AI Thread of the Century

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Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Not mine, but I installed a head unit and reversing camera in a fullsize 2000 Chevy conversion van. It still had the factory cassette deck with separate CD unit.
Plus: full size van, so plenty of room for activities, and GM dash, so panels just pull off.
Minus: conversion van, so plenty of fuckery vis-a-vis interior panels, fabric, and GLUE while running the camera cabling. Assholes. loving carpenters is what they are. Goddamned plywood and drywall screws...

Worked great in the end.
Basic need was the reversing camera (because big booty van with curtains and poo poo, plus sometimes a cargo carrier back there) and Android Auto for nav on family trips. Work buddy who owned it is fine with mechanics and tools, but weak on auto electronics. He was able to help plenty with guidance. Still took most of the day with running the cabling and fabricating mounting for the camera. The license plate is low-ish on the right hand door, which was a non starter due to the potential of the cargo basket, so we basically screwed it to the third brake light lens above the doors. Worked fine, and there was a grommet right there for the brake light wiring. A little goop to prevent leaks, and done.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2022 19:58

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 16:02

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Um, dang.
I hope things improve for you from here, fellow goon.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2023 18:25

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Lucky catch!
Buddy of mine lost a rad hose on my former Cherokee on the highway and wounded the engine when he didn't notice.

STR posted:

Yikes. One of my greatest fears is losing a transmission line and not noticing until it's too late. Glad you caught it.

Sidenote, Ford got weird with their transmission coolers - they moved them into the AC condenser. The upside, I guess, is you don't run the risk of a strawberry milkshake. The downside is when the cooler pops, you have to recover the refrigerant* - turns what's usually a DIY friendly job into something a bit more advanced.

*if you don't loop the lines temporarily, or slap in an external cooler

**I learned that when trying to find a new ABS controller for my Crown Vic - was looking at the radiator and condenser, and "the gently caress is this poo poo?!" as I removed an ABS module..

They did what? Guess I'll have to take a look at that next time I'm under the hood.
And yeah, I'd just whack in an external cooler at that point.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2023 16:14

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

sharkytm posted:

Behold!

# ¿ Mar 14, 2023 19:53

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Mustache Ride posted:

Astral, Jeff and some random gonns are actively ~~DDOSing~~ duping all of imgur's posts on the forums and are going to host them and update all the post links to use the new host.

There's a thread about it here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4030290

Thanks for that.
I don't need to worry about my albums - they're all on my actual account, but still a worthy project.
Looks like Imgur is being an petulant baby right now, though, and refusing to actually download archives of images, even legitimate requests. Like mine, for instance.

Also LOL, they're getting called out on destroying forums:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/8/23713128/something-awful-imgur-download-caper-digital-preservation-photo-hosting

# ¿ May 11, 2023 22:21

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

I used to just use my own site, but since a) it didn't have https and b) my image library software installation went tango uniform and is apparently no longer maintained, I gave up on that.
Maybe someday again. New host - so may offer easy https. I'd just have to move everything (or more likely start fresh.) Imgur was just easy.

# ¿ May 15, 2023 23:23

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

nadmonk posted:

Funnily enough, in college I briefly had an '87 Ciera coupe. It's butt was a bit smashed in though. It had that 80's-tastic blue velour interior.
An odd follow up to us having an '87 Celebrity wagon (bought new!), a Celebrity sedan (not sure of the year, maybe also 87?), and an Century sedan.

I'm fuzzy on the specifics of the Century sedan. I think it was an 85 but I could be wrong. I just recall that having the worst engine ever. It was carbed, I think it was a V6, we had the carb rebuilt/tuned at least 3 times. It was slow as a dog and eventually the engine seized on me when I was driving to school (it was always a race in the morning between my dad and I, whoever got out the door first got the Celebrity wagon). And after the engine seized dad had a shop replace the engine....and then sold it for probably about what it cost to put the engine in.

Never owned one myself, but my buddy in high school owned a Cutlass Calais coupe, until he missed a turn on a rural road and put it into a tree, and I ferried a Ciera back from Arizona to Texas for a leasing agency in like 1990. I was actually fairly impressed with how well it drove on the highway. It had the OHC 4-banger in it, which was adequate at the time.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2023 02:39

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Left Ventricle posted:

Probably the 3.0, the worst variant of the venerable Buick V6. No power, poo poo reliability. Might be the worst engine GM ever made.

nadmonk posted:

YES! That was the one. That thing was beyond terrible. It would struggle to hit 55mph on flat ground.

That reminded me that my '78 Monza had the 3.2L V6, which was also a smaller displacement variant of the 3.8. Ran well enough in that car - carbureted, 4-speed, RWD. I don't think I've ever, uh, experienced the 3.0.
What was weird was that the Buick variant of the Monza (Skyhawk) got the 3.8.
Of course, the Chevy could also be had with a 5L V8 (and the 4-speed!)

# ¿ Sep 25, 2023 18:53

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Nidhg00670000 posted:

In '75 and '76 the Monza could also be had with the blistering 110hp 262cu small block V8, afaik the only sbc that doesn't share stroke or bore with any other sbc.

Oh, yeah, that one was a winner, too.
In a similar vein, and for the same reasons, my cousin's G-body Cutlass had the Olds 260 CI V8. 110 HP (net) of V8 fury. Tiniest little bores.

boxen posted:

I had the 2.8 and a 5-speed in my Fiero, and yeah it wasn't quick but it made nice noises (short exhaust run on that car) and was sufficiently sporty for what that car was.

The punched out 2.8L (3.1L, maybe? It is a stock 2.8 block, but overbored) in my buddy's Fiero Formula (basically a GT, but notchback) sounds pretty bad-rear end.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2023 20:15

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 16:02

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

I'm so sorry, my dude. If you read my thread or the chat thread you know I lost my dad this past October, so... yeah.

Oddly enough, my dad had a more-door '57 like that one in the last photo, just with a white top, when he met and dated my mom. He sold that when he got ahold of the '55 hardtop coupe that will eventually be mine, so I never saw it, but he had pictures.
Cool '57 pickup, too, there.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2023 23:51

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > AI Thread of the Century

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