What did you do "IN" your garage today?

[Firebird1975]

Thanks for rubbing it in that you still have your bird! I miss mine. I had a 70 Lucerne Blue 400 4 speed. (I owned many but that was my favorite.) I kick myself for selling it! What year is yours?

Thanks for rubbing it in that you still have your bird! I miss mine. I had a 70 Lucerne Blue 400 4 speed. (I owned many but that was my favorite.) I kick myself for selling it! What year is yours?

1975. I have owned it since 1998 and it currently has 63K miles. The car is mostly stock except for the reproduction rally 2 wheels, as I recently removed the original Pontiac polycast honeycomb wheels. The pic includes my wife's modern classic, 2005 Thunderbird.

 

[BonzoHansen]

Thanks for the motivation. I'm going to check the timing and adjust the carb on the Trans Am.

is that buccaneer red?

 

[Firebird1975]

is that buccaneer red?

Originally, it was a single stage Buccaneer red. I had it repainted back in 2000, in a basecoat/clearcoat 1994 Torch red. The colors are extremely close.

 

[Beerhippie]

Also got my new transmission temp gauge installed. I removed a round section of one of the HVAC vents with my Dremel, and glued the shroud in place to hold the gauge. Vent still works, and pivots.

What do you think of the brightness of the gauge? I'm installing one in my Vanagon and trying to decide where to put it--on the dash or down by the shift knob. I've seen some comments that the dimmest setting was too bright for line-of-sight.

 

[rollinlower]

Little bit of outside work today, now if I can get my oldest to remember where he put my valve covers while I was in the hospital, but as they say progress is progress.

 

[Jazz1]

Changed my 8 year old lights, to a 54 watt daytime light..huge improvement second pic still has some of the 40 watt tube on. These are T5 bulbs.

 

[Beerhippie]

Changed my 8 year old lights, to a 54 watt daytime light..huge improvement second pic still has some of the 40 watt tube on.

Nice!

I've never heard anyone say "There's too much light in your shop".

 

[tarmy]

Little bit of outside work today, now if I can get my oldest to remember where he put my valve covers while I was in the hospital, but as they say progress is progress.

Look at that…the entire top of the engine, all the valves and easy access. Today, I changed the oil on wifey’s new Mazda CX-90 inline 6 with turbo. What a ******** pain in the ***. Near half the engine is UNDER the fire wall, the turbo would be near impossible to service, the coils, 3 of them are buried under the turbo manifold and firewall. Oh, the damn oil filter and drain plug are buried right where you can’t easily get to them without jacking up the entire front end of the car and requires removing a shield with clips and bolts.

Rant off…OP, nice looking engine bay from my view

 

[BonzoHansen]

Originally, it was a single stage Buccaneer red. I had it repainted back in 2000, in a basecoat/clearcoat 1994 Torch red. The colors are extremely close.

they are. my 77 z28 is torch red, painted back in 93 when it was a hot color

 

[rollinlower]

Look at that…the entire top of the engine, all the valves and easy access. Today, I changed the oil on wifey’s new Mazda CX-90 inline 6 with turbo. What a ******** pain in the ***. Near half the engine is UNDER the fire wall, the turbo would be near impossible to service, the coils, 3 of them are buried under the turbo manifold and firewall. Oh, the damn oil filter and drain plug are buried right where you can’t easily get to them without jacking up the entire front end of the car and requires removing a shield with clips and bolts.

Rant off…OP, nice looking engine bay from my view

I'm waiting til the engine is back together before I go to crazy with cleaning the firewall and tidying up the rest of the firewall but I did get the valve covers put on this afternoon and found where he stuck the carburetor.

 

[racecougar]

How about "ON" the garage?

Up on the shop roof replacing screws. The rubber washers are pretty roached after 7-1/2 years. Swapping the normal screws out for these ultimate screws. Hopefully they’ll last longer this go-round. Only 1,640 screws to go.

 

[larry4406]

How about "ON" the garage?

Up on the shop roof replacing screws. The rubber washers are pretty roached after 7-1/2 years. Swapping the normal screws out for these ultimate screws. Hopefully they’ll last longer this go-round. Only 1,640 screws to go.

Ugh.

Never understood that roofing method of intentionally punching zillions of holes in it for screws. Installer wins as is quick. Customer looses forever.

I like standing seam metal style for that reason or simple shingles.

I would never go screw down.

 

[Beerhippie]

The rubber washers are pretty roached after 7-1/2 years. Swapping the normal screws out for these ultimate screws. Hopefully they’ll last longer this go-round.

I've worked with a lot of steel roofing over the years and never seen/heard of the gaskets going bad. You're aware that you don't want to squish them too much, right? Just enough to start to deform them. Impact drivers make over-driving them far too easy. I prefer to pre-drill the roofing and use a regular drill/driver. Also guarantees nice, straight screw lines. We'd stack up ten sheets at a time and pre-drill with 1/8" bits, which we'd buy in bulk.

We did used to have a lot of problems--call backs--to replace screws that backed out in our nasty winter Chinook winds. We started using what we called "Florida screws"--hurricane-rated--and that problem went away. Much larger thread dia. vs the shaft dia.

 

[Beerhippie]

****. I'd really hoped to either get some more work done on the Brick today--like getting the power windows to power once again--and/or go for a drive, but March is Marching outside... torrential downpours with strong, Chinook winds all night, blowing snow most of the afternoon... I guess that's why we call it "Marchuary" hereabouts.

Looking for something useful to do while hunkered down in the shop instead. Maybe I'll sweep....

 

[rd65]

Look at that…the entire top of the engine, all the valves and easy access. Today, I changed the oil on wifey’s new Mazda CX-90 inline 6 with turbo. What a ******** pain in the ***. Near half the engine is UNDER the fire wall, the turbo would be near impossible to service, the coils, 3 of them are buried under the turbo manifold and firewall. Oh, the damn oil filter and drain plug are buried right where you can’t easily get to them without jacking up the entire front end of the car and requires removing a shield with clips and bolts.

Rant off…OP, nice looking engine bay from my view

Surprised they didnt put in an easy access panel for the oil/filter changes. We have a CX5 & CX30, very easy oil/filter changes on them, same 2.5 engines, 30 has turbo version.

 

[lolaetype]

F-150 Blend Door Part Two.

The new door arrived via USPS. It took about 30 minutes to install and then reinstall the actuator. Then it was just a matter of patching the holes I cut and reinstalling the heater cover between the dash and floor and the glove box. Works great.

Patching the HVAC box. I cut 4 small pieces of plastic that I then used to reattach the cut portion and then ran black silicone in the cut.



Then I used 5 minute epoxy to glue the plastic part of the dash back in place. Kind of nasty looking, but it's behind the glove box, so out of sight.




Then we replaced the blend door actuator on my son's 2019 Fiesta. When the actuator goes bad it clicks for about 15 seconds while closing the blend door to recirc. Annoying, but a Four Seasons brand actuator from Rock Auto took care of it. No cutting, just two screws and an electrical plug.

 

[tarmy]

Surprised they didnt put in an easy access panel for the oil/filter changes. We have a CX5 & CX30, very easy oil/filter changes on them, same 2.5 engines, 30 has turbo version.

This is a 3.3 turbo. First Mazda since my 72 FORD Courier….which had a Mazda factory engine plate under the hood. Good little 2.0.

There is a panel but it is way back in the middle. Two floor jacks and stands placed at the pinch welds means you can’t get to it…so have to slide in from the front. Simple things to design for…except the engineers that never actually work on a car designed this.

I think that most people don’t service their own cars anymore…

 

[Itinerant]

Moved two sleds and the ice fishing gear that was inside them to the shed, moved deck chairs from the shed to the deck and threw away a bunch of other stuff since I was already in there.

Back in the garage, I added a lot of stuff to the purge pile and general cleaning.

 

[M.Brane]

Waiting for hog rings to show up so I can finish installing the new covers on the Red Queen's™ driver seat. Kinda bummed they didn't include enough to do even one seat as there are 2 seats worth of covers, and they weren't cheap. In the meantime drinking Stone IPA, and perusing GJ since I have seat parts spread everywhere.

 

[Mr. Tool]

Open the garage door.

 

[gearhead1960]

Grabbed a beer from the beer closet…..

 

[Beerhippie]

Battled entropy for a couple of hours. Then beer.

PS: Entropy always wins in the end. It's a law.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Cadded. Made more parts with the Adventurer. Sorted, painted, assembled and glittered decorations. Left the printer printing small parts.

 

[Firebird1975]

they are. my 77 z28 is torch red, painted back in 93 when it was a hot color

post a pic of the z28.... If i recall, still had chrome brackets

 

[racecougar]

Ugh.

Never understood that roofing method of intentionally punching zillions of holes in it for screws. Installer wins as is quick. Customer looses forever.

I like standing seam metal style for that reason or simple shingles.

I would never go screw down.

Trust me, if I would have had the money, I would have done standing seam. Well, actually, I would have built a larger building AND done standing seam. I put this building up when I was 35, just a couple of months after buying a big house with acreage and welcoming our kid into the world (those two things happened within two weeks of each other). Building a 1800 sq ft shop at the time was a pretty big swing. The priority for funds went to footprint first, then the hard to change stuff like foundation, base/pad, and framing.

I've worked with a lot of steel roofing over the years and never seen/heard of the gaskets going bad. You're aware that you don't want to squish them too much, right? Just enough to start to deform them. Impact drivers make over-driving them far too easy. I prefer to pre-drill the roofing and use a regular drill/driver. Also guarantees nice, straight screw lines. We'd stack up ten sheets at a time and pre-drill with 1/8" bits, which we'd buy in bulk.

We did used to have a lot of problems--call backs--to replace screws that backed out in our nasty winter Chinook winds. We started using what we called "Florida screws"--hurricane-rated--and that problem went away. Much larger thread dia. vs the shaft dia.

Most sites I've found point to an expected lifespan of 5-15 years on the standard/cheap screws depending on climate. I probably could have gone longer had not the installers over-torqued a lot of these. Walking into the shop to a ceiling leak the other day prompted rapid action here. I expect these "ultimate" screws from Atlas will last a fair bit longer, especially since I'm installing them with care.

 

[BonzoHansen]

post a pic of the z28.... If i recall, still had chrome brackets

 

[Beerhippie]

Most sites I've found point to an expected lifespan of 5-15 years on the standard/cheap screws depending on climate. I probably could have gone longer had not the installers over-torqued a lot of these. Walking into the shop to a ceiling leak the other day prompted rapid action here. I expect these "ultimate" screws from Atlas will last a fair bit longer, especially since I'm installing them with care.

I should point out that a lot of our pull-out problems were due to the change-over to OSB at that time. The cheap screw held fine in plywood.

We also abandoned nailing roof sheathing about then. Having 60-120 mph winds rip entire sections of roof off *****. Screw and glue instead. I haven't seen a roof "peel" that was put together that way.

This being Oregon, codes didn't require a lot of the extreme wind load protection they should have back in the '90s. But here in NE Oregon, Chinook winds are the boss, so some local contractors started adopting building methods used by folks in hurricane country--even 'though it cost more. We lost some jobs because of that, but more than made up for it by not having call-backs.

I think codes have now caught up, but I'm no longer in that trade.

 

[racecougar]

I should point out that a lot of our pull-out problems were due to the change-over to OSB at that time. The cheap screw held fine in plywood.

We also abandoned nailing roof sheathing about then. Having 60-120 mph winds rip entire sections of roof off *****. Screw and glue instead. I haven't seen a roof "peel" that was put together that way.

This being Oregon, codes didn't require a lot of the extreme wind load protection they should have back in the '90s. But here in NE Oregon, Chinook winds are the boss, so some local contractors started adopting building methods used by folks in hurricane country--even 'though it cost more. We lost some jobs because of that, but more than made up for it by not having call-backs.

I think codes have now caught up, but I'm no longer in that trade.

This roof lived through a direct hit from a EF-2 tornado exactly one year ago tonight. Screws are straight into the purlins. The other roofs on the property did not fair as well.

 

[rktinc]

More fabrication on the fly as I build out my "faux" skylight project. LED panels are in so I am trying to figure out how the metal all fits and looks original once painted. All at 22' in the air. Thank Goodness for scissor lifts. The last pic is of the "repurposed" 8.5' x 5.5' plate glass panes taken from the original storefront and finally framed in with final paint.

The skylight is the last piece of this room before I move to the final front section and office space build.

 

[GrayFlattop]

More cleaning, organizing and throwing stuff away. Then I spent way too much time going through my woodworking power tools trying to come up with dust collection solutions. I’ve grown tired of being covered in sawdust - and even more tired of breathing it in and coughing it out. Tools with ****** (or non- existent) dust collection capability are being relegated to the donate / give away pile if I have a better option. It’s a process, but one of my resolutions for the new year.

I think I found a solution for a few oddball matchups- we’ll see once the package arrives.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Changed oil in my dually. Changed oil in my wife's Smart car. Put a new battery in wife's tractor. Pulled rear wheels off mower. I plan to mount new tires on the mower wheels at work tomorrow if time permits.

 

[kaymccampbell]

More fabrication on the fly as I build out my "faux" skylight project. LED panels are in so I am trying to figure out how the metal all fits and looks original once painted. All at 22' in the air. Thank Goodness for scissor lifts. The last pic is of the "repurposed" 8.5' x 5.5' plate glass panes taken from the original storefront and finally framed in with final paint.

The skylight is the last piece of this room before I move to the final front section and office space build.

That room sure came a long way.

 

[bugnut]

Saturday morning drug out the generator, checked and fired up. Glad I changed it to easy jump box start!! Hooked to riding mower, towed to proper location and fired up. Starting to warm up the house and chill the fridge. High winds took out power on Friday afternoon about 4. Supposed to be back on 2 hours later. Cannot work in shop as power is separate from house. Still waiting on power, all of us in the surrounding area suffered lost trees, minor damage, one lost a barn style shed with a branch dropping on it. Nobody hurt. Still running the genny so we have hot and cold. Gonna try taking a shower today!

 

[DGersic]

Bought some new tools, a set of piping feet for my (was mom’s) Singer 328.

Sewed some piping.



Broke the only needle, an 80/11. Bought some new needles, 100, 90, and 80, so now that I have plenty of those I’m sure I’ll never break another one.

Feeding just two layers of vinyl works, but not great. I cannot imagine how mom re-upholstered Dad’s bug with this machine, but she did. Twice.

Had to move half of the stuff stored in the basement to the other side of the room. Access to the waste plumbing is now wide open. Demo (bathroom) starts tomorrow, and it’s all coming out.

 

[bmwrd0]

Clearing, tossing, attempting more organizing. Was able to source (finally) a left side cover for my late '30sWalker-Turner grinder, so installed that!



Now I am deciding whether to exchange the switches from lathe to mill.

 

[ctandc72]

Eating lunch with my FIL later so didn't have much time in the shop. Yesterday was mainly spent consolidating a ton of trash, cardboard etc, burning some, and then piggy backing on my neighbor's trip to the dump w/ his trailer because the truck has the bed off and the transmission stripped down to a shell.

Then helping him unload a kitchen table that he didn't know he needed. Apparently wives browse FB marketplace too.

Note: when you are out of charcoal fluid, and you don't want to walk back to the shop to get some gas, that Tiki torch fuel, that's supposed to keep mosquitos at bay, does nicely firing up the burn barrel and smells pretty good too.

Got the nooks and crannies of the transmission case cleaned out - ready to R&R a bushing and start cleaning and reassembling w/ new parts along the way. Also carved a few minutes to try out some heavy cutting compound I found in my cabinet. I remember buying it at least. Cleaned up the 20+ year old paint on my daily's roof nicely.

That made me notice the bare spots on the windshield wiper arms. Threw some old blankets over hood / roof, quick scuff and wipe down and a few coats of black paint. Gave it the heat gun treatment as I was in a hurry.

IF the rain holds off later, or even if not - I'll be getting wet regardless - I hope to fire up the big pressure washer and hit the rear frame on the Silverado so I can start prepping it for the patches / overlays I need to get welded in. Thanks GM. Reminds me of this

 

[PhantomEB]

put truck in last night, then melted off all snow. Nice and dry out there now.

plans are to install my new Alpine Double Din stereo deck and back up camera/license plate frame.

told the wife yeah ultimately I be happy to be mortgage free but the true dream is to have enough shop space to hold all of our vehicles indoors

trailers and camper can stay outside under a lean too like Rattlesnake has.

 

[tarmy]

Changed oil in my dually. Changed oil in my wife's Smart car. Put a new battery in wife's tractor. Pulled rear wheels off mower. I plan to mount new tires on the mower wheels at work tomorrow if time permits.

WAIT….

Nobody read this and didn’t notice WIFE’S TRACTOR….damn man…that is badass!

 

[Outlawmws]

Was able to source (finally) a left side cover for my late '30sWalker-Turner grinder, so installed that!

Noticed the (lathe?) hand crank to the left - you might consider dust collection on that grinder if its that close to the machine tools as grinding dust and machined tool ways don't mix nice.

 

[inphx]

Finally got the camber kit installed on my Tesla Model X.

The old camber (toe adjust)) bolt cant slide out fully so it had to be cut.

If you are unfamiliar with the Model X or Model S - tesla's have fixed camber arms, When you travel over 30mph(?) despite settings the suspension height preference it goes to a low height. The car's rear wheel camber at low height is aggressive - great for track but bad for inner edge tire wear.