife and I empty nesters .This is life, so we live it, good, bad , ugly and pretty , but watching my folks it hit home for me. My step mom has been getting ready for her chemo, and Nana is well Nana, just a bit slower. Then there is Dad..... It was watching him that had the most effect on me he works to much, and loves it, I think

So after watching that for a week, I have redoubled my effort to balance my life between work and home. Not so easy when the walk from my home to my office is a real short sand wedge.

FORE