What are you working on today?
- Thread starter Amkeer
- Start date
Checking in auto parts, listening for the oil changer to yell "OIL CHANGE!!!", might sell a couple auto parts. And of course listen to customers mumble unintelligibly on the phone, drop their phone and scrape it all over something, and repeatedly ask if I need the last four.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Building-in a dishwasher in what are probably 50+ year old cabinets in my kitchen, donating my old dishwasher to my sister who recently bought her first house and doesn't have a lot in the budget for appliances and the like. This should be a fun adventure.
Hi Trav,
No it's a Craftsman which I think is MTD or Troy built. I got a belt off of Amazon last year along with some shear pins. The belt that is currently on there got pinched in the wheel inside the housing and I think it messed it up a bit. Not sure if I should replace the tensioner or pulley(s).
I love when I ask for the last 8 of a VIN and it takes them 5 minutes to figure out how to count to 8, then give me the last 4.
I worked on my truck fixing the wiring. Got the passenger door back to factoryish. Traced a speaker wire from the passenger door under the dash to the driver's door... Fixed the driver's door. Now I have working locks from the remotes and both switches. Now to tackle the mess under the dash.
Cleaning and oiling a dozen or so antique clocks that I meant to do years ago.
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- Dec 28, 2014
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People in the North East love rust free Beetles from down south. Have a friend that ships them up, fixes them up a little and unloads them at car shows. Probably makes $2,000 on a car (more or less) but he has fun doing it because he gets to drive the cars for a little while before selling them.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
I seldom see them these days … maybe just age and no AC in the real deal old versions !
Since that was my first car … I sometimes think about one as a toy … then I look around at all the things waiting on me and come back down to earth …
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You’re probably not seeing them because they are being shipped up here and sold for profit. Lol. But I get what you’re saying, it is tough to go out and buy/restore a toy. I’ve toyed around with that thought myself - and honestly I think I’d at least break even in the whole thing, so I may end up doing that at some point.
Part of the problem we have up here is that everything is rusted out. Muscle cars up here are so expensive that you just can’t touch one for under $30,000 unless it needs a ton of work. Honestly, muscle cars/antique cars have turned into a pretty good investment, if you bought one 15 years ago. They have sky rocketed. Now the old pickups trucks have followed suit. Can’t touch one of those for under $20,000 unless it needs a frame off restoration or something.
So the Beetle was a little niche he found...people love them, they’re cool and you can buy them for reasonable money compared to the muscle cars.
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2025
That’s cool. Based on the Beetles I’ve seen on YouTube in the north east it definitely appears why they would like a rust free beetle lol.
Changed the oil in the mustang yesterday...finally went with 5w30. Today i will shovel the driveway and clean off 2 cars when it stops snowing in a couple of hours
..Will try to stay awake and watch the superbowl tonight.
..Will try to stay awake and watch the superbowl tonight.
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2025
Did you get a lot of snow up there? Down here we got about .2 inches.Changed the oil in the mustang yesterday...finally went with 5w30. Today i will shovel the driveway and clean off 2 cars when it stops snowing in a couple of hours
Just replaced the serpentine belt on the 2015 Chrysler. Changed out the idler pulley and tensioner pulley while I was in there. Just under 123,000 miles on all original parts and everything looked to be in good shape. She should be good until well past the 200,000 mile mark on that aspect.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Absolutely nothing. Took five hours to get the dishwasher installed yesterday, roughly, as the Sawsall, jigsaw, hammer and prybar and I became good friends removing shelves, 4 layers of flooring to find the wood...etc. It is installed and looks decent though, albeit with very close clearance to the adjacent cupboard, but that's not an issue. Kitchen feels a lot roomier now. I donated the old dishwasher to my sister, as I noted above, so we delivered that last night and she's used it today and it works well for her, so I was glad to hear that.
Kitchen really needs a remodel, but we'll be doing it slow. It's difficult to do with three kids and a busy home. Next step is to get the wallpaper off and choose a paint colour, then we'll be doing porcelain tile on the floor, perhaps extending it out of the kitchen and down the main hall to the front door, something I've seen in other houses and seems to work well for high traffic areas. The hardwood in that section is rough so it's not an illogical move.
Kitchen really needs a remodel, but we'll be doing it slow. It's difficult to do with three kids and a busy home. Next step is to get the wallpaper off and choose a paint colour, then we'll be doing porcelain tile on the floor, perhaps extending it out of the kitchen and down the main hall to the front door, something I've seen in other houses and seems to work well for high traffic areas. The hardwood in that section is rough so it's not an illogical move.
Resealing the leaking rudder port on the old inboard.
Unscrewed the packing and mounting nuts and the port just dropped out; not a great sign but did explain the leak. I was expecting rotted wood around the port, but the wood appears solid. Wet but solid. However it appears that some prior owner or 'mechanic' sealed (and did a lousy job at that BTW) the port with plain old red rtv....a mark of quality. I never knew that it was approved for below the waterline work
So the time I was expecting to spend on compromised wood will now be spent trying to remove the rtv residue to ensure a good bond with the Life Caulk Sealant...which IS intended for below the waterline service. D@mn PO and his mechanic.
![IMG_5796[17617].jpg](https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/attachments/img_5796-17617-webp.44541/ "IMG_5796[17617].jpg")
![IMG_5797[17619].jpg](https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/attachments/img_5797-17619-webp.44542/ "IMG_5797[17619].jpg")
Unscrewed the packing and mounting nuts and the port just dropped out; not a great sign but did explain the leak. I was expecting rotted wood around the port, but the wood appears solid. Wet but solid. However it appears that some prior owner or 'mechanic' sealed (and did a lousy job at that BTW) the port with plain old red rtv....a mark of quality. I never knew that it was approved for below the waterline work
So the time I was expecting to spend on compromised wood will now be spent trying to remove the rtv residue to ensure a good bond with the Life Caulk Sealant...which IS intended for below the waterline service. D@mn PO and his mechanic.
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Working on getting the Montana 5th wheel move in ready. Cleaning, updating a few things and just general maintenance. It’s been freezing here so it’s been a nice change to work in the heat.
I did the same a couple of weeks ago.
Did you take the old cartridge apart? On mine there was a plastic disc with an indentation for the lever. The plastic had worn, leading to one having to use increasingly more finesse to find the magic spot where there would be no drip.
Of course that part is not available separately. I'd like to see someone make a replacement with a 3D printer.
Changed a very corroded plug on the end of my friend's car's block heater cord. -33 C last night, and he said the car was not happy starting this morning.
It tested good intermittently (resistance between 38 ohms and infinity) but when we opened the old one up there was a lot of corrosion and a broken tab that was only making contact at certain times.
Very cold this afternoon, so we'd take a warm-up break every couple of minutes. The work was too fiddly for me to wear gloves. Bare metal at -30 C sucks the heat right out of my fingers.
They're calling for another cold one tonight.
It tested good intermittently (resistance between 38 ohms and infinity) but when we opened the old one up there was a lot of corrosion and a broken tab that was only making contact at certain times.
Very cold this afternoon, so we'd take a warm-up break every couple of minutes. The work was too fiddly for me to wear gloves. Bare metal at -30 C sucks the heat right out of my fingers.
They're calling for another cold one tonight.