Lizzy gets some new duds!

After I got the Triumph I took her to a British car repair shop for new brakes, some front end work, and general safety and reliability freshening up. Next it was time to make her prettier. The carpet was all there but tired, and the seats left a lot to be desired. 

 

 So I took her "down to the metal" as the saying goes...

 

Those black rubber circles on each side cover holes for the jack lifting points. You can actually jack this car up from inside! Could come in handy on a rainy day.

 

   

 

 

That's concrete visible through the hole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found a great upholsterer named Ernie Romero, and located a nice big leather hide on line.

The skin had a big hole right in the middle, but Ernie carefully laid out all the parts and was able to get everything he needed, in spite of the hole. When the car came from the factory, only the parts touching your body were leather; the tops, backs, sides, and bases were all matching vinyl. None of that for Lizzy! She's all leather.

 

The results were everything I could have wished for.

 

Carpet kits for this car can cost up to $500, so I went to my friendly neighborhood Lowes (an hour away, but that's life in the sticks) and picked up a 6'x8' piece of carpet that the clerk marked down to $13 for some reason. I used the old pieces for patterns, sewed some edgebanding where needed, and voila! 

Homemade, but... 13 bucks.

And this came in the mail today 

 

Needless to say, I'm a happy guy...

 

 

 

Hi Honey... I'm home!

 Lizzy's back from the car doc (Mel's Auto in San Marcos. Recommended) with all kinds of new running gear, brakes, tires etc. to make sure she's safe to drive, since she's nearly as old as the driver. Well, not really...

She's tucked away in her new "pole barn" carport, protected from the rain that's supposed to hit us for Christmas.

The gap to the ground is intentional, to avoid dark corners. There will also be a light inside all night, to help in the ongoing battle with mice who love to build nests and chew on things, like $1100 worth of wiring when I first got my truck.

 

The carport started with some pressure treated poles, which got another dose of wood preservative before being set in concrete.

The poles actually sit on gravel and are surrounded by concrete. The gravel allows any moisture that gets into the pole to drain out the bottom, to help avoid rot.

 

Please ignore the mess... all in good time...

Can you be too old for a mid-life crisis?

 I'm 76 years old. I decided that if I'm gonna have (another) mid-life crisis, I'd better get on with it.

So I fulfilled a fantasy that goes back to when I was about 12 years old:

I bought a little English sportscar called a Triumph TR3.

Built in 1959, the car is original and unrestored, and the odometer reads a few miles over 50,000. No rust or accidents. The man I bought it from said he bought it 8 years ago from the original owner, and the car has apparently always been stored inside.

I consider it an investment, because since it's a classic and an extremely rare find in this pristine condition, it will only increase in value (in spite of what a certain smart-aleck friend who shall remain named Eric says: "Yeah, yeah, Gary... you keep believing that...")

So far, it seems to run great, but when I get time I'll check it out more thoroughly.  I took my first ride in it today, a mile and a half up to the Malt Shop and back. A pretty different experience from driving a full-size pickup truck, but so much fun.

Now I have to build a carport for it to continue the tradition of inside storage. I've ordered the building materials from Lowes, and good old Eric came over to drill post holes for me.

Came home on a trailer

Four cylinders, dual carbs, 100HP

Ain't she cute??

Temporary carport

Spare tire compartment with lid removed

1970 whitewall spare tire! It will get replaced, but I will keep it in the attic.

Original toolkit

Lead hammer for the "knockoff" hubs

Beginnings of the carport

Been there, done that, got the T shirt...

Stay tuned!

The High and Low of it

 More Power, Part Deux

 

I already had a pole for the little radio-based internet antenna, so I connected a stainless steel cable with some turnbuckles and zip tied the solar wires to it.

Finalized the wiring with metal clips instead of the cheesy plastic ones.

Eric came over with the trencher and laid a nice ditch to bury the wire from the pole to the panels.

 It rained yesterday, so the Bobcat got a little mired down in the last few feet...

...But the same soft ground that gave us trouble also made the shovel work easy.

Had to hand dig the last few feet, but no sweat.

A little smoothing with the old Ford tractor, and job done!

More Power!

 Who couldn't use a little more energy...? My good neighbors Eric and Ofelia have been so generous with me since they moved in, and recently they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. They are building a shipping container temporary tiny home, and needed 8 window/door frames built and installed.  

In exchange, they gave me 10, count'em TEN solar panels, and the steel frame they are mounted on, plus a brand new charge controller, a bunch of wire, connectors, etc. 

 

The array started life as an emergency response trailer that could bring power wherever it was needed in a disaster situation. Our deal was that I would get the solar unit and Eric would keep the trailer.

For travel, the panels are locked upright, but they can be tilted to whatever angle is best when in use.

I drove the trailer to my place, and using their Bobcat in the front and my "cherry picker" lift at the back, we raised the whole assembly so I could pull the trailer out.

Today I'm doing wiring. I've had to order a few more parts and some more wire, so that won't be finished for a few days. Eric has a trencher attachment for the bobcat and has offered to come over soon to bury the wire underground.

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Old guy sitting in the shade working on wire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I'll be able to use all the air conditioning I want, and the batteries will get charged even on hazy days. Molly appears to approve.

 

A New Gadget

 One of my favorite memories from my Navy days is a bus ride I took up into the French Alps. It was 55 years ago, so I don't remember much about it, other than how beautiful and quiet it was, but one memory that has stayed with me for some reason is butter.

I remember going into a little café in the mountains for coffee and some kind of roll or croissant, and I just remember beautiful creamy butter. Perfectly spreadable, not too hard, not too soft.  It must have been pretty special to stay with me all these years.  Might have just been the atmosphere or the fact that all I had had for months was Navy butter, which, like most destroyer chow, was far from memorable.

Since then, like everybody else, I've had to make do with rock-hard stuff from the fridge, which is worthless, or a soggy mess from sitting out on the counter in Southern California heat.

No more!

Somebody must have come up with a solution to this First-World problem, and sure enough, someone has. An internet search led me to a company in England called Alfillé. The genius behind this company formerly ran an ice cream factory, and he invented the Temperature-Controlled Butter dish. It uses some fancy technology called the peltier effect that can seamlessly switch back and forth between heating and cooling as necessary to maintain the ideal temperature.

It's the little things...

It's sized for European butter, but they don't carry that in the Campo "Green Store."

There's a little knob for fine-tuning the temperature.

This new gadget will partner nicely with the new small-size Dutch oven given to me by my good friends Gary and Margo Warner.

At $88 US (nearly half of which was shipping) it's a little pricey, but for a trip to the French Alps, it was a bargain!