Ok, a few updates, or more like a short blog post:
-2nd set of Brake calipers from MCP are ordered. I'll duplicate the mount/setup, just in the opposite orientation from above.
-I have decided to reverse the hydraulic e-brake orientation. I am very tall, and I might actually have a hard time pulling the brake without my elbow jamming into my passenger/seat. As such It will be flipped so that its a push forward to brake orientation. Better spacing for my right leg as the driver as well. Also closer to passenger's hands (like small kids) in the event that they need to grab it and engage it.
-While waiting for shipment of that and a few fittings, I am going to start fitting the brakes and researching/building a mount for an alternator.
-A major obstacle currently in my way is the weather conditions for the next 4-5 months. I live in the Pacific Northwest only a few miles from the Puget Sound. We are going to be dark, cold, and rainy till spring. This is going to be an issue with me painting as I don't really want to paint in my garage. If I did that I would need to keep the doors open, and it would just get too dang cold in that case for the paint to work/dry properly. Secondly, even if I did a setup outside, its going to be really hard to keep the humidity down and temps up in order to properly spray. I could rush it and do a simple roll on paint, but I want this to be done right, and I have a vision in my head of what that looks like. I want to do metal flake, and that requires multiple coats, and good conditions, something I won't have for a few months. No roll on for metal flake either. Realistically, I won't have a ton of amazing opportunities to offroad till this thing is properly painted either. So she definitely won't be fully finished till Spring. So, I have a slight change of plans:
-I am going to focus on fixing/building everything to get this thing running and put painting till the very end, and by end that likely means springtime. But once spring comes, I am going to do it, and do it right. I'll still take it for a test drive soon here, and get things tweaked out, but I'll do it in dry weather with a coating of oil on the steel. Once everything is tip top, I'll periodically take stabs at setting up/getting tools to be ready to paint at the moments notice once weather is good.
"Nightshade" from Roth Metal Flake is still the front-runner. All while wiping it down with WD-40 and oil every so often.
-While this Iron is in the fire, I am going to put more of a focus on using my building skills to make stuff with/for my kids so that we can spend more time together. Luckily I get quite a bit of time off from work (all the gov't holidays and summers), and I work from home 3/5 days of the week. This means that I get to see them a lot. I have a 5-year-old daughter, 3-year-old son, and a 5-month-old daughter, and a wife. It has been hitting me lately that I actually don't have that much time left with the kids at home. That paired with the importance of the first few foundational years of childhood for mental, physical, social, and emotional development means that I need to back away from building just the big dune buggy a little bit. That, and people generally seem to have a bleak outlook on the world right now so I am going to put a positive focus on it for my kids and wife. Here are the big plans that are starting to take priority as I finish up the buggy and wait for better painting weather:
1) Treehouse. Well, technically not a tree house, it will be more of a fort. Somehow, we have 1 measly tree from the East Coast on our lot, and multiple 100-200ft tall Western red Cedars trees at our neighbor's houses. But, we do get a little more sunlight as a result. My plans for this fort is to build some sort of 8'x8' (minimum) structure, no more than 12'12', possibly with a small deck, a few windows, a small wood stove that can double as a cooking surface, a mini water catchment. I just got a little camping porta-poty pee thing that can be put in there as well for nighttime emergencies of little ones. We already have alot of kids around us, and more on the horizon as they enter the public school system. I made a 8'x8' sandbox for my kids over the summer, and my wife has been on my case to build a cover so the neighborhood cats stop peeing/pooping in it. This struture will double as that cover. I'll build the fort directly above the sandbox. We are a little limited on space, and this will also help to keep the sand pit dry. The height of the structure will be right around 6 feet off the ground, maybe a little taller. I want a space that my kids can play in outside of the rain, but inside of a structure that is warm/dry enough to sleep in, and possibly cook their own food on. I'm a big believer in teaching kids to use tools/control their own level of safety with initial guidance from adults. We camped outside in 30-degree weather last week (only the 3 and 5 year old and I), and they loved it. My daughter said she wants to always camp and asked why we were sleeping inside the next day! Haha. My goal is to get footings poured/supports built in the next month, that way the cement is dry for building the actual fort around Christmas. I'll post photos periodically of that build as it progresses.
2) With the acceptance of a longer than desired build for my buggy has come the realization that my kids are now old enough to start learning how to ride a small go kart. I am going to begin building/planning the build of a small 2-seater go-kart. Much simpler/smaller than mine. I'll likely just buy something already made/close to being made, and just finish it off. This will be a great way to include my kids, use leftover parts from my build, and to practice painting metal flake with their (likely Chinese built) metal body as opposed to my build. Timeline is to have this running and ready to build and paint just before mine in the spring time.
3) Periodically I get overloaded with projects that don't bring me immediate satisfaction (its easy to get down when you only build and dont get to enjoy what you are building). When that happens I go target shooting. So I'll be casting, powder coating, reloading, and doing various load development the whole time. Primary calibers include 22lr (for competition), 45acp 38 special, 357 mag, .223 Win, .308 win, 6.5x55 Swedish, 7.5x55 Swiss, 8mm Mauser, and .480 Ruger.
Wish me luck! Some day I'll have a running sparkly buggy, but right now its build-plan-build-baby!
