The Toilet-A shop story...

Shop time today for all the wrong reasons. Additionally, I do not really want to start a thread on all my cars, so the Tacoma and some other stuff will fall here.

I have had to deal with some rust on my Taco a bit. It lives a rough life. Deferred maintenance and my not being home much led to a little scramble this weekend.

Registration went out 8/31, I got home yesterday after 3 weeks on the road. Prior this summer I had issues with other trips and weather. I cannot get the Tacoma into the shop without a TON of work/hours. That is coming for the Cayman though. I bet we all can understand juggling cars.

So the Toyota...

It has not had a passenger side front mud flap since I have owned it. Being my primary driver in the winter in New England, well you get this:

And further back:

Above that in the doorsill:

4" grinder with various attachments, a screwdriver, a drill with a wire cup, a Dremel with a 1/8" end mill, and I helped Mother Nature a bit and cut out this:

I forgot to take an after pic I guess. Through hole was the biggest issue and has hit the inner part of the rocker a bit. It is all cut to clean metal and prepped for welding with sanding and weld-through primer. The forward part of the rocker looked ugly but is still serviceable so I cleaned it all up and primered it. I also took care of some other superficial rust on the door and rocker.

In the morning I have to figure out how to get my MIG up to the truck. I can only reach to the end of the Opel from the shop:

I have a plan. When I set up the Toilet I put a 240v in with a dryer plug. Right next to the Opel is my dryer.

So, move dryer, clean underneath, blow out the vent since it's been a few, plug in welder. about 30' closer. Perfect. I also need to find my 0.020" wire and tips.

Since I am on a tight schedule I will be peicemealing in metal. I have every intention of a correct repair with a new or donated rocker or just getting a 1/2t+ truck so I can tow stuff.

Well, so much for schedule. I could not get the truck close enough to a welder outlet. The dryer one ended up different than the current welder set up. Sent the truck to get inspected anyway knowing it will fail. Disappointing.

Here is the rocker minus the rust anyway:

Gray is weld through, black is the other bits I took care of. After the repair it will need some mud as there was about an 1/8" on the rocker to begin with.

Welder is switched from 0.030" to 0.020", dryer is all cleaned out, basement is vacuumed, first piece of the inner frame repair is cut out, shop is picked up, truck is dropped off, so not a bad start to the day.

Time to see if the Opel wants to start it's 50yo heart and maybe wash and wax it for the winter. Tons of stuff to do to be able to put the Cayman in the Toilet for the winter.

I feel a bit pressured, and I hate that. This is due to me, more than once, getting 1/2 way through something and getting sent away for the next 3 months totally not winterized. Winters suck up here.

With a mad amount of vehicular bad luck I am in a pretty pickle...

I am a firm believer in deferred maintenance, as I may have mentioned...or I deferred that too.

8 cars and only one is "safe" per the state sticker.

Trying to get the Cayman into the Toilet for the winter and do some upgrades to it.

The 914 is in the shop and the Opel us in front of that...

The Opel has run like a champ since last year but 50yo wiring is definitely suspect.

Well it smoked the starter wiring today.

The downfall is epic and all my fault.

Only the Hemi Charger is reliable right now...FML.

I may have over-compensated for the Toyota being down today...

The Cayman drove in it's first bit of snow with summer tires on it this week. The traction control and I were not impressed. Fortunately it was an anomaly and only lasted a mile. No salt thank Ferdinand.

Waiting on a rear end housing to come in from AZ for the Taco but supply stream sucks to New England and I am running out of time.

So I went looking for a winter beater.

I found a 2012 mk6 Golf R for a decent price with some mods. Test drive I may have hit 50% of max boost and it made me smile. I pick it up Thursday and cannot wait.

The mods on the car are as follows,

- 3 inch stainless CTS turboback exhaust with high flow cat w/MBRP tips

- OEM Euro S3 aluminum intercooler

- Forge Twintake carbon fiber intake setup

- CTS Turbo catch can set up

- The tune I'm not sure the brand it was already done when I bought the car

- Blow off valve (cant remember the brand)

- BC Racing coilovers with adjustable dampening

- 18x8.5 Neuspeed RSe10 Light Weight Wheels (perfect condition) with Falken Ziex ZE960 tires (4-5k miles)

- ECS tuning boost gauge and vent pod set up

Recent Maintenance

- Timing belt, water pump, pulleys and serpentine belt were changed at 97,000 Miles

- Cam Follower replaced with newest oem revision at 97k

- New OEM newest revision coil packs

- New Air Filters

- Brakes recently replaced

Not sure why or if the pics will not load...

I work with him DJ. He is waiting on a shipment.

In reply to preach (fs) :

I figured you'd already know.

See the one marked *N/A*? Yup.

But I got to buy a badass car.

1.8t?

2.0t

Picked up the R yesterday evening. It was about 45 mins to get it home and what a mad little berkeleyer.

Makes a ton of the right noises and some not so great ones. Whistling blow off valve ala 1980s rally cars just flips my age from 51 to 15. Exhaust has just the right amount of burble but can be annoying at certain rpms/loads.

Looking at the weather last night we decided to head down to the beach and watch the sunrise. We did, then ran Route 1A down to where it meets Route 101. One of the twistiest roads in NH yet you have to be pretty chill on it as it is patrolled a ton. It's one of those roads you wish that it could be shut down once a year to race the clock one way. The owners of the multi-million dollar houses there would have none of that though.

Right coast sunrise with a bad little mofo:

I left Friday in the R for a work trip down to Eastern CT. Car was great but not great gas mileage...probably driver using too much right foot and giggling all the time.

Blowing smoke at WOT so I checked the catch can and it was full. PO told me it needs emptied about once a month. So I had at it today when I got home to my tools.

Popped the little guy off:

Getting it open was a bit of a pain and there were many claw marks from channel lock pliers...rats. Inside was milky nastiness:

CFC brake cleaner after dumping out the mixture, reassembled the canister and popped it back in:

I also changed the oil and windshield wipers. Oil was at 3000 miles according to the sticker and the wipers were not going to make the winter and the driver's side one was pretty spent.

Fridays drive to CT was in torrential rain.

Topped off the other fluids since I was under the hood. Speaking of which, here is a shot of the crazy dual intake on the thing:

Canister on the left goes to the stock intake place in the grill, the other is under the driver's headlight.

I also registered it today. The plate is STAGE42. Both the wife and I make fun of the tuner types that say "I got stage 2+ this and stage 3 that" ad naseum. So taking the answer to life, the universe, and everything from our favorite 5 part trilogy we came up with the plate.

Now, when asked, at a car show we will tell everyone that it has stage 42 this and stage 42 that. "Those wheels? Yeah their Stage 42 wheels from Neuspeed" etc.

Not really a cool update. Got the 914 "winterized" with the plugs back in and the windows up etc. Still waiting for a friend with a truck to pull the Opel out of the way. Tacoma is waiting, still, for a rear end housing from out west.

I did, however, find a cool picture of my old CJ-7 that I figured I'd share:

Specs were:

1979 CJ, well massaged AMC 304 V8, T18 granny 4spd, d20 t-case, stock d30 front, scout d44 rear, 4.10 gears, welded rear, locked front, 35 BFGs, about 3" of lift with a flat to frame skid and very cut fenders, tons of flex for rocks, dual batteries, 6pt cage tied to frame, 9500# Ramsey Pro, probably a bunch more I cannot remember.

Due to the weak axles I had purchased a set of 1979 Ford Dana 60s to put under it and was going to buggy it out, but realized that would involve a trailer and a full size truck to tow it.

It's demise came from an shiny happy person that reported me to the state police in retaliation of my job at the time. My ignorance did not help. I came home one day to a state police inspector's card in my door that said "call me". I did and after a couple hours with the NH inspection manual on the hood he scrapped my sticker and took my plates. I had to tow it home with the help of a friend.

Turns out if you build a vehicle in NH you need to save the receipts from EVERY part so you can prove they were not stolen. Ridiculous to me as all of that Jeep was built over a decade and a 1/2. He also got me on not having VIN plates where they needed to be. I only had one out of three, mostly due to the tub being the 3rd one on it due to damage from rollovers etc. Welded diffs/ lockers are not really legal here either. I never knew so my bad really.

I built a couple more off-road spec Jeeps, and XJ and a 4.0 YJ after. Half way through the YJ build I decided I was sick of the Jeep thing what with breaking every weekend and working on battered E36 M3 after. I decided it was back to sports cars for me.

Here I am.

He totally fails to mention that day wheeling was the first time he met his future wife... ;) 17 years later...

When we met he almost rolled his Jeep over backwards going up this rock waterfall. I guess seeing a guy almost kill himself in a vehicle is a turn on????

Turns me on too. I get it.

Paring down and culling the herd. We got $4k for our 2004 Audi TT 3.2 today. Very happy about that but we are still at 7 cars.

VERY happy to sell the car to a VR6 guy (he has a Corrado VR6 project). Sold to a co-worker. We were working on a thing together and talking cars. I told him the story of buying the R and he asked if I knew of any cool cars for ~$5000 that would be good in the winter and preferably VAG. Match made in heaven as he was excited to hear about our modified TT in his budget. Told him Thursday, he paid and picked it up today.

Freed up some pavement just before winter and freed up a ton of space on my tire rack since the snow tires/wheels came with the sale.

Two more cars to sell I think, '03 Tacoma and our '85 Westfalia. I need a bigger truck for towing and we just don't use the camper enough so it's going toward our retirement home.

Today was a good day. I got rid of a TT to an enthusiast.

Went on a little road trip with the toyota today.

Bought a HF flux core mig so I can finish the hole in the toys rocker and finally get an inspection sticker. On that note my buddy from work that has the toyota axles sent to New England from the southwest called last night and said 2-3 weeks for a rear end. Same guy that sofly posted the ad from.

This morning I was watching a youtube about painting a file cabinet like a snapon box and decided to look at the local craigslist for metal cabinets similar and I found a great one. Best part it was a stones throw from HF which also happens to be just up the street from Portsmouth's best roast beef sandwich. Cheese, BBQ, and horseradish sauce please.

The cabinet will replace my E36 M3ty chemical cabinet:

With this bit of FREE awesomeness:

Sweet.

This happened today and it is a game changer:

30k to 60k BTU. Ran it @ 50% and I was comfortable in flannel lined carhart pants and a hoodie with a couple under layers. It was about 20* when I fired it up. Supposedly it will last at the 30k setting for 12 hours on a 20# tank. I currently have 2x 20# and just bought the 40#er today. I will probably buy another 40# tank for a reserve. Probably going to price out some 4'x8' sheets of 2" foam so I can do the ceiling and be all set.

Quite happy.

How many miles on the taco?

Recon1342 said:

How many miles on the taco?

Around 177k.

Well I reached out to ECS and APR to find out what tune I have in the Golf R. ECS does not offer tunes I guess, but APR nailed it with my provided VIN.

Looks like the reported 350awhp may be close. AND I may have a sort of launch control and maybe no-lift shift, but I care more for the LC.

APR Motorsport Launch Limiter

APR’s Motorsport Launch Limiter is an optional feature that eliminates turbo lag and provides a user adjustable launching RPM to aid in vehicle acceleration from a complete stand still. Simply hold the clutch and accelerator while the vehicle is stationary and the engine’s RPM will hold at a predefined limit while boost pressure builds using a “clean,” catalytic converter safe, strategy. With the vehicle stationary, handbrake applied and clutch disengaged, the driver can set the launch RPM by raising the engine’s RPM and pressing the brake pedal to set and save the desired launching RPM. With practice, this method can result in violent acceleration off the line! This feature is for manual transmissions only.

Well, the golf:

Much slower than I thought. While I still need to figure out how to launch it, it did not do that great tonight at the drag strip.

13.9 sec first 1/4 mile, then 14.0, then a bogged launch to 14.5.

Hard-ish all season tires, zero seat time drag racing it.

If I can lose a second on the 60' I'd be right where I figured it should be. My 60' times were arounf 2.5s...terrible.

Looks decent to me sir - it takes practice and careful work with air pressures.  Almost bought R's a few times and it just never worked out.  Love a rowdy hatch.  Apparently you can get them into mid 10's if you don't care how long the drivetrain lasts.