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!!!

The Return to the Junkyard

It's been a long while since I've made a junkyard run. The last time was when we'd just bought Kutcher. This time, I brought along surrogate son, it was his first time. He enjoyed it, there are a lot of cars to see, and in various states of disassembley.

The trip was prompted by our Catalina vacation. Last year, I'd borrowed my mom's car to be able to transport four, our luggage, and my wife's wheelchair. That plan was torpedoed by Gretchen's Automotive (where elder financial abuse is the name of the game, the epitome of shady mechanics) and we ended up having another friend give us a ride to the landing. This year, I'd checked with another friend who has a Honda Pilot to see if we could swap cars for the week, and that was the plan. Incidentally, it was the same friend who was going to take care of the cat while we were out. Around a week before, surrogate's mom offered to drive us, instead. She's got a mini van, so it shouldn't be a problem. The morning that we were leaving, her van was acting up, and unbeknownst to us, she contacted the friend with the Pilot to borrow it to take us, instead. Pulled up in the Pilot, and we were like, “huh, she's here to feed the cat kind of early”, then we got it figured out. Went out to load our stuff, and tried to open the hatch, and it wasn't opening. Pulled harder, and the handle came off!!! The junkyard had two on the lot that could have the correct handle, so that was the main objective.

First off, there were a couple of classics there, first up was a Olds Toronado!!! Always thought they were a cool car. A few days later I was driving with surrogate in the car, and he spotted one parked on the side of the road, and was able to identify it right off!!! It was a proud moment.

And a Ford Galaxie. Not much left, but that front bumper looks like it's in great shape, probably worth a good amount to the person who needs one!!! There was also a VW Squareback, and an old Ford truck that I didn't get a look at.

I've long had the idea to put a couple of white stripes on Scruffy, and call it the skunk mobile. My beard grows with black in the middle and white stripes on the outside, so I'm already Skunk Man!!! Anyway, someone beat me to it, and got the plates to go with it!!!

Found the first Pilot, and it was already missing the handle. I'd seen one on Ebay for something like $160, so I was thinking it was a hot item, and might be resellable for a decent amount. Found the second one, and it was still on it. Success!!!

The back glass and inside panel were already removed, so the hatch was up and wouldn't stay down without the extra weight. I was wondering how I was going to do it, but I was able to unscrew the two nuts, and stand up on the back through the window opening and pop the press in fasteners off. It was the wrong color, but the recipient is black, so I was able to color match it fairly well with a spray can.

Anyway, I was in the trucks, vans, and SUV area, and spotted a Pontiac front end. Core memory unlocked!!! I recalled that, when I was swapping gauges in 3, I'd read that the Pontiac Torrent, a rebadge of the Chevy Equinox, had another compatible instrument panel, with another different look!!!

Looking back, I realize that I didn't have any shots of the original Saturn gauges, so I took a day and night shot of it before it was removed this time.

The Torrent instrument panel has the chrome bezels like the white face Vue gauges had, but with black gauges with a gray perimeter. Goes nicely with the aesthetic of Scruffy, I think.

The night illumination is where it really shines, pun intended!!! Red glow. Bonus, no check engine light with this set up, only the ABS light is illuminated, since it doesn't have it. Unfortunately, didn't check the illumination before I had it all the way in, and the center sections weren't lighting up. After a bit of driving, though, one of the sides came on, so it's only got one un lit area now. I feel like there were never that many out there, so it's something of a rare instrument panel.

Another fairly high priority item, Scruffy had lost the driver's side plate that holds the bumper onto the pins. There wasn't the correct year there, but I got one off the second generation, hoping that it was a part that wasn't changed. It was.

Back when I had the instrument panel apart on Kutcher for the stupid check engine light, I had unknowingly somehow borked the second digit on the odometer. It had the segments for a backwards “7” that don't display. Also, a couple of the illumination LEDs weren't lighting up anymore. Got a replacement for it, too, and it's really nice having it back!!! Got rid of the bright white check engine light, too.

Something that's always bugged me on Kutcher, though, is the damned dent on the front of the hood. Compounded, the clear coat on the hood has started coming off, so it's looking pretty bad. I picked up a reasonably straight hood while we were there, too.

My original plan was to just primer it black and let it ride thus. I sanded it down, sprayed some gray high build primer, took some glazing putty to a couple of spots with bad rock dings and scrapes, primed some more, sanded it smooth (all the while doing similar with the Pilot handle). Finally got it to a pretty decent finish. At some point in there, I recalled that back when I had bought the second set of Ion rims for 3, I had bought a can of metallic charcoal paint to try and match the dark that the polished front rims have in the recessed area. It was gone before I ever got a chance to use it, so it was still around. Dug it out, and sprayed a test sample. The color isn't really close to the body panels, but it is very close to the faded bumpers!!! I surveyed the family, and they said I should go for it. Fortunately, there was enough in the can to cover it completely!!!

Another minor annoyance, one of the wheel center caps had gone missing not very long after we bought it. I was looking for the same style, but none of the Matrices (Matrii???) had the aluminum rims with them. I did find a cap that ended up fitting. Doesn't match the others, but it's decent!!!

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!!!

More Car Stuff

Mostly because of my newly acquired inheritance, I've been getting in a good amount of car work in these days. As always, there's more to do!!!

Not chronological, but to start with, I bought a new deep cycle battery to use in the Hawk, and put the one I'd borrowed from the Falcon back in. I'll also mention since I don't have a picture to go with it, one of Kutcher's tires had a nail in it that I removed and plugged the hole. I'd bought a tire plug kit from my previous job, and this is the first time I used it. I've seen them installed before, but have never done it myself. Either I should have gone at the tire more and oversized the hole more, or it's harder to get in than I thought, I had to fight it to get it in!!! It's holding fine, though. The tires are all getting worn, and I'm thinking I'll do something I've been meaning to do, take it for an alignment, and buy a new set of tires. The oil change light just came on, and it will be the first one I've done without being able to buy employee price oil. One of the driving lights burned out, but I bought a pair of yellow ones to replace the factory white ones with not long after we bought it, and this may be the perfect time to install them!!! Oh, and I bought myself a pair of ramps to make some of these maintenance tasks a bit easier.

I'm also planning on doing a repair on the bottom of Zonker's front bumper like I did on Scruffy, it has a little portion in the middle that's hanging down now. That was a big part of the reason I bought the ramps!!!

On to the things I've done to the Hawk, I got all the window tint removed from the front windows. It wasn't as difficult as I'd thought it was going to be.

Also got a reflection of Zonker and of an unmentioned cat with coffee T-shirt my wife got me in the window picture!!!

One of the first things I did to try to get it to run cooler was to flush to cooling system and install a high flow thermostat. After I drained it, I removed the thermostat and added the flush, ran it for a while, and drained it again. As I did this, I got a better look at the sketchy looking routing of the upper radiator hose. The water pump and air conditioning compressor run off one belt, and the alternator drives from the A/C, and the hose was running between the two.

While I had the hose off, I got a look at the groove it had cut in the hose, and did not like the look of it at all!!! On my first run to the local auto parts store, they were good enough to let me go behind the counter and see if I could find a molded hose that might work better. A portion of part number D72224 turned out to work quite nicely!!!

My other thought was that the upper radiator hose appeared to be higher than the radiator filler, which could possibly cause a bubble in the system. I found a filler neck tee that I planned to put in place of the splice junction. I made the first purchase from my former work for a U-bolt to use as a solid mount for it, and added a bracket to hold it between the belt. I also tensioned the belt a little more.

After I'd done all the cooling system work, I was thinking I should have got some T-bolt hose clamps from my previous work while I was there (I'm not paying their shipping costs!!!) While I was looking around for something else, I located a couple I'd previously bought!!! Makes for a cleaner looking installation!!! I'd run it a couple of times in the driveway for around half an hour at a time, and the temperature didn't get all the way up, but the first time I noticed the electric fan wasn't coming on all the time. I cleaned the terminals and it seems to be working fine ever since.

I had ordered pizza a couple of nights later, and the younger and I took the Hawk to pick it up, as well as try it out and see how it did. It made it without and cooling issues, but it would surge while driving. Steady throttle, and it sounded like I was on and off the pedal. On the way back, I thought I'd take the less steep but longer back way up the hill. Around half way, it starts acting like it wants to cut out. I throw it in neutral and rev a few times (still acting like it's running rough and not really wanting to run) then try going again. It stalls out. I re start it, and it wants to die again, then does. I re start it again, and there's a road going off the side that I'm pretty sure goes down to the next street over. I head down it, and it's doing a little better not climbing, but the road is super sketchy, it goes down to one lane, and rutted dirt!!! I had the idea of taking it down to our street and parking it there, but it made it halfway down the street between, and stalls. I roll it to the side, and try re starting it again. It starts, but it's running really rough. It had gotten warm, but not like when I'd brought it home. I was thinking the heat was causing an issue, so I'd let it sit and cool for a while and try again. Oh yea, where it was, they now have no overnight 2 AM to 6 AM parking now.

We walked up, ate our pizza, and I walked back down a couple hours later. It re started, but was still running rough. I drove it over to the bottom of my street, and it stalled as I was rounding the corner. I was able to re start it, and drove it to the same back way street I'd last attempted, and it stalled out going around that corner, too!!! I called it for the night, rolled it back to the side of the street (no overnight restrictions there!!!) and once again walked up the hill.

The next day I headed down to see if I could figure it out. I was suspecting a fuel delivery issue. I recalled from when my dad had it, it came with a cork float for the fuel level sender, and after 40+ years it just kind of came apart!!! Probably, ideally, I should probably drop the tank and get it cleaned. He had installed an inline canister style fuel filter before the fuel pump, a clear filter with replaceable elements just before the carburetor, and the carb has a built in filter. I took out the clear one to get a look at it, and it was caked solid, and the gas in it looked like dirty brown water!!! Thinking I might be onto something, I headed over to the auto parts store again, and got a replacement for the carburetor filter and the inline filter. I just removed the clear one, planning to get a replacement element at a later time, and put the new carburetor filter in. It seemed to run much better with just that!!! That night, I drove it straight up the front way, and it pulled all the way!!!

You may have heard the old cliché, the old cars, if they break down you can fix it on the side of the road with a screwdriver, crescent wrench, and a pair of pliers. That was exactly what I did!!! Oh, and one of my neighbors driving by told me it's a beautiful car!!!

I cut open the old carburetor filter, and it looked pretty gunked up.

I had ordered replacement elements for the clear filter, but then noticed that the glass was cracked, too, so I ordered a new one of those.

The next day, I pulled it up on the ramps and replaced the canister filter. I noticed it is concerningly close to the exhaust, and decided that I would fashion a heat shield before I wrapped up the work in that area. I used a Monster Energy Drink can, it has to be better than the nothing that was there before!!!

I've also vacuumed it out, and used some carpet powder on the interior carpet, and re vacuumed it. My surrogate son gave me a black ice air freshener. Neither of these has completely gotten rid of the rodent smell, and I laid down another layer of carpet powder and will vacuum it again tomorrow. Should see about getting the five years of dust washed off the car cover, and clean out the trunk. Should also see if the spare holds air, and pick up a replacement tire if it doesn't.

I've figured out some of the operation for the radio, it was a nice HD radio Pioneer unit back in the day, but the antenna doesn't seem to be working. I'm thinking of swapping in the one that was in the Homecoming Saturn, it's got nearly the same function as the ones in Scruffy and Kutcher, and having Bluetooth is always better than off a thumb drive.

One other concerning thing, the voltage gauge... always seems to show on the low side!!! If you rev it up, it'll come up, but cruising or at idle it's well under 12 volts. I'd mentioned the underdrive crank pulley, and had had the thought that the slow spinning was possibly the issue with the cooling. Having read up on the water pump, it seems like they are more than is necessary to keep things cool, even at lower speed, but the alternator could possibly not be spinning fast enough at lower speeds. I had thought of buying a couple of V-belt pulleys and different size cogged drive pulleys and a belt, and making a belt overdrive. Since the aren't that expensive or hard to install, though, I'm thinking of getting a one wire conversion to try out before I go that route. Years ago I installed a GM alternator on the Falcon with a one wire conversion, and it is awesome!!! If you just start it and it's only idling, the headlights and dash lights would be dim, as though it's not getting a charge, but rev it just a bit, and you can see it turn on, and it stays charging strong. No gauge on the Falcon, but from the lights, you can see it working!!!

Oh, and speaking of Scruffy, it developed a freakin' rod knock!!! Right around the time I was having to retrieve the Hawk, and I got the old transmission and engine that had been down at my mom's house. Drove it straight to a shop, and had them do a full rebuild, and swap it in since I no longer have access to a nice big flat driveway to do these things. Set me back probably more than it's worth, but you know. I form an emotional bond with my machines.

Passed!!!

Finally did it!!! Finally got both of the cars that require a smog check to pass!!!

As previously mentioned, the check for Zonker was coming up. If I'm not mistaken, it would have expired tomorrow. I'd been having a lot of frustration with my normal place, and a friend had referred me to his place, who he's had great success with getting more difficult cars to pass. I'd taken Kutcher over there to see if he could help me out, and apparently since one shop has already entered the information, they wouldn't be able to do anything for me.

Not wanting a repeat of the issues with Kutcher, I took Zonker there around a month ago. As mentioned, I hadn't been having any issue with the check engine light or trouble codes since I'd had the exhaust done, so I didn't think it was going to be an issue. The guy pre checks it, and tells me he can't pass it as is, since it has a cold air intake installed. I'll either need to replace it with the factory intake and filter, or get a California Air Resources Board exemption number for the current intake.

I check into it, and it looks to be the dealer installed GM Performance Parts intake, part number 19157849. I locate the CARB exemption order number for it, and make note of it, and return to the smog check place. The guy tells me I can't just have the EO number, I have to have the underhood sticker. Grrr...

I try to get in touch with the manufacturer, AEM, who were the ones who made it for GM. Apparently, they are now under K&N's umbrella, and they were unable to locate any record of them having used this CARB exemption order. To be fair, it was at a minimum 15 years ago. OK, plan B...

I located a GM Performance Parts logo, and made up the sticker myself!!! Picked up some label paper, and... when I went to print it out, my trusty printer says the print head isn't installed!!! I pop it out, put it back in, and now it's showing... only I'm out of black ink!!! I order a new set of inks, and when they're delivered, I install them, but the printer is saying that the print head isn't installed again!!! I pull it out, give it a thorough cleaning, put it back together, and it finally shows that it's installed. I do the test and alignment pages, and partway through, it has the print head issue again!!! Mess with it some more, and finally get it to get set up properly, and print out the sticker. I also printed out the CARB EO paperwork, and took it along when I got it checked. It passed without any further issues!!!

In other news, there's a good chance I'll be picking up a printer to replace my beloved Canon Pixima MP610. I could possibly buy a new print head, but they're not cheap, and there's no guarantee it would fix the issue.

Kutcher, on the other hand... when I'd last mentioned the trouble I'd been having, I had installed a new set of injectors. They seemed to be working great, they even bumped the MPG up a decent amount!!! Naturally, took care of the vacuum leak. Still had the P0031 code, Oxygen (A/F) Sensor Heater Control Circuit Low, though, so I took it back to the smog check place. They say, “Oh, we're going to have to do a further analysis to determine the issue, another $175, but we'll take that off any other repairs”. Go for it, I pretty much have no other options. The tech checks it out, and first pulls the connector, and says, “there's the problem, whoever put this O2 sensor in bent the contacts and it's not connecting”... OK, first, it was you that put it in, second, the plug is pretty well protected, there's not really much chance of that happening... He supposedly gets them so everything is making contact, and it still has the same issue. It's almost their closing time, so they tell me to bring it back tomorrow. This was back when I was still working, so I had my wife take it back. She gets in touch with me the next day and tells me they're telling her, “whoever put the O2 sensor in cross threaded it...” Once again, it was you that put it in, you damned clown!!! They finally locate the original transaction where they did, and said it was bad and needs replaced, which they did at no cost. Shockingly, the same code I've taken it there four damn times for still is coming back!!!

I consulted with the guy who'd done the engine swap on the Kutch. His shop is right next door to an exhaust shop, and he double checks with them. He tells me that the O2 sensor has to be an OEM Toyota or a Denso, almost none of the other suppliers O2 sensors will work. I did a bit of research after he'd told me that, and it's well backed up on a lot of Toyota forums, for all kinds of Toyota vehicles.

I ordered a Denso replacement, and put it in, and that took care of it!!! However, it now has a new check engine code. P0420, Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold. A lot of the information out there indicates it could very possibly be a bad catalytic converter. However, on a lot of the Toyota forums, other owners had success by installing a O2 sensor spacer on the second O2 sensor. I located one that was very reasonably priced, but I didn't realize that it was coming from freakin' China. It took way longer to get here that I would have liked, but it finally got here. Right around the same time, the oil change light came on, so I was able to do both of them at the same time, since I had it up anyway. I reset the computer, and I didn't get that code anymore...

But... now I was getting another code, P0172, System Too Rich. Well, all systems will start off rich when you first start them up. I reset the computer again, and started letting the car warm for a couple of minutes before taking off, and I wasn't getting the code. Nice, I'll run a week to get a good data set and take it on over.

It makes it almost a full week, and it comes back on again. I put in a fresh air cleaner element, even though it wasn't that dirty looking, it had been in there a couple years. That didn't work. I ran a tank of gas with a bottle of fuel system cleaner. That didn't work. I pulled out the mass airflow sensor and cleaned it off. That didn't work. I kept warming it up for a couple of minutes every time I'd start it. It would go for a couple of days with no check engine light, but it was coming back even sooner than it had been at first. There's several things that could cause the rich condition, but since the injectors are fairly new, I was suspecting that one of them wasn't closing off completely. I viewed a couple of tutorials on cleaning your own fuel injectors, and that was going to be my next move, clean the original injectors and put them back in. I took the original set of injectors, and was soaking them in Marvel Mystery Oil, and made up an adapter tube to spray from a nozzle of a can of carb cleaner to the injectors. One of the things the tutorials mentioned was that the filter screen cones will need to be replaced. I looked around at a couple of the usual places, and no one had them, so I went to check Ebay to see if they had them. I found a couple of kits that have a set of filter cones and the seals for just under $20, but while I'm looking, I see a few items down someone is selling a set of 4 new injectors for just under $30!!! That's about what I was paying for 1 injector from Rock Auto!!! Can't beat that, so I order a set.

They show up a few days later, and I install them. I go to start the car, and it's running very rough, and I let it go for a minute to see if it gets them all primed. The check engine light comes on. I turn it off, and check the computer. No codes. I fire it up again, let it run until the check engine light comes on again, shut it down again. Now it has the code stored, P0304, Cylinder #4 Misfire. Since I hadn't been doing anything with the ignition part, I rather suspected it wasn't really a misfire, but an injector not firing. I checked the connection, and when it was verified good, I moved the cylinder #4 injector to #2, and the code followed, now it was P0302. Bad injector out of the box. I pulled the original injectors out of the Marvel Mystery Oil and cleaned them off, swapped the seals from the new ones, and put it back together. Reset the computer, and I haven't seen a check engine light since!!!

After driving Kutcher for a week, I took it back, and it passed without issue!!! I had been considering getting litigious about the $220 and $175 they'd charged me, since I've got a little free time, and could likely prevail for at least part of it, but decided against it. I just don't think I'm going there anymore!!! The last time I'd had Scruffy there for it's smog, the guy's father was running the place (he's the one who pointed me in the right direction on the driving procedure to get all the monitors set back then), but it looks like he's passed it off to the son, and his son doesn't seem to be up to the task!!!

Oh, and while I was working on various electrical systems, I was disconnecting the battery, and towards the end, the battery terminal was falling apart again, and I used a C clamp to hold it together again until I got a replacement. For some reason, that car seems to go through them!!! Actually picked up the replacement on the way back from the place that smogged Zonker!!! I'm pretty sure I'd bought a few before I was axed, but I couldn't locate them. Got one that's made of zinc instead of lead, hopefully that helps it last longer.

I'd made mention that the phone holder – charger in Kutcher wasn't staying in place as it should. Shortly after, the suction cup portion lost it's connection to the arm. I located this one, and have had it in for around a week. It was working quite well, and it actually charges, but my wife knocked it off yesterday, and it hasn't stuck to the center console for any length of time since then. I re positioned the suction cup to the rear center console with the arm pointing straight up, and it seems to be working there!!!

The previous holder had a weight activated holder, where the bottom edge being pushed down would cause the sides to close. This one, as soon as it senses there's a phone in it, it closes the sides with a motor. It has a couple of little buttons on the sides that are touch activated to release the grip. It's supposed to contain a battery to be able to release when the power is off, but if it does, it hasn't charged. It's also not illuminated like the old one was, either.

Looking Back: The Antenna Install

I have made reference in a couple of recent posts about the antenna I installed on the Sky. This was back in January of last year, so it's been a while. It's a bit of a story, and here it is!!!

As I mentioned, the original style antenna is a tall solid mast, and it's on the rear fender, right where it's in the way when you are putting the top down or up. All that remained of the original was the plastic base, and around an inch of the original mast. I purchased a little rubber antenna of the style that had been popular during the mini truck craze of the 80's. I had figured I would just remove the original, and plug the replacement in wherever the original cable plugged in. Of course, the radio is a ways from the stereo head, so as a plan B I was thinking I could just splice the cable as needed.

Not previously mentioned, Zonker actually has two antennas, the standard over the air antenna mentioned, and a satellite radio (and probably OnStar as well) “Shark Fin” antenna on the middle back of the rear deck, and of course, both have cables that pass from the trunk area to the interior.

I removed the rear body panel and the center console cover, figuring they would pass through and probably run down the console. That's what you see here, there's a lot going on. The box in the middle of the picture is, I'm pretty sure, the satellite radio receiver. Towards the bottom of the picture, you can see the subwoofer of the Monsoon audio system (which I also previously mentioned that I had repaired by gluing the cone back to the surround) and towards the top is the Monsoon amp. I tried to trace the over the air antenna cable, but was only able to positively ID the satellite cable.

I took a step back, and reconsidered the approach I was going to take. The old antenna base was going to have to be removed to put the new one on. While I was antenna shopping, I saw that almost all of the antenna masts are internally threaded. I went ahead and worked the stub off, and unscrewed the large flat nut on the top of the base, which revealed the threaded rod base. The replacement antenna has a near opposite approach, with a threaded bolt extending down, which is captured and kept from turning with a couple of flats in the metal portion of the antenna base. OK, what can I do with this??? How about using a nut in place of the bolt, and screwing it down to the original threaded stud??? Yes, that could work, but it may end up needing to be shortened, or some sort of adapter made up. I found a flange nut with the correct thread, which of course was too wide for the slot in the metal base. I used a cut off wheel to slice two sides off, and shortened one end, to make a nut where everything lines up.

Next up, how to get everything to line up... The metal base to the antenna is too small to work with the original plastic base. The plastic base for the new antenna has a similar shape, a tapering cone, with the correct size recess for the metal base, and a little extra flange and height on the bottom. Since I already had the cut off wheel set up, I trimmed the flange and a little height off the base, and things were getting close to the right height to sandwich it with the original base, but of course the shape wasn't matching up. I ran a bolt through the newly trimmed down base, and chucked a couple of nuts in my drill, and attached it to the drill. I had the younger run the drill, while I used some coarse sandpaper to shape it down into more of a spherical shape. After the shape was good, I used fine sandpaper and a sanding pad to smooth it out, and it actually polished up beautifully!!!

It ended up looking something like a snowman, with a base cone of the original base (which actually follows the fender contour nicely), the new base turned spherical, and the metal base, which already has a round shape, being two halves that you can use to adjust the angle!!!

At the same time I had ordered the antenna, I also picked up a couple of phone holders. When I had started working from home, I picked up a wireless charger stand for my phone, since I was using my phone a lot for work (I've got a whole folder of work apps I need to uninstall), and the wireless charging was working great!!! I figured I'd look into a similar holder for the cars, and found a couple of these for not a lot. I still hadn't come up with a good holder for Kutcher, and since it tends to get a lot more use, I'd put one in it first. I'm usually not impressed by suction cup style bases, but these work great!!! It's a clear silicone cup with a release lever, and I was able to stick it to the middle of the console, and have the phone holder just back from the gear shift. Just recently, something went wrong with the indexing of the arm, and now it wants to rotate down, guess I'll be taking it back to the drawing board soon. Also, for some reason, it doesn't seem to charge nearly as well as the home unit did. Anyway, here's the one I put in the Sky, it sets it right between the instruments and the heater controls, and it's stuck to the smooth part of the dashboard right over the middle HVAC vents. Lights up a cool blue!!!

So, there you are!!! 80's antenna installed!!! Not going to snap off putting the top up or down, and it seriously improves reception!!! Cool 80's aesthetic vibe, as well!!!

And a happy 512 day to all!!!

The 80's Called, They Want Their License Plate Frame Back

License plate frames aren't much of a big deal to me, but they do give it something of a finished look. I got a patriotic one for my first Saturn which was pretty cool, but faded as it aged. 3 came with a Saturn of Permian Basin dealer frame, which had the white faded out on the lettering, which I cleaned up, spray painted silver to match the car, and sanded the letters to reveal the black plastic and painted the Saturn logo red. When I sent her away, I swapped the frame to Scruffy. The silver doesn't go as well, but it's in memoriam. Back when I was running a CNC machine, I had come up with a few programs for various frames that I could add text to, my favorite being the 512 frame I left on Nasty. I'd always figured I'd make up a couple more of those, but got out before I had a chance. Zonker didn't have one when I got her, but I took care of that recently!!!

I was emptying a trash can, and someone had tossed out one of those “Drive Pink” license plate frames. I'm all for supporting a cause, but I think they look hideous, and unless you got your car from selling Mary Kay, they really don't go with any of the cars they are on!!! I'd never really looked closely at any of them before, but since I was up close, I got to see that it's actually a quality piece, made of steel (I think). I could come up with something with this...

I sanded it down, and gave it a few coats of gloss yellow. Then I used skinny masking tape to do a series of random stripes, reminiscent of Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstrat from the “1984” album. Interesting, when I was looking for info on that guitar, I discovered that he retired it after they played the Us Festival '83, which was the first concert I went to. Maybe one day I'll do a post on that!!!

I then applied a few coats of gloss black, removed the tape, and did a few coats of a clear reflective paint. That flattened the look of the gloss black, which I hadn't foreseen, but I actually like the way it came out!!! It had a little bleed around some of the cross points of the tape, but it's good enough.

As I'd previously mentioned, I had also added an 80's reminiscent rubber antenna, and I feel like the frame also has something of an 80's vibe. I was going to see if I had some stainless button heads to install it with, and came across some tamper resistant screws from back when I was doing packaging tooling. Installed it without the plate for a picture with black oxide screws, then decided that stainless steel ones would be better, since they won't rust.

Took a picture close up, like the blank one, then when I was at the bank, I realized a full back picture would work better, with the black top and exhaust valance panel. Bonus, the antenna is also visible!!!

One Headlight

When we got my wife's car (Kutcher) most of the systems worked fine. The dome lights worked for a little, but then stopped working. I picked up some replacements from the junkyard, and one of these days I'll get around to putting them in... If I can locate them again!!! I went looking for them a while ago, and didn't find them.

Not long after we'd got it, one of the headlight bulbs burned out. I pulled it out, it was a Sylvania Silver Star, and replaced it with one that I had from my bag of light bulbs, quite possibly one that had been in 3. A little after, the other one burned out, as well. It was also a Sylvania Silver Star, and I've made a mental note to never buy that brand!!! Replaced it, and went on for a while with no issues.

After a while, the driver's side burned out again... or so I thought. I tried a different bulb, and it wasn't working either. I messed with the socket, and it would work in certain positions, but not when it was just at rest. OK, bad socket. Picked up a replacement from Auto Zone, and soldered it in place, with heat shrink over the junction. It had heavier wire than the original, and looked like a quality piece. It worked again... once again, for a while.

A few weeks later, it started flickering on and off at random. I checked the bulb again, and the socket still looked fine. Cleaned the socket and contacts, and gave the contacts a little tweak to make better contact, and it was... no worse. I messed with it a little, and it looked like it had a break farther back in the loom. I'd wiggle it, and it would come on. I gave up, and drove it for more than a year with one eye.

Around 6 months ago, I had the idea to get a relay, and make it switched from the passenger side light. I could do both wires, but it's probably just a break on one side, so before I start in, I get my meter out to check which side is flaky. When I check, though, both sides seem like they're good. Huh, was it just another bad socket all this time??? Had a spare Saturn socket, albeit with fairly light gauge wire, and put that in, and once again, it's working fine!!!

For a while, anyway...

A couple months ago, it went out again. When I got around to pulling the bulb out and checking for a burnt out bulb, I discovered the plug was as seen here, burnt and melted!!! I had seen Rock Auto had a high temperature bulb extension socket for not much, so I ordered one. It was shown as a male-female extension, but what arrived was a pair of the plug ends. Soldered one on, and it's working again. Hopefully, it really is high temperature and takes care of the issue for good!!!

Conversely, when I got the Sky, it needed some things done. As I mentioned when I got it, there were several questionable “upgrades” done to Zonker. It had a lot of the lights changed out to LED or xenon bulbs, and other than the low beams, I'd changed 'em all back to conventional lights and got the turn signals working right. Also, the turn signal lever wasn't canceling when I got it, and I replaced it, as well. Also adjusted the coil overs up near stock height, added a bluetooth adapter, and as previously chronicled, got the exhaust quieted down some. Not mentioned, shortly after I'd got it, the check engine light came on, and clearing the codes didn't last, and I've just been driving it as it was and knowing I'd have to do something before smog check time (which is coming up). A little after I'd had the exhaust done, the light turned off on it's own!!! I checked, and the old codes were still in there, so I cleared them, and they haven't come back, so hopefully all it was was the exhaust leak.

The radio antenna was broken off when I got it, and it didn't tune very well because of it. Because of where it's positioned on the rear flank, it is apparently an issue with the Skys, so I got one of the short rubber antennas that had been popular back in the 80's. Made a world of difference in the radio quality. The Monsoon subwoofer speaker cone was detached from the foam surround, and I glued it back into place with some RTV to fix the speaker rattle.

Back to the time when we were having constant red flag days, and the Sky had been moved to the bottom of the hill, as I was getting ready to move it back, I noticed that one of the projector driving lights was missing. Really??? Just missing??? Did someone seriously manage to steal one of my lights???

I opened the hood, and it turned out the light had only been rotated off to the side, but the light bulb itself was just gone, with the plug dangling.

When I finally got some free time, I took the light out to see what happened. Turns out, of the three mounting points, only one was remaining. I checked another mounting point, and the plastic tab was still there. I epoxied it back on, and while I had the light out, I discovered that the bulb and it's metal base were still inside the light!!! The first outside picture shows a big black scrape right below the light hole, I'm pretty sure I smacked a tire tread, and that's probably what broke everything!!!