1978 Z28 Camaro

on her way out

2006-05-19T16:43:00.000-07:00

sad to say, but i'm going to be selling my baby raimi soon :( just too hard right now with such low income, time, and no garage/driveway. i bought a pickup truck from my friend ('91, v6) earlier this week so i'll do some last jobs on raimi and put 'er up for sale...*sigh* it's been a great two years wtih my baby, but it's time to move on. in a few years i'll have money again (at least that's the plan) and i'll probably buy an even older camaro :) first generation was my first love, of course.

in the meantime, i recently changed her front brake pads. after doing the rear adjustment (adjustment nut wasn't adjusting automatically) the brakes really improved but i could hear the front discs squealing so i changed those. mad improvement, i'm psyched.

she runs good. she looks okay. rusted in the usual spots, i tried to fix them but fixes only lasted about a year before they rusted again. some FUCKER hit my mirror two nights ago, too. i think it was a biker 'cause there were a few small scratches on the front fender as well and i figure a car would'a done much worse. god that pisses me off. so now my mirror points at the sky...great. gotta bang that one out...

anyone want a bitchin' camaro?

*sigh*

sticky

2006-03-19T03:26:00.000-08:00

holy shit, i LOVE these fuckin' tires. 255/60/r15 (rear) firestone firehawk indy 500's. fuckin' things are sticky man, i love it. i can fly around a turn popping the clutch in first gear and they won't even whimper much less slide. AMAZING.

also helps to have working brakes, haha.

and i think my gas mileage has improved, too.

good investment.

pick pocketed through the right nostril

2006-03-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

goddamn, i just spent $500 today.

$330 on two new tires (TWO!)
$180 on a year's worth of contacts (but hell my last "year's supply" lasted 3...oops)

tires are glorious, though. can't even make her skid around a corner in the rain, lol. of course that could have something to do with my front brakes locking up....fuckall.

haven't tried the contacts yet, the ones i'm wearing right now are actually weak in the left eye so tomorrow should shed new light on the world. yay.

so this is why i work....

shit

2006-03-14T21:43:00.000-08:00

i think my front brakes are locking up now...wtf!?

felt really...strained on the gas pedal. got home and felt the back brakes (drums)...warm...front brakes (discs), burned me.

arggg

free fix!

2006-03-14T00:27:00.000-08:00

but only because my time is next to worthless :)

i think i fixed my brakes! we'll see tomorrow, though. but at least for the test drive this afternoon she was BEEEAAAAAUUUUTIFUL. nice and stiff, even the parking break is improved. before you had to really mash the parking brake down...like pushing off the seat back to get it tight enough to hold on a hill...kinda scary, but not when you consider the reverse lockout. to get the key out of my car there's a safety and anti-theft mechanism that locks the transmission in reverse and the steering wheel wherever you leave it. what that means is, in terms of rolling, it's not just the parking brake that's holding the car steady, but the transmission as well. if you've ever tried to manually turn an engine via crankshaft...it's a BITCH...and going backwards through the drivetrain would have even less leverage. it's not necessarily a brake, but it is a whole lot of inertia that requires momentum to get moving...momentum it'd never get with the parking brake on, even if it's not completely tight.

eeeeeither way, i came home early today ready to tear into that shit. i feared one or two of three things. first, i feared that my rear drum brake shoes were worn out...easy fix, maybe $60. second, i feared that my rear drum cylinder's were dead (the thing that actually transmits your foot power to the brake shoes). i don't know how much one'a those cost but it would be a bitch 'cause you gotta rebleed the system, which i did two days ago. bleeding it actually tightened the brakes a little...for...a day. still a pain in the ass. the last problem i suspected was the master cylinder and the power booster...basically the thing that multiplies your foot pressure on the pedal into a much higher force stopping 3400 lbs. of rolling metal.

i do know my master cylinder has a slow leak...unfortunately that leak COULD go into my power booster and be slowly eating away at my diaphram there (meaning power brakes go kaput). hope that's not the case 'cause those two pieces would prolly run about $140 (and a royal pain in the ass). i'll have to do it someday, but didn't want it to be today.

soooo opened up the drums in the back...and low and behold, my shoes have LOTSA life left in them. yippy. also...my cylinders were not leaking. rubber seals looked very healthy. of course the fact that those two didn't seem too bad made me scared that it was the expensive option #3 (MC and booster). but, taking a closer look i noticed that with the drum on and looking through the tiniest little check hole, the shoes were really far out of adjustment. so with a slipjoint and a screwdriver i adjusted the star wheel to put it back into specs and VOILA! my pedal travels about half what it used to, with SO much more power, and my parking break finally feels like it'll actually hold my goddamn car. they're supposed to be self adjusting but i think they got crudded up and froze. so i sprayed the shit out of 'em with brake cleaner...i hope they'll adjust now.

let's hope there's no more news on this issue :)

next on the list is some goddamn tires. my treads are almost gone on one of my rear tires...great thing to have on a car with a 350 V8, no?

*screeeeeech*

grinding metal

2006-03-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

hahahahahahahahahahahahah! my fuckin' tailpipe fell off a few days ago. lucky for me it was in a parking lot and not the freeway. intersting *shrugs*.

either way i was kinda late for a meeting....pulled over after hearing something go clunk and start dragging....pulled over and checked it out...tailpipe fell off where it connects to the muffler and it was hanging by the hangers. being late, i grabbed a rope from my trunk and tied the bitch up...lol. got me home at least (after my meeting).

got under there with a light at home and it turns out to be perfectly fine. the U bolt just got loose and fell off for some reason *shrugs*. when i'd originally checked it out at dusk with no light, i'd thought it rusted off. not the case. so slid it back on, tightened the shit out of it, good as new.

i love raimi.

meanwhile my brakes are...um....not working correctly : ) they work, don't get me wrong, but they're getting really weak. i'm hoping it's just pads but it could be a hydraulic problem (cylinder, booster, blah blah). fuck. that could be...not cheap.

it goes.

green stuff

2006-02-10T02:17:00.000-08:00

last night i attacked the thermostat. replaced it with a new one and filed the hell out of the couple on the intake manifold (it's aluminum...soft...and after cleaning it i could see how scored and scratched and actually sloping it was) and the thermostat housing. they were both horribly crooked which definitely contributed to it leaking constantly. initially tried the foam gasket they gave me...that thing didn't even hold when i filled up the radiator again, piece of shit.

so i used RTV silicon instead....which is supposed to dry for 24 hours but i only gave it about 14...had to go to school ;) she seems to be holding...but i didn't tighten my rad hose tight enough, haha....dumb. so that was gushing a litle after i parked up a big hill...should be okay, though. comin' home it didn't even leak and i hadn't had a chance to tighten it yet. should be good now. heat's much more tame with the new sparkies anyway.

also readjusted my clutch. wasn't releasing completely...

AND drained that extra pint of oil. don'tkow if it makes a difference but i've been noticing that my PCV valve has an oil slick on it...i'm wondering if it's sucking up oil into the carb...that would explain the black smoke. but why now? i hope my valves aren't squirting too much...i hate adjusting those. last time i actually got oil in my mouth AND eye because (first time) i initially made them too tight. hydraulic lifts can REALLY SQUIRT if you give 'em enough pressure...man what a mess. could be my problem, although i can't imagine how that would happen.

meanwhile she's got a helluva lot more power these days. rough heating up...but it's been cold. i do have the choke wired wide open.

fun.

vroom!

2006-02-08T00:15:00.000-08:00

she lives! whole lot more life in my baby, very happy about that.

not 100% at all, but at least it feels like i'm igniting something now. the gas vapor smell has decreased a whole lot but it's still there. i'm wondering if i set my mixture richer when i had the timing retarded more (used to run 12-14 BTDC when she was happier). i have 'er at 10 degrees now. i'm gonna try do a real mixture setting with the vacuum gauge when i get more time during the day. oh, and still has black smoke, but only at HIGH throttle...like...4-5k rpm. i'm wondering if it disappears under load or gets worse...i can't see anything out my rear mirrors, though, so could be good.

and i realized that i overfilled my oil as well..i just dumped a quart in and it's about a half inch over 'full'...oops. i'll drain some.

and my radiator is leaking at the thermostat housing AGAIN. that bitch never seals. decided to do it right and got a new rad cap and thermostat. she's overheated a few times, maybe the springs are hardened. i put the rad cap on and it seems to have improved...i'll do that thermostat tomorrow most likely. good feeling about it, though. high pressure in there (stiff rad cap) could also possibly have fouled my head gasket...hot steam is powerful shit.

oh, and i realized i should've done compression tests while i had the spark plugs out. SHIT! i'll do that too. give me a chance to check the status of my new plugs, too. damn i have a lotta work to do.

one tire is nearly bald.

my breaks are acting funny (sometimes squish and need some "pumping")

my front a-arm bushing is really fucked up now (if it's even there)

exhaust manifold crack was bandaided with some exhaust repair shit. that burned off in two weeks. i think i just might attempt to pull it out and weld it...muahaha.

lotsa work.

and no money for parts.

yay.

fired

2006-02-05T00:56:00.000-08:00

been a long time since i updated raimi's blog, but that's because i've left her rather neglected lately :( poor girl. but hell, now that i don't have a real girlfriend, my raimi's back on the top of my list.

so about a week and a half ago i ran'er outa' gas again...and she started behaving oddly...losing power and such. then came a week of heavy, heavy rain and she was REALLY angry then. my idle dropped about 100 rpm at startup (returned to normal once she heated up) and she was hard to start. often two tries. stalling often when i wouldn't give'er enough gas shifting (which used to be enough gas)...and for the first time in my year and a half with her, smoke out the exhaust. light, but black. fearing the head gaskets...aaand i finally got some time to take a look this week.

checked the timing and she was off the timing plate to i'm guessing about 14-16 BTDC...last time i set'er i think i had put it at 10 degrees. curious...decided to try following the chilton's recommendation of 6 degrees...which i thought was too tame but tried it. idled MUCH better, MUCH smoother, started up better and that startup drop of the idle rpm improved (but still not correct). smoke got a little better but now (so my mom says) there's white AND black smoke. could be too advanced. of course, lost most acceleration around 3-3.5k rpm. bottom end was weak as well (weaker than before retiming). all in all, weaker but sounding happier. decided the plugs might be fucked up...could explain the extra retarding (slow spark) as well as the smoke. hadn't touched the idle mixture yet but smelled STRONG gasoline fumes during driving...could be explained by incomplete combustion.

so i just changed the spark plugs (needed a cold car) and as it's 11pm i don't think my neighbor's would appreciate me tuning the beast right now...but i did take her for a spin. at 6 degrees BTDC i wasn't expecting much...but on startup, she idled higher than previous...no real power until around 1.5-2k rpm....and disappears around 3-3.5k still...BUT, much smoother, and little or no smell of gasoline (but still something odd burning, hoping timing/mixture tuning will do the trick).

little note, the old plugs were in decent shape. no severe detonations or shorts and they weren't too worn. a few had some cakey porous looking stuff deposited on the porcelain right below the electrode...most had flakey white stuff (which i think is a lean condition, i have to look it up again), and 3 had oil one threads...but no oil and minimal black soot on the electrode/ground post. still pretty sharp edges (not too worn) and held their gap correctly. besides the oily treads and that weird cakey stuff (hoping it's not radiator fluid residue)...they looked okay. head gasket might by leaky, but it's not BLOWN...oh and i did check the oil under the valve covers and there wasn't any milk (no water in the oil).

i have a good feeling about it...but getting up early tomorrow morning to tune'er up and see what's up. next is the distributor, spark wires, and coil. i REALLY don't wanna do the heads.

back soon

long overdue update

2005-12-01T01:18:00.000-08:00

haven't posted to this blog in a LONG time but i'm drunk and i feel like talking ( i'm that kinda' drunk)

reading my last post it seems i was in the middle of a clutch replacement. turns out my clutch fork had touched my pressure plate (probably due to my pressure plate wearing out and compressing unevenly) and the pressure plate fingers knocked a tang off my clutch fork. ironically, my clutch functioned better with only one (of two) tangs. whod've thought!

either way, replaced it with a hayes street clutch. a little bit easier on the knee, but holds just as well as the last clutch (OEM) so that's a good deal. shifting is much easier and everything worked just fine.

of immediate importance now, my front rear A-arm bushing is shot to shit and i can feel it shifting around on hard turns. think she needs a tuneup since she's guzzling gas and struggling on hard acceleration. god knows my valves and maybe even pistons are fucked up since that timing chain mishap. few of my old paint repairs are rusting through again, hopefully gonna get a load of POR-15 to deal with that soon. and my trans is running REAL hot and probably struggling....i should look into a rebuild. my linkage rattles a helluva lot as well so i should take a look at that as well (hurst). shouldn't be hard...would be nice to have some quiet shifting, though.

pieces

2005-05-24T02:39:00.000-07:00

soooo my driveline is mostly in pieces.

drained the transmission fluid, removed the driveshaft (which i had to PRY off because the joint had rusted), and a few painful hours later, removed the crossmember. so my transmission is being held up right now by a jackstand and the motor mounts...i'm gonna attack the rest of it tomorrow. i thikn i need a hand lifting the trans out, though. fucker looks heavy...and i'd hate to drop it....both because of damage to the trans and damage to my FACE (like if i drop the goddamn thing on my face while i'm under it).

we'll see.

and goddamn there's a lotta oil and grime down there. fuckin' trans is leaking from EVERYWHERE, and it picks up allt he road dirt and sticks to it. what a mess. every part i take off i've vowed to clean before i reinstall it. not that it'll last long. originally i planned on painting whatever i touched/replaced/fixed red....but decided that would cost too much.

i'm so excited to get into my bellhousing and see what the fuck flew out...this is going to be a rather expensive fix, methinks. so far i have to replace a few things that were already busted and a few things i busted during removal (they were due for replacement, anyway).

i want my baby back!

2005-05-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

can sort of see inside there now...

2005-05-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

there she is....FUCK.

math

2005-05-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

estimate engine speed at 2000rpm

2000rpm = 2000 rotations/minute =
2000rpm * (1/60)minutes/second = 33-1/3 rotations/second

1/(33-1/3) = .03 seconds/rotation = 30 milliseconds = 15 milliseconds/half-rotation

i was about 15 milliseconds from dying today (or being maimed) when something in my bellhousing (houses the clutch assembly) came lose and got SPAT OUT my bellhousing. THROUGH the bellhousing. straight down into the ground (and not into my foot, naughty bits, arms, or noggin), luckily (hence the 15 milliseconds). Had the assembly made one more half-revolution, it could've easily come up the floorpan into the passenger cab. oh hey, that's where i sit!

of course when it happened it sounded like a bell going *DING!* like i'd won a prize at a carnival. so of course i laughed...but at the time i didn't know that there was a 1 inch. hole in my bellhousing...a maybe 1/4 inch bellshaped iron housing.

when i found the hole i laughed again.

fuck.

other than the hole...for some reason she drives perfectly fine right now....

fuckall

fuckall

2005-05-13T18:36:00.000-07:00

so i killed her again.

i think the problem is either my throwout bearing ate itself or it ate my pressure plate diaphragm spring....meaning i can't get my clutch to release and, therefore, can't get 'er in gear.

for the past two weeks i've had to adjust my fork rod (lengthen) every 3-4 days. shifting was getting hard because i'd have to push the pedal INTO the floor to get it to shift...and after lengthening the rod it worked beautifully...but kept going back. i never got a chance to mark/measure the fork rod to see if the vibration was just turning it somehow...but doubt that it could happen that fast anyway because TODAY, same thing, adjusted it in the afternoon...drove around and got home...started the car about 2 hours later to drive her into the garage and the clutch wouldn't disengage at ALL (jammed it into gear and still rolled with clutch all the way in).

lengthened fork rod again (looked like it was just getting longer and longer), started the car (in neutral), and heard a mettallic *chink* the moment i pushed the clutch in. now it won't go into any gear except reverse with HORRIBLE grinding.

jiggling the fork...it seems to move all over the place and i can feel it hitting something and clicking before it puts the throwout bearing on the pressure plate (or at least that's what it feels like).

my guess is either my throwout bearing ate itself or my pressure plate spring fingers are messed up....or maybe the throwout bearing was already bad or something and my adjustments pushed the mangled mess too far into my spring fingers or something.

posted my questions on nastyz28.com...a site with a messageboard that's helped me numerous times before. *sigh* in the meantime, i think i have to bus it to kaimuki.

yay.

boingboing

2005-04-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

so i got some new parts in the mail, shock extensions.

the dude who sold me the car put bigass wheels on the rearend. makes a pretty badass stance...looks like she just wants to fly forward even when she's sitting still. small problem, though. the added height (>2 inches) makes the shocks too short...they 'top out'...a pretty rare problem in my experience...basically the shocks hit their max length when the car bounces up, and makes a HORRIBLE *thunk* when the entire weight of the rear axle pulls down on the upper shock mount.

the parts i got are these U shaped aluminum pieces that basically move the upper shock mount lower (3") so the shocks rest at a lower point and have more range to travel when the car bounces up. result? no more thunking...which was threatening to tear the entire mount out. that mount wasn't made to take that kind of strain.

one less weird noise to worry about :)

rule.

hot damn

2005-04-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

so i finally decided to change the transmission fluid and rear differential oil (both use gear oil, but the diff. needs an additive so the limited slip works). it's something i should've done when i GOT the car about 9 months ago (at least that's what they recommend, just so you know how old the fluid is everywhere)...but yeah...a lotta things ir ead sai dyou usually don't have to worry about them. either way, my tranny (M21 4-speed standard) started makin' some even weirder noises in the past few weeks, so i decided to flush it and change the lube. go to flush it and find my speedo cable (feeds the speedometer, which hasn't worked in MONTHS) fried to shit...never did bother to check on it, haha. flush it and this metallic goop comes pouring out. probably about...8-10oz. of the stuff. not good. they did a clever thing and put magnets on the filler and drain plugs, so it catches everything. the metal is so fine it mixes with the oil and makes this metallic, magnetic goop that's actually kinda fun to play with *shrugs*....but that also means that i don't have much lube...SUPER low. oops. so yeah...fill it up with about 1.5 QUARTS...man..that thing was proably running almost dry....so bad.

flushed the rear diff. as well, taht one was actually pretty clean. a few particles here and there, and the same magnetic goop on the magnet in the cover, but i figured i might as well change it...start fresh (supposed to change every 6000-7500 miles) on both. took her for a test run (took mom, haha) and she runs and shifts even smoother than when i got her. hot damn! i always enjoy takin' my mom for 'test drives'...i had to test out my rear differential to make sure it would slip...which means peeling out from a stop :) mom had a good time :)

stoked.

2005-03-17T02:24:00.000-08:00

here's what the inside looks like with the intake manifold and carb off and the new pushrods installed (with the lifter fixed)

Back to Life

2005-03-17T02:10:00.000-08:00

so the last time i posted here was a while ago and i showed you my retarded pushrods.

in the process of replacing the pushrods i found that one of them wouldn't seat correctly. more accurately, it would kind of want to disappear into the hole in the engine....SOOOOO that meant i had to open up the top of the engine. here's the list of shit off the top of my head i had to take off: valve covers, PCV valve, and accessories belt bracket were already off, had to continue with the alternator bracket, fuel line, temp. sending wire, vacuum hose, radiator hose (included draining radiator), throttle linkage...i think that's all.

popped all that off (notating each), took off the distributor cap with all the plug wires, yanked out the rotor, and unbolted the intake manifold...FINALLY. not that this is really hard work...but kind of tedious and i was really afraid i'd forget something vital...like the fuel hose or something...and explode my garage :) no such luck.

sooooo, finally got it all off and peered inside. turns out one of my lifters had dismantled itself in the process of fuckin' everything else up in my engine. minor...it wasn't broken. a lifter is a spring-loaded metal cylinder that is pushed up and down by the spinning lobes of the camshaft underneath it to push the pushrods which seesaw the rocker arms and open and close the exhaust or intake valves at the right time (to let gas out or into the combustion chamber). whatever jostled it...the c-clip that holds the spring loaded mechanism inside the lifter had popped out flying a few pieces out of it into that space in the engine. the spring mechanism is there to push oil up the pushrods (which are hollow) to on every push to oil the valvetrain. i took apart a working lifter to see how it went together, put 'em both back together and installed everything (pic in next post of everything in place).

then came the arduous task of cleaning everything. that intake manifold had been there for a LONG time...and the gaskets were all hard and crumbly so there were pieces of it everywhere. leaned it off with a scraper, engine degreaser, and a few cut fingers...shoulda' just used a wire wheel or something on a drill, but i was trying to be gentle...the intake manifold is actually aluminum (soft). got everything cleaned up, placed the new gaskets and sealant, and plopped the intake back on, torqued everything up and put everything back on (reverseing the order of my notes) as carefully as possibly...triple checking everything at the end. almost forgot to refill my radiator...haha.

fiiiiiinally started her back up and she took a while....but caught...REALLY rough. still ahead was adjusting the valves...which has to be done with the engine running and the valve covers off....holy shit. i sprayed oil all over my fuckin' garage and sprayed it all over my engine...probably had a quart of oil on the floor by the time i was done...ugh. on BOTH sides i had tightened one too tight initially, so the oil literally SPRAYED about 4 ft. out of my car...what a mess. finally got them all adjusted correctly, cleaned up what i could (i was in a rush to be somewhere), and got the valve covers back on. *whew*

she was still running really rough, though. in the weeks after i was still only home on the weekends (kona during the week) and i'd tune her better and better every time...starting with timing which was way off 'cause i had to pull the rotor and fucked up reinstalling it...then the idle...and it was still rough as hell and i thought she was just getting old. FINALLY, what i did last week was tune the idle mixture correctly using a vacuum gauge...and it turns out i was flooding the carb (too much gas)...after that adjustment she purred like a kitten (with an idle speed reset as well). she's tuned very...economically right now. i'm gonna try and richen the mixture and advance the timing a little more at some point to make 'er roar a bit more ;) but yeah...i'm pretty sure she's got QUITE a lot more juice in 'er. i'm psyched. and proud :)

'till the next thing i break *rolls eyes*, adios.

2005-01-08T02:13:00.000-08:00

yeah....these are supposed to be straight. haha. these are only the ones i pulled, too...got fed up. that first one that looks straight? yeah, not straight either. that last one? almost broke in two. i'm HOPING this is the only problem....but of course with something like 200 horsepower bangin' againts these poor things (considering that's what bent them in the first place) there's almost DEFINITELY something else fucked up....but i htink i'm gonna try and replace these first to just see.....would be a miracle if it works....

fyi...camshaft is full of oblong lobes that are arranged to push each of these rods at certain times to rock the rocker (previous pic) to open either the exhaust valve or the intake valve. the valve spring (other pic as well) keeps them naturally closed unless they are pushed. so when the pushrods DON'T work and the valves DON'T open and close...you get gasses (either rich intake gasses or possibly still combustible exhuast gasses) get stuck in the chamber and ignite at the wrong time causing a backfire through the carb like i'm getting now.

i've learned a shitload about engines in the past few days looking through all this shit and tearing raimi's insides out.....

2005-01-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

so here's ONE thing that's wrong with my engine. see that one rocker arm that's hangin' off? yeah that's not supposed to happen (notice how the others, with the exception of that one and the one to the right of it are straight on the valve spring). the reason that happened is on the next post.....

oi oi

2005-01-05T23:43:00.000-08:00

check out this badass parking job. notice that i'm ALMOST in the road. yeah...that was all she wrote. drove all the way home, ON THE FREEWAY (the onramp was downhill...i picked that one), across kalanianaole, and up hawaii kai drive...stalls on a hill comin' down on kahului but starts up again before she rolls to a stop....and stalls COMPLETELY right the fuck where you see her now. unbelievable. i almost crashed into that hibiscus bush there on the right 'cause the steering wheel is a bitch and a half to turn when the car's dead (the brakes lock too).

of course my neighbors were standing across the street chatting. hah. she sounds like all hell, i'm not even kidding. i'm sorry raimi! but she's home.

oh btw she just needed to cool down a little (she was overheating) and she started up again a few minutes ago (4 hours after this pic) and i got her into the garage. my mom was horrified to hear it and my dog jumped. sounds like a 350 cubic inch lawnmower....something is definitely banging in there. a lot. but she's home. and i'm leaving the island on monday for POSSIBLY two months...so at least she's home so i can relax about it.

$894

if i can revive her, it's worth it.

oi

2005-01-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

sooooo this is why raimi died. boo. that's the timing gear that goes on the camshaft...she basically ate herself and spit her teeth in my oilpan. definitely not something that's RARE in a car this old, though. says GM on it so there's a really good chance it's originial.

of course, when this went, somethin' else went crazy as well and now my car backfires like a mother fucker. i drove somewhere near 10 miles at 25 mph. it would take me about 200 yards to GET to 25 mph (too much gas made it backfire....). i had to be VERY careful...he had to drop the idle to about 500 just to keep it from backfiring at idle....and it backfred at like...900 rpm? so yeah....i accelerated REEEEAAALLLY slowly. i'd periodically put my hazards on when someone behind me was lookin' antsy.

i was kind of advised not to try and drive'er home but i explained that if i could get'er home i could do the rest of the work myself (something's fucked up in the valves)...so i tried it...and...read on (next post, which you probably already read 'cause it's above this one...even though i haven't even written it yet....how creepy!!!)

*raimi crying*

tools

2004-12-27T01:17:00.000-08:00

so i just got the balljoint press ($70) i ordered from ebay in the mail. all i need now is a pickle fork and a coil spring compressor (which i MIGHT rent) to do my frontend bushings on raimi. i COULD technically do without the coil spring compressor...but it's just a little scary. for those not in the know, your coil springs are under a HELLUVA lotta pressure. for example...my car ways 3400 pounds. even if i support the car by the frames and let the wheels hang, the coils are bolted under pressure enough to take your head off if they're given a way outa' their seats. you CAN do the job by using the weight of the car, but it's pretty scary. i'd rather compress them and eliminate the possibility (although i have read stories of coil compressors exploding under the pressure and sending metal shards flying).

either way, probably sometime after the holidays. i have too many friends and my sister in town to do that rigth now. soon raimi! no....i mean less....squeaks. and this'll keep my steering from randomly shifting now and again around hard corners :) that's pretty fuckin' scary sometimes...especially going 40 on a one lane undivided highway (one each way) on a winding cliffside road.

the girl demands undivided attention. big surprise!

vroom

tools

2004-12-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

so i already took two friends to the airport for the holidays...and a bunch of others have already left (why do i have so many UH friends?)...and i thought maybe my weekends would get quieter so i started buying a buncha' tools. got a ball joint press comin', got all the gear i need to start learning how to weld, got my eye on a coil spring compressor, and i have some parts on order at checkers....

but yeah, now a bunch of old friedns are comin' back home for christmas....haha. guess it'll have to wait 'till januaryish. attacking suspension and exhaust. get rid of some squeaks, clean up my exhaust, and maybe even get some horsepower out of it...

always like havin' a heavy toolbox, though.

raimi love.

huh

2004-12-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

so i found out something interesting crusin' the archives of nastyz28.com (2nd gen camaro club...the 70's, basically). i think my clutch is slipping...the engine sounds like it's givin' a whole lot more power than my wheels are pushin'.

either way...came across something about reverse grinding. mine did it from day one and i thought it was just, you know...old transmission. apparently it's something that a lot of people have problems with and it's for quite a simple reason...back then they didn't put syncro gears on reverse! they dont' even put it on first gear, for that matter...the reason being it was extra hardware for something they didn't think was necessary.

as far as i understand (which is limited, i'm sure someone can correct me), old old manual transmissions didn't even HAVE syncro gears so shifting ANY gear would grind. someboday came up with syncro gears, though, which help the transmission move at the right speed (compared to the crankshaft/driveshaft whatever it's called) from the engine when you shift so that when the teeth have to come together, they're moving at roughly the same speed so they don't grind as one tries to catch up. either way...with no syncrho, reverse is at the mercy of whatevers spinning against it and what happens is when i'm moving foward and shift out of some forward gear into reverse, there are things in the trans that are still moving FORWARD and thus, grind against reverse when i pop it in...except when i just start the car 'casue then the trans is still.

simple solution to all this is just let it sit in a forward gear for a few seconds to dampen whatever's still moving. after a few seconds, everything stops, and reverse is free for the taking. voila! takes a little while, though...i think i should change my trans fluid....who knows how old it is *shrugs*.

also...the rubber boot that protects my bellhousing protecting my clutch was deteriorating so i just ripped it off a few months ago. probably getting LOTSA shit all over my clutch contriubitng to the slippage...so i'm gonna get up in there and clean that up (brake cleaner) this weekend most likely...

for now...whiskey.

cold

2004-11-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

so winter's comin' and the weather's shifted, and raimi don' like it. usually takes two or three tries on startup...i imagine to get some heat up in there? maybe just flushing condensation. either way i think i have to up the idle a little bit...possibly the mixture too. we'll see.

i have the idle down to 'barely running' to save gas. i'm usually driving in traffic these days...that's no life for a camaro, haha. workin' on gettin' another set'a wheels, though. thought of somethin' interesting, though....since ihave the idle so low...when i stomp on the gas peddle i'm not gonna get ALL the juice she can give :) maybe that's a good thing....

let's see how she starts this morning.

lazy

2004-10-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

obviously i haven't been doin' much with raimi lately. little things here and there...but i've been surfin' too much and i have no money :) i told myself about a month ago that winter time, there'll be no surf down here, so that's when i'll start working. looks like that'll happen...south shores are flat to a shit.

little things:
-i dropped her idle to like 700-750 down from about 850. since i increased the fuel/air mixture a while ago it bumped the idle off and threw the timing off. dropping the idle did three things...she runs a whole lot smoother (timing issue), my gas mileage seems to have gotten a LOT better, and lastly, and maybe most imortantly (see next thing) is she runs a lot cooler, especially in traffic.

-pokin' around one day when she was hot (i forget what i was doing)...i noticed that the electric fans on the radiator don't go on! the thermostat's supposed to turn it on around 165-185...gotta check that. she was getting a little hot before i dropped the idle, but never overheated. pretty cool, she won't overheat even without fans...*shrugs*. before i dropped the idle i flushed the radiator and put new antifreeze. that helped...the old stuff was pretty dirty. but dropping the idle helped a lot more...and i'm sure when i fix the fans i'll drop another 10 degrees.

-cosmetic/acoustic issue...my door panels have been fiddled with too much over the years and the screws in the sheet metal were getting loose. i tried to hack it maybe a month ago my shoving wire into the holes to tighten it...that didn't work. finally did it right, drilled them out bigger and shoved some hard plastic inserts into them for the screws. rock hard, no more buzzing from the speakers/engine/road vibration. my stereo also started popping in the left speaker...checked it out and there's a hole in the rear left speaker...might be straining the amp. i have a pair of replacements that i'll prolly put in tonight (i have a lotta weird shit layin' around). i think i'm gonna stick a sub in there. two reasons. one...obvious. two...i really need some weight in the back. my back wheels are somewhere like 2 inches higher than the frong, AND i have elongated shackles that raise it higher for tire clearance...never measured but it's a lot higher. i think that might be throwing my balance off (front to rear) and contributing to me skidding around as much as i do :) positraction can be a bitch gunning it around turns :) good thing she recovers fast.

on the 'to do' list:
-body rust
-downpipe extensions for the exhaust...right now they're frying my rear leaf spring bushings
-paint those front wheels from yellow to black
-bleed brakes
-vacuum tests
-fluid exchange (transmission and rear differential)
-sound system :) i'm thinking of cutting a bigass hole in the rear backseat and stickin a sub through it and extend the box back into the trunk. you can get SO much more sound out of a speaker when it doesn't have to fight through a fuckin' padded back seat and rear dash to get to your ears.

also to do...get my ass to work.

peace.

smooth

2004-08-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

sweet, took someone's advice (nastyz28.com) and made my fuel/air mixture a little richer (simple turn of a pair of screws on my carbeurator) to hopefully stop raimi's surging and low rpm's. it seems to have worked : ) we'll see how she runs cold tomorrow morning, though, that's always the test. she runs so hot that she doesn't really cool down 'till sometime way after my bedtime...but i'm hopeful. much smoother acceleration when i floor iot :)

especially without a speedometer, haha. checked the line this evening as well (entailed ripping open the dashboard again) and found nothing wrong with the line so i think the meter is actually dead. makes it interesting since now i have no idea how fast i'm going OR how far i've gone. i don't have a resetable odometer so i always have to subtract to figure out when to change gas....i don't trust my fuel gauge...oh well. i'll just be safe for now. ebay, here i come.

peace

2004-08-19T00:33:00.000-07:00

i mean...here's the spindle...with the fun purple lube. at least i got it back together...but takin' 'er out for a test drive initially there was no noise! but right when i pulled on my street i heard a soft squeking again...*grrrrr*....one of two things. one...the grease just has to settle....or two....it's the bakes...which i don't know a whole lot about yet...besides how to remove them and install them...without torquing them. oh well.

2004-08-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

2004-08-19T00:25:00.000-07:00

squeaky bearings are frickin' irritating. so i went to NAPA and got a new set for the front end along with some tools and some advice. here's two pictures of raimi naked and lubed up all up in there with this cool lookin' purple lube. lithium grease. she liked it. didn't smell too good...didn't taste it...but it sure did make everything glide in and out...cool stuff.here's the spindle...lubed. that yellow cord is holding up my brake calipers so i didn't have to disconnect the break hose and worry about all the fluid woes.

mileage

2004-08-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

so i thought of something interesting today...or, rather, discovered. i have a problem with my wheel size so i was researching some stuff...and came across a bunch of questions regarding bigger wheels and speedometers/odometers. i have bigass wheels on my rearend...bigger than most people put on camaros, even (i was researching 'cause i have clearance problems). what that means is that the odometer is wrong, and the speedometer is also WRONG. i'll calculate it out later (simple circumference ratio as an estimate) but i think it should be kinda interesting.

for one thing, that means i'm usually driving faster than i think i am :) no wonder i always think everyone's slow as fuck. or...yeah...i just have a heavy foot. also, what that means, is i'm probably getting better mileage than i think i am. i usually fill up at around 200 miles (i have no resetable odometer so i have to keep records in the car and subtract all the time) and it usually comes around 17 gallons...and that comes in under 12 miles/gallon. heh....shitty, i know, but it's fuckin' FUN. so i'm probably getting better mileage than i think....which is cool. a simple test is to drive alongside someone or have them drive at least the same route and compare odometer readings. i could try that i guess...some people change their electronics to compensate...whatever.

i'll think more on it, but i thought that was interesting.

burn.

ouch.

2004-08-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

so....rear suspensions are pretty fuckin' sturdy....holy shit. i suspect that my wheels are scraping the wheel well when i go over bumps and such...so i tried to raise the rear end. there's a third set of holes in the rear shackle (it was currently in the middle of the three) so i thought i'd just jack the car by the frame, pop the bolts, lower the axel to the lowest set of holes, and bolt 'em back in....

nope.

turns out rear leaf springs are under pressure even under no weight (three mounting points on the leaf spring...the rear of the three moves (shackle), the front is fixed, and the middle is bolted to the wheel/axel). so what that means is...when i popped the bolt from the rear shackle (which was NOT easy...and here's why), the damn thing popped up and went past even the highest hole. i'd read the directions for REMOVING and replacing the things and thought i could skip some steps...nope. so what i thought would be a half hour job turned into a four hour gruelling fight against gravity and a 3400 pound beast with nothing to rest on....*whew*. i finally gave in to the directions and took EVERYTHING off (except the front fixed eye), lowered the leaf spring the the last set of holes in the shackle, bolted everything back on (got a few blisters doin' it), almost broke my stabilizer bar, and finally got it back together only to find out that 1) it's the same height as far as i can tell, and 2) now my shocks are too short and they're hyperextending...which thinking about it i think was my frist problem from the fuckin' beginning. they are, however, adjustable....and i learned how to adjust them after i'd put everything back on...so it'll have to wait for another day.

'till then i have to drive REAL slow over bumps (even on the road) and be careful 'cause the tail feels like it wants to slide out from under me ;) basically if the shocks extend to their full length...instead of bouncing with the tire and forcing the tire to the ground, it'll end up lifting the tire....makin' a disgusting sound...and probably destroy my shocks...unless they need replacing anyway? shit i dunno. i'm realizing the trials of working on an 'already modified' car. the shocks aren't stock. they're koni shocks. koni shocks are expensive.

for a while there i thought my car was dead....that would've been embarrassing..especially with one wheel off and one side of my axle on the ground with the leaf spring floating in the air...that thing is far too strong to be moved by hand. i had to figure out how to manipulate it using the weight of the car....but i think i got it now. at least now i'll know what to do when i decide to replace bushings!

mmm....class dismissed.

sleep.

time of her life, for real

2004-08-07T23:46:00.000-07:00

apparently raimi just has the time of her life at 6 degrees before top dead center (TDC). if you're unfamiliar with 'timing' it has to do with that split second it takes for a gas/air mixture to ignite. your camshaft governs how fast the pistons and valves and all that fun stuff go up and down, or at least something like that (still learning). what the camshaft ALSO does is turn the distributor so that your spark plugs fire sequentially in perfect sync with the up/down motions of the pistons. 0 degrees TDC is where the piston is at its lowest point. if you set your timing at 0, what happens is the piston comes down, the spark plug fires at that instant, and the piston is travelling back up already by the time the explosion reaches full combustion. you're wasting energy. when you set the timing before TDC (BTDC), what happens is the spark plug fires a certain amount of degrees (rotational degrees of the camshaft) before the piston hits bottom so that the explosion reaches full combustion when the piston is at the bottom of it's motion and the entire explosion is utilized in shooting the piston back up.

the previous owner put regular gasoline in her...which i may or may not have mentioned. because of this he retarded the timing two degrees and i think increased the idle speed because lower octane gas ignites a little slower. i started putting 92 octane gas in 'er 'cause she just performs better on it. BUT, the rain seems to have made her unhappy. even though the timing was off, she still ran better on higher octane gas before....but after the rain it threw it all outa' sync. don't know why. so i finally got into it, got a couple tools (borrowed a timing light, too) and set it back to the factory suggestion and BAM. she rocks now. before if you floored it off a stop sign, she'd just start surging (alternately accelerating and deccelerating) which i can't imagine is good for the engine. she'd do it all the way up to third gear.

now....off a stop sign...um....yeah. muahahhaaha.

*screeeeeeeeeeech*

time of her life

2004-08-06T01:08:00.000-07:00

not really. raimi apparently doesn't like heavy rain...*sigh*

last weekend i went over to an old friend of my brothers' place early on sunday morning. he builds harley's from scavenged parts...his last (first) one was a fuckin' beast. really hot. either way, he's got lotsa tools and knows how "engines" work and he welds, too, so he said he'd take a jab at my cracked exhaust header. unfortunately cast aluminum doesn't weld very well...and but he did seal it a BIT better than it was before, so that's cool. he also let me borrow his timing light...which brings me to tonight.

didn't wanna get too far into 'cause i got home kinda late, but i suspect that part of the problem is the timing. the last owner ran regular fuel in her (oh the horror) and retarded the timing. i run higher octane...and i think that's putting it outa' sync. it always works a lot better when it warms up...but lately she's been actin' up a lot so i decided to check it out. turns out my timing is indeed about 1.5 degrees retarded (heh, retarded)...unfortunately i don't quite know how to fix that....yet. the directions say to "loosen the base clamp bolt and turn the distributor" or something...sounds scary so i figured i should really know what i'm doing. but yeah, at least i know where one problem is.

also found my idle adjust screw in my carb. one of raimi's previous owners installed an edelbrock carb (among other things) so i have to find a manual or something on it...although the four things i REALLY need are easy enough to find. in time, in time, but timing is first on the schedule. maybe saturday.

oh...and workin' in the garage...running the car....damn...i'm gonna asphyxiate myself on carbon monoxide...or get high and pass out on the fuel vapor. high octane gas smells niiiiiiiiiice.....*kerplunk*. and jess passes out and gets his face scraped off by the fan blades and his ears ripped off by the cam pulley. yay.

raimi love.

shake, rattle and roll

2004-07-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

so raimi's doors rattle a lot. or...rattlED a lot. i spent about 3 hours on sunday afternoon fixing that. the power windows aren't stock...they were installed by one of the last three owners...and whoever installed them did a pretty hack job of it. they work, they don't leak...but there's a huge cut in the inside frame of the door where they put it in but didn't anchor back down....the window would actually hit the motor when it came down 'cause they didn't adjust the stopper and didn't reinstall the rubber bumper....this all took me a while to figure out. if you've ever looked inside the door of a car (take off the pretty cover) you'd find a lot of metal and a few cleverly placed holes that were used to isntall everything in the door (window, crank, motor, lock, handle....ac maybe). this makes getting in there really hard. so yeah...eventually figured out what was loose and what was wrong....so i adjusted the bumpter reinstalled the bumper on the passenger side, and greased the shit out of everything. solid as a rock. anchored the speaker down as well (also installed by an owner...badly) so that sounds a little better.

went over to the drivers side and couldn't find the rubber bumper (the passenger's one was just sitting at the bottom...with a bolt. rattled loose maybe? i used lock-tight on it) so i hacked a hose, cut a hole in one side, slipped a bolt in and it worked like a charm. yay engineering ($160k to come up with that one!).

so now raimi's doors don't rattle and the windows can both be put up at the same time. before there was so much resistance from over extension, rust and loose parts that the motor couldn't always do it. my voltmeter in the dash would show my battery going down as low as EIGHT VOLTS (normal 12V) trying to put up just one window. now they're both workin' fine. still a lotta resistance....prolly 'cause the motor wasn't made for such a large window. ehh...one day...

bumps are a lot more fun when you're car doesn't sound like it's gonna rattle apart....

and all that for free. well...some WD-40 and a gash on my finger from a sharp piece of rusty iron. yay.

i like havin' lotsa tools.

thid base

2004-07-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

so i finally got to third base with raimi. well...i kind of just have to assume it's third base. hmmm...first base....i guess that could be that first burn out? haha. some heat, some slipping, some back and forth....yeah. rain is dangerous.

second base...well with real girls...you get two handfuls and you're at second base....i get two handfuls quite often with raimi.

so third base? up under the skirt, dirty, sweaty, slippery....smelly. of course i went down there protected. gloves, safety goggles and a long sleeve shirt. i ain't takin' any chances, i don't really know where she's been. i mean shit, she's already been with three other guys....granted it's been 26 years. that's not bad....

so i jacked her up...she's quite a lotta woman. propped her up with some stirrups (rated at 3 tons each) under her rigid frame, and slid under her grimy skirt to get a closer look. took a shoplight and a ratchet with me....and an oily rag. fun shit.

poked and prodded and twisted and pried...and finally got her juices flowing. burning hot and slick as hell, i burnt my hand on her oils through my fuckin' glove. ouch. unscrewed her filter and burnt my hand again. finally got her all drianed out. replaced the replaceables, and cleaned her up to a presentable stage once again. then we went out for a victory ride.

so, my first oil change...wasn't all that bad. pretty easy, actually. i switched over to synthetic oil which is supposed to be far superior to conventional petroleum oils. we'll see. so far (i dunno if it's just me fuckin' with myself) it actually FEELS smoother. like the gears are just swimming in the engine....unimpeded by stagnant, gritty, burnt petroleum. could be just me, though.

refilled the power steering fluid as well...that one's leaking like a motherfucker. got an additive that's supposed to help with it as well....we'll see how far a two dollar bottle goes. that shit STINKS like hell. give you a headache in a minute flat, i swear. just really, really strong...petroleum smelling. i dunno how else to describe it.

well, off to eat...and drink...and hopefully sleep.

mmm....slick.

feelin' my girl's curves

2004-07-08T01:15:00.000-07:00

so bodywork has turned out to be a lot more difficult to learn than i thought. once i figure it out, it shouldn't be too hard (time consuming, perhaps)...but by that time i should have just about all the work done. i've been workin' on three patches on the driver's side on and off for the past couple days...about four hours on monday and about three hours so far tonight (i'm waiting for primer to dry). one reason it's takin' so long is 'cause...well...i'm learning. every time i do something and think it's my last coat of primer (before the lacquer coat), i discover something to make it just a little better...everytime i find sopmething new it inevitably involves a lotta sanding...which sucks. i did go and et some discs for the drill, though, which makes the crude work (grinding) MUCH faster. the finer work, though, has to be done mostly by hand.

that's aight, she's got nice curves....

oh, so in deciding between misty and raimi, i googled raimi. there's a sam raimi and a ted raimi that get hit a lot. but if you minus those out of the search...i get a long list of PORN! perfect.

i hereby bequeath upon my love the name Raimi :)

aight, gotta go stroke raimi s'more. she's ready for more.

slick

heh

2004-07-07T02:21:00.000-07:00

just found my high beams a couple days ago...a clicker foot switch off to the left of the firewall...weird. found it by accident...good thing nobody was comin' towards me at the time...

TOOLS

2004-07-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

went to the swap meet today to start stocking up on tools i'll need. left with a 1/2" ratchet driver and a set of american sized sockets for $40 (saved about ten, craftsman..it'll never break). THEN went by sears...they had a sale. so of course i get suckered into getting a sears charge card (yay, a THIRD credit card) for 10% more off the sale and bought a hydraulic lift, safety stands (aka jack stands), wheel chucks, jumper cables, oil matt, and a creeper seat (whatever the fuck that is) in a set for about $100. i can now lift anything under 3 tons (6000 lbs.) :) i feel powerful (my girl weighs 3420 lbs. according to my title). first on the list is lubing the bushings, changing the oil/oil filter, and locating/fixing an oil leak.

i just spent two hours cleaning the garage so i'd have enough room to work.

yesterday i also stopped by napa and bought some primer, paint and sand paper ($20, total) to start workin' on scratches. dropped by my uncle's place as well to borrow their 'ding king'...one'a those dent removers from an infomercial, haha. they said it worked wonders :) so i'm gonna get started on that when i manage to get off my ass again...i'm takin' a break for now.

oh, and a torque wrench costs about $75...that's next on the list...

love

joys of google.

2004-07-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

so that squeak in my front end hasn't gone away. gotten quieter since i sealed the hole in my kick panel...but that's just to me.

did some research on google...had to do quite a few searches. it's a rather odd symptom, really. the squeaking/chirping is totally dependant on wheel speed, and completely independant of acceleration, engagement (transmission), breaks, or even terrain. originally i thought it was too infrequent to be in sync with wheel rotation...but reconsidering, i have no idea how fast a wheel spins. by 'infrequent' i mean i thought the frequency was too slow (chirp, chirp, chirp). finally found a few articles (mostly of webboards) that had the same symptoms...but none of them had been answered very well. most people told about how they had that problem, replaced their suspension, lubed everything, and it still sucked...so they got bigger speakers.

FINALLY found two agreeing sources that blame wheel bearings. http://www.aa1car.com/library/2003/bf70348.htm if your'e interested. interesting thought...3000 pound car, four wheels, that's 750 pounds/wheel. my car weighs 3420. now try and support 750 pounds and make it spin. that's quite a bearing, but not perfect, obviously.

soooooo i think i have to replace my bearings. unfortunately they're really jammed the hell in there and i think they require special tools (like a hydraulic ram was suggested) to just remove it, muchless install new ones. haven't decided whether or not i wanna attack this one on my own yet. well...that and i have no money :)

toodles.

free fixins

2004-07-01T02:51:00.000-07:00

so i ducked under the dashboard to check the fuses. shoulda' taken 10 minutes and a trip to radio shack/napa...but instead i ended up spending about four hours under there. of course at some point i wasn't "under the dashboard" under anymore 'cause i'd taken the entire thing apart :)

my a/c kicked out yesterday in traffic. in the rain. that was painful 'cause i couldn't open the windows too much so i just cooked. i knew it was an electrical problem 'cause the heater/fan wouldn't work either. so i checked the fuse today...and it was busted. even more, i found a lot of busted fuses that had been lost under the carpet, all the same rating so they were probably all a/c fuses. i'll try and find out the exact problem later, but i just replaced the fuse for now.

in fixing that, i noticed the a/c head unit wasn't really...secured. it was kind of being held up by the knobs and therefore was really hard to use...sometimes really hard to just TURN OFF. so i yanked that out and fought a mess of wires to find that two of the screw sockets (plastic) had cracked open so the screws had nothing to grab. so i got two larger wood screws and jammed them the hell up in there to secure it, then put glue all over them to give the treads something to hold on to. should hold for quite a while.

then i found that the cable going from the transmission to the spedometer was just stuck through a hole in the metal to the engine compartment. this meant two things...1) i'd discovered why my feet always got so goddamn hot (that engine gets HOT...and with a hole open to the engine, all the heat comes into the cockpit) and 2) the wire would eventually be frayed and fail. soooo i drilled a hole into the plastic floor cover...because the hole that was made for the cable was too small...which is probably why whoever installed the thing just went straight into the metal hole...cut my hand unplugging the cable from the speedometer...threaded it through the new hole, reconnected it, and made a plug around the length of cable that went through the hole to both seal it and protect it from getting cut on the metal. sounds easy, but try doing it almost upside down, contorted in a pretzel and having your hands cramped in a space cluttered with three pedals and a mess of wires...

yeah. fun.

oh...then i had to fix my horn 'cause it shorted. and if you don't know what shorting a horn does...it does this:

*bbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

which only stopped after i pounded the shit out of it, ripped the cover off and pounded more....and something sparked and it stopped. i opened it up and the insulators are all cracked, so i hacked it with some electrical tape and it's unposessed now :) goddamn that was irritating...prolly pissed off all my neighbors, too.

oh, and the front right still squeaks. wasn't a belt. must be suspension.

but that cost 239 bucks to get all the parts for (complete front end overhaul)...another 40 bucks for jack stands...which i'll need eventually anyway...and 80 or so for a hydraulic lift...which i'll also always use.

heh, i need to start gettin' PAID.

whew. that was my four hours.

squeaka squaka

2004-06-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

so i decided to fix some squeaks in my car. one really irritating one was a belt squeak to the fan. did some googling and a quick fix was to use something called belt dressing which you spray on. it's this tacky stuff that's supposed to help the belt retain it's natural moisture so it doesn't crack and it's kind of tacky (gets messy) so it helps the belt grip the pulley. so far it worked...granted i only tested it around the blcok.

another squeak i fixed (for now) was a suspension squeak. the front left upper control arm's bushings are almost gone. bushings are these rubber gasget type things that seperate metal from metal so things can swivel and such...well one is just about gone and the other is on its way out. the temporary solution? motor oil :) easy enough. i don't have one'a those little plinka cans (i dunno what they're called) so i used a paintbrush instead. *shrugs* it works for now.

gotta get some jack stands so i can start doing stuff under the car....

cheap squeak fix...yay.

$41.50+$30

2004-06-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

got gas...decided to get 92 octane (the expensive one)...41 bucks, 16 gallons...and it wasn't even completely empty. oh my :) got an engine cleaner from napa as well, you just dump that in the gas tank before you fill it. supposed to increase gas mileage :) let's hope so 'cause that shit is EXPENSIVE.

picked up the chilton's from napa auto parts. so i can start figuring out how to take things apart and such. first thing i gotta do is fix the steering wheel...it's offset...which is a pain 'cause when i'm going straight ahead i can't see the tachometer. i think i might start on doing just basic body touchups. stop the rust and such. you'd be surprised how much people base price on the LOOK of a car. let the rust go and it'll just get worse. and hey, it's something simple i can do while i read up.

oh, and the car likes the premium (or supreme) gas :) acceleration is much quicker and it catches faster. before if you stomped the gas (on a shift) it would kinda get outa sync and the RPM would drop before it would catch and take off...not so much anymore.

vroom

2004-06-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

Ehh, i was bored. Here's a pic i put together for easy preview :)

$8, 1.5hrs.

2004-06-24T01:52:00.000-07:00

So i decided i'm gonna do something dumb and log everything i do to this new camaro of mine. if you (doubtful) found my site randomly, there are pictures here.

1978 Z28 Camaro. i'm the 4th owner, and i bought it on June 21, 2004.

it's been only two days :) but so far i got a steering wheel cover 'cause the old one was...slimy? i think it's synthetic leather and it's deteriorating so there's some kind of oil comin' out of it...not a lot, but enough to make my hands really tacky. new cover: $8

ordered a Chilton's manual for her.

and spent 1.5 hrs. scraping/peeling the old tint off the back window. it's a partial fastback so that thing goes down into a little crevice...very hard to get your hand back there to peel the shit off. then of course there's all this glue leftover on the windshield so i used most of a bottle of acetone getting that shit off, then window cleaner to finish the job...nearly passing out from all the fumes. finally, cleaned the outside of the window with this pumice stuff that's a mild abrasive so it gets water spots off. now my back window's all nice and shiny :) much safer...since the old tint had gotten all hazy and i couldn't see more than a pair of headlights out my rearview window...this'll be much more comfortable..now i can see cops!