Jul. 22, 2009 - Gift
So two years ago I passed the P-car along, gratis, to a deserving home. After 20 years of Porsche daily driving I do miss it. Now I can be found scooting around in old Toyota vans. They're neat. And on my bike, of course. The one with the engine. So long car folk. To quote Stan from family guy, van ownership is 'sweet'. You just don't go fast and the cornering bags.
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Dec. 24, 2006 - Porsche: Apparently not just for summer driving.
I fell at work.Now I can't ride the mountain bike for the next several months.So I have had to insure the P-car again (smarter than insuring the Harley for the winter).This makes two winters in a row that I have had to drive the car in the muck, snow, salt and grime.I don't mind doing it when I WANT to do it but I hate HAVING to do it.Yes, it has Z speed rated all seasons (the rubber is a bit too hard for them to work well in the snow) and yes, my targa top is waterproof BUT I have been driving a targa for coming up on 20 years as a summer car - you know, top off, warm winds, palm trees, vacations in California and so on. This enforced use of the car in winter is kind of frosting me off.Frosting me off.Ha Ha.Get it?Frosting! Frost! Winter!Not funny, right?Oh well.Anyways: Ho Ho Ho.Merry Christmas from Canada.
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Dec. 17, 2006 - peeking
I parked it at the end of October.Today I went and peeked under the car cover.It's still there.If the snow goes away perhaps I'll drive it for a week during he Christmas Break.
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Sep. 8, 2006 - ack!!!
So the indie replaced my windscreen with one imported from Georgia (ours, not theirs) and it has a built in antenna. If this was my pristine 79 I would have made him pull it out. Since it is my 81, with parts already re-painted, I really couldn't care less. I probably should, though.
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Jul. 10, 2006 - Car Cover
I was just thinking about the Beverly Hills Motoring Products cover I bought for my 79 targa. I bought it back in about 1991 and ordered it with pockets for both left and right hand side mirrors even though that car only had a mirror on the driver's side. This seemed dumb at the time but when I replaced the 79 with an 81 targa in 1997 - and the 'new' car came with two mirrors, boy was I glad I had ordered a cover with two pockets.There is a lesson here somewhere, but I'm not sure about how to put it in words.
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Jun. 6, 2006 - What I just posted in the Porsche Forum
There is a thread on what was your first car and what was your best car. Well, this is what I typed in (more or less): I miss my 1973 bronze Chevy Vega. It had that Camaro grill with all the grey plastic rectangley openings (or did those Camaros have a Vega grill?) Anyways, it also had a hooker header (not headers--- only one) and a Holly 2 barrel. I drove it from the dealer to the shop and had the aluminum block sleeved with steel so the pistons wouldn't destroy the cylinders right away. Since I was in there I did a thing or two to the guts of the engine. Then I cut out the factory curve above the rear tires, put on fender flares and changed the tires and wheels. I also monkeyed a bit with the suspension. By risking life and being VERY stupid I once beat a Corvette in a 50 mile mtn race -- all twists and with no real straights until the end. Well, at least I WAS winning until the %$#@# rubber clamp mounted rad blew back out of the mounts (combination of engine compartment heat on the rubber and the wind blowing in against the rad on the final bit of road (the straight bit) - the Vega was moving at a speed no Vega should ever even have approached). Then the rad hit the fan and I was done. Sigh. I fixed it and wired the rad so it couldn't 'pop' out anymore. That Vega was a PIG though considering the thing was 2.4L. I probably only miss it cuz of the fuzzy dash!! Which reminds me...... Whatever happened to 1974 anyways? I miss IT more than the car. It wasn't so bad!! Anywho..... Then I bought my first P-Car. '79 targa. It was better. No radiator and the fan is in the back!! bill ps. Street racing is bad now and it was bad then and I don't endorse it. In fact, it looks pretty darn stupid from the vantage point I have now; that of being able to look back on it from more than 30 years later.But then, Mazda seems to advertise in ways that promote it. zoom zoom.
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May. 26, 2006 - Clock Popping
This annoyance, this 'clock popping' drove me nuts back in 1991 when it first showed up in my targa. I even wrote the experts at Porsche Club, North America, about this and they were stumped. Or, perhaps more accurately, they thought I was nuts. Every so often the clock in the dash, I swear, would go 'pop'. Eventually it turned out that the instruments, which are buckets pressed into holes in the dash, have somewhat loose glass faces. With vibration and temperature changes these glass faces sometimes flex and go 'pop'. The same thing happens with my replacement 911 targa so I don't believe I have a unique problem. I've reset the gauges and wiggled them and stuff but I've got two that still go 'pop' from time to time - but light, preventative 'tapping' seems to relieve the tension and so I never hear any good loud 'pops' anymore. Like those avalanche control guys that fire mortars into the snow slopes to trigger a small controlled slide in order to reduce the chances of a bad slide that hurts people I find myself drumming on the instrument faces about once a week to let the stresses out before they build up too much.
And they say German engineering is perfectly precise!
tap pop tap pop tap popsigh!
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May. 15, 2006 - La La La La La La
The good weather is back. The top is off. The roads aren't crowded. The scenery is fine. My hand is a lot better and I find myself whistling Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah on the morning ride to work. The West Coast really IS Shangra La.
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Apr. 29, 2006 - It Hurts to Drive
So I shouldn't have lost it on the jump.My Norco is fine.I have a broken hand. My Doc won't let me ride the Harley or the Norco so I had to re-up the insurance on the 911 - which I had let lapse on April 7 because I wanted to spend a month or so on the bicycle just to tune up my flab.Oh well. Now I have discovered that there are too many curves between my house and my buddy's house in Maple Ridge and, with 911 steering requiring positive inputs, my hand is really tired and sore after about 15 minutes. SighIt isn't supposed to hurt your body to drive a Porsche.Your wallet maybe, but not your body...........
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Mar. 31, 2006 - Un-Van-Tastic
My 911 isn't a micro-sized, canola oil burning dinky toy.Sure, it IS a SMALL car but it's still human sized. So why does my van driving colleague come late to work and, knowing that my parking spot is close to the building door AND that I pull all the way forward in my space, regularly cram her rotten van into the void behind my car, thus doing a 'two-fer' in the spot? To make matters worse, yes - it gets worse, she usually leaves about the thickness of a cigarette paper between our bumpers.If a bird lands on the roof of her heinously parked van, or the wind blows above 3mph, that breadbox moves enough to scrape the rubber on my bumper, - it's that close. But I have a plan. I'm gonna get a big damn, wicked, pointy bike toting trailer hitch on the weekend........ and set the spikey bit right at her eye level. Then she can stop or not, pull in tight or go away - this way, I figure, no matter what she decides to do at least I'll get some entertainment value out of it. I'll just carry a broom so I can sweep the glass out of the way when I need to go home....
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Mar. 14, 2006 - It snowed again.
What????? Flowers are up for heaven's sake. I just cleaned the car and now it is crusted in salt and goo again. What a bummer. At least the Z speed rated all-seasons worked well (in 2 inches of snow) which was a surprise considering how hard the rubber is on high speed tires. Which, I just realized, gives me some ideas for condoms that some women (though none I know) might appreciate.......
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Feb. 26, 2006 - Stupid Window Lift!
I've found an omission in the provided literature. Porsche AG doesn't deal with the electric window lift in the owners' manual maintenance section. They ought to have included a line that says 'lubricate every 25 years'. The thing drops quickly but now rises in a somewhat hesitant manner. At least I know now what I'll be doing next weekend. And since I'll have the upholstery off I guess I'll move the plastic liner material which the repair shop let fall in front of the door mounted speaker when the driver's side window was replaced two years ago. That little bit of light blue plastic just needs to be glued back up on to the steel door frame. I'ts a job I've been putting off for ages. And I suppose, since I'll be working on the car anyways, that I might as well clean and lubricate the power antenna while I'm at it. Lately it's become a bit sticky. All of this brings to mind the phrase which, since 1913, has been the favourite of the Morton Salt Girl. If you don't know it, you can look it up pretty easily.
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Feb. 18, 2006 - The Roads are awash with the Hummer (H3)
I guess it's still winter in Vancouver. I had to be late in the city last night and noticed a real lack of P-Cars on the streets.....but eveywhere I looked the sedate and inoffensive paved thoroughfares of the city were being mashed under the offroad tires of H3s. The bloody things really were everywhere, slowly prowling from bagel shop to bar to upscale boutique in some kind of choreographed dance of the big wallet morons. What are their stockbroker/lawyer/junior exec drivers thinking? Do they worry that society will crumble over the course of one long 3 Martini lunch and that they will have to convoy their way out of a broken city, forced to take to the creek beds to find their way over gravelly hills to safety? Isn't a military derivative for a family car kind of stupid in a cobblestone and brie filled downtown core? At least I get to rip home on a freeway, or a twisty secondary highway, so that my car gets to do, each and every day, exactly what it was designed to do.
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Feb. 10, 2006 - iPod Shuffle
The older targas have too much glorious Porsche noise (exhaust rumble, engine bass) to allow the safe use of my iPod. And, of course, if I take the top off I add so much wind noise to the mix that I have to push the headphone volume to dangerous levels. I might not let this stop me from using the iPod in the car though. Not when it gives me such an excellent excuse for having 'not heard' what has been said by the occupant of the right hand seat.
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Jan. 31, 2006 - %@#$ Nissan!!
A %@#$ Nissan threw a rock into my windscreen and cracked it yesterday.They're working on the highway near my place so rocks abound. And I wasn't following too closely. Now I have to go get glass. Great. The windscreens come in two sizes because the cars are somewhat 'handmade' and things vary. The last time this happened the guys decided to use the smaller size and, of course, it leaked. The work had to be redone. Two appointments; two days shot. Rats. I really don't want to go through this again. I don't like this bad feeling I now have about the inconvenience and the wasted time involved here. And I know what I'm talking about because I've had that feeling before...... but that, mind you, was when I was contemplating a second marriage.
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Jan. 28, 2006 - One word.
One word: Meguiars. I don't work for them, sell it, own shares in it or make a penny from it. I've used a bunch of firms' products and many are good but that numbered system that Meguiars has going works great. I'm still using a few of the old tan bottles but I've mostly switched to the new red bottles. I care about this sort of thing because my car is red and predates clearcoats and we all know how feeble the old reds were (are) when it comes to oxidizing and related deterioration.By hand I go through 3 steps ending with Show Car Glaze and #26 wax (I don't know what this is now but its got some yellow, some Brazillian Carnuba, some UV stuff and so on). The finish comes right back beatifully.I only wish there was a similar process to bring back my 20-something physique. Of course, perhaps if I drank less beer...............
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Jan. 25, 2006 - Targas don't Have to Leak
Targas don't have to leak --- but they want to. Lots of guys change the seals every few years ($$$$) while others swear by glycerin on the rubber bits. So long as you have the parts aligned right, though, the real secret is this ----- ---- simply unclamp (but do not completely disengage) the roof locking mechanism whilst the car is parked in your garage!Let the seals expand baby! That's it.I struggled with this one for years.I know this (now) and have been doing it for nearly a decade. The same philosopy works, you know, in lots of places -- a little freedom for your kids, a shorter tether on your employees.It's all good. And it's amazing what good stuff this can engender. Don't apply this policy to elected officials, however.
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Jan. 24, 2006 - Ouch.
Yuk. I rode my mountain bike to work again today. I don't know why I do this every year. I get the bug and start riding. I miss the nice 911 ride and the sound system. And now, even worse, my ass hurts.
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Jan. 21, 2006 - 3rd Time Lucky
My apologies to Ferry Porsche.It wasn't the stitching or the design. The water migrating through the targa roof was on account of something else.All that actually needed to be done was to reglue the left top seal.Good thing I had that 'ultra black' silicone rubber in a tube handy.The disappointing thing is that the glue that held the bloody seal in place only lasted 25 years.Doesn't anyone make anything to last anymore???
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Jan. 18, 2006 - Pig Pig Pig
I don't want to offend anyone but my first 911 had all this light leakage from the backs of the instruments on the dash which lit up the leg area of the front passenger seat.My current 911 doesn't have this option installed.Sigh.
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Jan. 15, 2006 - Pop. Pop. Pop.
For years I have heard this 'pop' in the cab of the car as I motor along. I couldn't figure it out for the first three years of Porsche ownership.In time I realized the pop was coming from the clock module (instruments are round 'cans' that have a rubber seal around then and are pressed into the dash from the interior side). Once I tracked the noise to the clock I spent a decade wiggling pushing and adjusting the clock body but the 'pops' continued. They still do. It's the glass face. Now I make the pops come when I want them by tapping the glass. This relieves some kind of pressure that seems to build up and I only get little pops now.
At least it kept me busy for 15 years.
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Jan. 14, 2006 - Back In the Tub
The roof spent the night in the tub again. I'll have to get that seam sealer this weekend. This can't go on. I need the tub for me. I'm starting to smell.
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Jan. 13, 2006 - Faulty German Engineering
Ha! It wasn't the stitching. I'm certain now that the flow of water over the targa roof was so violent, so heavy and so long lasting that the presence of turbulent water in the DRIP RAIL did me in. The drip rail bends back and sandwiches into the roof layers. The water just being there for so long and swirling around (under a 1/4 inch or so head of pressure) led to it wicking up between the layers on the driver side and soaking into the lining. I guess I'll dry it out on the weekend and seal the area with tent seam sealer or something. How shameful.'Dear Ferry Porsche, Today I fixed your design by using tent seam sealer from Walmart...........
The guy's gonna spin in his grave...........
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Jan. 11, 2006 - Got a Canoe I could Borrow?
I changed my mind. I didn't park the targa but renewed the insurance instead. This may not have been the smartest thing to do. I keep driving the car every day through the Vancouver rain and parking it outside at work. Today it rained so hard that a meeting stopped while everyone gazed out the windows - seasoned West Coasters every one of them and still they were shocked by the violence of the downpour. I doubt the car is thrilled about sitting out in such rain. A couple more days of this and we will set a record out here for consecutive days of precipitation.The rain has been so bad that the water is finding it's way through the STITCHING on the roof and soaking into the lining (it isn't dripping into the car yet but......)So, as I write this, the roof in sitting in one of my bath tubs dripping, draining and drying a bit. Maybe I need to treat the stiched areas.In any case, tomorrow it goes back on the car and we go back out in the rain. Other than that one time (never mind) I don't think I've every had anything more odd in my tub. I miss the Lazy, Hazy days of Summer.
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Jan. 4, 2006 - 4 Door 911
Sure. It shouldn't be surprising. We can all listen to the corporate hype about how it's all about performance and stuff but it really is about the money.How could it be otherwise. I'm waiting for the first trade picture of a Cayenne pulling a trailer with a 4 door Porsche car on it. Preferably headed to Alaska or something. That'll be one for the garage.
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Jan. 1, 2006 - Unsure
The other day my friend's wife told me my car was 'sexy'. I'm not sure how I feel about this. There was a time when women said it was ME that was attractive.
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Dec. 30, 2005 - Costco: When Front tires and Rear tires are different sizes....
The boss tire guy at Costco would not allow the new tires that were ordered for the front of my 911 to be mounted on the car because somebody with a vehicle that used four tires of the same size sued them in the States for making the front of the vehicle more 'grabby' than the rear. He had been quite happy, however, to custom order high-performance tires just for the front of my car but only after they arrived did he make it clear that I had to replace all four tires or have the new ones put on the rear if I actually wanted the rubber on the car. I pointed out that my rear tires were a very different size, used different rims and were not worn out. Or even close to worn out. He still wouldn't allow it. It seems the Costco policy is written in stone. And it stayed that way.......... until he went home at the end of his shift and sensible people were left to their own devices.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Tool Kit Woes
So this one time when I went to use them I found out that the OEM pliers in the tool kit had stopped working. I guess they got wet and rusted up inside. They didn't look rusty or anything but, hey, you know those Germans and machinery. The tolerances were probably a fraction of what anyone else would use in the action of pliers meaning that even an infinitesimal amount of rust would gum up the works. Anyways, I soaked them in brake fluid for almost two years. I even put them in front of a window in case warming and cooling (with the rising and setting of the sun) would help. About once a month I took them out and tried to move them but the first 18 times I did this nothing happened. Then, the 19th time, they moved a teeny bit. The following month I started to use a small hammer to help persuade them to move. Bit by bit things got going. On the 23rd session (really) they loosened right up. I use brake fluid in the master cylinder as well. Apparently it's good for lots of stuff.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Cel Phone Melt Down
Don't, just don't, leave your cel phone plugged into the dash of a 911sc when you start the car. Really. It took me three phones to work this rule out. You figure out what happened.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Trophy
So my battery died. It was OEM, white plastic with the red Porsche script on the side. I dropped it at the local recycle place like a good citizen. I found out later it caused quite a stir amongst the guys in the shop. I guess non-black batteries are rare and ones that have 'Porsche' emblazoned across them in bright red are rarer still. It really was quite pretty and clean and neat looking. It's even money that one of the guys from the shop took it home to display it in his garage.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - C'mon Ferry, you COULD have left me the space!
So Professor Porsche's son, Ferry, designed the 911. Good job I think, but I have a complaint. I've got this Blapunkt Ontario model CD player. It's pretty good. What I really want to do, though, is hang my under-dash Hitatchi 8-Track player in the car. But there isn't enough room. It's enough to make me cry.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - The Grass is Always Greener
One time at the Canada-US border Northbound the agent actually checked the serial number on the car against my insurance papers. It seems some idiots actually bus down into the States with their license plates (tags) and insurance papers, buy a car similar to the car they have at home and then try to drive back to Canada in the 'clone' and avoid paying duty and stuff. I want to know what they think they can do with such a car even if they do get it home. You would think it would be hard or impossible to register. I mean, like, wouldn't the computers catch the US serial number? In any case, what's important here is finding out if you can do the same thing with politicians, like, I mean, trade a lousy one for a better one. I think I'd bring back a Kennedy.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Nuts!
Now I gotta go back to California. I took this cut off once, on a whim, from I-5 to the Coast Hwy (101, isn't it?). It was a damn fine road. The trouble is I can't remember which road it was and I just promised a buddy I'd give him the straight goods on one of the best drives in the world. It might have been route 16, or maybe 36. I don't know. It was one of those East-West things at any rate. Now I gotta go back and criss-cross that chunk of real-estate until I find it again. I sure hope my buddy isn't in a hurry to leave on his honeymoon.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Gyroscoping
Yes. I know it's not a word. One time I was in Washington State on that Chuckanut Drive they have (a pretty good road that goes past some pretty good oyster bars and has some pretty good views of the Pacific as well as some pretty good curves) or almost on it. Anyways, I was with some other 911s and I forgot that the really vintage ones don't do things as well as the newer ones. The guy in the really vintage one behind me must have forgotten this too. After carving a nice track through a curve, not near the limits of my newer car but not just schleping along either, I happened to look in the rearview. They guy behind me had clearly been asleep at the switch and had let me set the pace into the corner. I felt really bad as he donuted across the road and into the weeds. Fortunately things turned out more or less okay. But it would have been considerably more economical to use a Toro weedeater on those roadside bushes.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - So the last time I was in Hong Kong I noticed......
I don't think there are enough Porsches in Hong Kong. Landrover and Jaguar, though, seem to be doing well in the former Crown Colony. I bet it's that damn English influence and value system. And besides, your cricket stuff would probably need more room than can be found in the boot of a Porsche. Thank goodness the Chinese got Hong Kong back in '97, that the sun does now set on the British Empire (uh, I mean Commonwealth) and the Brits have lost the lion's share of their influence on world commerce. Otherwise we'd all be stuck with both those bloody Whitworth standard wrenches (which don't fit anything normal despite having the same size stampings on them that regular human beings use) as well as that absolutely abysmal 6 Volt Lucas wiring. Really. Look it up.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Australia
Did you see the Simpson's episode with the Aussie toilets and the water swirling in a direction opposite to that which we enjoy here in the North? Well, I was just thinking about how my car's valve covers are on the bottom of the engine - upside down if you will.Maybe Stuttgart accidently put an engine destined for Australia in my car.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Movin' On Up
The march of progress. Iv'e been driving 911 targas for a long time and, I just realized, I've stuck with this last car forever. My first 911 had K-Jetronic fuel injection. My current 911 has L-Jetronic fuel injection.That's better, right? It's one more place along on the alphabet, after all, so it must be better. But..... I don't think I need a newer car simply to get better fuel injection cuz I'm pretty happy with how all that is working for me now. But still, I can't wait until I buy my next targa. It'll be from the very late 80s when Porsche installed that Motronic fuel injection. I don't know if it'll work any better but I bet it'll sound fantastic. I just love the Shirrells and all that Motown stuff.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Boom
Scratch your right rear Fuchs rim (scratch, not dent): $400. Replace a Porsche OEM power antenna: $300. Driving around at speed with 19.8 US gallons of gasoline at your feet and your engine mounted BEHIND you: Priceless!
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Dec. 28, 2005 - Red Paint Antidote
I really do think red paint attracts the police. Especially on a sports car. Wearing a nice shirt with a tie and laying an expensive briefcase on the passenger seat, however, seems to be a good ticket repellant. It's not my fault if they incorrectly assume I'm a lawyer.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - First the Tach, then the CD, then the Engine
Did you know that when you're waiting for a replacement alarm module from the, now recombined, Germany that, if the mechanic doesn't bypass everything just right, your 911 won't charge its battery? It's sneaky though, and won't let on that it is trying to strand you, obvious thief that you are, and it hides any hint of what it is up to really well - no red lights or quivering needles give it away.You get to drive for just over an hour and then 'bam' your tach swings wildly and dies. About 45 seconds later the CD stops. 15 seconds after that the motor packs it in and you roll gently to an unscheduled stop. At least the dealership took care of things at no additonal charge. Good thing too. I've got a nasty, wicked undercut.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - How Come Things Don't Vibrate IN?
So this one time I'm beating it down the highway when 'paaf' everything died. I rolled to, and then down, an off ramp, around the corner and into a handy 'future home of Costco'. I got out and popped the hood and lifted the deck. Everything looked okay. At this point I think a higher power intervened because I decided to snap the cover off the forward relay and fuse box - and into the trunk dropped the now liberated cylindrical fuel pump relay which, despite several prongs, had vibrated it's red butt out of a whole bunch of holes and let me down, starving the engine of fuel and causing the whole 'paaf' thing. Just as the red miscreant was rolling across the carpet, and at this point I had been in trouble for all of two minutes, up rolled a shark (independent prowling tow truck - you know the kind). "Hey buddy", the shark pilot said with a carefully arranged look of sincere concern plastered onto his face, "you need a tow?" I explained about the fuel relay and that I was certain all was well and so, looking glum, he rolled on in search of his next meal. Of course, if I was him, I would at least have waited until the car actually restarted. In any case, I escaped a few hundred dollar tow bill by about 15 seconds. Thankfully the car started up right away but I soon had a vague worring sensation in the pit of my stomach and couldn't help but wonder what else was vibrating loose. Blasted difficult fuel relay.It's enough to give you indigestion. The kind without gas.
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Dec. 28, 2005 - I'm a Loser
Over time it has become abundantly clear to me that I just don't win races despite motoring around in, and pardon me for being biased, one of the greatest road going race cars ever made. Everyone kicks my butt. It's always the same.I'm usually rolling at the speed limit on the highway, though I can just as easily be stopped at a red light humming along with my music or even cruising sedately down a boulevard when, without warning, I find out I've lost yet another race. My 'lousy' car, and it's driver, have been 'put in their place' yet again by autos of lesser distinction -- old Celebrities, ancient Impalas, even K-Cars joyfully prove their metal at my expense. With their cars straining, heaving, wobbling and with smoke and fluid squirting out from every imaginable place, 17 year old wannabe Barney Oldfield's flirt with death (theirs, mine and that of any inoffensive bystanders in the neighbourhood) as they 'race' my Porsche to their latest glorious victory. It doesn't matter, of course, that I didn't see them coming or even know their intentions.Similarlly, it doesn't matter that I didn't know I was even in a race. It also doesn't matter that I DON'T race on the street. A seemingly never ending string of morons clank and heave their way past me, often accompanied by the impotent roar (sometimes helped by those awful braying aftermarket muffler-noise things that I figure, given their universality, must be issued to youngsters on their 17th birthday) that comes from redlining a commuter engine. Then they invariably turn to their girlfriends, or buddies, for 'deserved' accolades. Clap. Clap. Good job. Whoo-who. Although, mind you, it is starting get to me. I worry that, if these unmanly showings of mine continue, I may end up needing couselling. Although it helps when I later catch up to the mighty victor within just a few minutes - and get to watch a police officer asking for an autograph on those little blue pads they seem so fond of. Once, in a further display of derring-do, one of the mighty who drove me down to defeat later drove himself into the ditch.He was okay, but his fine detroit iron was done for. Now, unlike those of clearly superior driving skill who are possessed of such thoroughly mighty machines, I just carry on after these 'races' and have to be content with not getting requests for autographs, not crashing and not putting other people's lives at risk. I guess it really isn't if you win or lose but rather, truly, how you play the game.but I really did enjoy the ditch part a lot. So much so that I think I'll go trolling this afternoon......... Do you know the one about 'fish in a barrel'?
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Dec. 27, 2005 - Some Stuff Works Out
I took the front bumper off one time and painted it with a preval sprayer. That's the one with the little aerosol canister that attaches to the top of a little jar into which you pour the mixed paint. It worked out really badly. Tons of orange peel. With nothing to loose I decided to spray and wipe the bumper with straight reducer. The results were awesome. Perfect. You couldn't tell the job from a proper one. I DON'T recommend this technique but it must be true that sometimes things just work out. Hard to believe.
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Dec. 27, 2005 - Poor Landing Characteristics
I guess SAAB has the experience to make their cars better at this. Porches don't fly. Well, actually they DO fly. They just land badly.Breaking off a wheel sets you back $13,000.00.Go figure.It would have been better for me if Porsche had passed over the partnership with Harley-Davidson and done a little work with McDonnell-Douglas.
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Dec. 27, 2005 - It's Cold!
Now I know why the 'Beach Boys' needed a girl in the summer in Northern California just to keep warm. I stopped at the Chevron in Crescent City one July night (there might be more than one Chevron there, but I didn't see any others). I'm not sure what time it was, but it was dark. The wind was quite brisk. I opened the deck lid to check the oil (20w50, of course) and I needed some. Many days of extended cruising at over 100mph had taken their toll. By the time I could go in to the kiosk, buy the oil, return to the car, dump it in and fire up the motor the wind had cooled parts of the engine to well below ideal operating temperature and the engine started loping like a sick horse. I blame the K-Jetronic controls (not too sophisticated and unable to deal with the then somewhat incompatible demands of the various systems). I had to drive for nearly ten minutes to get everything back to peak condition. At least, for the two weeks I was in the Golden State, I never had to put the top on. It must be true that it never rains in California. I guess you can learn all the geography you really need from 'The Eagles' and the 'Beach Boys'.
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Dec. 27, 2005 - Nasty Smells
This one time I was camping my way through the Rockies and using my 911 as a 'camping machine' as my Austrian friends say. Some blasted shrew wormed his way into the right hand heat exchanger.He paid a hefty price for his inquisitiveness.The next day was moving day and after about 30 minutes a stop at the first town's only red light allowed a cloud of noxious fumes to catch up and overwhelm the open cockpit of the car. I thought someone was burning his brakes. Perhaps the semi in front of me. Two hours later the same cloud drifted over me when I stopped for gas and I looked around but that semi from the red light was nowhere to be seen. I sniffed around under the car (yes, literally). It was pretty obvious what had happened. I was two weeks from home but it was summer so I didn't need the heater. I cleaned him out the same way I clean BBQs -- I let the heat do it!Gross but effective. By degrees the memory of the shrew faded. While this unfolded I just hoped people would assume some car near me had been abusing its clutch or something. It's like when you look around, pretending to be offended, after you fart.
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Dec. 27, 2005 - Vintage Tombstone
So I bought this 1973 tombstone taillight from some woman on the Prairies since her husband had left it in the garage. I guess he moved out. Anyways, she said it was perfect but it was a little pranged and I had to repair one of the mountings. I was gonna stick in on my newer hog. I thought it would be, well, kinda cool to have a bit of vintage iron riding shotgun. I needed some adapter stuff and new gaskets and all that and so the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like more trouble then it was worth. I decided to buy an after market wide tombstone that was guaranteed to fit (and it nearly did, I had to make my own gasket) instead. I got a light with a bulb. I can't stand that LED junk.Now I'm gonna take that vintage light and put in on the wall of my guest bathroom. I picked out a spot just under the harley mufflers and beside the timing cover (over from the mirrors, up from the air cleaner). But maybe it'll be better on the other side of the wall so that it sticks out into the main part of the house. Then I can have it light up when the door is closed. It'll be an 'occupied' sort of thing. Now I gotta find a vanity plate like 'leaker' or something to stick on the included mount.
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Dec. 27, 2005 - Criminals
Oh. I have a lot to say about these reprobates. For the moment, though, I'll keep it short. My Niece is glad the faceplate on my CD player comes off. I leave it on though. She thinks that's dumb.I think 18 year olds live in a different world than we do.I park at work. Nobody there cruises the parking lot looking to steal from cars.She parks at a highschool.And at a Mall when she is at work.That's gotta be nasty!You probably can't leave used gum out in plain site when you park in places like that!
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Dec. 27, 2005 - Despair and Depression
Just eleven more sleeps until the Porsche joins the Harley in the winter slumber of 'storage' insurance and I have to go back to driving vehicles of lesser lineage. Sigh. Until the Spring, that is. And.... as an aside. I have noticed a disturbing trend. Other motorcycles which SHOULD be in storage are still out on the road. I fear the rise in gas prices has brought a bunch of newbies into the motorcycling family and that they are thinking about saving fuel when they should be thinking about black ice and snow. Soon some of them, sadly, will be thinking about recovery times and if they can meet their obligations to the bank while laid up. Some won't be thinking at all. You don't even need really cold weather. Our local Albion ferry uses an approach way which is a wooden dock. Those boards ice up pretty easily. And it curves on the Langley side. And bikes get priority loading. This is a bad combination at this time of the year. At least the fences are sturdy.
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