pinto & pals

The two days that I was up in Soldier, I did two days of work on the Pinto, plus two half days of nuisance chores for my Mom. With that and a disrupted sleep pattern, no wonder it took me a little while to recuperate.

Little known fact is that the front eye bolts on the rear Pinto spring get torqued to an even 100 foot pounds. Unless the car is up on a hoist, and I don't have one, it takes a lot of grunt work in an awkward places to tighten them.

Replaced the emergency brake cable with one that didn't hang and screwed the show adjusters waaaay out. The brakes finally work. Very well too, and I'm not used to power brakes in a Pinto. The rears lock up halfway easy on gravel.

Once I got the rear buttoned in and the battery charged up, the engine started right up after sitting for the winter. The computer even kicked down the EFI idle properly.

Both the fresh engine and posi differential are still tight. The rear tires grumbled as I took a tight turn while backing up the Pinto. There isn't enough weight back there to make the differential clutches really slip.

Had fun roaring up and down the road until a lack of hood clearance knocked the throttle cable off the bell-crank and I limped back home idling in second gear. I'm going to modify that bell-crank.

Next time I'm up in Soldier, I'm going to get the turn signals to work again, change little plastic gears until the speedometer read right and other shake down things.

I almost went to see "If You Could Say It In Words" because I thought that it was a documentary about an struggling artist with undiagnosed Aspergers. Then I skipped when I found out that it was a fictional romance between this guy and a somewhat unmoored in life woman. Now I wish that I would have saw it just to pick up a reference on how an Aspies can be depicted in media (In Sci-Fi Guy!, Oly and Merv are supposed to be Aspies). At least, I could probably see it again on DVD soon enough. Also see "Billy the Kid" someday, which had been described as a real life Napoleon Dynamite.

It looks like Musclewomania is only taking one original entry per entrant. So what sort of pin-up can I do with Flexia that is original and flattering?

Selling off extra car parts on Craigslist.

vroom!

Good news: I got Wee Beastie the Turbo Pinto back on the road.

Bad news: I got a bad headache tonight and will write more later.

Dumb news: I got a raccoon living in my awning. Will call animal control about it. If this was still the country, I'd just get a trap and kill the pest.

pinto posi

Going up to Soldier tonight to get an early start on the Pinto tomorrow, plus take care of some business. I hope to get the rear axle buttoned up enough to have the car back on four wheels by tomorrow night or Wednesday.

BTW, it is a 8" with 3.25 gears and "Posi"....

Otherwise, I'm wondering where I misplaced me "Little Wacom" for the "Little Mac".

"Musclewomania" is having an art contest. Will probably whip up new drawings of Flex & Pex flexin' pecs. Beyond that, maybe Wingding, Hercula, or Pursia.

so bad it's good

Another night being uninspired on Sci-Fi Guy! so another old clean up for Tube Punk! This time another old drawing of Montue, which was supposed to send mixed signals.

However, the context in the proposed story is that he just picked some lilies in the family garden for that wife, Leonina, and daughters, Pursia and Flexia, could tuck them behind their pointy ears and look pretty.

Also I love the description of this item:
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/ES-11/PAINFULLY-LOUD-MINI-SIREN/1.html
Isn't advertising suppose to make your item sound good? >:)

Need to get over my mental block and back at Sci-Fi Guy!

Wasted some time viewing the deliberately off-key political cartoons over at Onion.com.

you can see where she gets it

Dinked around with a couple of files for Tube Punk, trying to warm up for getting back going on Sci-Fi Guy!

Just cleaned up a fresh scan of this oldie from the '90s of an early depiction of Leonina and Montue, Flexia's parents. This wasn't deliberate at the time, and I didn't figure it out until a couple of years ago, but don't they have a strong Freya and Odin groove going on?

BTW, "Lovely Leo" sounds like Yvonne DeCarlo and Montue sounds like Fred Gwynne.

The mental snag with Sci-Fi Guy! now is if I do one page a week, the story comes out much too frustratingly slow. I'm trying to alter my daily routine to be more efficient to do two or so pages a week. Otherwise, I may look for another artist (after a certain really bad partnership, an idea that makes me cringe three times over) or just pull the plug.

fantasy fan

I had a dream that I had a previously unknown fan that had a Yahoo Group for my non-Phat Grrl art. What I mainly saw was some pin-ups of the various incarnations of Nuklea Hampion.

Been unmotivated but dinking with Photoshop cleanup of coloring of some art for Tube Punk, although I never see that ever coming out.

Hope to get back at Sci-Fi Guy tomorrow night, even if it's just character design or promotional stuff.

Here's a jpeg of the broken spring that held up the turbo Pinto.

merkur memories

Was up at the farm on Tuesday and Wednesday, working on the Pinto and sending off der Merkurs. Merkur is rumored to be pronounced Furdt Zierrrra in its native German. There is still spotty snow in the hills lingering after the late season dusting from a few days ago.

The guys came all the way up from Kansas City to get what's left of the Merkurs after I picked over the turbo Pinto worthy parts.

I did have daydreams of putting the biplane spoiler on the red Merkur and fixing it up with a Red Baron motif with a broad white boy-racer stripe* with "Der Iron Krosses" in them. Tiny silhouettes of Spads and Sopwiths painted on the driver's door. along with a certain beagle and his doghouse.