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Saito2

So, what have you done today?

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today while trying to find something in a bedroom cupboard i came across my binoculars that i got given by a good family friend back in the mid 80's. he also he was one of those persons you could take anything to to get repaired and he and his dad could fix it in my neighbourhood. 

so anyway i took them out of the case and while looking through them i noticed the lenses had spots on them so i ended up stripping them to clean them  plus the prisms .

it looked like it was the first time this had been done but they have come up real nice when i put them back together i noticed the view a bit blured so i think i need to go back and ajust the prisms i will have to look on utube to see what i might have done wrong but on thw whole they are 99.9% better.

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Today, I laughed at this silly video:

 

But that also got me thinking....

Gut out a Roomba, add 3S Lipo, V-tail mixer to mix steering and speed in a tank-track similar setup, and 2 ESCs on the two motors.

And go for the:

Tamiya Club Official Top 10 Fastest RC'ers List

 

For the category 2WD/Midwheel drive, brands other then Tamiya. A 50kph RC Roomba should be quite a sight! :lol:

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I attacked the Chevy with a scouring pad and some cleaner wax, to see if I could do something about 30 years of ground-in road grime. Turns out, I could:

2019-05-06_04-58-42

 

Trouble is, it took me an hour and a half just to do that one fender. At this rate, it'll take me all summer to get the whole truck that shiny. But at last I know it's possible... I love non-clear-coated paint. When I get time I'll go pick up a clay bar and REALLY clean it up. Why bother? Well, why not?

Oh, and yesterday I put stripes on the MG, just because I could:

2019-05-06_04-59-44

 

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2 hours ago, markbt73 said:

I attacked the Chevy with a scouring pad and some cleaner wax, to see if I could do something about 30 years of ground-in road grime. Turns out, I could:

Trouble is, it took me an hour and a half just to do that one fender. At this rate, it'll take me all summer to get the whole truck that shiny. But at last I know it's possible... I love non-clear-coated paint. When I get time I'll go pick up a clay bar and REALLY clean it up. Why bother? Well, why not?

Have you considered a dual action random orbital polisher?  It might expedite the process.  I've been watching videos about these to possibly shave some time off waxing the cars but have concluded they work best for paint improvement/restoration.  They're overkill for modern liquid waxes used on already decent paint.

Maybe mount a larger scouring pad to the DA, keep the speed low at first, and go for some light passes to see if it works well.  Harbor Freight has these for $69 (and less with a coupon); there are some good YouTube videos on using these tools to improve paint.

Full disclaimer:  I've never used one and I've never faced an aggressive paint restoration like you are.  It's just an idea that doesn't seem too expensive and might get you to the finish line 10x faster.  I'd be worried about burning through the paint too easily, though.

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I found - after trying out lots of products and methods - that when it comes to reviving old paint, I get the best results by dropping the car off at the local detailing shop. :lol:

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I don't want it concours-ready, just not dirt-colored... and I'm fine with elbow grease. Just gotta make time to do it.

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Today I had planned to work in the yard, but I got distracted by a lawnmower my neighbor parked in the street for bulk pickup.  Our community has bulk collection days a few times a year; people leave all sorts of things at the curb and guys with pickup trucks come around looking for the 'good' stuff before the trash crew comes through.

Anyhow, I debated for a day whether to bother with it.  Visions of custom yard tools and go-karts filled my head.  On the other hand, it could be a total waste of time and yet another project I don't need.  I opted to grab it and do the minimal amount of work possible just to get a sense of its condition.  If it ran, great, maybe we'll do something with it.  If it didn't, well, I could always push it back to the curb and let someone else take it.

The engine oil measured low on the dip stick.  In true cheapness, I used some recycled oil from one of our cars just to get the level right.  The air filter was dirty, but not totally clogged, so I left it alone.  The spark plug still had a reasonable amount of electrode left and had a decent gap.  My neighbor at one point told me the mower ran when he put it away six months ago, but it didn't start recently.  There was gasoline in the tank, and I assumed it was a stale.  I drained all of the old fuel from both the tank and the carburetor bowl and added fresh fuel.  Then the carburetor got a couple shots of cleaner.

It took a couple pulls, but it fired right up!  Unfortunately it was pretty loud and shook quite a bit.  So I started going through it to see what else was wrong.  The fasteners for the handlebar position were loose, so the handlebar was floppy.  They were tightened.  Some of the cables and harnesses were flopping around; I added some new zip ties.  The muffler was loose and flopping around; the bolts were torqued down again.  The engine itself was loose on the deck; you could twist it a few degrees in either direction!  So all the fasteners underneath the deck were torqued.  I pulled the blade and started the engine without it; there was almost no vibration at all, so I assumed the blade was out of balance.  I have one of those conical blade balancing tools and a bench grinder, so after a few minutes the blade balanced pretty well and I put it back on.  Most of the vibration was gone!

So at this point I know the engine runs pretty well.  It just needs a basic tuneup with a new air filter, maybe a new spark plug, and some fresh oil.  It has electric start, but the battery is dead and the fuse is missing in the harness.  The self-propelled feature works fine and the tires even have some decent tread left.

I offered the mower back to my neighbor, but he doesn't want it.  He's ready to buy a new one.  My son and I are now plotting what sort of go-kart we can make with a bunch of pulleys, belts, and plywood.  I've also joked with my wife about making a fake Segway-like thing she can drive down to the mailbox and back in pseudo-snooty fashion.  Who knows, the possibilities are endless with a spare engine lying around!

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32 minutes ago, speedy_w_beans said:

Who knows, the possibilities are endless with a spare engine lying around!

There was a story on Jalopnik a few days ago about a guy using a Harbor Freight lawnmower engine to power an old Dodge D-50 pickup. Topped out at like 20 mph, but it worked...

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Today i took a little trip to collect a pair of pioneer cs 66g speakers from 1974 that i won on e-bay for a song. They are in fantastic condition for the age and sound Crisp. All that  needs doing is 2 of the velcro bits that hold the grills on need re'glueing. 

IMG_20190602_132724.jpg

IMG_20190602_132800.jpg

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Nice speakers!  The foam suspension on a few of my Advent speaker cones is starting to deteriorate; I've been eyeballing foam replacement kits to refresh them.

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18 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

Nice speakers!  The foam suspension on a few of my Advent speaker cones is starting to deteriorate; I've been eyeballing foam replacement kits to refresh them.

thanks i may have to do the tweeters at some point in the future just trying to find a pair of foams for them.

i had to replace the woofer foams on my jbl's last year ended up buying them from the usa. i brought a kit from of e-bay.

make sure you get the shims for the voice coil when you do do it .

it was easyer than i expected it tbh the hardest part was removeing the old foam.

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Today at lunch I drew up plans for a new workbench. I've been wanting to rearrange my workshop/study for a long time now; when we moved in seven years ago I just sort of crammed everything in as well as I could, and it has kinda-sorta worked, but the time has come to rearrange everything and do it right. I started moving furniture around yesterday, and just today I figured out the arrangement of the rest.

By the time I'm done, I will have more than double the workbench space I have now (which consists of a cheap little IKEA table), more storage space, and a clear separation between the desk and bookshelves in one corner, the workbench and storage on the opposite wall, and a spot for display shelves for vintage cars and NIB model kits right when you walk in.

Getting the lumber this weekend, and I'll post photos of the finished product. I'm really excited; I think a new perspective will inspire me to finish up some outstanding projects, and give me a clearer path forward with the rest. And hopefully some physical separation between hobby stuff and scholarly stuff will help me concentrate on some writing, which I have been neglecting for too long.

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Today I put the final touch on our minivan's maintenance and repairs.  Recently I changed all the rotors and brake pads, replaced a damaged fender liner, replaced a temperature control motor for the HVAC, replaced a stuck seat belt, fixed glove box and door trim rattles, and did a full fluid and filter swap. We were driving somewhere at night and I noticed the light bulb illuminating the shift lever markings was flickering and ultimately burned out; today I put a new bulb in the center console, and our 170,000 mile / 270,000 km Honda Odyssey is nearly perfect again!  In celebration of 9 solid years transporting the family everywhere comfortably without any major problems or failures:

 

Also, I celebrated another small milestone today.  After a year of ripping, transcoding, organizing, storing, and backing up all sorts of video content, the last video was transcoded and stored today.  Virtually every piece of disc media in our house is now available on our home network including all of our music, videos, and Playstation games.  All the Hi8 and digital camcorder footage of the kids when they were young is on the network now too.  The last goal is to scan the thousands of paper photographs we have in albums and get those on our home network.  All of our phones, tablets, PCs, and Playstations will be able to access this content at home.  It's going to be so nice not having to access and manage physical media (finding what you want, putting it away, trying to keep it in order, etc.).

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I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again Paul, you live the life we all dream of! 

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Got my new workbench built. Made it entirely from reclaimed wood and leftover scraps from our various home remodeling projects. It turned out pretty good. Could be more heavy-duty, but it will never hold more than 50 lbs or so anyway, so it's fine. I'm not going to stand on it or anything. I still have to add some shelves and install some lights, and paint it. I'll post photos of the finish product.

Also took 500 pounds of junk to the dump that has been slowly accumulating in our woodshed. In the past, I had to borrow a truck or rent a trailer. It's nice to have a truck of my own again.

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Today I signed in to tamiyaclub for the first time in 6 months lol. 

Now Summer is finally gone and I’m getting my head around a huge career change from Geology and its wide open natural spaces to Mental Health Peer Support and hospital offices and home visits..I feel its time to get back into one of my hobbies :RC..

I had an epiphany a few weeks ago while camping down on the Darling River to de-stress on why I had been so exhausted every day doing a seemingly “easier” job: the sheer amount of social interaction was the new factor plus 100% mental effort instead of the balance of 50/50 with physical work I had before..I work in a team of 20 people so even if I don’t have a lot of client appointments I’m still interacting with 4 times more people than I was used to full time whereas in my casual Geology job even that number was sporadic and only happened when a drilling program was running. And I’m not exactly a social butterfly most of the time. 

Anyway, great to be back ^_^ .. looking forward to bashing my favourite creek bed with my old Blitzer first I think, until my thumbs build up their driving skill again lol, I’ve also bought a little 1” square Cop Cam video camera to play with doing some basic filming and Go Pro -ing so that should be fun. 

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14 hours ago, Novastar said:

Today I signed in to tamiyaclub for the first time in 6 months lol. 

Now Summer is finally gone and I’m getting my head around a huge career change from Geology and its wide open natural spaces to Mental Health Peer Support and hospital offices and home visits..I feel its time to get back into one of my hobbies :RC..

I had an epiphany a few weeks ago while camping down on the Darling River to de-stress on why I had been so exhausted every day doing a seemingly “easier” job: the sheer amount of social interaction was the new factor plus 100% mental effort instead of the balance of 50/50 with physical work I had before..I work in a team of 20 people so even if I don’t have a lot of client appointments I’m still interacting with 4 times more people than I was used to full time whereas in my casual Geology job even that number was sporadic and only happened when a drilling program was running. And I’m not exactly a social butterfly most of the time. 

Anyway, great to be back ^_^ .. looking forward to bashing my favourite creek bed with my old Blitzer first I think, until my thumbs build up their driving skill again lol, I’ve also bought a little 1” square Cop Cam video camera to play with doing some basic filming and Go Pro -ing so that should be fun. 

I can relate to how draining face-to-face interactions can be.  I love engineering and I love being "in the zone" working on a design, but as I was promoted up the ranks to project leader, department manager, and technology strategist the quantity of meetings and emails shot up exponentially.  All of this overhead time spent guiding people, answering questions, thinking about the future, putting out fires, making tradeoff decisions, etc. just wore me down.  Especially chasing after people who weren't performing.  It really did feel like a daily drag; I couldn't wait for the weekends and I groaned every Monday morning.  Fortunately, my employer did me a favor and made me redundant a year ago after 15 years of service, and I've been taking a career break for this past year.  I'm just starting to feel like coming back to the workforce again; I was mentally exhausted and needed to work on house projects, car projects, hobby projects, etc. to enjoy some quiet time and let some feelings go.

I wish you the best of luck in your new position; I don't have any words of advice.  All I know is when the number of human interactions goes up substantially it can definitely be draining.  I had to set some hard limits to survive and needed some off time eventually.

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After putting it off and putting it off (because I hate it!) I've bit the bullet and started to try and go through the wiring on the TransAm, and make it neater. The car turns over and starts on the key, but its an '87 wiring loom in an '81 car, so some wires are too long, some are too short, and alot just aren't needed! (Emission systems, EGR, air con etc). 

First up, label everything.....😬

2019-06-15_08-12-57

 

After ripping my arms to bits, and hurting my back laying on the trans tunnel, I thought it easier just to rip the whole loom out (project Binky style!)

 

2019-06-15_08-13-53

This is going to be fun.......😳

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Got a bunch done on my shop/study reorganization yesterday and this morning, so I thought I'd take some pictures...

First, the desk and bookshelves. Still need to organize the contents of the desk.

20190615_074141

 

Going counterclockwise around the room from there, we come to the new workbench, built entirely from reclaimed and scrap wood. And yeah, it looks like it.... but it's functiona;. For reference, the little black IKEA table at the far right is my old workbench.

20190615_074209

 

Opposite from that are the display shelves. Vintage and scratch-built RC cars, built models, and NIB static models, most of which are at least 20-25 years old.

20190615_075246

 

20190615_075259

 

Oh, and my "helper," our 12-year-old rescue pug named Luna:

20190615_074231

I still need to do some decorating, and I need to put up some more shelves above the workbench and in stall the new ceiling light fixture, but the broad strokes are there. Finally, it's starting to look like I did it on purpose, instead of just chucking a bunch of stuff in a room and calling it good.

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7 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

2019-06-15_08-13-53

This is going to be fun.......😳

Yep ;). You know, I used to completely re-wire antique/classic cars at a rate of a dozen a year or so, crammed under a dash, the bottom of the brake pedal digging into my forehead (picture that contortion, lol). In 90 degree F+ heat in the summer, that old carpeting gets itchy as my glasses constantly slid off my sweaty, upside down face. Makes me wonder just how crazy I must have been to restore cars for a living most of my life. I did get gray hair, arthritis, a completely messed up back and bad knees for all my troubles though, so it wasn't all bad. I really do enjoy my new career, lol.

15 minutes ago, markbt73 said:

I still need to do some decorating, and I need to put up some more shelves above the workbench and in stall the new ceiling light fixture, but the broad strokes are there. Finally, it's starting to look like I did it on purpose, instead of just chucking a bunch of stuff in a room and calling it good.

Great progress there. I'm aspiring to that myself. Someday I hope to see the floor in my hobby room again.

 

Today, I finished putting rear hub bearings in my C4 Corvette. My 6 yr old daughter got to ride along on its first test drive in a year. She was happy and fascinated by it. I think she's over the fear of "noisy" cars finally. Might have another Corvette lover in the family.

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6 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

Today, I finished putting rear hub bearings in my C4 Corvette.

Not an '87 with a 350 TPI by any chance? 🤔😏

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3 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Not an '87 with a 350 TPI by any chance? 🤔😏

Close ;). Its an early '86 TPI. Pretty much the same car except late '86s on forward had aluminum heads. I've still got iron heads. I've got to replace the valve stem seals next and service the transmission.

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25 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

Close ;). Its an early '86 TPI. Pretty much the same car except late '86s on forward had aluminum heads. I've still got iron heads. I've got to replace the valve stem seals next and service the transmission.

It was out of a Z28, so had cast heads, now edelbrock 60879 heads and matching intake, SLP runners, 272 cam etc.

Really like the C4, the C3's are nicer, but fetching good money (and I'm only ,allowed one toy, so the TransAm would need to go.....😳)

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4 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

now edelbrock 60879 heads and matching intake, SLP runners, 272 cam etc.

Really like the C4, the C3's are nicer, but fetching good money (and I'm only ,allowed one toy, so the TransAm would need to go.....😳)

Nice. I always toyed with building a 383 torque monster TPI  out of mine., but my thirst for speed has slowed down as I age. I worked at a couple Corvette resto/specialty shops over the years. I started out a C3 lover but ended a C2 lover. Basically, the same chassis from '63 all the way up to '82. I still love the C3's curves, but the C2 is just so much more compact, dignified and balanced. The difference between a C3 and C4 is light years. Later C3's are creaky, old feeling cars, mostly carbed. You feel like you're pushing it at 100 mph. The C4 will cruise at 125 compared to a C3. They truly are world class cars for their time. The down side is they aren't fun to work on and were compromised during their design. Dave Mclellan is an excellent engineer and really pushed the Corvette into being the world class sports car. Unfortunately, Lloyd Reuss demanded the car be a targa configuration instead of the intended T roof type which resulted in a more flexible chassis (as well as high door sills meant to help compensate for the reduced structure the T roof would have provided). I never drive mine without the roof panel installed. Still, C4s are crazy dirt cheap now for the level of performance they provide.  Sorry for rambling on about one of my favorite cars.;)

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46 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

I always toyed with building a 383 torque monster TPI  out of mine., 

It's all about the torque with the TPI, long runners mean they won't rev, toyed with stroking it, but if I was doing that, I'd swap to forged internals etc etc, and for that money I can drop in an 5.3 LM7 with a turbo/4l80 box - - - although one of the main reasons for going TPI was the high UK fuel prices, and injection and overdrive box would mean more affordable motoring, especially with the 2.41 final drive (hoping the 150 shot of gas should help with performance when needed....😬

 

1 hour ago, Saito2 said:

but ended a C2 lover

Those are fetching mega money! Beautiful,  but out of my reach.

 

1 hour ago, Saito2 said:

The difference between a C3 and C4 is light years. Later C3's are creaky, old feeling cars, mostly carbed. You feel like you're pushing it at 100 mph.

I'd think about an engine swap if I got a C3 (I'll finish this engine swap first...), I'm sure they're more stable at 100 than the old mini's, my bored (1293 stage 4) mini clubman used to swap lanes on the motorway at 115 if there was a gust of wind 😟

1 hour ago, Saito2 said:

Sorry for rambling on about one of my favorite cars.;)

Ramble away!! 😃👍

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