On me back again,,,,

Not whorin’ mind you,

Nopes, climbed under Twuck again, this time to look at the slave cylinder and how hard it will be to flush and bleed the system and see what I actually have/haven’t and what if anything needs replaced. While under there, I looked up at the frame and Sho;nuff, right there, where the frame does it’s drop into the main from the front rise: it’s wet,, I found my blown brake line. Rusted as F! and not surprising. Gonna be some repair there, and not just that ‘little section’, oh no!,,, I learned that lesson once upon a time back in me younger days.

Dunno that I am gonna be able to do the clutch work this weekend. Its pissing down kats and dawgs out there right now, and not supposed to let up much tomorrow. THEN, the bottom is supposed to drop out and things get cold, wet and KOLD, Snowy, in that order.

But I’ma gonna try,,,

Looking at things, I really want some upgrades as well. LED lights where I can find alternates for starters. Much like that touchscreen interface I mentioned in a previous post, I DO see the advantages of some upgrades to older tech. I found LED replacements for the headlamps, which, as you can see in the first set of pics I posted, ARE NEEDED. The ones that were in here had split and were burned up and one had a plant growing in it,,, NO, that one ain’t gonna work no matter how many prayers get sent on high. Oh, and those replacement bulbs I had in the shed,,,, Not so mucho,,, Twuck takes a 6054,,, I had 4666’s. NO MATCH,,,looked close, but not gonna do it.

Right now, the internal argument between myself and I, is “spend the money now: as in Cry once” or the counter argument “Keep to budget and deal with it when the finances free up”. both valid points. I haven’t decided yet: I did put BOTH in my online cart, and when I finally have enough to justify ordering, I will decide then. I don’t want to spend oodles of cash on shipping tidbits here and there,,, Get a few items and spend the one shipping fee or none at all on shipping.

For what its worth to y’all: RockAuto and Amazon are my goto’s right now. Everywhere else I look is triple or more in price. I’m not a scrooge, I’m closer to broke: LOL. The bills WILL get paid,,, just might take some time.

I hate to say it, but the markups that some places are applying to things is damned near criminal. Like at the J.O.B.,,, we needed 40′ of #41 drive chain to finish that install I started Turdsday. Son of Bossman found some local, at $10 a FOOT! the bill, including enough master links to make the sections a full 40′ was close to $500,,, After work, I looked on the Zon and found a roll of 100′ and 15 master links, for $1.39/ft with free shipping,,, I sent the link to Son of, with the caveat “might wanna get some for future needs, you know we will need it.” and got back a thumbs up and a thanks.

In the automotive world, I see similar. I can find the same things online, for a third of what local wants to charge, and I would bet (in one case, no bet, its a given) they are ordering from RockAuto and applying a hefty markup. I understand profit, but TRIPLE? I think I’ll take my cash elsewhere,,,,

That kills local economies, and I don’t like it, but there is NO WAY I can afford local at triple markups. And in this economy, I know I ain’t alone in that.

Now, there are some things I am going to get locally, like the solid lines for that brake repair. I may pay more, but will have the conveinence of “if it ain’t right, they are up the road” not waiting a week or more for a replacement, and iffy refund policies. Plus, I can take the old parts with and match what I need (like proper thread size and such.)(and I don’t get hit with “oversized package” fees, like I would get ordering a 10′ section of solid hydraulic line. It all balances in this case.)

On other points, I still have not tried cutting that P-brake cable at the hub and seeing if that frees my rear wheel up. THAT will happen this weekend. Would have happened this eve, ‘ceptin’ I forgot my cut-off wheels at the J.O.B. and didn’t have one on my grinder,,, That’s a’ight,,, I has keys to the shop. Just didn’t feel like runing back at that point,,, I have all weekend (kinda, weather y’know,,,)

So what DID I do, other than Eye-ball leaks and needs?

I gave Twuck a bath

One that she almost sighed over,,, Not a full bath, but enough to get that decade worth of algae off her skin. She’s shiny under all that muck!!! And of course, my curse “wash truck, gonna rain” came true, again! I did not wax her, so no big deal, just a wet scrub down and rinse to wash off the muck. Shit was rolling off her was BLACK at first. Blech!

She almost looks respectable right now,,, Headlights would go along way to make the look complete,,,, among many other things,,, So much more to do before she is road ready.

Ok, yawns are catching up to me, time to call it an early Freeday evenin’ and go watch the show on the insides of my eyelids,,,

LIVE

Learn

Laugh

LOVE

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