It sounded like a good idea. Best intentions and all that. I mean, we have a very nice travel trailer and one of the places we like to go with it is Greenville. More specifically, the Darke Co. Fairgrounds. It's nice and quiet for 50 weeks out of the year, but it costs $35 a night. Given that we are usually only there to spend time with my dad and brother, though, there is no hard and fast rule that says we have to stay there. There are benefits to it (primarily easy access to food) but...
We discovered that we can just as easily right on Grant's property. It's not as quiet, being right on the side of US 36, but we got used to that pretty quickly. So, being right there next to the shop we would certainly get a lot done on the Cobra.
Nope. There are also distractions. The worst of which was picking up walnuts on Dad's driveway to avoid the mess and risk of a twisted ankle. I spent a bit of time picking the damned things up, but they were still falling off of the tree pretty regularly. The element of risk sweetened the task, but the inability to keep up with the pace of falling nuts took any scintilla of fun out of the job.
I quit.
The other distraction was walking. I love walking the perimeter of the two contiguous farms with my dog Cassie. Cassie has a history with this particular horse.
Cassie has no fear, and she seems to have an affinity for horses. She decided one day that she would enjoy running around with Dublo Six:
This is also the horse that bit me. I was in the habit of giving him treats (apples, corn, etc.) and one day he deliberately took a pretty bite out of the bottom of my palm. I gotta say, it hurt quite bit. That was also the last day I visited with him. Nowadays he follows Cassie and me as we walk around his pasture. This might be an unspoken apology from the horse, but I'm not keen on testing that.
One of the jobs tasked to be on the car was to finish up drilling and riveting the top tunnel cover. Right up my alley, right? I build an airplane that way and it still flies, so it seemed to be safe ground.
It was not.
I got quite a scolding for that. I had to disappear for awhile. Fortunately I had a chore to do: go get a can of yellow spray paint and a couple of cap head bolts. Off to Ace Hardware in Greenville - a good enough distance to cool off. The yellow paint was deemed to be correctly selected, but the bolts were wrong. The weren't cap head bolts, apparently, despite my having asked the Ace guy for a couple of cap head bolts.
Apparently there is more than one type of "cap head," or I was waited upon by a new or just stupid employee.
I'm going with inexperienced.
And yes, I was on the receiving end of more disdain. To be fair, I'm surprised it took this long.
The yellow paint was for the drivers-side seat. I have been monitoring F5 builds on the internet and someone pointed out this adjustable seat rail system. I figured that would be nice to have. What I didn't consider was that it might be a pain to install.
Lot's of grumbling about that.
Lupus flat don't care.
To be fair, this seat mechanism is pretty simple in concept, but that parts did not fit especially well. That "hoop" bar is for adjusting the seat position. It was not bent properly at the factory, though. It did not fit well at all.
It doesn't take much to get Grant to start chopping stuff up. The seat handle never had a chance.
That didn't work well at all, so an entirely new process was cooked up. Welding must be fun because there sure is a hella lot of it going on. As an aside, I am desperate to learn how to weld. I'm not sure how to go about it, but I'm going to find a way eventually
This is the new handle. It now looks more like the handle for an ejection seat. I like it very much! I might add some black stripes to make it look more authentic.
It's getting to a point in the build where there isn't much for me to do. F5 included these little ID plates with the kit. I don't intend to put them on the side of the car, but I thought maybe this would be a nice place to use one:
Hard veto on that idea.
The wiring is still in-work. We (not me) managed to let a wire ground to the car, which immediately burned up a 15 amp fuse. Two minutes later, it happened again.
"Good thing I have 10 of those," he said.
One minute later: "ZAP" went fuse number two.
I took a potty break. I am fascinated (and quite envious) of his TP holder.
By the end of our four-day visit, we got a couple of productive days and a couple of "just being on the farm(s)" days. We got back just in time to see the grandboys dressed up in their Halloween costumes.
I have a very full and satisfying life.
Work time for this step: 10 hours.
Unproductive time: None. Relaxation and visiting family is not unproductive at all
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