London Taxi – Bits and Pieces

I’m in pieces, bits and pieces. But enough about me – here’s a picture of some heavy metal that came to Austin, TX with the SXSW 2011 crowd.

So the heavy parts include clutch and assembly from the venerable KipMotor.com. The thrust bearing has the information cut from the original packaging so that I can’t order it direct from their manufacturers next time I order such a thing in 60,000 miles time. I think it’ll take 20 years to drive it that far, so no worries there.

Now all I’m waiting for is the shop manual, and to clear a modest amount of space in the garage which has girl scout cookies, lumber and event planning supplies festooned around a set of “house for sale” signs making access to the cab virtually impossible.

Oh, and then I need to “be in training” for a few days so that I can clear my schedule. Which isn’t technically a white lie, as I’ve got about 60 hours of real estate audio books to listen to, and a real estate broker licensing exam to work on at the same time.

It amuses me how clean and neat the parts look right now in comparison to the rest of the cab underbelly which is witness to a patina of used petrochemicals. I expect the spaces under my fingernails to convey the dirty oil from car to rest-of-world. Hopefully this week while the missus is out in San Diego. So I can be big pimping around SXSW in my cab by the end of the week. Realistic? Hell no. But it’s good to live in fantasy, I mean to set lofty goals.