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

[herr_oberst]

You can use your car polisher to buff out the paint on the stingray. Just go easy. You don't need to get every nook and cranny. (hint, go easy. test inconspicuous areas)

Bike looks great. What are you going to do with it?

[HobieMarty]

Use this stuff to make it shine and then buff. It will protect the paint like a clear coat.
All you do is brush it on and let it dry.

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[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

You can use your car polisher to buff out the paint on the stingray. Just go easy. You don't need to get every nook and cranny. (hint, go easy. test inconspicuous areas)

Bike looks great. What are you going to do with it?

Cruise around the neighborhood some. I’ve had it 53 years, so it’s a keeper.

Edit. I had to break out the welder to repair the seat stem on the seat bottom. The metal had fatigued and the bracket fell off.

[A930Rocket]

Almost finished with the welding on the left rear flare of the 330. I have one small piece to patch, lots of grinding and then I can start the other side.

I was going to butt weld the sheet metal but decided to go with lap welding instead.

It’s going to take a lot of Bondo to make it look decent. 😂

After jacking up the car and removing the wheel, it’s riding high until I drive it to settle it down.

[jyl]

Figuring out how to install this fan on this wall and run duct and power to it.

I think it’s all straightforward enough, just new to me.

[herr_oberst]

The E28 has euro fuses, AND, it has a couple of (unfortunately) unswitched circuits in the dashboard. This is a little adapter I made to plug in an ATC/ATO circuit breaker for when I want to work on the wiring but need to leave the circuits live.

(jyl, I'll get to yours real soon!)

[Racerbvd]

Taking apart the rear end of the Tundra.

[ted]

Put a bigger blue tool box in the trailer.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Just about finished with the Stingray. Still need to shine up the paint and decals. I did not want to over restore it, so I used mostly original parts that I buffed out.

Looks great..

[bugstrider]

Attempting to get a VariEZ back into the air. “Touched” the brake pad plate to change out and then discover this little treat.

So…… fixing brakes is on the menu boys!





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[rsrguy]

Finished the -18 fuse last week...we even managed to get the lumps bumped out of the nose bowl. I then caught the flu, covid wasn't this bad, at least fir me.

[A930Rocket]

Installed the flare and one of the patch panels on the right side of the 330. One more small patch needed on the right side. Still need to grind, Bondo, sand, paint, etc.

[hcoles]

Nothing so dramatic for me. Rebuilt Weber Q300 gas grill. We have one at a house near salt water and it got crapped up by the renters. I figured I'd just buy a new one but they are now $500+ so I got new burners and a new igniter and put some heat paint on the base. I also disassembled the valves and got them working (spring action) again. All good to go.

[stevej37]

Pull chain for the lights on my Hunter ceiling fan stopped working.
Dropped the bottom cap and replaced the roller chain switch with a new one. Works great again now.

While up there...cleaned the fan blades, top and bottom.

[HobieMarty]

I'm replacing the thermostat on our 2009 Lexus RX350, yes, I have two Lexus SUVs, a 2000 RX300 and a 2009 RX350, got both of them from my Dad. Anyway, this is a bit of pain in the butt. You have to remove the serpentine belt, then remove the idler pulley to gain access to a bolt hidden by the idler pulley, (hence the removal of said "spawn of satan" pulley) and then hey, there it is, the thermostat!!! I haven't got that far. Got a late start on the project, drained the radiator and started to remove the serpentine belt and quickly realized that I wasn't going to get a breaker bar and 14mm socket in that narrow space, needed a specialty tool. So I got a loaner serpentine belt removal tool from Advanced Autoparts and was able to finnese the belt off of the idler pulley. Now my focus was on the removal of the dreaded idler pulley, idler as in, it does nothing at all except give the belt something to rotate around and somewhat guide the belt toward pulleys of components that actually do something. Anyway I had to stop there, ran out of daylight and also took some time in researching if this blasted pulley is held on by a bolt with left handed or right handed threads as I do not want to shear off a bolt head, that would cause me to just accept defeat, pour gasoline on this vehicle and watch it go up in flames, Lol.
But seriously it is ridiculous. Remove serpentine belt, remove idler pulley, then remove 2 10mm bolts to expose the thermostat, replace thermostat and put it all back together, sounds simple enough.
Not much room to work!!!

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[hcoles]

Originally Posted by HobieMarty

I'm replacing the thermostat on our 2009 Lexus RX350, yes, I have two Lexus SUVs, a 2000 RX300 and a 2009 RX350, got both of them from my Dad. Anyway, this is a bit of pain in the butt. You have to remove the serpentine belt, then remove the idler pulley to gain access to a bolt hidden by the idler pulley, (hence the removal of said "spawn of satan" pulley) and then hey, there it is, the thermostat!!! I haven't got that far. Got a late start on the project, drained the radiator and started to remove the serpentine belt and quickly realized that I wasn't going to get a breaker bar and 14mm socket in that narrow space, needed a specialty tool. So I got a loaner serpentine belt removal tool from Advanced Autoparts and was able to finnese the belt off of the idler pulley. Now my focus was on the removal of the dreaded idler pulley, idler as in, it does nothing at all except give the belt something to rotate around and somewhat guide the belt toward pulleys of components that actually do something. Anyway I had to stop there, ran out of daylight and also took some time in researching if this blasted pulley is held on by a bolt with left handed or right handed threads as I do not want to shear off a bolt head, that would cause me to just accept defeat, pour gasoline on this vehicle and watch it go up in flames, Lol.
But seriously it is ridiculous. Remove serpentine belt, remove idler pulley, then remove 2 10mm bolts to expose the thermostat, replace thermostat and put it all back together, sounds simple enough.
Not much room to work!!!

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Transverse engines can be a pain. On your RX wait until you replace the rear plugs. I have to do that on my son's RX350. I bought a semi-special plug socket.

[HobieMarty]

Oh yeah, changing the windshield side plugs on a transverse V6 or V8 is a real PITA!!! I have changed the plugs and coils in the SHO's V8 had to take the intake and most of the cowling apart.

Well, things were going along nicely until I overtightened a nut on one of the studs in the thermostat housing, yep, the stud sheared off. So, I think there is enough stud left that I can get an extractor on it and unscrew it. I removed the upper engine mount and bracket but I there is one long bolt in the bracket that I have completely loose but it is so long that when trying to remove it, it hits the inner fender just above the ABS brake lines. If I can get that bracket removed, then there are only three 10mm bolts that hold the thermostat housing onto the engine, remove those and a rear hose and I can get the housing removed completely and can get that stud out. I will try the extractor tool first. I tried several different sizes of vice grips but there is just no room to get a grip on the stud and that is why I would like to remove the entire housing. What started out as a somewhat already PITA job went to ***** quickly, just from thinking oh, it needs to be tighter, snap!!!

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[HobieMarty]

Success!!! The extractor worked!!! I used vice grips to hold the silver body of the tool and tightened the chuck with my ratchet, then when I felt the tool was tight onto the broken stud then I removed the vice grips and started slowly tightening down with the ratchet and the broken stud backed right out.
I went to several parts stores, was able to measure the stud as a M6 1.0 but couldn't find anything other than bolts in that size, then at Autozone, I found a kit for water pumps with various sizes of studs and there were some that were exactly what I needed. I got most of everything back together, this time I didn't over tighten the nuts on the studs. I had things almost wrapped up but then it started raining so I will finish up tomorrow. Good times.

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[HobieMarty]

Well, so far so good. My wife has been driving the vehicle around for several days now and I've been checking the coolant level in the reservoir and it has stabilized and has not changed at all and the temperature gauge has been staying right in the middle. So, job done, Yay!!!!

Now to address the pesky TPM light. The tires all have the proper psi, they say the spare also has a sensor and if it is low, the light will come on, so I will check it out.

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[porsche tech]

Scratchy noise outside this morning…thought the squirrels were chewing the gutters again. On further review I found the noise coming from inside a downspout.



Took it loose at the top and ran the hose in it expecting something to jump out…nada.
Took the whole downspout off and found the culprit.




He just sat there and stared at me. I went to the garage to fetch one of those flexible mechanical finger things and as I was rounding the corner coming back he jumped out and ran away. Pesky little critters.