January 1st weekend –
My alarm got me up on New Year’s Day as I had to go into the office. I knew this was to be my fate some weeks before and was fine with it. There was a lot to do so I stayed busy much of the day. I stayed at my desk until after 6:00 that evening before going home. Once there we did our normal evening thang.
Saturday we slept in a bit before getting up for some coffee and then we hung out. I knew I had to go to work again but didn’t know when I would be needed. In the late morning we plopped a whole chicken in our larger slow cooker to eat later. Soon the house smelled pretty amazing. We ate early around 3:00 and I went to the office for an hour or so at 4:00. Super lame but I needed to get some stuff done. We hung out for the rest of the evening after I got back home.
We woke with an alarm on Sunday. After coffee and some time with the pups we got in Flo to drive down to Colorado Springs. We had an appointment to pick up race wheels. We found traffic to be especially light and were early enough that we drove around a neighborhood to look for the source of some suspicious smoke. We never saw anything and continued on our way to the predetermined meeting spot where we purchased four used wheels. Immediately after we picked up deli chicken from King Soopers to sustain us on our journey back to Denver.
After a quick stop at Safeway for wine we arrived back home. In an effort to be productive we unloaded Ralphie from the trailer and into the garage. Our goal was to figure out what went wrong at the track the previous weekend.
We tested various wires and I dismantled this and that before realizing that the main fuse was blown. This particular fuse I had transferred over from the old wiring harness. The way the wiring was set up on the kill switch of the old harness there was a wire that went directly to the alternator. When I installed the new harness I also connected the wire and the car started. If I disconnected the wire nothing worked.
Turned out that this one wire was bypassing the body fuse box completely while allowing Ralphie to run. Later I found out that the prior owners were plagued with electrical problems the entire time they raced it. I was not surprised.
We sourced a working main fuse from Lil Red and I disconnected the bypass wire. Viola! The car ran without any further electrical issues that we could see.
Since we already were working on the wiring we spent some time planning out and installing a new and better kill switch. The sun was going down at this point and the temperature dropped as well so we stopped before installing it completely. We made a great start though and the last bit should hopefully go smoothly.
For dinner I whipped up a chicken casserole which we both enjoyed. As is custom we then retreated to the couch to finish off the weekend with Bella, Pebbles, and Mel.
Wednesday, January 6th
I just wanted to put down some thoughts about how crazy this day was. I was positively shocked when I read the news that both of the Senate runoffs were won by Democrats and expected this to be the story of the day. Instead thousands of idiots swarmed the capital. I wish I could say this was a shock but honestly this has been some time coming. I hope the law is tough on these individuals and this becomes what is remembered most about our current fascist-wannabe idiot-in-chief. The only good thing about Trump is his incompetence at being the dictator he so wishes he was.
January 10th weekend –
Saturday began with me up early taking care of the dogs. My hope was to finish up the kill switch on Raphie that we’d started the week before. It was cold so I wore my sweatshirt and turned on the shop heater. Part of the task was cutting holes through a piece of steel in the car. After mixed success (I melted the tips on two drill bits) I went to Lowes and picked up some very expensive step drill bits that ended up working magnificently. I finished up the switch and tested whether it functioned properly (it did).
Susan got up around this point and made us coffee. She then helped load up Ralphie into the trailer with the hope that the track would be open the next weekend (not enough people signed up for the next day’s open lapping for it to happen).
We had virtually no food in the refrigerator so went to Walmart to remedy our hungry situation. We stopped by Safeway for some deli chicken for lunch on our way. Walmart was busy but we found everything we needed and got out quickly. Once home we hung out for the rest of the evening.
We both slept in a bit on Sunday and I wasn’t out of bed until 9:30 or so to get out to the garage. I reorganized this and that to make space to start working on Betty the soon-to-be daily/track car we want it to be. Susan soon joined me and we went inside for our morning coffee.
Then it was back to the garage where a bundled-up Susan helped me swap out the brake pedal (automatic brake pedals are too wide) and install a clutch pedal assembly. To me this was by far the worst part of swapping the automatic transmission for a manual. I had to lay on my back with my feet up over the car and work in a space where my arms and hands barely fit to remove and reinstall some tiny parts. There was much swearing before I finished.
After washing up and eating some lunch we were back to the garage. I had some vague intentions of pulling the motor and transmission that day but didn’t really think I’d finish after fighting with the pedals in the morning. In the end we did indeed get the engine and transmission out which made the day extra special and the weekend extra productive. There is still much to do but I do believe the worst is behind us. After the engine swap we’re going to upgrade the suspension and install a roll bar.
It was dark when we finally went inside to finish the weekend and wash up. We weren’t sure about dinner but settled on chicken and mushroom casserole which we made quickly as we were both very hungry. We ate our delicious meal at the kitchen table. Most of the evening’s entertainment was watching a show about old guys working on old cars. It was a nice way to end a fantastic weekend.
January 16th weekend –
Saturday had us up with my alarm to take care of the dogs and have our coffee. I also had to back Ralphie out of the garage to do some work on it quick. I forgot that I needed to remove the seat and harness from the floor before we were to have drop-floor panel installed. Luckily it didn’t take me long and Susan came out to guide me back into the trailer.
The guy that was going to install the drop pan and also change one door bar of the roll cage (Dan) was technically in Golden but was closer to Blackhawk in my estimation. He almost lived on the top of a mountain and down a narrow private drive. Dan assured me that there was room at the end of the drive to turn around our tow rig and there was, barely. We unloaded Ralphie and I drove it into Dan’s garage. We chatted a bit before we left. The home was recently constructed and Dan acted as the general contractor. We also knew Dan from some years ago through rallycross.
Once back home I noticed I had received a message from a guy that there were gas cans available for sale and this person’s contact information. Susan and I were just putting on our work gloves to dive into working on Betty when I received a notification that we could go look at the gas cans if we left right away. So we jumped in Flo and drove to Roxborough to see these cans.
The guy (Steven) lived on the east side of Roxborough and we arrived to find him in his garage with the door open. He indeed had many gas cans and we settled on buying six along with a couple of other Miata parts. Steven had just gotten out of running his own endurance Miata and was selling off the last of his parts. He is on the board of directors for ChampCar which is another endurance racing series like the 24 Hours of Lemons. We chatted for a few before heading out.
We noticed a lot of landscaping work being done across from Safeway in Roxborough. It looks like the entire area is going to be developed soon. We are so glad we got out before this new influx of people.
One the way home we stopped at that Safeway for water and then Michael’s to look for cross stitch kits. Susan was almost finished with one she started the week before and was wanting more. Unfortunately this Michael’s didn’t stock them so we left empty-handed. The plan was to go to the Parker Michael’s as we knew they were there but we stopped at home quick to drop off the very smelly gas cans and parts first.
We ended up driving the NC with its top down to the Parker Michael’s and found some new cross stitch kits for Susan. After we were home we decided we needed to go to Costco so jumped in Tuna Bean and went to the Park Meadows Costco.
As is normal the store was very busy but we managed to get what we wanted and get out quickly. We pretty much maxed out what the Miata could hold and I could feel the weight of the goods on the drive home. After we unloaded we went inside to hang out on the couch for the rest of the evening.
On this day I drove Ralphie, the Suburban, Flo, the NC, and Tuna Bean. That’s got to be some kind of record for us.
I woke up with a headache on Sunday and sat on the couch playing games until Susan got up to make coffee. My headache gone and with us coffee-infused we left the house for Home Depot to look at doors for the garage. I had recently messed up the current door by opening it too far which jacked up the hinges. This made it difficult to open and close and also we didn’t like the direction it opened.
We went to the Home Depot in Park Meadows and found a door that suited our needs. The line to buy the door and schedule the installation was long and immobile so we left to figure it out at home. Once home I found the door online and called only to find out that Home Depot needed to come measure before we could buy the door and have it installed. So I got that process started.
Soon after we had moved into the Dogwood Estate we had purchased a dishwasher that matched the other kitchen appliances. We’d paid for it to be installed but the installers balked at the piping material the house had and didn’t do the job. So we stored the dishwasher in the garage on a dolly and mostly didn’t think about it for the last three and a half years. Susan was done sitting on this and convinced me to finally try to install the dishwasher ourselves.
The main problem in our eyes wasn’t the material of the piping but that the wood floors were installed in front of the old dishwasher which made the opening too small. We had discussed solutions in the past but settled on me cutting and removing a portion of the flooring in front of the dishwasher. I ended up cutting enough that we managed to remove the old dishwasher but not enough to fit the new dishwasher as it had a differently shaped bottom.
While I continued cutting Susan went to Lowes to buy an adaptor to connect the metal lines from the new dishwasher to the plastic PEX used in the house's plumbing. I finished up a few minutes before Susan got home with the required part and tool to cut the PEX line.
Soon enough and we had the new dishwasher hooked up and started to push it into place. We soon found ourselves stuck a few inches from the finish line. The new dishwasher was simply too tall to fit. In desperation we used a bottle jack to push up the counter an inch which miraculously worked. The dishwasher went in smoothly and the counter settled back into its original position no worse for wear.
There were a few more things to do to button up the installation and we were soon running a test cycle. The new dishwasher is amazingly quiet and has some smart designs inside. We watched for leaks for a time before making a quick trip to King Soopers to buy batteries for our smoke detectors and some peanuts for Susan.
The dishwasher was still running when we got home and finished without incident. It looks positively fantastic and we’re so happy to finally have it installed. It’s amazing how quickly a project can be sidelined and ignored. We’re glad this one is behind us now.
On Monday we woke up with an alarm for coffee. I had the day off but Susan had to work so I headed to the garage while she went to her home office space. I worked on prepping the engine and transmission to go into Betty for much of the day. Susan would visit me periodically as I wiled away. Around 4:00 the temperatures started dropping so I went inside to hang out with the dogs on the couch while Susan finished up working. Then it was all of us on the couch doing our normally evening routine - a fun and productive 2.5 day weekend in the books.
January 23rd weekend –
We woke up on Saturday more or less together. I tried to sleep in a bit but the dogs weren’t having it and I ultimately got up before I wanted. With the commotion and the timing of it all I got Susan up as well for our coffee. We’ve been only having a cup of coffee lately but I elected to brew another pot for extra motivation. Soon after we headed to the garage.
After letting Oliver out for his general mischief we worked on finalizing preparing the donor motor and transmission for Betty. I had done most of the work the prior weekend but there was still much to do. Susan did much of the actual wiring and I swapped out the auto PPF (power plant frame) for a manual PPF to fit the manual transmission. Then it was time to install the engine and transmission.
Because the purpose of Betty is to be a daily driver first we kept all the accessories and wiring essentially the same as stock which meant installing the engine and transmission was a slower process than with the race cars. Susan and I spent a couple of hours carefully finagling the hoist this way and that before I finished bolting the engine to the engine mounts and the transmission to the PPF. We were starting to lose motivation at this point as the temperature was beginning to drop and the animals were needing attending to so we called it and stopped working on Betty for the day.
Susan took care of Oliver and the dogs while I cleaned up. Dinner was pizza as we just couldn’t bring ourselves to eat leftovers after the long day. We spent the evening on the couch with the pups.
Sunday I took care of the dogs early so I could go back to sleep for another couple of hours without being pestered. This worked although I didn’t stay in bed too long before getting up to make coffee and bug Susan awake. It was cold outside but I was determined to continue the work on Betty. I didn’t need Susan’s help with what was left so she stayed inside to keep the dogs company while I went to the garage to hang out with Oliver while I worked on assembling the majority of Betty’s engine components.
It took me some hours but eventually I had Betty ready for a test start. The donor engine had been sitting for almost a year so we had to prime the engine first (crank the motor without letting it actually start so oil gets where it needs to be). Susan was in the driver’s seat for this part so I could watch the engine crank over. Priming went fine and I then plugged in the ignition to enable the first startup. Success! The motor started immediately and purred away as if it were new.
Susan went back inside and I continued working on Betty. I had to install the cooling components and bleed the system before I got Susan outside again to help bleed the clutch line. This went fine (we had a lot of recent practice with Ralphie) and Susan started to the car again to test the transmission out. As the car was still in the air she was able to shift through the gears successfully and even get the car into reverse (this shouldn’t have been a big deal but we actually didn’t know which way to push the shifter to go into reverse on this particular six-speed). The only hitch we had was that the check engine was on (the ECU was looking for the automatic transmission) and the reverse lights didn’t work (I had accidentally used the wrong wires).
It was all still a monumental success and we were ecstatic with the results so far. The temperature was even colder so we went inside to wash up and eat some food stuffs. The rest of the weekend was spent on the couch with the dogs. It was great to have another productive weekend.
January 30th weekend –
I was up early on Saturday as I just couldn’t keep myself in bed. After tending to the dogs I drove Ralphie from the trailer and into the garage. There was some wheel rub going on which I discovered was the one remaining brake duct on the driver’s side. I was thinking that the wheels were touching the sway bars and was relieved that I only had to ziptie the duct back to make space for the wheel to turn. Once done I loaded Ralphie back into the trailer and strapped it down.
It was just about the time my alarm was going to go off for the morning so I got Susan up and started coffee. We wanted an early start to our track day so did our final packing and left the house at 8:30 to go to King Soopers for gas, lunch, and a donut.
We arrived at the track soon after the gates opened which was great as we were able to claim my favorite parking spot. This isn’t close to where we check in and we found the walk over to be a bit brutal as it was cold and the wind was relentless. Susan recognized Ryan Dussex’s RV so we stopped by to chat for a bit after getting our wrist bands.
Once back at the trailer we unloaded Ralphie and immediately closed up the trailer’s large door. The wind just didn’t stop and it was difficult to stay warm with it blowing through the trailer. We planned on having me drive first so we sat and talked about this and that while we waited for my run group.
Eventually Susan helped me strap in and I was off. The tires were very cold which made the first couple of turns more exciting than normal. I took it easy the first lap and the car felt alright. It was a stiff ride and the steering was different than I was used to as this car didn’t have power steering but was manageable at speed. About halfway through the second lap the engine quit and I had to be towed back to the paddock.
Once back and out of Ralphie I tried to diagnose the problem. I put the car up on jack stands so I could look underneath easily and found that the differential was leaking profusely from the passenger side axle. This wasn’t the cause of the engine not running but was a major issue as a blown differential would have been terrible. Susan and I looked over the wiring and whatnot and didn’t find anything amiss but the car refused to start. Defeated we pushed Ralphie into the trailer with the help of another Miata driver we knew (Alex Rossman).
We arrived home around 2:00 and continued to try to diagnose Ralphie’s ailment. We were hopeful that the issue was a camshaft angle sensor failure but swapping in a known good sensor didn’t work. I had tried to fix Ralphie in the trailer but it was too cramped so we pushed it into the garage.
One major issue with Ralphie is that the wiring harness that came with the car (and that I installed) did not have an OBD2 port so I can’t pull the codes to see what the ECU thinks is wrong. I spent some time under Betty’s dash looking at what I could of the wiring to see if I could figure out where the plug should go and possibly where it was cut off of Ralphie’s wiring (cutting out the OBD2 port plug is pure madness but that’s what appears to have happened).
Since I was looking at the underside of Betty’s dash I took the opportunity to remove the automatic ECU. And while its location was fresh in my mind I pulled the manual ECU out of Lil Red and installed it into Betty. This took a bit of time but I was glad to be done with it.
It was getting dark at this point so we called off any further work in the garage and went to Walmart to buy food stuffs. We hadn’t gone in almost two weeks and the house was out of fresh food.
Once back home I moved Tuna Bean to the concrete pad in from of the large garage door and put it up on jack stands. I removed the wheels and loaded them along with some tools into Flo. The next day’s plan entailed driving to Grand Junction to look at a Miata and, since the road conditions were unknown, we were bringing Tuna Bean’s snow tires with us. We spent the rest of the evening on the couch with the dogs.
Sunday we were up early with an alarm to take care of the dogs and for me to have a cup of coffee. We were mostly packed up already and grabbed a few more things before leaping into Flo and heading off to Grand Junction.
The drive was 50/50 good and bad. We ran into horrid ski traffic which delayed our journey by quite a lot (besides being generally annoying to sit through). Once we got to the other side of Eisenhower Tunnel the roads magically cleared and the rest of the drive went swiftly.
We arrived in Grand Junction essentially when we’d planned and went straight to the mobile home park where the Miata was located. We found the car with some front end damage to the bumper and radiator. If this car was in Denver we probably would have been ok with it but I didn’t think the car would make it home without me replacing the leaking radiator first. This plus the damage soured the deal so we politely passed on buying the Miata.
Before heading back to Denver we stopped at Qdoba for lunch which we ate outside in a cute patio area. There were little birds about and Susan tossed them rice that they hungrily snatched up. It was all quite cute.
The drive back to Denver went well until we started up the large hill towards Eisenhower Tunnel when traffic basically came to a halt. Then began an exercise in trying to not burn through the car’s clutch while we crawled up the mountain. It was pure misery that Susan fortunately slept through (I had an audio book which kept my sanity intact).
We arrived home minutes before the sky went dark which was just in time as Oliver starts acting mighty strange once the sun goes down. Susan quickly fed the dogs and then carried Oliver into his shed for his dinner. I reattached Tuna Bean’s wheels and pulled it back into its spot in the car port.
We finished the busy weekend on the couch with the dogs. For how much we did and how far we travelled it didn’t feel like much was actually accomplished. We’re hopeful that we can fix Ralphie and finish up Betty’s upgrades soon.
January was a pretty good month for us. Despite having to work late most nights we tried to stay productive when we could. Bella has had a couple of bouts of seizures which necessitated Susan bringing her to the vet. Nothing critical at this point but after low thyroid levels were detected Bella will likely be on daily medication for the rest of her life. The rest of our brood of dogs and single monster cat were as well-behaved as we’ve come to expect. We love all our animals. I get to work an earlier shift for the next several weeks so we’re looking forward to a productive February.
