Finishing touches.

Well, next Thursday I will be a sworn police officer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This week is a week of practical applications and today we are covering response to terrorists. Today's class is very dry, and instead of letting us go home early they are giving us extra long breaks and lunch. We'd all rather finish-up early and leave!

This Saturday I've invited my fellow students to our house for a cook-out. So, we've been working around the house to get it ready. Tonight I have another section around the house to place mulch. I've already gone around the deck and it is looking pretty good.

The bike is running great. I'm getting close to 60mpg! Last Saturday 2 other recruits and I attended a charity ride hosted by my department. It was round-trip from Leesburg, VA to Gettysburg, PA. I rode over 300mi total. It was pretty hot, temp reaching 105, but the last 2 days have been hotter with the temp reaching 107 yesterday! Luckilly the humidity has gone down a bit. If this were back home in MI they would be having the normal brown-outs they always have in the dog days of summer as everyone kicks on the AC.

I've started re-installing the suspension on the vette, but I still need to get the trailing arms removed, cleaned, painted, and re-installed. The mounting bolts and shims are pretty much rusted together and may require them to be cut out. I'm hoping to have a friend help me since I will definitely need a 2nd pair of hands when trying to cut and remove the parts.

Below are some pics from the Oleoresin Capsicum Extravaganza which was the Friday before the holiday weekend, May23.

12th Anniversary!

Today & Tomorrow, is our 12th anniversary. Today my friend Matt and I drove to the east coast, Milford, DE, to purchase my new/used motorcycle. With the gas prices climbing to $4/gal it was time to spend some money to save some money. I bought a 2004 Yamaha FZR 600. It had just 5,759mi and looked to be used very little. I put 250 miles on it today! Already starting to get comfy on it. An academy friend said that he'd meet up with me to show me the tests given my the VA DMV so I can practice before my exam. Once I start my normal shift I plan to attend a motorcycle safety course, as I should learn a few things and it will reduce my insurance a little.

Outstanding service!

Wow, did I find another great friend with the restoration of our vette! I took my differential covers in on Tuesday afternoon and I get them back today complete! I had 2 bolts that snapped off and the guys at Datalux removed them. I kind of bribed them with donuts! haha Then David Clark took them home, cleaned them, and painted them. The before and after photos are below (also in the photobucket). If you need anything powder coated he will beat everyones' prices for sure! Let me know and I'll send you his contact info. He is located in Bunker Hill, WV just off of I-81.

Only items left to remove prior to re-build are the trailing arms. My good friend Matt will be coming over tomorrow and after dinner we will start that process.

I know, it's been a long time!

We both have been very busy! I'm now just over 1 month from graduation. The vette is in peices waiting to go back together, and we're working hard on the house and yard. I'll be posting soon, I hope. I will be uploading some new pics to our photoalbums on Photobucket.

One step closer

We're one step closer to getting the house finished with new paint. Bart finished-up the painting job left-over from X-mas break by completing the last 2 walls in the great room, now that all of the X-mas items are packed away for another 11months. Julie is glad that it is now done. The remaining rooms to be painted are Thane's room, guest room, toy room, master sitting room and bathroom, guest bathroom, theater room, and the open basement once it is finished with drywall and the ceiling is painted.

Bart is also just 2 weeks away from his 1st day due to report to HQ at the Leesburg PD. He is very excited to start. He is currently trying to tie-up loose-ends at his contract job and finish a couple of key items so they can be ready for his departure. They have also stated that they would be looking to use him for some side work once he gets out of the academy. The academy is M-F from 0730hrs-1530hrs beginning 04Feb08 until the end of Jun08. He will then be working a 2 week cycle of Mon-Tue, Fri-Sun, Wed-Thur on a 12hr shift with 1 day being 8hrs to get 80hrs in 2wks.

Been a short while since our last post...

Well, not much changed here, except for the weather. It was 60-72 degrees here for almost a week, but today it is back in the 50's. Bart got in 4 straight days of mtnbiking Sun-Wed. On Tues he was climbing the fireroad at Cacapon State Park in WV at night when 2 BIG black bears decided to join his trek up the mountain! They lead him for about 50yds before they jumped back off the road. A tad spooked, all he could think to do was sound loud and mean so he yelled out, "GO BACK TO SLEEP YOGI AND BOOBOO! YOU SHOULDN'T BE AWAKE YET!" haha Riding his SS with a 32/16 it is over a 4 mile climb and they showed up at mile 3! Needless to say, he slammed a PowerGel after that to get going up the mountain! haha Here's the ride file:

Today we spent the day doing some cleaning and setting up Thane's new fish tank. We moved his fish to a 20gal tank from Mamma and Pappa. Julie bought him a castle to put in it along with a new hood and an under-gravel filter system to help with maintenance.

New Officer to be "On-the-Beat" soon!

Yup, yesterday afternoon Bart got the call with a job offer from the Leesburg Police Department in Virginia. It is about 40 miles to the East of Winchester down State Route 7. The start date is 28 January, just 1 week prior to the 118th Northern Virginia Academy class starting the 1st week of February.

Bart is also making progress with the car. The suspension has been completely removed, as shown in the photos below. The only issues remaining include removing the old bushings from the lower A-arms and 2 broken bolts. 1 bolt is in the A-arm cross-bar, and the other is in the rear end which is 1 of 4 that holds the leaf spring in place.

Thane's school X-mas show

Nathaniel had his school X-mas show on Tuesday night. Prior to the show they had Santa in the lobby of the theater (Shenandoah University). His 3yo class went up on stage and sang 4 songs: Rudolph to the Rescue, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells (they each had rings with bells to ring), and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Julie took a couple of photos while Bart took video.

Restoration continues...

For full details and pics from now on you can follow along on the thread I started on "Corvette Forum" here: corvetteforum.com This past weekend I was able to spend a few hours starting the rebuild of the suspension. So far I've had 2 bolts snap that required me to drill them out; 1 bolt head stripped which will need to be cut out; 1 bolt was cut out using a hacksaw (still don't have a cutting disc - 5 mins instead of 5secs!). :ack: So, so far I have the leaf spring seperated from the wheels but still mounted to the rear end. These 4 bolts will take some work to remove. I've been heating them and soaking them with PB-Blaster. I'll need to get help from a friend heating the casting while I try to loosen the 4 bolts holding the leaf spring in place. I have the driver side completed down to the trailing arm which is next. The passenger side still has the inner bolt of the strut rod (needing cut-out as it is the one with the stripped bolt head on the camber bolt) and the trailing arm. Here is the start, putting it on the jacks. Nice and solid!

Before:

The sway bar bracket on the pass side had both bolt heads break off. This required me to drill them out. I also had to cut the spring bolt to remove it. I have both the correct bolts and longer bolts for the re-install. I'm having new plates made at the office since I was unable to salvage the threaded holes in the 3"x1" steal support plate for the sway bar bracket. I'll be cleaning and painting everything that is not new prior to re-install, ie. brackets, plates, and shock mounts.

Here everything is removed from the drv side leaving just the trailing arm.

In the last pic you can see that I've started heating and soaking (with PB Blaster) the 4 main bolts for the leaf spring. I just need to get a hotter torch to be able to break the bolts free. No luck so far... I've also started soaking the bolts for the trailing arms, but have not tried to break them free yet. Hessitant to put heat on them that close to the body. The shock mount for the drv side has not budged! I hit on it until my head was pounding! I'm going to try heating and soaking the trailing arm and strut rod more before whacking it more. I'm using a block of wood and a heavy hammer to keep from damaging the mount or threads.

Santa Claus is comin' to town...

Last night we went with our neighbors and their kids to the nearby park for the opening of their light show. Santa was there and each of the kids got to tell them what they wanted. Unfortunately the pics didn't turn out too well, probably because we went from the cold into a warm building.

Santa must've wanted to get some of the heavier things taken care of as my suspension parts arrived yesterday as well...yipie!

Nathaniel with Mr. and Mrs. Claus:

Collin and Kailee:

Boxes: