The Yellowy Eyes

Finally got to doing this!!!

I had made mention a couple of posts ago about the driving lights on Kutcher. I had bought some round yellow aftermarket replacements around 5 years ago, shortly after we'd bought it, but hadn't figured out how I was going to mount them. This is the driver's side original, you can see it's quite fogged and cracked. It's actually pictured upside down, and you'll notice the adjustment screw coming off the back of the mount. That adjustment screw made things interesting in the installation of the replacements!!!

This was the side that had the hole in the lens, and it's gone through two bulbs, both when it had rained. Since it kinda blends, I outlined the hole here.

Here's one of the replacements, after I'd come up with how I was going to install it. Firstly, they came with brackets, and the lights were threaded for them... but it didn't come with any screws to attach them!!! I tried some SAE screws, and it turns out they were threaded for Metric screws, I believe they are M6x 1mm thread. I have a limited amount of Metric screws, but it turns out that the engine from Scruffy had several that fit the bill. They were hex headed flanged, and all oily, but they cleaned up fine. Next, the brackets were made so that there is about a 3/8” space to the light, and that would make it way too tall to fit in the area. A few new holes added, and I was able to more or less get them where they'd fit.

After that... the bracket didn't really sit where it could be mounted, because of that clearance for the adjustment screw!!! I used some of the plastic sheet that was left over from the Scion badge project to make a couple of pieces that fit inside the bracket, and then was wider to where it can screw down to either side of the clearance. You can see the screw holding it onto the bracket right behind the wire.

And speaking of the wire, to keep from having to hack up the wiring, I located two sockets that plug right in!!! One was on the LED bulb I had made mention of in the other post that had been in the side with the hole, and the other was on the converter box for the HID bulb that was on one side of Zonker. The other side, it plugged right into the converter box!!!

And there's the side view of one installed!!! It shows a little of the aluminum housing, and they both look like they're pointed downward. I'm fine with that, they didn't really aim 100% straight, either, but to me, I don't really need anything beyond what the headlights put out, so they're more for looks.

And I really like the looks!!!

In the dark when they're illuminated, they don't even look that much different than the yellow of the halogen headlights!!! And since it's been a long time since I've posted a picture of Scruffy, there you go!!!

Clearing Up

Another in the continuing saga of getting stuff done on my cars!!! I had the fiasco of the engine mount replacement, and not long after, Scruffy got a flat in spectacular fashion!!!

I was letting surrogate son drive her, and he took some kind of steel bar to the back tire!!! As you can see, they were really needing to be replaced soon anyway. I'd just bought a set for Kutcher, and would have preferred to have a bit more of an interval between buying the next set.

He called AAA and they changed to the space saver spare. I had one of the old old ones that was mostly slick that's a little better than the space saver, so we put it on until we were able to get to the tire shop.

And that's how it looked from the inside!!! The guy at the tire shop tried to pull out the bar. It didn't come out.

Very shortly after the tires were replaced, the battery went out, so I bought a new one. Back when I had three S Series Saturns, I'd replaced all the batteries with Die Hards. Most car batteries, it seems like you're lucky to get three years out of them, I remember them going for 5 to 7 years or more back when I started driving. Not long after I had met my now wife, her grandmother bought two new batteries for her Oldsmobile diesel, and had the presence of mind to save the old ones for her granddaughter's new guy, and those were some of the best batteries I ever had!!! Of course, they have a very high amperage, well above what my Maverick required, so that probably helped. Anyway, all that to say, back around 7 or 8 years back I had it in my head that the Die Hard batteries that you used to be able to get from Sears had always been more reliable than the ones from the parts stores these days. When I yanked the engine out of 3, I saved the battery, and when we sent Jade away, I saved the battery. I picked up a trickle charger, and kept them maintained, and when the first one gave up, swapped to one of the others, and it went for another several months, then with the next one as well. It seems like my impression of the Die Hard brand was correct. Unfortunately, it seems nearly impossible to locate any of them anymore, so I've got a parts store 3 year battery in there now. Anyway, none of that was particularly difficult, just expensive, around $600. Oh yea, there was one issue getting the battery, the system wasn't working, so I had to go back the next day, and they returned it and re sold it to me with the warranty activated, and for the inconvenience, they discounted it by 10%, so that was nice.

Sometime in there, a friend of mine pointed out his headlights, which had been hazy, and he'd cleared up. He tells me that he just used Mother's mag polish on them, two passes, and they came out real nice!!!

The headlights on Kutcher were very hazy. I'd actually purchased a 3M kit a while back, and have been intending to pull the headlights out to polish them, but they're not easy to get out!!! I was thinking I'd do as some direct, and mask off the surrounding body and use it, but this sounded considerably easier, so I went ahead and bought a jar. It didn't take much doing at all, and they look way better!!!

Since I've done before and after GIFs of cleared up headlights before a couple of times, I went ahead and did it again!!! Not perfect, but gets the idea across!!! Both of the previous ones, I actually replaced the lights. I've polished plastic headlights before, notably on Baby, and possibly also on Jade, but apparently didn't get pictures. I was going to do an instant post with just the headlights, but decided to add the tires and battery as well.

While I'm at it, I'll make mention of the Studebaker stuff. I've picked up the stuff to update the fuel system on the Hawk, but haven't gotten it installed yet. Since I'm putting an electric fuel pump, I decided that adding a fuel pressure regulator would probably be wise, as well. Since I'm not sure what kind of pressure I'm running, I decided to add a pressure gauge as well, and I picked up a couple of pipe nipples and a tee to plumb them together, probably with the clear fuel filter right before them both. To establish a baseline, I put the tee and gauge in the line to the carb, and went to start it to see where the pressure would be. It cranked a couple of times, then just clicked.

I was a little irked that the deep cycle AGM battery I'd put in had already died, and put the charger on it the next day. It still just clicked after I'd charged it a while. Huh. Pulled out the starter, and it seems to have given up. I figured my dad had bought it from either Auto Zone or Reilly's with a lifetime warranty (I wouldn't buy one without a lifetime warranty) but it appears to not be the case. Of course, back when he was putting it together, Pep Boys was another store that sold lifetime parts. Seems they've become just a tire store now, but I got in touch with them about it. I'm also thinking of buying a mini high torque starter instead, but I don't know if I can get one with a lifetime warranty.

Oh, and just last week, we fired up the Maverick for the first time in a while!!! Did like I'd done with the Studebaker, primed the carb, and a little quick start, and it started and ran until the carb ran dry!!! I'd added an electric fuel pump years ago, and I disconnected both ends to see if it was pumping, and it wasn't. Next, we'll prime the mechanical fuel pump and put a short hose into a gas can, and see if it'll suction off that, and if so, we can probably just add several gallons to the tank, and it'll be running!!! Of course, it'll need tires, too!!!

Sorry Substitute

The vet's office sent a sympathy card last week. I cried like a baby.

A lot of things will remind me of that boy. Pictures. His things. Sometimes I'll hear a song that will make me think of him.

I had a dream around a week after we'd said good bye. We were vacationing with the extended family up in the mountains, but I wasn't feeling it, and was off by myself. My dad (still around in the dream world, apparently) came out to find me, and was telling me that mom would really appreciate it if I'd spend some time with the family. I was telling him that I wasn't feeling like it, then I told him, “My f'ing cat died!!!”

I've seen a couple of the neighborhood cats since, but they're not sociable. I have been wanting to be around a friendly cat that I could pet and feel the purrs.

A couple years back, my son had seen a stuffed Halloween cat in a claw machine. He like it enough that he took a picture of it, but didn't try and get it. He said, “I should have tried to get it, it was right on the edge, it would have been easy!!!”

A couple of weeks after we said good bye, he located the same stuffed animal that someone was selling on Ebay.

He bought it, and he's pleased with his purchase!!!

Onto an interesting confluence of events: Last week, my wife's car (Kutcher!) was stalling. I've suspected the fuel pump isn't up to the task, it acts like it's fuel starving sometimes under hard acceleration. I ordered a new one from Rock Auto, and in the meantime, we've been rolling in Scruffy.

Of course, it sits a little lower with the whole crew in it. One thing I should have mentioned in the Car Stuff post, I had fabricated a hanger loop – skid plate rig around the end of the tailpipe. It wasn't fully fleshed out, but I had a couple angles screwed to the floor pan, and a flat with the ends bent up. It would scrape occasionally, but if it wasn't that, it would have been the tailpipe!!! Anyway, on Saturday we were out, and came out of a driveway with a scrape... that just kept on going!!! I pulled over, and the front end had come undone, and the plate was vertical to the ground, wedged into the ground, and the tailpipe just hanging (the inside hanger had come off it's hook, too. That always seems to happen when the outside comes loose). Called a tow truck, and located a muffler shop that could take care of us.

They put a mount almost exactly like the one that the very first side exit exhaust I'd had made up had on the outside, and tacked on a couple washers on the inside hooks to keep the hanger in place. It's solid!!! Bonus, they did it for a reasonable price, I think I've finally found a new exhaust shop!!!

While it was up on the lift, I finally got a good shot of a little repair I'd done to the bottom of the front bumper. It was coming to a point in the middle, where it would drag backing out of the driveway, so I drilled a series of holes and tapped a piece of angle aluminum to flatten the whole area. I'd taken a picture of it when I'd done it, but accidentally deleted it.

But this was the highlight of our trip to the muffler shop!!! The dad told my wife that this cat had recently been dropped off by the shop. There's several feral cats around the area, but this one is domesticated. My wife was sitting out back petting him (or maybe her, I didn't even try and find out), and after the car was done, I pulled around and gave him some pets, too. Got my pets and purrs that I've been craving. I'd walked over towards the back of the parked cars there, and he came right over to me!!!

He had the softest, silky fur, and those orange eyes!!! My wife was wondering what you'd name a cat like that, and every time I see a black & white cat like this, I always think “Domino”. My son makes mention of a character from Fallout: New Vegas, Dean Domino, the King of Swing!!! Of course, if you have a pet, you need a one syllable name, so Dean works, or you could call him “D. D.” for brevity's sake. He seemed to have some kind of bump – protrusion on one of his flanks, and when I touched it, he meowed, so he might have some kind of injury.

Later on in the day, when we got home my wife was tidying up and found her cat ears!!!

All in a Day's Work

I've been wanting to get the engine pulled out of 3 for a while, but as always happens,life gets busy. The plan, of course, was to swap it into Scruffy. Well, smog check time is coming up, and the P0410 air injection code has been coming back on and off. Took it over for the check, it had been a good spell without the light coming on. Less than a block away, it comes on. Sigh. I pull off onto a side street and reset it, then for the check, it hadn't gotten enough data to re calibrate it, so it failed. He checked the exhaust afterwards, and it's got a little smoke coming out, and he says it fails for that, too, but I think he wouldn't have gone there if the computer check had passed.

So, this weekend took it down to my parents' house where there's a big, flat driveway and went to work. It drove way better than I'd thought it would, with the steering wheel all tweaked. To make things easy, the hood comes off first, and since it was tweaked, pulled the whole front bumper cover off, as well as the headlights. The bumper core had an amazing crease down the middle, and the side of the frame rail was nicely accordioned, but I didn't get a shot of that.

Of course, it's not a one-man job, at least not for me!!! I enlisted the younger boy, and he comported himself quite admirably, considering he has close to zero experience working on cars. There's a multitude of little stuff to disconnect and remove, and he helped with a good amount of it, as well as the actual removal. Pretty much got all but one thing disconnected, the connection from the steering rack to the column. Started lowering it down, and that side wasn't dropping.

Speaking of dropping, that was the method I elected to go with, disconnect everything, unbolt the subframe (only 4 bolts!!!) then lower it out the bottom. I'd heard of people doing it with lifts, and figured I'd have to drop it, then the weight would shift more to the back, and I'd probably have to raise the body some more. Got it dropped, and it's within a couple inches of clearing. Got on the back bumper and bounced on it, and it looked like there was close to enough room to slide it out. My son couldn't get it moving, so we switched, and got it rolled out!!!

There it is!!! Gotta do the same to Scruffy, and I'm planning on unbolting the engine from the transmission, and swapping it to the recently rebuilt transmission in Scruffy.

All in a day, I couldn't be more pleased with the progress!!!

Armored

I finally got this together last week!!!

You may recall I had the rocker panel on the exhaust side had melted down, after the exhaust had bottomed out a few times.

It was a messy looking meltdown. I'd trimmed around the top edge, so it had a hole all the way through already.

I bought some aluminum tube, and trimmed it to fit with the clearance.

And there's the mock-up!!! You may notice a couple of little button head screws on the back. I added a 1/2" x 1/8" aluminum bar back there.

In the mock up picture I had button heads holding it on. From the beginning I'd had the idea of using square neck bolts. Here's after I'd filed one of the holes square.

And some high-temprature paint on the guard and the bolts. Also pictured, I bought a plug for a piece I always remove from the air filter box.

Putting it back on, I had trouble locating the back hole, so I was using the camera as a mirror to see what I was doing. Ended up with a working selfie!!!

Came out pretty decent!!!

Today I did an oil change in preperation for an upcoming smog check, and while I had her up on stands, took the pipe off to give it a fresh coat of paint.

Bool Hunt

All of my nonexistent readers are probably well aware that I end up going to the junkyard on a fairly regular basis. This post will cover a few of those trips, as well as filling in a bit of recent history.

About a month ago, I'd finally gotten Scruffy over to an alignment shop to get the rear tires pointed in the right direction. This is the only car I've ever had where I've had a rear tire wear and alignment issue, probably because nearly all of the cars I've owned have had solid rear axles where alignment isn't a thing. The others not in that category, I haven't messed with the ride height, so there's that. As you can see, they were REALLY worn down for about two years of wear!!! The alignment shop had told me that the camber was still a bit out, but to come back when I'd replaced the tires, with a little advance warning, and they would install a camber kit to correct it. Yesterday I finally got a replacement pair.

Prior to heading over there, on Friday evening, I opened up the back of the two machined look rims I'd picked up, with the idea of getting a full matching set on Scruffy, at which point I realized that the one had a significant abrasion on one opening, where it had peened the metal out, so I decided against using that one, for now. It also had quite a bit of scuffing on other areas, and I took some medium-fine sandpaper and 3M pads to one such area, to see if I could get it looking decent. Looks like all it is is through the clear coat or anodizing, whichever it has. About a half hour's work, and it came out looking quite good!!! Anyway, left that one off for now and now have 3 out of 4 the same.

Now, for a few weeks back background. The second to the last week I was working at the physical building, on Thursday they were doing Wuhan Flu testing. They were having us come in at the time of the testing, wait for the results, then, if negative, report for work. My appointment was for noon, so I got to go in a bit later. Oh yeah, spoiler alert, around 400 employees still working there, and not a single positive!!! Anyway, about a mile from home, it started running really rough, with not much power. I drove it almost to where I get on the freeway, and pulled into a gas station to see if I could see anything. Restarting it had done nothing, but plugging in the OBD scanner showed multiple misfires. I turned around to go home and switch cars, and getting to the uphill area discovered it didn't have enough juice to climb the hill. Called my wife and had her bring her car down. Used her car that day, and did a bit of research. There were several things, but the consensus was to start with the spark plugs and work your way down the systems. No idea when the plugs were last changed, but never hurts to have new ones (so long as they are OEM NGK copper core ones, not any exotic metal ones, as they have a high fail rate in Saturn 1.9 engines, due to the waste spark system they run). Also, while I was getting the plugs, I got a crankshaft position sensor, my reasoning being that the sudden failure seemed consistent with that. Replacing the plugs did nothing, so I headed back up the hill and took the plug wires, coils and ignition control module off 3, and went back down and replaced all the units on Scruffy. Viola!!! No cumbersome crankshaft position sensor replacement, which I was not looking forward to. Just to see what would happen, I put the units from Scruffy back on 3. Moved the issue to that one, as I figured it probably would. I figure it was likely the ignition control module, as I've had coils fail before, and the OBD will show the coil specific to two cylinders missing.

So, now 3 is fairly undriveable. Not like I'm driving it much anyway, but I want to be able to move her around, not to mention I'd rather have everything going if and when I swap the engine out. The ignition control module is around $85, and most of the consensus is that you are better off getting an OEM used replacement from the junkyard anyway, as most of the replacements have a high fail rate. Off to the junkyard!!! Coils are pretty reasonable, but control modules are supposed to be in the $50 to $60 range. Since the double coils mount to the module, I figured I'd pull the whole unit and try and pass it off as a coil array. I also was wondering if they were the same unit for the generation 2 and SHOC models. No one seemed to have that information, but I could probably look up different years and engines and figure that out if I wanted to. I took a look around at earlier SHOC models, and even a generation 1 SC2 and they all appear the same. Anyway, to be safe, I got them off the same year and engine SL2. Funny thing, there didn't seem to be much body damage at all, but both of the airbags had been deployed!!!

When I got to the checkout, the cashier was questioning the pricing, noting that an array would be more expensive, and it was actually two coils, which would be cheaper. He called over a supervisor, who told him to ring it up as two coils, and put the module as a bracket. He noticed it had the wire connector socket, so rang it as a electrical connector. Two coils at around $13.50 (plus $1 core charge) and $2.75 for the ignition control module!!! Score!!! The exhaust manifold was removed from the SL2 I got the goods from, which gave me a chance to get a better shot of the exhaust air injection ports. They look equally as plugged up as Scruffy's had been!!!

And there's that 1st generation SC2. While very little is common to the later ones, they weigh less, and the style is growing on me. I actually like the SC and SC1 front ends with the fixed headlights, which I believe are the same from the doors forward as the sedans.

Now, from quite a while ago when I'd gone to a junkyard near my work, and they had almost exactly the same as 3 on the other side of the wall, I imagine pre being put in the yard, but possibly to be sold. Even has the same rims as 3 originally had!!! In other news, I came across an ad for the same year, color and wheels as 3 with 95K miles, and a busted up front bumper and driver's side fender and mirror, plus a check engine light, asking $1800. I sent them a message that, considering the condition it seemed about $500 to $800 too high. I'd take that deal, if it seemed OK and could pass smog, which of course it won't with that light on.

A couple of the cars of interest there that time were this 60's Mustang with little left but the firewall and the undesirable 6 cylinder engine. It's very rare to see anything that old anymore.

Up next is a early 70's Celica, another of those you never see anywhere anymore!!! Someone had done a terrible job of putting a whale tail spoiler on the trunk, looking like it's about 20 degrees from where it should be. Has the distinction of being similar to the one we had. Of course, it has the unique pull out handles. The steering wheel was removed, but still inside, so I was also reminded of the style of the horn buttons, double circles on each of the three spokes, cheaply made so the ones rotated around it end up upside down!!!

And finally, the junkyard I went to this weekend, a while back there was this pretty nice '64-'66 Suburban in the lot. I noted it because it's similar to my GMC panel truck.

I know I've used the phrase "bool hunt" in previous posts, but I'm not sure I've ever explained it. It's from the Stephen King story, "Lisey's Story". It's where something will be hidden and the other person has to find it. Also in the story is the mention of a "blood bool", so take that for what it's worth. It's been years since I've read that one, maybe I'll dig it out, I quite enjoyed it. Stephen King is a very talented writer, but he's also an old crank who keeps yelling at the Commander in Chief to get off his lawn.

The Mixer Mix Up

So, I'm driving home last week (in Scruffy, naturally) when I went over something in the road. I didn't see it, but heard the double thump of it going under the wheels or bouncing off the underside. Hope it didn't damage any tires...

As I'm proceeding home, I start hearing a scrape whenever I hit a larger dip in the road. I had flashbacks to the time the crappy hanger on the crappy exhaust pipe had broke. I drove home, hoping for everything to hold together and wondering how my heavy duty double bracketrey could have failed. Headed over to that side when I got home for a look, and saw a bar in the wheel well, pointing towards the tire.

(I did a closer shot with one of those helpful arrows pointed at it)

Huh. How did that happen??? And it's way away from where the bracket is. Went around the other side and went to drop down and get a look at what happened.

And found this poking out from the front end!!! That's no hanger!!! Turned out it was a paint mixer that had gotten flattened and went over the tip I'd made up!!!!

In other news, I think the high temp paint I used on it isn't a very effective rust preventative!!!

Car Stuff

Some car stuff that's happened. First up, the previously mentioned radiator replacement on Jade. This was back in December, it started losing water pretty regularly. Gave it an inspection, and it had coolant ooze on the driver's side tank of the radiator between the transmission cooler lines, so I figured that was it.

Put a replacement in, and while I was doing that, discovered some damage to the bottom edge and the air conditioning condenser (as well as the radiator, but I took care of that!!!), probably from the time it fell off the jack!!! Fortunately, the extra clearance on both of those components doesn't appear to have affected the functionality of either of them.

So, went through all that, flushed the cooling system, and then noticed the underside of the fill cap didn't look right. That may have been all it needed.

Got myself another set of Ion rims to put on 3, as I've been wanting to do. The rims on 3 were the ones from Baby, and the tires on there were a couple years old when I swapped them on, so I've got my money's worth out of them. There's a whole story on those where they ended up costing too much, suffice it to say don't waste your money on those Goodyear mileage maximizing tires, they have such hard compound to them as to be dangerous, and I ended up getting even worse mileage with them than I'd had with a set of Chinese cheapies.

Anyway, I'd ended up getting two on the Thanksgiving weekend 40% off day, and two on the New Year's sale. Same deal as last time, I was only able to find two machined face ones, and two other painted. As you can see, one was in way worse condition!!! I was telling my dad I'd like to get the painted ones machined to match, and he made the comment, "Well, we know how to polish..." Yeah, that used to be a fair amount of my previous career. Planted the idea in my head, and I bought the discs and wheels and compound to polish, and went to work. It's too much work, but it's getting there. Still need to get an alignment from when I replaced the rod ends. Additionally, it looks like I've got one of the rear wheels on Scruffy that needs work, probably a camber kit, as it's wearing the tire back there prematurely.

And finally, that cool flat exhaust tip I made up??? The dip down to clear the emergency brake cable became the low point, and as with most lowered cars, occasionally you scrape a little. It appears it's done a bit of tweaking it up some, to where it's into the rocker panel, and it's melted it down a little. If I'm able, I'll get some aluminum tubing the same diameter and make up a metal piece with a cutout around it to give it some clearance.