The sliding doors on our new (2009, 150k-mile) Mazda 5 were getting squeaky and graunchy and felt pretty heavy to open and close. I spent a few minutes in the driveway tonight cleaning the filth out of the tracks with mineral spirits and then giving the rollers a generous spritz of silicone lube while the three-year-old held the flashlight and pestered the neighbors. It actually made a real difference. No parts replacement required for now!
I have a dump bowl. Swmbo was getting tired of me putting my wallet and keys and knives and E36 M3 in the fruit basket, so she got me a bowl. She recently decided she wanted a bowl so she would stop losing her keys and hair ties and E36 M3. She further decided the bowl she originally bought me was nice and she preferred it. My bowl became her bowl, and my NEW bowl is r2d2s head.
Got to go see Casablanca on the big screen today!
I got a second minor win last night. The neighbor kid, about whom I have complained elsewhere, was having trouble getting his AW11 started yesterday. I rebuilt the distributor for him, and he skipped a step or two and wound up with very wrong ignition timing. Yesterday, while dealing with the van stuff from my last post, I gave him a quick verbal rundown on reinstallation, and then loaned him a Haynes manual. Around 8:30 I heard it fire up. Victory - and hopefully some much-needed confidence and a little sense of accomplishment for him.
I have been gifted the recipe for the best sauce I've ever tasted.
My Spitbits order has shipped and will be here Friday! 
I'm probably jinxing myself, but... I think I finally found the secondary problem (bad coolant temp sender connection) which was hiding behind the vacuum leak as a cause for the F-250's persistent high idle.
I might just see 13MPG.
We had fine weather here yesterday and I forced myself to spend some time tidying up our old Matrix so that we can eventually move it on. I spent most of the day cleaning up the hood and spraying some Dupli-Color Perfect Match rattle can on it to make the rock chips less obvious. It's not really a perfect match, which is a little frustrating since Toyota has used the same color code for probably forty years.
Here's a before and after. I still need to wet-sand and blend it in. Once that's done, it'll be a good ten-footer, which is a lot better than it was, and that's good enough.
Saturday was a day in the junkyard with friends, Sunday was brunch with family and then bourbon with a friend in the evening. Lots of good times with good people this weekend! Can't ask for more of a win than that!
In reply to DarkMonohue :
040. Super white. Or any of 5 other names it gets depending on model. The names get fancier if it ends up on a Lexus, but it's still just 040. Unless it's 089, which has a fancy tinted clear on top of 040. The stupid touch up markers sell so fast we can't keep stock. Stuffs everywhere.
My win is we were able to pull off a short notice game tonight and all my players were here. Also this cold has finally let go, just dealing with the remnants of congestion. So that's nice.
barefootcyborg5000 said:040. Super white. Or any of 5 other names it gets depending on model. The names get fancier if it ends up on a Lexus, but it's still just 040. Unless it's 089, which has a fancy tinted clear on top of 040. The stupid touch up markers sell so fast we can't keep stock. Stuffs everywhere.
Oh, I'm aware. It's not that I don't know the code - I worked on a dealership parts department for an embarrassingly long time - it's that the "Perfect Match" paint listed by Dupli-Color as a match for 040 is a tiny bit more yellow than the 040 that Toyota actually put on the car.
Another minor win yesterday. I stopped into a local parts house that's closing down for more paint, and they had a few copies of a Haynes manual that's been out of print for many years. I couldn't not buy them.
Wife and I got signed up for a 10k in a month or so!
I also start my remaining 10weeks of paternity leave this week, which I am thrilled for.
My basement full of LS and Cadillac parts is rapidly evaporating on various for sale pages. Cleaning up the basement stash of parts and filling back up the paypal is a huge win! Have to fund my Rabbit Habit...
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Yeah, according to my paint guy there are 4 distinct variants of that color, not including sun fading. Which I didn't realize was that big of an issue for white paint, but here we are. Photos look good though, so I'd say your effort will pay off. I was just getting a bit ranty on the silliness of paint codes/names and how much mileage these manufacturers get out of one product simply by changing the name. Some of these "colors".... Worst part is, I bet whoever makes these names up makes a lot more than I do. Good for them. I want to know how to get that job.
barefootcyborg5000 said:Yeah, according to my paint guy there are 4 distinct variants of that color, not including sun fading. Which I didn't realize was that big of an issue for white paint, but here we are. Photos look good though, so I'd say your effort will pay off.
Thanks! This will be good enough to make a chalky 20-year-old car a little better, and that's all I want.
I was not aware that there are multiple variants. Seems like that sort of defeats the purpose of a color code, but it is what it is.
I wonder how many variants there are of 202...
In reply to DarkMonohue :
One, as far as I know. And it isn't the same as 218, or more specifically, 218-bc, even though I can't tell the difference...
Put the wagon up for sale on Faceballs last night at 5. 18 hours later, it's gone. First guy to look bought it. Makes me think I priced it too low. I wanted $1,200.
I got $1,200.
Appleseed said:Put the wagon up for sale on Faceballs last night at 5. 18 hours later, it's gone. First guy to look bought it. Makes me think I priced it too low. I wanted $1,200.
I got $1,200.
Reminds me of when I sold my Subaru Baja. I asked $1300 for it and I had 40+ phone calls and Facebook messages in a 3 hour span. The guy that ended up with it came and gave me the cash at work, sight unseen, and without even getting the title then. And, that thing was a roach. Football-sized holes through the tops of the rocker panels, no e-brake cables/shoes/backing plates, a Check Engine Light, a clutch that slipped when driven mildly aggressively.
The weather is finally becoming nice enough that I can insure the fun car again! Left a message for my insurance agent. Hopefully it'd be insured by the weekend so that I can start burning off that tank of stale storage gasoline LOL~
Traum said:The weather is finally becoming nice enough that I can insure the fun car again! Left a message for my insurance agent. Hopefully it'd be insured by the weekend so that I can start burning off that tank of stale storage gasoline LOL~
This is always among the running for best day of the year.
Wild that it takes more than a day to get the car insured. I'm pretty sure that even after hours I can do it instantly on the Allstate app.
Taco Bell is bringing back the Volcano Menu this summer.
We like Mexican food (I know)
We like take out/fast food
We like cheap
It is no longer any of the above.
They left our town for a few years, leaving their trademark building, then came back and built two more. Taco Bell used to be a go-to for us but they have taken everything good off the menu.
It's probably been a couple years since we've been. I have no idea how they stay in business.
Peabody said:We like Mexican food (I know)
We like take out/fast food
We like cheap
It is no longer any of the above.
They left our town for a few years, leaving their trademark building, then came back and built two more. Taco Bell used to be a go-to for us but they have taken everything good off the menu.
It's probably been a couple years since we've been. I have no idea how they stay in business.
Brand recognition is, apparently, a thing. Sometimes my wife gets a particular craving for their stuff, but I have not had it in a very long time.
We are lucky in that there are a bunch of mom-and-pop Mexican joints around here, which certainly wasn't the case when we moved here almost twenty years ago. Now we can grab a quick and generally pretty damn good burrito or taco plate or whatever for maybe eight bucks, more or less whenever we want. It's become our default for nights when nobody wants to cook. Very definitely a win.
There was a big to-do here a few years back when Taco Bell opened up here. I waited a while for the keeners to get out of the line, and then was profoundly disappointed by the "Mexican" food they served there. I tried a variety of things, all of which were blander than the last.
And now, Taco Time has some weird synthetic cheese-like sauce, and so I have to go to a proper Mexican place if I want Mexican.
NickD said:Taco Bell is bringing back the Volcano Menu this summer.
OE36 M3. that was the king of taco bell.
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