Above 1200 Sq/FT Freshy Fresh - Mountain High Workshop and Storage: 48x30
- Thread starter badonk
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
Trapps
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Is the '81 Platinum Silver Metallic?
And for the record: keep the front lower valence as is and add a Duck, or original bumper and naked.
And for the record: keep the front lower valence as is and add a Duck, or original bumper and naked.
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cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
I would just leave it sit the way it is, even if not tracking it anymore. Duck would be the second vote, though.Alright! The '81 is just about prepped to make the journey. After putting the new fuel pump in (along with a filter and accumulator), she started up nicely. I've never really liked CIS fuel injection but I'm feeling much better about it now. I removed the megaphones and swapped a sensible muffler on it. I want to have heat in this car eventually so I'll likely get a set of SSIs with some kind of sport muffler. I wasn't comfortable driving on pretty old Hoosier R6s that had 4+ heat cycles. So I had the original phone dials that I can use for the drive. I not looking at the date codes on the tires! They just have to go 90 miles...
The brakes were squishy so I flushed the system with some new fluid. For good measure new oil and filter too. I do have a few oil leaks that I'll need to sort out - maybe head studs? I had plenty of fun beating on this car at the track so things like this are expected. It'll mess up my new floor!
I took it around the block, warming things up and just generally checking it out to be sure I'm all good. It is much faster than I remember. I had to double check my speed via GPS because I thought the speedo was off by 15 mph or so. This is definitely faster than the 3.2L carrera's I've driven in the past few years. Or at least it feels faster. This has the euro spec motor with 9.8 compression, larger intake runners and ports, etc. The end result is it's supposed to make 204hp and 197 lb-ft compared to US spec of 180hp and 175 lb-ft. That's roughly carrera numbers with more torque hitting a little earlier in the band. I don't remember what the corner weights were, but this car is probably 2550 lbs including about 100 lbs of ballast I had to run to make weight.
The headers and megaphones before
Took the muffler from my original '72 motor - was not easy getting to the bolts when on a furniture cart.
Needs a wash - and have to go to the DMV to re-register it. Just a tad expired.
Body wise, I'll go back to the original front bumper setup and relocate the oil cooler back into the fender. I will definitely remove the big IROC wing - maybe go duck or naked?
That double wide 4post I am shocked shows only 4.25in concrete required if Bendpak's dedicated concrete sheet is to be believed. Your experience definitely has me thinking about one.
gearhead1960
ALLIANCE MEMBER
...here's my vote...
Yes, I think it is platinum metallic. This car has had some prior (poor) body work. I can see drips around one of the doors and then some messy work around the engine bay. The front spoiler and iroc wing were rattle canned by me with the closest match I could find at the local auto parts store. Who knew those fumes would give me headaches?
The front lower valance hangs pretty low and I want a little more approach angle. Also plan to build (or have built) some bumper over-riders for the safari setup. I suppose I could do tubular over-riders that work on the IROC front bumper as well as stock. Either way I want something really clean and tidy. But for how I'm thinking I'll use it, I also want the oil cooler back up in the fender behind the headlight.
That's what is kind of fun with a car like this. Really going into it as kind of a blank slate, fun working within a tight budget (for now). I'm not preserving or ruining anything special or trying to make it into something super specific. I get to go where it takes me and if I don't like the outcome or a part of it, find the next direction and head there.
I also have to get a set of seats. In it right now are race seats (a Sparco Pro 2000 and Recaro something). Pictured were the original ones I sold - dammit - they'd be nearly perfect for what I want. I think cloth seats like this were only sold on euro cars and never spec'd on US bound cars. So I don't think I'll have any luck sourcing what I had. Currently I'm thinking I find a set of used ones that are beat up (likely leather), find a local upholsterer to make up a set of cloth covers, add heat elements to them for winter duty. Or, new leather sport seats are available for just under $7K a set, but no heat. Or a set of Recaro Sportster GT seats in cloth, also no heat. Or the Recaro Classic LS in pepita or corduroy. Lots of options.
Another update for those that were following the solar part of my thread. My electric bill at this point is just the connect fee plus tax - $39.83 a month. In May my panels generated 1,518 kWh, my house used 842. So that means I banked 676 in the month. I doubt I'll consume much more in the colder months since I have gas heat and hot water. The heat tape in my gutters hasn't been hooked up yet so that's the only extra load I'll have when winter sets in. I think I'll use more electricity in the summer if I need to turn on the A/C. We'll see...
They clear the bank at the end of March and pay out any excess in the bank at wholesale rates (currently $0.064/kWh). I had built up a little bank already by then so I got a check for about $20. My guess is my bill will stay at the minimum all year long and every year at the end of March I'll get a check for a couple hundred $$$, offsetting the monthly connect fees and taxes.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the setup. In hindsight I'm also glad I added the batteries...mostly because power companies have been cutting power during high wind/fire danger situations to help minimize the risks. The configuration is messed up but I'm working to fix it. One battery charges from solar, the other from the grid. Ideally they both charge from solar so I can endure a power outage for quite while since on sunny days I'm making far more than I'm consuming. So the batteries basically act like a backup generator - when they are hooked up to the house properly.
They clear the bank at the end of March and pay out any excess in the bank at wholesale rates (currently $0.064/kWh). I had built up a little bank already by then so I got a check for about $20. My guess is my bill will stay at the minimum all year long and every year at the end of March I'll get a check for a couple hundred $$$, offsetting the monthly connect fees and taxes.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the setup. In hindsight I'm also glad I added the batteries...mostly because power companies have been cutting power during high wind/fire danger situations to help minimize the risks. The configuration is messed up but I'm working to fix it. One battery charges from solar, the other from the grid. Ideally they both charge from solar so I can endure a power outage for quite while since on sunny days I'm making far more than I'm consuming. So the batteries basically act like a backup generator - when they are hooked up to the house properly.
And yet more for the home networking and security geeks. The Unifi setup is working flawlessly...zero complaints. The networking stuff is rock solid. The comcast/xfinity reliability is not. It is down here and there a couple times a month. Sometimes just for a it, sometimes for longer. Fortunately, Unifi has a few options available. Yesterday I installed a 5G backup device. Plugs into any POE network port (I used the POE switch in my workshop) and it gets 5G service over T-Mobile. The device was $99 and I bought a 10GB/year data pack for $60. It is used as a backup/secondary internet and cuts over automatically, switches back when Xfinity is restored. I'm only 1 day in so haven't truly tested it yet but in theory I'm all set.
The camera security is great. I record everything all the time so I can go back at night and see why the dogs were barking at 3:30 am (they heard coyetes howling). I've also done things like building an integration into my Home Assistant server that allows me all kinds of flexibility. For instance when a car comes up the driveway and crosses a line - the Ubiquiti camera can detect that and send an alert through the Ubiquiti app. But I can take the a step further and trigger an action in Home Assistant. Right now I have it play an alert sound through all the Sonos speakers in the house - that way we know someone is arriving even when watching a movie, sleeping, out working in the shop, etc.
The camera security is great. I record everything all the time so I can go back at night and see why the dogs were barking at 3:30 am (they heard coyetes howling). I've also done things like building an integration into my Home Assistant server that allows me all kinds of flexibility. For instance when a car comes up the driveway and crosses a line - the Ubiquiti camera can detect that and send an alert through the Ubiquiti app. But I can take the a step further and trigger an action in Home Assistant. Right now I have it play an alert sound through all the Sonos speakers in the house - that way we know someone is arriving even when watching a movie, sleeping, out working in the shop, etc.
cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
I really wanted the 5G back for my system but didn't want to pay for 5G internet monthly. I had no idea you could buy yearly per GB packages. That is awesome and I am going to have to look into that then.
Audio alerts for vehicles entering the driveway is a great idea. Going to have to see if I can get that up to play through my Google Homes that are in every room. Long term I need to get something that lives completely local. I want to switch to the Home Assistant voice boxes but it's going to be a costly conversion with 10 Google Homes to replace.
You'd be surprised what you do via Home Assistant. My Sonos devices show up as media_player entities which allow me to push the audio out. While the Google Homes can't run locally, you could still use HA to push sound/music to them via Google Cast. So that'd be an intermediate step until you eventually move off the 10 Google Homes. I think they show up as media_player entities as well.
cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
Yes you are correct, they do show up as music devices. I have an action to make my doorbell play through all of them already so shouldn't be hard to create a speech alert for the driveway as well. Adding the cellular internet back would actually be a good middle of the ground work around to prevent losing access to Google servers if the primary internet drops out.
Trapps
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I think he used Autoweave...who I have used before to restore and leather wrap the dash in my '72, and they've done work on my brother's interior. Great work that likely can't be beat in Denver but their current lead times and pricing might have me trying to find alternatives...
Yes indeed! Autoweave seems to be almost caught up at this point. Our mutual friend who just rebuilt his SC motor is getting his Land Cruiser seats recovered by them soon and I only brought him in there to meet Ron a couple weeks ago.
You could also try the place near Evans/I25 - I don't remember who, but was told recently that they're inexpensive, fast(ish) and do good work
I'll probably have a Sunday morning Gruppe thing at my house soon, or just stop by if you're driving past
Great to see the new house progress
Makes total sense. And I think the whole point of this one is to do exactly that - drive the snot out of it. It won't be worth much or pretty so I won't care too much about how it is treated.
The patient has arrived at the new shop and I'll gradually start pulling race stuff out of it. Then it'll take a little time to load it up with snot on a tight budget. The drive went pretty well. I thought I could hear the tires moaning a little at speed and my alignment was set up for 17s with 225 front, 245 rear. It wanders quite a bit with these 15s and old 195/215 tires. I'm also surprised at how low it looks and how far things tuck into the fenders with these wheels. I've done some research on safari style AT or MT tires for this and my guess is I'll be happy to have lots of fender space.
The Clear Creek County sheriff dept was patrolling the climb up Berthoud pass - one guy clocking at the bottom and then I caught another driving my direction partway up. While I did pull the antenna up and check the radio (which works, with a CD player!), one thing I didn't check before getting on the road - turn signals and brake lights. I'm not sure any of that was working today so I'll add that to the list as I pull off the race gear - race transponder, data logger, cool suit system to name a few. I hope there's a market for some of this old race stuff.
Time to go give it a good bath.
