Winter Extravaganza

Last weekend was the big annual Winter Extravaganza Swap Meet over in Webster. Having gone through and made a complete list of items I need for the truck's floor, I knew exactly what I wanted, and how much I was willing to pay for it. I drove over to my parent's house the night before so I could try to get an early start.

My Dad and I got there somewhere around 8:30 or 9:00. The place was full of vendors, selling old parts, new parts, aftermarket parts, tools, vehicles, and on top of that, just about everything else you might expect to find at a flea market. After walking what could be considered aisles for about an hour, Dad headed back to the car. Of interest, I found two separate vendors that sell the aftermarket body repair panels that I need. One of them had the outer rocker panels and one inner panel that I needed sitting there on his table, but he wanted too much for them. The second guy I found didn't have the parts on hand, but he could order them for me, and was about $5 cheaper each for the rocker panels than I could get online. I put a deposit down, and he's going to order them for me. He's based out of Lakeland, so I'll pick them up on my next trip through, or try to get someone to grab them for me.

I spent about three hours total walking around by the time I decided to call it quits. I kind of haphazardly bounced around the last three "aisles" on my way back to the parking lot. Oh, and I also picked up some center caps for the truck's wheels- for half of what I would have paid online. So at least I was able to save some money. Now back to begging for parts for my birthday.

Do Something

Valentine's Day. My wife and I are both sick. I've spent most of the day in bed. When she came home from work, she went to bed, too. I've had better Valentine's Days.

There hasn't really been much to report in the way of progress- most of my efforts have still been going toward cleaning up the garage. The Auto Swap Winter Extravaganza is this weekend, so there should be something to report there.

However for today, I woke up at about 4:00 and felt like actually doing something. In my weakened state I went to my project list to pick out the easiest thing I could find (that did not involve disturbing my sleeping wife). The choice was between fixing a sticky door and installing a new ignition switch in the truck. Hardly a choice! As a stopgap solution I had, for years, been starting the truck in essence by hotwiring it. I don't even know where the old ignition switch has gone at this point- the one I put in came with that rewiring kit I bought back in '07. With a little work and a little patience, I managed to get the connectors on the ends of the three necessary wires to hook to the switch.

There was also the mystery of the "BRIGHT" indicator on the dash to contend with. It was always on as long as the battery was connected. The power to burn it is supposed to come from the fusebox, to the headlight switch, to the dimmer switch, and up to the dash. There are at least three places where the circuit was open (the headlight switch is missing and the dimmer is disconnected, for example) but it still lit up and caused a drain on the battery. I simply removed the bulb, so now my circuit tester tells me there is no more drain on the battery. Now I don't have to disconnect the battery cables every time I'm done running the truck. All of this is of course "temporary," since all of the wiring will be replaced eventually. But for now moving my truck out of the garage will be a bit easier.

Time to take come cold medicine and go lie down.

New switch making everything else look bad