Visited the kids, did shopping, and Saturday plus half of Sunday were gone. Figured I could at least get the taillight connector wired up, until I was out by the fishpond and noticed something. The shading is held up by wood and steel trusses, forced upon me by the city Civil Engineer. I say “forced” because back then I knew it was only a matter of time before the wood rotted. So looking at the one truss closer, it was pretty scary, looking like it could buckle at any moment, and definitely not something to be standing under.
I’m notorious for putting off yard work, but this was was one of those pay-me-now-or-pay-me-a-lot-more-later things. Okay, welded up a secondary truss out of spare 2″ square tubing to back up the original. Getting it in place was interesting, using the floor jack to force the entire assembly back straight, no comments on the C-clamps, please. This temporary setup will do until a replacement truss design is done. Pricewise I’m thinking that chainlink fence tubing and wire cable is about the cheapest way to pull it off, and might even look somewhat-elegant if done right. More on that later, hopefully much later. (Some trusses span the fishpond, which made fixing this one all the more important – having it crash into the water and puncturing the liner would bad news, never mind possibly taking the trusses to either side with it.)
Anyhow, the last shot shows the rear engine screen which looks (to me) a lot better.