As I sit here they are lacking final plumbing installation (showerhead and faucet handle) and sealing the edges of the wall panels and cleaning up the mess. I will do a separate post about the shower at a later date. I took some pictures of the bathroom with the tub and enclosure removed to prepare for the installation of the shower stall.
Did anyone catch the Busch Clash Tuesday? It lacked some of the beating and banging that used to be the calling card of the race, but that last corner of the last lap pass attempt by Chase Elliot to get by Ryan Blaney, that led to Kyle Busch going from third going into the final corner to first at the line was classic Clash (the race, not the band).
And I just got back a weight quote on both the Ford 9″ full axle, and the 8″ quick change, and even got a closer estimate for the 9″ as delivered price of $1100 (there is a question of how much the lightweight locker was going to cost as it isn’t in stock and they won’t know the cost until they get it, the pandemic has severely disrupted supply chains in the automotive industry). The 9″ will be somewhat heavier than the quick change but not as much as previously estimated. I was looking at 110 pounds for the 8″ quick change and 120 for the fabricated 9″ Ford housing, which was slightly heavier for the quick change than I expected, and slightly lighter than I was planning for on the fabricated 9″ Ford, plus the Ford is steel which means brackets can be welded directly to the housing, where they have to be fabricated from a compatible alloy, or clamped to the quick change housing which would mean I have to have that work done after delivery of the housing. I do not have the welding unit to weld aluminum, nor do I have the tools to make the clamp-on bracket. The reason the 8″ quick change is heavier than I initially estimated is the weight of the locker is that much more than the aluminum spool used to quote weights for the quick change. Seriously, we are talking the difference between 5 and 21 pounds spool and locker respectively. And the difference in costs between the spool and the locker are about the same scale as the difference in weights. As in the cost of the locker is a multiple of the cost of the spool except worse, the spool is $108, the locker is $500-1200 depending on options and model. The $500 will probably do the job, albeit with great noise and drama even compared to a spool. Lockers are notorious for clunking and banging out of tight corners like typical autocrosses.
Technical aside, lockers are a middle ground between a spool and an open differential, that have a mechanism that locks and unlocks the faster wheel from the slower or just ties them both together and depending on the design they can be noisy and cantankerous about how they do it or just a slight “clunk” that can barely be heard. Interestingly enough the $500 locker has the reputation of having a quiet unlock and relock as well as a reputation for sometimes not engaging either wheel after a turn. I might get away with that one depending on how much power my engine makes. If I get the 5.3L truck engine from a junkyard then I’m only making about 300 HP at the tire which is within the limits of the cheap locker, but just barely, but more importantly, the cheap locker has better street manners away from the racetrack. So, draw, win, draw, on the merits of the cheap locker.
Well while I was working on the blog post the shower stall was installed into the bathroom and we have to wait until tomorrow evening for all the adhesives to cure before we can use it. Again, I will do a separate post about the shower stall after we get some use out of it, right now it just stinks of acetic acid while the adhesives cure. After a week we can use cleaning products on it like normal, except because of the soft material used in the shower stall (compared to ceramic tile and glazed cast iron and ceramic fixtures) everything has to be non-abrasive. That means no Comet, Ajax, Soft Scrub or anything like that in store brands. I think when the shower can be cleaned is enough time to evaluate how it performs.
And it’s about time to order dinner so I must put this post to bed.
Witch on a Bicycle 