One thing that I have learned after building my V8, is that everytime I look
at it I just want to tear the whole thing apart and do it over. It isn't
that I did it poorly but I have so much more insight now into building cars
that I have enough great ideas to do the car at least 3 more times.
Sometimes I forget that I have a car 99% done; the nagging little bits that
aren't sorted sometimes make me forget all of that.
I don't think that building it over would help that either, because at the
end of that I would have new ideas that I would want to work out. I think
that we tend to forget all of the time spent on anything but the current
problem, and as such feel like we are never getting anywhere. If I ever
find a cure, I'll write a book and get rich off of it. LOL! Keep pushing,
you'll get it some day.
James Nazarian
71B Tourer
71BGT V8
85 Dodge Ram
----- Original Message -----
From: Larry Colen <lrcar@red4est.com>
To: <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 3:59 AM
Subject: Xeno's Garage
> The plan for today was to take care of a few things on the car, pack
> it up and head up to Thunderhill. I got email the other day from a
> friend asking me to teach with the Miata club this weekend. The
> thought of some unexpected track time, combined with the opportunity
> to beat up on some unsuspecting Miatas sounded very appealing.
>
> I am very close to having my carburettor dialed in, and one thing I
> wanted to do this afternoon was to finish dialing it in. The plan was
> to fabricate a carb piston position indicator, mount the camcorder on
> the rollcage in such a way that it can video the carb and go out and
> find out where on the needle I am under various conditions.
>
> There are times that working in a pissant makeshift garage gets very
> iritating. When I run the soldering gun across my forearm because what
> I'm trying to do requires three more hands than I have, is one of
> those. The long and the short of it is that I spent all day, and a
> good chunk of the evening, and the best that I can say is that I think
> that I've figured out a couple of the things that I'll need to do.
>
> Finally, sometime after seven, I head out to go to the party my neice
> was throowing. I meant to get there when it started it 6:30, with my
> car on the trailer, then head on up to the track, but I figure that if
> I just drive over there a couple hours late, it'll be running late
> anyways. On the drive over, without a bonnet, my windsheild gets
> nicely spattered by oil. It seems to be coming from my valve
> cover. When I got there at 8:30, things were pretty dead, primarily
> because it started at noon. I've really got to get in the habit of
> double checking invitations.
>
> Anywyas, I'm either going to miss out on the track this weekend, or
> sleeping tonight. The car needs more work than when I started this
> morning. I've got a mildly annoying burn on my right forearm. I'm not
> quite sure where I'll find the time to do all the things that I want
> to on the car before taking it to the track next weekend, and I'm
> beginning to despair of ever getting this car right.
>
> The last bit is the funny thing about this whole project. With the
> "new" paintjob, and the rollcage finally painted, the car looks better
> than it probably has in twenty years. Even without the blower
> completely dialed in, it is probably one of the fastest MGBGTs,
> running on pump gas on California roads, and may very well have turned
> the fastest lap time at Thunderhill of any street registered MGBGT.
>
> It may be that when we finish a few big tasks, rather than seeing the
> tremendous progress, it's a lot easier to see the larger number of
> medium sized tasks. When those are done, we are confronted with a
> myriad of small tasks. So, in the end, all I see is what appears to be
> an insurmountable list of things that need to be done rather than the
> progress that has been made.
>
> Meanwhile, I skipped doing a lot of other fun things this weekend so
> that I could work on, and drive the car. I might as well head back out
> to the garage, finish one or two tasks and add another dozen to my
> todo list.
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