My friend Kevin got married in Langley at the end of June - I was one of his Groomsmen. He and I attended the
same church back when I lived in Burnaby. Very neat to see him get married.
Getting fitted for the Tuxedo was quite an experience. There were five of us getting suited, only one staff member on. The shirts were all different colours, none of the pants fit, none of the jackets fit, It was really an amusing experience. They had to truck in replacement shirts and vests and pants from the downtown store, and even then I had to get my pants hemmed by the mother of the Bride (I never took sewing, eh!).
We had a late 80's Ford Tempo donated to the school. It looks to be in reasonable shape, so a bit of TLC and we should be able to fix it up, flog it, and put some money back into the shop. Maybe buy some tanks for the new Oxy-Acetylene welding kit we got. Or some cool stuff for the Impala. Or Pizza and Twinkies.
The end of the school year was the same as usual. Some kids skipped out, some kids oblivious to the fact that they had been failing all along, were still failing (do they not read their report cards?), and were now trying to find out what they can do to pass the course, with only 18%. I never understood this. Some kids did very well, don't get me wrong, but other kids just don't care, and thus don't understand that it's their apathy and poor work ethic that has brought them thus far. And kids just don't understand that I don't fail them, they fail themselves. I put the numbers in, where they fall is where they fall.
That and I refuse to run an "easy credit" course. Eventually I may get a reputation as such, just as I had done in Burnaby. I gots to train 'em real good.
But I digress.....
During the summer I did a bit of preparation for teaching Math, did a bit of prep for Drafting, but since that is in the second semester, and I have a prep then, I may do more of it then.
We had the roof replaced on our house in August. Initially I wanted a steel roof, as you'll never have to replace it again. However, the quote was over $16,000. We politely declined. We had a quote from a few other roofers, and they were all about the same for asphalt or fibreglass shingle, $6000. We ended up getting Sears to do it. Yes, I was surprised too. Sears does roofing, and the cool thing is we got 10% off, we put it on our Sears card and got 24 equal payments with no money down and no interest. How can you go wrong? And even if the roof goes bad, Sears will still be around, unlike "Two Small Men With Big Hammers Roofing Ltd."
Things I have found recently:
Free web hosting - lots of space!
Zeno - Paradox of motion
Kidd of Speed - Motrcycle tour through Chernobyl
Power Tech Imports - Canadian import speed shop
Stop Tech - Brake technical articles
June 27th I ran CACC Regional Championship event #3, and took first place all by my lonesome.
July 18th I ran CACC Regional Championship event #4, and took first place all by my lonesome, but this time almost didn't. The smaller strut bolts I had been using began to slip. The upper portion of the steering knuckle would slam back and forth with each and every turn; I couldn't get my head around the noise, and blew my first two runs quite badly. I had gone down with the intent to become more smooth, but was so "out of it" mentally, that the event was a waste.
When I got home, I cleaned everything thoroughly and stuck it all back together with Loctite sleeve lock. Probably never come undone now. I am looking forward to returning back to "normal" alignment settings and not worry so much about racing. Yes folks, after this year, I will likely hang up the tires.
July 25th I ran AutocrossRacer.com event #6 and took fourth in
Stock class. I decided to run my street tires (worn out Kumho winter radials) in an effort to become more smooth.
This was an eye-opening experience, as my race tires, already two seasons old, were masking my mistakes. In an
effort to get these tires to grip, I totally had to re-think my line and steering inputs. Way smoother!
Now if I can only bring it together like that for the BC Championships in August.
In an effort to improve brake "feel," I used Zap Straps on all the rubber brake lines to prevent flexing under pressure. Made a small, but noticeable difference. Still an unusually mushy pedal.
After fighting with bleeding the brakes on the Sentra, I decided to read the manual. Traditionally I have been starting at teh furthest wheel from the master cylinder, and working my way closer. Turns out the Sentra has a diagonally-split brake system, and MUST be bled RR - LF - LR - RF ONLY. Once I did that, the brake feel was significantly better.
Fabricated upper and lower control arms. Placed the motor in the frame, made motor mounts and tranny mounts.
Bought Aurora spherical rod ends for the front upper control arms and tie rod ends (pricey!). Designed my own pedals.
Shortened and mounted the steering column. Shortened the steering rack 3.5". Shortened the shifter. Getting ready
to disassemble the frame for painting.
In searching for a good name for the Lotus Clone, PVT (new owner of Ken Seto's CSP Civic) came up with "Lethal Locost." I like it. Look for the name to be implemented in the menus shortly.