What did YOU do today?

[Rick W]

Took out the lacquer thinner and cut a corner off of fluffy towel and took the tree sap off all three trucks. Then I washed the two Rangers and put all three out front.

That gives me room to pull out at least a couple of the Lincolns. I got under the hood of Ole Blue and did this and that enough to figure out that I don’t have any spark from the coil. Rotor and cap are pretty new. So I got online RockAuto and I ordered an Ignition control module for $15, and a new coil was only $6, so I got one of those too.

After some desk work and a break, Lincoln and I went down to Harbor freight and I got an axle shaft bearing puller set, and a real slide hammer in preparation for rebuilding the axle on the Missing Linc. Gosh I hate paying full price.

 

[Bgunner]

Took out the lacquer thinner and cut a corner off of fluffy towel and took the tree sap off all three trucks. Then I washed the two Rangers and put all three out front.

I have found that Rubbing Alcohol 90% or higher works great on tree sap and is a lot safer on paint. You should try it sometime and see if you have good luck with it also.

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

Ordered a fresh, non-boogered trim tool, in prep for installing the very cool Thunderbolt turn signal mirrors that @mhoward sold me. Also ordered an oil filter, I'm about due for a change after the trip to KY. Don't know when this week I'll get to it though.

 

[sgtsandman]

Outside of a couple veteran service organization meetings, I attended and helped out at a September 11th remembrance ceremony. One of the rare times one will see me in my dress blues. I'm a mechanic and don't like wearing suits.

 

[jballard81]

Pressure washed the engine bay and front steering components today. Hopefully removing the quarter inch of sludge from the steering components will help when I go to replace them.

Found out that the power steering pump is not factory black.
Put on your shades so that valve cover doesn't blind you!

Ignore the sad rusty exhaust manifold.

Pulled a 181 error while driving today. HEGO sensor failure to switch. Ordered a couple of Bosch replacement O2 sensors, should be here Friday.

My youngest got home from school and walked through the runoff and then directly upstairs, so I got to spend an hour steam cleaning the carpets

 

[Bgunner]

Working on clean parts always seems nicer than working on grease covered slime. I have found that wrenches tend to hold better on bolt heads without grease on them making their extraction easier.

 

[Rick W]

Outside of a couple veteran service organization meetings, I attended and helped out at a September 11th remembrance ceremony. One of the rare times one will see me in my dress blues. I'm a mechanic and don't like wearing suits.

View attachment 117200

& tell Momma I LOVE her dress!!

 

[Rick W]

Working some on the real estate today, I’m pretty sure nobody wants to hear about that, but you have to pay the bills.

Some sprinkling rain, so I wasn’t heading towards anything real productive, and then I remembered I found this on Craigslist:

After disassembling it, and about 15 minutes with the band saw, I put it back together

MINI ROAD RANGER ! ! !

The only really disappointing thing is it was a pretty good quality toy, so there’s no opportunity to spruce it up with rustoleum.

I still want to make one of those 8 or 10 footers out of the toddler pedal car for the grandkids

 

[racsan]

on the road again…..

 

[Rick W]

on the road again…..
View attachment 117321

Road Ranger in the background…

 

[pentode]

I like to crack on Ford engineering decisions sometimes but when I work on my wife's 2013 Sonata... let's just say less jokes and more swearing. Man, is that car just about the least fun piece of machinery I've ever worked on. I promised her I'd patch up a couple rust holes (yep, 11-year-old car) and needed to remove the front fender to weld it up because there was some kind of squishy foam rubber behind it. Still, wanted to do it right so went to the overcomplicated hassle of removing the fender. I think there were literally 8 different types of fasteners involved in getting that thing off. Ask me how many clips I broke.

Guess where it rusted out?

That's me peeling the foam rubber part back so you can see the hole. So, riddle me this Batman... why's that foam there? Sound deadening undoubtedly? And was it worth it? More tech and more engineering don't necessarily make things better.

 

[Rick W]

I like to crack on Ford engineering decisions sometimes but when I work on my wife's 2013 Sonata... let's just say less jokes and more swearing. Man, is that car just about the least fun piece of machinery I've ever worked on. I promised her I'd patch up a couple rust holes (yep, 11-year-old car) and needed to remove the front fender to weld it up because there was some kind of squishy foam rubber behind it. Still, wanted to do it right so went to the overcomplicated hassle of removing the fender. I think there were literally 8 different types of fasteners involved in getting that thing off. Ask me how many clips I broke.

Guess where it rusted out?

View attachment 117340View attachment 117341View attachment 117342

That's me peeling the foam rubber part back so you can see the hole. So, riddle me this Batman... why's that foam there? Sound deadening undoubtedly? And was it worth it? More tech and more engineering don't necessarily make things better.

I think it’s there so you can’t hear the rust coming

 

[sgtsandman]

More camping equipment got put away in the shed. The back porch got cleaned up some. And the brakes on the 2011 got inspected, cleaned, lubricated, and adjusted as well as a few lubrication points were greased while the wheels were off.

 

[jballard81]

In continuing to organize my tools, I found these button lights that do a pretty good job of adding a little bit more light when needed

 

[Rick W]

In continuing to organize my tools, I found these button lights that do a pretty good job of adding a little bit more light when needed
View attachment 117374
View attachment 117375

That toolbox is way too clean and organized. How could you ever get anything done with that? On a good day, I spend half the day looking for my tools.