It's getting towards busy season

Bikes are itchin' to be built. Hopefully that happens next weekend as we leave for Texas in a mere 3 weeks. Watch for temps near Dallas to be in the 80's the week of March 21'st and then rapidly drop off into the low 40's the following week with a quick rebound the first week of April. Pretty typical when anyone from Wisco go visit my Dad. Maybe we'll have better weather while we visit if he moves The Carolina's.

Seems like such a shame they did such a nice job on the panel replacement and how perfect the floors are and now none of it's visible under the Dynamat. This picture represents about 3 hours of work to get about 3/4 of the trunk area done. Should really cut down on road noise, though. The hole is where the gas tank goes, in case you were wondering.

Yeah, I'm still pulling Trainer Duty

But isn't everyone? Nothing too exciting about that. So, I tend to focus on our Mustang as that's far more interesting to me. Here are a few more pic's of it. The Cobra front apron is pretty cool.

The inside is all painted black. Soon to be covered in Dynamat to help keep the noise down inside. That should help keep some of the noise out of the passenger compartment.

How sweet are these Ring Brothers billet hood hinges? Lisa saw this picture and she was super excited to see them on there. I didn't even know she knew what hood hinges were! She has really good (eg. EXPENSIVE) taste. The wheels she liked were only $1300 a piece.

So after a bunch of re-engineering I got the rear end in the car last weekend. Still waiting for the center section of the 9" to be rebuilt and the new gears installed. Hopefully this week I'll get the offset of my wheels figured out so I can order them or try to find another style that we like and will fit better. I tell you what, picking out wheels and a paint color has become as difficult as picking out names for our kids!

The 2010 Optima Street Car Shootout is next Friday night. Looks like it's going to be pretty badass. There is rumor of a viewing party at the Eye Diehl Tap in Plain....

If the aftermarket auto industry

were as good as the bike aftermarket stuff, life would be much easier. It sucks that the stuff costs so much and it fits like junk. Well, I guess most of it is junk. Case in point my new fenders. Passenger side is ok, drivers side fits not so good. The original fender with a rot hole in the bottom of it may end up being less work to fix and get it to fit right than massaging the new one. One would think stuff would be right and it generally isn't. I didn't fully believe Mike at first but it's become painfully obvious. Even parts that aren't that complex or oddly shaped don't fit without some sort of "customization."

I was surprised to walk into the shop today and see the car looking like a car for the most part. Click here to see a better version of what my car will look like when it's done. That car is for sale if anyone is interested! It's also part of the 2010 Optima Ultimate Street Car Shootout that should be on The Speed Channel pretty soon. They're on to the next one when this one's gone. If that's not your style, they'll build something for you. I'm waiting for Chris to pull the trigger on something....

Yee Haw!

We got the Internets at home now! I voted for Pedro and all my wildest dreams have now come true. My mind is dizzy with anticipation of the world of opportunity that has now become available to me. Wait a second, maybe that's the African Russian...

Primed up

Getting close to paint.

Rode outside with Lisa on Sunday. I could barely hang on. Good for her, not so much for me.

Scuff-o-rama

So my car came back and they got it primed. That left me to scuff the whole thing to ready it for the next phase. I may have an overuse injury after 5 hrs of that! All the guys at the shop say I have a really nice piece. I'm pretty sure they're referring to the new floor section in my car. Lisa rode to the shop on Saturday and then helped me out for a while. That was nice. With temps close to 30 deg I suppose I should've been riding, too but the prospect of being behind the wheel of my car this summer had more pull today!

I put the last coat of stain on the woodwork in the kitchen today. With only the clear to go it's the closest I've been to finishing a project in quite some time!

Christmas in January

My first order of parts came in last week. Won't be long and I'll be able to start bolting stuff on. I got the undercoating scraped of the bottom of the car on Saturday and Lisa got the trim ready for powder coating. It was a long day and I was filthy dirty but it was very nice to get that job all done in one day. The plan is to get it sandblasted, primed and truck bedlinered this week. Then I should be able to start bolting the suspension in next weekend. It's starting to set in that I'm actually going to be driving this car soon! Can't wait. The only downside is with the motor I have planned to go in this car it's probably going to melt the tires as the widest tire that will go under the car is only 9.5". I could have had them mini tub it for me but the undercarriage was so nice I couldn't bear to see it cut up! Maybe a set of drag radials will help....