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!!!

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.

Machine Work

My dad got his Studebaker back in 1993. A bit of the back story on it is as follows: He had found an old basket case Ford, a '50 I think, for a good price, I think it was $500 but might have been $1,000, that he had wanted to buy. Naturally, it wasn't in running condition. He ran it past my mom, and I think it would be an understatement to say that she was less than enthusiastic. He'd probably mentioned it to me, but I don't recall. My mom talked to my older sister about it, and she had a different point of view. I don't think she was especially crazy about it, either, but she told my mom, “He's a good guy, always works, doesn't drink or do drugs, doesn't gamble away his paycheck, doesn't chase tail, you should let him have something for a little fun!!!” So she had convinced my mom, who reluctantly agreed, but in the interim, my dad had talked himself out of it, thinking it could become a constant bone of contention. He said he wasn't going to get an old project car, “Unless a Studebaker Hawk comes up for sale”!!!

I didn't know that part at all. I was working as a machinist at the time, making tooling for sheet thermoforming, and the other machinist would often look through the classified looking for any interesting classics. He reads one day right around then that there's a '62 Studebaker Hawk, 289” (no, not a Ford motor if you didn't know) and automatic transmission, runs and drives, $1,400. Wow, that sounds like a decent price for just about any running and driving classic to me!!! I knew nothing of Studebaker for the most part, other than that some of them had come with factory centrifugal superchargers, but gave my dad a call anyway to let him know, since I knew he was kind of looking for something. It must have sounded just like what he was thinking. It was up at or near the Van Nuys airport, and I don't remember how much longer it was after that, but he had me come along with him one evening, and it was in pretty good original condition. The passenger side fender had been crunched so bad it had torn the metal, and welded back together and roughed out back to close to the original shape, and there was a big scrape on the passenger side quarter panel ahead of the back wheel. Worth the asking price to him, and he drove it home that night.

Since I was employed as a machinist during a lot of the time that my dad was doing various things on the Studebaker, I ended up making a lot of custom machined items for it!!! I feel like I don't have a lot of items (other than my two 512 keychains) that I machined, but there are several on the Stude!!! Since I recently did a post about license plate frames, I'll start off with this!!! This was one of the few frames I made up with my CNC program. I think I did two 512 frames, a Chicago Cubs frame for Sammy, and this one for my dad that I gave him for Christmas in 2005 (incidentally mentioned on my 100th post!!!). One of my neighbors thought it was a great idea to have it on there, since most people have no idea what it is!!!

Around that same time, I think my dad must have asked me about making caps for the lakes pipes. I wrote a program for the outside profile, then made a couple of designs. On the drivers' side, I did the Studebaker “Lazy S” logo.

On the passengers' side, I did the Hawk logo. They are fairly quick to make, and I think my thought was to see which he liked, or if he'd like to come up with something different. Also, the cap I had been measuring off to make the outside profile apparently is just a bit smaller top to bottom that the actual flange, so these have a bit of the pipe flange showing. I would have corrected this and whipped out a pair of matching ones, but they axed me before I was able to get to that point.

His original vision for the Stude was to keep it fairly factory original, with the original engine and transmission, and have his custom body touches “bolt on”, so the body could be easily returned to stock. He designed custom tail light housings, and custom headlight bezels, and a custom grille shell. Then, while they were heading out to some far flung event, the 2-speed automatic transmission went out. He called me up to see if I'd get my mom's Cadillac drive out to get them, and he'd have it towed back, which we did. He found out it was going to be over $2,000 to get the transmission rebuilt, and around the same time, he had a guy who owed him that totaled his Chevy truck with a V8 and TH700R4 overdrive transmission. The overdrive it a huge plus for something you're going to be driving any distance, and Chevy small block engines are a hot rod classic. He decided he would be better off updating the drivetrain. He wasn't the first to put a small block in the Hawk body, but a lot of people end up mounting them high in the engine bay to clear the crossmember. He thought, since he knew a machinist, he could get a reduced size crank pulley to clear it, and put it in the original's position. This was well before I was running a CNC, and this was just done on a lathe. I don't remember exactly how it worked out, but the bolt circle to the balancer was wide enough that I wouldn't be able to make it as small as he wanted and have deep enough grooves, so I made it as a 2-piece unit, with the pulley portion bolting onto the balancer mounting portion.

Not long after, he was having issues with the accessory mounting, and had me make up this bracket for the power steering pump. This was done on a vertical mill. It's seen better days, but it may just clean up nicely.

This isn't anything I did, but I discovered or re discovered that he'd added a Moon Equipment temperature gauge to the intake manifold. Wouldn't be a hot rod if it wasn't running hot!!!

As a tooling designer, we also did pattern work, and would send them out to be sand cast in aluminum. The aforementioned custom tail light housings needed an end piece for the trim that runs the length of the car. My dad made up the pattern, and we sent them out for casting. I cleaned up and polished the castings. He also made up the pattern for the custom headlight bezels. They actually have a portion with negative draft, which most casting shops can't do as loose patterns, but the place we worked with is pretty good. They came out with a lot of casting flash that I had to machine off, and cleaned them up. In the original configuration, they were both just bolted on, but for the current final iteration, they both (as well as the custom grille shell) were all molded in.

The Inheritance

I had made mention five years ago of the passing of my father. Also on other previous posts, I've made mention of his project car of the last several years, a 1962 Studebaker Gran Turisimo Golden Hawk.

He wanted me to become it's owner and curator on his passing. He had told me to get someone to draw up plans to construct a garage on our lot, and he would pay for the construction, so it would have a protected area to reside. I never got to that point, and I don't know if he had a realistic idea of what the price would be to have it constructed. The idea hasn't left my mind, but I digress.

After my dad's passing, the older had moved in with my mom for quite a while. After he had lived with her, helping her with meals and driving her around to shop and doctors appointments, he relocated to Colorado, and she's been on her own for a while. My older sister has been trying to get her into an assisted living facility for a while, and she just last month got her into a really nice place. She is now moving to sell off her house, so the Studebaker had to be moved out. It had been sitting for almost 5 years, and the battery was dead. I took the battery out of the Falcon, and got my tools and a can of quick start. I was there on a Sunday with several friends who were helping move out some other personal effects. With the fresh battery and quick start, it would fire readily, but wouldn't run. One of my friends headed over to a gas station and bought a couple gallons of gas, which we put most of into the tank, and primed the carburetor with some of the rest. It would run for a bit with the carb primed, but stalled out. One of my friends was keeping an eye under the hood, and said it was leaking. I took a look, and asked where, and he indicated the fuel pump. I was out of time for that day, so I came back the next day with the intention of buying a new fuel pump on the way. When I stopped to get it, they didn't have any compatible pumps in stock. I bought a length of fuel hose (I had the thought that it had old hose on both sides of the fuel pump, that could be all it would need) got the address of a hub store with stock, then continued to my mom's house. I jacked up the car, and checked the hoses. Both of them looked fine, but I loosened the clamps and re tightened them, then primed the carb again, and fired it up. This time, however, it stayed running with no issue. I checked, and there were no leaks!!!

My mom had said that it had cooling issues the last times it had been run. This was news to me. Running it in the driveway with the hood open, it didn't get that hot at all. I drove over to a gas station to fill up, and it got hotter, but did fine on that stretch. While heading to the freeway in red light green light traffic, it got up to the higher range of the gauge, but as soon as it was moving along, it came down to an acceptable level. When I was off the freeway again, it started heating up again. I went ahead and headed up our hill. Around halfway, it started hesitating and cutting out, with the gauge climbing. Almost to the top, it stopped pulling, and I threw it into neutral, revved it a few times, and tried going again. It didn't go, so I gave it some more, and laid a patch of rubber and made it the rest of the way. On the way down, I can smell the coolant boiling off, and when I get it down by where I wanted to park it, it was steaming good. Wouldn't go when I tried to back it up, so I left it kind of slanty. A few hours later, I headed back out and backed it into place.

It was terrifying to drive it at night!!! It tracks perfectly straight, but when you're doing any turning, it has that old floaty power steering disconnected feeling. It has that tail dragger stance, so the inside mirror doesn't show much. A choice I never much approved of, my dad had tinted all the windows except the windshield limo black, so visibility isn't great. The outside mirror on the drivers' side has a loose pivot, so it's always going out of whack.

The tint on the drivers' side was damaged by the window mechanism and the slide, so I've removed that, as well as the tint from both of the wind wings. The passenger side front window is next. I've ordered a high flow 160° thermostat, to see if that's all it takes. If not, I'm considering an electric water pump. These are the main things that need addressing, but there's a lot of other things. The windows were rolled down while it was being stored, with a nice cover over it, but mice or rats got into it, and it's smelly and a mess in there.

The thing is a rolling work of art!!! Every time I'm out working on it, one (or several!!!) of my neighbors will stop and ask about it, or talk to me about it. I'd get some of that while driving the Falcon or the Sky, but this is to a much greater degree!!!

The Follow Up Random Post

I feel like I'm lacking content to blog about these days, so I'm going to post a few minor things somewhat related to previous posts!!!

A couple weeks ago, I bought myself a rechargeable battery type tire inflator. It's a no name deal, and wasn't very expensive, but I'm quite pleased with it. You can set your desired pressure and it'll turn off when it hits the correct pressure. The tires on the Falcon tend to lose pressure while it's sitting, and with the Moon hub caps, it's more involved than most to top them off. This is when I took off one of the caps, you can see the levels of receding waters from the rains of January!!!

I'd gone down to sweep up some of the constantly falling pine needles a couple weeks ago, and there was a ticket envelope on the Falcon, and the tires had been chalked, so apparently we've got a bitchy neighbor. I moved it, then topped the tires. Last week we took it to the car wash, and it cleans up nice!!! There was quite a bit of silt under the hub caps, so it took some cleaning out.

I had completely forgotten back when I did my Literary Stack post about a couple of books I'd read. The first was an autobiography of Mark Thompson of the Mark and Brian show, which had been one of my long time favorites. It's entitled, “Don't Bump the Record, Kid”, and I learned of it from Woody of the Woody Show. He was listening to it as an audio book, and was enjoying it. Of course, I prefer an actual book, but this appears to have been a limited release. When I first went looking for it, there was only one available, for over $50. I wasn't going that high. I checked back around a month later, and someone was selling a copy for around $20, and it was signed!!! I'd heard a lot of the stories, and lived a good amount of them, and I enjoyed the book quite a lot!!!

Another book I found in a give away box probably a couple years ago was the Jack Kerouac classic, “On the Road”. It was “The Original Scroll” version, and it had a lot of the history and told of the edits that were made for various publications. It's one of those I'd heard of forever, so I had to pick it up and check it out. It wasn't a great book, but it was an enjoyable read, and now I can speak of it from having read it.

A couple weeks ago I picked up a pack of Mountain Dew Baja Blast, thinking it was just the classic Baja Blast, not realizing it was Tropical Lime. It tastes better to me than the canned classic Baja Blast, but not as good as the on tap that you get from Taco Bell.

I took the younger to a dentist appointment the other day. In the stairwell, they've got one wall that's painted a little reminiscent of my license plate frame!!!

Last week we went to the beach with a huge and shifting group of friends. Surrogate son and his brother were there, a couple of other families, and a couple of our other friends. In the afternoon, one friend left to get his girlfriend when she got off work, which took more than an hour. The younger fell asleep for a bit while this was going on.

A couple more friends showed up around when the sun went down, and a little after that, SpaceX did a launch from Vandenberg!!! I'm pretty sure it was dropping off Starlink satellites.

I took a couple of pictures of the younger and a friend in the dark with no flash, and they came out kind of fuzzy, and each picture had one looking good and the other not so much, so I did a merge of the two pictures!!! You can totally tell it was two different pictures, but it's plausible!!!

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!!!