Cutting The Irony With A Knife

Remember how they keep telling us that burning food putting ethanol in gas is good for the environment?

I love how people are just now learning what that little sticker that says, "up to 15% ethanol content" really means.

For years they've mandated lower ethanol content over the summer because of higher air pollution levels from the full 15% formulations.

What happened to it being better for the environment?

Well, in the Royal Navy we call that a lie.

It's never been about the environment.  Not even for a second.

Frustrating

Both Equinoxes and The Beast communicate via GM's GDS2.

JT came over and got me set up so my laptop and VXDIAG would talk to Moxie and he left with us thinking it was all good.

Today I tried to connect to The Beast and was informed that we'd done nothing.

UGH!

I am unhappy, frustrated and confused.

I have transmitted and transferred my confusion to JT.

We'll get it sorted, but...

The reason I was trying to connect was to see if I could access the SPS2 area and if so, I was going to purchase a day license and click some check boxes to enable some disabled features, like the dome light coming on when the door opens.

Decoding The Mods

The previous owner of The Beast put bigger brakes on it.

Well, bigger in the back.

Much bigger.

The front is Raybestos R-300 345mm rotors that are stock sized, but with 6-piston Brembo calipers from a '16+ Camaro SS.

The rear is a 360mm rear rotor from Powerstop for a Chevy SS Sedan with a 4-piston caliper sourced from a Caddy CTS-V.

I can attest, she stops.

Two Months Is A Reasonable Amount

I tried to order a handguard from LaRue Tactical back in February.

As has become increasingly regular with them, they don't have anything in stock despite allowing you to place orders.

You enter indefinite back-order with no prediction or communication of when you will come out.

They don't actually charge you for the purchase until it ships, but you've got that charge hanging in your ledger for... months?

Months, from the manufacturer.

I guess there's a solid reason that American Defense Ind. mounts under several of my scopes instead of the desired LaRue.  I guess LaRue isn't the preferred mount any more, huh?

But, let's address the gorilla in the room.

It's 2022.

The internet is no longer new and strange.

Making sales over the internet is no longer unusual.

Live inventory tracking systems which show if a part is actually in stock or not which interface with your sales webpage are no longer innovative and uncommon.

Such tracking systems are the norm.

It's inexcusable to be selling online without it because you can get an off-the-shelf solution.

Getting Dangerous Out There For Me

There's two "meal replacement" drink powders out there which are potentially deadly to me.

Ka'Chava and Mudwater both have significant edible mushroom content in them.

My food allergy is rare and obscure, and it doesn't come up very often.

I should say that it didn't come up very often.

Mushrooms used to be easy to avoid and were relatively easy to spot.

Now we have powdered drinks and umami enhancers using mushrooms.

That second one is what's going to get me killed because it can be listed as "natural flavoring" in the ingredients.

It's all on me to figure out where the risks occur and to avoid them, but it sometimes feels like someone out there is gunning for me.

I'd Rather Know Less Than So Much That Isn't So

My service manual for The Beast contains an entire section on figuring out vibrations.

Several people have mentioned having the same vibration at the steering wheel I'm experiencing.

I ran through the flow-chart and have narrowed down the choices to the strut mounts, tie-rods and/or out of round rims.

In my case the strut mounts are clearly collapsed.  The parts get here Wednesday and pending medical clearance from my radiology appointment Thursday, I should be able to eliminate that possibility.

Tie-Rods are simple.

Out of round rims plays into our desire to get new wheels anyway.

But so many people on the newcaprice forum just flat deny that it could be any of the above.

I don't know why they're so vested in not fixing the remaining choice when they've done the other two.

My current favorite is the person who said that it couldn't be the strut mounts because they've replaced them three times...

When they finally posted pics the had both the mounts AND the springs clocked incorrectly.  Found your problem there, Tex.  Oh and you ruined the new mounts driving around with the springs clocked wrong too.

Wrenching isn't hard, but you do need some smarts.

Moar Teefs

My teeth are now completely free of the accumulated calculus from decades of neglect.

It feels strange.

Considering how many health problems have been associated with bad teeth, I am going to keep them brushed from now on.

The improvement to taste and smell with regards to food alone has been worth the extra effort.

Which Is Best?

 

L->R: S&W M&P 45C, SIG-Sauer P220, Ithaca M1911A1.

The M1911A1 is obviously best because lanyard.

That's something that actually shows in the GURPS stats too!

The 1911 and P220 do the same 2d pi+ at 150/1,600 but the P220 gets 8+1 shots and is 2.2 lb. compared to 7+1 shots and 2.8 lb.

The 45C only does 2d-1 pi+ to the same ranges but it gets 10+1 shots for 2.2 lb.

Average damage, with hollow-points, for a full mag are very close.  84 for the M1911A1, 96 for the P220 and 100 for the M&P 45C.

Not much to distinguish them from each other, really.

If the campaign is set before the early-eighties then only the M1911A1 will be available.  If it's before 2012 then you're choosing between the Ithaca and SIG.

Consult with your GM before purchasing!

Old And New

When the switch on my MX991/U appeared to have failed, I ordered a new one from Amazon.

$20 gets you a made in the USA, Fulton.

What I wasn't expecting was to see how much the color had changed on my old one!

Now I have two functional and near bullet-proof flash-lights.  Even if they are short on lumens by modern standards, they are functional.

Lug Nuts

GM Parts Giant sells the following lug nut for $6.54 each.

That's GM p/n 09597846.  It's an M14x1.5 nut.  According to my VIN, this is the lug that came on the car along with the metal center caps.

If you want to use the larger diameter plastic wheel covers you need:

 

This is 09595175, it's also M14x1.5 but it has threads on the outside too so you can attach the plastic wheel covers to the rim.  They're $6.95 each.

Dorman makes a zinc plated version of the 09595175, Dorman 611-115, and that's what's on my car.

You can get 611-115 for $3.19 each or 20 for $35.49.

Also listed for my car is FABULOUS colored nut from Dorman:

This one comes in several colors, is open ended so there's a big hole in the center and you can get 20 for $34.99.

Nobody, but nobody, has a clone of the expensive GM closed end nut whom will admit fits my car!

Now, if you hit Amazon and search for M14-1.5 lug nut and filter for The Beast you will get a set of 20 lug nuts for $21.09 from a company called "Wheel Accessories Parts".

GM Is Fucking High

$7.56 per lug nut?

I can't even.

The VE And WM Are The Same From The B-Pillar Forward

Here's a vid of a couple of my Aussie brethren wrenching on their VE Commodore.

OK, this job isn't scary at all!  Corvettes have given me PTSD about wrenching.

Everything I've checked out mechanically is almost always more straight forward than the Vette.

The big exception is the rear wheel-bearings.  Those need multiple hydraulic press operations to get all the parts out and back in.  It's still fairly straight-forward though.

Shouldn't It Turn The Other Direction?

Watching Australians working on their VE Commodores and WM Caprices makes me joke that it must be mirrored because they are lefty-loosie...

Isn't that supposed to be the other way to match the swirl in the toilets?

Tire Update

Reader DWW made me a generous offer of a discount if I ordered from the company he works for.

An offer I was going to accept when...

Two of the tires which were on the car showed serious signs of fall-apart.

The previous owner, while a friend, is not known for his willingness to spend money fixing things.  I'm always suspicious of brands I've never seen before on a car.

The three year old Sentury UHP tires appeared to be ready to shed their tread when I took The Beast in for a precautionary balance to crutch me along until I could get past my natural procrastination and get with DWW for new tires.

Tire Kingdom was having a sale of Sumitomo HTR A/S P03, buy three get the fourth free!  I've had good luck with Sumitomo, so I went ahead and got tires without contacting DWW.

I hope I don't regret this!

Sadly, the reason I thought I needed to balance the tires did not go away with new tires on a fresh balance.

Looks like it's the strut mounts.  They're just $63 each from Rock Auto, but you need to compress the springs to replace them and that gives me the heebie jeebies.  I've heard too many stories of injuries.

Then, since the work to get the mounts off is almost the same as changing the struts...  I am thinking of getting the $100 each struts at the same time.

The big question is, "Should I buy the compressor tool and DIY, or let an expert do it?"

Dogfighting In A 747

An F-14 is a jet and a 747 is a jet, therefore a 747 is a fighter.  That's what many people are saying when they say that homosexual = pedophile.

I'm all for hatin' on pedos.

They cause harm which lasts a lifetime to their victims and I really think that it should be a capital crime.

But there's a lot of confusion about gay = pedo.

This gets complicated because it isn't simple and can't be reduced to a nice simple pithy phrase.

On the surface it appears that most pedos are gay because most of their victims are same sex.

Aside: If you're going to conflate that pedo = homo then you're also going to have to conflate male = pedo because most pedophiles are men.

Something important to remember here is when someone is prepubescent, they don't have any secondary sexual characteristics.  It's that lack that makes them attractive to someone who can only be fixed by a slow feed rate into a wood chipper.

The reason that most pedos are going for same sex victims is access.  Men have more access to boys than girls.

It doesn't make them gay per se, homosexuals are attracted to POST-pubescent members of the same sex.

Pedophilia really is different from homosexuality.  Harmful.

The best analogy I've come up with is that two gay guys willingly going at it doesn't create a victim.  No traumatic experience for either participant.

Another Aside: What the DisneyLGBTQ crowd is pissed about is losing the ability to train the victims into thinking that what just happened to them isn't wrong.  Even without the grooming it's hard enough for a victim of molestation to come forward; especially with all the implantation of false memories which were all the rage in '90's which devalues a child's accusation today.

At the end of the day the Western Civ answer is still the best one.

Children, as minors, cannot make decisions for themselves which are in any way binding.  What choices they do get to make should be tightly observed and restricted by the people raising them so that they learn to make good decisions and learn HOW to make good decisions.

By 'cannot' I mean it in both senses of the word.  They are both forbidden by law and tradition from making binding decisions AND they are unable to make such decisions because they simply do not have the proper experience to make an informed decision.

Children dive for instant gratification without fail.

PS: That "huge uptick" in children claiming to be some form of LGBTQ?  It's more likely that they are being cued by their teachers and being rewarded for making such claims rather than actually feeling that way.  Some people keep forgetting that prepubescence also severely limits the kind of thinking they're trying to say is coming from a child.

PPS: I am grabbing most of my position from my dusty old psych books where I spent three years learning that I was not cut out to be a psychologist.  At the time it was unremarkable that a pedophile was doing evil even if they could not help themselves from doing it and that the proper response to it was harsh.  Shit like chemical castration being the most compassionate level of harsh.

PPPS: There's a whole other debate to have about statutory rape = pederasty.  Pederasty is malum in se, statutory rape is malum prohibitum.  While there's a victim, there's rarely trauma.  Someone who's through puberty is ready and willing to have sex; but probably shouldn't because of a lack of social experience needed to pick a good mate.  Older people (especially people with power over the victim) shouldn't be taking advantage of that lack of experience; so it's illegal.

Clean Teefers

Since I'm added to The Lovely Harvey's insurance, I got my teeth cleaned today.

They had accumulated quite a bit of calculus in the years that I ignored taking care of them.

Of late I've been something of a born again brusher.

I've three examples of why you want to take care of your teeth in the form of the massive expenses associated with getting them replaced once you let them rot out of your skull.

Flashlight

There was a bit of a debate about flashlights on Facebook and I mentioned that I was still rocking an MX991/U.

Even more remarkable is that I've had this flashlight since I stole legitimately acquired it from the Army.  I cannot remember if this is one that I was issued or one I bought from Clothing Sales.

But it's been in my possession since 1988 at the latest.

How's your Wunderlicht doing on durability?  I'll bet you have about 33 years to wait before you can compare.  The only thing I've ever replaced is the bulb, and I've had an LED conversion in it for the past 15 years.

Like my Victorinox Swiss Champion, it's traveled the world and never failed.

Actually, it failed yesterday.

I don't keep batteries in it.  I keep batteries NEAR it.  That way when they leak, they don't take out the flashlight.

The years of being basically unused in the garage had allowed some corrosion to form in the switch and it took several minutes of obsessively working the slider to get it to work again.

But it DID start working again.

I cannot say that of the dead switches on a couple of Surefires.  Those had to go back to the company and be warrantied.

It's not the brightest light ever made, but I never had trouble seeing in the dark with it over the past 34 years.

There's an obsession with increasing the lumens that has led to lights that are unnecessarily bright.

This thing with a red lens, if your eyes are adjusted to the dark, is plenty bright enough to read by.  I've done it.

The dimmer light is also a boon if you need to get back into the dark quickly after using it.

It also doesn't broadcast were you are so much as a newer one.

Driving Me Nuts

The header image at Irish's is bugging the shit out of me.

So I fixed it.

I'd have said it was a Stag arms lefty model, except for the scope's turrets.

Edit:  Also the windage adjustment for the BUIS.

PS: Bitch! Use the fucking bipod you paid good money to have out there.

The Marine Corps Way

I've noticed, in several instances, that if the USMC is left alone they tend to diverge from how the US Army does things.

They choose different weapons, different doctrine, different...

Then, once there's a war on, they revert to how the Army does it.

Well...  The conform to the Army's way of doing things after Big Army gets blooded and discovers all those peacetime niceties hamper combat operations.

Really, both services diverge from what works, it's just the USMC goes farther out on the limb before coming back.

The above is just a surface assessment.  I've not done any real research.  It's just a "sure seems like" observation, which could be totally incorrect with more in depth research.

That Fits

I was comparing the stats between the old B-Body and The Beast and noticed that while the 2012 car is smaller in overall dimensions, it has more interior space, longer wheelbase and tighter turning circle.

I'd mentioned to Marv that it felt like driving a much smaller car than it is.

Tonight, talking with The Lovely Harvey, it hit me.

The Beast drives a lot like Flossie, the 2002 Civic my mom willed to me.

More power, of course, but the driving experience feels much the same.

The Biscayne always felt like the big car she is.  Remarkably poised for such a large thing, but still BIG.

If This Pans Out

If this pans out:  Fusion could be 10 years away instead of 20!

Fucking Chaos!

It's been non-stop around here.

Harvey has had at least three screaming break-downs in the past week or so.

She's fucking stressed by all the appointments, her mom having surgery on her eyes, the broken toe, a poor TV buying decision (since returned) and The Boy being a fucking prick about everything.

And she's worried about me and having no doctor's release for my ribs and treating me like glass; but needing me to resume my duties.  Especially with The Boy.

Then we have the way we want to be when we're hurting conflict.

I wanna curl up in a cave and be left alone.

She wants someone to actively check in and give some pampering.

My being all considerate and leaving her in her cave wasn't what she was wanting and it made her feel rather unloved.

I had to remind her that I am not very good at these social cues (I'm only good by comparison to most of my friends) and she need only say something.

I think we're on a more even keel today.

More Tired

The Beast needs new shoes.

Happily a local branch of a regional tire place is having a sale of buy three get four tires in my size from a brand I like.

Tires are certainly cheaper for The Beast than they were for The Precious!

It's been interesting reading reviews for the tire and getting people's opinion about how they perform in snow.

You don't get too many snow reviews for Corvette tires.

Still Nope

I am forcefully reminded that I do not have telepathy.

Again.

Screwed And Tired

The right rear on The Beast has been slow leaking.

Today I found the culprit!

A small wood screw.

Since I am not yet completely mended, getting a tire plug in there was a lot more difficult than I would have expected it to be.

Yet, I persevered!

I certainly hope this fixes the leak until it's time for new tires.

Hell, if the local tire places weren't useless, I would have tried to have it patched.

But no matter how minor the puncture, their party line is the belts have been damaged and you need to buy a new tire.

Alt History Givens

Way back in 1985 there was no doubt that The Soviet Union was going to make it to 1997 and that it could stand toe to toe with NATO in World War Three.

In fact, it was widely held that NATO would have great difficulty in slowing the Soviet advance long enough for reinforcements from the US to get into the fight.

This was the reality when GDW published Twilight: 2000.

Since then...

Well, to make it to 1995 and start a war with China that eventually goes nuclear in late 1997 we have to accept some givens about the Soviet economy that simply weren't true.

Now, thanks to the invasion of Ukraine, we have to accept some givens about the Russian way of war that simply aren't true.

We're seeing their doctrines put into action and they don't seem to work very well against even a non-peer foe.

No wonder T2K went nuclear, huh?

Man V Mouse

Something that I think Disney is underestimating in their little spat with Governor DeSantis is how sick a large portion of Florida's population is with how they've been deferred to politically for years, perhaps decades.

Disney's ownership of a large portion of the RINO contingent is a good part of that.

The Mouse and the Florida Sheriff's Association have been the two major roadblocks to advancing gun rights in Florida.

Without one or the other, I think that movement could be made.

One reason I think that DeSantis is willing to stand up to them is the realization that Florida's economy is a lot more diverse than it used to be and tourism to Disneyworld isn't the majority of tax receipts any longer.

We can actually thank the Wu Ping Cough for that.

Who Put The Ape In Appalling?

I recently found out that the SIG P220 was available in .38 Super.

The single example I found on Gunbroker is going went for $1,500 $1,675.  Magazines are over $150!

I don't think I will be getting an example, despite being vested in the caliber already.

It'd be cool though.

Definitely making a character with one in that caliber on the off chance that I ever get to play, rather than GM again.

PS: I think Glock is missing an untapped market of dozens of people not offering a .38 Super.  Just sayin'!  They could make tens of dollars!

Out Of Uniform Under Arms

It's long been an article of the laws of warfare that if you caught someone fighting who wasn't in uniform, they weren't entitled to the protection of Prisoner of War status and can be executed summarily when captured.

Ukraine handed out a lot of genuine assault rifles and it appears that those citizens are enthusiastically using them against the Russians.

I wonder if the stories about bound and executed civilians are people who took up arms against the invader and didn't have anything resembling a uniform.

That does make them partisans, and partisans can be shot out of hand if captured.

Makes them pretty damned brave too, if you ask me, if they knew that was what was likely to happen to them.

No Escape

I dunno why I'm surprised, Mas is getting old.

Just Noticed Something

How many shows or movies with a super-strong character bends a gun being held in the hands of a normal person?

For that to work, wouldn't the normal person have to have similar strength to hold the gun firmly enough for the super to apply enough force to bend the gun?

Or is it more believable for the gun to be ripped out of the normie's hands because the gun is far stronger than their grip?

Putting On The Ritz

Door handles from a 2008-2009 Pontiac G8 work in the 2011-2013 Caprice PPV.

Before:

After:

Pretty spiffy if you ask me.

They're aftermarket, and the chrome was a bit thick on the passenger side handles, so they stick a little.  Some silicone dry lube appears to be enough to get them working smoothly, I expect they'll wear in in no time because those doors see a lot of use.

Maybe She Felt Left Out?

The Lovely Harvey appears to have broken her right big toe.

OUCH!

Even worse, we're not entirely sure as to when it got broken.

It was swollen at around noon and was turning colors at about six.

She's at the ER now.

Eyes crossed.

Power's Out

Estimating 2015 for restoration.

I can't think of a better reason to strap on the P220 and open carry on my property.

Hammered

Reassembling a SIG P220 is Murphy's wet dream... wait he warned us about this kind of crap.  Not a wet dream, direst prediction.

There are simply too many parts that can go in backwards.

I started with this:

 Because I'm concerned that the, pretty, wood stocks are fragile having had to WECSOG glue them back together...  I'd resolved to get some plastic stocks.

Because SIG changed the mainspring twice since this gun was made, the plastic grips I can afford required changing the mainspring, strut and retainer.

The new strut required changing the hammer.

The new hammer required changing the hammer stop and adding a hammer rebound spring.

The parts came in today and I took it all apart!

Only one thing was even half hard to get out and that was the trigger bar.  Happily I'd watched a video and knew it came out in just one way so you fiddle around until it passes through that space and falls out.  A lot like a Garand bolt, come to think of it.

Reassembly went smooth until it was time to put the locking insert back in.

There are little notches in the trigger pin that accommodate the grooves in the locking insert and hold the trigger pin in place.  You have to have the trigger pin aligned just-so with the slide stop just-so with the trigger bar just-so and then insert the locking insert just-so while holding the slide-stop/take down retainer spring in place.

If everything is aligned perfectly, it falls right in.  If not...

Did I mention you cannot see the grooves as they hit the trigger pin?

I revisited the video and saw the trick and everything went click.  Thanks YouTube!

Once that was in, it was easy to finish.

This is also when Murphy strikes.

There's a long wire spring that curves from the frame to the trigger bar.  There's a hole drilled in the bar that sure looks like it's for the spring end.

It is not.

There's a little notch, lower and farther aft.

The spring works just fine in the hole until you put a magazine in the gun.  Then the tip of the spring drags on the magazine.

Easy fix, especially with Willard's P220R to compare with.

Another gotcha is on the frame end of that spring.  It sits in a groove inside the magazine well and is easy to get so it sits proud of he frame and drags on the mag.  Also easy to make sure it's down where it's supposed to be once you realize it needs to be.

I think it was worth it!

The complete Hammer, strut, Wolff spring and retainer bring the double action pull from 11 lb. even to 8-1/2 lb.  Single action is barely changed going from 4 lb. to 3-15/16 lb.

Just one, teeny, oddity.  The rebound spring doesn't quite pull the hammer to half-cock.  I don't think this will be a problem in practice because the only time it shows up is when I'm doing repeated dry-fire shots in double action.

The decocker drops it to half-cock and the slide puts it at full cock.

Probably Because I Am Deaf

I read on the forum that the rear speakers would often be inaudible even with the volume cranked and fade all the way to the rear; but that they WOULD make sound.

So I fiddled around with the fader control and the back speakers work just fine.

Not sure why JT and I couldn't hear them before, but they appear to be functional now.

Perhaps I have an intermittent open in the wires someplace.

More likely is that I am deaf.

First Repair

The trim along the side of The Beast's driver's seat was all broken.  Happily you can still get them from GM.

Sadly they are expensive and take two weeks to arrive.

Happily the R&R is simple and easy.

I wonder at the mass of the cop who used this car before me.

The steel bucket for the seat was deformed and needed to be hammered back into shape before I could put the trim back in its slots.  The plastic tabs are reinforced with aluminum and those were STILL broken off!

The thin blue line ain't so thin if you ask me.

Pre-Staged

 This is everything I have, so far, for the radio swap.

Holden box, aux/USB connection, GPS antenna, XM antenna and RCA inputs for a future back-up camera input.

I was going through my records and I am not even scratching what I spent on the Kenwood unit that I had in The Precious and abandoned for about 10% what I paid for it originally.

I'm chomping at the bit to get to work, but my ribs say to wait.

We're Contemplating Rims

As everyone knows, fancy rims are the heart of any hot rod, just before chrome stuff under the hood.

The Lovely Harvey and I agree on the following rims:

 

What say the hive?

Today Is MY Day

It is All Fool's Day!

A day for fools like me!

You may laugh, as long as you fear!