Long-delayed update
I've been out of touch. I freely admit this, via just about every medium. I'm trying to look at the pieces of my life and assemble them in a way I actually want and have evaluated, not something I just do because I always have just done it.
Jeez, since the last update, the puppy has grown up into a perfectly servicable doge (apart from being difficult to potty-train, we've tried everything the Internet has to offer already) who will, once she starts losing the maniacal energy, be a great dog. I still have the BB gun, haven't broken anything else but I did give into the urge for an accurate one and got a Crosman NP, which is fantastic, with a Centerpoint scope, which is shite. The limiting factor on accuracy is my eyes--I can't resolve the size of the marks on the targets with that scope. Makes it hard to sight in! But it's nice to have a backyard to plink away in.
I now own a brand new washer and dryer and paid off my ancient debt, and only have a few hundred bucks left on the loan that I took out to do that. My bank is in Texas, now, and a credit union...not Key in Toledo that has no branches in the three states that surround me. My savings account is growing (slowly, but everything starts somewhere), I have a (small, and getting smaller thanks to the market crap) IRA. The garage holds a Mercedes, at least it will when it gets back from the garage. Rear calipers dragging, brake fluid boiling, loss of all pedal pressure after ~10 minutes of highway driving. I sourced new rear calipers, e-brake shoes (apparently in pieces), new hoses front and back while I'm at it, new ebrake cables to replace the rusted/snapped ones etc etc. The only part of this story worth chuckling over in posterity is the e-brake adjuster, a little piece that sits behind the front cable and splits off into the rear cables. It was basically a solid chunk of rust. It's all of $30 from Pelican parts but it's backordered through Germany with no known restock time even there. No junkyard can find it. I eventually called through to a couple CL ads parting out 190s....short version of this is screwit, I don't park on hills. I knew the cables were basically disintegrated anyway so never used it. Figured it had one good pull left in it and was saving that for the inspection. 3-5 weeks for now, I may have the adjuster from Germany and then I'll hook it up.
The Corolla is no more. The hatchback, not my baby. Death of a thousand paper cuts. Too much work immediately needed, but she went to a good home.
As for Jez...business changes. The tech working on it is no longer with the company. The admin personell that couldn't be arsed to answer my calls or emails are gone as well. I got a call from the new admin folks and I've been in sporadic communication with them. Short version of THAT is that it's not something simple and they're trying to dig into what was done and undone because nobody told them anything. *sigh*
There's a project car in the garage now, the 1976 280Z that has been alluded to previously. Paid it off, got it towed home. Now sitting on stands with the wheels off, a new battery, a new battery tender, fresh oil. This weekend it's time to drop the drip shield, flush the coolant sludge, put an inline filter before the pump, check if the pump gets voltage, drain the tank, take out the plugs, little oil in the bores, turn it by hand, then bump it with the starter a few times. Then restore the plugs and maybe she'll fire up. I "accidentally" tried with the new battery, just to see if the ignition switch was working, and did get a teeny blip from the starter for my teeny blip of the key into start.
I already bought a creeper, electric impact wrench (got off 10-year-frozen lugnuts from a car that probably had high water, not BAD for Hazard Fraught tooling), etc etc, and stopped by a self-service junkyard to scavenge a distributor and module and mount from a 1981 280ZX....also its unobtainable brake master cylinder for a tenth of what they cost online these days! The previous owner had a lot of driveability problems which I'm thinking may have stemmed from the combination of distributor adjustments (points or something like) needed and an external mechanical regulator alternator. Swapping out the electronic dizzy and upgrading to a Monaco alternator ought to solve those, if they're problematic, and fuck fusible links in favor of a modern maxifuse system. But that's afterwards, as well as all the brake work. First I wanna hear the beast roar to life, or at least cringe to hesitation. I'll get specific from there. Teaching me a LOT already. For $1000, a good investment in the basics of auto repair...not just theory. Eventual future plans are probably not the LS3 erod setup I originally looked at, but just a turbo on the L28E. The six is the heart and soul of that car and it would be a shame to change it. Plus 300 horsepower ought to be plenty. Eventually.
Oh yeah, and Z and I are breaking up the band. My decision. We don't work as a couple. We remain the best of friends but I'm trying to transition things such that he's got time to get a license (has his temps, waiting on the Merc to start learning), a job, some income, a place, etc. Next summer...
And now it's back to work. Probably more later.
Jeez, since the last update, the puppy has grown up into a perfectly servicable doge (apart from being difficult to potty-train, we've tried everything the Internet has to offer already) who will, once she starts losing the maniacal energy, be a great dog. I still have the BB gun, haven't broken anything else but I did give into the urge for an accurate one and got a Crosman NP, which is fantastic, with a Centerpoint scope, which is shite. The limiting factor on accuracy is my eyes--I can't resolve the size of the marks on the targets with that scope. Makes it hard to sight in! But it's nice to have a backyard to plink away in.
I now own a brand new washer and dryer and paid off my ancient debt, and only have a few hundred bucks left on the loan that I took out to do that. My bank is in Texas, now, and a credit union...not Key in Toledo that has no branches in the three states that surround me. My savings account is growing (slowly, but everything starts somewhere), I have a (small, and getting smaller thanks to the market crap) IRA. The garage holds a Mercedes, at least it will when it gets back from the garage. Rear calipers dragging, brake fluid boiling, loss of all pedal pressure after ~10 minutes of highway driving. I sourced new rear calipers, e-brake shoes (apparently in pieces), new hoses front and back while I'm at it, new ebrake cables to replace the rusted/snapped ones etc etc. The only part of this story worth chuckling over in posterity is the e-brake adjuster, a little piece that sits behind the front cable and splits off into the rear cables. It was basically a solid chunk of rust. It's all of $30 from Pelican parts but it's backordered through Germany with no known restock time even there. No junkyard can find it. I eventually called through to a couple CL ads parting out 190s....short version of this is screwit, I don't park on hills. I knew the cables were basically disintegrated anyway so never used it. Figured it had one good pull left in it and was saving that for the inspection. 3-5 weeks for now, I may have the adjuster from Germany and then I'll hook it up.
The Corolla is no more. The hatchback, not my baby. Death of a thousand paper cuts. Too much work immediately needed, but she went to a good home.
As for Jez...business changes. The tech working on it is no longer with the company. The admin personell that couldn't be arsed to answer my calls or emails are gone as well. I got a call from the new admin folks and I've been in sporadic communication with them. Short version of THAT is that it's not something simple and they're trying to dig into what was done and undone because nobody told them anything. *sigh*
There's a project car in the garage now, the 1976 280Z that has been alluded to previously. Paid it off, got it towed home. Now sitting on stands with the wheels off, a new battery, a new battery tender, fresh oil. This weekend it's time to drop the drip shield, flush the coolant sludge, put an inline filter before the pump, check if the pump gets voltage, drain the tank, take out the plugs, little oil in the bores, turn it by hand, then bump it with the starter a few times. Then restore the plugs and maybe she'll fire up. I "accidentally" tried with the new battery, just to see if the ignition switch was working, and did get a teeny blip from the starter for my teeny blip of the key into start.
I already bought a creeper, electric impact wrench (got off 10-year-frozen lugnuts from a car that probably had high water, not BAD for Hazard Fraught tooling), etc etc, and stopped by a self-service junkyard to scavenge a distributor and module and mount from a 1981 280ZX....also its unobtainable brake master cylinder for a tenth of what they cost online these days! The previous owner had a lot of driveability problems which I'm thinking may have stemmed from the combination of distributor adjustments (points or something like) needed and an external mechanical regulator alternator. Swapping out the electronic dizzy and upgrading to a Monaco alternator ought to solve those, if they're problematic, and fuck fusible links in favor of a modern maxifuse system. But that's afterwards, as well as all the brake work. First I wanna hear the beast roar to life, or at least cringe to hesitation. I'll get specific from there. Teaching me a LOT already. For $1000, a good investment in the basics of auto repair...not just theory. Eventual future plans are probably not the LS3 erod setup I originally looked at, but just a turbo on the L28E. The six is the heart and soul of that car and it would be a shame to change it. Plus 300 horsepower ought to be plenty. Eventually.
Oh yeah, and Z and I are breaking up the band. My decision. We don't work as a couple. We remain the best of friends but I'm trying to transition things such that he's got time to get a license (has his temps, waiting on the Merc to start learning), a job, some income, a place, etc. Next summer...
And now it's back to work. Probably more later.