went to home depot just as they were closing to get the fuel filter and carb cleaner, cuz i was low on cash and had paypal funds (they advertise that you can pay with payal there). went to cash out at the service desk cuz it was closest to my van, and the nice cute customer service girl was clueless about how to do it. tried to bring it up, and it was asking for my paypal pass code (numbers?) and we figured out that i first needed to create a passcode on the web. so she had me get on a computer to sign up for it, and the service was temporarily down, so she gave me the fuel filter and carb cleaner for free! can't beat that!
cleaned the carb, mounted the filter, mounted the clutch guard on (covering the motor with a moving blanket, which of course caught on fire. lol), did some odds and ends and called it a night.
today took the buggy for a quick test spin - lots of power again! still could be a little better, so when i do final re-assembly i will give the carb one more cleaning. probably some debris was still left in the fuel line or fuel pump. will also see if it performs differently with and without the air filters. if the air filters are causing too rich of a fuel/air mixture, then a quick and simple re-jet (go a couple sizes smaller) should take care of that.
waiting for the mud to dry up from this morning's rain, then will make a quick video of the buggy in action in the infamous cop-attracting parking lot across the street.
tonight will be dis-assembly night, then getting started on final grinding, then paint time! yay! still gotta whip up some fenders, but that will only take a few hours.