[Bob Heine]

I've been working on cars since I was 15 so that's 50 years of tinkering. I don't have or spend a lot of money on my cars but now that I'm retired, I have lots of time to play with them. Having an air conditioned 3-car garage attached to my wife's house helps too.

Family Car: 2004 PT Cruiser Touring Turbo. Mopar Stage I, Eibach springs, Mopar/Borla exhaust, Billet grille, roll pan rear.

Sunny Day Car: 1987 Corvette convertible. Mostly cosmetic changes.


Project Car: 1972 Corvette coupe. Big block auto with factory air and power everything. Blueprinted engine with Hooker under-car headers, Summit high-rise intake, roller rockers, PerTronix distributor conversion. TCI Turbo 400. Lots of small body mods.

 

[eloc431962]

Welcome to the site, post some more pics so we can see. :welcome: Cole

 

[NEW INTERIORS]

Welcome to the site.. :thumbup: nice cars.. :thumbup:

 

[Bob Heine]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'll post some pics of the '72 Corvette project. Having more time than money, I have been doing a fair bit of aluminum polishing lately.

 

[Bob Heine]

Time Flies

This is a really great site. I'm enjoying the Journals and the Bulletin Boards. Unfortunately, I'm spending too much time on the computer and not enough on the car. I have been moving backwards at a pretty rapid rate.

I bought a couple of gallons of black lacquer that I planned to use on my 72 Corvette. I also planned to shoot the lacquer using a Starting Line gun. After reading deadbodyman's advice I guess I'll be using that to paint furniture. I painted a couple of cars over the years but was never happy with the results. Now I know why.

I've started a Project Journal -- the story of an aging bolt-on guy trying to be a hot rodder. With help from people on this site, maybe I can advance from "Incompetent" to "Amateur." The beauty of being incompetent is that you'll try anything once and then do it over (sometimes only once).

For example, about a month after my 2004 PT Cruiser's warranty ran out, the A/C stopped working. Turned out to be the evaporator. When the shop owner told me it would be $1,500 to fix and required 13 hours of labor I had him extract the remaining R134 and did the repair myself. I had already done a complete replacement of the system in my 87 Corvette so how bad could it be?

Took me ten days, following the shop manual. It was actually quite simple: you sit in the driver's seat and remove everything between you and the firewall on both the driver and passenger sides. Then you take a few hoses and nuts out of the engine compartment. That gives you access to the box that houses the evaporator. Just put a new evaporator in the box and put all the stuff back that you just removed. Since it was the family car, I rented a car for 7 days so my wife had transportation (she refuses to drive the Vette).

Aside from one mis-aligned o-ring and two leftover trim screws everything went back together great. Cost of doing the job myself was less than half what the professional had to charge:

• $240 Evaporator
  $ 70 Hose (messed up taking it out) and o-rings
  $110 Refrigerant
  $300 Rental Car
  $720 Total

It's going on 3 years and the A/C is still ice cold.