Of Airbags & Tequila

A solid afternoon of work yesterday with BTW. Bo acquired a set of airbags for me, and today we took a run at installing the rear set.

It was a pretty simple operation. The shocks were disconnected, then it was just a matter of raising up the car enough so that the springs could be removed. They are not screwed, bolted, or welded in. They just sit there. It was just a matter of pulling them out and swapping in the air bags.

Bo also ground down the welds that were left behind from his awesome rail positioning system that was attached previously.

Now that the shell is here, and I'm doing a lot of work with the garage door open, the neighbors have started to notice that something is going on. Many stop by to say hello and get the low down. Some just keep on walking, with a horrified look on their face. The funniest moment came the other day, when there was a mermaid tail lying on the driveway, the MattMobile in the garage, and a big nosecone sitting on top of it. Dude just looked in, looked down, and kept on walking. Which is why I made this:

Other neighbors are much better at the whole "neighbor" thing. One dude who was driving by, said he would come back later to check it out. He did, and brought this with him:

Which pretty much puts him in a solid position for the award of "Best. Neighbor. Ever" though the votes have not yet been tallied. Turns out, my neighbor is something of a tequila magnate, and this is his brand. BTW, who appears to be something of a tequila expert, sampled the wares and proclaimed it "Better than petron" and promptly put in an order for two GIANT bottles of the stuff. I am more likely to mix tequila into a margarita or something, so I'm not much of an aficionado, so I'll have to take his word for it.

Here are the springs that were removed from the rear of the car.

BTW and I also did a bunch of strategizing on how to proceed to here, and brainstormed on a few topics. Overall a very productive day, and it's great to see things moving forward. The focus for Bo over the next couple of weeks will be moving the engine into it's new location and rigging up the airbag system. We also came up with a REALLY great way to keep the hood and body aligned once it is separated. I'm actually pretty proud of my contribution to the concept, and I am thinking it will work out well. I have never seen anyone attempt to do it the way I have conceived of, but I'm hoping it will be ground breaking, and bar raising.