Ace-Garageguy

Weather is whether or not there's something inclement.

Really cool. Another one of those technology-augmented vintage gloobomb reworks.

Another of life's most aggravating frustrations is dealing with women who actually mean "you need to center your life around me and forget about your own aspirations, goals, and sense of ethics" when they say "I love you". EDIT: I thought when I hit geezer status I wouldn't have this kind of problem anymore. Well sporty, guess again.

I read a lot of sci fi to unwind in the evenings. Currently alternating between Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series and the ancient "Bolo" series originated by Keith Laumer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_universe

"Me" gets kinda old when it's all a woman truly cares about...meaning herself and how you can benefit her.

Hit about 90F today, 92 in one shop, reading 100 in the other one. Only 47% humidity though, so not as bas as it could have been. Forecast 69 tonight, so I'm looking forward to getting something done in one shop in the AM cool, then come home and work on something here. Need to use these rain-free days when they're available.

Honestly, most people who "work on cars" don't enjoy it. Thinking they did was a gross mistake I made when I got in the biz about the time the first Datsun Z-cars hit the market. Sadly, it's perceived as a job you get if you're too stupid to get clean employment, doubly sadly because being a GOOD mechanic takes a kinda big brain. Welcome to my world. It never stops, and it's WAY worse than it used to be (wrong parts, "offshore" parts that aren't made to spec and/or fail early, or OEM stuff that's just not available anywhere at any price). Late-model collision parts not being available from any dealer nationwide is playing bloody hello with the bottom line and job-throughput at the most competent bodyshop I've ever seen. After well over fifty years, two generations of guys who DO really like working on cars (it shows in everything they turn out), the frustration of operating in today's business environment is bringing down the curtain. They're running a skeleton crew in a shop that used to support 3 times the staff because THERE'S NOBODY COMPETENT TO HIRE TO DO THE WORK RIGHT. And God knows they've tried. Happily for the owner, the property value has skyrocketed, and when the bay doors roll down the last time in the not too distant future, the shop buildings will likely be bulldozed to become a parking lot for the brandy-new gubmint complex across the street. Far as the stir stick goes, that's typical of kit-car-builder "solutions", and almost every single car I touch that's had "something worked on" elsewhere is riddled with moron fixes. But not to worry. Apparently all the worst of those mechanically inept dwerbles are happily designing poorly thought-out junk on computer screens for manufacturers now.

Ruled pads keep my lines of handwritten shop notes from snaking all over the page.

Looks good.

Restaurant warnings about spice levels remind me of one time in an Indian place, after I ordered vindaloo, the waiter cautioned me that it was "plenty menty hot!!!"

With six you get egg roll...or is it eggroll?

Last of the rain blew through, sun's out, humidity's dropping, forecast looks decent through Wednesday, 68F tonight. Maybe I'll start fixing the ratty looking black trim on the Blazer, see what the annoying front brake squeak is all about, and tear down the Neon head. Need to go round and empty all the skeeter breeding places, etc. and finish up raking the pine straw from the driveway, then wash the '89 GMC so she knows I still love her. Good weather for a hike too, and there's an ACME meeting on Sunday. Might even shoot some primer on a model...

Scotland has hairy coos.

Nobody dropped any nukes on anybody else last night. Be thankful one day at a time...

I'll have more to say about that later, but that's the way to do things, for sure.

Piglet wearing lipstick is still a pig.

The first really idiotic design stuff I encountered up close and personal was on the Triumph Stag engine, which I worked on at a dealership when they were new. The engine was a SOHC V8 derived from a joint Triumph/Saab inline 4. Saab's little 3-cylinder 2-stroke ring-dings were legendary, but there was just too much reinventing the wheel on their OHC 4-stroke 4, and Triumph really should have known better. The water pump was buried under the intake manifold on the V8 because the designers of the 4 were trying to save length for FWD installations (Saab 99). The timing chains were barely adequate and stretched early. The cylinder heads were retained by studs that went in at different angles. When the heads inevitably warped and blew head gaskets, the studs often seized in the block. Because they went in at different angles, they had to be removed before you could get a head off...but they were too short to get a standard stud puller on. Of course they were provided with a little slot for a screwdriver on the top end, but it failed if the stud was the least bit reluctant to turn. AND...because the head studs went in at different angles, you were severely limited in how much meat could be removed from a warped head. Engine swaps were almost a necessity. I personally did 3 SBC swaps, one SBF, and have seen aluminum Olds, Buick, and Rover V8 swaps, and a few V6 Buicks. If you ever encounter a SBC or SBF equipped Stag, IF there's no hole in the hood, I probably did it. I built custom headers for all of mine, so the engine sat lower in the bay, and no need to cut a hole in the hood for air filter clearance. Stags had a multitude of other designed-in problems including power steering rack seal issues, window regulators, etc., but I loved them anyway. With styling by Giovanni Michelotti, a full convertible top, an optional hard top, and an integral padded roll bar, they were striking visually and comfortable, and though the OEM engines were junk, they sounded heavenly.

Alarm for smoke where you are sounds kinda like Twiki checking out the babe...

Old-school engine guys will recognize these valve lapping tools. Impulse purchase at the parts store today 'cause they were cheap and the cups on my old ones are hard as little rocks. I have to do a head for the Neon, because the bozo who sold it to me swore he'd just done the timing belt and he hadn't. It stripped a couple of teeth just idling in the driveway. Unfortunately it's an "interference" engine, so it bent some valves. I've been putting it off but finally decided to just get on with it. I have a buildable junkyard head on the bench. It'll be fun to have little blue car running again. I really like Neons.

Sorry to read about the trials you're having getting work done, but sadly, it's becoming pretty universal. Finding quality- and competence-oriented craftsmen has always been a challenge, but it's worse now than ever. I speak from very expensively acquired experience in multiple fields over decades.

"Manipulated" by trying to make you think you're the bad guy is one of the favorite tactics of narcissists...all while they play the innocent victim.

"Wrong" is difficult if not impossible to counteract if the one who believes something that's wrong has his mind made up and closed to reason..

Also sprach Zarathustra

Some fairly late-model Jeep service manuals show pulling the front bumper to do the headlights, but it's possible to pull the plastic fender liner down and get to the backside to swap bulbs on some models. Half an hour instead of half a day.

Big strange orange fireball in sky. Very scary.