Babylon Bay

Certain opportunities are too coincidental not to do.

Someone had listed some scrap stainless tubing on craigslist,

of course on a boat moored off of Coronado.

A couple things I don't like to do,

are getting stuck in traffic,

and driving over that super high Coronado bridge.

Not sure if it's the height or what,

if I'm forced to drive over,

I'll hug the center divider.

Maybe it's cause the van is so tall,

and the safety rail is so low,

it's a freaky optical illusion.

Years ago some friends and I got stuck on the top of that bridge for hours,

behind an accident or a jumper.

Hated it.

So what better excuse to take out our little whaler.

In true Perich Brothers and Sisters form,

if we're gonna have something we're gonna use it.

Glad our little workboat wasn't freshly painted,

we were careful enough with the varnish!

The sellers were true adventurers,

taking their sailboat up and down the coast,

and preparing for an overseas trek to Australia!

Take care guys!

Cool how NorCal boats are built for heavy seas.

That little RIB was really trick too,

not an inflatable but a foam filled fiberglass hull.

Crude but effective!

There's a company that makes these now.

http://www.dinghyus.com

Who woulda thought!?

The sun set on our way back,

the juice squeezed out of our running light battery.

Maybe there's a charging wire from the engine.

Jakob took skipper duty,

and Jaxon pulled a perfect trailer mount.

A month in to bug season,

there was a few getting there hoop nets out.

We'll get out there with 2015 fishing licenses.

Now what to do with this tubing...

TP

Huffin

Last week I mentioned this cool 1977 Sansui qrx-8001 quad receiver score.

Quad was the early version of surround sound,

using 4 speakers,

like a front and rear stereo.

This was a deal as it only worked in 2-channel mode,

on the A speaker setting,

and only one AUX input.

no FM, tape or quad synthesizers.

Very intricately built,

there was no way I could afford a professional repair service.

Over the week other projects were cleared out,

and finally I was able to get down to business.

The insides were unmolested and original.

The first clean was done outside,

compressed air to blow out the dust,

and each pot (knob controller) lubed and twisted 50+ times,

usually all that's needed.

What a disappointment hooking it up.

The thing was dead!

Did I pull a wire out accidentally?

Short something out?

There was intermittent clear sound when the speaker knob was inbetween the A & B setting.

Weird.

Out of frustration,

the dormant 9090 was hooked up,

and wow at 110+ wpc it cranked those speakers.

With no netflix to watch,

1030 pm was the start of the 2nd clean,

this time inside huffing all the good chit.

Old sansui's were known to have flux build-up on the boards,

and I chipped off a bunch with toothpicks.

Like that would miraculously fix it!

After a more thorough spray cleaning,

and sufficient drying time,

the test speakers were hooked up.

Everything worked!!

All inputs, FM, quad buttons and A/B/front/rear!

Nothing perpetuates a rattlecan rebuild hack fix like success.

This whole time the wife was focused on her own project,

probably more so with the fumes.

Did the couple midnight celebratory tequila shots sober us up or help us wind down?!

TP

Phishy Mandate

It seems like a lifetime ago,

but I loved going to grateful dead shows.

Something about it just clicked.

A great excuse to go on a road trip,

hang out with friends and see a favorite band.

At the time I had dogs and VW buses.

Phish was just coming into the scene.

After Jerry Garcia died,

they took over that jam band slot.

I went to a few phish shows,

fun but not a GD show.

Over the weekend they played in San Diego.

I hemmed and hawed til the last couple hours,

and found cheap tickets on you guessed it - craigslist.

Sure there was a possibility of finding a couple stray tickets in the crowd,

but age has taken away that thrill.

My partner in crime was our first born.

Jaxon has definitely taken the reigns on liking music.

I'll come home to him cranking some obscure dead,

or his own radio rock pick.

This was my chance to let him experience what a GD show was kinda like,

in a way more controlled manner!

Funny cause our ticketed seats were ok,

but it seems like we were closer when sitting in the little boat at humphrey's!

Phish doesn't have a lot of playing time in the house,

and if it is it's the earlier tunes.

You can bank on the newer songs to have quirky vocals,

then a ripping solo section,

so musically there are some good new jams.

The weird thing we found out,

was that people knew these most random lyrics,

even if the song wasn't really that good!

(Yeah that's my take)

This gave us the opportunity to walk around the whole scene,

as a song will last at least 10+ minutes.

People will relate GD and phish shows to baseball,

as it's either a hit or miss.

To me this was a show with more songs I'd skip,

with a couple old favorites mixed in.

Sorry guys,

I don't understand how AC/DC Bag and Suzy Greenberg became fan favorites!

In the parking lot it was like old times with all the trinket sellers,

and guys getting publicly loaded on nitrous balloons and whatever else was out there.

Great to take your son to right!?

He was a trooper hanging out with his old man.

I did score a rather bright GD throwback hoodie,

always good to support the traveling shirt sellers!

Wish I had taken better picks of the lot,

but maybe not good to incriminate random people!

No $13 in-show beers helped to get me sober!

The van served us well,

not many old VW buses.

One thing I realized was how opposite this was to hot rodding.

Anyway it was a fun time regardless,

and this time one show sufficed!

TP

Teeny Bopper

What just happened?

13 years ago we were holding a new baby boy,

freshly cut out of his mothers belly.

It's becoming a blur how time flies by.

Worth every moment.

Happy Birthday to Jakob!

TP 

Turnover

I've been trying to clear out the clutter.

Ok.

How many times have I said that?

Is it the clutter or just turnover?

I passed the big Kenwood kr-9600 to a loving family.

At 160 wpc it was a fun in your face unit,

but just didn't have the symbiosis with the speakers and the house.

Could get harsh and sterile at louder levels,

and way too shiny.

In it's place the baby Sansui 2000a.

According to the # code it's a September 1970 model!

(Third digit is year)

The sweet warm tube-like sound,

making me want to relisten old favorites.

Seems way more powerful then 35 wpc.

Even better through those burnt orange grille covers!

The problem with purge mode,

 is making space for deals that are too good to pass on.

This rare 1977 sansui qrx-8001 was a score.

The quad (4-channel) board was out,

but ran perfect as a 2-channel.

The guy even dropped it off.

Thanks Raul!

I love it.

I think it's 80-100 wpc as a 2-channel and has that similar warm sansui sound.

Haven't had time to clean it up,

it'll wait in the queue.

Neat to see how the styles changed.

The top Sansui qr-6500 is 1972.

No meters and a discrete looking tuner.

I actually like the features of the earlier receiver.

There are 3 front speaker outs,

 vs only 1 on the later model.

The other cool thing is the preamp option,

allowing use of 2 external amplifiers.

A great excuse to keep scrounging for junk!

So yeah ya notice the new to us TV?

Thanks to Chip and family.

Now the screen size matches the speakers!

Last but not least,

the canoe did find a new owner.

A little overkill on the pickup vehicle.

TP

What Canoe?

I'll be the first to admit sometimes I get stuff cause it's a deal,

not necessarily cause we need it.

My imagination can easily justify a cheap score.

When it's dragged home,

there's the reality of how much storage space,

or the time that's needed to use it.

Outdoor goods pop up at the end of summer and daylight savings time.

I couldn't pass up this beater aluminum Grumman canoe.

Maybe next years Humphrey's concert series,

or a road trip to a river or lake...

Any way to get the kids out on the water.

Like we need more little boats in the yard!

Let's see if we could camouflage it to blend in.

Gotta plug Home Depot for having cheap camo paint.

With the help of a neighbors plant,

the materials were less than a 20 spot.

The process was quick and a lot of fun.

It's not about the detail,

but the big picture.

I can see how guys could camo their trucks.

Hard to see but we started right before sunset as usual.

No more big old shiny turd.

You'd step on this one.

Now the goal is to use it at least once.

Anyone need this bucket-o-thrills?

TP

Creepy Crawlies

We've got a thing for spiders,

you may remember our battle against wasps,

when I realized they were eating our big orb weavers.

Well the other day Jake found a trippy green spider.

I've never seen a green spider before.

I researched online,

maybe it's a Green Lynx Spider.

We added it to our black widow collection,

but since it isn't really dangerous,

may as well let it hunt with it's remaining 5 legs.

Definitely a growing population of black widows over the summers round the yard.

Most were found really close to where hands go.

Halloween is year round at the Perich pad!

TP

Winterization

Time to prepare the 40 for winter.

I'm hoping for a wet one,

fill up those dry reservoirs.

For now it's the heavy marine layer,

the morning dew wanting to kill the old car.

Before the hood was plopped on,

I had to take care of the blowby problem.

There's been a pcv valve on one side,

but the other side has been a basic open breather cap.

At speed the suction is strong enough to burn any fumes.

At idle there'd be just enough blowby burping,

the occasional wisp venting into the atmosphere.

The hood would only direct it inside the cab.

Hey this was a beater engine from the get go!

The easiest solution was threading pipe fittings into the air cleaner and breather,

then connecting with a rubber hose.

Adding to the clutter.

Easy but would it work?

With no time to warm up the engine to test the new emissions system,

the hood was plopped on and I took off.

Amazingly enough I'm not breathing in exhaust fumes,

so looks like the hack fix worked.

Next winterization project will be making the missing rear windows...

TP

Bucket Brigade

Over the summer I basically drove the cars into the ground.

Guess that's what they're for.

How can a 1940 ford be my most reliable car?

The water pump was starting to chirp,

and it was an easy swap,

until I had the bright idea to spray the car with a hose.

I should know better then to spray down a perfectly running engine with a hose.

As expected,

the engine was shuddering and hiccuping.

Time to troubleshoot.

Funny how little problems are found,

that don't cause problems.

I thought for sure it was a vacuum leak from this dried up plug.

Nope.

Then I thought it must be the custom HEI module.

I had gone through everything else.

Good thing I tried swapping out the distributor cap first.

No more water on a warm engine.

On the parts run,

I found out that NAPA is having a deal month.

Last year it was free hats,

this year it's a bucket deal.

Whatever fits inside is 20% off.

Score!

Perfect timing as I had gotten stuck in the van last week.

Had to make a 20 minute walk of shame home.

For a minute I thought that was the end,

of course I had just paid the registration,

and quarter filled the tank.

After cooling down it magically drove home.

4 years ago it had the same problem,

and the fuel pump was the culprit.

This time the tank was much easier to drop.

The evidence of the old repair was obvious,

I had to weld these bolts on the tank straps after they broke!

Like I said the timing was perfect,

and 20% off a $200 pump is a done deal.

For a free van,

two pumps and used tires I can't complain.

Thanks Sepp!

On the flip side we have enough buckets.

TP