Clapped Out Garage - Projects and such

EvanB said:

There's rust, and then there's daily driver in the rust belt rust.

In reply to EvanB :

That was your BIL's car?  Somehow I remembered it being silver.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

EvanB said:

There's rust, and then there's daily driver in the rust belt rust.

He lives in Ashland (or was it Mansfield?), though, south of the Divide.  Those arms were breaking at five-six years old in Cleveland.

I won't forget the first set I did... I unbolted the front of the horseshoe brace and it fell off, leaving the back third of the two legs in place.  

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Yep, they have threatened to sell it a few times but this was the final straw. He was going to scrap it rather than deal with selling it so I couldn't let that happen. 

In reply to EvanB :

Good call!

This certainly shouldn't rust in half. 

Everything is back together and it's driving. After I took it around the block I had to polish the headlights.

Things are looking up at the COJ!

i spent a bunch of time today in the next generation Forester, which still had the EJ255.  It was a bit underwhelming compared to the smaller one you have.  Lots more metal to shift even though on paper it should be "better" because the intercooler is like twice as large.

Yea the difference in size between this and my girlfriends's 2015 Forester is noticeable. The 2004 is very similar in size to the XJ. 

Time to get some more of the non-running cars out of here, the MINI will likely be parted out soon. 

The Miata is in the garage to swap the suspension back to Bilstein. I haven't yet decided if I want to run the event on Sept 11 or just wait till Nationals to run again. 

This weekend I went to VA with my GF to visit her family. I took the DR250 along to ride some trails near their house. The Taskers Gap trail was very rocky, I didn't get any pictures of the really rough sections but most of it was large rocks sticking out of sand and some sections of loose rocks. I didn't see any other bikes, mainly jeeps and atvs. 

Then on the way back, 15 miles from home after driving nearly 400 miles, my rear window exploded. I was going through a single lane construction zone downtown and heard a loud pop. I initially thought it was a strap on the dirt bike giving way but it didn't seem to be moving on the hitch carrier. I was able to pull off at an exit after a couple miles and saw in the mirror that my left rear window was shedding glass. It must have been a piece of concrete or debris that hit it but I didn't see anything. 

My plan is to replace the window with sheet metal and add a RV style sliding window with a screen since that is right where the bed is and would add nice ventilation. I'll have to figure out something quick though since I am camping in this at rallycross nationals in 5 days. 

I should be removing parts from the MINI to sell but decided to look at the turn signal switch on the RX7 again today. 

I took the switch apart, re-flowed the solder on the contacts and found one of the traces on the circuit board was broken so I bridged that with a piece of wire. Didn't take any pictures. 

Put it back together and plugged it in, tried the turn signals and nothing happened, flipped it back and forth a few more times and noticed that when the switch was activated the dash lights came on dimly, that's new. While I was noticing that the headlight switch let some of its smoke out. After turning the key back off and unplugging the switches I gave up. Next time I'll have to take a look at all the grounds in the interior. 

With a rallycross coming up (which has been postponed), I figured I should do some work on the Miata to get it somewhat ready. 

There is an exhaust leak at the flex joint by the transmission and the shift boot has been disintegrated for a couple years. This doesn't make it pleasant to drive with the fumes. I thought about ordering another new upper rubber shift boot from Mazda but the last one didn't last very long. After some looking around at options I decided to buy a universal CV boot and make it work. 

The disintegrated rubber:

Trace the shape of the stock piece onto some sheet steel, cut it out and cut a 4" hole into the center, warp the E36 M3 out of it welding a ring around the center hole, figure it doesn't matter and bolt it down bringing us to here. 

Then slide the CV boot over it and ziptie in place. I need to take it back out to paint so I didn't install the metal clamps that came with the boot yet. 

With that done I can ignore the exhaust leak for longer. 

That actually looks great especially in the environment you'll be using it. Nice out of the box thinking

Did you get the running issue sorted, then?

EvanB said:

 

That's just nifty.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Did you get the running issue sorted, then?

Mostly. The vacuum line running to the megasquirt was chewed through. There is still a vacuum connector at the boost gauge connection that is disintegrated and needs to be replaced. 

Last weekend I made the trip down to Cincinnati to pick up a Genuine Buddy from eastsidetim. I had been following his build thread and the sale post trying to resist contacting him. I don't really need a scooter as I already have the CT90 and 60s Ducati scooter in addition to my dirt bike and Honda PC800. If I was buying a modern scooter I really wanted a Vespa or Stella. He bumped the sale thread though and I couldn't hold out any longer. 

The issue was a high idle and misfiring, when I got home I got it to idle low enough that if I kept on the throttle to keep it alive it wouldn't die and took it around the block. It had a bad misfire at partial throttle and was generally unhappy. Full throttle was great though. 

I had new project motivation that typically doesn't last long so I wanted to see if I could figure out what was wrong. 

It came with a spare carb so I took that apart, cleaned everything and blew air through the passages and put it on. The carb is easy to swap out which turned out to be a good thing. Spare carb on and it started up, idled great and revved cleanly, no misfire or dead spot like the other carb. Enthused, I went for a test ride. It had no power and would barely hit 35. I cleaned out the carb that was initially on it and got it to idle better but still misfiring at partial throttle. I figured since there was such a drastic difference between the two carbs it must be a carb issue and proceeded to take the carb out many more times to try cleaning and adjusting. After a lot of swapping parts between them and test-riding (over multiple days) I finally found the right combination. The spare carb with the main jet from the one that was initially installed and the needle/diaphragm was the winner. Turns out the diaphragm in the spare carb had some small cracks in it which was why it had no power. 

In addition to all the carb swapping I decided to take advantage of the new project motivation and pull all the bodywork to paint it. The stickers were cool but I wanted to make it my own and the body panels were a mix of colors (some plastidipped). I went to Menards for a few cans of Rustoleum and got to work sanding and prepping. 

While it was taken apart for paint I decided to throw on the fancy NCY front forks that were in one of the spares boxes. Not sure if I can tell a difference over stock since my riding time was limited on the stock setup but they look cool. 

Today after work I took it out for about an hour, riding about 20 miles around the city. It did great with no issues so I'm hopefully calling this one fixed. 

I need to decide on a replacement for the 2007 date code tires on it. I like the white wall look but there aren't may options like that in the size I need. It did come with some 09 dated tires that have been properly stored (but not white wall) that I will probably throw on for now. 

Looks great!  Glad you were able to figure it out so fast.

eastsideTim said:

Looks great!  Glad you were able to figure it out so fast.

I can see why you got frustrated with it. After about the 10th time swapping the carb with inconsistent results I had no idea what was going on. But that motivation to ride something I just bought got me through it. Didn't want it sitting in the basement for five years like the other ones...

Funny thing is it looks like you painted it close to the same color my original buddy was.  My first one was a 2009 125 in Seafoam Green.

I've been missing having a pickup around for random hauling duties. I have the van and 18ft trailer but it's annoying to hook it up for stuff that could easily fit in a pickup bed but not inside the van with the camping setup. After looking around for something newer and being discouraged with the options in the $5000 price range I decided to buy a cheap beater like I usually do. 

95 Toyota T100 4x4. It has rust on the body but not really much more than the Ohio trucks in the $5-6k range so I was gonna have to fix rust anyway. It was $1500 with no brakes. After getting it home I started cleaning instead of touching the brakes, it was pretty trashed on the inside and the bed was full of Busch Light cans and Smirnoff Ice bottles. 

After vaccuming and removing hundreds of nails and screws I decided to pull the seats to pressure wash. Ideally it would be warmer and sunnier so they could dry fully but they got mostly dry and are now in the basement by the dehumidifier to hopefully fully dry out. I should really pull the carpet and pressure wash it but I'll probably wait till it warms up a bit more. 

On to the brakes...I knew there was a fluid leak from above the frame right behind the driver door. Looking underneath I saw a newer line running to the rear (with a compression fitting joining two pieces, nice). I also found out that these have a load sensing proportioning valve for the rear brakes. There are two lines running to the valve, one was replaced and the other one was smashed shut at some point. The one that they tried to block off (smash) must have rusted through and was where the leak was. I followed it up to the junction with the front brakes and cut it then folded it over, and now I have somewhat working brakes. 

The rear proportioning valve is a mass of rust and there is no way I will be able to bleed it after running the second line, not to mention the port that has been open for who knows how long since they didn't connect the second line. After looking at options I decided to just do it the right way and ordered a new valve from Toyota for $220. I'll work on getting two new lines run to the back so they are ready to connect by the time it shows up. 

While waiting for the new LSPV I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and see what mess I was in for getting the old one off. I'm glad I did because the bracket was non-existant in places. 

That was after I removed the rear two bolts and the part of the bracket that was attached to them fell on the ground. I removed the other two (all came out easily without a fight) and cut the brake lines going to it. 

The bracket is NLA from Toyota so I made a trip to Metal Supermarket to source some appropriate off-cuts. There was a dog hanging out back in the warehouse so that was a bonus. 

No pictures of the current bracket progress but I got some 12ga (approx. thickness of the stock metal) and 1-1/2x3 box tubing. I made a plate to bolt to the frame out of the 12ga and the tubing will space it out from the frame the same amount as the stock bracket. I'm waiting on the new valve to show up since the mounting bolts wouldn't come out of the old one so I could mark the appropriate location for the mounting holes. Then I'll make a couple ears for the rod end to mount to and throw it all together. 

After some fedex delays I finally got the valve last night. Today it was installed along with some sloppily routed brake lines. 

After bleeding the brakes 6 or so times I still can't get a good pedal. It stops now so that's an improvement but the pedal is nearly on the floor. I can't find any leaks and am thinking the master cylinder is next. 

I took it to the gas station since the gauge was on empty. After about 6 gallons in the tank gas started pouring out of the bottom of the truck. I'm not sure where it is coming from and I think I will have to drop the tank to find out. 

Also it has a very strong pull to the right, not sure if that is the terrible tires on the front or something else. Need to decide if I want to keep pouring money into it...