Geez....takes me a week to write a post anymore.
Anywhoo.....Got some major work finished on the Supra, and I'm teetering at the 50% mark for work accomplished vs work remaining.
At least I hope I'm at the 50% point!
Enjoy the weekend, and keep those heads on those swivels. Wonder if the No Kings people will go full retard this week....
And what an ordeal getting these back in shape.
Now that the blower assembly has been rebuilt, it pushes so much air it's a bit hard to hold. I polished the commutator on the motor, replaced the brushes, and soaked the Oilite bearings in Light Machine Oil until they wouldn't absorb any more. Should really make a difference moving air through the car, along with ditching the crud encrusted evaporator core.
And my parts are back from powder coating. They look stunning! I was checking one of the parts when SLW came in to see them. She asked if they were some of the new parts I've been getting from Japan, then she looked closer and said they looked better than new.
These are the brake and clutch pedals and mounting brackets as they came out of the car.
And this is the brake pedal and bracket after powder coating.
Quite a nice improvement, and I didn't have to spend a week or more painting all the parts I took in.
And if anybody knows local insects, this little guy has taken up residence in one corner of the workbench. I got nailed by a spider several months ago, and it hurt. It must have been a little one, because I didn't feel it on my arm until it struck. Quite a surprise.
And Katy stopped by again to say hello....
Got started on the Halloween decorations, so I'll take some pix of that. With The Little Ones getting bigger, we've gotten a bit more elaborate.
Have a good upcoming weekend, and Keepth Thy Head Upon A Swivel!
FOURTH time I've written this post. MY Muse has apparently vacated the premises, leaving me too busy doing other things to keep both my readers in the loop!
Anyway....got the house pressure washed and painted, and they did a very nice job. No runs, spills, drips, and they were a great bunch to work with.
New Paint.
And we have a new resident here, courtesy of my son feeding bills to the guy at the Larimer County Fair "Win A Goldfish!" booth until grandson #1 "won" a fish.
Meet "Pickles" the fish....
First time I ever tried taking an aquarium photo. Pickles can really scoot if she wants to. So now our Little Ones have a new thing to watch and learn about. Since they've been mastering the Electrical Board so well, we're going to start on Magnetism next, and then on to Electromagnetism, which should be a hoot. Tesla Coil or Jacob's Ladder, anyone? I've got this little power supply that came from a YUGE plasma-ball kind of thing, and.....
And the reason the inside of the Supra looks like this:
Is because all this stuff went to media blasting and powder coating today:
I spent yesterday scrubbing out all nine molded air ducts for the HVAC system, and the water looked like mud after each one was scrubbed. I'm waiting for the correct size foam tape to finish these up. This is a 'before cleaning' shot.
This is the side facing the heater box:
Wait'll you see the backside of it.....
The core was about 3/4 blocked with dirt, leaves, trash, and oil. Where'd the oil come from? It's compressor oil that's mixed in the refrigerant to lubricate the A/C compressor. And since this area was soaked with it, I'd say I finally found the Freon leak in the system.
And then I found this in the upper cowl area, where the air enters the HVAC system through the blower motor.
Rodent nest? Not sure, as there was ZERO odor, and it easily came out.
So I've been pretty busy, and yes, this turned into a whole lot more work than just replacing the heater core.
With apologies to The Control Voice....
Yup.....got The Busies the last few weeks. Lots of stuff happening this week, including my Nuclear Stress Test at the UCHealth Harmony Campus. I tend to ask a lot of questions about things, and considering I was a Components Engineer for the "Gamma Cameras" and "Radioisotope Immuno Assay" product lines for about nine months back in the late 1980's, I always surprise the staff doing the procedures.
Anywhoo.....Y'all be safe and vigilant out there!
Our basement Egress Window has been jammed solid since we bought this house almost eight years ago. I tried vacuuming and blowing out all the junk that had built up in the tracks, lubricating the release handle, Applications of Force ranging from a few gentle taps, to OMG....YOU'RE GONNA BUST THE GLASS! , and the window just wouldn't budge.
Plus the 4x4 timbers used to frame the window well on the outside were decaying and shifting. A couple were rotted enough that I was getting worried we'd have a cave-in, so we put it out for bid, and wound up with this.
And with the new window open, there's a very nice breeze that airs out the basement.
NWS has been forecasting 60~70% chance of precip the last few days, but all we've received are some thin groupings of big rain drops that don't even wet the ground. They're getting clobbered East of here as usual, but nothing here.
Enjoy the upcoming weekend, stay in Condition Yellow, and keeps those heads a swivelin'!
GROAN....whatta PITA!
After removing all the screws, including the ones you can barely find, let alone see, I managed to get the dashpad out.
Yes, that's RUST. Toyota applied NO protective dip, coating, or paint on the steel parts behind the dash, and they start returning to their native state after a few years. Now I don't need to pull all these rusty bits to swap out the heater core, but they're coming out and getting sandblasted. I'll ask my guy at the powder coating place how much extra it will cost to have them powder coated vs my buying numerous cans of paint at $20 a pop. I'm guessing I'll just get them coated, as that way they're ready to go back in the car as soon as I get them home, versus taking a week or more to get them primed, cured, painted, and the paint cured.
SLW was worried I'd get Tetanus working in there until I reminded her that I had a TDAP shot six months ago.
Since the instrument cluster is out, I'm going to put new lamps in it, remove the plastic cover for polishing, and clean 40 years of dust (and two dead bugs!) out of it.
Americans were always my favorite "mag" wheel. I had them on my little Ford Capri, both of my Corvettes, my El Camino, my race cars, and both of my Trans Ams. Clean, functional, and lighter than steel wheels. They weren't as popular as Cragar S/S "mags", but seeing as I never cared much for chrome, they were right up my alley.
The Hagerty Driver's Club just posted an article here, so if you're into old mag wheels, give it a read.
Yowie....started raining about 45 minutes ago, and we've already received over ..4", and the rainfall rate just went up to 2"/hr as another cell moved over us.
Flash flood warnings are out for the burn scar areas, with some of them getting over an inch of rain in an hour, with more to come tonight, and through the rest of the week.
The heat broke, going from 94* down to 67* in about an hour. So nice to have a rain like this. "Whiskey's for Drinkin', and Water's for Fightin'", and we thank the Good Lord for this rain.
Another two weeks of Summer have passed. Got a decent amount of rain a few days ago, a full quarter-inch, and we got another tenth last night. Been high 90's here, but cooling off nicely at night.
Got a whole buncha parts cleaned and painted, and commenced work on the wiring harness.
These are the headlight buckets with a their first couple of coats of "Super White II" on them.
And I bought a new tool. It's a "Ratcheting Rivet Nut Setter", and is exactly what I need to put threaded inserts into frame rails and things.
And been doing yard work, chasing grandkids around, "Fixin' Things", and waiting a couple of weeks to get to see our Doctor again. She left the previous office (Yeah, THOSE guys) she was at, and has now joined UCHealth, which is the heavy-hitter out here, and whom our first provider with this Doctor was with. SLW saw her earlier this week, and she was able to get me an appointment much sooner than I expected.
Enjoy the weekend, and always be alert!
Got a bee in my bonnet and shot some paint yesterday.
Low 90's today, cloudy and breezy, and we'll probably get an afternoon shower because it's that time of year here.
Yes, The Fisher is still on the bench, but I've narrowed it down (again....!) to a voltage that is missing. Might be a broken trace on the circuit board, might be a bad solder joint (unlikely but possible), or a solder "splash" that's shorting something out.
Found a local place that's great for getting odd bits sandblasted at a reasonable price and almost instant turn-around, so I've got a few more things to take to them.
These are the rusty suspension mount brackets, tow hook, and the headlight buckets back from blasting. The plastic sheeting is the weather seal that attaches to the inside of the door frame, under the upholstery, and keep water out of the car.
Quite a difference.
And this is after two coats of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. It's a heavy-duty primer loaded with zinc that's very effective at preventing future rust.
Today will be an "Under The Car Day" as I have to get the exhaust down-pipe loose from the exhaust manifold, pull the clutch slave cylinder and flex hose, and pull the fuel hose so I can get a new one fabricated. Then I have to get inside the car to get the hardware loose from the brake booster and clutch master cylinder so I can pull them out and fix the rust behinds them from when the clutch cylinder failed and dumped brake fluid everywhere, which did a number on the painted firewall.
Oh, well......
So enjoy your weekend, have a Blessed Sunday, keep those heads swiveling and stay vigilant.
But hey....It's a DRY heat! Humidity was only NINE per cent today!
Enjoy you weekend, keep that head swivellin', and exercise your 2A rights!
Don't go stupid places, don't hang out with stupid people, and don't do stupid things!
Not *expecting* anything to go sideways, but we're prepared if it does.
Pray for America, and keep your head on a swivel!
Well, last week it was nice........
50* and raining, with more on the way. Total rain for May was 2.97", and my Taylor rain gauge, and the digital gauge in the Davis weather station are in agreement. And we're at 1" of rain for the last week.
SLW went down to DIA to pick-up her two best friends, and only came home with one.........her other friend had missed the flight by minutes, but she was able to get another in two hours. She took the shuttle up here because she didn't want SLW or I to make another round trip. One of the two was her Maid-of-Honor at our wedding, and the other is the Pastor that married us. It's turning into an "interesting" trip for The Three Amigos!
If SLW's third bestie were also here.....I'd start to look for suitable shelter.......
Come to think of it....these three all together here may have been what triggered that M8.2 solar flare....hmmmmm. Info about the resulting CME, which was aimed smack at our face, can be found here.
Sprayed the back yard with Weed-B-Gon and nuked the gravel borders with RoundUp. Was going to do more, but I had other things to do, and now we've got some thunder-boomers rolling through.
Geesh......I really have to post more often, just to keep you all 'in the loop'.
During these cool rainy days when I can't paint or clean parts, I duck back down into The Lab, and tinker away. The Fisher is under the microscope again, as I track down a stray voltage that's flummoxing things up. I'm getting a handle on it, but after this unit is finished I doubt if I'll be taking on any more "For Hire" jobs. It's just too much distraction. I should have been finished with my TEAC A-7030 Reel-to-Reel deck, and it's still just sitting there.
And yes, the Supra is in the Hangar Deck being worked on. I've done a lot of work on it, and spent some time reorganizing SLW's side of the garage. I'm going to move the Supra about 3' to the center of the garage for easier access to the interior, and extra room for "whoever" comes out to pull the windshield. I have to remove the plastic defroster vents to get at the screws that secure the top dash pad to the firewall so I can pull the pad out. This is required to remove the failed heater core, a "Work In Progress". Annnd I've damaged the pad getting one of the defrost vents out, hence the "Pull The Windshield!" command being given. So while I'm working out the logistics on that, I'm keeping busy cleaning up all the surface rust in the left side of the engine bay. I pulled both headlight assemblies out, along with the motors and connecting links. The links just needed a good cleaning, but the headlight "buckets" need to be sandblasted along with the suspension mounts. I've been holding out on going to the sandblaster as it's been rainy the last two weeks, with very high (for here...) humidity, and I don't want to the Naked Steel to rust on the way home.
Right side headlight mounting position. The big black spot is from when I painted the bumper. Guess I didn't mask things as well as I thought.
This is the headlight bucket from the left side.
This headlight always seemed to raise and lower slower than the other one. Turns out the pivot was rusty, so I used a bunch of Blaster! to free it up, and now it pivots easily.
There are two "tow hooks" mounted to the front frame, and one needs attention.
This is the right side one.
And the bolts.
The grey paint on the tip of the left bolt is the Toyota "Electro-Dip" primer. The middle one is degrading, and the right one has lost all it's protection. These will be replaced.
Worried about rust in the frame rails, I dug out my endoscope and used it to inspect the internal structure of the frame rails after I pulled the rubber plugs.
The right hand side is clean as a whistle inside, while the left one showed some rust, but nothing bad, just surface rust. The frame rails will be coated inside with some of Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating. In fact, I'm going to go along under the car, and pull all the rubber plugs that are used to cap voids, and spray this stuff inside there, too. They say Rust Never Sleeps, and on these cars it never even takes a nap!
This weekend and the coming week look be be warm and dry, so I'll be cleaning and painting things in the garage, and doing a dive under the dashboard to remove the clutch master cylinder and the power brake booster so I can get cracking on the entire left side of the engine bay.
Stay safe, my friends, and keepeth thy head uponst a swivel!
