(no subject)
Drug / booze screen, hearing test, vision test, height/weight/blood pressure, general health exam, all passed. No word back on the X-rays yet but the doc said I was healthy and that the X-rays are mostly to check for previous surgeries. So I'm good. Should be sent in by this Wednesday and I can get going with the next steps to spend the next year in Michigan. Lord.
Things of note: Trying to avoid the damn toll bridge on 8 led me down a road under construction with MASSIVE chuckholes and no pavement and, at the end, a Top Gear Special segment--flooded to boot--separated me from the real road by about a sixteenth of a mile. I tried to carefully drive into it and Bug's nose suddenly got about 30 degrees of down angle (while scraping). NOPE. So I got out and walked around on the visible submerged asphalt humps (thin, thin path) trying to probe the depth of the craters with a ratchet extension and spark plug socket. Some time later, I had a path and was able to get the left-side lawnmower-sized tires on the raised humps and forded through mud with the right side.
That took me back onto the toll bridge. X_X
I've been playing KSP (.22 research update) and Borderlands 2 lately more or less interchangeably. When it comes time to go to the Great Frozen North I might just take my computer--if it's for that long, I'll just buy local clothes anyway, the usual Walmart tee assortment--but we'll see. The idea of existing with the laptop for that long is kind of painful.
Future notes mostly to me about the 280Z:
Pretty much reserved for my investigations when I get back, by agreement of the lady and her dad who gave it to her. Worst part about the initial 'does it run' is going to be dropping the fuel tank, apparently S30s are super prone to rust buildup. But I figure I can drop the tank, clean it out with some muriatic acid, blow out the fuel lines, drop and clean the fuel pump and intake screen, change EVERY fuel filter, and put a cheapie low-pressure job in line between the tank and the pump and that'll take care of the supply side. Everything else is electrical and replace-all-the-fluids stuff. ...Also I have not seen an engine bay that accessible for a long, long time.
A little Kreen in the oil and combustion chambers should help address the ring pack after that much time sitting. The head has valve seals that weren't specced for unleaded gas, so I might have to go additive bottles. IF it'll run at all, even if it's stumbly and rough, that's probably electrical gremlins in the fuel injection and that can be addressed at somewhat greater leisure. Next is, with the rear up, seeing if I can figure out how to drive a manual. Check for gear engagement, driveshaft noise, all that stuff. If that looks good THEN it's time for brake work. Since you can't get the proportioning valves any more I'll try to either refurbish the existing one or get an adjustable for the people who swap in rear discs. Then bleed the brakes and check pads / rotors / drums / shoes / lines and hope like smeg I don't have to replace them. After that, wheel bearing checks, tire checks...(195/70/14, which kind of makes me laugh since Jez was 185/65/14 stock), fix the broken intake ducting with cheap replacement dryer hose or a proper CAI, then make sure vac, coolant and fuel lines are in healthy rubber. Lubricate everything that needs it. Valve clearance adjustment if feasible, then take it to a garage to get somebody who ACTUALLY knows what they're doing to see what I did wrong.
Things to replace at earliest opportunity: Headlights, build starter relay, build body light harness relay so they get 11.X instead of 9.X volts and can be seen, exhaust system. ("FLOOR TEMP" is not a light I ever want to see on!). Factory-converted to R-134, but the system would benefit from being checked.
I am confident I can do this because at that point I will have at least one other car as a daily driver. Ideally Jez, if that hasn't come through yet then at least Bug. With some time and some patience and not having to button everything up overnight because it's needed for work tomorrow....
Of course, at any one of these points I could run into something that makes me say "This is too much to deal with and this isn't a good car for me". For all I know I'll discover massive structural rust I couldn't see when I was taking a quick poke at problem areas on a dusty car in fading light.
That said...can we say practice for eventual Stalker construction? I like having a car that I can always do something simple to improve, and the MR2 wouldn't do that and would probably take me away from Jez. I just...felt this weird instant connection with that old Z. I've learned to listen to that sort of thing.
Things of note: Trying to avoid the damn toll bridge on 8 led me down a road under construction with MASSIVE chuckholes and no pavement and, at the end, a Top Gear Special segment--flooded to boot--separated me from the real road by about a sixteenth of a mile. I tried to carefully drive into it and Bug's nose suddenly got about 30 degrees of down angle (while scraping). NOPE. So I got out and walked around on the visible submerged asphalt humps (thin, thin path) trying to probe the depth of the craters with a ratchet extension and spark plug socket. Some time later, I had a path and was able to get the left-side lawnmower-sized tires on the raised humps and forded through mud with the right side.
That took me back onto the toll bridge. X_X
I've been playing KSP (.22 research update) and Borderlands 2 lately more or less interchangeably. When it comes time to go to the Great Frozen North I might just take my computer--if it's for that long, I'll just buy local clothes anyway, the usual Walmart tee assortment--but we'll see. The idea of existing with the laptop for that long is kind of painful.
Future notes mostly to me about the 280Z:
Pretty much reserved for my investigations when I get back, by agreement of the lady and her dad who gave it to her. Worst part about the initial 'does it run' is going to be dropping the fuel tank, apparently S30s are super prone to rust buildup. But I figure I can drop the tank, clean it out with some muriatic acid, blow out the fuel lines, drop and clean the fuel pump and intake screen, change EVERY fuel filter, and put a cheapie low-pressure job in line between the tank and the pump and that'll take care of the supply side. Everything else is electrical and replace-all-the-fluids stuff. ...Also I have not seen an engine bay that accessible for a long, long time.
A little Kreen in the oil and combustion chambers should help address the ring pack after that much time sitting. The head has valve seals that weren't specced for unleaded gas, so I might have to go additive bottles. IF it'll run at all, even if it's stumbly and rough, that's probably electrical gremlins in the fuel injection and that can be addressed at somewhat greater leisure. Next is, with the rear up, seeing if I can figure out how to drive a manual. Check for gear engagement, driveshaft noise, all that stuff. If that looks good THEN it's time for brake work. Since you can't get the proportioning valves any more I'll try to either refurbish the existing one or get an adjustable for the people who swap in rear discs. Then bleed the brakes and check pads / rotors / drums / shoes / lines and hope like smeg I don't have to replace them. After that, wheel bearing checks, tire checks...(195/70/14, which kind of makes me laugh since Jez was 185/65/14 stock), fix the broken intake ducting with cheap replacement dryer hose or a proper CAI, then make sure vac, coolant and fuel lines are in healthy rubber. Lubricate everything that needs it. Valve clearance adjustment if feasible, then take it to a garage to get somebody who ACTUALLY knows what they're doing to see what I did wrong.
Things to replace at earliest opportunity: Headlights, build starter relay, build body light harness relay so they get 11.X instead of 9.X volts and can be seen, exhaust system. ("FLOOR TEMP" is not a light I ever want to see on!). Factory-converted to R-134, but the system would benefit from being checked.
I am confident I can do this because at that point I will have at least one other car as a daily driver. Ideally Jez, if that hasn't come through yet then at least Bug. With some time and some patience and not having to button everything up overnight because it's needed for work tomorrow....
Of course, at any one of these points I could run into something that makes me say "This is too much to deal with and this isn't a good car for me". For all I know I'll discover massive structural rust I couldn't see when I was taking a quick poke at problem areas on a dusty car in fading light.
That said...can we say practice for eventual Stalker construction? I like having a car that I can always do something simple to improve, and the MR2 wouldn't do that and would probably take me away from Jez. I just...felt this weird instant connection with that old Z. I've learned to listen to that sort of thing.