My Shit

I have to say I was both impressed and unimpressed today by the Dekalb county police. A couple of cars were broken into on the cul-de-sac. My neighbor came over to say that he'd seen the guy and pointed in the direction he went. I grabbed my 0.40 and a MagLite (man I wish I had my 6-cell back!). I started down the street when a neighbor said, "you looking for a guy?" Yeah! "He went that way." Now we're cocked with the pistol in the air traipsing through a neighbors back yard. I never saw the guy and finally the police showed up.

My neighbors and I kept looking and then the police helicopter showed up! I was totally impressed and it was freaking fast to show up too. They had the big light on and were narrowed-in on the spot where they thought the guy had gone. The police, my neighbors, and I kept up the hunt.

Then I thought, wait, there's a gully running through the neighbor's back yard that joins the other neighbor's back yard, and so on. If that guy got in there, he could be back behind my house! And all behind a fence where no one would see him. So I started back to my house, Alex already had the light in the back yard on, and I went through the one bad spot in the fence (man I need to fix that). I started looking and eventually the helicopter started shining the very spot I was looking.

There is a storage business that backs up to our house with a big clearing and an open freaking gate down into the gully. The helicopter is flying around and the light from it is shining everywhere I want to look. I went behind several neighbors' houses and never actually saw anything. The light from the helicopter was really helpful. Eventually, I decided to go back out front. As I went around my gate there were three or four cops in the neighbor's back yard with a dog. An officer looks at me and says, "were you back there?" Yeah "You live here?" Yeah "Oh." They thought I was the guy. The helicopter wasn't trying to help me look; it was trying to spotlight me for the cops!

For as long as I was back there and for there to be multiple officers with a dog, now I'm not so impressed. Well, only kinda, because the helicopter showing up so fast and staying so long was really freaking impressive.

It appears they didn't get the guy.

Boyd Coddington died today. About the only thing positive I can say, considering his portrayal on his show "American Hotrod" was as a real jerk who couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper bag and is known for loosing some of the better people in modern after market car design, at least he helped those guys get their start.

Now for the rest of the car.

The new updated Google Maps shows my red '86 Daytona in the driveway! I love it.

Edit: Holy crap! You can see the shadow from the target my 'ole man built for target shooting at his place. And the '70 Coronet junker behind it.

So, I've had the pleasure of buying items off eBay for a reasonable price for many years. For instance, the amplifiers that were in my Monte Carlo and that are now in my Daytona came from eBay. I'm not exactly sure how I got them for as cheap as I did, but I know that I really don't care that much either.

I recently (today) decided I could sell stuff on eBay myself. Not only can I get some of the crap I have out of here, but I have easy access to some items that sell for way more than they should. So, it is time to make my fortune ... even if it happens two bucks at a time.

Well, the tail gate isn't quite as good as I thought. It is still better than the one we have, but I didn't expect the rust holes.

I also didn't suspect that it had been repainted. I had to take it all the way back down to metal.

Clearly, I don't have all the old paint off, but it was dark and I'm tired.

Here's the first of the parts to get blue. It is a little more green and a little lighter than I wanted, but it'll do. Yes, I could have done a little better job with the prep work, but it's just the tail gate straps.

I finally had a nice 60F day and decided to start working on the tail gate. One of the things I thought I would try was a chemical that is supposed to convert rust to primer. I cleaned all the surfaces and sprayed on the stuff. I was hoping to get some color layers on later in the day. Then, when the rust to primer stuff went on clear and drippy I decided to check the directions. The directions say the chemical requires 24 hours to work ... so much for getting some color on.