May 8th

I know, I skipped ahead. In between Sunday and today we went to more track meets. I come home Thurday evening to this:

Yes. It's almost apart. Cowboy has gotten faster and ripping apart a car.

May 4th

The quietness of Sunday. Not much going on in the driveway today, Cowboy was checking out the "health" of the Camaro and we were talking about plans for the next few weeks, which are insanely busy I might add.

He said, "Well, I'll probably wait to cut this up until next month."

"Really?" I reply, with my eyebrow quizzically cocked.

"Yeah. We just have a lot of things going on before then."

"Oh. Well, that's too bad. Because if you did, we could sell all the extra parts during the city wide garage sale and have a huge Cowboy's Car Parts sale."

I can hear him thinking.

"Well. I might be able to get that done before then."

There is no might at Cowboy Customs, there is only will.  (Okay, most days. Some days are tiring.)

May 3rd

I think I must enjoy arguing with old dudes about car prices, because one again, I've been at it. However, I ended up with his price this time instead of mine.

Wait, what? I know, we already have a car we're fixing. Something is missing though. It needs new innards. So how did we decide on what the new innards were going to be.

Cowboy made a DAR for it. For all you CMMI nerds out there, I can hear your snickers. For those of you who wonder what insanity we're laughing at, a DAR template or DAR is a Decision Analysis Resolution process in the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), a process improvement framework. Both Cowboy and I are extremely familiar with this due to our day jobs, which lack the glamour of grease covered hands, metal shavings in our mouths, and aching muscles, but do afford us the challenge of problem solving in a different way.

I laughed when he whipped out the template with the options.

"Did you seriously do a DAR for this?"

"Yes. Here's the options you have." The list had a decent range of options.  This however, was the best one that met my need for low gas mileage and good power for the Nissan's size.

 

After arguing with an old dude about price, we brought home a 1999 Camaro with a 3800 engine and a manual transmission.

 

Eldest minion, upon seeing the car asked, "Is this ours?"

 

"Yes."

 

"Oh. Poor car. You'll be dead soon."

 

Not so much dead, minion of mine, just different. Very different. You all know what's coming, you shouldn't be so shocked.

 

 

April 29th - May 2nd

Track meets. Lots and lots of track meets. Which consist of driving somewhere, watching the girl minion throw a shot-put or discus, driving to somewhere else, then watching the middle minion run the 1600, 3200, or the 4x800 relay. While this is exciting for them, and they've made huge gains in their personal records, it's slow going on the Nissan.

Wait, is there such a thing as slow going at Cowboy Customs?

April 28th

Cowboy got the Nissan running today after adding a new injector, cleaning the other ones, adding a new fuel pressure regulator, and a new battery.

I watched as he drove it out the driveway and around the block.

 

I was not impressed with the way it sounds, but thought maybe, just maybe, I was wrong. Then I drove the car.

No. Just, no.  I knew as soon as I backed the car out of the driveway there is no way the stock engine will work for my daily driver. I dutifully drove around the block, pulled back into the driveway, got out of the car and said to Cowboy,  "No. Absolutely not. Rip the engine out."

Please, no gasping and sighing. By now you know what we do here, we take things and make them better, stronger, faster.  (That previous sentence will be relevant later. Remember it, because at some point we'll be coming back to it.  I was given a glimpse into the future wooo ooooo!)