Continuing Thread: What Are You Fix-It'ing Today?

[A930Rocket]

Install the sound deadening and speakers in the other three doors to my F150. Sounds much better, but I need to look into an amplifier that will work with my factory stereo.

[Brian 162]

Originally Posted by Brian 162

Starter decided to pack it in a week before we’re heading to Florida. How hard could it be, it’s only a 5.3 lbs engine.
Well after fighting for over 2 hours I gave up. One starter bolt turns but won’t come out. It’s seems to be stuck in the housing.
There’s no easy way to get leverage to get the bolt out. My neighbours son is a mechanic, he’s coming over tomorrow.
I actually googled the symptom and I’m not the only one. That felt a little better but not much.
Rant over

Well I got the bolt and starter out. I stuck a trim tool on the underside of the bolt head and loosened with the ratchet. Took around 10 minutes to remove. New starter is in and works but I have to go to Flap’s tomorrow and get a new sensing wire connector. The old one won’t stay on the starter and it’s not easy to get at.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

that I personally installed back in 1999

Put mine in 1997 - the year after I bought my home. Have had zero malfuctions since. I too have modified it as I have changed bed configurations and added decking.

You must have a pump start relay. Mine is the same - well, pump, pump start relay, timer, electric valves.

Originally Posted by Brian 162

New starter is in

Had to replace mine about 10 years ago, IIRC, on my 4.8 '02 Silverado and seem to remember it wasn't the easiest to get to!

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Baz

Put mine in 1997 - the year after I bought my home. Have had zero malfuctions since. I too have modified it as I have changed bed configurations and added decking.

You must have a pump start relay. Mine is the same - well, pump, pump start relay, timer, electric valves.





Had to replace mine about 10 years ago, IIRC, on my 4.8 '02 Silverado and seem to remember it wasn't the easiest to get to!

Yep, I do. Rainbird professional parts throughout. The rain - freeze sensor is the only thing I have ever had problems with. Easy to replace, just not reliable at all.

[911 Rod]

Went from this


To this

[Baz]

Looks fantastic, Rod!

[rsrguy]

Ditto... that's a solid victory over a tedious fight! Good on ya!

Productive day... but long. I measured up the area not covered by the new dorsal and built a clamping board from Masonite. Then I sanded the edge thin in order to make the new composite scarf joint. Mix up some $600 a gallon german epoxy and layout a bunch of carbon fiber (cf) remnants and 3 oz fiberglass and wet them out on carrier sheets.. i also cut the peel ply at this point. I applied a release layer of plastic to the stabilizer and a tack coat of goo to the plastic then peel ply first. Next is the layup of glass and cf directly to the peel ply. Install the dosal- cleco'd in place up front. Layup the outside of the dorsal and peel ply.. lastly install the clamp board with thin packing foam to distribute the pressure holding the dorsal flaps that mount to the sides of the vertical against the interior and exterior layup.... turn up the thermostat and drive home..... Contacts removed coke bottle bottom glasses on, recliner engaged, and feet up... tonight will be like Christmas eve as a ten year old, I can't wait to unrap it!

[Baz]

Looking good, Guy! Can relate about the contacts, BTW. Feels good to take them out heading into the evening hour.

Regarding your body work, I will be doing some motorcycle fairing repairs in the near future. These are pretty much all ABS. I already have some CF cloth and CA (Cyanoacrylate Adhesive) along with some other products, materials, and tools. Most of the fairings are from the 80's Honda Interceptors and very hard to find nowadays, so I'm actually looking forward to it.

Appreciate your posts here - quite inspiring!

[rsrguy]

Thanks Baz, as always you're very supportive.. abs stuff is a challenge.

[rsrguy]

More composite repair today. This time rocket parts. Cracks and nut plate reinforcement. I like to bury a couple pieces of Kevlar on either side of stop drilled cracks then the fg. Same goes for nut plate locations. We'll be using clickbond floaters once these are ready.

[herr_oberst]

Rocket parts? You'll be building an autoclave soon to do pre-preg c/f modeling soon!

I was watching a video this morning about the new Bambu-Labs H series 3D printer, and thinking about how far it's come in not very much time. Those rocket parts could totally be built of strong lightweight materials!

I can never get enough of these pictures, rsguy. Good stuff.

(Do you make the Barry White "Oh, Yeah" sounds or the heavenly choir music notes in your mind when you peel off the clamps and masking materials to expose the repair?)

[rsrguy]

Oh...ya...
The peel ply came off real nice. The rocket is a hopped up rv-4 with an o540... the parts are wheel pants leg fairings and the cowling.

[GH85Carrera]

My wife declared we need to do the spring cleaning of the storm shelter. It is in the garage, under the bay my where my 911 is usually parked. If I pull all forward, the storm shelter has easy access. I started stringing the extension cord to the wall outlet next to the shelter. The outlet was dead. Crap, I used a bit more extension cord to get to a different outlet. The vacuum worked, the shelter is cleaned of leaves, and one dead skink that explored the wrong place. The 1/2 a case of water was replaced with new water bottles. And yes, we have a pee bag, a 5 gallon bucket, and a roll of toilet paper down there. And 100% yes, the dogs will be down there with us as well, and they have a pee rug as well. We have only gone down there twice in 27 years in an overabundance of caution. 10 minutes later the threat is gone, and we are back up.

That afternoon in the 85 degree heat, I played at being electrician. I pulled the outlet to be sure there was not a miraculous and spontaneous separation on the connections. As expected, all the connections were tight, just as the builder's electrician wired them, so I pushed it back into the wall, and buttoned it up.

I went looking for other outlets that were dead. The front porch outlet was also dead. Hmmmmm. Very interesting, and a clue!

The roofers were here a few weeks ago to replace the roof. I wonder if they plugged in something that popped a ground fault breaker. So I went on the hunt for the possible culprit. In my bathroom that is in the garage, was the popped GFI outlet. In the 27 years that we have lived here, it has never popped before. Simple reset, and the magic electricity was restored to the outlet. I just never look at that outlet, as I almost never use it.

Score one for Glen!

The back porch outlet, on the other side of the wall to the master bathroom uses the GFI circuit for the master bathroom. It has popped a few times over the years when plugging in certain items. Why they tied the circuit on the far side of the garage and the front porch to the GFI circuit in the bathroom in the garage is mystery only the electrician can answer.

The house has outlets every 18 feet in the soffits, and on the front and back porch.

[GH85Carrera]

My El Camino normally has GM top quality A/C. 38 degrees in 110+ temps on max blow. Back in the 80s, AC Delco made the R-4 compressors, and they just worked for years. Now they all come ffrom China, and 12 months is about it. So I switched to a Sanden compressor last year. That was a pain in the butt. It was down on refrigerant once again this spring. %#(*!*^^ and profanity!

I went up to a buddies place that has a sniffer. The 4 Schrader valves all had a slow leak had a small leak, and I put in new O-rings in the caps to hopefully fix that. Then I went to the high - low pressure switch that screws onto the accumulator. The sniffer was squealing like a little girl, or a stuck pig. OK, remove that switch that has a Schrader valve on the accumulator, and replace that o-ring, and tighten until I was afraid the plastic switch would break.

I hosed it all down with carb cleaner, and in a few days, I will do the sniff test again.

Seek and destroy, um make that seek and repair! I don't want to have to top it off again!

[GH85Carrera]

I had fun today, I did my 387,000 mile oil change on the El Camino. Fresh oil and filter, and lube up the front suspension. It required a nice Yuengling Lager for the mechanic's payment. And I had to pay for the dang Yuengling, and do the work!

I went for a 10 mile drive in the 87 degree heat, the AC at MAX chill and blow. 38 degree air, and lots of it. I sure wish Porsche had hired GM to design the AC system on the 911 3.2 Carrera.

I came back and whipped out the sniffer. No trace of a leak even at high sensitivity.

I will give it a week or so and do another sniffer test. If still no whiff of refrigerant, I will give the sniffer back to my buddy that owns it, and call it sealed.

[Racerbvd]

Started cleaning some Fuchs

[Racerbvd]

Well, the senior scooter carrier I picked up at for the mother must have been assembled by a Walmart Christmas bike builder (you know, the ones who always put the forks and stems on backwards) as they put the hardware to mount the cage with the bolts sticking where the scooter or anything else mounts





And yes, I know that they are those nuts don’t loosen up easily, but being on the bottom, and even though, we don’t actually need this yet (I’d rather have and not need than not have and need, plus if I have it, I won’t need it) I doubled up the lock nuts, cause it it is needed , it will be on for a while. Plus, this way (as well as probably installing the hardware) my

[Racerbvd]

Part 2, the tie down eye bolts were not up to par, the carrier was only used once, and bent, so again, like my other anal brothers here (and probably a few dIckheads here too :P )
These had to be replaced with something more up to the job. Course that meant drilling out the hole to accommodate the new eyebolts.
The difference is obviously.

[Baz]

Not much of a project but will be helpful for my motorcycle work. Put some shelves in one of my storage units today where I keep some of my bikes.

[911 Rod]

New trailing arm bushings while the engine is out.
I like to do things a little different. Lol