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Well guys, work has me stressed out. Just too many projects, not enough engineers, stuck at home behind a desk. Somethings going to need to change and I'm hoping it's more staffing, soon. In the mean time enjoy some random photos.                And yea, the shops empty and quickly filling with clutter. I don't mind. Maybe it will stay this way a few more weeks. Some times you just have to take a break. 
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Feb 11, 2022 22:22
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the spyder posted:Well guys, work has me stressed out. Just too many projects, not enough engineers, stuck at home behind a desk. Somethings going to need to change and I'm hoping it's more staffing, soon. Take care of yourself, they will survive if you take a day off. No good to anyone, work or family, burnt out. I've had to remind myself of this a lot recently. 
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Feb 12, 2022 01:08
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Darchangel posted:Honestly, one of my fears is that by the time I'm actually able to buy some land and build a shop, I won't be able to use it. I'm 52 now, so looking a bit grim, what with the housing market and <waves hands around at everything> all this. I'm right there with you, right down to wanting land and having a home I dislike. I just turned 40, my wife turns 52 tomorrow, and I can see it in her eyes that she is tired of waiting for the good part of life to happen. I'm just sad I can't give it to her. I need a new job where I can have a life. I've been working 10-13 hour days, 6-7 days a week nonstop for almost 3 years now and it's taken a toll on me mentally and physically. I'm just so done with this poo poo.
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Feb 15, 2022 19:10
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BloodBag posted:I'm right there with you, right down to wanting land and having a home I dislike. I just turned 40, my wife turns 52 tomorrow, and I can see it in her eyes that she is tired of waiting for the good part of life to happen. I'm just sad I can't give it to her. I need a new job where I can have a life. I've been working 10-13 hour days, 6-7 days a week nonstop for almost 3 years now and it's taken a toll on me mentally and physically. I'm just so done with this poo poo. The crushing bullshit is that even while you've been working your rear end off 10-13 H a day 6-7 days a week, you *still* can't have that land and home you want, because reasons (those reasons being rich people/corporations hoarding all the wealth and just using us as revenue generators on both production and consumption.) I mean, I'm not poorly paid (IT guy, but fairly low end to middle) and I don't see how I could afford a new home, or, for that matter, a new car, much less both. At least not anywhere near where I would want to work. Yeah, yeah, WFH, but most of my particular position is handling hardware. That said, I'm above water, so I shouldn't complain *too* much. Corporate overlords might overhear and take it away.
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Feb 15, 2022 20:25
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I'm not even sure how to discuss how f-d our generation and future generations are without pointless rage, politics, and an absolute disbelief of what's been gotten away with. The US has been transformed to a pay-to-play "life experience", rooted deeply in corporate greed and I'm not happy about it. So with that said, I take out my anger on trees. Just kidding. I went and sat in the sun for a few hours Friday. It was 67F and just amazing.  With the nice weather here for the weekend, a few friends came over Saturday/Sunday to help with some tree trimming. We wanted to get the orchard trimmed and some blackberries under control. We got so much done Saturday, we decided to turn Sunday into a tree-removal party, as none of us are big football fans. Our first victim.  This Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa) has been a beautiful addition to the back yard for decades. It made that GIANT 20" leaf pictured a few posts back. After ice storms, high winds, and several recent large limb losses - it's been a constant concern of ours. Those who have paid close attention may remember it from "Why are there bees in my tree" and "Emergency limb removal" featured previously. Normally this species lasts 30-40 years. This monster is at least 100 years old from what we know about the property. They are beautiful trees, the wood is very similar to balsa wood. I had made the decision with my father to remove it several years ago, but having enough hands to coordinate the removal was difficult. Just based on the trunk size, it's the largest tree I've ever felled. Thankfully two of my friends have experience felling, but again nothing this big. We discussed a plan, setup our tie line, and reviewed exit strategy. Our alert system was an air horn, compliments our our buddies 1200cc BMW cruiser he rolled into the back yard. The horn was the only way to alert us that the canopy started to move or that a loose rotten limb had broken free. Hard hats and safety gear were worn. I wish we had recorded it. We took it down how any "normal" sized tree would be felled - a wedge cut from the face and a relief cut from the back, creating a hinge. Except in this case, we had to do the wedge in sections. One 20" cut at a time. It took 4 of these to clear the face. The last "wedge" had to be driven out with a splitting maul as the weight of the canopy was offset on this face. We were worried it would just "tear" the back before we could do the relief cut.   Now we knew this tree was hollow on the inside. Have for years. The limbs that broke off revealed hollow wounds ~30ft up the trunk. I had discovered a little hole between the roots several years ago, which just fed into darkness even with a decent flashlight. Once we started cutting, it became apparent how dangerous this removal was. We were able to cut this massive tree down with just 20" bars.... I can't describe cutting through the wood - but remember those balsa wood air planes you would build as kids? How easy it was to snap one in half? Our saws tore through this like butter - a blessing and a curse. You would be half way through a cut and the entire saw would suddenly plunge into some unknown depth. There was anywhere from 6" to 12" of "wood" supporting this 80ft tall tree. Amazingly I had to complete a near 6' back cut, leaving just a 10inch "hinge" on each side of the stump. My ground guy had his hand on my shoulder the entire cut and pulled me back to evacuate once it started to move. Definitely one of the most heart-pounding moments I've had falling trees. When it fell it made a thump, like a musical instrument. Our buddy swears he saw three squirrels jump off just before it hit the ground and run towards the outbuildings.   This is a MS361 with a 24" bar for scale.  And at some point we will need to understand what these nodular growths or burls are. They look like brains according to the kids.  Over the next week, I'll do cleanup and take more pictures. This tree was rotten all the way to the top and I'm glad we chose to finally take it down before it lost another limb - or worse, split. With all of the left over adrenaline - we decided to tackle a simple fir tree removal. I planted these seedlings when I was 9 and never expected them to reach 24", yet alone be the one to cut them down. I decided to remove this one, as it shaded the fruit trees and bees in the low winter sun. The downside is, it was directly on the road (8ft back) and the power lines were ~10ft away if it went the wrong way. We started about 2PM, which I guess with all our hollering rousted the neighbors- they had guests over to watch the Super Bowl and had never seen a tree felled. So I had an audience. Thankfully we had enough people to block traffic when the time came. We had a safety line on it and tension provided by my friends Tundra. Through some miracle - I managed to drop that tree exactly where I wanted. It was a perfect cut, the hinge was perfectly even, and I missed the ornamental trees/bushes I was worried about. When we let traffic flow again, the first car in line was a local tree service site lead. He stopped and told us how impressed he was. I don't know why, but I got one hell of a kick out of it.  We celebrated with milkshakes. This awesome truck was outside and there was this super cute elderly couple inside sharing lunch.  So yea, we're now going to be doing some ground cleanup/burn piles. Plenty to distract me. Oh, and I'm sunburnt now. Imagine that. the spyder fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Feb 16, 2022 |
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Feb 16, 2022 00:19
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the spyder posted:I'm not even sure how to discuss how f-d our generation and future generations are without pointless rage, politics, and an absolute disbelief of what's been gotten away with. The US has been transformed to a pay-to-play "life experience", rooted deeply in corporate greed and I'm not happy about it. QFT... this is exactly how I feel about life right now and my wife doesn't understand. It sounds like we are in similar positions with work. Stressed, need more help... It seems that the big wigs at the top make bank acquiring while the workers are left to make things work with limited resources. Glad you can take some refuge in nature and with some cool cars. Take care of yourself! 
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Feb 17, 2022 07:08
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jink posted:It sounds like we are in similar positions with work. Stressed, need more help... It seems that the big wigs at the top make bank acquiring while the workers are left to make things work with limited resources. Also QFT. The higher I get in the power structure, the less people above me seem to work. The amount of pointless bullshitting and meetings about meetings is maddening. I beg and plead for more inspectors for months, or re-hire the ones they laid off. All my best guys got jobs elsewhere and refuse to come back. These jackasses think all of our jobs are as easy as theirs, which comprise of sending an email and *thing* happens. They don't give a gently caress how they're grinding down their subordinates, or how long it takes. I'm constantly running from emergency to emergency. All of which could be avoided if we could hire and keep competent people. But these jackasses want to pay $20/hour for class 1 manual machinists. Class 1 guys won't stop scrolling for $20. They're competing with a local gas station for highly skilled labor, all while paying themselves $200k+. E: I don't have 25 more years of this poo poo left in me. BloodBag fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Feb 17, 2022 |
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Feb 17, 2022 15:05
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BloodBag posted:
Question is if whatever broken state of capitalism we're in has that long left too. I feel like nobody has answers as we watch the bottom slowly fall out.  Always neat poo poo going on in this thread, car related or not.
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Feb 17, 2022 16:24
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Suburban Dad posted:Question is if whatever broken state of capitalism we're in has that long left too. I feel like nobody has answers as we watch the bottom slowly fall out. This is what worries me. I'm 52. I don't need this poo poo right now. Not ever, really, but definitely not now. What the gently caress am I going to retire to, if at all? More importantly, what is my 21 year old daughter going to do? She's on the spectrum with social anxiety enough that she's never even had a job, and that situation isn't getting better. I love my daughter, and maybe it's selfish, but I'd really like the house to myself and my wife now, thanks. I just want to retire and play with my cars for another 30 years or so, not deal with crumbling society and revolution. I enjoy reading dystopian cyberpunk sci-fi, not living it. Who knew that was documentaries from the future?
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Feb 17, 2022 16:40
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BloodBag posted:Also QFT. The higher I get in the power structure, the less people above me seem to work. The amount of pointless bullshitting and meetings about meetings is maddening. I beg and plead for more inspectors for months, or re-hire the ones they laid off. All my best guys got jobs elsewhere and refuse to come back. has a dude who spins handles, lmbo yeah, that's why wold be tool and die makers end up working in ditigial marketing or whatevs not smart
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Feb 19, 2022 06:25
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Hey Spyder, could you find a hole in your shop for an alignment machine? https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3515402&pagenumber=30&perpage=40&userid=0#post521613026
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Feb 22, 2022 15:55
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LloydDobler posted:Hey Spyder, could you find a hole in your shop for an alignment machine? My friend and I should be picking it up on Saturday.
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Feb 22, 2022 19:09
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NinjaTech posted:My friend and I should be picking it up on Saturday. Awesome. I have no room, but I know who to ask if I need one now. Haha.
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Feb 22, 2022 22:50
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LloydDobler posted:Hey Spyder, could you find a hole in your shop for an alignment machine? If I look at my text history with spyder, the number of times he’s declined my machine (for freeeee even a year+ ago) is probably double digits. He was my first choice for it - I was sorely tempted to drop it off in the middle of the night like a baby at a firehouse.
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Feb 23, 2022 20:02
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That's funny. I probably should have known but ah well.
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Feb 23, 2022 21:21
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RIP Paul Walker posted:If I look at my text history with spyder, the number of times he’s declined my machine (for freeeee even a year+ ago) is probably double digits. He was my first choice for it - I was sorely tempted to drop it off in the middle of the night like a baby at a firehouse. You guys have been giving me literal nightmares about tools stacked on rickety wooden platforms swaying above the rest of the shop.
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Feb 24, 2022 19:59
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I've been holding off on posting any updates as I've just been too overwhelmed with work. This has left little time for cars, shop, house. The good news is we've had some great interviews and I'm hoping the workload will return to reasonable shortly. The weathers too nice to be stuck behind my desk. In the mean time, enjoy my pressure washer repair adventure. A few weeks back, my faithful "Water shotgun" started to stall once you let off the trigger.  My best guess was the unloader was sticking and upon disassembly it was clear this thing had been leaking for some time.    After searching the normal parts sites, I found the rebuild kit was NLA. Instead of trying to measure and DIY it, I just went with the easy button and ordered a drop in replacement. The bonus being it had a quick turn knob for pressure adjustment.  Except it wasn't drop in and I had to make a quick bracket to raise the unloader up, making the adjustment knob reasonably accessible. I replaced all the quick connects with stainless ones off Amazon.    While I waited for nice weather, I ordered a spark plug and air filter.  Heck, I even changed the oil.  I even went to the extent of grinding some of the rust off and painting the muffler shield.  Looking better.  With the 70F weather today, I decided to try it out. Works great now. The pressure adjustment has already come in handy, so I'll call this a win-win.  Maybe next year I'll change the belt and pump oil (it's clear and full). the spyder fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Mar 23, 2022 |
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Mar 23, 2022 02:52
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A Spyder post never disappoints. I am most interested in that window project you were working on a while back. Did you ever post a wrap of that job?
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Mar 23, 2022 03:07
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So, um, stupid question, but what prevented you from mounting the unloader with the knob pointed *up*? You know, so it would fit in the bracket.
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Mar 23, 2022 17:01
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Darchangel posted:So, um, stupid question, but what prevented you from mounting the unloader with the knob pointed *up*? Not a stupid question. Stupid design problem. If I turn the two 90's any further, they would crack the brass housing. Trust me, I wanted to. The real solution is to get new hoses made with 90's integrated. But I was already $138 into a "drop in replacement". Who the F'ing hell considers this a drop in, I'm not sure.
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Mar 24, 2022 03:35
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the spyder posted:Not a stupid question. Stupid design problem. If I turn the two 90's any further, they would crack the brass housing. Oh, fair. NPT fittings always struck me as stupid. Anything other than a straight fitting almost *has* to end up too tight or too loose by design.
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Apr 4, 2022 23:49
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Despite me being swamped with work, I have committed to two projects I think you guys will enjoy. I'm posting from a few weeks back, because I wasn't sure I would end up capturing the progress. First, let's talk about the Challenger. This one is hard for me - not that it's sad or a bad story, but because I'm invested in this car and it's history. It's been in my life for nearly 22 years. Let's jump back to high school. I got to know my best friends family really well growing up. I would always end up hanging out after school and over the summers after I got my license, which sadly has now turned into stopping and visiting on mostly holidays. I'm working on that, as "grandpa" - the cornerstone of the family passed and I've made an effort to be around more to hang out and help out. It's important for the story to understand that this family is really important to me, helped in some ways shape who I am. They have always been good people, who have been there for me and who don't have a lot, but would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. Back to the car. This 1970 Challenger has been owned by my best friends mom since 1983. It was her daily driver, something she cherished more than anything. She worked at a local auto parts store and built this car with what she saved - while raising two kids with her husband. Originally a built in LA as a Green, 318 Automatic car- it was painted, swapped to a 440 for a brief period of time, and then swapped to the 383 that's in it now. In the fall of 1988, her husband took it for a joy ride and stuffed it in a ditch. I'm not sure anyone knows the whole story as to what happened. Maybe someday he'll tell me. It's sat in same spot in their tiny 2 car garage since it rolled off the flatbed that day. It always acted as a point of contention between them and something we still give him poo poo for. I spent the last two decades convincing her to let me look at it. Two years ago she called and asked if I'd help her get it inspected and figure out a plan to get it back on the road. I'm only now (Feb 2022 lol) getting time to help her with it. But I'm keeping my word. My goal is to get it running and driving. We can't take these things with us, might as well enjoy them while we can. So, we went and loaded it up on a clear winter day.   Once it was at the shop, we were initially excited. The panel gaps were "decent", there's no obvious panel damage or wrinkles in the frame rails. It became clear after going over the passenger side with a fine tooth comb, something was off. From what we can tell, when it hit the embankment/ditch/curb/whatever he hit - it pushed the passenger frame rail up nearly 1". The lower control arm is a banana and I'm pretty sure the K-member is bent too. I had to cut the exhaust off, as it was just mangled beyond saving. But I was excited. The car is overall in great condition for a 1970, at least here in Oregon. The rust is completely manageable compared to what I'm used to seeing. The reupholstered interior was stored in their heated/cooled spare room and still in good shape. I even had convinced her to shoot some fogging oil in the cylinders at some point. The fuel tank was bone dry.                   Originally I was going to trailer the car home the same/next day. It ended up staying here for two weeks as I dealt with work/family/etc. Turns out it was all for the better, as I kept tinkering on it as I had time. I started calling around to frame shops. I spoke to several who turned me away. Either their machines weren't setup for 70's cars, or their techs lacked the knowledge if it wasn't in the computer. My friends shop who took on the rail replacement of my FD had sold recently, so I took the advise of a local car nut and visited our "other" body shop in town, a shop known for hotrods and high end collision work. The owner agreed to take on the project despite being two years out for projects - but on one condition. I had to get it running and bring it in with a weeks notice later this year.... Over the years, cans of paint were spilled, the driver quarter backed into, dents from kids. Spray paint was applied to chipped/rusting areas in a desperate effort to protect it. It sat under blankets, boxes, and what ever else ended up piled on it. My curiosity finally got the best of me and I started grinding the worst of the rust in the trunk. At that point I said gently caress it and broke out the buffer. I quickly learned that whatever paint was spilled on it came off with a lacquer thinner rub down. I kept cleaning, poking, even grinding the bubbling paint off the rear quarters. I'm still amazed how solid the body is.                   I won't go over every photo or detail. After I buffed it, I had her stop by to make a parts list and nearly broke her heart. It was just the kick in the pants she needed. She called me a few days later and explained how angry she was that she let it sit for so long when she could have been working on it. I originally had grand plans for getting it to start after watching too much Vice Grip Garage - but reality and work ate my time up. A breaker bar proved the motor was free (wahoo!). Which gave me enough encouragement to drag out a battery. We did end up draining the oil before cranking, which I'll have to find the video. It came out like cold molasses. When we put a key to it, it cranked, but very very slowly. There was no spark. I decided to stop here, return the car home, and get the starter rebuilt. I am happy to say she has made significant progress on rust remediation/conversion. Over the summer we will get a new gas tank installed, rebuild the carb, replace the points/condenser, and see if we can't get it to burble to life.  Look forward to more nonsense regarding this car in the coming months. the spyder fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Apr 5, 2022 |
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Apr 5, 2022 03:24
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the spyder posted:
 Amazing what a few hours with a buffing pad can do. Look forward to more on this one, glad a clean-up was the kick she needed.
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Apr 5, 2022 12:29
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fantastic update - can't wait to see how the car turns out over the next year!
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Apr 5, 2022 16:03
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Replace the V8 with a Tesla motor and hook an arduino to the throttle with an external speaker to reproduce the V8 noises.  (Please don't ban me for such heresy  )
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Apr 5, 2022 17:08
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Shhhh. Stop it thats my retirement plan after I burn out of IT.
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Apr 5, 2022 17:36
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I'm all about EV-swapping my classics if it means I can keep driving them. I've always been intrigued by EVs, really. The battery tech is finally getting to a usable price/performance point.
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Apr 5, 2022 19:22
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I originally was going to post these back to back - but I volunteered to help my friend with his Mercedes, but that's for another post. If you jump back a page, you can read about where the next project came from. The fellow with the 912e called my dad and said he was ready to sell it. He had tried to reassemble the car with his helper, but found that the engine builder put 4 bolt - Type 4 2.0 van heads on it instead of the 3 bolt Porsche heads. The result being intakes that don't fit and spark plugs that don't line up with the shields. The engine builder (84?!) had since passed and he had no paperwork on the rebuild. Just that he had spent $3k on it and felt like he through it away. Since my dad/I only got a brief look at it while it was shoved in the corner and we had no idea what he wanted for price, we agreed to drive over to visit yet again (4 hour round trip for me, 10 hour round trip for Dad - thankfully there's a family beach house to spend the night at and break up the trip). This was trip number 3 for me and I think 5? for my dad. Every two weeks he found more International parts as he cleaned. We went over the car, the documentation, and boxes upon boxes of parts. From what we can tell, it looks complete minus a battery and some fasteners. Now two things stuck out when we reviewed the 1" thick book of receipts that came with the car. First, it had the original sales receipt. This car was $13,800 with options in 1978. Second, it was NOT a 1 owner car as we were originally told. We counted 6 names on receipts - which I've yet to run a car-fax, but we're guessing there are 4 owners based on last-names. At one point a very detailed lady owned it and kept track of EVERY single receipt, tank of gas, oil change, ect. It was at the dealer or shop for every little thing. It has had minor paint work done due to door dings that happened AT the dealer. But it's very cool to flip through and see the progression of work done on this car over the last several decades. Everything from the factory options ordered, the Recaro seats installed, and the Nachamichi stereo (removed) and alarm systems have been captured. Soooo. With the above info, we started talking price. The first swing was a jaw dropper. He wanted Hemmings retail minus the engine rebuild cost. We politely declined and headed home. It was an interesting situation. We knew he had to move, we knew he built a relationship with us over the past few weeks/months as my dad kept him up to date on the International reassembly. But it seemed like his medication messed with his head. I won't go into detail - but I'll say it again, enjoy your health and projects while you can. The next morning at 12AM my dad got a text, asking HALF of what we talked about in person. I reviewed Bring a Trailer and decided he had to hit a certain point where we would feel comfortable taking the risk associated with rebuilding this car from the boxes he had it disassembled into - while at the same time knowing neither my dad or myself had a clue what we were getting ourselves into. He called a few more times and eventually hit the right price. It was refreshing, because I knew we could walk away if we needed to. I by no means wanted another project, but we couldn't pass this one up in the end. And that's how my dad bought a 912E, that I now have to get running. My schedule pushed the pickup out two weeks, which we all agreed upon. But at some point, it must have been forgotten as my dad got a frantic call asking where we were just a week later. We kept the original date - not knowing HE WAS FLYING OUT OF TOWN literally hours after we left with the car. Outside of their suitcases, it was the last item remaining. It also poured on us - which made for some excitement on the 40 degree driveway slope. Thankfully the brakes worked fantastically.         Boxes upon boxes of parts!  I pulled the heads this weekend and confirmed they are AMC 4 bolt Type 4 Round/Oval port. The pistons and jugs were also new - measuring in at 94mm. Thankfully it's still stock. Today I called AA Pistons to discuss their 3 bolt Type 4 2.0 914/912E heads. Hopefully I'll hear back and we can get the correct heads on order. I started researching the 912BBS forum, shoptalk forum, the samba - and wow. It's as bad as the rotary world. There's a dozen different people with different ideas on what makes a "good" Type 4 engine. I'm going to shoot low and aim for stock. I never got to drive my 78 SC as an air-cooled car, but at least I'll get to drive this 76 with two less cylinders . If the L-Jetronic doesn't put up a fight....
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Apr 5, 2022 21:46
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Wow what a great story and a buy!
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Apr 5, 2022 23:00
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the spyder posted:
Love the color, fits the car so well. Glad you were able to work out an agreement on price and bring it home as another project.
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Apr 6, 2022 10:16
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I'm almost caught up. I swear. This weekend I'm going to check out this rotting Rx3 wagon a friend found at his coworkers family farm. It's obviously been there a bit... But it's headed to scrap and either I want to save some parts or the whole thing. We'll see.   A few weeks (months lol) back, my friend dropped his 95 off for some diagnosis/oil pan swap. I haven't had time to do it, but I've driven it a few times to keep it healthy. I swear I'll get to it soon.     The pressure washer has been working great. We found cranking down the pressure really helps with foam production.   With the 912E here, I had to change things around. This bit me in the butt later, but you'll see why soon.  We've had some beautiful winter/spring weather. We're still getting hail storms, but so far it's been a beautiful spring.  The 280ZX will soon be off to a new owner. It's worth a post in itself another time.  Since the 912E will take some time to get back on the road, I FINALLY pulled the 94 Montego Blue over into the shop bay. This too will get a post, but it's headed to BaT next month.  God drat I love this car. It will be 100% of my regrets in 10/20 years. If not sooner.  With spring here, it's time for my favorite thing: Hustler maintenance. I finally hit the change interval (8 years later....) for the hydraulic oil. AMSOIL 20w50 seems to be the recommended fluid. I haven't finished though- as I still need a set of plugs and new blades.     Windows... where do I start. I wanted to be further along, but my glass guy kept pushing the date of when the new double panes would be ready. Only last week did he remind me we could temporarily install some single pane.... DOH. So I had to finish the windows. In my original post about them, you can see I did not account for removing the rabbit (step) that the glass sits in when cutting the side pieces for the frames the glass sits in. This was fixed by making NEW side piece for the 1st frame I made. And while I was there, I inspected and found cracks in two pieces that glue would not fix. So, I made up several new parts. The good news is I 90% milled some spare lumber when we did the first batch. Break out the planer to get the thickness right.  And ta-da! Frames for all 4 windows. Oh wait. I forgot to trim the side pieces to finish length before milling the tenons! Ugh. I'm not perfect guys. I did it for the uppers/lowers, but not the sides. I'll fix that this weekend.  In the mean time, I needed to do some equipment maintenance. For those who don't know - you can and should clean your saw blades during/after each project. A quick soak in citrus degreaser and a quick brush is all they need. This helps with any burnt on oils, buildup, and even helps reduces kickback/pinching.   If I can pull it off, I'm going to try and get the frames done this weekend. With 77F weather, the sooner the better. I want to rig an old Canon DSLR out my office window to take a sunset photo every day and turn it into a book. Someday.  Had lunch with my friend who owns the Silver 94 you've seen here before. He's been fighting a plague of electrical issues. Important for later.  Lately we've been tacking property projects when the weathers been nice. I've had this great helper/neighbor who's been working with me the last three years. Last weeks project was stump grinding so we can fence off our extra lot.   This weeks project is "move the wood shed, it's blocking my view of the river while I'm washing dishes"   It's still in progress, along with 10 other things. Finally we've reached this last weekend. Remember those electrical gremlins from above the silver 94 was having? Well, he couldn't get them sorted. The car seems to drop the 5v sensor rail and we've done everything we can without ripping the harness/ecu out. Did I mention he's getting married and this was to be their get-away car? So, day of the wedding I pulled out my Chaste White 94 and got it ready as a backup. Thankfully my friend with the Red 93 99-Spec car came over and helped detail it. Could not have pulled it off without him.  Since I did not want the Bride/Groom trying to crawl into Recaro buckets, I swapped in a set of Red leather seats a good friend gave me.  I love the look. I don't know if I can go back. If I do, I'll have to recover or replace the Recaro's with the Spirit-R Red seats. After all of that, getting dressed, kiddo at baby sitter, finding parking, ect - we were 15 minutes late to the wedding. We literally walked in, got our seats as the music started. It was a great wedding and afterwards I pulled the car around. Driving in downtown Portland is on my top ten list of things-i'd-rather-not-do. Leaving it parked with flashers, on a one-way street, next to the MAX line really did not help.  But it was worth it. My buddy got to fulfill his wedding night dream of driving his bride away in a FD.  And I got this awesome photo.  So, now that the weddings over I haven't parked it back in storage. Though with the pollen level I should have. It's now yellow around the edges.  I'm not sure why, but I just fell back in love with this car after the weekend. I had considered selling it with the crazy prices, put the money in my other projects, but I think I'll hang on to it for a while. It's way too close to being the perfect example of a FD (minus paint...). Maybe this year I'll finally "finish" one of my projects. Now I just sound crazy. That will never happen. the spyder fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Apr 8, 2022 |
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Apr 8, 2022 18:26
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You should never sell that white '94, you'd never forgive yourself. As it is, I'd imagine you're already gonna get a ton of money from the blue one.
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Apr 10, 2022 02:37
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Pic dump. Say hello to the bi-turbo. This is my friend's car. Like all S65's, it's equipped with the famous ABC suspension. Don't get me wrong, it rides fantastic - when it works.  When it does not work however, which at 120k is frequent, it leaves the car immobile.  So he did the logical thing and bought some $1000 coils for it. "They bolt right in..." Famous last words.  Oh and don't get my started on the $3500 coil packs "While we're in here". I will say, going from 9 cyl to all 12 made the car much more enjoyable to drive.     Back to the coil-over install. It was not bad. A half day job at worse. That was the easy part.     It was everything else that went with it. Like retrofitting a S500 power steering pump, making custom machined spacers, and three trips to the local hydraulic shop to make new lines. In the end it all worked out.   By far the WORST part was the line/accumulator removal. Yes you could leave them - but the number of zip ties needed would have been terrible. There's at least a gallon of green hydro fluid still embedded in my concrete.  What's not pictured is swapping the front LCA to models that support a swaybar. Some say it's optional, I disagree. Overall a successful project. He no longer has to worry about being stuck due to a failed line - just the dozen other things that could immobilize the car. Haha. I've been spending most my time around the house. We built a new wood shed, did some mower maintenance, and just enjoyed the half decent weather while we had it.          Fence project! For a few years we've talked about fencing our extra lot/orchard/garden area. My helper buddy found a 3pt auger at a relatives and hauled it over. We set 38? posts and spent just shy of $2500 on materials. Darn you inflation. I like the result. We'll finish it up once the weather gets nicer and things dry out.             Neighbor came home from vacation and there was suddenly a baby cow running around out of no where. Spoiler, they should not have left the 18m old male stay in the same fields as mom.... ew.  While returning from a road trip, just after dark I managed to hit a newly formed pot hole BELOW MY HOUSE. I had just swapped the summer wheels/tires on to the car before the trip and off they came. $238 to fix them.  
the spyder fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Jun 6, 2022 |
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May 21, 2022 05:06
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Big dumb Mercedes on coils Looks like you're keeping buys
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May 21, 2022 17:08
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From what I've seen on youtube, the work on that Merc was expensive and a pain in the rear end! Life on coils will be much better than the adjustable suspension though.
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May 21, 2022 18:17
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I've read all the horror stories about those things, but there's just something about the sirens call: *whispers seductively* V12 Bi Turbo
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May 22, 2022 07:11
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I mean... V12.
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May 25, 2022 17:57
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Last post updated. New dump!                                     
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Jun 6, 2022 21:01
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That Rivian is pretty loving cool. But this is just awesome. I'd rather have an electric van with solar and everything on the inside, but that is such a cool looking idea.
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Jun 6, 2022 21:38
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Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there. Small weekend update. Inspired by our poster from Alaska and his Toyota filter inspection series, I purchased every oil filter available for my 13B-REW engines and plan on doing a full tear down.  In other news, I actually drove my car for an entire day yesterday. It got fresh gas and about a dozen thumbs up driving around. I took it to our local C+C, which with rain on the forecast and motorcycles as the feature - was a small turn out of ~60 people. It was nice. I'll post pictures shortly.   While running around I stopped by a friends shop who called in a bit of a panic. The parts washer plug "exploded in a ball of fire". I stopped by to check it out and BOY was he not kidding.     It tripped the main 100amp breaker. I asked them to have their sparky buddy stop by as the wires were crispy. 50amp plug, 60 amp breaker and 8awg wire over 200ft.... they are drat lucky" At C+C I had a 12oz latte and found myself bouncing with energy at 7:30pm. Soooo. Time to figure out why the front end went CLUNK when I used 4WD on the F250. Does it need fixed immediately? No. Do I have 50 other things I should be working on? Absolutely. Did it sound like fun? At the time, yes. Hover truck engaged.     It came apart surprisingly well. Here's where I got my first hint. I'm pretty sure there should be a seal there... Oh and what's that? 3/8" of up-down movement.  Yea everything in here is shot isn't it.  Off to the bench it all went. I won't explain every picture - those who have been inside axles know the story here. Dust seals/vaccum seals went, water/mud/dirt combined. All in all, I'm looking at $1000 in parts to replace 1 full wheel bearing/hub assembly, both stub shafts, both u-joints, all ball joints, all the seals, shims, torque washers, axle seals, and while I'm in here a set of front rotors/pads. What was nice is the passenger side hub was replaced at some point. What sucks is they never did the axle seals when they did them. That shaft was greasy/gritty/rusty/muddy and just nasty. I'll have to crack the front diff cover and flush everything out.             Lesson learned. Don't touch something if it's still working. Haha. I did get to try out the Kimberly Clark Wypall towels I bought a few months back - 10/10 would recommend for a job like this. Soaked in brake cleaner, I could use them like emery cloth to clean up the axles. Not a single tear. Bonus sunset from earlier this week. 
the spyder fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Jun 19, 2022 |
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Jun 19, 2022 23:22
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