Many Almost Done Tasks

26 days before the race.

I mailed my taxes today, one day before the deadline. Not bad. If we can have everything done on the car one day before the race I'll be happy. For someone who loathes stress, I sure do procrastinate.

The weekend was productive again. Friday I drove 15 miles in about 50 minutes to get tires down in the suburbia end of the valley. Who knew rush-hour starts at 4:30? Got the tires. They cost more than the car even though my neighbor's brother hooked us up with a prime deal.

Saturday AM we converged on the Pick-N-Pull (that place is a rip-off!) where I had found an '85 MR2. We yanked odds and ends that we need or expect to need after plowing a tire-barricade.

Back at the ranch Paul was bending and welding. He came back today and has the cage done except 2 welds. Seat needs to be bolted in first. Harness tabs are done. He's also got a good start on mounting our beefy rear stabilizer bar.

The rest of us were on other tasks:

• Replaced bent control link.
• Flushed coolant.
• Charged battery.
• Replaced ignition coil.
• Installed O2 sensor.
• Mostly yanked parking brake system.
• Almost fixed hood latch.
  
• Ate sandwiches.
• Looked busy.

My big concerns now are paint and decor, and testing. Paint is just more work and time. Testing I'm stumped on. This thing will get impounded so fast if we take it on the street, unregistered, uninsured, unemissioned, unmuffled, and very conspicuous. We're renting a trailer for the race but don't have an easy way to haul the car out to the local track. I'd like to know the car has power before we race. I'm stumped.

After working on the car this weekend I had my first night where it was hard to fall asleep because I was getting excited about racing. I've since lapsed back to the race being some distant, vague experience I know will be fun hypothetically. Even my memory of the 10-2007 race is dreamy and insignificant.

Working on cars is filthy. It's so foreign after 15 years of jockying computers for a living. I get a little grimy working on my bikes and I've done a bit of wrenching on boats and trucks back in my blue collar days. But I'm loving it. I love the comradeship and watching the transformation.