What? Blogs Are Still A Thing?

It's 2018 and I possibly have a lot more free time on my hands. I'm thinking of bringing this back. Does anyone care?

Coolness!!

OK. I totally stole this idea from Bernie, but here's my Simpsons avatar. I hope to make it down to the Kwik E Mart in Bladensburg in the next week or so.

Carmageddon!!

So, here's the list of stuff that was done as of October:

Oil change with filter(twice)
New power steering fluid (twice)
New air filter
New hood release cable
New thermostat
New radiator
New auxiliary cooling fan resistor
New fan temperature switch
Removed the A/C compressor and most associated plumbing
New lower oil pan gasket (including R&R of the upper oil pan bolts with Loctite)
Installed Bilstein sport shocks
Installed billet aluminum/polyurethane rear shock mounts
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1 15" wheels (13.7 lbs!!) with Kumho Ecsta SPT tires

And this is the list of stuff we've done since then:
H&R Race springs
New control arms
New tie rod ends
Porterfield R4-S brake pads
ATE PremiumOne brake rotors
New(used) rear brake calipers
Stainless steel brake lines
New hard lines for most of the rear brake system
Speedbleeders for all 4 calipers(these rock)
New clutch
Ground Control camber plates
Ireland Engineering swaybars
Mason Engineering strut and shock tower braces (not on the car yet)


I think that's it. The clutch was a lot of work, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Replacing the brake hard lines was one of the suckiest things we've done. The new lines had to be bent to fit and there are these little short pieces that go between the differential and the body of the car that were hell to get in there. But it's done now and we shouldn't ever have to mess with them again. We've pretty much run out of stuff that we can upgrade/replace at this point. There are still a few rubber bits that can be replaced with urethane, but other than that we need to start saving up for the safety equipment. That stuff's going to be expensive, but it's not the place to skimp. Here's a fairly recent pic of me and the car in action.

Is this thing on?

Wow. I'm glad nobody's really paying any attention to this thing. I haven't even looked at it in weeks and you can see when I last posted. We've done lots to the car since the last update and I've still got lots to bitch about, so I guess I should get to it.

I'm not quite dead yet.

I just looked at this thing and realized how long it's been since I posted. I have lots of stuff to tell you about car, but that will have to wait for another day. For now ponder this:

What kind of savage still throws trash out of a moving vehicle?

Seriously. It's 2007. You'd think people would have fully grasped trash cans by now. I can't even attribute it to laziness because as I see it, it takes more effort to lower the window and throw something out of the car than it would to put it in the trash later. Maybe I'm brainwashed, but I don't think I could actually throw a bag full of fast food trash out of my car window. Oh well. I guess the chronically underemployable need something to do so picking up roadside trash will have to do. I just wish it didn't cost me tax money.

The good stuff.

As you can see in the picture below, things are starting to happen with the car. Since I promised to post an update on the status of the project, here is a list of things that have been done to or replaced on the car since the original pictures were posted. With the exception of mounting and balancing the wheels, all work has been done by Jason and me at the Auto Craft shop here on post. So, without further ado....

Oil change with filter(twice)
New power steering fluid (twice)
New air filter
New hood release cable
New thermostat
New radiator
New auxiliary cooling fan resistor
New fan temperature switch
Removed the A/C compressor and most associated plumbing
New lower oil pan gasket (including R&R of the upper oil pan bolts with Loctite)
Installed Bilstein sport shocks
Installed billet aluminum/polyurethane rear shock mounts
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1 15" wheels (13.7 lbs!!) with Kumho Ecsta SPT tires

I think that's it. During the shock installation, we damaged the tie rod ends and the ball joints. They were all very worn anyway, so those parts, along with the control arms, will be replaced over the winter. We're still waiting for our H&R race springs to come in. Apparently they're on backorder everywhere and we have no indication of when we'll have them. The car runs strong and the handling is significantly better with the new shocks/shock mounts.

The next big maintenance item to do is the clutch. The current one (original? 183K miles) slips a lot and may not live through the autocross tomorrow. It won't die in vain. Jason should be able to come away from tomorrow's festivities with a trophy if all goes well.

Just a note on automotive fluids. Lots of cars now have "lifetime" fluids. This is mostly to save the manufacturers/dealerships money on the free scheduled maintenance that most of them offer now. If you've never had your power steering fluid changed and your car has more than 50k miles on it, you should have it changed next time you have your car serviced. We've already changed it twice on this car in the last couple of months. I have absolutely no idea how long the stuff we took out had been in there, but after replacing it with fresh fluid (nice red ATF in our car) it was black again in a just three months. There was a noticeable difference in the steering feel with fresh fluid. I plan on changing it again next time we have the car in the shop. Your brake fluid should also be changed regularly. Every two years MAX. That stuff absorbs water and gets brown and chunky in your calipers if you leave it in there too long. Your transmission and differential also need attention every 30K miles or so. Check your manuals, keep up with scheduled maintenance and use quality fluids.

15s, yo!!

 

Here we go. Some of you may have thought I was dead, but clearly that's not the case. My ambition just took a little vacation. I intend to give a more in depth accounting of what's been going on with the car in a few days. I've been waiting to get pictures with the new suspension installed, but the springs are on back order. I will have more info on what's been done to the car since we got and how it performed in the last autocross soon. Also check out my new favorite outdoor party game. It's fun!! I'll try to get some more movie and book reviews in soon too.

Just to tide you over for now, I'll tell you about something that is stupid. Curled-up straw cowboy hats on drunk college girls. Who thought that was a good idea. It's even worse when sober women wear them in public. What's up??

Holy Crap!!! An update!

Here we go. Some of you may have thought I was dead, but clearly that's not the case. My ambition just took a little vacation. I intend to give a more in depth accounting of what's been going on with the car in a few days. I've been waiting to get pictures with the new suspension installed, but the springs are on back order. I will have more info on what's been done to the car since we got and how it performed in the last autocross soon. Also check out my new favorite outdoor party game. It's fun!! I'll try to get some more movie and book reviews in soon too.

Just to tide you over for now, I'll tell you about something that is stupid. Curled-up straw cowboy hats on drunk college girls. Who thought that was a good idea? It's even worse when sober women wear them in public. What's up??

Things that don't come up much in conversation.

Overheard in my living room yesterday:

John, quit rockin' the dog's ass.