Clapped Out Garage - Projects and such

I've got a 10oz tube of right stuff. Will need to find some o-rings. Pretty sure I have some assembly lube in the garage. 

Also need your o-ring cord stock, I didn't buy any. 

Fig. 1: How to use a wire brush

Fig 2.  Making O-rings out of undercooked spaghetti (2.4mm Viton cord)

This involves cursing when your fingers jitter before the cyanoacrylate sets and breaks the bond.

Wanna stop by my house? Lol

Why port it when you can just slap another rotor in there?

Huge thanks to Pete for putting the engine together. I learned a lot and could probably be less useless next time. Now to get the engine bay of the rx7 finished up and the final stuff on the engine.

After some annoyance, involving dropping one of the grommets deep in the engine bay and finding a method to press the reservoir all the way on, the Miata brake master reservoir is installed and hopefully doesn't leak. 

Today i went to the VOA auction and picked up a new tow rig to build into a camper and replace the rusty truck.

Neat.  I didn't know they made HD models with driver side doors.

Front hitch ftw.  Want some aftermarket 17x8's so you can go aggressive looking?

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

Front hitch ftw.  Want some aftermarket 17x8's so you can go aggressive looking?

Are they 8 lug? Pics and price? I need tires badly.

I removed the seats and cleaned up the interior. It wasn't too terrible, just dirty from use. I also removed the side steps. There is some rust in the rockers that I should address before it gets worse. It isn't anywhere near as bad as my pickup and the frame is in great shape. 

I also fixed the A/C. My neighbor brought over his gauges and refrigerant to see if it was low. The pressure was good so we started looking for other things. As I was under the van looking at the compressor I noticed that the belt was just slipping on the pulleys. The tensioner had failed and wasn't putting any pressure on the belt. I had a new tensioner that I had bought for my truck before I realized the compressor was locked up. I put that on and the A/C works great. 

"I had this tensioner sitting around, so I had to buy a van that needed a tensioner"

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

"I had this tensioner sitting around, so I had to buy a van that needed a tensioner"

There are worse reasons to buy a van.

17" 8 lug, had them on my 2007 express 3500.  Cheap.  I would be happy to get $75 back and have them be gone.  Will send you a picture when i go out to close up the garage.  I bought them new and literally maybe 7k miles of use, kept them when i got rid of the avalanche and put them on the van, and it was mostly a moving storage shed 

Over lunch I decided to do some measuring for the sleeping area and ended up here. 

Surprise #1, the seat rails are bolted in from the bottom. I guess that isn't too surprising but I was hoping it wasn't the case. Looks like those will be staying in there as some of the studs are obscured by things I don't want to move, like the rear A/C lines. 

I want to keep the rear A/C and heat functional, I need to decide if I want to build something custom around this to gain a little space or just put the plastic panel back on that wastes some space and would require me mounting the bed platform up a little higher. 

It was a hot and dusty weekend for rallycross at Bitzer's Farm. The van was nice to have a place for the dog and a place to sleep. I insulated the windows with Reflectix and that made a huge difference keeping it cool inside even when it was 90°+ outside. 

Some photos by Scott Zimmermann from Saturday. 

A Datsun showed up and was able to make one run in between being broken. Hopefully it comes back. 

That black and white shot of the Miata is superb. Full on dust bowl apocalypse mode!

Yeah, given that I'm still racked with coughing fits and hocking up thick yellow lung mustard, glad I couldn't make it...

The Van now has a plywood subfloor and vent fan installed. 

The dash trim is torn apart to install the new stereo I bought. Unfortunately the very old stereo/navigation used a different connector for the backup cam so I had to order a new one. Just as well since the old one had terrible image quality and it was on the roof. Now I can install it closer to the hitch to make hooking up the trailer easier. 

I still need to find a circuit to temporarily wire in the fan until I get an isolated house battery set up. 

Next up is removing the plywood again to finish the insulation under it. Then fully install it and find some LVP flooring on sale to cover it. Then build the bed platform and start finishing out the walls and ceiling with insulation and a TBD type of wood. 

I had a problem with the camera mounting on the rear of my van back in The Day in that the centerline was where the door is.  The camera had to be offset to one side or the other and that made it almost useless for trailer hooking-upping.

I was trying to do it without putting any new holes in the sheet metal, though.  So if you have any compunctions prohibiting that you might be a-okay there.

In reply to wae :

My plan is to stick it in this plastic piece centered on the hitch. 

Although after cutting a large hole in the roof for the fan my aversion to making holes in the sheet metal is mostly gone. 

New stereo and backup camera installed with a tiny view of the hitch. Should make it easier to hook up the trailer.