The Wrenchette: A Girl Buils a Roadster

I don't have kids, and I've never been pregnant, but they say people that are go through a "nesting" phase of needing to get everything in order before the big day arrives. That seems to be the phase I'm in now with my kit. My Roadster kit has an estimated completion date at FFR of September 3, 2011. When I look at the calendar, this seems really close, and I've started getting everything ready. I'm an OCD planner, so I guess all of this plays to my skills well.

I've contacted Stewart Transport, the trucking company that will bring my Roadster frame, body, and 35 boxes from Wareham, MA to Tucson, AZ. They don't require the kit to be crated before shipping, as they have a cool crane that lifts it out of the truck, which can be seen on their website [URL="http://www.stewarttransport.com/index.php?go=factory5"]here[/URL]. The truck gets filled with 8-10 kits before leaving FFR, and then the truck drops the kits off at the various points across the country. Given that I'm in Tucson, my kit will probably be towards the tail end of the trip, unless there's been a run on FFR kits from CA, WA, and OR.

September 3rd falls on the Labor Day weekend, so Stewart estimates picking up my kit somewhere in the 6th to 9th range. It will then take approximately 7-10 days to make it across the country before mine arrives. So for now I'm looking at a mid-September arrival. Did I mention that seems really close? I've already paid for my shipping in full, which for those curious is $1600. This may seem like a lot, but with the price of fuel and the amount of transportation required, it's not bad at all. There's no way I'd want to do that drive. I've done the drive from Tucson to Mid-Ohio, and Tucson to Daytona and back, with a trailer full of race motorcycles and it's not fun.

August 6th was the 12 year wedding anniversary for Zac and I. He surprised me with a 12V DeWalt rechargeable drill and a 10 pack of 1/8 inch drill bits, "since you'll probably go through a bunch of those" he said. I asked if he got the 12V drill because it was our 12th anniversary. "Um, yeah..." he replied. Ha! I was just kidding around. It was a great gift and adds to the pile of tools I'm collecting specifically for my build.

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A few years ago, Zac got me my own toolbox and Craftsman tools, with the anticipation of me building my kit. You see, it's important to have separate tools. I'll be able to keep track of my tools for my build without them wandering off to be used on other projects. I'm the type that puts my toys away when I'm done with them at the end of the day. My husband, not so much. He had them all engraved with "For Elaine, Love Zac" as part of the gift, so they are easy to tell apart from the other garage tools. I've already played with them when working on motorcycle projects, but now they'll finally get used for their intended project.

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The other part of the preparation is our garage. When we purchased the house (a fixxer upper), the garage was unfinished. This was fine, because that meant we could set up the garage the way we wanted. Now that my kit has an arrival date, Zac is working on getting the garage together so that I'll have a place to build. It's a 36 ft by 36 ft detached garage, with 3 large roll-up doors. Most people think this is huge, but given the number of hobbies we have and the fact that it isn't completely finished means it isn't quite organized. I told Zac that people have built kits with far less space, so even if we push motorcycles and bicycles over it should be fine. We'll see how far we are in September.

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