Bump it Up

Here's a mod I've had in the works for for a while. Still needs some tweaks, but so far, it's coming together!!!

I've had the idea of doing this for a while. There's a threefold impetus for it. First, the shape of a rear bumper is something of a parachute effect, in theory creating excess drag and probably underbody turbulence. Second, it will eliminate the Saturn script from the bumper, a look I've never much cared for, and adding a bit of the "what is it?" factor. Thirdly, and mostly, back when she was my wife's primary driver, she'd gotten tapped on the rear bumper, and it left a couple of license plate screw imprints, a minor one on the downstroke of the R, the other a few inches past. This handles all three!!!

I had the though originally that I could get it with a two foot cut out, but it turned out not to be the case. I was also originally thinking of doing one opening, but had the concern that it might mouth open if it were cut all the way across. Additionally, the expanded metal I'd gotten was only 2 feet across.

I used a hole saw for the ends, and a circular saw for the straights. A little file clean up, and it came out pretty good!!! Also got to put some satin black on it while it was off, and it came out some of the best I've done!!! It was pretty warm out, with low humidity, and I think that helped quite a bit!!!

Before I added in the expanded metal, I rigged up a couple of LED light strips. I did a strip of blue that goes with the running lights, and a red strip wired into the brakes, with a relay cutting the power to the blue strip when the brakes are applied.

As you can see, it only shines through in a couple of spots, so I'll be modifying it some more. The red doesn't show up too well, so I'm going to rig up a reflector for it.

Happy Thanksgiving

A couple of food and beverage related pictures of my wife for Thanksgiving!!!

The first is from our anniversary, at a very nice Italian restaurant: "It's the best steak I've ever had!!!"

The second is from a very authentic Mexican restaurant on the Big Island (where we ended up after we couldn't find the barbecue place)

She does not approve of your Mountain Dew Baja Blast.

Season-Spanner

Here's my latest card artwork progression!!!

For the Halloween season, I'd had a card with an eyeball flying across the board, trailing the severed optic nerve with a few droplets of blood, which I've used for two or three seasons so far. It was time for something new. I've also got one I've used for several years of Jack Skellington in his Santa suit holding up a present, with the caption "This year, Christmas will be OURS!!!" that I've used for Christmas. Thought I'd do another one, this time with Jack and Sally.

It came out pretty good!!! I added in the brambles along the bottom of the moon, and more landscape detail, as well as a few clouds. Of course, I'd been searching web images to try and get it right, and I'd come across one that was the moon, with a couple clouds forming Jack's face. That was my original plan, emulate that style, only with Jack and Sally in the foreground.

I stopped short of doing that, but of course, it's always an option to update it later!!!

I figure I can use it from Halloween to Christmas!!!

Hiccup

I had previously made mention that on our vacation we had run into some difficulties while travelling. This is the story of one of them.

On our flight from Oahu to the Big Island we had gone through the security screening most of the way. My wife, with all her titanium, doesn't get around too well for long distances found at most airports, so she gets wheelchair service, and we usually have a pretty quick go through. At the bag X Ray machine a TSA agent pulls my son aside and begins searching one of his bags. he locates the jar of Suavecito that he had in his carry on bag and pulls it out. "Can't take THAT on in your carry on bag, son!!!" You have two choices, go back to the airline counter and check your bag, or place your pomade in the trash can right there!!! Well, here's a quandary!!! Suavecito comes out with seasonal scented pomades, and this I believe was the Spring edition, with hints of dark rum. I'm pretty sure it was under $15 originally, and it's $25 to check a bag, so pretty easy math. However, being a seasonal thing, might not be able to get a replacement, and he really likes the scent. We start heading back to ticketing, and I'm looking up on my phone to see if it's still available, and nope, it's not. OK, it's looking like it's going to be a nearly $40 jar of pomade. Got back to the ticketing desk and tell them our tale of woe, and they say, don't worry, we've got this!!! Ended up not being out the extra $25 or the jar of Suavecito!!! So, it took a little longer and more legwork, but all's well that ends well!!! Funny thing, our first flight from the mainland they didn't catch it. To be sure, it was in our checked bag on the flight back!!!

Oh, and I've got to gush a little bit about the airline we took, Hawaiian. Not only did they waive the bag fee, but so far as I know, they are the last carrier to provide an in-flight meal. Something else cool they have, instead of having an in flight movie as previous flights I've taken, they have an app you can download to your device, and there's a veritable smorgasbord of shows and movies you can stream in flight!!! I got to watch "Isn't it Romantic" on the flight out because Rebel Wilson is awesome, and "The Lego Movie: The Second Part" on the flight back, but I think I fell asleep a little during that one.

Wrenchin' Weekend+

This was a couple of weekends ago.

Actually started out the Wednesday before, they had one of the hooey red flag days. I fired up the Falcon and drove it to the bottom of the hill and parked it there. Took a lot of cranking, and I flooded it and had to let it sit for a minute on the initial starting. Have I made mention that I bought a deep cycle battery for her a couple years ago??? Some of the best money I've spent on her!!! On my way home on Thursday, I took 3 to the you-scrub car wash, then drove the Falcon over and washed it off, too. Ran flawlessly.

On Friday, I finally did the rear brakes on Jade. As always, the worst part is getting the drums off. Saturday, after I got home from work, went down to drive the Falcon back up, and it wouldn't crank from the key. Huh. Popped the hood, and jumpered the start relay, and it spun with no problem. OK, maybe now it will crank. Got back in, and tried again, and it didn't crank. Had my wife make sure the gearshift didn't pop into reverse, and went back under the hood to fire it up under there, and realized I hadn't put the crank wire back on the relay!!! That fixed it!!! On Sunday I had my mechanic friend pull several bits of metal out of the rear driver's side tire on Scruffy, and plug the hole of the one that made it through. That was one of those things I've been wanting to do for a while, ever since I noticed it. Never seemed to leak any air, anyway.

Sunday afternoon, we were out in Jade, and stopped into AM/PM for some soda. Came back out, and it wouldn't crank!!! Called up my roadside assistance, and told dispatch I need a tow truck. MIGHT be able to put jumpers on it and have enough juice to get it to crank, but the battery is almost new, so I didn't think that would be the case. MIGHT be able to give the starter a few whacks and get it to crank, but probably going to need a tow. Took them an hour and a half and three calls to get someone dispatched, and about that again before they got there. In a pickup truck, with a jump-starter. He knew it probably wouldn't work, and it didn't. Called up again, and the rat bastards told me I've used up all my service calls for the year!!! Still haven't gotten any satisfaction from them yet. Called another tow service, and it was another three hours!!!

I had the driver set it down on jack stands, so it was ready to go to work on. Ended up with a middle shift on Tuesday, so I pulled the starter out after work. Exchanged it after work on Wednesday, and put it in on Friday. That went fairly easy, but the fun came afterwards. I was jacking it up to drop it off the stands, and the jack tipped over!!! The jack stand on the passengers' side was completely clear of the car, and the driver's side ended up in the exhaust tunnel. The back tire rolled up onto the wheel block. Used a scissor jack to get enough room to pull the floor jack out, and got it lifted up enough that the jack stand was... hanging from the O2 sensor wire!!!

After that, I got the rod ends I'd bought for 3 installed. I'd gotten a look at the ones on Jade while I had her up on the jack stands, and I think those were in worse shape. Today, after work, I did a bit of sanding on the rear bumper of Scruffy, and did some primer on the areas I'd done a little filling and sanding on a while back. That rear bumper and hatch are my next targets to finish up!!!

Random Triple Shot

A few things happened. Thought I'd do an instant post and cover them a little.

My uncle on my dad's side came to town. It think it's been about 45 years since I've seen him, when we'd gone on an epic family road trip hitting about 7 states. He hails from Colorado. He remembered me from before that, probably 48 or so years, when he'd visited us and I was playing dinosaur and was eating my food off the ground. Anyway, his wife of decades just recently passed, and he was out visiting my parents.

This was the front left brake line on Scruffy. I bought all the flexible lines to replace, but thus far this is the only one I've replaced. Also, it was the only one showing visible wear, so, priorities. Eventually I'll get to the others, but I've got rear brakes for Jade and rod ends for 3 (as well as that transmission temperature plug!!!) to put on, still. I've got an extra transmission fluid filter, and it would probably be a good idea to change the fluid on both of those sometime, too.

Alt 98.7 was hosting a test of new voting machines last weekend. Menace and Greg Gory were at one local to us. It was going on while I was at work, so my wife and younger went over. Now his count is 2 Menace meet ups and one Ravey, to my 1 Menace and 2 Ravey. He saw but didn't get to meet Greg. The boy isn't old enough to vote yet, but he's registered now for when he is, a young Republican. They had a bunch of sample questions for Southern California centric questions, best beach, most instagrammable, worst freeway. Favorite sports team was the Dodgers (who just this evening were knocked out of the playoffs) who took more than 50% of the vote. The two basketball teams followed, then the two football teams. I was a bit surprised that the carpetbagger Chargers had more votes than the prodigal Rams. Anyway, I see no possible way that an electronic voting system like they are rolling out could possibly have any fraud or tampering or hacking!!!

Electric Avenue

Something I like about when I go to independent auto shops is that often someone working there will have some kind of interesting project in the works. This was just such an occasion!!!

The double-edged sword is that I usually do most of my own work. A bit ago, though, I took Scruffy to get her air conditioning repaired. I pulled up while the proprietor was busy with another customer, so I was looking around, and saw this beauty on the lift. I'm not a particular fan of VW microbusses, but anything this clean is admirable in it's own right!!! I took a closer look...

Underneath, and off to the side was the engine.

But directly under the rear, was this... I looked closer...

I looked at the other side...

Hmmm, looks like a transaxle, but there's no bellhousing....

About that time the proprietor walked by, and he says, "You're wondering, huh???" I reply, "Is that what I think it is???" "Yeah!!!" "All electric???" "Yeah!!!"

"Sir, I salute you!!!" Magnificent!!! A perfect candidate, actually, there's plenty of room for batteries, and it probably ends up way quicker than the original!!!

When he finally got to Scruffy, he determined it'd need a new compressor and some hoses. He'll get the stuff ordered, can I come back in a day or two??? Actually, it was two Fridays ago, and I told him I'd be back in a week, since that's my day off. Got to come back and see the progress. He'd made a spot for the strut mounts, and mounted the cradle. As it sits, the wheels were cambered way in, but that may change after it has batteries, and gets rolled some. Also, after I'd been there a bit I noticed the Chevy Bolt donor carcass out in the yard. The second to last shot here you can see the mess of wiring harness laid out behind it. Also, I hope he's going to be able to adapt the VW wheels to it, or at least get some steelies that look close and can mount the wide whitewalls.

So I got to see a cool project coming together, and I got the air conditioning fixed!!!

The Best Part

Upon being home from vacation, I asked my wife and my son what their favorite part of the trip was.

My wife said her favorite thing was our jaunt over to Kailua beach. Just like the sand there, it was pretty fine.

It was also an interesting part of the trip, as the boy stayed back at the hotel. We'd gone to lunch, and he'd had a turkey sandwich, and he claimed the tryptophan was putting him to sleep. Also, there was a Goodwill store a block over, so we'd gone there and done some shopping, and he was bored for that. Found myself an orange T-shirt from a local radio station (although, not the one The Woody Show is on there) and a vintage looking Hawaii Pan Am shirt.

There was a sign that there were man 'o wars (men 'o war???) in the water, but fortunately we didn't see or encounter any. We splashed about in the water for a bit. It was fairly excellent!!!

My sons' favorite part was the Dole Whip at the Pineapple Plantation. Yeah, it was pretty good, too!!! Funny thing, he follows Menace on Instagram, and shortly before we went Menace had posted a picture of the Dole Whip!!!

The Plantation has a train that takes you on a tour of the grounds, and we went on that. Don't our outfits go with the background foliage???

It wasn't the only area with them there, but we saw a few roosters.

Out in the the entrance to our lodging there was an outrigger canoe. Probably because it's called the Outrigger Waikiki Beach. The second morning we were there, I asked my son if he wanted to go jump in the ocean when we first got up. We swam for a while. They rent the aqua trikes on the beach there, and we were looking at doing that, but never got to it. They had them at the resort we stayed at on the Big Island, too, but we spent hardly any time there and missed out on them there, too. One evening, when we got back, they boy and I went down to the pool and swam for a bit. It is a pretty good pool, fully tiled. They have a bar with a live acoustic trio playing there, doing old standards in a somewhat Hawaiian style. When we were drying off to head up, I recognized the tune they were playing as Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". I called that to the boy's attention, and he was berating the style they were doing it in. He began doing his Satchmo impersonation of the song. The funny part, and he wasn't aware until we'd left the area, it appeared that a woman fairly close to us was recording the song on her phone, so hopefully she's got him berating and vocalizing on her recording!!!

Over on the Big Island, we'd set out for the Volcano park. In a logistical misstep, our lodging was about a half hour north of the Kailua-Kona airport, which is north of Kailua-Kona, which is where most of the action on that side of the island is. Anyway, we drove down that way, then around the south end to the Volcano park.

We got to the Volcano park, and apparently they are doing an anniversary special and letting people in for free, so that was nice. A good amount of the park is inaccessible due to recent eruptions and volcanic activity. Got to see a lot of sulfur and steam vents, anyway. The lava tube was off limits.

On the return trip, it routed us through the middle of the island, through Hilo and then between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. There was a lot of cloud cover as we were heading out, but about half an hour before we were back at our lodging, I pulled off to the side of the road to see what it was like. It was clear and fully dark in the area, and it was as many stars as we'd ever seen!!! I can see why they have some of the best telescopes in the world there!!! I messed with the settings on my phones' camera, and tried bracing it on the roof of the car, but it was quite windy, and this was as good as I could get. The photograph in my head is far better.

Double Mount Duty

Last weekend was a wrenching on the cars weekend. I've posted shot motor mount pictures before, so I had to keep the tradition going!!! This instance differs from previous times in that I did two different cars in one round!!!

First up were the mounts from 3. She's developed a low roar noise at cruising speed. My first thought was wheel bearings, but not long after Jade started making quite a bit of noise when put into gear, and I recalled that Saturn motor mounts are prone to failure. There seemed to be a lot of motion, so they needed doing anyway, and if that fixed the roar, so much the better. The top mount has what has been coined the "sad face" design. The bottom mounts were still in serviceable shape, but by the time I discovered that, it's not much more to replace them.

On to Jade, the top mount was in much worse shape, barely hanging on together, only slightly better than the ones I'd replaced on Baby way back. The lower ones were better, but still up for replacement. Made a nice improvement on her!!!

On back to 3, around a month back I'd done an oil change, and while I was at it I rotated the tires. While I was removing one of the rear wheels, one of the already loose lug nuts stopped spinning freely. I put my breaker bar on it to spin it the rest of the way, and snapped off the stud!!! Since I was already suspecting a bad bearing (another thing I'd done while I was rotating the tires, gave 'em a spin to see if any of them seemed to have a bad bearing) I replaced the whole hub assembly instead of trying to get a new stud pressed in. Anyway, the motor mounts and one rear wheel bearing haven't fixed the roar noise, and I have a feeling it's the front right that's the cause. Thought it might be tire noise I was hearing, and that had prompted me to think about getting another set of Ion rims for 3, if I'm buying new tires, might as well get something a bit bigger and badder. When I went to the junkyard over the long weekend (one of the ones in Wilmington is closing down, and instead of 40% they were up to 70% off!!!) there wasn't a single one of the three that had the alloys still on them. Started looking around, and realized none of the cars have any wheels on them!!!

Oh, and while I had the air filter box out to do a lower mount, I saw that the transmission temperature sensor plug was missing half of the holding tab. checked it out, and the other one broke off, too!!! I've got it held in place with shrink tube and tape right now, but will replace it soon enough.

Scruffy has had occasional check engine lights for a while, one of the codes being temperature related, and sometimes the gauge would go out. Got a new engine coolant temperature sensor with all the other stuff, and went ahead and replaced that, too. Turned out to have a length of bare area!!!

And, for a final touch, I modified the air intake tube as I've done to other Saturns. Cut out a good portion of the top of the tube to facilitate better airflow!!!

13 Shots: Sea and Land

Back from this year's vacation!!! We went to Hawaii again, this time for a few days on Oahu and a few on the Big Island. I took a lot of good pictures, so here's a sampling.

First up is from the first morning. Waikiki beach, just outside of the hotel we were staying at there. It literally had steps out directly onto the beach!!!

Next up is a couple of shots from Kailua beach on the West side of the island. I'd heard it was picked as one of the world's most beautiful beaches, so I decided to make that a stop. It truly was.

Fine, powdery sand, warm water, and surrounded by towering ironwood trees. Only thing, since it was Hawaii, it was raining on and off while we were there. A lot of it was just a little drizzle, blowing in sideways from the onshore breeze.

The next couple of shots are from Diamond Head. All the times I've been to Oahu, I've never been there before. It's a nice hike, with a great view!!!

I would have liked to have stayed somewhere not in Honolulu, but in typical fashion I booked late, and most everything else was not available. You can see, it's a lot like any other metropolitan area.

On over to the Big Island!!! This was on the evening we arrived there. On the way from the airport to our lodging, there was a scenic overlook point, and we pulled in just before the sun was setting!!!

The Big Island has a lot of areas of the black lava rock. We pulled off on the way to visit Volcanoes Park.

That was just as we were getting to the East side of the island.

The next day, we had headed up to the Northern area of the island, in search of a barbecue place, that turned out to be a guy who sets up his trailer there on Thursday nights. Sad trombone. Anyway, on the way back, we pulled off on one of the side roads marked coastal access. Not really beachy, but it was cool nonetheless.

Looked like you could possibly launch a boat there, or could have at some point anyway. In the second picture, you can see some yellow in the water, those were yellow tang.

Finally, we went to a beach just north of our lodging. It is called 49 Black Sand Beach, and the name is why we headed there. It was a really nice beach, but the sand wasn't all that black. It was more like pepper, some black, a lot of light to white grains. In the first shot, you can see Maui across the channel from it!!!

There is a lot of broken up lava stones in the water, and off to the sides. Given enough time, the sand will be more black.

Hopefully, there will be more from our adventures to follow!!!