Blow-Proofs

We wound up using blow-proof gaskets for the exhaust of the powerful,
dynamic A-65 Continental on the Taylorcraft. The inner ring is something
of a spiral wound gasket of soft aluminum and rotates. I had to grind off
an edge of the steel housing in order to clear the intake pipes on two
gaskets, and getting the brass nut on one particular stud on the number two
cylinder was pure hell. I remember my old friend and wonderful A&P/IA, the
late C. M. Owenby, saying, "Now *that* one there is a ring-tailed
sonofabitch." Not to worry, though, cause we found a universal-jointed
half-inch socket that had been ground down and finally got to it, but at a
goshawful angle for torquing. It was a Snap-On too.

A friend came in this evening from South Carolina with a dandy C-85-powered
1940 J-5 he just bought. I get a ride tomorrow. Hell fire, ain't life just
grand sometimes!

And I see some good posts -- like Charles Scott's on blasting and
painting -- once I stepped over the bulltuxds of twits like Della, Morgue
the Addict, and a few others in a pixxing contest. Will they ever stop
shooting up and build anything? Or just blab? As for Badboy Billy when
he's sober and lucid and not threatening to unleash his dog Wingy on
somebody or to take a shot at you with his mail-ordered Mannlicher Carcano
he writes some good stuff sometimes.