Big Country Expat

Greetings and Salutations!
Man, the hits to Sig just keep coming.
The memewaffen have gone utterly crazy, and man, I’ve been getting more laughs than should be allowed. That’s being said, the statement that took the topper today was American Eagle jeans regarding the whole Sidney Sweeney brou-ha-ha:

For those of you living under a rock, this’s the ad that’s made all the woketards go insane:

I mean it’s hilarious!!!
They really hate White People.

The cope and seeth is off the charts.
Delicious.
Wonder if they a store here in this A.O.?
If so, will they have my size?

Their stonks also went up like 16% since this ad campaign dropped. Gee, marketing to a certain demographic who actually you know, wears jeans and appreciates a good joke? Whodathunk it?

Yeah.
Amazing what your biddness will do when you actually listen to and respect your customer base. Bud Lite, please take note.

Oops… too late.

So… Back to the P320 Firestorm.

Wyoming Gun Project, the gun who blew open a WHOLE shitpot of worms on Sig by getting his P320 to do 5 AD/ND’s in a row?

Well, he had an update, and man, it’s a good one.

And because of it I -think- I figured out the MAIN PROBLEM that’s causing these issues. HE doesn’t implicity state it, but I will and with my own conclusions.

And yeah, fixing it would entail a metric fuckton of money on Sig’s behalf to remedy it, so I’ll leave it to you guys to tell me what you think of MY findings.

First, here’s the vid:

Now
As a minor league gunsmith of some ill-repute, let me tell you a few things upfront IF you are unaware. WHEN you buy a P320, you’re actually buying the trigger assembly, not the entire weapon.

Yep.

The Sig P320 was designed as a modular handgun system.

Meaning the serialized part is the trigger assembly as seen here:

THAT is actually the part you fill your 4473 out for.
The Slide and Plastic Handgrip shell?

Nope.

See, the idea in theory is great.

Make a trigger assembly (or FCU/Fire Control Unit as Sig calls it) that can be ‘dropped in’ to various sized pistol shell(s) and slide combinations. From a full frame, to a ‘carry’ frame, or a compact, the idea is that you swap out the FCU and slap it into whichever form you want. If you want a full sized Sig? They have the various sized ‘grip module(s)’ as they call them:

That’s the full size. And if you want a compact concealable piece, they have that too:

Kind of a Cool Idea…
Until they went ‘cheap’ on it.

“Whatever do you mean BCE?” I hear the peanut gallery asking. Whelp, let me ‘splain sum’tin’ to you Lucy…

First off, here’s another angle shot of the FCU with an added custom piece offered by Apex:

Apex makes an aftermarket “Trigger Bar” to attempt to alleviate the P320’s propensity to AD/ND. No idea if it works, but good on them for at least trying to come up with a solution…

The reason I use this as a pic?
Well it shows the construction of the FCU’s main body.

Namely the stamped metal shell that the whole weapons functionality is based on.

WGP (shortened for brevity) points out a few things that made my brain itch. ONE major thing that stood out was when he showed the obvious looseness of the slide versus the grip module. I screencapped a pic:

He wiggles and jiggles that fucker around more than a fat chick trying like Hell to squirm herself into skinny-jeans…

And you can SEE the OBVIOUS bend where the FCU is, well bent to create the rails that hold the slide onto the Grip Module.

As an contrast, he took his Tisas $200 special (I actually think he said it was like $189) and showed the tolerances on THAT particular pistol:

Which, to you, looks more reliable and better built?

Add on he ALSO points out that the free ‘upgrade’ that Sig did waaay back when this particular shitshow started? Well they upgraded (for free) the sear:

He righteously so points out that DESPITE having a ‘secondary safety catch’ added on the new sear, it doesn’t seem to fucking work. Without having one in front of me to test, I think that it’s not tall enough to catch the hook on the firing pin.

I had a similar problem when building a 80% Glock Wannabe. I had to shave the firing pin down to get it to fit, and I accidentally took too much off of the hook. First time I fired it, it went no shit full auto, which scared the ever living shit out of me AND Cowboy who’s place I do my test fires at, and well… yeah… I ordered and put in a new firing pin ASAP!

Magdumps are cool, but not like that…

Ride the Lightening INDEED
Thank God I had a good grip on it otherwise I would have had that fucker shooting at the moon. Anywho…

So, another screencap:

Notice what holds the slide in place?
Four metal Tabs.
ONLY!

I realized (as I don’t nor will ever have one) that those shitty probably cheap steel tabs? Yeeeeeah… FIRST: They’re what hold the slide on. That’s it. Those are THE ONLY SLIDE RETENTION THE SLIDE HAS!!! NO extra plastic on the lower grip module, which to me seems counter-intuitive. Even my Poly80 has metal reinforced slide rails. SECOND: Those tabs?

Well as seen in the video? They get beat to shit and are subject to wear, which in turn worsens the looseness of the slide.

WGP point out ALL the wear on this thing… Like the sear catch:

..and he also points out that the secondary sear catch? Well is shows the marks of the firing pin hook where it’s gone OVER the secondary sear catch, but it hasn’t as far as I can tell ever caught the fucking hook during an ND/AD.

So
To sum up MY findings:

Between the slop/looseness of the slide, excessive wear on a cheap assed ‘FCU Bucket’ so to speak, wear on the primary sear, and a failure of the secondary sear to do its job? I mean the ‘slop’ alone is a major ‘fail’, especially in light of the firing pin hook being reliant on a tight match between the slide, and the lower FCU to keep from firing. That much slop as WGP shows? A recipe for disaster. This’s ALL on Sig and a lack of willingness to realize and approach the problem from a new POV IMO.

As stated, its a shitshow.

The ONE thing I can think of off the top of my head is Sig would need to switch from a STAMPED Metal FCU to a MILLED FCU.

And that my frens would cost money

Doh-Ray-Mee.

LOTS Of It.

And under Sig’s current Leadershit?

Methinks Mr. Cohen isn’t about to step off that pillar he’s climbed up on, or the pillar he -thinks- he’s standing on… when in reality? It’s a deep hole, and only getting deeper by the day. I mean suing police departments that don’t want to use your bullshit defective product? REALLY!?! WTF over?

What they NEED to do:

Make a MILLED lower FCU ‘bucket’ if you will… this will assist in slowing down the wear as a milled bucket would be superior, and allow better fitment to the slide overall.

THEN Re-measure the secondary sear safety, and THEN redo it if and as needed, and lastly MAKE the new sear out of much STRONGER material… something like Carpenter 158 like they use in AR BCG’s. That shit is impervium I swear… the wear on the sear is worrisome and probably adds to the problem.

Lastly ADD steel reinforced secondary rails to the grip module(s) to eliminate the ‘slop’ on the slide moving all willy-nilly. THAT would ‘tie the whole thing together’ so to speak, much like the Dude’s Rug…

THOSE IMO would fix the P320’s issues.

In fact I’d love to see the stats of the AGE of the weapons that ND’d/AD’d. Any bets they’d be older more well-used pistols?

I mean the modular pistol FCU concept is great IF done properly.

I personally think Sig tried to ‘do it on the cheap’ and are now going to pay for it in spades.

So, what y’all think?
I’m pretty sure of MY thoughts and hypothesis regarding the causation(s) and what they need to do to fix it… Howboutchoo?

Let me know in the comments
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK
Tonight: The SIG P320.
A) Don’t Own One
B) If you DO Own One Get Rid of It ASAFP
C) Thatisall.

In all seriousness…
This’s not a joke.
Besides the “Cult of Sig” kids, I don’t know about you, but ANY striker-fired handgun with a track record like this would have been forcibly pulled from the market via some DotGov Agency LONG AGO.

Per a guy I really respect, Brandon Herrera, former candidate for Congress this last time around, his “Gun Meme Review” today regarding the P320 is worth the watch:

As Brandon called it The Cult of Sig… well I grabbed the Reddit screengrab he used:

If that isn’t beyond ‘fanboi’ level behavior and edging into “Cult Worship” I have no idea…

It’s a damned shame that it’s going this way.

I also believe that there are major reasons that no regulatory Agency for the DotGov has stepped in, and one of the BIG REASONS I’d say it’s corruption.

Money Talks.

After all, Sig, despite it’s nominal subpar performance and known issue(s) has managed to ‘corner the DotMil Marketplace’ on not only the M-17/M-18 (which is what the Army/Air Force respectively gave as nomenclatures to the P320) but also the next generation of DotMil Combat Rifles and Squad Automatics.

One of these being the SIG MCX Spear, which has been adopted by the U.S. military as the XM7, replacing the M4 carbine in close-quarters combat roles. Now I’ve gone over this particular Piece of Dreck in now-nuked content, but essentially, the .277 SIG Fury (6.8x51mm) round that it’s chambered in, and the subsequent ‘two cartridge solution’ (meaning them having one bi-metallic combat load with INSANE chamber pressure and the ‘practice round’ with significantly lower chamber pressure) meant that long term, the DotMil, specifically the Army was going to find itself really fucked if they deploy these steaming hunks of over-engineered bullshit devices.

Problem being is training on a low pressure round is FAR different from a ‘hot’ combat round. Train like you fight right? Unless it’s a Sig, where a combat round (using my OWN extensive intel on throat erosion/barrel wear) is that a XM-7 would need a barrel after about 3-4000 rounds MAX.

Good for the company
Moneywise.

ABSOLUTE SHIT for readiness.

Trust me… I did the Depot Level Thang for 2 years

I serviced REGULAR rifles that (M-4/M16A2) that were on a ‘waiting list’ for a year plus ‘cos there was only one of me for the entire state. Never mind parts…

Imagine how bad it’d be if every. single. unit. needed new barrels within a year/year and a half, as some units qualify quarterly, and some SpecOps kid shoot weekly.

Never mind the five fucking pound all-in-one-point-of-failure scope that EACH XM-7 is supposed to have… a 5 pound battery run monstrosity that I’d say would probably shit the bed under just normal Infantry use, never mind extreme use. Let’s not even go into the 80,000 pounds per square inch chamber pressure of the round… the very fact that’ll literally burn the barrel out of a rifle like that so fucking quickly?

Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaah… I smell former DotMil General Occifer Fuckery Afoot as far the procurement process goes. I wonder who got the payoff and what no-show position he/she got.

I mean lets face it

The fucking DotGov does recalls for products for faaaaar lesser issues. Case in point, those ‘magnetic bead’ toys a few years back? I can’t remember the name but one kid choked to death, and a few were injured and it was NATIONWIDE RECALL!!!! DO NOT USE!!!! DISPOSE OF AT ALL COSTS!!!! 24-7.

And people did.

Now granted, this was because a kid died.

HOWEVER
They did the same thing with that Hot-Pot Cooking thing that killed some poor bastard while cooking ramen. It overheated, detonated and kil’t the poor sumbitch. Again: NATIONWIDE RECALL!!!! DO NOT USE!!!! DISPOSE OF AT ALL COSTS!!!! 24-7.

Now?
In the case of Sig?
Well…
Over 100 cases of absolutely known AD (accidental discharge) incidents resulting in near-fatal outcomes. ONE known death as of now.

TONS of anecdotal evidence.
To include one of the most damning:

A relatively known unknown YouTuber called “Wyoming Gun Project” who now has a shit-ton of views due to his experimentation with the Sig P320. He essentially used a wood-screw to put literally .68mm of pressure on the hammer, and then manipulated the slide (very slightly in many cases) and got 5 Accidental Discharges!!!

.68mm of trigger pressure?

Considering a LOT of holsters utilize a trigger-based ‘pressure retention’ to keep the fucking gun in the holster? Yeeeeeah… I think Ole Boy is on to something…

Jes’ Sayin’

But as I was raging about, I find it extremely interesting that NO DotGov AGency has forced a recall………….

YET.

BUT!

The reason for that? Huh…
Funny that innit?
Let’s examine it…

I mean under normal circumstances…

ESPECIALLY with the overwhelming “anti-gun DotGov” that we have in general? You’d think they’d be tripping over each other to issue a recall for an eeee-vil handgun…

Add on the whole DotGov thing of “We back the Blue!!!” (i.e. Cops in general) and the fact that the MAJORITY of woundings have been cops on duty hit by their fucking service P320?

Seems a bit odd that Aye?

Add on the ‘other moves’ that Sig has been doing like suing the Police forces and others who refuse to allow the use of the P320? Like as in ‘doubling down on stupid’?

Well…. I’ll let THIS speak for itself:

“Deflect and make counter-accusations”

All I can say is:

Suing those who go against your narrative?

Sounds very familiar.

(Possibly) Leveraging blackmail potentially to make sure your filthy lucre keeps flowing no matter the human cost (after all they’re only goyim)?

Sounds extremely familiar….

Yep.
So on that note… I’ll leave it to you to decide.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
What can I say? I think I’ll do this on the regular, if only to give the brain-housing group a break. Ye Olde People’s Tractor Factory kind of kicked the Hell out of me today. Lots of “Hey Get this done now Tovarisch!” and maaan… it seems to be becoming the rule, rather than the Exception.

So, for your giggles, a bunch of new ones I farmed this past weekend:

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
So I took a night off last night… both physically and mentally spent. I actually went to bed on Friday night at 22:00 so I’d make sure I was up to you know, actually do something besides being a fart-sack-slug.

It worked. I was up by 08:30.

And commenced to working on a multitude of ‘sins’ if you will. Namely getting the yard squared away, AND working on the Boat. I finally went and did the window regulator. I’m exceptionally happy that a guy on the YouToob who had a video for this exact year and model which prepped me for the job.

I did the full-on tear-down, and got everything ready:

Once I had ‘skinned’ all the crap out, the new piece went in rather smoothly. Sorry for a dearth of photos, but it was hot as balls, and I was working, rather than doing a walk through. Needless to say, it worked. The window works like a champ.

I did fuck up one thing and that was making sure the door handle worked when I put it all back together. I’ll fix that in the next few days. It’s a matter of removing the inner cover, and re-mounting it properly (I didn’t get it ‘seated’ right as it seems) but hey, at least I can lower the window to open the door from the outside…

I also have to pretty much do the same for ALL the other door handles as the 03 Nav is notorious for having shitty door handles. Thankfully I got a completely new set off of the eBay for $35 w/free shipping, so I have that going for me.

It took me about two heat-cat inducing hours to get the door done. However, I was motivated, so I went a wee bit further and did the fog lamps, which I had mentioned I had overlooked before. They came out ok, but as they (as far as I can tell) are INOP, it’s a cosmetic thing. I figure out what’s wrong with them later.

THEN…

Yeah I wasn’t done.
I took off the broken and faded front grill, seen here:

Well, it looked like this after about 2 hours of work:

The reason it took so long was I had to take a Dremel cutting tool to 4 out of the 5 screw/nuts securing it… and as you can see, the discoloration on ALL the lamps is gone…

Interesting side note…

The hood is made of fiberglass
NOT STEEL
You can see in the upper right corner where the cutting blade hit the fiberglass and scored a line in it. Very interesting side note IMO AND explains the WHY of the paint on the hood being SO much more shitty than the rest of the truck. The UV is playing hell with BOTH the paint and fiberglass as those of us ‘in the know’ understand… sanding and repainting might just be off the table in light if this…

Jes’ Sayin’

So the new grill?
Well once I hacked off the old nutz n’boltz?
It came out looking like this:

Ain’t that purty?

Now as to the emblem of the front?

Well that’s a conundrum. The clear plastic on it is cracked all to Hell and gone from road debris. Pulling it apart and just ‘cleaning it up’ isn’t an option. Neither is the $66-a-shot new one. So I got it off, filled in the cracks, and am working on doing a custom ‘in progress’ thing that IF it works, well… I’ll show you. If not? Well I’ll suck it up and buy a new one.

Payday IS this upcoming Friday after all.

Who needs food?

I mean overall, J3 hooked me straight the fuck up. The only blip on the radar was when I took it to the Car Wash to get it it’s first decent scrub in who knows how long? This was shortly after getting the window operational, so of course I wanted it (the Boat) scrubbed. When I got then, all was well UNTIL I went to put it in ‘neutral’…

THE WHOLE FLIPPING SHIFTER KNOB BLEW INTO PIECES!!!

NO IDEA (at the time) as to what exactly happened, but maaaaan… I kind of geeked… the car wash alarms started blowing, which TBH sounded a LOT like the “INCOMING! INCOMING! INCOMING!” alerts we had in Iraq, which I’m sure contributed to me geeking the fuck out “Ert! Ert! Ert!” as myself AND the Boat were caught in the treadmill, unable to shift out of drive into neutral or anything else… queue PTSD meltdown amiright?

Thankfully, this must happen occasionally, ‘cos this big dude jumped into the ‘shotgun seat’ with a screwdriver and asked if he could do what needed to be done? I was like “FUCK YAH! dude!” and he popped open the shifter console, which allowed him/me to then shift the Boat into neutral and get my ‘scrub on’.

When I got home I was able to put it into park due to dude opening the ‘guts’ of the system, which allowed me to bypass the normal shit, and googled the fuck out of what the fuck just happened!?!

Seems it’s the lil itty bitty screw holding everything together had worked it’s way loose, which allowed the shifter knob to ‘pop off’ and thereby NOT allow the shifter to function, as the shifter knob ‘safety button’ was no longer capable of engaging.

Sheesh.

All’s well that ends well.

Now I have to figure out what’s up with the AC.

I’ve recharged it per instructions and specifications, but it’s still blowing hot as balls. Any insight would be appreciated. I have a new cabin filter, but am unsure if that’s the issue… I hope it is ‘cos I can fix that, even tho it’s a pain in the ass, but at least it’s cheaper than say a new compressor (worst case scenario)

So again, an early night.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Brutally Stolen off of ChatGPT ‘cos tonight?
I’m lazy:

So that about sums it up for tonight
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
So… First off…
No more comments here or anywhere re: the current marital situation. I’m not going to comment anymore, and I’ve removed the majority of ‘stuff’ out there as it’s nothing but ammunition.

She’s gotten the URL and is watching quite closely.

So other than that, if your comments and conversations ‘go away’ in the next few, it’s not you per se, but on advice from counsel and the rest… you get what I’m saying?

Now.. as far as tonight?

Well today after work was a wash on doing -anything- with the Boat. The rain has been pretty much non-stop today, and severe in some instances. I got a nastygram from the HOA threatening ALLLL sorts of $100.00 a day fines for not having cut my grass, based off of the last warning that I had “14 days to remedy the situation”…

Back on May 28th.

OF COURSE I remedied it within a day or two, as well, the nastygram I got dated 15+/- days BEFORE that on May 6th was that my grass had bare patches and that I needed to seed/sod the area… I think I ranted about it, in that I was given 14 days to grow a shit-ton of new grass (sod is worthless IMO and never ‘takes’ on my front yard for some reason) which I managed to get done… On the 28th they bitched at me that the new grass was too long…

FML… make up your fucking minds will you???

So it got cut of course.

NOW? Based off of that May 28th ‘warning’ they’re saying their going to levy $100.00 a day for the yard not being cut even though I got it cut today despite the rain and all that.

Also, if I hadn’t cut the lawn since May 28th, and it’s July 23rd? Fuck Me… the lawn would have pockets of VC and Japs who didn’t get word that the war was over, never mind ticks galore. It’d be realistically almost waist deep… <Le Sigh>

I’m really getting tired of being fucked with to the point that prison is looking pretty fucking comfy right now. They also bitched about the trees not being trimmed, and yeah… it’s hard to do when it rains damned near 5 out of 7 days a week, and I work 50-60 hours a week to keep this show rolling… I’ll have THAT done by Saturday.

Fucking swine… the lot of them…

So anyways… a couple of things or three outside of the Boat-Repair (heh) and the current Poly-Ticks of the day… as far as the Poly-Ticks, it’s a nonstop shitshow of ‘if it leads it bleeds’ reveals that I can’t even keep track of now… I’m sort of over it all… let me know when the world ends mnnn-k? I want to get off…

Nope.

Tonight?

One major topic: A Practical skill(s) that may or may not be needed in the future… which in my case has been a hobby of mine since I was bored-off-my-ass in Afghanistan. This particular skill started by a gift given to me from a buddy of mine who gave me a neat piece of DotMil issued kit while there.

Namely LOCKPICKING

Now, in my case I was given a small set of picks by a guy I was handling the Property Book for… Namely the 160th SOAR, the SF Aviation guys. One of their supply guys gifted me a set of Sparrows Lockpicks…

They were for some of the SF kids an issue to via the Rapid Fielding Initiative, which was a fielding of new/experimental gear… from what I found out, they gave these out tot he SF kids to assist in going into places they weren’t necessarily welcome… As you can see, mine’s a bit faded and worn…

It comes in that lil handy-dandy tactical style case, with Velcro on the back, to allow it to do a ‘quick detach/affix’ on your gear as needed. Inside in has a basic set of tension wrenches and picks:

3 Tension/Torque Wrenches (used for putting the lock barrel under tension)
3 “Rake” style picks (named for ‘raking’ the pins to get them lined up to open the lock)
and 5 “Regular Pin Picks” of varying sizes, to assist in pushing and setting the pins to unlock the lock.

Once I was given this, I realized I knew nothing about picking locks AT ALL. I mean outside of doing it in Fallout, and seeing it on TV? I had not even Clue #1. My Supply Buddy recommended the following however to learn the ‘basic stuff’ and seeing that I had nothing but time on my hands in Kandahar, I sent for this book:

Link (with my ‘taste’) HERE

Now this’s just advice… I’m not giving any direct instructionals as there’s just too damned much to cover. Nope… I will however offer that this’s a skill you want and need.

I can’t stress it enough… this book as above right here (as far as I have found) is the best introduction to Lockpicking across the board. Once I got it, I spent a LARGE amount of my down time learning the intricacies of doing a successful pick… tensioning the lock, learning the ‘feel’ of various pins and such… setting the pins…

It’s quite a challenge, both physically as well as intellectually.

In fact the feeling you get from successfully picking your first lock is rather cool… like triumphant is how I felt…

And having the proper tools for the job helps quite a bit.

Now, YMMV but ALSO keep in mind that depending on your area, SOME of these tools are illegal as Hell. “Burglary Tools” or whatever bullshit charges that ‘The Leviathan’ wants to pin on someone. I know a kid who got hemmed up for having “Burglary Tools” because he happened to have a Phillips head screwdriver on him when he got caught doing a B&E (I went through Basic and AIT w/him)… he said it wasn’t a tool to assist in the break in, but for his own defense against anyone who might try to jack him… instead of a knife, he had a screwdriver, which is faaar more common than peope realize…

That being said, it added an ‘enhancement’ to the B&E hence why he was in the Army… “Join or Jail” still happened in the late 80’s early 90’s. So be aware of the rules and whatnot.

Personally?

I use Sparrows picks almost exclusively.

Their Website is HERE

I don’t get anything for saying so (I wish I did), but hey… they’re damned good and have some pretty cool innovations. One of which is part of my EDC (every day carry) which is this:

Front and back (with belt clip) and smaller than a pocketknife.

It’s the “Escort” (LINK) which I got some time ago when it first got introduced for a very low price (like 1/3 less that the current price!!!!) It has the following:

3 “Rake” style Picks
3 “Normal” Pin Setting Picks
1 Medium Torque/Tension wrench

VERY portable (belt clip)
VERY concealable (smaller than and looks like a jackknife)
VERY handy (once you know what you’re doing)

Besides boredom, I realized this was a skill-set that may have some real-time use. I mean you don’t always want/need to smash a door open right? Post Collapse, is it not better to slip in quietly, rather than bash in the door and announce to one and all that ‘someone’ has come to visit? Quiet goes a looong way.

Same goes with secured containers/storage units and the like…

Better no one knows you were even there IMO.

So, I highly recommend this as a skill set to add to the need-to-know collection of ‘learn-learn-learn’… It’s for the most part a seriously overlooked one, but can be done, on your own, with a minimum of investment. A case in point, the “Tuxedo” which is what they’re calling that SF Issued kit ran on sale around Sapper’s B-Day for $30. It was of course his B-Day Gift from me, and he’s been learning how to do lockpicking via borrowing my book…

When he gets confident, we’ll start doing lockpicking contests… things like the same model lock, and start at the same time, and see who gets it picked first…. nothing like a challenge to make it fun right?

So, Your thoughts?
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
OK So today’s headlight cleaner/restorer came in courtesy of Terrapod (I think)… a random Amazon delivery. GREATLY Appreciated kind sir, and to the reader who sent me the check, it showed. Y’all generosity is overwhelming I swear.

Now, Thing is, the headlight restorer, the ‘one and done’ showed up AFTER I used the Cerakote Kit that I had gotten on Monday… What’s interesting that I sort of fucked up when I did the main headlights… as you can see:

I forgot the fog lamps!

BUT!

It gives a great comparison as the headlights were as jacked up and yellowed as the fog lamps. You can see the marked improvement. I swear I should get paid to endorse this stuff. Here’s a left and right close-up:

Now the cool thing about me forgetting to do the fog lamps?

NOW with the one Terrapod sent me, I’ll be able to use that as a compare/contrast test. I’ll hit the fog lamps tomorrow and see how they turn out.

I also have a new grill to put on AND the new window internals showed up, so this’s coming together rather well and quickly.

Brand-Spanky-New!!!

I also figured out what hardware I need to mount it on, as the old nuts that would normally be re-used on the old one are rusted to Hell-and-Gone. No worries… Home Depot was able to get me the correct lock-nuts for $0.17 a piece as opposed to the Ford/Lincoln Factory “Fasteners” (common lock-nuts as mentioned) that are like $1.25 a piece.

The Lincoln Emblem is somewhat problematic. The old one I’m going to try and refinish and reuse, as there ARE new ones out there, but they average about $70 bux. I did get excited when I found one for $35 but then the shipping and handling was like $37???

How the Hell they get away with shit like that, on a 4oz. piece of plastic is beyond MY understanding… Grift is my call… pure and simple Grift.

Now, since the Cerakote headlamp restoration kit worked so well, I’m eager to see how their Paint Sealer/Restoration kit is. I mean whatever it does, It’ll be an improvement no matter what.

Guess we’ll have to see.

Telling you… between rifle restoration and now truck restoration? I mean this’s becoming a full-time ‘thing’ restoring “stuff” if you will… And yep, I still am working on that other and last Lee Enfield… things have just been, as you’ve seen, a might chaotic up ’round here.

Let me know what you think!
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
AMAZING what a little TLC and elbow grease does on a vehicle:

Namely hitting the rims with the proper chemistry for brake dust and a stiff bristle brush…
This’s the left front “before”:

And then the left front “after”:

The discoloration on the center-cap is from the sealing tape that holds and protects the Lincoln lettering and emblem. The edges peeled back, and the dust in there and there isn’t much to do about it… either way, it’s one HELL of an improvement with just some minor scrubby-scrub amiright?

Either way, eBay has them for like (with shipping plus) $25-30 a throw… None of mine have a need for full on replacement. I have far moar important fish to fry so to speak.

Which BTW I had an interesting encounter last night with a “Froggy Fren” if you will…

I went out to do some scrubbing on the Boat… I mean why not right? I was using a leather cleaner/restorer around 10:30 last night as I tend to not sleep very much nor very often these days.

I figured what the Hell as the rain had finally stopped, so “lets be productive”… while I was cleaning, I had put my cellie up on the roof for a minute or ten while I was ‘cleaning’ and getting my scrub on’… when I went to retrieve it I saw ‘movement in the wire’ so to speak, specifically on the roof. I recovered my phone, turn on the flashlight and whaddya know?

“Lil’ Kek” if you will…

Just chilling out… all relaxing on the roof.
I have zero idea from where he came from.

I myself had to step up on the sideboards to even see on the roof. How Lil’ Kek got up there? I have no clue. I kept working for about 45 minutes, and then went back to see if he’d found a way off the roof…

Apparently that was a ‘no’… he was content as can be, still just chilling out on the roof… so I had to do something as I didn’t want him getting hemmed up/killed b/c I failed to assist… I caught him easily, and unlike ALL the other frog-encounters I’ve had in the past, Lil’ Kek did not do what I expected, which is usually ‘vent’ all his fluids and solids so to speak… meaning he didn’t piss and shit all over me, as most froggies in the past have as they tend to freak when you grab them, and do a ‘panic download’.

Nope… he was chill AF.

I caught him in my palm, and he immediately settled in, and then climbed up to ride on my thumb so to speak, and started watching where we were going. No trying to escape, no freaking… just…. chilled out… like he was there for a purpose.

I took him to the pond in the back yard, wished him well and as I went to toss him in, he pre-emptively “Hasta La Vista’d” me and jumped into the pond on his own… A BIG jump too… splashed right in… He then, as I watched, surfaced, croaked at me, and went on his merry way…

Well Met, Lil Kek Aye?

I mean maaaaaan…

Not trying to read into things too much, but I’m taking this as a sign that the New Truck has the “Blessings of Kek” on it or something… I mean a lil froggy, showing up, hanging out as I work, and then acting the way he did? TOTAL WEIRDSVILLE man…

WILD stuff…
So that’s about it for now…
I woke up late, went to bed late, and need to start resetting my pattern so to speak. The rain as of late is keeping me from doing the yardwork, as well as hitting the bike, so I need the fall dry season to hit I’d say. So also, I’m going to STOP discussing HER as -someone- has been feeding her tidbits from my writings… not that anything I’ve put out there is untrue, but still… I don’t want nor need her shit and drama anymore.

So More Later
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
Maaaaaaaaan kindness and generosity… two really important words in life… Thanks to the unbelievable generosity of one Reader, J3 (as literally ALL of his initials all start with the letter ‘J’) I got a new set of wheels!
Meet the new Boat:

That’s the ’03 Navigator.

Needless to say, I fit juuuust fine in that big ole sucker.

Like me, the paint’s a bit faded, it has it’s quirks (like I need to fix the window on the driver’s side… the motor needs replacing) but also like myself, it’s got a stronk ‘heart’ if you will. Also like me, it just needs some TLC and clean up.

I call it the Boat as OMFG after driving around in that itty-bitty Hyundai with the 4 cylinder hamster under the hood? This 6.0 V-8 scared the Hell out of me when I went for a drive earlier. I stepped on the gas and Hoo-Boy!!! It’s got a whoooooole lotta ‘git up and go!’ which it’s been a looong minute since I had that sort of horsepower hauling my ass around. J3 was also kind enough to come here w/his gracious wife, who spent the majority of the time having the Sausage Princess lay her head in her (the wifes that is) lap, and making besties out of her.

“Never stop petting the dog” is a rule around here… once you pet Stella once you’d better pack a lunch ‘cos she’s NOT going to leave you alone. I got to show off the ‘Museum of Mayhem’, and give him a few things as a thank-you…

We had a nice lunch (again thanks Bro!) and then they had to bail as they had a passel of their kids still at home, with the 17 year old in charge… I remember those days too.

So…
Last night was fun.
I reeee-laxed.
Killed a lot of virtual bad guys who needed killing…

Again, another glorious weekend!
NO DRAMA or Bullshit to be seen!
A man could get used to this…

I haven’t been paying too much attention to the news, outside of the “Credible Threat” shit that came out on Thursday Night. I got a call from a bro at McDill at about 21:00 on Thursday, and last night I got a copy of the alert regarding the “Haj Threat to retired DotMil Kids here in Florida”

And yeah, it’s a legit warning…
I’m of two thoughts on this

ONE is it’s legit… odds on that are about 30 for / 70 against

TWO is that it’s a potential False Flag… odds on that? 80 for / 20 against.

I’m going with Door Number Two Monty.

My rationale for that?

First, it’s been what? Like almost 10 years or more for the whole “Iraq” side of things for the most part. I figure they’d have come after people a LOT sooner. Why now? Not only that, they’d be better off going after active duty guys truth be told. Active duty guys for the most part are NOT allowed (unless married and living off post) to have easy access to personal weapons. Softer targets if you will, whereas Ye Olde Retired Guys? We, for the most part, we’re armed to the fucking teeth and thirst to legally kill some bad guys again.

Secondly, going after the guys who’re retired? The only thing that does IF a bunch of older-ish retired Vets get clapped is create outrage and headlines/lies to push whatever agenda and/or war they want us in next… that and by eliminating the retired SF guys? Well retired SF guys are the ones who the DotGov fears the most. THAT is why there are watchlists and ‘gangstalking’… SF are force multipliers. Trainers. By designation. To train people to form anti-DotGov cadres to assist in overthrowing whatever ‘enemy of the week’ that’s in vogue. So wasting a few would be a net-plus for the current situation(s) we see going on out there.

Either way for the foreseeable future, I’ll be rolling heavy-er than normal. Guess keeping those additional mags for the Grok already was a wise decision… Even walking the doggos now in the yard, I’m rolling with a weapon.

So again, my thanks to ALL of you who’ve been here for the trials and tribulations, and especially a HUGE thanks to J3 for the HUGE assist in providing me a set of wheels. It’s going to make a WORLD of difference now.

As well as Thanks to -Whoever- is “In Charge” out there in the Universe… I needed a win like this.

So More Later
Big Country

< Insert Break Here>

RWED/REW Pipe Grep: “Big Country Expat”
Gamer Mode Engaged

LOCKOUT:

5152:2536:7547:4321
<Queue Graphic Loadout>

Loadout “Fallout London/Red Dead Redemption 2”
If Null; REDO Delete/Reload as Follows

NEXTPOAST Saturday

Initiated