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

[Rusty Heap]

Feeling all better now, nothing that time and money won't fix. I had to winch it skid it up onto the trailer. It was a true recovery full of adventure!

[Baz]

Replaced the garage mini-fridge. The old one I bought used for only $30 about 8 years ago. It still works but gets frosted up inside which was always a pain.

Then I sprayed down my boat using Clorox Outdoor Bleach.

Going to take a bike ride and then at 3pm watch the game.

Happy Sunday!

[David]

The plastic surround on my wife’s Briggs & Riley suitcase handle crumbed off. With the lifetime warranty, we could take it in for repair but that will takes weeks and her next trip is sooner than that so I looked for a temporary fix and instead found a permanent one.

I bought some 2mm leather, waxed thread, needle, and hole punch on Amazon, watched a YouTube video, and put a hand stitched leather cover on the handle:

[ted]

Originally Posted by David

put a hand stitched leather cover on the handle:

next a steering wheel?

They take up less room on the car.
10 next race in 6 weeks.
5 car deconstructed for a new engine +30hp 750 and engine compart Fix-It'ing.

[Baz]

Finished rehabbing a 3 tiered plant stand that was being thrown away.

Mostly it just had some corrosion on it - the structural integrity was all still intact.

So I sprayed the corroded areas with metal etching fluid (Ospho) - primered - and re-painted.

Using it for now in a spot next to my front entry walkway to display some of my Bromeliads. I wrote the names of the plants on the pots too....

[Racerbvd]

[Evans, Marv]

I'm working on rerpairing the portion of our "retreat" that the animals burrowed under. The portion that's still good is underlain by bedrock. The number three rebar is overkill, but I'm hoping it'll solve the problem along with a concrete buffer zone in front to help keep the burrowers out.

[almostordinary]

Just bought my first house and we have a full studio that we're setting up for friends and family...

But finally got time to wrench on one of my project bikes 1995 BMW K75S.

[ted]

5 car getting ready for a major service.

[Baz]

Wow - good stuff David (handle), Ted (race car), Byron (electric panel), Marv (masonry), and AO (K75S)!

Please keep the updates coming!

[JeremyD]

Daughter's car get's brakes

[Baz]

Last night I did some digging in my garage to retrieve some motorcycle fairings I had stashed away. I'm learning how to repair them so wanted to take a closer look at what I had and what lay ahead as far as repair needs.

The 4th photo before shows the replacement post I made (left side) using a mold in the Plastex kit. Now I don't have to use a cable tie. BTW, that fairing is an aftermarket one made of fiberglass. The factory units are all poly carbonate.

My garage is cluttered way beyond my preference so I'm always trying to re-organize and improve. I threw away a bunch of empty boxes I had been saving and that alone helped.

I really need to finish the storage "facility" in my side yard but not sure that will happen until it cools off end of year.

So this morning I went back in to continue what I started last night - then took a break for the finish of Le Tour - then took a bike ride - then back to the garage - in sweltering conditions now. But having had a productive day so far I was OK with it. I downloaded a couple Pink Floyd concerts from '72 onto a flash drive and had that playing the whole time so that was pretty awesome.

I have (3) Interceptors all the same year and model. My first one was this yellow one that has been in hibernation for over 10 years. I have all the fairings for it. I also have some fairings for the two blue ones plus a set of upper white fairings I bought off eBay if need be.

I really don't know how this will end up. I know I will have at least one good Interceptor and am shooting to have two. But maybe it will be 3. Depends a lot on part sourcing.

Aside from all that - I am pleased to announce that today.....I finally put the dolly I bought from Lowes over 2 years ago under that big arse generator in the garage.

Been wanting to do that for some time and today was the day!

[GH85Carrera]

Phew, yesterday as I was rolling the trash container back from the curb, I looked at the grass in the west part of the back yard. It was looking very dry and crispy in some parts.

My wife had pros come plant three trees last spring, and all received three tie down posts to help keep them in place in the Oklahoma wind. We removed the posts this spring. We both noticed the hole from one of the posts just stayed open and we figured the dogs did that by digging it back out.



It was the sprinkler system. One of the posts was driven right into a connection. I dug a hole big enough to get to the leak, and found the orange tee smashed into two parts. I thought I was super lucky, and only the tee was the issue. I had to get my heat gun to heat up the black plastic pipe to get the old tee out, and the new one back in place. I was happy to go crank up the system and cussed a bit when there was still a geyser.


I cleaned off more of the fitting, and you can see the black crack under the bar code, and the hole in the pipe. Crap. This is gonna be a pain.


I can't glue the pipe if it is full of water. So I dug around in my collection of stuff I keep in case I might need it someday. Today was the day.
This is a fitting for waterbeds, to fill or drain the waterbed. A garden hose to the top, and with the water running, it creates suction. With my multiple hoses, it sucked out the water from the lateral pipe and I could then glue things together. I just shoved the small hose into the hole, and let the garden hose run for a few minutes. Ready to glue!


I dug through my sprinkler parts, and found a saddle tap that would normally get drilled out to add an connection. I just used that as a patch. Then for big crack, I dug around in the attic, and found the bell end of a 40 foot piece of 1 1/4 pipe, and cut off the bell end. Cut that in half, and it fits the outer dimension of the fitting real well.

Lots of PVC primer, and lots of glue, and it is holding.

I would never try that if it was a pressure fitting or anything inside a house. Worst case, if it leaks a bit, the tree it is next to gets some extra water. The sprinkler system for that section is back to functional, and now the grass will get watered.

This is the biggest issue I have had with the sprinkler system since I personally installed in 22 years ago. And it was all damage caused by a post driven into the ground with perfect aim at a hard to get to connection.

The "cool" part to me, is it did not require one single trip to the big box store, or any store at all. I had all the parts, in my stash of those parts and stuff I can't throw out because I might need them someday. To have saddle tap for a 1 inch PVC pipe, and a leftover 1 1/4 inch PVC pipe from the main supply from the water well to the valves, the tee fitting, and fresh PVC cement and primer was a bonus. All the tools I needed, and everything came together to fix an issue, caused by someone else.

[Baz]

Glen......lol....wow....some nifty Rube Goldberg work there!

I admire your resourcefulness.

I have on occasion used a half pipe cross section to patch a small crack. Thing is with PVC glue you are indeed "welding" the bond, so it's more than just something being glued together.

In situations like yours these "slipfixes" come in handy:



I did some irrigation work as well yesterday. Replace (2) 12" popups with (2) 6" popups. They were worn out and the stems were rotating a bit each time they came on. It's in the housing - not the insert - so have to replace the whole thing. I went to a 6" because the higher elevation wasn't needed.





PS - the proper vernacular for that orange fitting is "funny ell" - not tee....

[GH85Carrera]

Doh, yea it ain't a tee, just an elbow.

I would have had to dig a much bigger hole to use the slipfix. And the area was full of tree roots, and not been good for the tree. And it would really suck digging in that area.

I wanted to disturb as little as possible. And I really did not want to go to the store.

[rsrguy]

Finished the wings

[Baz]

Originally Posted by rsrguy

Finished the wings

Wow - those are beautiful....nice work, Guy!

Where were those bears at Burn...which state?

Did you see the webcam thread I posted?

[JackDidley]

19 HP kohler, the oil wanted out real bad. 105 hours on it.

[Evans, Marv]

Retreat finished.

[Baz]

Nice job, Marv! I love those swivel rocker chairs too!

The ones I have here are sling chairs and sit a little higher with a support ring to rest your feet on. My fav. 2 have tears so I have to re-sling them.

Here's a little deck I built last year. I ended up re-configuring later to use just for storage.....





Meanwhile out front: