Moar 45 ACP

The Chomps Collection has loaned a couple extra .45 ACP pistols for comparison.

Photos not yet taken because I don't have space on the work bench for all seven guns.  Five's the limit there.

The outside gun-picture location is currently occupied with a Harvey project and must wait for ideal light anyways.

But very soon we're going to have a Kahr CT45 and a Star PD added into the comparison.

I think that Willard loans me these guns because he knows I'll clean them to make them more photogenic.  I am a labor saving device!

But pics are coming, along with objective measurements like weight and trigger pull.  Subjective opinion will accompany.

I Can't Remember

I created the turrets for the Lightning as a separate model because I knew it'd be getting revised several times and there's four of them.

In theory, the dwg reference I inserted into the grebel drawing will update as I make those changes.

But I cannot remember how to make it update to the new model.

It's simple, but I can't remember.

Say It With Me

Dear Ebay,

The act of printing a label is not actually shipping the item.

It should not be marked as "shipped" until the tracking number registers as scanned at the shipper's facility.

Also, making me wait the entire estimated shipping time before I can complain about how the seller didn't actually ship the purchase is asinine.

The only action is "label created" and it's due today.  They're not going to miracle that parcel from California in the next seven and a half hours, so let's be honest about the time space continuum and let me start the process.

Thanks,

McThag

Against Doctor's Orders

I drove today!

I took The Boy to school and picked him up.

Considering that the VA is totally unconcerned with making a follow-up appointment to my emergency room visit, I guess I should be unconcerned as well.

They literally told me that since I had an appointment scheduled for later this month anyway, they could do the follow up then.

Almost a month to the day after the accident.

I have to ask, "What if I had not scheduled that appointment last year?"

I am not getting what I paid for from the VA.  I paid 50% use of one leg and 20% of the other to get a 10% disability rating and this level of care...

I am three years into the years long process of getting that rating increased.  They are dodging getting me in front a board like a... a... METAPHOR NOT FOUND.

Did You Know

5.56x45mm is superior to 5.45x39mm because every former Warsaw Pact nation that has joined NATO dropped 5.45 for 5.56.

Um...

That's not how that works at all.

Today's vocabulary word, "Interoperability".

Have You Ever Seen One Of These

 

 

The Boy managed to break The Lovely Harvey's adorable little organizer.

It's originally from Big Lots, here's their archive link to the item.

If you know where we can find a replacement, I'd really appreciate your sharing it.

It's just nearly the ideal storage item for what Harvey was using it for and it appears to be a unique solution too.

Thanks in advance!

Wait! I Know This One

"The West’s arrogant, entitled political class, however, seems to model its approach on the Bourbons, the Romanovs, and the Ceausescus."

--G. Reynolds

 Not a smart paradigm to emulate considering how those all ended.

.45 ACP Spread

 

An array of pistols in .45 ACP roughly in reverse chronological order.

Left to Right:

S&W M&P 45C: 2.2 lb.; 10 shots.  Can be 2 lb.; 8 shots.  Striker fired, thumb safety.  The only ambidextrous choice on the bench.

CZ 97B: 3 lb.; 10 shots.  Hammer fired DA/SA, thumb safety.

Glock 21 Gen 2: 2.4 lb.; 13 shots.  Striker fired, no manual safety.

SIG P220: 2.3 lb.; 8 shots.  Hammer fired, decocker DA/SA.

Ithaca/Remington Rand M1911A1: 2.8 lb.; 7 shots.  Hammer fired, thumb safety, grip safety.

I'm going to try and dig deeper with more photos later.

Minor Update: The S&W and 1911 fit my hand best, followed by the SIG then the Glock then the CZ.  The CZ almost beats the Glock, but the back strap of the CZ has a place that I can tell, just handling it, will be sore after a day at the range.

The one place the Glock shines is that wide as grip spreads the recoil over a much wider area.

You're Fucking High

OK, patina and rat rods are cool, I guess...

I was planning on replacing the entire interior anyways...

But the real shining glory is the motor, this is what makes it worth the entire $16,500 buy it now price!

You don't even get motor mounts!

You also don't get a trans crossmember or all the pan bolts for your TH400.

What the actual fuck?

A Caprice PPV is starting to look really good now.

Now He Can Say He's Exercising

This happened to my mother in law too.

The bed stops being at the right height to get in and out of.

Either too high or too low.

We solved this for Willard, we hope, by buying one of those step exercise things.

His bed, being a bit too high with a pulled muscle needed a step to aid in ingress and egress.

The little stool he'd scrounged was too tall, making the bed too short for getting out of.

The Step hits the Goldilocks zone and has traction surfaces built right in.  It's also a much larger target to hit than a little step stool.

But the real prize is he can now say he does a round of Stepercising every morning when he gets out of bed!

Player Controlled NPC

I've been watching the Critical Role based Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon.

While it might play well in Peoria, it's got no resemblance to any MurderHobo Inc.® player character group I've ever witnessed.

Well, that's not quite true.

How long is the party depicted in the series going to be first level played by people who've never gamed before?

They were presented as a group that had been there and done that long enough to have a few levels under their belts and...

Well...

It's An Honor

That Fucking Fleetwood has been left alone while his daughter is attending his grand-daughter's graduation from Navy basic training.

Marvyn and I have been swinging by at least once a day to make sure he's doing well, despite being sick as a dog these past few days.

If we were organized, we'd be dangerous!  But we're managing to actually help rather than hinder... at least so far.

The biggest hindrance has been getting through the fucking gate of his gated community.

It'd prolly be easier if I was cleared to drive, but we're managing well.

What I really want is a magic wand to make Willard all better and not need us to check up on him.

I'll bet he'd like to be magically healed too!

10,316

The Berlin Wall has been down for as long as it was up today.

I have been a cripple for as long as the Berlin was was up AND down now.

Oh Thank God!

After watching the end of Rogue One I am struck with the question:

Did the Rebel troops lining up in the corridor just before the airlock hatch blew feel relieved that it was just stormtroopers coming through and not Lord Vader?

I can picture a scene on board the star destroyer right before the Tantive IV was secured...

"My Lord, we're trained for this.  It's our job.  Can we, pretty please, handle the boarding?"

"Very well, Major..."

Success

The Lovely Thief Harvey reports that the Shield Plus is riding better than the SIG P232!

"It feels more balanced" she reports.

Huge win!

9mm has more thump than .380, the S&W holds more beans AND she shoots it better.

Epiphany

Talking to JT I realized something.

I'm not going to pay a premium for the car I'm going to hot-rod because I'm going to have to toss a lot of it away.

This is because I've come to genuinely believe that the value of such cars is entirely emotional.

You don't build and own a hot-rod to make money.  You do it for the love.

You love the car.  You love the research.  You love the work.

Love doesn't add monetary value to a project unless the buyer loves as you do.

Hint: The buyer doesn't love as you do.

You're not getting your money back, and if you do you're not getting your time back.

Hot-Rods are net losses.

It's why I'm not going to be buying the checks-off-all-the-rational-boxes Chevy Caprice PPV.

Totally modern, V-8 powered, rear wheel drive car with all the desirable safety features.

And it doesn't speak to me.

I would not hate it, but neither would I love it; and the first string of irritating failures and their attendant repairs: I would hate it.

What speaks to me, though, is out of reach.  I love the '62 Chevys.  They're just out of reach because I need to maintain a portion of the insurance pay-out for modernization.  Shit like air conditioning.

Brake upgrades.

Other safety stuff.

But they speak to me.

I think there's a bubble in these old classics, and it's set to burst.

I will wait.

And The Sun Came Up In The East Too

 Study says most homicide victims in Dem controlled cities are black.

Not news to those of us who're students of gun control's failures. 

That's because we check out the FBI crime data every year.

What they aren't mentioning is something that's also in the FBI crime data.

Your murderer is almost always the same race as you.

White people tend to kill white people.

Hispanic people tend to kill Hispanic people.

Black people tend to kill black people.

Not mentioning this does fit the narrative that America has it out for black men, but like most things that fit the narrative, it's a lie.

Black men are murdering black men.

To very little notice.

The number of black men killed by the police is barely statistical noise compared to black men killing each other, but we sure hear about every single time it happens, justified or not.

It's that cultural thing I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

The average black man in a Dem controlled city is not living as a member of Western Civilization or America.  They've their own culture with its attendant norms and murdering their fellows for minor slights is A-OK in the culture.

If they weren't around and among the rest of us in America, nobody would care that they've adopted this culture.  Nobody cares what happens in Africa...

How does one get them to abandon this savage culture for the more civilized culture of greater America?

That's the trick and the rub.

I know what worked on the Irish and Italians.

I've seen documentation that it was working on the darker skinned folks too.  Until Democrats fucked them over with welfare and red-lines.  Destroying the black nuclear family is the keystone event.

It was done by racists, and they weren't conservatives or Republicans.

Language Drift

C&Rsenal has reminded me of a term, "triple action".

I'd forgotten that was a thing.

In the way back... when revolvers that didn't need to be manually cocked between shots first came to be; triple action described a gun which could be fired both in single action and double action.

They would have referred to a double-action-only gun as simply double-action.

Best Wishes

That Fucker Fleetwood is sick as the proverbial dog.

He's stuck in bed with little more to do than surf the internet.

Leave him some entertaining comments to lift his spirits.

You're Not Going To Out-Grognard Me

Bitch, please, I remember when there weren't robots in Traveller.

You think you're going to bring up something I didn't know about the setting?

I played before there was a setting and we based shit on Dune.

It Happened To Be On

The TV above the bar was showing the Olympics women's hockey, USA v Switzerland.

The US team was showing some of the best aggressive, offense I've seen on the ice in a long time.

They kept the puck on Switzerland's end of the ice and made shot after shot.

In short, they were playing hard to win.  8 to 0 is definitely a win.

If the NHL showed such spirit, I would be a much happier viewer.

Just sayin'...

A Common Thought

There was once a point in my life where I was in control.

It is so far in the past that I can't remember more than the feeling that I once was in control...

Possible

The Lovely Harvey has a ex-cousin-in-law who has a 52 or 53 Chevy sitting under a car port for these past thirty years.

Like many a car project, he intended to get on it and...

Well, lots of them never get started let alone finished.

I could certainly get it done if I didn't have to buy the car.

The Trailblazer engine and electronics swap would be simple and without blowing half the budget on buying the destination for the swap...  I'd have money to make it pretty too.

She's going to get in touch with him this week and see.

We're not offering money, we're offering him seeing his vision realized and the car becoming a loved runner.

Eyes crossed!

Because You'd Fucking Starve

Something about America that keeps coming up when I read about history:

If you're willing to adopt our ways as a member of Western Civilization, you will succeed.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of national origin, skin color, religion or native language.

The list of peoples who have passed through the melting pot is long.

The people who refused to join were subjected to horrendous discrimination and bigotry.

The Irish, arguably, had it worse than a black slave prior to the Civil War.  A slave was, at least, valuable property.  An Irishman?  Worthless, and there's ten more where that potato eater came from...

Signage that said, "No Dogs or Irish.  CENSORED and Chinese OK." were a real thing.

The Irish, eventually, shed their stigma by joining American society.  Not once, but twice.

"But they're white!" is the objection to black people choosing this option.

Asians aren't white.  Asians are undeniably successful in America.

You'd hardly be able to tell that a non-Dawes Indian wasn't white by their success.

The problem really is that a group of politicians who hate black people set things up to actively prevent them from joining American civilization.

They were not from the party of Lincoln.

An ounce of prevention stops a ton of cure.

Now it's a point of pride to be part of a culture apart from America.  To insult and abuse any crab trying to get out of the boil.

"Don't be like Whitey" is an admonition to reject joining the, proven, successful American civilization and remain a savage and BE The Other.

While we're being brutally honest here, if it weren't for a stubborn Christian compassion streak in America, those who refused to join our society as members would have long ago starved to death.

We don't even make them go hungry.

I feel pretty safe in making these observations because I am friends with several people who escaped the boil and are successful.  Not despite their dark-brown skin, but because they are Americans first and foremost rather than accepting they can't be successful because of that skin color.

Old Joke

 

Three guys were fishing on a lake one day, when Jesus walked across the water and joined them in the boat. When the three astonished men had settled down enough to speak, the first guy asked humbly, "Jesus, I've suffered from back pain ever since I took shrapnel in the Vietnam war...could you help me?"

"Of course, my son", Jesus said, and when he touched the man's back, he felt relief for the first time in years. The second man, who wore very thick glasses and had a hard time reading and driving, asked if Jesus could do anything about his eyesight. Jesus smiled, removed the man's glasses and tossed them in the lake. When they hit the water, the man's eyes cleared and he could see everything distinctly.

When Jesus turned to heal the last guy, the guy put his hands up and cried defensively, "Don't touch me! I'm on long term disability." (H/T TNDeplorable)

I'd let Jesus heal my crippled ass up.  The VA doesn't check to make sure I'm still fucked up at this point and I'm perfectly willing to lie to their useless asses about it if I got a miracle heal.

And Another Thing!

Most of the L6 research for the '47 will apply to any Chevy from '41 to '54.

The bodies changed a lot, but the under-pinning stays remarkable similar.

Similar enough for the rear-cradle swap I talked about anyway.

I Hate To Waste Planning

The initial research into working on a '47 Fleetline led to some interesting ideas.

The donor Trailblazer's rear end is on a cradle, so you could swap in the entire rear suspension and get a modern independent rear with discs with little to no bother.

That got me to wondering...

The front is on a cradle too.

Probably damaged from the crash that led the engine being available, but...

If one were to swap in the front suspension too, one will have all four wheel sensors for the anti-lock brakes, traction control and active handling.  You'd just have to figure out the brake position sensor, steering wheel sensor and placement of the yaw sensor to have that safety feature fully enabled.

Not really as hard as it seems.

Safety, Dear?  It'll be safe as houses!  Especially once we put in a hoop for the shoulder belts to attach to.

The cabin height is similar to that in an Equinox, so swapping those seats in would also net us the rear 3-point belts; with a bonus for being comfortable and durable.

It's nice to have options!

Truth be told, I have more lust for the '45-48 Chevies than the early '60's cars.  But they are a lot more work.

Notice that I started with swapping the entire suspension before I even mentioned engine and transmission swaps?

The '47 project would need more space that I have.  I need a stall to work in, a stall to store the parts from the '47 not being worked on and a stall for the Trailblazer hulk while I strip it.

I have a wide 1-car garage.

Oh, and the '47 will definitely need everyday life-support things like air conditioning.

'62 It Might Just Be

Found a '62 Biscayne that will certainly either not meet reserve or will bid up to far more than I have coming from USAA...

But, I feel lucky.

It'll need AC added without a doubt.

It'll want a modern fuel-injected-gets-good-mileage-makes-good-power-that's-easy-driveable engine like a Cadillac six-liter.

Then it'll want an overdrive transmixer to replace the Borg-Warner T-10.

Let us cross our eyes that this will be the car to replace The Precious in the garage and my heart.

PS: Seatbelts.  It will need seat belts.  Happily, a lap belt is an easy swap and shoulder isn't that much harder.  It feels a little odd to be thinking about doing stuff with a car that I actually know how to do already without consulting a service manual and looking up codes.

Edjamakaytedd

“[D]a war is comin,  [F]orward dis shit to our tha goldhead caucasoid princess.”

What would he have said if he wasn't a professor? 

Update:  

Context.

Forever Young

If Trayvon Martin had not fucked around and found out, not only would he be 27 today; he'd be alive to celebrate!

Safe Enough

It would appear that 1961 cars are safe and 1947 cars are not.

Fine by me.

How about a 1961 Biscayne?

With a '70 LT-1 and Muncie M-21?  12-bolt 3.73?

A bit of rust, but already converted to front discs.

Escalade LS3's with 8L90 transmixers are out there for reasonable.

Assuming the reserve for the car isn't as retarded as the buy it now, one could do this reasonable affordably and perhaps under the budget available.

Implied Oral Consent

I was considering going to the local brewery this evening.

When I asked, I got the "well if you want to go, go."

I already know what that means.

Turns out I don't really want to go under those conditions.

The list of things I am unable to do is getting longer and I question my value to my family as I am presently all cost and zero benefit.

Brief Exposure

At the accident scene, two things happened.

The impact was sufficient to unsnap the holster the Model 59 was in.

The durn thing fell out right at the feet of a paramedic asking me questions.

I retrieved it from the ground and said, "you didn't see that."  He, properly, replied, "see what?"

A bit later, when we all recognized I was going to be going to the ER and would need to leave the pistol for Marv to take home for me...

I looked at the deputy running the scene and asked, "I'm going to need to open carry for a bit to take off the holster, we cool?"

We were.

The only aggravating thing was the EMT from earlier "helpfully" taking the pistol out of the holster and clearing it.

Both the deputy and I said something to the effect, "administrative handling is where accidents happen!"

That same EMT shoved the round that he cleared into the magazine...  There were 18 in that mag when I got the gun back from Marv.  A 17-rounder.  I wonder if he damaged the spring.

Game Called Due To Injury

The retro carry experiment with the S&W 59 is over.

I'm not able to carry such a heavy load at least for a few weeks!

I have a five pound limit until cleared by the doc.  While the shoulder rig is slightly under, it puts stress right on the worst place.  I'm also forbidden to drive myself.

So, back to pocket carry for a while and it's likely that it will warm up to where I can't carry the shoulder rig in the meantime. 

However!

I declare the experiment a success.

The 59 toted just fine while I was able to tote it.  Just as well as a more modern pistol, in fact.

Truth be told, just as well as the less modern 1911 I first carried in a Miami Classic II.

I've not put myself in a situation where the differences in the guns would matter.

Sucked All The Fun Out

The Lovely Harvey has gone all passive aggressive with the idea of a new hot-rod and only makes comments about safety.

Well, that pretty much takes anything made before 2006 off the table.

Cars you can get four people into and are still cool and qualify as hot rods made after 2006 are... well...

They just don't exist.

This project has officially been still born.

C'est la vie.

Holy Fuck!

Well, had my first good sneezing fit since the accident.

The first thought is, "that fucking hurt a lot!"

The second is, "did that jar things enough to puncture a lung and kill me?"

The third thought, after the fifth sneeze, "what if this DOESN'T kill me and I have to do this again?"

Well She's Right

Whoopie Goldberg says she was suspended from her gig at The View because of racism.

She is absolutely correct!

What she doesn't see is that SHE is the racist.

Fun With Math

Doing some napkin calculations for the potential '47 Fleetmaster project.  3-Speed Chevrolet 341 manual and a 4.11 differential.

The donor engine would be from a 2006 Trailblazer.

That car comes with a 4-speed 4L60E transmission and a 3.42 diff.

Where the fun begins is comparing ratios and speculating what the mileage will be...

I want to use a 6L50 6-speed for the swap.  It's got a much deeper first gear and closer ratios.

That means I can run a much taller rear gear and not sacrifice acceleration while still dropping about 500 rpm off at highway speeds.

Which we're going to need to do because the Fleetmaster has a drag coefficient of 0.7 compared to the 0.45 of the Trailblazer.  The Trailblazer is not known for sipping fuel...

Shockingly Durable

A small part on The Precious that kept breaking was the latch for the glove box.

The first time I mentioned here.  And here.  And two other times I didn't mention.

It's not a good design and I even have a spare made by an aftermarket company that reinforced the places that break most frequently.

Having that spare was a talisman that kept it from breaking again.

Guess what was functioning perfectly and unbroken after I tore the front right wheel off and pushed the battery into the space where the glove box lives!

Yup.

Mating

While considering the Atlas LL8 inline-6 I am confronted with its very limited transmission choices.

The Atlas series has its own trans bolt pattern.

That limits one to using the transmissions that came with the motors unless you can find an adapter plate, and I'm still early enough into looking into it that I dunno if people have.

It's one heck of an improvement over the old 216 L6.

I covered more power already, but it's also 150 lb. lighter.

Go go aluminum!

The trans I'd want to use is the 6L50.