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The "What Did You Work On Today" thread

3M views 36K replies 388 participants last post by  cerial 
#1 ·
4 hour work day for me at the shop. Used the time to do a valve body swap on a '01 Jetta 1.8t auto .... I successfully installed a transbrake on the car .... that however wasn't my intention.

Its in 2 gears at once in park, all other gears (R/N/D/2/1) are forward gears.... they all seam to be first gear.

I have it torn back down most of the way. Tuesday I'll actually get the VB back out and see whats up.... but part of me wants to take it out for a test drive the way it is just for the fun of it.
 
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#801 ·
deadbodyman said:
Even 50.00 is to much for a pair of hinges for me.. thats about what a new set costs..The HF cabinet blaster is under 100.00 and you'll always have it around for bolts or anything small...I dont use it much any more but everyone else comes over to use it.....good little blaster after a little tweeking.....Change the hoses and clamps for good ones and there'll be no problems..
very good point
first time you use it pays for it--after that its a free tool you get to keep, or resell
or send it to me :thumbup:



deadbodyman said:
Got collector car insurance today for the 48.tomorrow its the DMV :sweat:
well how did it go?
 
#802 ·
deadbodyman said:
Even 50.00 is to much for a pair of hinges for me.. thats about what a new set costs..The HF cabinet blaster is under 100.00 and you'll always have it around for bolts or anything small...I dont use it much any more but everyone else comes over to use it.....good little blaster after a little tweeking.....Change the hoses and clamps for good ones and there'll be no problems..

Excellent idea! But don't buy the small one. Sell your kids bike or mow the neighbors lawn, but buy the biggest one HF's got. I'll guarantee if you don't you'll regret it. There's always a part that's just a little to big. If you get the smaller one there will be lots of " a little to bigs"
 
#803 ·
Wife's project

Well, I took a break this week to restore my wife's project. It has pedals and keys, but no motor. :mwink: I bought her one of her dream things, an od upright piano. She didnt want anything special, but I wanted it to be, so I bought it off Cragslist since it was in great condition, showed it to her, then hid it in my shop and restored it. Sanded it all down to bare wood, smoothed it with 2000 grit till it was like glass, and stained it with a mahogany. 400 then 2000 grit on the brass hinges and fixtures, brasso, and a good cleaning. Oh and 5 hours of a piano tuner tuning it back up. It was made in 1905 so I guess I'll forgive the old girl for being a little outa tune. Not a bad job for a week. She literally cried when she saw it (in a good way) :thumbup: , so I guess its good. Now I have to re-clean the engine on the truck cause I have sawdust all over. :rolleyes: sigh....the things I do for the wife.
 

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#805 ·
JMSTOY said:
Well, I took a break this week to restore my wife's project. It has pedals and keys, but no motor. :mwink: I bought her one of her dream things, an od upright piano. She didnt want anything special, but I wanted it to be, so I bought it off Cragslist since it was in great condition, showed it to her, then hid it in my shop and restored it. Sanded it all down to bare wood, smoothed it with 2000 grit till it was like glass, and stained it with a mahogany. 400 then 2000 grit on the brass hinges and fixtures, brasso, and a good cleaning. Oh and 5 hours of a piano tuner tuning it back up. It was made in 1905 so I guess I'll forgive the old girl for being a little outa tune. Not a bad job for a week. She literally cried when she saw it (in a good way) :thumbup: , so I guess its good. Now I have to re-clean the engine on the truck cause I have sawdust all over. :rolleyes: sigh....the things I do for the wife.
Man,I hope my wife dont read this :sweat: :sweat:
 
#806 ·
JMSTOY said:
Well, I took a break this week to restore my wife's project. It has pedals and keys, but no motor. :mwink: I bought her one of her dream things, an od upright piano. She didnt want anything special, but I wanted it to be, so I bought it off Cragslist since it was in great condition, showed it to her, then hid it in my shop and restored it. Sanded it all down to bare wood, smoothed it with 2000 grit till it was like glass, and stained it with a mahogany. 400 then 2000 grit on the brass hinges and fixtures, brasso, and a good cleaning. Oh and 5 hours of a piano tuner tuning it back up. It was made in 1905 so I guess I'll forgive the old girl for being a little outa tune. Not a bad job for a week. She literally cried when she saw it (in a good way) :thumbup: , so I guess its good. Now I have to re-clean the engine on the truck cause I have sawdust all over. :rolleyes: sigh....the things I do for the wife.
very cool, i have a ton of stuff around here that i would like to do that to :thumbup:
 
#807 ·
I spent the day trying to diagnose a dead cylinder on my recently finished gasser! Well they're never really finished, but with only 500 miles on the 327 SBC since it went back together, I really thought it would be awhile until I was back into it!
Checked all the plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc., and all checked good. Got the compression tester out and #2 cylinder was zero compresion! Pulled the valve cover and immediately the problem was ovious; no pushrod on #2 intake. Rocker sitting sideways, and after a short search I found a length of pushrod about 1.5" long laying inside the aluminum head near #8 valves.
Time to take the intake off, and underneath I found the rest the pushrod, plus one lifter that had come aprt internally. Fortunately no damage to the outside of the lifter, or the new cam. It appears that either the pushrod broke at the guideplate, or the lifter came apart and damaged the pushrod.
Called Summit (where I bought the cam and lifters) and after a short explanation the tech said he thought the re-used pushrods were the culprit, but they would gladly send me a new lifter. He also encouraged me to replace all the pushrods with hardened pushrods, and would give me 20% off to encourage me to do so. Gave me another $5 off the intake gasket set, so they were only $9.95 after that.
I'm glad it was minor, but even happier with the way Summit handled it. They did the right thing by me, and I'm an even bigger fan of them now!
 
#808 ·
Well my last two days have been a little unplanned, yesterday was one of the worse in quite some time. I was called by my wife in the morning that our son had broken or dislocated his "hip" at school and an ambulance was on it's way to get him. They ended up taking him to a trauma unit. Not good, the doctors were perplexed, how in the world could a 14 year old break his leg from falling down on the floor? 90 year olds do this, not 14 year olds. And an X-ray told them the whole story. Nick had a cyst in the bone, a void if you will. The top of his femur was hollow, like a figgin light bulb!
The top of the bone basically collapsed, it was not pretty. He was transferred to another hospital where a specialist was and he did a bang up job on Nick. He had a rod and a few screws put in today and is already moving it! We are very blessed that it happen at a place like it did. This thing was so fragile it could have happened anywhere. Jumping from a rock in Yosemite, or off a hay bale in Half Moon bay last Oct, it could have happened at a very bad time or place, so this is as good as it gets. Nick believe it or not has enjoyed the "show". He said that if it wasn't for the pain of the broken leg it is "interesting" seeing what he has seen during this experience.

My Gran Sport is put on the back burner for a few weeks minimum.

Brian
 
#809 ·
MARTINSR said:
Well my last two days have been a little unplanned, yesterday was one of the worse in quite some time. I was called by my wife in the morning that our son had broken or dislocated his "hip" at school and an ambulance was on it's way to get him. They ended up taking him to a trauma unit. Not good, the doctors were perplexed, how in the world could a 14 year old break his leg from falling down on the floor? 90 year olds do this, not 14 year olds. And an X-ray told them the whole story. Nick had a cyst in the bone, a void if you will. The top of his femur was hollow, like a figgin light bulb!
The top of the bone basically collapsed, it was not pretty. He was transferred to another hospital where a specialist was and he did a bang up job on Nick. He had a rod and a few screws put in today and is already moving it! We are very blessed that it happen at a place like it did. This thing was so fragile it could have happened anywhere. Jumping from a rock in Yosemite, or off a hay bale in Half Moon bay last Oct, it could have happened at a very bad time or place, so this is as good as it gets. Nick believe it or not has enjoyed the "show". He said that if it wasn't for the pain of the broken leg it is "interesting" seeing what he has seen during this experience.

My Gran Sport is put on the back burner for a few weeks minimum.

Brian
Gee Brian that is tough luck hope the future is bright for him now, :sweat: :sweat: stainless could have been an option ?? anyhow wish him well from us all :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
#811 ·
I REALLY know how you feel Brian! My yougest son wa born with a broken collar bone; a sign of things to come! He has osteogenisis imperfecta, brittle bone disease. From birth to around 17 yrs. old he had probably 18 broken bones, and got to a point where he'd cry just seeing anyone in a white coat.
Fortunately he finally stopped breaking bones at that point, and hasn't had a broken bone for 20 years now. But they say the nature of the disease is he'll grow back into it as he gets old.
Hope your son gets better quickly!
 
#813 ·
My Better half broke her arm above the elbow a few weeks ago.
Ugly break---clear thru and her arm was bent were it should not be.

She still has a few weeks of the cast and still a few weeks off work.
Poor girl has had nothing but "falling apart" issues for a couple of years now.
2 ankle surgeries and a knee surgery.

When all is said and done, this may be a good thing happening to your boy at an early age. Still young enough to heal up and learn his limitations.

A couple of my early injuries have kept me from doing some things, but knowing ahead of time it's a bad idea has probably kept me from more than one ER visit.

Hope he heals up fully and properly.

Susan's X-rays yesterday show she is finally starting to heal up and the arm has done some self aligning in the process.
 
#814 ·
MARTINSR said:
Well my last two days have been a little unplanned, yesterday was one of the worse in quite some time. I was called by my wife in the morning that our son had broken or dislocated his "hip" at school and an ambulance was on it's way to get him. They ended up taking him to a trauma unit. Not good, the doctors were perplexed, how in the world could a 14 year old break his leg from falling down on the floor? 90 year olds do this, not 14 year olds. And an X-ray told them the whole story. Nick had a cyst in the bone, a void if you will. The top of his femur was hollow, like a figgin light bulb!
The top of the bone basically collapsed, it was not pretty. He was transferred to another hospital where a specialist was and he did a bang up job on Nick. He had a rod and a few screws put in today and is already moving it! We are very blessed that it happen at a place like it did. This thing was so fragile it could have happened anywhere. Jumping from a rock in Yosemite, or off a hay bale in Half Moon bay last Oct, it could have happened at a very bad time or place, so this is as good as it gets. Nick believe it or not has enjoyed the "show". He said that if it wasn't for the pain of the broken leg it is "interesting" seeing what he has seen during this experience.

My Gran Sport is put on the back burner for a few weeks minimum.

Brian
X2 at least it was early, and in an easy ambulance location! Now he knows and Will recover well. Pullin for him, best wishes. Chicks dig scars, he'll be good!
Zak
 
#815 ·
Thanks guys, he as moved around using a walker already, it's amazing how different it is than just a few years ago when he would have spent months in traction!

One of the more interesting things that came of this was this little story. The day it happened and we were talking with the surgeon about how it would be fixed I told him "That sounds like what I do for a living, only with different material". He asked me a question that told me he was a vintage car nut. He asked me "Why don't body shops want to work on a vintage car and only do wrecks"? He proceeded to pull out his phone and show me a photo of his 48 Chevy pickup that HE restored! LOL We had a nice connection right there.

After the surgery I had the most interesting talk with him. He explained to me every step of the procedure, it was so damn interesting. I told him how funny it is that we both do a similar thing but at a point early on went in different directions. He proceeded to tell me how he restored his truck WHILE he was going to med school! And I mean, HE restored it, everything but the actual spraying of the paint. And he did it in a one car garage in his apartment building.

The funny thing about the conversation, the very odd thing that is, I got a very clear message from him that he admired what I was able to do all these years making a living! I am not kidding you, this guy was a hot rodder who ended up a surgeon, probably being pushed by his parents or something like that. But I could tell he really wished he had done what I did! When he was telling me about this procedure he had done on my sons leg he spoke to me as an equal, he was telling me this just as if I was discussing with someone how to chop a top on a 32 Ford. It was really interesting and along with a few other people there, this experience introduced me to few people with a few conversations that were treasures that I won't soon forget.

Brian
 
#816 · (Edited)
^^^^^^^^^ thats kinda funny, because when going to the dentist, I often compare it to polishing/repairing aluminum :D



yesterday, on our first real nice day of spring, I did a ton of yard work, and there is a bunch more to do :drunk:

when my son got back from a dump run with my 97 f250 all I could smell was brakes
looks like the RF brake is stuck on, judging from the smoke coming off of it :pain:
took the tire off, and couldnt see what was wrong

I will tear it apart today :rolleyes:
 
#817 ·
matts37chev said:
^^^^^^^^^ thats kinda funny, because when going to the dentist, I often compare it to polishing/repairing aluminum :D



yesterday, on our first real nice day of spring, I did a ton of yard work, and there is a bunch more to do :drunk:

when my son got back from a dump run with my 97 f250 all I could smell was brakes
looks like the RF brake is stuck on, judging from the smoke coming off of it :pain:
took the tire off, and couldnt see what was wrong

I will tear it apart today :rolleyes:
Uuuummmmm, Wheel bearing ? Let us know.
 
#818 ·
Well it was actually last Wednesday. I media blasted my buddy's spare set of alloy wheels with extra fine Black Beauty. It only took less than five minutes per wheel with my pressure blaster. Almost longer to suit up with long sleeved canvas carhart jacket, welder's cap, dust mask, full face mask, ear muffs, and TIG gloves. He picked them up cheap because the clear coat was peeling. He is going to paint them satin black. They go on his 2005 K-2500
 
#819 · (Edited)
matts37chev said:
^^^^^^^^^ thats kinda funny, because when going to the dentist, I often compare it to polishing/repairing aluminum :D



yesterday, on our first real nice day of spring, I did a ton of yard work, and there is a bunch more to do :drunk:

when my son got back from a dump run with my 97 f250 all I could smell was brakes
looks like the RF brake is stuck on, judging from the smoke coming off of it :pain:
took the tire off, and couldnt see what was wrong

I will tear it apart today :rolleyes:
Being a Ford, look at rusty caliper guide pins - a too well known situation. You can try a clean up, but you should really replace them along with their boots - the new boots are made of better stuff. A good silicone BRAKE grease should be applied to the pins on reassembly.

NOW, what did I do yesterday - tile work in a bathroom I'm redoing. This has to be one of the slowest jobs I have ever done on the house. Everything just takes 2X as long as straight forward carpentry work. The tiles are 5/16" thick Italian porcelain and are harder then steel. I tried my 4-1/2 grinder with a brand new Norton 60 grit disc to true up a corner - it barely touched it and threw major sparks. The ones I had to cut last week - cleaned the diamond grit off the blade of my little low end wet saw so ended up with the tile store's monster 12" pro wet saw - and that one even groaned. Waiting on a new blade for mine so I can do the backsplash.

The car - waitin' and rarin' to go if it ever gets warm enough again. A roadster in 30-40 degree weather, even with a heater could be a lot more fun at 50-70 degrees
 
#820 ·
matts37chev said:
^^^^^^^^^ thats kinda funny, because when going to the dentist, I often compare it to polishing/repairing aluminum :D

LOLOLOLOLOL funny you should say this because he told me about how back in Med school he brought the stainless steel window trim from the truck into the school when no one was looking and using stainless polish and the polishing equipment in a dental class using for polishing dentures polished it! NO KIDDING! LOLOLOLOL, isn't that hilarious!

Brian
 
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