To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT A trip back from the edge.

Workspaces between 705 and 1200 squarefeet.
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

Bob Heine

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Messages
10,703
Location
Boca Raton, Florida
We also hit the Botanical Gardens. I recommend going there as well. I'd love to sit in the main room of the orchid house and read a good book, it smells incredible.
Xtremek, I've only been to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens once, back in 2003 but it was a memorable visit. They put on a show of Dale Chihuly's glass artistry. Truly amazing plants and the glass objects just made it all pop.
Atlanta%20Botannical%20Garden%205%20Chihuly_zpsz7sdlhma.jpg
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
Yeah Bob, they had his sculpture on display again and the few I saw were amazing. I took a pic of the wife and this train because someone she works with is into trains. It was a cool display with about 7 trains running on three different areas, I think. On the walk from Marta to the gardens, we saw this gem. I told the twins they could have the upstairs bedroom. If you look closely, the only thing standing is the façade. My trip to meet Lamar fell through due to a total lack of rental cars in Atlanta due to the Masters.
I came home to no water on Wednesday and the dishwasher was running.  I started a thread, but the bottom line is that it sorted itself out. Now I’m kind of worried. Today, I should finally get started back into the groove.
 

Attachments

  • Chihuly sculpture.jpg
    Chihuly sculpture.jpg
    152.3 KB · Views: 210
  • Atlanta facade.jpg
    Atlanta facade.jpg
    152.8 KB · Views: 207
  • Atlanta botanical train.jpg
    Atlanta botanical train.jpg
    139.3 KB · Views: 226

Bob Heine

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Messages
10,703
Location
Boca Raton, Florida
On the walk from Marta to the gardens, we saw this gem. I told the twins they could have the upstairs bedroom. If you look closely, the only thing standing is the façade.

I came home to no water on Wednesday and the dishwasher was running.  I started a thread, but the bottom line is that it sorted itself out. Now I’m kind of worried. Today, I should finally get started back into the groove.
I love it! A coat of paint, set of curtains and a couple of throw pillows and it's a perfect winter getaway. I bet the twins were thrilled. Did you tell them it's just like the house you grew up in and walked 28 miles to school barefoot in the snow every day?

I always worry when things "sort themselves out" because it comes back to bite me every time. OK, not every time -- one time it didn't bite me back in 1965.:boxer:
 

1/2 Cup

Member Emeritus
Joined
Apr 28, 2012
Messages
19,283
Location
Shepparton. Victoria. Australia
Yeah Bob, they had his sculpture on display again and the few I saw were amazing. I took a pic of the wife and this train because someone she works with is into trains. It was a cool display with about 7 trains running on three different areas, I think. On the walk from Marta to the gardens, we saw this gem. I told the twins they could have the upstairs bedroom. If you look closely, the only thing standing is the façade. My trip to meet Lamar fell through due to a total lack of rental cars in Atlanta due to the Masters.
I came home to no water on Wednesday and the dishwasher was running.  I started a thread, but the bottom line is that it sorted itself out. Now I’m kind of worried. Today, I should finally get started back into the groove.

Just awesome xtremek thank you for sharing.:thumbup:

Regards
 

dlcwent

Member Emeritus
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
Messages
8,427
Location
coastal maine
Sorry to hear about the problems when returning home. That *****. Sounds like you might have things that need to be done this weekend. Good luck with fixing everything and thanks for posting a couple of pics. That sculpture is really cool.
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
My weekend got totally derailed. My daughter has an '03 GMC S-15 and she just got her license to drive on her own. This morning she was headed to U of D Mercy for incoming freshman orientation (I think that's what it was). Anyway, she lost control and biffed a guardrail. She walked away unhurt accept for her ego. So now it's time for a new for a new front clip and rear bumper. She was in good company, though. I'm told there were close to a dozen wrecked vehicles. I met her at the impound lot and there were 4 wreckers with 7 cars on them, 5 of them rollovers. Brings back memories.
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
The apple didn't fall far from the tree. Our other Megan called around 11pm last night and said her car was over heating. Someone put a serpentine belt on and it threw it. Time to dig a little deeper. Sigh. The joys of being a dad. Actually, it does make me feel good.
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
Here’s a pic of my daughter’s Sonoma after playing bumper cars with the guard rail Saturday morning. I was told there were 6 different accidents and that the last accident involved 6 cars. We’re (my dad) heading to the yard this afternoon to drag it back to my place. I’m already looking for an organ donor and I hope we can find something for under $700. Her big brother knows how to paint, so I guess when he gets home, he’ll teach his sister and dad how to paint cars.
 

Attachments

  • OUCH!.jpg
    OUCH!.jpg
    145.1 KB · Views: 254

Vieux

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
2,521
Location
Russia
The main thing that your daughter is all right. While iron can always be repaired.
 

dlcwent

Member Emeritus
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
Messages
8,427
Location
coastal maine
Kirk, I thought I had posted about your daughter's accident, but I don't see it. Well I will now, I'm glad she's is okay. As others have said, the car can be replaced or repaired. She's the important thing. I also noticed that you and I aren't officially friends here on the GJ. How did that happen. Request sent.
 

fergus

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 4, 2009
Messages
1,620
Location
Yolo County CA
Hey man. Glad to hear your kid is OK. Hopefully the wounded pride will keep her cautious for a long time to come.

Always something right?
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
Gents, thanks for dropping by and your thoughts. If she's anything like her dad, it won't slow her down, but she'll learn from it. I'm still looking for a organ donor.

Between work picking up and trying to get everything for ready the garden and ducks, I haven't had time to even sneeze. I did get the area for the lilacs and the last bit of duck pen cleared using the neighbor's 6' rototiller. I have 5 more fence post holes to dig and the garden fence will be done. I also need to put in 3 corner posts for the duck run. The cement work for the duck house is done, just waiting for the dividing wall form to come off to start framing the exterior. Stay tuned.
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
The latest update. The old man found a yard that had all (I hope) pices we need to put the daughter's truck back together. We stopped at Autozone and picked up a new outer tie rod, adjusting sleeve, and door pins. I pushed the core support back close to where it was and put the new tie rod/sleeve on. She (my daughter) reattached the trans cooler lines and removed the hood. We went over to the neighbors house and grabbed a used S dime rim and tire, threw it on, and zip tied the loose wires. Tomorrow we take it in to get the front end aligned and pick up a new "shoe" (tire, tube, and rim) for the Old Mule. Next weekend I hope we can put all the sheetmetal back on it and finish it up. I'll take pics of the poor beast and post them up. Boy does this bring back memories.
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
Yesterday was kind of dumb. We took the truck to the local alignment shop and we had no real issues getting it there. She did get a lot of stares though. The steering wheel is 180* off. The guy at the shop said he thought it probably was a bent shaft inside the steering box. After that, we went and watched Molly play soccer. When I got back home I started raking out the area where we're going to put the lilacs. Then the twins and I planted our volunteer garden. These are the seeds that the late FiL had laying around for years. And finally Jillian and I put a new carb on the garden tractor (alias Sparkle Candy). It smoked like a chain smoker on his last day before quitting. It runs for about 5 minutes, then dies. I'm pretty sure it needs new valves, guides and seals, but I'm not sure about why it only runs for about 5 minutes. We'll see what the GJ guys have to say.
 

Attachments

  • Ouch at the Big M.jpg
    Ouch at the Big M.jpg
    153.9 KB · Views: 294
  • Trip to the alignment shop.jpg
    Trip to the alignment shop.jpg
    146.2 KB · Views: 279

dlcwent

Member Emeritus
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
Messages
8,427
Location
coastal maine
Morning Kirk. The truck looks great. How much do you trust the alignment shop? Bent steering shaft? I doubt it.

I'm just guessing but maybe after running for five minutes with all the oil it's burning, it might be fouling the plugs to the point of shut down.:dunno:
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
Morning Kirk. The truck looks great. How much do you trust the alignment shop? Bent steering shaft? I doubt it.

I'm just guessing but maybe after running for five minutes with all the oil it's burning, it might be fouling the plugs to the point of shut down.:dunno:

Dan, it's the only shop in town, so to be honest, I'm not sure. I thought that would be a tough thing to bend because they're about 3/4"-1" thick. Next weekend when we do the sheetmetal work, I'll take a closer look. The mechanic said he didn't think it was possible to reclock the steering wheel because of the air bag. I'm going to check into that as well.

As for the tractor, I fired it up and it ran for almost exactly 5 minutes. I let it sit and walked back out about a 1/2 hour later. It fired right up and ran for another 5 minutes and died. Let it sit for 30 seconds, and it fired back up and ran for about 30 seconds. Sounds like fuel delivery to me, but I've replaced everything, lines, filter, and carb. :headscrat
 

madoc1

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 11, 2012
Messages
1,242
Location
spicewood, tx
did you check for spark right after it died? possibly a coil heating up and killing the spark. good luck..

jim
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
Jim, Dan, it's time for me to give up my wrench card. The wife called it. I'm pretty sure I changed the fuel filter. She asked if I'd changed it since I tried to get it running again, and maybe it had sucked more junk out of the tank. So we stopped at TSC to get duck food and fence staples, and while we were there I picked up a new fuel filter. Wha-la, it runs. Next it gets a starter solenoid, air filter, valve seals and two rear tires. After that, it's customizing time.
 

readhead

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 8, 2012
Messages
6,175
Location
Durango, Co.
I had a truck that was giving me fits one time and the wife said check the points. Well of course I checked them. She says check them again. Don't you hate it when their right.
 

Jo Diesel

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 26, 2015
Messages
402
Location
St. Johns MI
You clock the steering wheel with the tie rod ends. The shop you talked to is full of ****. Did you go to Ricks, Budget Tire, Hub Tire, the guy across from, The Road House, or Bees, or Sundance. That would be 6 places here in St Johns.
 

dlcwent

Member Emeritus
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
Messages
8,427
Location
coastal maine
Jo Diesel is right Kirk. A simple thing you can do at home is a "string alignment" If you aren't familiar with that let me know and I'll explain.
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
I had a truck that was giving me fits one time and the wife said check the points. Well of course I checked them. She says check them again. Don't you hate it when their right.

I really hate eating crow.

...and you NEVER hear the end of it.

I'm lucky, Robin doesn't play the "I told you so" card very often. But when she does.....:sad:

You clock the steering wheel with the tie rod ends. The shop you talked to is full of ****. Did you go to Ricks, Budget Tire, Hub Tire, the guy across from, The Road House, or Bees, or Sundance. That would be 6 places here in St Johns.

I went to Hub. I didn't know Budget has a rack and I'm not familiar with Rick's

Jo Diesel is right Kirk. A simple thing you can do at home is a "string alignment" If you aren't familiar with that let me know and I'll explain.

I'll play the "turn both sides the same number of turns" game. That should keep the toe in spec, right?
 

matt_i

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Messages
10,725
Location
SE Michigan
I had the same issue about 15 years ago, older (91) S-10, got new tires & alignment, the steering wheel is now off 30 degrees from former/normal. I didn't even drive it a block, it went right back for "warranty work" :)

Many moons ago I was also responsible for the front end alignment equipment in a vehicle assembly plant. First thing the operators installed was a "level sensor" which locked the steering wheel in place @ level, bubble level for reference, but also tied into the automation in case it was set out of range. After that, the jam nuts were loosened and the toe set.
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
The wife would love that. She lived in Maine for a few years and always makes comments about how nice it was. I'm still trying to figure out what to send you. Something that is Michigan/automotive based. I was thinking an old Saturn badge, but they were built in Tennessee. Back to the drawing board.
 

sublime68charger

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2014
Messages
5,415
Location
SW Wisconsin
sounds like you have been busy and staying out of trouble, Xtremek,

though I due like the comment about you having to hand over your wrench card!

Im just wondering aren't they also Pop Riveted to your Man Card? did you also hand that over? or just take the pain and rip them apart? LOL

just add some salt n pepper and drown it in ketchup to the crow and you can choke it down!

that's what I due!

also a side cup of ranch dressing for dipping helps!
 

Jo Diesel

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 26, 2015
Messages
402
Location
St. Johns MI
If you don't get it figured out PM me and we can pull it over my pit. I have done hundreds of alignments with a torpedo level and a tape measure.
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
If you don't get it figured out PM me and we can pull it over my pit. I have done hundreds of alignments with a torpedo level and a tape measure.

Thanks for the offer, I really appreciate it. Right now, I think I'm going to get the steering wheel clocked right and call it good.

We‘ve been chipping away at Sam (the daughter’s Sonoma). I’ve been patching the inner fender, and I should have it in primer tonight. She removed offending fender and inner fender. She’s also been working on getting the new radio ready for installation (Crutchfields sent us the wrong install kit) by making brackets. She’s only been coming out for a day at a time, so progress is slow.
 

Attachments

  • inner fender.jpg
    inner fender.jpg
    146.1 KB · Views: 136

GDPossehl

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 23, 2014
Messages
450
Location
Atlanta, GA
I had a 99 blazer for 8 years. From 103k to 180k when I sold it, it required a fair amount of parts. I do miss the simplicity and cheap parts. I currently have a Cadillac with 154k that is eating parts left and right, each to the tune of $100-$250 a pop which adds up fast. Feels like every time I fix something, another problem manifests.

I wouldn't mind a little 4.3 RCSB for daily duties. A light, sporty-handling truck with some basic handling mods a great amount of low-end torque would be nice.
 
OP
X

xtremek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
I had a 99 blazer for 8 years. From 103k to 180k when I sold it, it required a fair amount of parts. I do miss the simplicity and cheap parts. I currently have a Cadillac with 154k that is eating parts left and right, each to the tune of $100-$250 a pop which adds up fast. Feels like every time I fix something, another problem manifests.

I wouldn't mind a little 4.3 RCSB for daily duties. A light, sporty-handling truck with some basic handling mods a great amount of low-end torque would be nice.

This one is going to stay fairly stock, much to my frustration. They can be made to scoot along, but for a first time driver, stock it is.

Just checking in xtremek how are things going with the repairs?

Regards

Hey 1/2c thanks for asking. Things are inching along. My daughter's only been coming out for a day at a time and I don't do too much when she's not here, because I want her to learn what it takes for the repairs and have to put some of her own elbow grease into it. Also, work's been incredibly hectic, so I'm getting home late.

Anyway, we went to pull it in this past Friday and it wouldn't start. Hit it with a shot of ether and it runs on the ether. I'm guessing the fuel pump, but I want to put a pressure gauge on it before I go to the trouble of dropping the almost full tank of gas (got to love Murphy and his laws). The inner fender is ready to go on and we swapped out the underhood fuse box. We also dropped the rear bumper.the radio is in and she'll be wiring up the extra power point the next time she comes out.
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
Top Bottom