Craig vs. distributor = distributor wins

I think I’ll tell this tale from chronological end to beginning.

4. Wednesday night. Finished tearing down BB’s engine—which we'd never done before and was pretty exciting to tell you the truth. We hauled everything to the mechanic where Craig got to take revenge on the case by nailing it with a mallet until the crusty pink bubble gum (grease) holding the case together gave way.

3. Wednesday afternoon. Craig called to say “Hi. I think I need to go to the doctor”. The picture below shows exactly why and what happens if you jam a distributor (with cap) into your face using full force. I believe there was also pressure built up that assisted the distributor in its travels.

2. Tuesday afternoon. Our mechanic informed Craig that the dude who built the engine had used a particular type of grease which is fine unless you let the engine site for three years without starting it (like ours had). The grease had hardened into a weird flaky pasty substance that evidently would have burned up our bearings had we started it. The engine needed to be torn down and cleaned...oh, and put back together too. Grumble…

1. Tuesday morning. We had (more or less) the following conversation: (I should add—for some mysterious reason neither Craig nor I enjoy calling our mechanic. We like him and everything, but we just dread the phone calls.)

Craig: I just really don’t feel good about the engine. Have you thought any more about me taking it to the mechanic?

Maryn: Long sigh. Silence. Okay, FINE.

Craig: Really?! Finally!…but I don’t really want to call the mechanic.

Maryn: Alright, I’ll call him if I can buy Bradford’s cooler.

Craig: Sold.

Pause in conversation.

Craig: You’re an “old stuff whore”! You just sold out for a vintage cooler.

Maryn: Yes, so what’s your point? (okay, actually I just laughed really hard)

In conclusion, while I was super ticked off that our engine had to be torn down, I was glad that Craig convinced me to have it looked at and now hopefully (knock on wood, cross your fingers, no whammies) we’ll have an engine that we can feel confident taking out of cell coverage areas. I got a new/old cooler (isn’t it BEAUTIFUL?) and Craig paid $$ to have his face fixed.

Ready (as we'll ever be) To Paint

We're finally ready to paint BB. Craig's brother is coming on Saturday to show off his mad painting skills. It is very exciting! I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of a fresh coat of paint.

One of the obstacles to our painting adventures moving forward has been the red bus (Doris) who has been taking up half of our garage. (Yes, we're painting the car in our garage and we're aware of the inherent dangers of this situation, but thanks for worrying about us.) Doris, as you may recall has only a front axle. Makes for difficulty of transportation. As it turned out, James--the guy who towed Doris to our house to begin with--is a VW guy and wanted to take Doris, so thankfully, he came and picked her up tonight. I didn't manage to find the camera until she was almost on the tow truck, but the video gives you the general idea.

Here's BB primed and ready to go. Well, she's not so much ready to go in the traditional sense--she won't actually go anywhere without an external force. We did have a really good time pushing her out into the street for washing. As Craig sat in the driver's seat and I started to push her down our sloped driveway, we really were not sure just how much it was going to take to stop BB from running up into our neighbor's house. Fortunately she didn't get too much speed built up. Brakes are overrated.

For the record--the areas that look rusted in this photo are actually red primer...yeah, we're wondering how well white paint will cover the red primer too.

Bluebell went to the shop shortly after my last post as Craig and I had attempted to do a little mechanic work and in order to avoid doing serious damage, we towed her to our mechanic. I don't even want to talk about the bill. No, seriously, it was BAD. Long story short--our mechanic did a little rebuild of Bluebell's engine using some of the components from BB's engine. I guess the good news is that since we got her back yesterday, she's been running great. She'd better continue that way for a while because the coffers have run D-R-Y.