Houston, We Have Static Again......

Fellow Ham neighbor came by today and we finished getting the 33' vertical On-The-Air.

It was mostly 'busy work', string out the ground radials, placing the junction and tuner  boxes, running the cables, etc.

This is not the final position for this antenna. I just dumped it there the day I assembled it without regard to where I'd run the radials. A more optimized position is (and will be....) about 10'~12' to the left in the picture.

What do you do when you can't run the radials exactly 90*, and "straight as a string"? You bend them a bit here and there to make them conform to the real estate you have!

We used a conveniently located rock as out 'pivot point' for the radial to change directions. "Bending" radials like this to fit your lot has been done 'forever', and as long as you don't bend them back on themselves, generally works quite well. The radial in the above picture is bent more than 90*, so by moving the antennas base 10' or so to the left in the top picture will allow me to pull back the turned length of that particular radial, making it straighter, and improving it's effect on the system.

And if you don't have a conveniently located rock, then one of these military antenna guy stakes works great.

And they're great for an end anchor, too.

So we still need some work on this, but it's finally completed and functional.

How's it work? It's still a bit too early to tell, but I talked to a guy in Virginia, and another in New York, and got acceptable signal reports, so it puts out a signal. It'll be interesting to set up the BuddiPole in the vertical configuration and do an A-B on-the-air comparison test.

Quiet Day, and Another RT to DIA....

"RT" as in a round trip.

Took the wife's BFF back to DIA, or DEN, your preference, and had an uneventful trip....always good.

Only had one snag on the way there, and that was a semi trailer that had the back FOUR wheels and tires on the right side go up in smoke, and was just about cleared up when we passed it.

And one snag coming back. Right about milepost 248 on the East side of I-25 is a microwave relay tower, some weather stations on 20' towers, and some commercial antennas for UHF. To my "radio eye", and the lay-of-the-land, it has to be the highest point around. Well, traffic just slowed down a couple of miles before it, flowed over the crest, and then resumed speed. Just one of those baffling "standing waves" that can develop on highways without any visible reason.

And we stopped for dinner at Freddy's, a good place for burgers. I wanted to stop at Johnson's Corner and try the food, but she wasn't in the mood for "Truck Stop Food" as she put it.

Got back home about 1930 and rather than work on the Supra tonight, I busted up cardboard boxes and styrofoam, and cleaned up the garage. I now have the area between the two cars cleaned up, and I'll use my floor jack to play "Slide the Supra" and move the car about two feet in the garage. That will give my wife plenty of room to get out of her car, and I'll have another couple of feet on the driver's side so I can finish cleaning the paint on that side.

One thing I noticed last night was that I haven't really cleaned the hood properly. I started out on the hood using the blue "no scratch" Scotch-Brite and the detailer spray. It took the "surface crud" off the paint and smoothed it out, but wasn't aggressive enough to remove the top layer of stained paint like the green Scotch-Brite does.

SO......I'll have to redo the hood. Hey, I'm a bit rusty on paint cleaning procedures, so I started off gentle and it didn't work. I'm tempted to get out my orbital buffer and try that on the hood, but I think I'll stick to my current method. Over the last couple of weeks I've got the process down to where I understand it pretty well as far as how much pressure to use on the pad, and how much spray to use. I'd hate to change horses midstream and use a different process on the hood. One of the things I'm shooting for in this is good uniformity of surface cleanliness and surface finish. Changing the cleaning process at this late stage could alter the results and leave me with a SHINY hood, and it would stand out like a sore thumb....

Bye, Bye, Bill Board!

The letters on the rear of the hatch that spell out "S U P R A" are called a "Billboard Decal" in the community. Real, live, gen-you-ine Toyota parts disappeared a couple of decades ago, and good reproductions come and go. Whether or not you have one on your car, or have the JDM "Celica XX" version of it, is up to the individual owner.

Mine was completely shot. 30+ years of Kalifonia sun had polymerized the adhesive into the paint, and the material it was made out of had shrunk and cracked over the years.

It looked really shabby, as shown by an example:

The center of the decal looked really bad, as various kinds of crud and glop had stained it over the years, and the lock cylinder had to come out to properly "sand" the surface.

I first pulled the latch mechanism so I could get at the funky spring clip that holds the cylinder in. I was surprised it went as easy as it did. I had the cylinder and latch out in about 15 minutes, and that includes unhooking an electrical connector. Since the latch is inside the weather seal, it's nice and dry. All it needed was wiping down, and some lubrication. The lock cylinder has one end out in the weather, and gets wet. I squirted some "Gun Butter" synthetic cleaner/lube into all the orifices I could find on it, lubed the external tension spring wound around it, put a key in it, and worked it a bunch of times to free it up. Works smooth as silk now.

Then I proceeded to attack the hatch with the scotch-brite-and-detail-spray method until no more crud came off the paint, and the color was restored.

My poor pinstripe took a beating, but if it came off that easy.......

And the entire area around the lock is now uniform in color. The splotchy area around the two holes directly above the lock is where I had several layers of blue painter's tape glue themselves to the paint. That's gonna have to be power sanded, probably dry as I don't have any air tools, and then primed and re-sprayed. Just gotta be done, ya know? There are several areas on the car that I'm hesitant to do. The top of the hatch/roof interface area wasn't properly painted when the car was built, and the paint on the trailing edge of the hood is pretty thin, and show little orange freckles. To do it right means pulling the hood and hatch, cleaning them, prepping them, spot-painting in the repaired areas, and then reinstalling the hood and hatch, getting the panel alignment correct.

Time to shop it around at a few body shops.

The end result of this is that the rear of the car is now cleaned up. After I did the billboard, I cleaned the taillights and license plate area, and the entire rear bumper. My wife came out after I was working "back there" for several hours in my Harbor Freight "Two-By-Two-Hands-Of-Blue" PPE and said I should hang my shingle out as an "Automotive Proctologist" since I looked right at home doing it.

Sorry for the bad lighting. My camera has a reeeal hard time auto-focusing on dull, matte-finished WHITE objects. The entire area at the end of the hatch is now a "satin white" color, with only the outline of the letters remaining, but diminished.

And back on the homefornt.....we took my wife's visiting friend out for a scenic drive all the way up Rist Canyon, across Stove Prairie, and then down CO-14 to The Mishawaka for lunch. "The Mish" has been there right on the banks of the Cache La Poudre River since 1916, and besides being a decent local eatery, has an outdoor amphitheater where live artists perform. I was looking on the wall, and people from Arlo Guthrie to Bob Weir have performed there, along with local rock and punk bands. It's kind of a mini-sized Red Rocks, and the setting is pretty cool.

The drive up Rist Canyon is pretty neat, because you're driving up a twistie, turnie, road, it's pretty steep, and you crest the road and pop into a true Alpine Meadow. I swear you can hear "The Hills Are ALIIIIIVE" up there when the wind is right.

So we had a nice lunch, a pleasant drive, and I'm back to cleaning the Supra. Got the stainless window trim buffed out on the driver's side, and did the windshield trim, too. They're all a nice, uniform, brushed stainless finish, and look far better than the dirty, stained bits they were before.

A Bit of This and That.....

Had fun at the Terry Bison Ranch on Friday. Something about that place makes me feel like a little kid. Yeah, it's a "touristy" thing, but I still enjoy going there and taking the train ride around the ranch, and hear the history of the place.

And while the tulips have started to open.....

The iris' are still a bit shy.

And out in the garage, I was ready to say "One Side Is Done", and then I looked at the picture, and it aint done yet!

I forgot to clean the rocker panel and the rear quarter under the gas filler door.

The wheels and tires are a separate project. I wiped a few 'spokes' on one of them last night, and they appear to be a snap to clean as they're coated with some kind of clear coating.

Today's "Music To Clean Your Car By" is a YouTube Glenn Miller compilation. It's 70* today, and the garage is a pleasant place to be while the girls are out gallivanting around....

Engine Bay Finished For Now

Finished up cleaning and recleaning the final bits and pieces of the AFM, the mounting plate, and the air cleaner parts that also attach to the plate. Since I had the connector to the AFM disconnected, and taped closed for cleaning, I pulled the tape off and cleaned the contacts on the AFM and the harness with DeoxIT 5 before I mated them (with a dab of silicone grease) together.

This the AFM after buffing the corrosion off. I wound up spending another half hour or so cleaning it before I mounted it on the plate, so it looks nicer than this.

Hard to believe that this...

Started out about this bad....

More Spring Cleaning with Ms Swan

Got the air cleaner assembly all cleaned up, put together, and mounted back on the plate that also holds the Air Flow Meter ("AFM"), along with the now spotless rubber air coupling. This particular coupling, being several feet away from the engine, and located behind the grill, was extremely dirty with "road dirt", but in excellent condition once I spent about 20 minutes in the kitchen sink scrubbing it with hot, soapy water and various small brushes. Finished it up with some of the 'no scratch' Scoth-Brite and a good rinse, and it looked great . And I used some silicone grease on the slip connection to the air cleaner. This helps preserve the rubber, helps seal it from air leaks, and makes it much easier to rotate for alignment during assembly.

This is the side you can't see when it's mounted in the car. Besides the one main 'snorkel' air intake, there's also a smaller one below it, and turned 90* into the airstream coming in from the grille. "Ram Air"? Not a chance...ram air only adds significant power at very high (>>100MPH) speed. No, it's for cold air into the air cleaner. Cold air makes more power than hot under hood air, so although the 60's and 70's muscle cars offered "Ram Air", almost all the benefit of those systems was to feed cold outside air to the carburettor.

In some cases, the temperature difference was 100* or more, resulting in an increase in the air density, and a resultant increase in the amount of Oxygen available for combustion. More Oxygen means you can add more fuel, and get more power.

This is the side the AFM connects to. It's an 80mm flow path all the way from the outlet of the air cleaner, through the AFM, and into the new air intake pipe, which feeds a 75mm Throttle Body via a reducing silicone hose coupling.

OK, turn to your right, please....

My wife sees me scrubbing these parts down, and at first just shook her head and said "Nobody's going to see it. Why clean it so well?". It's a valid question if you look at cars like toasters, and yes, I know, there are people who collect old and "vintage" or "classic" toasters. Those guys look at their toasters like I do my project car and my radio gear. I'LL know it's dirty there, and as long as it's apart, I'll at least wipe the grunge off it. It actually looks a notch or two nicer now, as after I took the pix, I noticed a couple of spots on it I missed, so they got the windex-and-scotch-brite treatment, and now the entire metal bracket looks pretty spiffy.

 

The AFM also cleaned up nicely. Not sure why I didn't take any pix. All the dirt on the alloy casting was "road dirt", and not greasy at all. It came right off with the previously mentioned method, and the stains on the housing came off with some green Scotch-Brite, Windex, and elbow grease.

One thing that troubled me when I took these assemblies off to clean was the corrosion I found in the rubber air coupling between the AFM and air cleaner. See all that "white stuff"? It's residue of the corrosion on the inlet to the AFM. Looking through the air coupling you can see a shinky area at the other end of the house. That's where the hose clamps to the air cleaner, which is plastic.

I buffed both the inlet and outlet of the AFM with the green Scotch-Brite, and it cut the white oxide/chloride/whateveride right off the metal, and it looks much better ow. The connections these make to their air couplings will also get some silicone grease for the same reasons, but it's curious that this surface, NOT in "electrical" contact with anything, could have that kind of corrosion. I don't know what alloy this casting is. It might be aluminum, or it might be zinc, but it sure got attacked a noticeable amount.

And the timing belt cover is a real PITA to clean. 30+ years of belt dust, oil vapor, and engine heat combined to cook a layer of "stuff" on the backside of the cover that requires Good Old Gunk and a stiff brush to get loose, and then everything has to be wiped down again, and put back together.

I took a break from the outside paint because I was getting "dazzled" by staring at dirty white paint being scrubbed to clean white paint under bright LED lighting.

And I'll be equally glad to take a break from scrubbing under the hood! At least I've been wearing the 5 mil nitrile "Two By Two Hands Of Blue" gloves from Harbor Freight. Keeps the solvents and cleaners off my dainty hands, makes clean-up easier, and my hands don't smell like Gunk....

Meanwhile, Back In Jim's Garage.....

We have progress on the cleaning project. The right front corner of the engine bay is about as clean as I'm going to get it without expending significantly more time, and making significantly more MESS in the process.

 Further cleaning of the engine bay goes on hold after the air cleaner/AFM bracket and rubber air coupling get cleaned up and reinstalled.

These bits are a bit dirty.....

One of the numerous semi-flexible (30 years ago...) molded rubber air couplings in the air intake ducting. These are one of the many unobtainium parts for this car. Somebody, somewhere, might have a new set of them, or some of them, but these have been out of stock for many years. I was fortunate to be able to get a complete set of these in excellent condition from a friend in the PNW.  Stuff like this lasts forever up there because of the climate, while it dry rots, bakes out, and cooks off down in SoCal, where this car came from.

 This is the outlet of the air cleaner housing, it's 80mm in diameter, the same as the inlet on the AFM. The rubber air coupling connects the air cleaner outlet to the Air Flow Meter (AFM), and needs a really good scrubbing. It doesn't appear to be cracked at all, but I'm going to order an 80mm 45* bend silicone hose and see if I can trim it to fit.

 And the backside (bottom side) of the bracket showing 33 years of road dust and dirt caked on. These parts have been cleaning up very nicely using my Secret Sauce Spray formula on the "dry" dirt, and Good Old Gunk on a shop towel for the "wet" looking stuff. After they're clean, I wipe them down with "303 Protectant" to try and preserve what's left of the original finishes. You want "patina"? Yup we got it!

And I pulled "Timing Cover Number 3" to get a quick look at the cam belt and tensioner.

It's pretty clean in there for 168,000 miles. The timing belt and tensioner are "Unkowns" on the maintenance list and have to be cleared eventually, but I wanted to pull the cover to clean it, it's only 5 bolts, and it was off the car in ten minutes.



This car has the "Round Tooth" belt and pulleys, a Toyota refinement leading to quieter operation, and longer belt life.

The tensioner is the puller under the belt on the right side of the picture, and I think it's getting to be and end-of-life item, as I see little flecks of distinctly shiny, metallic looking "stuff", and I've seen it before when bearings like that first begin to fail.

The inside of the cover was pretty clean, but again, I have no idea if/when this was ever off the engine.

It's much easier to get glop like this stuff off when the part is off the car and on the bench, then it is to clean it on the car.

Anywhoo....As soon as this stuff is cleaned up and back on the car, I'm going to get back on the paint. I'll have all upcoming winter to do more cleaning, clear items from the maintenance punch list, and get the new carpet installed, but I want to get the paint cleaned and sealed before I take the car out again. I can do a 'quickie' wipe down of the rims and tires, vacuum out the interior, clean the glass, and roll if the paint is cleaned and sealed.

Jay Leno's Merlin 1650-1 Demonstration Engine

You gotta see this in full-screen.

Amazing..

Spring Blooms

I am NOT a "Nature Photographer" by any means. I tend to be more of a "Technical Photographer" who tries to record things mechanical and electrical for posterity and/or understanding.

Anyway......here's what's been happening the last couple of days. I can't believe how fast these various trees and plants exploded in the last few days.

Here's our crab apple tree in the backyard.

It's prettier than this, depending on how the light hits it.

"My" maple tree in the front yard is doing well. It was just dying down from it's fall colors when we first looked at the house, so my wife never got to see a maple in full regalia.

We still don't know what these are. Guess we'll find out when they bloom.

And the same goes with these by the side of the garage.

I thought these were weeds, and then they surprised my yesterday with flowers!

And even the little 'rogue' pine tree is getting into the act with little future pine cones appearing.

All over the neighborhood things are blooming and growing like crazy. We're supposed to get some rain about mid-week, so things will really get going.

My wife is really enjoying spring here. She'll probably be breathless when fall hits, and everything turns.

Cap and Rotor Time

Since one of the priorities in this project is to take care of deferred maintenance items, I thought I'd start with the ignition system. It's easy to get at, and relatively easy to work on.

The cap is held on by three hex head screws that also have a full-width slot, and a Phillips head drive. I have no idea when the cap was last changed, but holy smokes were the screws ever tight. I tried a Phillips head, and could only get the top one loose, so then I tried a big flat blade. Barely any better, so I got out an 8mm nut driver. No dice, couldn't get a decent grip on the handle, so I broke out the 1/4" drive socket set, and busted the other two screws loose.

And then I had to get out a soft hammer, and tap the cap to get it loose from the distributor housing.

The cap isn't the worst one I've seen (or used..), but it was really stuck on the housing by some corrosion.

The inside of the housing is fairly clean, and I'll be really gentle cleaning it, as these things are a bit delicate, and expensive to replace. You can see the corrosion on the right side of the housing. There are two "Reluctor Pickups" in this distributor. The one with two "lobes" tells the Engine Control Computer that the crank has made one revolution, and the one deeper inside with all the teeth gives the ECC much more precise information.

NEVER disturb the pick-up coils or the spacing to the teeth unless you know what you're doing and have the shop manual.

And the hold down clamp doesn't look like it's ever been loosened.

The rotor looks really weird, and I can't recall ever seeing one with this pattern of discoloration on it. It's all mottled and a bit 'sooty' looking, but shows no signs of cracks or carbon tracking, and the car idled as smooth as silk. The parts are pretty dirty and worn, but they were still working. Just gotta love that Toyota reliability, although I'm sure WSF might disagree.

I think it's made of the carbon button contact in the cap, and other "stuff" like oil vapor and humidity that gets in through the vented cap. There's a baffle on the outside of the cap that covers the vent hole, but stuff still gets in, and over time, it looks like a lot got in.

I have no idea when the cap and rotor were last changed. I put a new set of plugs in her the first time it failed smog, but that's all I did to the ignition system.

Looking at the plug wires reveals a manufacturing date code of 2003, 15 years ago.

Looks like I'm off to Rock Auto to order a set of plug wires, as nobody local carries them.

I might very well have the only functional, road-worthy MKII Supra in the area.