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It's easy to tell which is the rear end in a top hat now (and now I've got a screen to fix). In car world, cars suck. I need to replace the headliner in the Passat... it started falling last year and I tried to 3M 77 it, but all that did was adhere the fabric to the disintegrating foam, which continued to disintegrate and fell again a few months later. I'm debating whether to get a junkyard headliner or just get some fabric and redo it myself. Also on the Passat, the driver's door stopped locking and unlocking, I figured it was something I left unplugged last time I took the door card off, but I investigated and... nope, everything's plugged in, but the lock/unlock doesn't work. VW stereotype founded in fact. I've got 2/3 of a front end rebuild on hand for the Escalade. I think I'm going to wait until I have everything and get some Bilsteins to do a full-on refresh all at once. 4600 or 5100 Bilstein... does it matter? I may crank the torsion bars up a little bit, but I did that with my dad's old Silverado and that made the truck harsh as hell... Other cars are doing their thing. RDX is plugging along like a good appliance and my boy's Avalon is in limited service. It seems to have fully poo poo its evap canister, so you can only fuel it at like 1/6 speed without the pump kicking off, but that beats the hassle of dropping the gas tank and replacing a $200 charcoal canister.
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Jul 8, 2021 01:06
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EVERYWHERE 
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:41 |
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Oh hey thread, it's been almost a year. Cars? Haha. Cars are poo poo. The Escalade is pretty much hauler duty, the Passat is a basket case my son is driving, and the RDX just completely impressed me on a 1k mile vacation. It is utterly boring, but ultimately dependable and competent. I really came to appreciate the way it quietly ate up miles. So, what was the vacation? Well, it ended up with beach time, but it started out with a visit to RCR's race car shop and a couple days at Charlotte Motor Speedway with ridiculous access. NASCAR has come a long way since the last time I saw their pits/garage. No more bulky physical templates, everything is laser measured. The shop is GPS mapped and their measuring system can pinpoint dimensions down to ridiculous fractions. The cars are completely different, but so much more modular... if you had access to the parts, you could absolutely build one yourself. Pics to come after I get them sorted and a post prepared. Teaser: 
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Jun 3, 2022 13:15
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sharkytm posted:If you're interested in the machining in NASCAR: Very similar to what I saw. RCR has its processes spread over several buildings in the complex, so I didn't see their CNC setup, but the hawk eye was the same: 
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Jun 4, 2022 13:14
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Okay, I suck. I never updated this thread with more pics.  I have a deposit on the Passat, supposed to be picked up on Wednesday. I've got a total of $2400 in it and I've had it since 2019. Sold it for $5k, even with a list of obvious cosmetic and QoL problems. I don't really want to sell it, since it leaves my wife and I and 20 year old kid with just the Escalade and RDX, but the kid is at school and doesn't need to drive until late Spring, and I figure that by then there will be a different used car landscape and I'll be able to buy something significantly better for that same money. We'll see...
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Nov 20, 2022 15:09
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Hughmoris posted:How's the Escalade cruising these days? You know, I really didn't drive it this year. It was tasked with dog transport duties when needed, and that was about it. I started to daily it a couple weeks ago and I really like it. It's big, tall, plenty of power (when you're in the 3 speed ranges that are properly geared), in general, a great daily. Other than the gas mileage. I'm running the 18" all terrain tires right now, since my 20" tires are dryrotted (with only 8 years and 30k miles on them  ), but I'll get new 20" tires next year.It desperately needs a suspension refresh... the rear shocks leak like crazy and burned up the second pump back there, and the front electronic shocks have always seemed overly stiff. So I'll probably go with a static Bilstein setup next year, too... we'll see...
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Nov 20, 2022 16:56
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I sold the Passat last week. Largely because it was a basket case that freaks out in the cold weather, but mostly because I doubled the money I had into it since 2019. I see the used car market dropping a bunch next year, so I'll re-buy something for when my son gets done with college for the year. And this is the time of year I hate. My semester is ending, so there's grading and crying students and all that nonsense, along with all of the stressors of modern Christmas. So, I did the only logical thing -- added more to my plate. Mother in Law got hit in her 2018 Toyota Avalon in October. I started helping steer the resolution about 3 weeks ago. Got to the point of negotiated payoff, then they gave $8700 as buyback. I'm buying it back. Plans are to get a Uhaul, strap it to the back of the Escalade and drive the 2 hours up to where the car is at, hopefully next week. What does it need? Who the gently caress knows. It is purely in the "somebody's been here before" territory, since the door, fenter, headlight, and bumper have all been removed, so who knows what fasteners and parts are there versus missing... but hey, it's an adventure, right? Pics, some with bonus FiL thumb:         Awesome! Dirty tires on the light colored leather!  Awesome! Ragged fender shoved into the light colored leather!
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Dec 7, 2022 22:38
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I'm not a body shop pro by any stretch, but one of my more fun projects was buying a 1988 Mazda MX6 GT from a woman that wrecked it drunk driving for the $250 she needed to cover her fines. Before (bonus corner of my UrS4):  After:  And yes, that is an actual Yugo hood scoop.  I made an airbox and cut the hood out on top of it, so that is as cold air induction as you'll get.That was also my first try at shooting paint from a real gun and not a can. Single stage, but it turned out pretty well for a hack.
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Dec 7, 2022 23:27
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Alright. Just got back with the car. Used a 2 wheel dolly and it was about 125 miles away. The Escalade did fanatically well. On the way up, with just the 2 wheel dolly, I got 16.5mpg at about 75mph. On the way back, I had it in third gear and tow/haul mode and got 12.1mpg at around 75mph. I'm fully impressed with that, plus, the extra vehicle on the back really smoothed out the ride. The car itself? Definitely needs a lower A pillar pull. Probably not going to be me. I don't have any contacts with anyone with a frame machine, but it's a quick and easy pull. I'm going to get it cleaned up and documented, then get it on the market. That means a lot of cleanup and... all the parts are there that they took off, but I cannot find one loving fastener.
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Dec 15, 2022 20:23
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Well, that was a huge loving mistake. I saw the lack of fasteners and the pull that the a-pillar needed and figured I don't have the time right now. So, I cleaned it all up, meatpimp style, and took glamour shots of it. Posted on fb and craigslist. Zero replies from craigslist, over 70 different accounts messaged me on fb so far, all absolutely lowballing... 6k,8k offers like crazy... for a car that clean books for 25k, would sell with a rebuilt title for 17-20k and needs about 2k in work. I'll loving give it away for what I have in it, just need to get someone to pony up 10k and be done. Sheesh. Just buried with lowball cretins... and it gets tiresome.
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Dec 19, 2022 00:38
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LloydDobler posted:Sounds like a "seal it up and park it safely" and see if it feels like there's more time next month. Maybe price out the fasteners because it'll be easier to decide to buy them if they're already sourced. Can you call the shop that took it apart and see if by some long shot they have the fasteners in a tub that didn't get thrown out? Once in a while you get lucky. Did you open everything while you were detailing to make sure they're not in the glove box or spare tire well? Shop that did it said they threw out the fasteners.  It was never their property, kinda hosed, but nothing I can do now. It's not huge, but it's just the straw/camel's back thing... I just finished up my last class ever, so I'm entering this weird space of I'm not retired, but I'm not working, and I've got a ton of projects on the list... this just doesn't fit right now. 
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Dec 19, 2022 12:03
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Sold it. Worked too hard for $500 profit, but it's an albatross removed from the garage. Just bad timing -- it got cold here, so my wife's car was outside, I grossly miscalculated the number of vultures I'd run into selling a salvage car (I've sold dozens of clean title cars, I never realized the market is so different between the two...). Learning experience. Time to get selling all of the auction stuff I bought last week and enjoying a full-on break from working.
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Dec 19, 2022 21:37
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Rhyno posted:selling stuff is too much trouble these days. i just packed up a fuckload of toys and nerd poo poo and instead of going slow on Mercari i'm taking it all to a shop to dump in one go. i need to have as much free time as possible All of my time just became free... but I've got a ton of projects and work lined up. So I need to get ready for the post-push crash, then figure out what happens next.
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Dec 20, 2022 01:51
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Applebees Appetizer posted:December is a bad time to try to sell anything used really, especially cars. Around the holidays people are buying poo poo for christmas. I know, bad decisions... bad time of the year, bad season (Winter has started here, so there are wrecks a-plenty to pick from because people can't drive on snow), bad upcoming used car market, etc. I really didn't want to hang on to it until February or March and have the used car market tank and actually take a loss. That would not do.
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Dec 20, 2022 04:25
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Cached Money posted:On my friends pos Seat we just used windshield goop to glue in replacement speakers because either the speakers we took out of a Mitsubishi Galant had non standard bolt patterns or the Seat did. Worked great honestly, but lol if you ever would have to replace those speakers again. "Screw the next guy" can sometimes be a viable option.
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Dec 20, 2022 15:36
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Yo thread, it's been a while. I haven't done car stuff. My wife's RDX has two broken bolts, one in each sway bar bracket, and they're both going to be bitches to drill and replace. That's on my back burner. Also, my wife's RDX has some weird moaning at speeds under 30mph, sounds like some front drivetrain binding. I've never had it aligned and there's some wear on the inside of the front wheels, so I think the suspension may have just settled and needs realigned. That's on my front burner, but I haven't gotten to it in months... The Escalade is still doing GMT800 things. I turned it into a high mileage car yesterday:  I also scratched it when I was juggling equipment and stuff while moving my son into his apartment at school yesterday. Sad face. But, I fixed it:  Since April, I've been pretty much singularly focused on building a deck. At ~650sqft with a 12'x24' covered section, it's a big job. It started with holes:  I had hoped to be done in July, but at mid-August, I know I'll still be working on finishing it in October. I'm getting really close to getting some decking down, so that's good. I think I'll start a thread in the HCH forum. I have a contractor neighbor that said he'd quote the job at $60k in April, he took a look at it last week and said that it's a good thing I did it myself, because nobody would get to the overbuilding and detail I'm shooting for without costing much more. We'll see how it turns out.
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Aug 16, 2023 13:45
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Ether Frenzy posted:Depending on what direction your covered section's openings/windows are going to be facing, you might want to consider skylighting. My parents had a North & East facing covered porch at a similar geographic latitude, and on overcast days it would be pretty gloomy in there most of the day (until they had it redone and added skylights.) Unless of course your method is going to be an awning or whatever. It's going to be a 12'x24' gable roof with ridge beam facing North/South. Light is concern of my wife's, I think it'll be fine. We'll see. If it ends up too gloomy, I'll do a gable at 90* and open up the West facing side. Darchangel posted:$60K. For a deck. Indeed. LloydDobler posted:Yeah what's your budget for DIY? Are you tracking hours to see if the quote was at all realistic? I was shooting for $15k, probably going to end up creeping on $20k. Time... ugh. I have spend ALL of my time since May on this. A lot of the components are heavy, like using a 16" hydraulic auger by myself, and hauling 6x6x12' posts around, and getting the heavy poo poo in place. It's mostly just me working on it, so every operation takes 2 or 3 times the amount of time it should take, because I've got to clamp up or tie up one side where something goes, only to go to the other side and secure it, then secure the first side. Hard to explain, but 3 people working on this would cut the time immeasurably. It's a good thing that I value my time at $0.
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Aug 17, 2023 21:17
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Thread started. Feel my pain. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4043407
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Oct 3, 2023 18:52
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I've had a leak from the Escalade's washer fluid reservoir for about 10 months. I hemmed and hawed about what to do with it... whether to troubleshoot and fix the specific leak point, or shotgun it. Shotgun won. I got a new reservoir, new front punp, new back pump, reused the fluid level sensor (if I would have known its condition, I would have replaced that, too. Out with the old:  Replacement was simple, other than the bent pin on one pump that I didn't find until I put everything back together. So... I took it apart again. First real time I used my Milwaukee M12 ratchet, and that makes stuff like the battery tray, which is held down by 7 bolts, a breeze. And, I love working on this and finding areas that should be rusted, but aren't... here's a 18 year old original battery tray:   If this had been in Ohio all of its life, it would be hole-y. Oh yeah, the fluid level sensor worked intermittently, I found out why when I pulled it:  I usually use RainX washer fluid and apparently the red stuff leaves residue (you can see it on the old reservoir, too). I had to tear a hole in the old reservoir to get the sensor out, since it was gunked into a 90* position. Put it in the ultrasonic cleaner and looked like new again. That's the only substantive car work I've done in I don't remember how long...
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Nov 17, 2023 20:05
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:41 |
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From the detailing thread last year:meatpimp posted:Holy poo poo. I was right on. I just didn't realize how much so until now. When I posted the above, I had just purchased a few aliexpress ceramic coating kits. I coated the Juke, and Avalon, and E61... and the Escalade. Car was nice and clean, but I kept wanting to replace the shocks because it's never seemed "right." Plus... look at that sagging butt. Shameful. Now I know the rear factory air shocks were shot, because both of the air bladders and the compressor were shot, but the front seemed... okay? But VERY firm, always. It has the fancy electronically adjustable front shocks and I thought that if they failed, it'd go soft. I was wrong. I removed the fuse for the ride control and let it sit with the battery disconnected for a bit and the truck forgot it had ride control at all... and the front end started bouncing around like crazy. So, when those electronic shocks fail, they fail in the full hard setting. Interesting. This week I finally got around to installing new Bilsteins. Shocks all around, and since I was ditching the rear air system for conventional shock, I had to switch to uprated springs in the rear, too. Pretty straightforward operation, not much more than remove and replace. Did have to disconnect the rear sway bar to drop the axle enough to change the springs, but nbd. I also had to remove the rear fender liners to do the job. I'd never removed them before, and it's been 2 years since I've done any kind of rust preventative maintenance, so I was worried about what I was going to find. Almost all GMT800 suvs around here have fully rotted sills and I was hoping mine wasn't on the verge...   Looks really loving clean. Now those shots are after a pressure wash, dry, and Fluid Film application, but man, it's in such good shape... End result:  No more saggy butt. And the ride is transformed. It's controlled and feel so much more modern. Lookin' pretty good in its 19th year. Edit: And I scratched it while moving my son into his apartment last August. Enough of a scratch that was too much to touch up, but there's really no way to match old Cadillac tricoat pearl, so... cover it with a sticker? Sure! 
meatpimp fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Mar 7, 2024 |
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Mar 7, 2024 20:12
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