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^ Thanks for the info, I completely missed the other (equally as oxidized and bright blue) brass bleed valve on the left, but I opened it after driving it today and it didn't have any air so I managed to get it fully purged! STR posted:Not the 3800. So as mentioned in that tidbit above about driving it, I took the risk and drove it to work this morning and was able to take it around a loop of mostly gravel back roads and some state highways over lunch:  This was the temperature after getting off the highway, getting into the work parking lot, and putting the accelerator down for a while.  For further confirmation of where it should be I found a walkaround on youtube of another 2003 and theirs was here:  I also noticed since burping it the leak I thought was coming out of the radiator on the bottom right by the drain plug is gone, hasn't left a spot since. Not sure if there was a pressure build up or I actually plugged the drain properly but I believe the two sources of the leak are the water pump seal and that aformentioned hose leak from the reservroir bottle: Where the bottle meets the hose:  Under the water pump:  Here's the color of the oil in the dispstick, he told me it had an oil change right before he stopped driving it. Levels are where they should be, but I need to check again after it sits in the driveway tomorrow.  Here's two random photos, a full shot of the engine bay:  and the milage, I also found the manual in the glovebox so at least I can confirm it's an '03. 
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Sep 1, 2020 20:49
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I didn't realise until now after driving his musty smelling car that the cabin air filter has probably never been replaced since before he got ahold of it, so I've ordered one of those too. Checked the air bleed locations again and there's no air buildup in them so the reservoir is properly feeding it while it leaks, and it doesn't seem to be ingesting it that fast. I assume that him not checking it for several months probably led to it slowly leaking out, then pulling air from the reservoir. I've been running all of these purchases by my coworker, and he's more than willing to pay me back for all of these little things if I can keep them either cheap through RockAuto or the parts yard so I'm going to keep going until he needs the car back. If I can resolve his engine issues I'd like to dive a little bit into the things that normally irritate me about used cars / the thing that I think will make it more appealing to drive such as the headlamp lenses and radio and fixing the fit and finish of his car; there's a lot of panels that are loose and I can see into the dashboard where it wasn't put back together properly after some service. You all know from the Maxima and the Squire how much I love tearing apart interiors! My coworker sent me this of when he first showed me the Buick, it's pretty fitting: https://i.imgur.com/Jz4MIW2.mp4 "The radiator level says the coolant is low!" "The reservoir tank says it's high!" Luxrage fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 00:43
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Luxrage posted:fixing the fit and finish of his car; there's a lot of panels that are loose and I can see into the dashboard where it wasn't put back together properly after some service. You're right, the dash was likely put back together better than when it left the factory. The late 70s-mid 80s were the worst for GM; late 90s-early 00s were the 2nd worst. The only reason you still see so many Regals on the road is because people of that target demographic (when they were new) tended to keep poo poo going as long as possible, and also didn't drive much (even then, they knew their target was the retiree crowd). There's practically zero other W bodies still on the road aside from the Buick versions. Look for Intrigues, Grand Prixs, Impalas, etc of the same era around you. You're not gonna find many of them. Regals and Centuries? You see them for miles. I'd slap a new rad cap on, polish the lenses, shoot em' with some clear, drive it a bit more until they want it back to make sure it hasn't developed any new leaks, and call it a day. These things go for $1000-2000 all day on Craigslist/FB Marketplace in decent shape with working AC and serviceable tires; at that price point, that's all anybody really cares about. It's already at that point, and he doesn't want to spend more than absolutely necessary. With the 3800, they're fairly solid cars. With the 3100, lol... I haven't seen one in the wild in ages. If you keep trying to chase down every issue, you'll quickly wind up like Nicholson did in the China Syndrome 
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 09:49 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 01:32
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Jack Lemmon
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Sep 2, 2020 17:24
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STR posted:I'd slap a new rad cap on, polish the lenses, shoot em' with some clear, drive it a bit more until they want it back to make sure it hasn't developed any new leaks, and call it a day. You're definitely right about getting carried away, I decided to do the few things I was planning on doing and get down and dirty into the source of the leak if it came back, and boy did it. I'll get to that at the end of what I did! The first thing I did was pull the dashboard apart to fix this improperly attached panel, it's all clips so it was a ten minute job on and off:  While I was in there I decided to see what's going on with the radio and I'm just going to leave that alone...    The red wire is for power and it's just sandwiched into a fuse slot by a fuse. The source of that power for the radio addon is something that's only on when the car's set to run, I might at least put a proper tap on it and put it on the correct circuit, that at least I can do from the panel. Either way at least I don't have to look at that gap anymore:  I then went to the auto parts store and grabbed a new coolant reservoir hose and put that on. I drained the whole tank and recovered the coolant, here's some of the stuff in the tank I filtered out. There was a ton more white scale and crap not pictured:  I also put in the new two dollars apiece Phillips headlight bulbs and broke out the buffer and took some of the fog off of his headlights. It didn't do much, but I also applied it to the Fit which had a very light fog and it did wonders for it:  I'm thinking tomorrow I'm going to pull off the grill and respray it black with the same trim and bumper paint I used on the Tracker. Same for the tracker's white license plate frame that turned yellow, I've got a can of white somewhere I can use for it. There's definitely something odd going on with the driver's side headlamp positioning, though:  After doing all of that I picked up some Honda 8mm clips from O'Reily's and stuck the air dam on the Fit. It almost looks like the intake ends up behind a metal support but I trust that's how it's supposed to be!  After buttoning all of that up, I started the Buick up and found that once the system was fully bled and had a proper chance to pressurize and run the coolant around correctly the leak would manifest again, and it sure did: There's no audio but this is while it's running: https://i.imgur.com/FFsYYD0.mp4 The whole drip pan was wet so I can't tell where in the radiator it's coming from but the upper hose was dry and so is the front half of the radiator (that I can see). I'm hoping it's not a crack in the radiator and maybe the bottom hose has split or something like that. I have an endoscope I bought for looking down my pipe vents that I will snake around the hard to see bits and see if I can find the source tomorrow. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Sep 4, 2020 |
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Sep 4, 2020 04:17
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 says radiator or that hose, and IIRC the radiator is a bottom job (as in you need to lift the front a bit to drrop it out from below). It's right at the age that they typically fail.It's not HORRIBLE, it's just not nearly as easy as from the top. If it's anything like my Saturn was, you'll need to separate the fan in the engine bay (that's the PITA part, but it should just slide off once unplugged [ just a matter of figuring out the angles]) Try driving it with the cap loose (not off, just turned to that middle click). That will keep it from building pressure. If the leak stops, it's an upper hose or an upper or side tank. If slows down or keep going, it's a bottom tank or lower hose On that side, I believe the only hose on that side is the lower radiator return hose, so ... probably radiator. Sneak in the cheapest radiator hoses you can unless they still feel new (which is still possible.. the radiator hoses I pulled from Brokeback were nice and soft, same with the ATF cooler lines... just a bitch and a half to remove thanks to not being moved for over 15 years). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Sep 4, 2020 |
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Sep 4, 2020 09:06
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STR posted:Try driving it with the cap loose (not off, just turned to that middle click). That will keep it from building pressure. If the leak stops, it's an upper hose or an upper or side tank. If slows down or keep going, it's a bottom tank or lower hose. 
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Sep 4, 2020 13:56
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ive been driving my truck like that for the last 5 years or so the radiator core has a pinhole near the top, so it leaks down to that level and stops. if the cap is on, it will jet out instead of slowly dribble. top it up every 6mo or so seems mostly fine 
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Sep 5, 2020 00:55
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Weird stuff happend today, the new cabin air filter and radiator cap arrived today. Before I installed them I had it warmed up and running and was seeing the leak, I changed out the cabin air filter first, what a pain in the rear end that was: Cabin air filter was nasty and given how it sits near a drain was also kinda smelly. Also I found a notepad inside the dashboard:   The biggest development was when I put the new radiator cap on. I did the middle position thing you mentioned to see if it was the upper section of the radiator and found no leaks. Then I sealed it up and, well... no leaks either. I hose-managed the radiator return line I added and put the support bar and battery holder back in as well: (sound on) https://i.imgur.com/XcPIi9P.mp4 I drove it up and down the highway and all around and still no leaks: (also sound on) https://i.imgur.com/4B8wLoE.mp4 I should add that the leak would only appear when the car was fully warmed up. I let the thing idle for drat hear a half hour with no drips. Could the radiator cap really have been the difference, like it wasn't venting or something? Work's forcing me to come in tomorrow for overtime so I'm going to take it with me and see if this is a fluke and it pisses all over the parking lot. If not then he has already said he's got the money together to pay me for my services. I have to tally up all of my parts but if I had to rough guess it I'd say about 80bux, most of which was jugs of Dexcool. With that out of the way and my weekend cut short I jumped on another project. I pulled the grill off of the fit to repaint it, it's really sun-bleached.  Did you know the Honda logo is only attached with two tiny plastic pins that break the instant you touch them? I just thought that was interesting. Shame about the injection mold post on the black honda logo, if it wasn't for that I might have just left it. An italian guy on my messenger is telling me to paint the logo white.  while I had the grill pulled I noticed the horn is a single input, ground to the chassis to complete the circuit style. I have a spare set of horns that are the same way for the Country Squire...  They would ALMOST fit if not for about a half inch of clearance on the top, I could just make a bracket that mounts them lower and be set.  Here's my jankety test fit to see if the Fit's horn fuse would explode: OEM (probably loud): https://i.imgur.com/9SSyTgg.mp4 LTD Horns (probably loud): https://i.imgur.com/7o0emzc.mp4 My neighbors were both arguing and doing so on top of a flatbed trailer in their driveway so I couldn't lay on it but you get the point! I put the OEM horn back in for now and painted the grill. By the time I finished it was dinner time and when I got back out it was dark but I will have the roomie get a better picture tomorrow while I'm at work. While I was out there I checked out what somewhat buffing the headlight plus new bulbs did for the Buick:  Air con works, cruise works, everything works, I took him for a drive in it and he said he was interested in having it back if it doesn't leak anymore. There's still a half gallon of mixed Dexcool in the car for him to top up with, so if he's fine with it he can have it back and I can start working on the other stuff again. I am still not convinced the problem is gone, but we'll see how the levels are tomorrow. I've got other hobbies I need to work on, I gotta slow down on the car stuff for now! Unless another Fit shows up at the junkyard, that is... Luxrage fucked around with this message at 13:17 on Sep 5, 2020 |
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Sep 5, 2020 03:45
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Got sent a picture of the grill this morning: For comparison: I'll figure out how to permanently mount the emblem later, in the meantime it's just sitting in the garage and the Fit has a ~blackout~ grill. No coolant loss on the Buick this morning on the way to work that I could see under the car, temperature stayed in the normal range. Update: A few drips but nothing like before over lunch. Coworker mentioned having the car back and he'd keep an eye on it so I'll probably give it back tonight if nothing crazy happens. Fluid levels were still the same after about 20 miles of highway driving which isn't much but it didn't drain the reservoir in ten minutes like two days ago. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Sep 5, 2020 |
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Sep 5, 2020 15:39
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As expected the Buick dumped it coolant all over the driveway so I'm going to tear into the radiator and continue checking it out in Tuesday. A radiator is only 50 dollars for the economy one and given how little this car will probably get used I'm sure that's the last one it will ever need.
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Sep 6, 2020 14:14
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Luxrage posted:As expected the Buick dumped it coolant all over the driveway so I'm going to tear into the radiator and continue checking it out in Tuesday. A radiator is only 50 dollars for the economy one and given how little this car will probably get used I'm sure that's the last one it will ever need. You might want to consider chucking some UV dye in with the next coolant. I bet most parts stores will have it if you ask, and then you just need like a $5 cat-piss flashlight to figure out where the leakage came from.
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Sep 6, 2020 16:31
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A lot happened this week, been pretty run down so other than doing this and keeping up with house work I haven't really done anything: The first day I swung by the junkyard again, it was 68 degrees and super overcast so it was the perfect time to actually pick over that Fit properly and grab a few things for other people I know. For an example of the weather, here's a picture I took of a Cadillac Catera:  I pulled a bunch of Saturn SL (I think, whatever the four door sedan is) hardware for a friend in RI's '02, including some emblems off the front bumper: I also pulled the headlights off of this for someone down in Austin:  Someone pulled the seats out of it and once it started bucketing outside I took shelter in it for a while:  So I went back to the Fit and found that the rear bumper has trim on it that is easily removable, so I grabbed them:  There was a free rusty razor blade hidden in the bumper too:  I also found a 2008 accord to pull the horns from, I read online that you can grab the low note horn and it's a direct swap with the fit. Conveniently I found one that had the entire front end removed:  Other notable things at the yard, I was going to pick through the Geo Prizm they had there but it smelled severely of cat pee:      It was bucketing when I got home so I only had time to do a test fit of the horn. Here it is later that week installed:  https://i.imgur.com/TehByr0.mp4 The next day I was able to swap the bumper trim with the white bits     I'm sure this will look  and not stupid at all when I finally find white rockers that aren't ruined. Mine have damage so I want to swap them out ASAP. I decided to go wild and paint the honda emblem while I was at it, got that glued back on as well. The new headlight bulbs came in so I stuck those in, not that any photo is gonna show that:  I pulled out the radiator drain plug that was in the Buick and swapped in the one I ordered, the one in his looked a little messed up so at least he has one with the winglets still on it, whoever messed with his last one definitely used tool on it. It was easy enough to do without draining the radiator since it's just pull one out pop the new one in. But while it was warming up I noticed that it wasn't bleeding coolant up top like it used to. Underneath, on the opposite side where my leaks were is now this:  it's absolutely peeing out coolant. I think I found the real leak. This is coming out of the engine proper. I'm going to talk with him and see how deep he really wants me to tear into this thing before I go any further. It's weird, there was no issue with temperature or anything in the car, just got up to pressure and started leaking like nuts. There was definitely something wet on that side of the engine (belt side) so maybe whatever minor issue it had finally gave way with the system coming up to pressure properly again. Wild. https://i.imgur.com/5M94Pju.mp4 
Luxrage fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Sep 13, 2020 |
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Sep 13, 2020 03:55
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Isn't this a 3800? Might want to check the coolant elbow. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/gm-3800-intake-gasket-diagnosis/144234/page1/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OH8Mx_YKHQ I looked back and see you have the 3100, not sure if that has these elbows but you will want to check the coolant bypass hose, tstat housing, and water pump for leaks. At the rate it's coming out, it shouldn't be hard to see? Hopefully it's not the lower intake manifold gasket, which is a known failure point. angryrobots fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Sep 13, 2020 |
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Sep 13, 2020 18:07
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The LIM usually dumps coolant into the oil as well, doesn't it? Admittedly I don't know poo poo about the 3100 though. I've never seen a water pump pissing that bad either. Lux, if you leave the radiator cap loose, does it still piss? If not, that could be a very temporary fix to let him drive it until you can figure out where the leak is and if it's worth fixing. Last time I was at a junkyard when the sky opened up, I took shelter in a wheelchair-ramp taxi. Chevy van of some kind with the ramp out and side door open. Kept me dry enough even though it was raining sideways, couldn't close the side door bc the ramp was extended... but it still had the third row seat, so I was able to get far enough in there to stay dry(ish). Chilled in there for about 20 minutes.
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Sep 14, 2020 16:27
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STR posted:The LIM usually dumps coolant into the oil as well, doesn't it? Admittedly I don't know poo poo about the 3100 though. I've never seen a water pump pissing that bad either. Lux, if you leave the radiator cap loose, does it still piss? If not, that could be a very temporary fix to let him drive it until you can figure out where the leak is and if it's worth fixing. Well, not a lot has happened with the car the last few weeks because I can't get a straight answer out of him on whether he wants me to do it, he keeps flip flopping back and forth between "oh well I didn't expect it to actually stay running I am gonna just scrap it" to "I would like it working again" so I am going to give him an ultimatum. If he doesn't get it out of my driveway next weekend I'm going to start tearing into it and fixing whatever I can find wrong with it. I don't see any monster leaks from the water pump which leads me to believe it's that elbow under the alternator. I want to tear into it and get it running and get it out of my driveway! On the plus side, one coworker smashed the bumper cover of his Civic up and another asked me if I could get hima rearview mirror out of an 8th gen Accord so I was down at the pick n' pull again and dug through all the Geos. I finally found one of my hard to get parts out of this immaculte Geo Storm with over 200K miles on the odometer:    It looks trashed but that's the polarizer layer on the display suffering from some severe sunburn. It's the same issue that affect original Gameboys and C4 Corvette displays: (lifted from a YouTube thumbnail but it shows what I'm talking about):  I plugged it into the Tracker and other than that display and being a bit grungy it all works as it should. It even took, played, and ejected a tape correctly:  I've got the polarizer film ordered and am going to tear that apart. I don't know if I'll ever properly install it back into the Tracker but it'll be good to have (or sell) if I want to take it a show or something. But yeah, that Buick sitting there in my driveway is getting on my nerves so when I see him at work tomorrow I'm going to grill him on it, and if he is seriously considering just scrapping it I'm going to tear into it myself and see if that elbow is the problem. Better than just having it sit here and be in the way!
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Oct 11, 2020 03:44
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I've done some Game Boys with the vinegar syndrome before - planning on doing a couple laptops soon. drat polarizer glue.
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Oct 11, 2020 04:40
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So there's been no updates but I've been doing some side stuff, I'll post a better update on the Buick and everything tomorrow, but I just wanted to get a post up before it got pushed too far down the board. I am not sure how long threads last unposted before they get locked but a little content is better than nothing. I took that radio apart, here is the front plate:  after a long time scrubbing off the nasty rear end layers:  For the first time since getting the truck and doing the initial radio install I pulled the center stack faceplate off and pulled out the radio:  The radio powered up without an issue:  I used the polarizer film and annoyingly found out it worked at a 45*:  To quote that flashtub video, I held it together with tape and glue:  and to be fair it looks pretty slick:  but anyways, A lot has gone down the last few weeks, but it's mostly been a lull between my last post and now. I'll do some catch up tomorrow but let me show you what I did today.  The Tracker developed a leak in the back of the valve cover gasket. I did some looking around and found a nice youtube video of someone walking through a similar issue. Since I am taking the valve cover off I figure I would actually do some engine work for a change. You know, prove I can do more than just interior work.  I ordered the valve cover gasket, as well as spark plugs, wires, and a PCV valve. Figured I'd do as much as I can while I was in there.  Pulled the intake off with some stress, I lost the bottom most bolt in the engine and found it laying on the lip of the oil pan.   The gasket pulled apart in my hands as I took it off. The four grommets that the bolts went through were pretty much welded to the cover and I almost stabbed myself a few times getting it off.  Everything was pretty clean in here all things considered. Given the spotty ownership history I was expecting a mountain of sluge.  My online sources gave 3 to 3.5Nm of tightness but I saw some seepage in my initial tests in the same spot. I set it to this and haven't had a chance to do a full burn in run yet.  Here it is all re-assembled, I need to fight with the spark plug wiring some more as the Denso wires I ordered didn't seem to entirely line up with what I was trying to do and I think one is hitting the manifold a little bit and making a nasty stank. I also got a soft white tire cover, someday I'll order a paintable hard cover and get it painted to match the truck.  I've got some more work on the Fit planned tomorrow, and I'll do some catchup on everything else in that post as well! Luxrage fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Feb 6, 2021 |
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Feb 6, 2021 05:45
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Man I love that radio revival! Awesome
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Feb 6, 2021 16:52
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Nice vinegar syndrome fix for the polarizer. So much stuff is dying from this.
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Feb 7, 2021 00:12
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I'm a huge fan of the stock radio. Great job.
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Feb 8, 2021 16:30
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Thanks y'all on the compliments, I forgot to mention that you can see a broken button between the progress photos of the radio. Of the two OEM radios I had, one had a bad display and one had that bad button. Both powered up without any problems so I ran a tape through both and one had a significantly worse cassette playback, it was suffering from repeated track direction switching and had. The whole faceplate, buttons, and display attach to the radio body with only two thin ribbon cables so it was as easy as taking one face off and swapping over the other repaired one. The only pain was I had to pull it apart down to the very front plastic to get the buttons swapped. They're only held away from the microswitches by a block of thin foam and I could tell the one with the worse sounding deck was a lot more crushed and crumbly. Probably had a lot of heavy use. The two with the buttons pulled:  This is the one with the good deck but bad display:  I also took the opportunity since I was doing random jobs to replace the window crank handles with new (but far crappier feeling) replacements.  Annoyingly enough while I was doing this the adhesive failed on the HVAC faceplate. It appeared to just be double sided tape so I replaced it with more of the same. Seems to be holding.  One of the two front speakers also blew out. I picked up a set of speakers for it. Annoyingly the speakers in the front are now two ways and the rears are three way which I think is the opposite of what I should be doing. The rear speakers I installed when I got the truck and were originally intended for the red '87 LTD dashboard when I had that.   I used a set of foam cones to direct the audio but I'm sure that does a whole lot of nothing. It just pushed the plastic speaker grilles forward. The big recent project I did this last Saturday was I pulled the trigger on a center console for the Fit. The Fit just had a center armrest which was very worn down and there really isn't any good storage spaces in the car. I ordered the official Honda one and the local dealer overnighted it for me. There were no included instructions but there is an excellent Honda dealer video online of the whole install: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVvdeY6vc8g Here's the console pulled. You can see on the upper left of the second picture the arm-rest hole cover provided in the kit. That bottom most bracket got replaced with a larger U shaped one.    Here is it installed. It slotted right into the two rear cupholders and there were screw hole locations molded into the bottom of the console to mark where I had to drill the access holes for the mounting plate that would attach to the bracket I installed inside the Fit.  It came together pretty well all things considered!  Here's the part number:  I don't know how it will hold up in the long run but I've been told the top pleather portion comes off easily to be repaired or replaced. I also got new tires a few weeks ago and promptly ran over a screw:   I at least took the opportunity to use the jack and kit I picked out of the totaled junkyard fit over the summer to make sure it all would work in an actual non-driveway emergency! My shift just ended and I was planning on doing nothing outside because it's about to be freezing cold and I have a lot of in-house things I wanted to work on as well as more catch up posting to do but a contact I have in Austin just told me this is currently at a parts yard down there:  This may be my only chance to find out how those trim pieces come off the sides of the wagon and to practice and get as many spares as I can so I think I'm going to drive the four hours down to there and play around with them tomorrow! Here's the photo of it today that he sent: 
Luxrage fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Feb 10, 2021 |
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Feb 10, 2021 04:24
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It is freezing here but at least I've got a dog following me around. They told me this wasn't a Pick-n-Pull yard but they would let me do it anyways since they figured I would know how to do it better than they would. Jokes on them I don't! 
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Feb 10, 2021 22:38
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Was gonna say, that's not a self service yard. AFAIK we only have two - LKQ and Wrench-A-Part. LKQ is in far south Austin (almost in Manchaca), Wrench A Part is in Del Valle on 71, well past the airport. It's loving freezing today, but DFW got it too eyes 100+ car pileup on 35W There used to be a yard on the border of Allen and Plano (I think on McDermott, maybe Hedgecoxe tho) that had a pretty awesome yard dog, except for the time he followed me around with a dead skunk in his mouth and kept dropping it at my feet. No doggo, I am not playing fetch with a dead skunk.  Pretty sure they finally cashed in on the insane property values out there and sold the land.
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 23:23
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I heard about that pileup! I left the yard about 5:00 and some people I know were telling me to just hang around Austin for the night and drive back today. I'm glad I didn't! The drive back was wet and rainy until I hit Waco and everything north of that was still dry by the time I got through Dallas at 9PM. That dog was glued to my side the whole time, including trying to get into my car in the parking lot. It was super chill and if I didn't already take in the cat and kittens I would have just offered to take her. Here's a few more shots of the junkyard. It was Vic and Sons.   Unfortunately the tailgate was gone and a lot of the trim was damaged and badly repaired so there were a few segments I didn't feel too bad about literally tearing apart:  It appears to have been dropped from a height at some point as the transmission tunnel was forced upwards through the car, pushing everything upwards a few inches in the center. That cupholder was smashed up against the radio stack and I had to tear it apart to under it.   My main goal of the wagon was less of getting spare trim segments and more learning how to remove each part and document what types of clips were where so I could better remove mine. My dad's big into painting models and things and wants to try restoring one of the trim segments himself so I think I'll mail one up his way and let him mess around with it. If he does a decent job of it we are going to do all of mine. A good example of documenting what clips went where. The stuff around the fenders is a sort of rotary clip that has a long threaded bolt on the back and it rotates and locks into place. I'd have to take the full nut off the back to remove. The trim on the door was simple plastic clips with a passthrough on the ends to hold it to the car if they all should fail.   Of the Squire's 30 or so aluminum-wood trim I pulled 12 pieces and got a bunch of spare clips.  Aside from the trim and all of the clips that didn't break I also pulled the radio for fun and another trip computer. I've got two extras now and could probably sell them if they work. I just don't want to take the Squire apart to test them so I might power them on the bench and at least see if all the digits work using the thing's internal test routine.  At least the radio works, this Squire was an 82 and much older than mine. The radio was part of the premium sound package and had an external amplifier I didn't see in the car. There was this very odd pull for it:   Edit: I forgot to add that all the trim plus everything was $50 Luxrage fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Feb 12, 2021 |
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Feb 12, 2021 00:25
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I survived the horrible snow storm we had down here. We lost water for a few days but we never lost electricity and none of my frozen pipes burst. I was forced into work through most of it but on the last day I was able to take the Tracker out in the snow for a romp around the neighborhood and it rewarded my by peeing power steering fluid and coolant all over the garage. That was a few days ago and I haven't been able to find out where the coolant came from and it hasn't done so since. The feed hose to the power steering pump seems to be leaking so I'll replace that easy enough. Might do that tomorrow. I was at least able to test and through watching it back on video prove the ABS system does work on this truck. It gives no feedback it is doing anything, it just unlocks the rear wheels during a slide so you don't go sideways. Anyways, Today the weather was nice enough so I went down to the Pick n Pull to check out this LTD that was absolutely picked over and trashed. They were cleaning out the rows and using a Chevy Astro as a dumpster for all the engine parts and crap laying around:  However I did find some stuff so the day wasn't wasted. I found an SL2 and pulled the window switch assembly for a friend's that is broken. This isn't technically the right part because he has an SL1 but that switch assembly should be removable and just fit his mount.   I also checked out an Isuzu Axiom and found a little bluetooth dongle sticking out. The radio looks like it sells for decent money so I pulled it in hopes I could power it up at home and get that cassette adaptor out. It would be good to have for the wagon if it works OK. I also pulled a grill from a Dodge Omni because the car was already mostly taken apart and it would be fun for the garage.  The pick and pull only charged me for the grill which was cool of them.  I looked up some simliar Clarion radios and was able to power this on on the bench enough to get the tape adaptor out.  I forgot to take a good photo of what Squire trim parts I pulled from the yard in Austin. I'll get a pic of those in the daylight tomorrow. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Feb 25, 2021 |
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Feb 25, 2021 01:47
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My mom had an Axiom. It was surprisingly quick and fun to drive. And I really dug the look.
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Feb 26, 2021 15:09
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^ The Axiom felt really ahead of its time, I'd love one in green if they ever came up for sale. Here's the total haul of the wagon trim. It was raining pretty heavily yesterday but today was dry enough to get a good shot of them. I need to put some long shelving on the walls in the garage so I can store some of this awkwardly long stuff.  My dad might practice on one of them. Mine's all peeling much like these are and we are thinking if we pull all of mine, he's going to hand paint the woodgrain back on and clearcoat them all. It is the same method the person who did the replica family truckster did and his looked pretty good up close when I met him in Dallas a few years ago. So about a month ago my friend here's dad gifted him the family farm truck. It had changed hands before and was in his brother's posession for a while and he trashed it. He asked if I'd like to come take a look at it so we drove out to the countryside to their family farm and tried to get it to run. It is a 1989 Dodge D250 Turbo Diesel.   His brother was using it as his daily driver before giving it back and he really did drive this poor thing into the ground. The bed had a few inches of mud full of beer and red bull cans we had to dig out. Here's the inside of it:   I shoved an endoscope up in the floorboard HVAC return to make sure we wouldn't get blasted with rat crap air on the way back but it was all leaves at the heater core:   Unfortunately despite running great at idle it keeps sucking air into the injectors from somewhere. We spent most of the day like this:  He wants nothing to do with this truck while his dad and I want to keep working on it with him. His brother keeps hounding him to sell the truck because, in his words, "It's worth at least 6 to 10 thousand." I offered him $500 for it if we can get it here. I think it would be a fun summer truck that I can use to haul landscaping stuff for my yard without having to rely on the Squire to do all of it for once. In other news, as was the original plan, the Fit is now paid off and now I can replace the radio that has been pissing me off for so long: 
Luxrage fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 26, 2021 23:47
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He's not joking on value actually. Diesel dudes go googly eyed for those OBSes these days. It would be ten grand EASY in New England if it was 4x4 and/or manual, you could probably still get that for it if you drove it up here, gave it a good detail, and sat on it for a few weeks. Hell, the engine alone is $2500 here in decent shape.
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Feb 27, 2021 05:05
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If he does decide to part with it, and from what he seems to be saying he's all for selling it to me, I'm thinking I'll do what I did with the Maxima. I'll clean up the inside, make sure it all runs good, get it passing inspection (which it should be already) and have some fun with it before selling it. If I sell it for any wild amount I'll give him a cut like I did the Maxima as well. It's a 2WD long-bed so I'm not sure on the values of it. I noticed when it was running it was leaking quite a bit of diesel from the front right area of the engine bay so it could also be where it is sucking in air from. It has an electric fuel pump patched in and other than that that's the extent of what I know about the truck. I'd normally jump all over something like this but I don't want to push him too much on it and I've also got plenty of projects on the Geo and the Squire in the meantime. I believe it's supposed to be a sort of light blue before the paint faded. It just annoys me his brother keeps telling him how valuable the truck is and how he should get it back but in the same hand he also had his latest project vehicle towed by the city because it sat on the street for a year unregistered. I just know he's going to destroy this Dodge if he gets his hands on it again. I'd rather my friend have it running so he can use it to move than get my hands on it either way. I just want to mess around with it!
Luxrage fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Feb 27, 2021 |
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Feb 27, 2021 05:36
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