Still hurting

Its been 15 days and the ribs still hurt a lot. I am able to sleep a little better at least, so I am a little happier, at least. But nothing got done on the car. Paul did come by to take some measurements off of my car for some improvements that he and the Hurricane guys are going to make to the fuel tank.

Bruised Ribs

I took a nasty fall in my garage this past week and have banged up my ribs pretty good. I was wearing my spiked golf shoes while cutting my hilly back yard when I ran out of gas. So I went back to the garage and found I had more gas, but it had not yet been mixed with the engine oil for 2 stroke motors. I had some on the very top shelf and when I reached for it, my feet went out from under me and down I went. I landed with my ribs hitting on the wooden edge of the chair, badly bruising them. Sleeping and just breathing hurts, though I have had worse and it does seem to be getting some better.

On a brighter note, I did get my taxes done and most of my yard work prior to the injury. I hope to get feeling good enough this week to get back to the Cobra. I am inspired a bit by Paul Proefrock's car getting finished at the painter. Here is a pic of his car I grabbed off of a forum:



I suspect I will end up using the same painter. Seems a long way off though, sadly.

No work just yet

I still haven't found the opportunity to work on the Cobra. I am slowly winding down the regular springtime tasks and getting the house squared away for my wonderful 4-legged housemate.

I also had more Passat issues. Three more days at the dealership having them replace the thermostat that I thought (and told them before) might be bad. But it is all good. They got it fixed and it is working beautifully now; and they just charged me for the part, no labor. Then a few days later, I got a flat left rear tire, thanks to a stray screw from someplace. I saw the flat in the garage and fortunately was able to get it aired up well enough to make it to Dobbs. I ended up getting 4 new tires as I was about due anyway.

On one good note, Dan seemed okay with being out in the garage with me as I worked on the tire. Just a little skittish as I did things he did not expect, but when I turned on the terribly loud air compressor, he did not protest much at all. I was quite surprised at that, since he has gotten spooked once when we stopped in traffic next to a couple of very loud motorcycles, prompting him to lose bladder control when we got inside Baba's house just a minute or so later.

2 great things happened this week

#1 - I got my Passat back after about 6 weeks of being without a car. Well, I did have access to my mom's RAV4, so I did survive.

#2 - Since I did not have to pay the $7000 for a new engine, I decided to rescue a little guy named Dan. (My friend Greg rescued his brother Stan).




Since he is only 1 year old (or thereabouts) right now, he may actually live long enough to see the Cobra get finished. He is an excellent car dog. Any ideas about a new name? He doesn't answer to Dan. Perhaps Volkswagen? Fahrvergnungen?

Warmth

Okay, it seems warm enough now to be working on the car. I hope to get back at it soon. Unfortunately, my Passat is crippled right now and may need a new engine. Yikes! There is over 5 grand I had not been planning on.

The next couple of weeks will be busy with preparing for my annual fantasy baseball draft and dealing with the Passat. Taxes need to get done soon, among other things. The Cobra is not going to jump to the front burner for a little while longer.

Brrrr...

Sadly, it is still too cold to crawl around on the garage floor. I am anxious to be able to get back to work on the car, but nothing has been getting done. Sorry.

Surprise!

I worked on the car for the first time in 2 months today! Well, it was only for about half an hour, but it was productive. I cleaned the garage a lot first as there was a lot of dirt from fall's leaf mulching and leftover fiberglass dust from cutting the relief in the cockpit. Then I jacked the car back up in the air so I could get under it and re-install the transmission oil pan. It is not completely torqued to final spec yet, but having the cover on ought to help protect its internals from winter's elements.

The next 2 jobs would be to order the driveshaft and to retouch the rustproofing paint job on the frame. I missed a fair amount on the underside, and there is enough surface oxidation that the paint should really stick well. I just want it to be a little warmer for that. All the driveshaft needs is money at this point.