August 29th

Juliet and I had a good run this morning.  We went 8 miles in 1:03.  It was rainy and crappy weather, but we made the best of it.  We are getting in better shape every day.  It's really cool having Juliet live so close by.

Yesterday I spent most the day out at Mom and Dad's.  Dad helped me weld in my new dash on the Nova to replace the old rusted out crap one.  It looks awesome.  We also dropped the drive line.  I'll probably drop the transmission too just to check it out.  If I get a super powerful engine, I may need to add a beefier transmission anyway, we'll see.  

After that I fixed a couple of leaks for Dad.  They had a leaky gutter on the pool house and a really bad leak around the chimney for Tam's fireplace.  Hopefully I repaired them so they won't leak anymore.  Time will tell. 

We're heading out to Graham again tonight for Mercedes 12th birthday party.  Happy Birthday Cedes!!

Nova Restoration

Ran 5 miles with Juliet this morning.  We are getting in better shape every day.  Every morning the run is getting easier and easier.  We always have fun too.  The Nova is coming along pretty good.  Getting close to being prepped for paint; the fenders, trunk lid and hood are pretty much all that are left.  Thanks to Aaron and Dad for their help.

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Endurance and Victory

The one thing I love about music more than anything is the messages that you can get from really well written songs where the lyrics make you work a bit, think about what they really mean.  And a really well written song can mean a lot of different things to different people.  I remember being taught to "endure to the end", and when I was young, it seemed such a simple thing, because as a youngster you have no concept of time.  There is a song by the Killers that always gives me hope that I can endure and gain ultimate victory.  The video is pretty hard to figure out too. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXkWW_q_OTM

Shadowplay

Had a good run with Juliet this morning. We ran 6 miles. We were talking and laughing the whole way. It was lots of fun. It's nice having family so close. The nova is coming along great so far. The body is almost ready to prime, the doors are close too, the fenders, hood and trunk lid are next. Hopefully next week sometime the entire car will be covered in beautiful grey primer. I've got a gig tonight at the Shark in Kirkland. I think it will be a good crowd and a fun show. Same old same old. Here is the link to the Killers version of "Shadowplay" I was telling you about Juliet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIe3IgmdSlI

The widdard singer dude in the video is supposed to be Ian Curtis, the late singer of Joy Division. Here is their original performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzTw4PYfROU

1969 Chevy Nova Restoration

Here are a few pics of the beginning of the restoration of my Nova.  I bought this car in 1993 before I even got my license.  It served me well in my youth, but it is in need of some freshening up.  The plan for now is to get a sweet paint job on it and throw in a high performance Chevy small block.  It already has the coveted Turbohydramatic 350 transmission, which is a perfect mate for a high horsepower V8 engine.  For those of you who get queasy easily, these pictures are not for the faint of heart.  It can be hard to see a beloved vehicle in this condition, but just keep in mind how awesome it will look (and sound) when it is done.  Also, Derrinda was formally accepted into BYU yesterday, to finish her Bachelors degree in Business Management, so that was exciting.  I'm proud of her.

Nova Update

My Nova hasn't run right for years.  I have taken it to several mechanics over the years who failed to fix the problem.  About 8 months ago or so I took it to a guy here who thought it was the exhaust manifold gasket (leaking a lot).  So he had the manifold machined nice and level, put the new gasket on, and told me I was good to go.  It did run better, however it still felt pretty rough to me.  Anyway, today it dawned on me that maybe the mechanic (pre- new manifold gasket) had my carburetor all out of whack to make up for the manifold leak.  So I went out and messed with the fuel mixture screw and idle screw and lo and behold, the Nova magically runs like a top again without hesitating off the line and dying at stops.  Time will tell about the dieseling (running after the key is shut off), but when I shut it off, no issues.  I'll cross my fingers and hope the Nova is back in business the next time I fire it up.

My Update

It has been a while since my last post.  Not much has been going on.  I've had a bunch of gigs, busted up my ribs by crashing Aaron's dirt bike at Mom and Dad's in some loose dirt, and started running again this week.  My ribs are still hurting, and even though I had x-rays and the Dr. said everything looks good, it doesn't feel that way.  There is a big bump on the rib like it broke and is healing, and my chest pops now.  I guess it could just be muscle damage or something, but that bump on my rib is super hard like bone, so who knows.  The swelling has gone down a lot and thats when I noticed the bump.  My ankle injury is finally healed too.  I can now run on it with little pain, but it is annoying now because the tendon pops over the ankle bone now every time I roll it around (or run) which causes some pain, but not enough to keep me from running, thankfully.  I have been meeting Juliet at Mama Stortinis by her apartment and we've gone 4 miles on the trail every day this week at 7 am.  It is cool to run with Juliet again.  We always have fun, even though we are both out of shape right now.  I know we won't be for long, we have running in our blood and good genetics for it.  I've been trying to find a class at a local community college for engine rebuilding, but I can't find one.  I want to try and rebuild my Nova's engine by myself.  I am still kicking around the idea of just getting a 327 or 350 and throwing it in there, but that's what everybody does with their Novas.  So I think it would be kind of cool to keep the inline 6 and maybe convert it to fuel injection.  I'm also kicking around the idea of supercharging or turbocharging it.  That gets pretty expensive though.  It might be a good idea to upgrade to disc brakes with power boost also with that kind of power.  It would be freakin' sweet though to take it out on the road and blow people away with a stock looking 4 door sedan '69 Nova!!  Especially if they were to find out it's only a 6!!  I really like things that go fast!