Not wood, but I finished a major project over the weekend...

[dbhost]

Financial priorities my wife and I set are leaving zero room for a new car payment, I.E. I have to keep the old cars we have going unless there is a catastrophic loss such as collision, flood, or theft...

In that vein, my 2001 Saturn SL2 has been a bit of a clunker for the past few years, squeaking this and that, which led to a howling belt last April (14), and we opted to park the car and work on it slowly. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, and my 2004 F150 5.4L has a decided cam timing problem. I had the parts for the Saturn, I knew what to do...

Bust my hump and get it running.

So over the course of the last 2 weeks, weekends included, I replaced basically ALL of the spinning mass from the front of the engine on my Saturn. That includes.

#1. Air Conditioner Cmpressor clutch.
#2. Water pump. (It was leaking).
#3. Power Steering pump. (It was growling).
#4. Drive Belt Tensioner.
#5. Drive Belt Idler pulley (The bearing was literally falling apart).

I figured out some new tricks nobody else online was posting for getting to the bolts due to the extreme proximity of the front of the engine to the side of the car. For those with one of these, or similar cars, what I did was I put a floor jack with a 2x4 brace under the oil pan, and supported the engine, then pulled the passenger side motor mount. I then pushed the engine up about 1.5" with the floor jack and voial! The inaccessible bolts were easy to reach!

I managed to have to replace the battery on the car to get it going. Although I had it disconnected, and would put a tender charge on it every couple of weeks, I ended up with a bad cell. It happens...

Lastly, I did an oil change on it. Not happy with the lube shop I had taken it to last 2 times. The oil filter I used 3 oil changes ago was still on the car, INCLUDING my sharpie marks! I know Saturn oil filters are a pain to get to, but I was paying someone else to futz with that, never again!

With it all back together, it flew through inspection, and runs like a top. I cleaned my rotors from the surface rust via a scotch brite pad , and we are going great!

Saturday had us doing some parts hunting. I tracked down a good pair of front seats from the car coming out of a Garage kept 2002 SL1, and a rear spoiler from a 99 SL2. (The 99 trunk / parts fit the '01 thankfully!).

I need to head over the HF to get some fine sanding pads for my DA sander and get after the peeling paint on the hood and trunk. Most likely strip the entire car down, and take it to my BIL's shop to have him shoot it a candy burnt orange. About the only color LOML and I can agree on with this car.

My week nights, assuming LOML doesn't plan them out for me, are going to be some HEAVY duty shop cleanup. It's a disaster with stuff all over the floor, table saw, work benches you name it, if there is a horizontal surface to be had, it's messed up. LOTS of tools need to go back where they belong.

Once I get the area cleaned up, THEN I have wood / cabinet projects to get on / back on.

[Neal]

I have a lot of respect for those of you who can do this kind of work to your own vehicles. I am not a car guy. I can't even replace my wiper blades without a 10 minute lesson from the guy at autozone. I'm mechanically inclined enough, but have never worked on any vehicles I've had, save for changing tires due to flats and such. I've also never had much desire to do it either.

[dbhost]

I have a lot of respect for those of you who can do this kind of work to your own vehicles. I am not a car guy. I can't even replace my wiper blades without a 10 minute lesson from the guy at autozone. I'm mechanically inclined enough, but have never worked on any vehicles I've had, save for changing tires due to flats and such. I've also never had much desire to do it either.

You just reminded me. Yeah I did wiper blades too!

My first career was as a mechanic. Honestly it is a LOT harder for me to do this stuff than it used to be due to age, and back problems, but I manage....

[TB Roye]

My wife bought a Mini Cooper and I bought the repair manual for it. When it said jack veh. up place on Jack stands, remove right front tire/wheel and inner fender, I went not this kid. You cannot get at any on thing with out taking some else out the way. It cam with an extended warranty and i made he buy the extended service contract, glad I did. Two months ago she ran over a parking bumper or curb and dented the oil pan and damage a few other thing which I replace or repaired. I the pan is not leaking but a trouble code was thrown and I took it in last week. It had to dow with the VANOS on the outlet side. I has some thing to do with the variable valve timing, the switched the two solenoids from side to side and could not recreate the code. They though it may have something to do with the dent restricting the oil flow, these engines are very dependent on oil flow/pressure and have many sensors and computer, can't believe it. Anyway now I am spooked. Looked into replacing it my self, would have to remove the whole exhaust system it is all welded no clamps and the header is on the front side of engine and wraps under the pan and there is not enough room to drop the pan with moving exhaust. Dealer want $700 plus to do it, labor is $450 going to check with an independent BMW shop to see how much. I don't want to take a chance of damage and having the dented pan void the warranty. Leaning toward letting the dealer do it to keep a good relationship with them and that way it will be covered under a warranty. The thing that got besides removing the exhaust is when they said put the radiator core support into service mode looked that up and said WTF no way. $500 deductible on insurance so might as well do it my self and save the insurance for something bigger. like when she runs over a pebble and rips the under side of the car off.

Tom

Tom

[dbhost]

My next big vehicle project involves the variable cam timing on my 2004 F150. I have a little under $700.00 in parts alone, PLUS I need a couple of specialty tools I don't own to get the job done. Specifically to disconnect the valve lifters off of the rockers so the cam doesn't actuate the valves after it is parked at TDC to do the timing chain swap...

[TB Roye]

Special tools are fun. I would need 2 to remove the pan on the Mini. I do have the tools to put a V8-60 together and a 350 Chevy with Hilborn injection. I can do a 2L Pinto and 2.8LV6 Chevy and a 220 CI Offy. but a 1.6L Mini Cooper is out of my league. Can't find the Points or Timing marker. The one thing I have learned about the Mini oil is very important, most cars you can get buy being 1/2 -1 quart low not on these, strange things can happen, same with the battery. The timing chain on some these is a killer and can be gone in 10K miles especially on the older ones. These cars can be a hole to pour money down. But the Mini is a kick to drive especially on the twisties. Besides I would rather buy Woodworking tools than mechanic tools at this point in my life.

[dbhost]

Well, the projects continue. I found a pair of good condition front seats from a 2002 Saturn SL1 that I have cleaned up and swapped in to mine. The trunk lid and hood were stripped of paint as I was getting visible cracks, and major peel on the paint. The areas having problems it would seem had poorly done bondo work. Of course how poorly is subjective. I have had this car for over 8 years and the paint problems / cracking started a year ago...

The trunk lid is in primer, and ready for paint, the hood on the other hand, is in primer, but needs a LOT of massaging, and most likely more body filler work. I have had large flakes of filler come off in my work... I needed to seal it up before the weather shifted on me... I guess I am doing filler work next weekend...

I got after shop cleanup quite aggressively yesterday as well. I realized with my rapidly growing collection of sanding disks in rolls, I need to make some sort of holders for my sanding disks. Haven't figured out quite yet how I am going to deal with that...

Non shop materials that need to be prepped in the back yard are getting moved out there soonest possible...

I am close to getting the shop clean, and ready to do woodworking tasks, and I have a couple of projects lined up ready to go. They are.

#1. New doors and drawer fronts for my cabinets. Honestly if I could just buy doors and drawers for these cheap, I would. I just want the dumb job done, my wife wants to change the stain color and refuses to let me paint the dumb things...
#2. My WAY overdue sheet goods / cutoffs rack.
#3. A proper pedalboard for the music room.