Yeah, I'm done with the painting for the year... it's consistently below zero now (-15 this week), so paint will never cure. But in other news, the beer fridge is now installed.
I like your thinking with the beer fridge, Nett. I think that beers left out in the trailer would stay pretty cold until it warms up around there, but the fridge will maybe keep the beers from exploding if it gets TOO cold out. Seriously, though, nice rehab on the trailer. Thanks for letting us watch.
So today was spent finalizing all of the electrics on the trailer. Put in a second deep cycle battery, and ran all the wiring to the winch, breakaway battery charger, power tongue lift, and the truck recharging cables (I've set it up so that a battery isolator runs through a 200 amp fuse, down some 4 guage welding wire to a dinse connector, and to the batter pack in the trailer... that means that I get high-speed, alternator-driven, 100 amp or so recharging of the trailer batteries while I'm driving.) Then I installed my big roller-chest (the winch was very handy for getting that up the ramp), and then built the front bench. It seemed to take way longer than it should have, but some good progress has been had today, in the FUCKING FREEZING COLD. Yes, the bench might not be all that level, but it was made with scrap wood and I may have been a bit "I don't give a fuck" from the cold... it works, and that's all that matters. Things are getting there. Tomorrow I should be able to load my small trailer and then raise and secure it. Fun with e-track coming up!
Trailerception has been achieved. It was a tight fit, with not a 1/4" gap, but it fits. The winch was damn handy, that's for sure. Next step is to raise the thing 18" and secure it in place.
Welcome back to the Automotive Thread, where it's all trailers, all the time. Major milestone achieved today... getting the small trailer raised up, blocked off, and secured for travel. Done! Now the trailer is ready to actually pack up for the move. Getting the trailer raised was a bit of a sketch-show, but with ample number of jack stands and some home-made wheel pedestals, two floor jacks, and a lot of patience, it was accomplished. Once it was raised up so that the wheels were on the pedestals that I'd made, and precariously balanced with the winch strap and a floor jack on the tongue, I made some 4x4" posts to put under each corner. They will really come into play once the weight of stuff put in the trailer acts on the torsion bar suspension, but for now they are more safety than anything. I then attached the 2' E-Track pieces to the various vertical metal supports and tied off the trailer. It's now really, really solid, and hopefully the load is evenly distributed across the attachment points so that even in an emergency stop nothing major will happen. If something major now happens to that trailer, then I have way, way bigger issues to worry about. But yeah... raising it up the 18" onto the wheel pedestals I built was a bit... "fun". But now there's lots of room for the plastic totes I'm packing all my stuff into.. those black and yellow-lidded totes from Home Depot. They're on sale for $7 each right now... way fucking easier than cardboard boxes, that's for sure. Everything was measured out so that I can stack them 2 high with an inch to spare under the trailer. I can easily fit 32 of those boxes under there, which is lots for how much stuff I need to pack.
Camshaft pulley threw a bearing and caused my timing belt to jump several teeth. Fuck. Mechanic says $1200-1400 to fix it, depending on how many valves are bent. The car has 200k miles on it but is otherwise in great condition, so I'm having it fixed. Mechanic suggests that the vehicle may burn some oil after this because of the machining and lapping required to get everything back into shape. Anyone done this before and know what I should expect afterwards?
That doesn't sound too bad for timing belt issue. Just lucky you don't have an interference timing belt where you would drop a valve and have no engine. I have sold a few timing belts when I was at my old job, as far as I know they were still driving there cars.
I'm no expert, but it seems to me that a couple of fucked up valves would require new seals to be installed, which usually doesn't require a big tear-down of the engine. If the valve guides got fucked up a bit, they could cause some oil seepage (at a minimum) if they're not repaired. Getting the guides fixed/replaced would usually require a big-ass engine tear down and would cost you much more in labour and a bit more in parts. I'm thinking that the guy is recommending a bit of a compromise that involves it being fixed to a reasonable amount, but not perfect, without going nuts on the billable hours.
Thanks for the thoughts. I don't mind keeping up with a little oil burning, I'd just rather nurse the car along for a while. Hopefully everything looks reasonable once they get in there.
Dodge has lost their damned minds. They are introducing the Challenger SRT Demon, referred to as a "Hellcat on Steroids." Don't we already have enough numb nuts that can't drive buying Hellcats and promptly wrecking them? "The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is conceived, designed and engineered for a subculture of enthusiasts who know that a tenth is a car and a half second is your reputation." One can only hope this a drag-pak car and not a street legal offering.