Bone Yard
The trip to Pitts near Athens occurred on Saturday. David M rode along. We took the Miata running with the top down. The trip to the salvage yard was unfruitful, meaning I didn't bring home any goodies. They had more than a dozen trucks of my era, including one short wheel base which was yellow. I wondered if it was a DOT truck.

I found several cars that I felt David couldn't live without. He must not have felt the same way. He didn't by a single one.

Rides on interest. Late 60's 3 door suburban, one VW beetle, and an old International truck with the top removed.

I was looking for exhuast manifolds. They had roughly 15. All left side. I wondered what happened to all the right side manifolds. That was odd. I was also on the look out for inner grills, side mirrors, and anything else interesting. It didn't occur to me at the time but I should have been looking at the leaf springs as well.

We looked for Miatas also. Not a single one out there.

The Miata is running very nicely now. It sounds so much better with the exhaust all buttoned up. Zoom zoom.

VooDoo
I tried to order a Voodoo knob tonight. I have been considering this purchase for most of the last year. Once I finally decided to move forward with it, the first three web sites I tried either had quit selling them or were having server problems. Maybe tomorrow.

House Guests
We are expecting 5 house guests this week. Ginger's brother and his family are driving down from Maryland to spend a few days here. Expected arrival: Tuesday afternoon, Departure: Sunday. It will be an interesting week.

Ring Ring
Last night the phone rang. I don't normally answer it but the CID said it was iMike calling from Austin. Very unexpected call. It was good to hear from you Mike. Now I know what I can do with my left over cell phone minutes.

Truck Update
Today I installed the alternator. And the radiator support. And the radiator.

Because I had been so unsuccessful looking for exhaust manifolds, I decided to try to repair the ones I have. Each has 3 bolts that connect the output to the exhaust pipes. One bolt was missing. The remaining five had no threads to speak of. They also seemed to be permanently attached to the manifold.

I had been spraying the bolts everyday for the last week with penetrating oil. The effort was wasted. I tried to remove two bolts. I twisted these two bolts in half. Finally I decided to re-tap the holes. This required cutting off the remaining bolts, drilling a hole thru the manifold where the original hole was, and finally tapping the hole (re-threading it). Today I managed to get all six holes drilled out and two re-tapped. So good so far. It appears these manifolds will work out all right. I should have snapped a few pic's of the process but I didn't. It was very interesting though. I felt as if I had really accomplished something.

Sunday Afternoon Driver
And to close out the weekend, when G' got home from work this evening I went out for a quick spin in the Miata. It was a bit cool again. Nice ride though, even with the barn doors open.

Did I mention that David's Miata came with a hard top? I will definitely have to try it out.

Today's entry was not spell checked, proof read, or hyperlinked!