World of ARC

Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

Dressed up as Inspector Gadget this year - with functional gadget copter! Diana was sick this year and it was raining on halloween, but I still entered in the work costume contest. I managed to pull out a win over some other really good costumes!

Here is our team jack-o-lantern. First pumpkin I've carved since I can remember. Definitely going to get that tradition going again!

Rifle Repair

2011-10-24T20:22:00.000-04:00

It was a 1938 Mossberg 44M(b); a WWII training rifle. It belonged to my grandfather but in my youth I got to shoot it a lot. Being 73 years old, it wasn't in the best aesthetic condition, but mechanically it worked great (the rifle not grand-dad!). I recently had the opportunity to 'restore' the rifle. I use the term loosely because I didn't do much other than clean it up, paint a few parts, do some repair, and re-stain the wood.

In this shot you can see a lot of the scratches in the wood and the general condition of the rifle.

In this one you can see the surface rust on the metal pretty clearly as well as a crack in the stock. This crack goes completely through. I had a previous repair that held it in place for at least the last 20 years which is about when I first saw the rifle. But the glue was starting to rot and it was pivoting around the bolt that held it together.

On the bottom side here, you can again see the crack in the stock as well as the crack in the trigger guard which is probably just from expansion and shrinkage over age of the plastic.

So, I started by taking everything apart and documenting how it all goes together. Then I sanded down the finish on the wood and tried to get out all the scratches. I also split the stock on the crack and reglued everything with some leftover titebond wood glue I had lying around. I knew from building guitars that titebond holds excellently under stressful conditions.

I took all the metal parts to Tom's and sandblasted the rust off. Talk about saving time vs sanding. I was able to get the rust off in about 20 minutes. This would have taken days to manually sand in all the cracks and crevices. The only drawback was some grit in some of the moving parts that had to be cleaned out.

Here it is reassembled. I tried to repair the trigger guard because that is the only place on the rifle that has the date (1938). But it had shrunk so much that it didn't fit correctly anymore - hence the crack. I found a website that sales old Mossberg parts. http://www.havlinsales.com/. From him I ordered a new 15 round mag, and a new poly trigger guard. The saying 'they didn't make em like they used to' came to mind. The new trigger guard wasn't an exact match and I had to trim it and shim it a bit to get it to fit without a gap between the guard and the wood.

I pretty much left the barrel as it was. I sanded down a little of the patina using a wet sanding technique and wd-40 with 2000 grit sandpaper. Then I coated it with a few coats of clear. This way it still looks original but has a protective coat. I tried to restore the leather strap, but my leather products couldn't do much to revive that.

This was definitely a fun project. I always enjoy learning how something new works and I LOVE mechanical devices (as opposed to electrical), so taking this apart and reassembling it was a great learning experience.

Working on cars - hottest day of the summer

2011-07-13T13:14:00.000-04:00

With our trip to the beach coming up, it was time to tune up the cars a little bit. This was my last chance to get to it and unfortunately, was a 102 degree day. According to the weather man it felt 112 with the heat index.

First up was the ol' Honda. First up was the usual oil/oil filter/air filter. Way overdue for most all of these. I found out that the bucket I just bought for oil changes has a split in the bottom. A pretty awesome discovery with 3 gallons of oil dispatched to that bucket. After sorting that out it was time to turn my attention to the desperately corroded battery terminals. So corroded that I had to use the shop vac to contain the mess - and I was unable to get the positive terminal off. I was able to remove the negative terminal though and give it a thorough cleaning. Upon reconnecting the battery - the aftermarket car alarm was kind enough to go off in my ear. I Pulled the horn fuse and started fishing for the cut off sequence. I looked briefly for a valet switch and didn't find one so I tried the usual stuff. Lock the door, unlock the door, start the car, press this press that. I eventually did find a tiny valet switch and was able to get the alarm back in order. Then I wrote down what to do on the manual cover so this doesn't happen again. (read: this isn't the first time)

After that the cobra. It appears to be suffering from a small oil leak, and after the effort to get the car lifted, I discovered that there appears to be a small metal gasket between the engine and the transmission bellhousing that has been bent. This is the lowest point on the car, and I must have scuffed it on a speed bump or something. I might try stuffing it full of RTV because UGH. I might extract an opinion or two from fellow car folks before doing anything though.

Last was the truck - due for a tire rotation. Driver side - no problems. Passenger side - broke a 3/4in socket, and then with the replacement broke my 3/4 to 1/2in adapter. I was able to find a suitable replacement in with my air tools but man - those lugs are hard to get off!

Overall mission success...I just hope Diana's battery doesn't die because it's pretty much fused to the wiring!

Screen Room - April 26

2011-04-26T18:14:00.000-04:00

We got the balusters in and the electrical is roughed out.

Screen Room roof

2011-04-14T19:14:00.000-04:00

Had our first margarita in the screen room this week :)

Screen Room Phase II

2011-04-09T14:32:00.002-04:00

The floor is finished, we've got some wall posts and some ceiling beams. We've passed all the critical inspections and surveys.

Roadster Top continued

2011-04-06T17:37:00.000-04:00

We've made some good progress on the top. It's all uniform now, meaning no more foam showing. Unfortunately we've added so much spackle to build it up, it's currently to heavy and brittle to remove.

Our idea for the next phase, is to get the rough shape more symmetrical and basically almost a finished shape. Then we'll put a few coats of fiberglass on it and that will give it the strength we need to be able to lift it off and work the edges. From there we will decide if we'll keep working that plug, or use the glass as a mold and create a more reasonable plug to work on.

Roadster Top Phase II

2011-03-25T17:31:00.000-04:00

We basically decided we had tapped out the potential of the foam - it was a great base, but now we need something that we can build up as well as cut down. So for our next phase of build-up, we're going with a quick set spackle.

Screen Room Phase I

2011-03-22T21:47:00.002-04:00

This is after I busted down the banisters, and Don and Ron dug the footer holes.

After extending the current deck northward 4 feet and added the frame for the new deck.

'Nother view.

Roadster Top Phase I

2011-03-22T21:44:00.001-04:00

It started with a few sheets of 2" foam.

These were assembled to create the first shell.

These were shaved down to a rough shape, then built back up with more foam then shaved back down.

More to come...

Current Projects

2011-03-14T09:28:00.000-04:00

I was planning to post about my current projects with lots of before/after/during photos, but I'm stuck at the car dealership with some work being done on the ol' truck so I have a good opportunity to write about it now.

First there is the hard top for the cobra. It's coming along, slowly but surely. The idea is to start with a mold of styrofoam and to build up from there using bondo and fiberglass until a final mold plug is ready. I'm still in the foam stages but it's coming along. Started out with one 2" layer of foam and carved that down to shape. We ran out of material though, so I had to build it back up with another layer of foam. That is where we are now.

Next project up is the screen room. We got a greenlight from the homeowners assoc so I spent a few minutes this weekend demolishing the old deck. Well, not the whole thing, but the handrails and anything that isn't going to be part of the new room. I also cut down a tree that I wanted down before the deck went up. I had to use an axe, but was able to get it to fall right where I wanted. Had to dig up a few bushes and plants as well.

The last project is the yard. I borrowed some spike shoes from Tony and thatched and mowed the yard with them on. They rubbed a horrible blister on my heel, but I got good coverage on the yard! Then I planted some grass. It's a bit early for planting grass, but I want to lay down weed & feed as early as possible so I can kill the weeds before they choke out all the grass. Thinking about planting a cherry tree in the near future.

So it was a pretty busy weekend and I'm pretty worn out!

Fixing up the truck

2011-01-13T07:56:00.000-05:00

The trusty ol' Ford Anger has been collecting quite a list of things to repair/replace. I had to decide whether to work down this list, or replace the truck and I decided, it's time I get going on that list. Here it is from things to do through things I have finished.

New Clutch (more specifically a new throw out bearing)
New brake drums and shoes for the rear
Some burned out Dash bulbs
Interior dome light - now that the door ajar sensor appears to be working, I should hook this back up.
EGR system repair - I recently replaced a pressure sensor and sprayed some brake parts cleaner up in there. Seems to have fixed it.
O2 reading error codes - I got tired of these and replaced all 4 O2 sensors.
Broken armrest/console and seatbelt latch - I found a junkyard in IL that had these parts in stock. They are in the mail! I broke a seat bolt getting the seat out - I'll need to fix that before being 'done'
Burned out high beams - Replaced both headlight bulbs

So yes I have the difficult/expensive things left to do, but I've made enough progress on the other stuff now that I feel like it's worth it. It might even be kinda nice when I'm done! I'll probably replace some worn out suspension components and put some properly sized tires on it eventually, but I want to avoid this truck being my project car :-P

First moustache morph

2010-12-01T18:30:00.000-05:00

Switch it to hd! I have another one coming that goes through all 30 images. That one might take me awhile to compose though.

Here is the 30 day morpho:

Day 20

2010-11-20T15:09:00.000-05:00

This is day 20 of Movember, and here is my best - and by best I mean not best - attempt to impersonate a beastie boy. Cochese to the rescue! Only 10 days left!

Another View

2010-11-16T09:20:00.000-05:00

Here is another view of the 1/4 mile run from Saturday courtesy of Carl. Man there were a LOT of people there!

Mousachio update #3

2010-11-15T17:35:00.000-05:00

Halfway done! I started messing with some photo morphing software, so I'll definitely be able to have a video done shortly after the end of the month!

Another trip to the strip

2010-11-14T14:33:00.001-05:00

I ordered a dash mount for my camera and stuck it on there for this run. My wheels were turned left when I did my burnout so I pretty much almost ran those folks over. I tapped the rev limiter in 1st and 2nd gear just ever so slightly. Also I forgot to set my RPM for launch. Overall it ended up being a decent run. I think if I had set my RPM I would have a slightly faster time b/c the launch would have been more controlled. Either way I had a good time.

Reaction: .92
60FT: 1.88
330 FT: 5.40
1/8 ET: 8.37
1/8 MPH: 84.59
1/4 ET: 13.04
1/4 MPH: 104.34

Tom rode down with me and we hung out with Carl and Ras. Also bumped into Taylor from Fastlane. Carl ran an 11.42 in his mega truck.

Mo still going strong

2010-11-08T17:17:00.000-05:00

8 days of charitable moustache growing have gone by now. I've resisted the urge to shave this itchy mug off pretty much entirely thanks to all the donations I've received so far.

Since starting this little project I've noticed different spellings of moustache and they pretty much all seem to be correct. Check out the moustache link above to hit the wiki and learn about where the different spellings come from.

Thanks again to everyone who has donated! Prostates across the world rejoice! Once again, here is a link to my MoSpace where you can read up on Movember and donate if you feel like it. http://us.movember.com/mospace/885956/ By the way, I'm taking a photograph everyday and at the end of the month, I will create some sort of either morph-video or at least a slide show that goes from day 1 to the final stache. Anyone who donates will get access to the video!

Donations go to research, support, education, and awareness initiatives for prostate cancer. Movember funds raised in the US benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation (www.pcf.org) and LIVESTRONG (www.livestrong.org).

Ford hold transfers you to Honda! Halloween contest win!

2010-11-03T14:23:00.000-04:00

I called the Ford dealership to get a price quote on a rear brake overhaul this week. The guy in the service department quoted me on the labor and then said he was going to put me on hold in order to get the cost of the materials. He pushed the button and immediately the phone started ringing. Some one picks up and says "bla bla bla dealership". Talking so fast that I couldn't really understand what he said. I assumed that the guy just transferred me to the parts department and I said "Hi I need to get a price quote on shoes and drums for the brakes on a 98 Ranger". He says, "A Ford Ranger?" Uhh...yes. And then he says that they aren't a ford dealership. I'm like "I'm sorry?" They are a Honda dealership. In a different state! Thanks for that awkward conversation, Ford.

On the other hand, it turns out my Doc Brown halloween costume won the costume contest at work. I think there were 19 entries, so I feel pretty good about it. Including some really awesome costumes - Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, RoboCop and Bob Ross.

Movember

2010-11-01T18:38:00.000-04:00

Movember day 1. Today I have started a month of moustache growing for a good cause. It's like a breast cancer awareness thing, except for men...and not for breast cancer. Although, I hear men can get that too. Unrelated.

Here is a link to my Mospace. Don't feel obligated to donate or anything, but check it out so you know what's going on! http://us.movember.com/mospace/885956/ If you do decide to donate, I feel like I should let you know what the proceeds go toward.

The money raised as a result of Movember is channeled by our beneficiary partners into a number of world class and innovative research, support, education, and awareness initiatives. Movember funds raised in the US benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation (www.pcf.org) and LIVESTRONG (www.livestrong.org).

Check back into the blog b/c I will update with progress pictures throughout the month. I started with a clean shave for halloween and will be mo-ing it up all month!

First trip to the strip

2010-10-24T22:50:00.000-04:00

Hey gang, today I took the FFR to the drag strip for the first time. It was a blast and I posted pretty consistent times. Huge thanks to Carl for all the tips and info and keeping me from backing out :-) Oh and for lending me the helmet - which I broke - which he fixed...

See Race 4 on youtube!
See Race 1 on youtube!

First run I was racing vs a full on race prepped triumph. He kicked my butt. He had them tear the ticket in half, so I don't know had bad he whooped me.
Reaction: .92
60 ft: 1.95
1/8 ET: 8.42
1/8 MPH: 84.31
1/4 ET: 13.15
1/4 MPH: 102.9

Run 2 was against a silver Civic SI. I did win this one by 1.27s.
Reaction: .83
60 ft: 1.95
1/8 ET: 8.41
1/8 MPH: 84.79
1/4 ET: 13.09
1/4 MPH: 103.6

Run 3 was against Carl in his 2011 5.0 mustang. Pretty stock, with a catback and tune. Won this one by .71 although we both messed up. He shifted into 6th instead of 4th. And I thought I would see if I could run 3rd gear to the end of the track instead of shifting into 4th - but I hit the rev limiter and coasted to the end.
Reaction: .71
60 ft: 1.91
1/8 ET: 8.41
1/8 MPH: 84.08
1/4 ET: 13.17
1/4 MPH: 94.5

Last run was against a new camaro. I don't know much about it, but I won with a .18 margin. He was catching up at the end though. I did this run without cooling down too much, I wanted to run while the tires were still hot.
Reaction: .75
60 ft: 1.91
1/8 ET: 8.34
1/8 MPH: 84.59
1/4 ET: 13.03
1/4 MPH: 103.5

Corbeau install

2010-10-10T17:05:00.000-04:00

I should have taken a picture of the installation of these seats because it was a royal pain. Then after I was done, they were too close to the dashboard. I eventually swapped seats passenger and driver and that gave me more room. So today, I finally got them 'finished'. They are nice, comfortable and have a lot more support. ultimately I think I get slightly more space than the old seats too. Win/win/win!

Vacuum Baby!

2010-10-02T15:48:00.000-04:00

I was vacuuming downstairs in the kitchen today and I felt a little air on the back of my heel. I looked down expecting to see a cat, but indeed I did not. Instead, our Roomba had joined the cause! Aww the little Rub-a-dub machine! At first I was ... a little bit concerned. How did it know that I was vacuuming? How did it know to join it's mother in the cleaning crusade?

But then I did remember nudging it with the vacuum as I went by. I must have knocked it free from the charger and it decided to do a few loops of cleaning before re-docking.

Warning: Nerd Post!

2010-09-30T17:49:00.000-04:00

Today I'm going to take you on a trip though the Nerdery - to a video game that I've been playing recently. To sum up, it's an addictive little game where the goal is to gather materials and then build stuff with said materials. Meanwhile zombies and skeletons and the like try to kill you. It's called Minecraft.

Seeing as how the baddies only really come out at night, I thought a good idea would be to make my 'base' in the sky! And what better than a Wookie Tree fort?! Well, mMy wookie fort in the sky was well under way. I had all the
essentials up there. Sure, I was still expanding the wookie
tree-islands, but the main fort was done. I had a sweet entrance
through a giant tree and a staircase from the ground up to a side door, but it was missing something. I know, a fireplace! I found that in multiplayer mode, if
you catch a log on fire from above it will burn forever, and emit a
nice soothing crackle sound. Torches are silent. So I decided to
construct a fireplace. Seeing as how my wookie fort was made
_ENTIRELY_ out of wood this might not seem like a good idea at first -
but I had it all planned out. I lugged a dozen or so stone blocks up
to the top of wookie fort and built a nice safe wookie fireplace. The
fire would have to climb over a block of stone to reach the wood.
Stone isn't flammable so I should be good.

After the fireplace was done, I put a log in the middle. Before
lighting it, I decided to trim back the leaves on a few nearby trees -
just to be safe. And woosh, with the flick of some flint and steel,
the fire was roaring. But wait, what's this? The tree limb ... it's
on fire ... panic!! I start swinging franticly with the ax at the
tree limbs, but it keeps spreading! More fire - more limb hacking.
Oh no...It's spread to the wooden deck. GAAH!! MY HOUSE!!! In a
moment of desparation I run to the backside of the house, and start
hacking at the deck behind it to prevent the spread to the wookie
forest I planted. I got a 2 block gap in the deck now - that should
save most everything...Oh no, it hasn't saved ANYTHING. The fire was
able to make a jump longer than that to get to the first leaves. Yep
it spread across.

Hey wait a minute, wookie fort is connected to our main base by way of
a GIANT WOODEN TREE!!! Let me run down and cut that in half
before....uh oh. Justin's gonna be pissed.

In short, everything burned down and spread to everything else which then burned down. It's a pretty fun game, but my next fireplace will be much larger and safer :-)

My new home

2010-09-24T20:32:00.000-04:00

For the past 2 years I've been posting on http://shelbatoast.blogspot.com wit the car build project. Now that it's finished, I'm going to transition over to a more generic 'World of A Richardson, Chris' - World of ARC - blog. I have a few things in mind to blog about already so stay tuned for entries on things that are going on now, and some insights into the past.

I thought I would start by posting THE MOST RECENT picture of me in existence. It's less than a week old.

Thanks for following!
A.R,C :-)