What Did You Do In The Garage Today?

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Thought I was going to have a relaxing couple of hours yesterday changing the brake pads on my 02 Highlander. Found both my front brake pistons were frozen, so I eventually caved and bought new calipers and got them installed today.
 
Anyone have a good recommendation for detail shops in or around Charlotte? Since spring is coming I’d love to get my wife’s truck detailed inside and out.

I absolutely do not want to do this myself. I want a professional that spends 8-10 hours on it.
 
Friday after work swapped out the rear driveshaft on my 1995 Tahoe 2DR daily driver with one from my “spare.” Finished before dark. All it took was jackstands and an 11mm. Now, to replace that u-joint on the one I took out.

Sunday morning changed the oil in the wife’s 2017 Suburban. Mobil 1 synthetic and WIX XP filter.

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I didnt take any pics, but friday I had the joy of replacing track bar bushings in the truck since they decided it failed their safety inspection. I took the "worn" bushings to them to ask what they thought, and they said they were fine... they wanted an hours labor and the bushings ($149) for the 10 minute job and $8 bushings. Aholes
 
Replaced valve cover and intake gaskets '99 Sable. Been in there for 150K after head gaskets replaced. Found cracked vacuum line and broken nipple at the Dpfe sensor. Got one from LKQ today.
 
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First day I have been able to turn a wrench in quite some time, replaced an oil pressure sending unit and headlight adjusters on the K5, it no longer has chameleon eyes. Thinking about setting my self an on road dead line for it. Gotta get the inspection knocked out and grab some tags. Charged up the battery on the old J10 as well.

Anyone have any recommendations in the Fay/Raleigh area on driveshaft builders? Pretty sure its going to need both front and back lengthened.
 
I had a CD get stuck in the factory player in my Xterra, so I ordered a replacement head unit and a round of door speakers. They all arrived today, so it looks like I get to pull some panels off this week sometime and install my first car stereo since 1994. :)

CHRIS
 
Anyone have any recommendations in the Fay/Raleigh area on driveshaft builders? Pretty sure its going to need both front and back lengthened.

Fleet Pride or Triangle Driveshaft Services

ECGS sells them but you may want to give them a call. Great company!
 
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Fixed a few gas cans to get rid of the damn “Leaky-1,000” EPA nozzles. Those damn filters inside the cans made it take about 3x longer to fill. They just keep trying harder and harder to screw up something so simple.

Thankfully the yellow nozzle was an easy modification, just remove the spring and bam, it works OK.
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3 cans of diesel for the truck.

Now swapping the radiator in the jeep

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Whoevers design put that 8mm bolt in the side needs to be kicked very hard in the junk
 
Replaced the trunk/hatch/latch motor on the 89 Camaro. New milled nylon slides. Repro interior screws and nuts, to finish the job. The plastic hardware totalled more than the motor. Shipping on the screws was robbery.
 
With all this free time, looks like I will be showing my daughters how to replace the struts and shocks on our 07 Xterra tomorrow
 
Primed and painted new honey supers. The way it is looking right now, i'm going to need them.
 
Cleaned out the garage and put up some cable
Management in for the car charging cable.
 
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What did you do for the cable management?

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Tesla has it where you can purchase their charger which gives me 34 miles charged per hour but that requires their $500 charger plus a $1250 for install.

Or when you’re a cheap guy like me you can buy their gen 1 charger on eBay for $150 and connect it to a NEMA 1450 outlet and get 30 miles charged per hour. They limit the gen 2 to 24 miles charged per hour I believe as a way to push their home charging station.

If I wanted to go that route the wires to the 1450 are 6-3. I’d just need to upgrade the breaker from 50amp to 60amp.

The previous house owner had an RV so he had a few of them around the place to plug in.
 
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Tesla has it where you can purchase their charger which gives me 34 miles charged per hour but that requires their $500 charger plus a $1250 for install.

Or when you’re a cheap guy like me you can buy their gen 1 charger on eBay for $150 and connect it to a NEMA 1450 outlet and get 30 miles charged per hour. They limit the gen 2 to 24 miles charged per hour I believe as a way to push their home charging station.

If I wanted to go that route the wires to the 1450 are 6-3. I’d just need to upgrade the breaker from 50amp to 60amp.

The previous house owner had an RV so he had a few of them around the place to plug in.


I love it, love the DIY ethic
 
Replaced the two batteries in this guy over the weekend. To get to do it again.

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Me asking dad on sat sure these are not supposed to be 6 volt batteries some of these came with 6volt since they are wired in series? Dad no its 12volt promise ok put them in anyway. Me thinking man this thing starts super fast now dad gets in to put it up later on and notices amp guage pegged as well and turns on blower for ac and runs super fast and turns it off quick he calls me tonight to tell me you know what those were supposed to be 6 volt batteries in that tractor. Laughs to myself and know I will get to do it again. Luckly nothing fried and we can use the batteries in something else.
 
Oil change and tire rotation on my '99 sable 249K. Found nail in rear passenger tire, repaired at Discount Tire no charge, even if you did not buy the tire from them. I got five sets of tires over the last 18 months from them. :)
 
Replaced the two batteries in this guy over the weekend. To get to do it again.

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Me asking dad on sat sure these are not supposed to be 6 volt batteries some of these came with 6volt since they are wired in series? Dad no its 12volt promise ok put them in anyway. Me thinking man this thing starts super fast now dad gets in to put it up later on and notices amp guage pegged as well and turns on blower for ac and runs super fast and turns it off quick he calls me tonight to tell me you know what those were supposed to be 6 volt batteries in that tractor. Laughs to myself and know I will get to do it again. Luckly nothing fried and we can use the batteries in something else.
Knowing nothing about tractors, I have to ask: since the two 12-volt batteries are already installed, could you wire them in parallel, thus giving you 12 volts with double the amp-hours? Or would that be more trouble than it's worth?
 
I "assisted" @LizardKing do a rear brake job on his 1977 Chevy. I haven't messed with drum brakes for probably 35 years, took a bit but it pretty much all came back to me. Truck had a leaky wheel cylinder which soaked the brake shoes on one side. Replaced both wheel cylinders and shoes.

For those of you who haven't met @LizardKing, here he is.


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Knowing nothing about tractors, I have to ask: since the two 12-volt batteries are already installed, could you wire them in parallel, thus giving you 12 volts with double the amp-hours? Or would that be more trouble than it's worth?


You could but with cost of new cables its not really worth it or really needed since it starts pretty well in cold weather since it just had a overhaul. We do have some others setup with them in parallel and my diesel pickup is like that. We will just put the batteries in something else since its not a big job to change them out and can use them in something else.
 
Two weekends ago:

Oil change on the ‘03 Ram and replaced the oil sending unit. Gauge was doing some really funky things. Hasn’t done it since the replacement. Hoping this was the last step in what I thought was a rear main seal failure. Ended up being a loose oil filter and all the oil was running back and dripping from the low point. Still not 100% sure I don’t have a leak, but fingers are crossed.

Wife had been complaining for awhile about a noise her ‘05 Pilot was making. I don’t ever drive it, so I wasn’t really sure when it started or what the symptoms were. Sounded a little like a fan clutch that wasn’t disengaging. Ended up driving it home from some friends one night and the noise started. When we got home, I pulled it up to the garage without opening the door. Just wanted a solid surface for the noise to bounce off of so it would be louder. Noticed if I barely moved the wheel either way it got a lot louder. So I “fixed” it the same way I fixed it Ram in the past. Pulled a hose off the power steering reservoir and drained whatever would come out. Added new fluid (possibly the original still in it), and it hasn’t made a noise since.

Today:

Along with the dripping oil from the Ram, I’ve been smelling coolant, and finding small puddles. Back when it was figured out (by some helpful friends) that the oil filter was loose, we could see a leak coming from the side of the radiator instead of a hose. Replaced the radiator today. The truck has ~160K on it, and I bought it around 45K. Couldn’t remember if I replaced the serpentine belt when I bought it as preventative maintenance, but figured it was time anyway. Easy to replace with radiator out.
 
Tried to square up an old snapon box that took a hot on an upper corner years ago. Got it to where all four wheels sit on the ground, but it’s still about 3/4” our over 3’. Mixed another margarita and called it good.
 
tinkered on the MR2

made a kydex mount for a cupholder
Started putting some of the interior back together, one piece left + the passenger seat (which I took out to fit my hockey bag)
 
Spent Friday moving crap around, cleaning off a set of gorilla racks that will no longer be in use. Trying to get things away from one wall to start on a work bench project that I've had on the back burner for a while. I have entirely too much crap that "I might use one day." :rolleyes: Spent most of today cutting up pallet racking uprights and rewelding the cross bars to strengthen them up. I've fallen in love with my portaband.

Got two sections put in the shop, in temporary form anyway. Total workbench will be in a "L" shape, pallet rack frame, 24' on one wall and about 12' on the back wall. I was torn on the height but decided on 38" tall, if I don't like it I can drop the top down to 35" with little difficulty. Bench is 32" deep with a full depth shelf underneath for storage under two sections, third section will be open underneath so a chair or other equipment can be rolled under. I'll call it phase 1 of a graph paper lay out I drew up.

I will add a PSA to this...

Guys, if you don't know how to weld, please don't decide to cut your teeth on structural components that will hold thousands of pounds. The racking I cut up and rewelded today had been cut down and narrowed from 48" to 32" deep. These were modified by the previous owner and installed in a warehouse for storing automotive parts/engines, I'm shocked the uprights didn't fail/come apart with the way the supports were "welded."
 
Another little project started that I had planned for a while.

I wanted to have little 'place holders' for my tools.
I dont know how much I'll do. Ive already begun my wrenches, but I dont know if I'll do every drawer/tool.
I might do these, and then ratchets. I dont think I'll do the screwdrivers. We'll see.
It's tedious work. Im about half finished with Standard, havent begun the metric yet. And In bothering with the small sizes (5mm, 1/4" etc)

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