After overcoming our radiator woes at the last minute with a well planned day off from work, a Sawzall & grinder, we were able to enter our car in the Triangle Classic. This had been a goal of ours all along and I really didn’t think we’d be able to pull it off. Thanks to the Spridgets listers for all their advice and support and my son Clay for coming up with the idea in the first place.
Click on over to flickr to see how the day went.
Here’s a few photos of what I had to do to get the correct radiator - fan clearance on the new ‘70 Midget. It’s a hack and won’t win any awards but who really cares? I just want to be able to drive the car without destroying any more radiators and fans. It’ll probably have to go to the frame shop if I want to use a standard cowl someday.
With a Sawzall and grinder I cut off the left and right flange from the cowl and notched it around the uprights that were tilting backwards. I also relieved the back of the fan by a little less than 1/8″. Any more than that and the back of the fan would hit the oil separator. I also replaced the engine mounts. The combination of these things improved the clearance from about 3/8″ to 1 1/16″.
Tomorrow I take it on a test run out to the Triangle Classic British Car Show in Raleigh. Hopefully we’ll make it there and back without any more problems.
 dry fitting cowl |
 drilling new holes |
 location of new holes |
 routed back of fan |
 new engine mounts |
 all back together again |
Clay went to Home Depot with Robert and came back with a Scooby Doo ornament. I admired it and he said, “It’s real plastic!”
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He is vehemently anti-girl these days. We were at the table and he was eating some prunes that had been in the cupboard for a while. He said, “Ew!” and I asked if the prunes were bad. “No,” he said, and pointed to Noah, who was draped with a red dish towel in lieu of a bib. “Noah looks like a girl.”
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I told Clay I felt very lucky to have two boys. He said, “Some people have three.” I said, “That’s right. I don’t think I could handle three.” He thought for a moment. “Yeah, you can barely handle two.” (So true!)
Over Thanksgiving weekend, Noah had several firsts: rolling over from front to back, haircut (just a trim but he really needed it), and solid food (bananas).
Video
I was talking with Clay about the different milestones Noah will achieve. He knew about crawling and walking but I told him that before those there’s rolling.
He looked pensive for a moment then said, “The rolling will probably be easier for him if we put him on a hill.”
