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I thought of you this morning as a SouthWest ambulance that I had just passed zoomed back by me, pulled in front of me (not dangerously, but closer than I was comfortable with) in the exit lane of I-10, and then proceeded to slow down to 35mph for the last 1/4 mile until the lane split at the light.
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Sep 30, 2015 03:27
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 21:22 |
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The cutting off is a dick move (all SWA crews are assholes, they make more and act superior) but the slowing down is expected to maintain a smooth ride. Sucks, but ambulances are slow. Slow is smooth. I drove from West Valley hospital to St Joseph with a 2 hour old neonate on a ventilator the other day, and I'm sure that I was already going 45 by the time I hit the off ramp and coasting down almost the entire length of it when I got off the 10 at 7th ave. Seriously though I hate crews that cut off others. Dangerous, dick move that is unnecessary if the driver is using even the tiniest bit of brainpower. Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Sep 30, 2015 |
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Sep 30, 2015 03:32
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Slowing down is fine, that wasn't what he did. He went from 70 on I-10 to 35 in the exit right after pulling in front of me, and then maintained 35 for a solid 1/4 mile or so to the exit ramp. This was one of those I-10 exit lanes where the entrance ramp becomes a lane that leads to the exit ramp. It was just a dick move because he was unhappy for some reason that I passed him before pulling into the exit lane I guess. Dunno, some things can't be explained, you just cruise along and try not to smash into them. Edit: Also, he turned right at the light headed into Ahwatukee, and both guys were in the front, pretty sure he wasn't transporting anyone.
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Sep 30, 2015 03:44
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As I said, SWA guys are assholes. Probably wanted to hit up a QT or something equally lame.
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Sep 30, 2015 03:49
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Hmmmm...
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Sep 30, 2015 10:15
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Geirskogul posted:Hmmmm... 20 bucks cheaper than Tire Rack.
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Sep 30, 2015 13:10
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I bought the tires. Here's hoping. Also, whitewall in or out? (I'm leaning whitewall out, though it's not "period correct"). Today, I decided to install the new drag-link I've had rolling around the bus since I did my initial parts purchase nearly three months ago. Just got tired of it taking up space, really. Let's figure out, from the pictures, which really specific, required tool I have yet to purchase.   (yes, this worked. It made a glorious noise when it popped, then both jacks fell onto my ankles) New one in:   Eventually everything underneath will be shiny. For the tie rods, I'm thinking about picking up one of these. Does anybody know if they're any good? Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Oct 1, 2015 |
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Oct 1, 2015 00:07
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Just now I went for a test drive, and realized that the steering wheel was now a little off-center, so I pulled the wheel and re-centered it. I also fixed the fuckery by the po: he had wrapped the top of the steering column, where the big spring pushes up against the wheel, with electrical tape. This tape prevented the turn signal/wiper switches from locking to any of the notches in the steering column, so this entire time I've had a moving turn signal switch. Removing the tape and cleaning up the goop allowed the locating pin to lock into the appropriate slot, so my turn signals don't move anymore. He had also removed the turn signal cancel ring from underneath the steering wheel, and screwed it back on 1/3rd of the way around the wheel, so my turn signals never canceled. I fixed that, and now I don't have to manually cancel the signals anymore.
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Oct 1, 2015 04:50
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MORE 3D printed things!    Also, turns out I have an oil leak again. Somewhere that gets in the airstream and blows it all around, so either fan hub seal (which I have already replaced) or maybe oil cooler? poo poo. Well, it's not the new oil pressure switch or the valve covers, that I'm sure. New oil pressure gauge figures: Cold startup idle: 70 PSI Idle after 10 minutes driving: 20 PSI Idle after 40 minutes driving: 10 PSI (but it stays pretty well there) Revving after cold startup: 80+ PSI Revving after 10 minutes: 60 PSI Revving after 40 minutes: 40-60 PSI depending If the engine lugs while idling, like if I turn on the heater fan, which is a 20-40 amp draw that slows down the engine, it can drop to near zero and the idiot light comes on, which is on the gauge at 0 but in the book is 6.5 PSI. When I wasn't right at the top of the dipstick hatches, halfway (one quart) low in the middle between the two marks, it would drop to near zero at idle. The old pressure switch at idle didn't have any issues, but the stock pressure switch is 2-2.5 PSI. E: wow, turns out the real pictures are way out of focus. I really need a new phone or camera 
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Oct 2, 2015 10:12
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I'll be curious to see how well that door handle holds up.
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Oct 2, 2015 15:20
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The handles incorporate a secret~ (the secret is they were printed in two pieces, an upper and lower shell, with a piece of bent thick wire in-between that wraps around the screw holes, then acetone-welded together)
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Oct 2, 2015 19:22
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Geirskogul posted:For the tie rods, I'm thinking about picking up one of these. Does anybody know if they're any good? I use the same kind of separator, they alway do the job and I've yet to damage a boot or any threads while using one. I wish I had a larger one as my lower control arm ball joints are too tall for my tool . The one you linked goes 22mm wide and 50mm tall which should be good for most things.
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Oct 3, 2015 00:07
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Doesn't Autozone rent out separators?
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Oct 3, 2015 05:00
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For $20 I should just own one, but I literally have no money right now. It's a weird scenario where I've paid all of the bills, we have food, all of the vehicles and the 5 gal can are full of gas, but I have no pocket money.
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Oct 3, 2015 09:52
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I've also got a separator that looks the same as that (it was probably made in the same Chinese factory) and it has always done the job. Everytime you show another piece of car trim made with your 3D printer it makes me want one even more!
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Oct 3, 2015 10:05
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I spent $25 on a damned timing scale, but I'm putting in way more than $25 worth of my time to make sure that nobody else has to suffer through the same thing:   By FAR the most difficult thing I have made yet, probably because I have to copy something so accurately. E: Success! 
Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Oct 4, 2015 |
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Oct 4, 2015 11:06
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Watching them figure out how to remove the trim rings. It's like a zoo display
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Oct 5, 2015 22:27
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New tires!  (I can't get the blue poo poo off - I pulled a blue film off of the whitewalls and this remained) Old tires!  Funny thing, one of the old tires was from 2006 
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Oct 6, 2015 00:45
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Guys! You can take electricity  gently caress around with it a bit    And eventually stick metal together with it!  This changes everything.
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Oct 6, 2015 00:47
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Geirskogul posted:New tires! The film is water-soluble, spray it with a hose and maybe a soft-bristle broom scrub and it'll wash right off.
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Oct 6, 2015 00:49
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Geirskogul posted:Guys! My kingdom for some shield gas!
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Oct 6, 2015 02:20
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I did notice it got easier when the wind died down. Instead of a distinct series of "POP...POP...POP" it went "POP-sizzzzzzzzzzzzle" and I got a lot smoother weld puddle
Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Oct 6, 2015 |
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Oct 6, 2015 02:41
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Umm... not to be terribly critical, since you are doing far more than I ever do to my car (or cars when I had race-car), but that weld is.. umm... ugly. Are you using wire meant for gas (without gas), or rosin core? Did you clean off the metal surfaces first and shape them for mating? Better questions might be, have you ever welded before or is this just your learning stuff? I haven't welded in years, so who knows, my beads might be terrible if I tried now, but depending on your schedule (and mine), I'd be willing to stop by on the way home from work or something one day and see if I can help you get better if you don't know proper technique. If you know the technique then it might just be a matter of practice, in which case, get lots of scrap and just have fun. It can be easier to learn to draw a proper bead just doing it on a flat surface sometimes instead of trying to actually mate two pieces together. When connecting two pieces, you want to grind/cut the mating edges to form a 'V' for the weld to fill into (not a huge V) rather than just puddling the bead along the outside edges. There are probably tons of people here in AI that are master welders that probably have better advice on how to learn than I do. But yea, welding is awesome and can be a big changer.
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Oct 6, 2015 05:44
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I completely understand that the stuff I took pictures of is crap. This is my first personal time in front of a welder without somebody else setting up controls, and this is fluxcore wire with no gas. Not only that, it's the spool that came with the $90 welder, so maybe when I switch to the 2lb Lincoln spools I also have things will be better. Right now I'm just putzing around figuring stuff out on scrap metal. The thing I'm messing with now is a bad bumper mount for the beetle that arrived cracked and lovely. I also have old oil coolers, scrap bumpers, bicycle frames, etc that I'm going to practice on well before I ever get near the bus. Don't worry. Of course, maybe I should take pictures of the current "patches" that the PO did on the bus, because a lot of them look worse than what you saw me do in those pictures. And don't worry, the first time the welder touches the bus it will be to fill some no-longer-used bolt holes in the rear inner fender, an area nobody will see. I have a feeling this bus was somebody else's learner car, too. Of note, today after dark I took the rest of the interior panels off, and this is the sheet metal lowdown so far: - Nose of the bus is a replacement panel with pretty professional welds - Driver's door was originally white, has a button-style lock - Passenger door was originally blue, has a lever-style lock - Driver's side door frame, rear-side only, was white on top, brown on bottom (champagne brown, specifically, so it came from a champagne edition bus) - Passenger door frame rear is white on top, RED on bottom - Sliding door was originally white all around - Engine carrier area is red - Engine door was red - Rear cargo door was white - Rear passenger fender area, bottom 12 inches, is a replacement welded-in panel - Rear passenger rocker area is a new panel, bottom 12 inches - Driver's door dogleg is a replacement panel - Driver's seat mount is a replacement panel - Passenger seat mount is a replacement panel - Passenger dogleg is original - Passenger seat back area (that half-wall between the front and rear seats) is a replacement panel/constructed from replacement panels - Driver's side panel area below window at one point had a decal of a rising sun, 3 feet across, on it (can see when paint is wet) I honestly have no idea what this bus originally was.
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Oct 6, 2015 07:03
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Also a grinder and paint make me the welder I ain't. EDIT VVVVVV: Or I could do what the PO did and just do the stepped spot thing over and over. Looks like he did a spot every three inches or so, then went back and did another spot to the right of that one, every 3 inches all around, and so on  (this is sarcasm I won't do that)Looks like he probably burned up through a lot of lapping/sanding discs, and made up for his lovely welding with the angle grinder and a bondo outerlayer. Seriously the pictures I posted were just loving around on scrap and attempting to badly dial things in. I didn't "try any techniques" or anything, it was just essentially teaching my hands how to hold the gun. Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Oct 6, 2015 |
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Oct 6, 2015 07:05
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A good way to set up the welder is to run it hotter than you think on a piece of flat steel. If it doesn't burn through, play with the wire speed til you have a nice sizzle. If it does, go down on the heat and start again. The nozzle needs to be about .250" or maybe a little less from the work piece, and the distance has a huge effect on the weld. Once it has a nice sizzle, if you run a bead on a flat piece, the flux should fall right off with minimum brushing. If you run it nice and hot, it will sometimes curl up on its own. If you run hot but move to fast, you see an undercut on each side of the bead. Slow down to get it to fill nicely. Too slow and the bead will be too big. Too cold and the bead will look like it's laying on top of the metal. You want to run the hottest you can for maximum penetration, but it has the most risk for blowing through or warping the part. Do not attempt body repair without gas. Seriously don't. Edges melt faster, that edge to edge weld you did looks cold, but will likely melt away too fast if you run the settings as if you were doing a flat weld. Ts take the most heat, and the slowest movement to fill correctly.
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Oct 6, 2015 09:57
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AI has a Fabrication thread these days, if you need to ask some specific questions about welding I'm sure there are few people there that can help you. Ultimaforce's advice is pretty trustworthy on this because he makes his living welding oil pipelines underwater  http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3738077
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Oct 6, 2015 12:24
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So, today I ran through the spool of wire the welder came with, patching up small pinholes and generally learning the machine. The second, the second I switched over to the lincoln wire, everything was a thousand percent easier to use. Instead of the weld bubbling up and spattering and generally being a poo poo, the weld was mixing with the base metal and spreading out, creating a smooth surface. The welder itself also seemed to be about three times as powerful; before, when I was welding on thin metal, I would generally have to switch between the "I" and "II" settings (amperage?) depending on how close I was to a captive nut or another large thermal mass. After switching to the new wire, I never had to switch out of "I," and I would occasionally blow through the thinner or slightly rusted (I lapped everything shiny with the angle grinder and flap discs beforehand) areas. So, for any future people that may end up reading these posts, let me tell you the steps to take when you buy a lovely Chinese welder: Step 1: Open the box, and remove all of the contents. Step 2: Make sure everything is present that should be. Welder, cords, handles, wheels, etc. Step 3: Take the spool of wire that comes with the welder, and throw it away. E: the difference between the two is like going from lead-free to leaded solder. So nice. Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Oct 7, 2015 |
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Oct 7, 2015 02:51
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Geirskogul posted:E: the difference between the two is like going from lead-free to leaded solder. So nice.
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Oct 7, 2015 15:00
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Do you know what buses don't have? Cup holders. Do you know what else they don't have? Cigarette lighters or USB chargers. Let's fix that.    Old aluminum box of some sort, some trimming and edging, and some cut holes with 3D printed mounts. Not pictured, but behind the USB ports I also have a 3D printed backplate that conforms to the circuit board and holds it in place. I hate relying on glue or adhesives for things.
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Oct 7, 2015 22:54
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That old box is awesome. It looks like you pulled it out of an aircraft.
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Oct 7, 2015 22:58
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It's an old aluminum box I'm pretty sure I recovered from one of our ambulances that caught fire, or it could be from an old mount in my dad's pickup. I've been kicking it around forever. I just got back in from finishing its installation:    It is wired directly (fused, of course) to only the second battery. When it is on and doing nothing, the LED there pulls 68 mA. I think it would be useful to have a 12V plug and USB charger that didn't risk the starting battery. Also, it seems like the camera on my phone is getting worse. I may have to switch to some old telephone to use for photos. I think I have my Sprint Galaxy SII kicking around somewhere. But, that notwithstanding, I also installed all but one of the panels:    The remaining panel is the one in front of the driver's side rear wheel rocker area, as I have to cut that panel out and weld the new one in, so there's no reason to install the plastic just yet. Welding will probably be done next week, unless it rains again.
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Oct 8, 2015 01:03
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Geirskogul posted:When it is on and doing nothing, the LED there pulls 68 mA. You might want to look into your current limiting resistor; that seems really high for a non-retina-burning LED. Normal "super bright" LEDs like to be around 20mA.
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Oct 8, 2015 04:49
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It's one of those 12V DOT-approved "trucker" leds. All 10 of the ones I bought draw that much, and they get a fair bit warm when running. I don't think they're being overdriven, I think it's something to do with snow/ice melting, if I can believe random poo poo I read on online forums
Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 05:19
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THIS GOD DAMNED OIL COOLER IS LEAKING AGAIN AND WORSE THAN BEFORE gently caress IT I WILL JUST BUY A BRAND NEW ONE AND EVEN MORE NEW SEALS TO OFFER UP TO THE ACVW GOD
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Oct 9, 2015 11:28
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The area at the bottom area of my windshield is rusty. I have made an executive decision. Instead of cutting out the offending metal area and welding in a replacement panel, I will instead use many $$$s of welding spool, more $$$s of grinding disc, and even more $$$s of time, to sand down and fill the area with weld, then grind it down and spray it with paint. All to save $$s of panel and $$s of time.
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Oct 11, 2015 11:13
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just think to yourself, "what would kevbarlas do"
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Oct 11, 2015 14:48
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rscott posted:just think to yourself, "what would kevbarlas do" The rest of us are just mortal men, so it's not really a fair question.
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Oct 12, 2015 16:58
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Welp, just had the first complaint againsts us. One of the townhouse units moved out and is trying to sell their place, so after nearly three years I guess the lady there had built up some pent-up rage and is attacking me for the 'oil spots' that are all 100% apparently my fault (even in the other people's covered parking?) and how repairs aren't allowed here. Tough poo poo, lady, as I've done nearly all of my repairs on the street where you have no authority. She's also attacking me for simply having old cars (?) and for having untrimmed bushes sometimes (the HoA trims the bushes but for some reason they don't do ours, which is a corner lot, so I have to do it manually and it sometimes sits for a day or two until I muster up the energy to break out the trimmer). This coming from a very, to put it bluntly, ghetto person that regularly left trash bags sitting just, there, outside her front door. And her stupid kid that spends 100% of his time outside in the courtyard bouncing a tennis ball off of people's windows and poo poo. gently caress it. In other news, today is new oil cooler day! Maybe I'll park in 9's spot while she's at work to do the changeover, because there's always a little spilled oil.
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Oct 13, 2015 21:29
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New cooler day! The old cooler, with my attempts at stemming leaks. I actually didn't see any leaks from the seals, but I'm hoping it's something like the cooler was split in a way that only showed under pressure or something.  The new cooler:  Where it's going to live:  I never noticed fresh oil from this area, but it looks like this car ran quite awhile with a stray spark plug on the cooler, as people can drop them on the barrels and removing them requires removing the entire shroud, so they'll leave them there and sometimes they roll over on top of the oil cooler and get compressed down by vibration and the thermostat dampers over the years until they wear through the finning.  It's like that scene in Rugrats when they get the grandpa a new mattress and his old mattress has an imprint of his body Right behind the LH cylinders  Every time I look at how I chewed up the tin for the pressure switch I cringe, but a surprisingly small amount of air leaks out of there:  Jut a little brush of Aviation Form-A-Gasket (I love the smell of this stuff, seriously)  Installed (blurry, sorry), and since it's only torqued to 5 ft-lbs, I put a tiny bit of form-a-gasket on the outside of the nuts. It gums up a little, but won't chew up threads if you try to remove it without heating like loctite. Also, I could not find my loctite.  Aaaand then I remembered that I bought a pressure washer awhile ago, and decided to try it out for what I actually bought it for. LH cylinders:  RH cylinders:  (you can see how I started to wash the outside, there's that clean zone) Previously crusty fan:  Fan shroud rear (rear of car)  After the pressure washing, of which I don't have many pictures because it is a wet process and I like my lovely phone, I tackled some cracks and holes in the muffler     OG german VW  And then we skip ahead 30 minutes, where I found a can of orange spray paint left over from painting the beetle, and decided to go to town. First I marked my welder, as it is a clone of all of the millions of Chinese clones, then things got out of hand:     And then it got dark but I did put it all back together. I drove it to the grocery store and smoked out all of the cars behind me for three miles, because the orange paint is not exhaust paint and it burned up. No picture, but I promise you it still looks better than it did.
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Oct 14, 2015 05:43
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