Today I Learned (TIL)

In reply to Jay_W :

People who have to have the most-bleeding-edge trendy status vehicle have always been willing to overpay for the privilege.

TIL that I should take pictures when renting heavy equipment.  Body damage rubbed a fuel line causing it to dump all the diesel.  Home Depot doesn't own the equipment they rent and the company that does wanted to charge me.  I pointed out that I had the damage insurance.  They said that didn't cover abuse.  Argument was going way downhill until a HD guy happened to walk by and said oh yeah that body was damaged before.  I ended up with a full refund and 1.5 days of free use but lesson learned.

TIL that the rattle in spray paint is a glass marble 

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I drove responsibly and got 28.3 mpg in the corvette this week on my84 mile commute 

I'm almost 60 years old and TIL what a "faceplated" transmission is.

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I drove responsibly and got 28.3 mpg in the corvette this week on my84 mile commute 

I got 28.5 in teh R Monday morning, turned off the A/C for the drive home and the average went up to a hair over 30.

I mean, the Corvette has a small chance of being faster, what with weighing less and probably having twice the power, but, you know... 2mpg!

Datsun310Guy said:

I'm almost 60 years old and TIL what a "faceplated" transmission is.

TIL that "faceplated" is the hip new techno jargon slang for a dog box...must be justification for an even higher price.

secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:

Datsun310Guy said:

I'm almost 60 years old and TIL what a "faceplated" transmission is.

TIL that "faceplated" is the hip new techno jargon slang for a dog box...must be justification for an even higher price.

It's different tho.  See, there used to be slickshifted/some other term where you took a synchro box, ground out every other synchro spline in the shift hub and the gear face, and then take the box apart on a regular basis to dress the burrs and eventually just throw the worn parts away and start over.

Face plating is taking those same OE gears and instead of playing grindy onesie twosie, you machine the whole mess off except for enough of a register to accept a plate that welds to the face, a face plate if you will, with six or seven beefy huge dogs/lugs on them, and a suitably modified shift hub.

Face plated gearsets are dog boxes but not all dog boxes are face plated.  Most dog boxes are manufactured correctly from the getgo

secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:

Datsun310Guy said:

I'm almost 60 years old and TIL what a "faceplated" transmission is.

TIL that "faceplated" is the hip new techno jargon slang for a dog box...must be justification for an even higher price.

TIL that Google doesn't know what the berkeley it's talking about. 
 

Faceplated, indeed. My grandfather would be cussing up a streak at these eejits.

procainestart said:

TIL that the rattle in spray paint is a glass marble 

Today you also learned that those can be dangerous.  During Desert Storm, a captain in my battalion was apparently gutshot near a trash fire just after the run into Iraq.  The doctors missed the ball at first because they were looking for a bullet.  

Did they have "Atom Pearls" when you were a kid?  Little spherical balls with a BB inside.  The inside walls are lined with gun powder.  You throw it on the ground, the BB hits the wall, strikes the powder and a small explosion follows.

Naples Italy 1973 - New Years Eve.  They have Atom Pearls the size of golf balls.  In an alley, someone tossed one of those things and you could hear the large steel ball ricocheting off the building walls!!  Time to go ....

TIWUR (Today I Was Unfortunately Reminded) that car eyelashes are a thing.

Dodge Viper hoods open like Saab 900s, lift,  slide, tip.  Twist wrong and it's a $28,000 fix.

Finally something to post on this thread!!

TIL;  My car is one of one in the USA!!  

Duke said:

TIWUR (Today I Was Unfortunately Reminded) that car eyelashes are a thing.

A dozen years ago I introduced my coworker/shift partner to the Geo Metro. He'd been commuting in a Taurus and paying more than he could afford for gas. We (mostly he) turned it into a really cool fuel economy project and he got incredible results. As he could be rather fastidious I used to play tricks on him. Over a week period while we were on nights I'd sneak out and pour small amounts of fuel in his tank. The next week I would take small amounts out. I could see it was driving him crazy because his fuel economy was all over the place. One night I changed his interior lights to super bright LED's and just about blinded him when he left in the morning. The last thing I did before he retired was to put eyelashes on it. He didn't notice it right away and wondered why people were staring at the old guy in the Metro

TIL that I should probably have an eyewash kit at the shop.

wae said:

TIL that I should probably have an eyewash kit at the shop.

Oh crap, hope you are okay.

wae said:

TIL that I should probably have an eyewash kit at the shop.

Also Q tips.  Q tips are amazing for getting boulders of rust/dirt off of an eyeball or out of an eyelid.

I like the q-tip idea!  I'll have to toss some of those in the first aid kit as well.

While cleaning off the little brush tip of the gasket remover, I managed to flick the brush just right (just wrong?) and sent a dollop of it straight into my eye.  Between that and the normal brake cleaner spray-back, I've been pretty lucky with chemicals getting in my eye and it not really being a big deal, but eventually my luck's going to run out.  I thought about a full-on eye wash station, but settled for an eye care first aid kit that has a bottle of eyewash, silicone eye cup, and some pads. 

In reply to wae :

Eye cups are awesome. 
 

I used to use Murine eye wash after swimming practice and it would bring your eyes right back to life. 

Didn't happen today but about a month ago I learned that the little metal prongs on electric plugs are different sizes

TIL that I get CBS Sports Network and they broadcast Trans Am and Formula E.

TIL that someone makes a CO2-powered fully automatic rodent killing machine:  https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/insect-and-animal-control/animal-traps/7008335

I was looking for a place I could exchange CO2 tanks for the shop kegarator.  But this would be way more fun!

In reply to wae :

That thing is a mini-cow killer.

TIL that in the '80s, the gents at Buick built a number of prototypes with the Grand National turbo V6 in hopes of them getting to production, including Reattas in FWD, RWD, and AWD configurations, a Riviera, and an Electra station wagon. Sadly, they made the mistake of embarrassing the Corvette development team while doing dragstrip testing with the wagon, and GM corporate came down not long after and shut it all down. Also, a team member said that the original GMC Syclone prototype used a turbo Buick V6.