Inter-Appointment Projects

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Amskeptic
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Inter-Appointment Projects

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Aug 09, 2013 8:16 pm

I have been hamstrung by either rain or blasting heat during this Itinerary. Here in New Mexico (and now Colorado), the rains come every day by 2:00PM and sometimes last into the evening. Phooey. However, Chloe has been running with a dowdy perfection, I am serious, this car has been a slow joy. A lovely unobtrusive engine note on the highway, smooth-if-sullen brakes, a light precise gear change (with equally light pops out of fourth gear beginning to crop up), decent 21 mpg, cool running, and a mountain goat's joy at clambering over rock-strewn paths and abrupt railroad access hillocks.

I put in the "field rebuilt" (literally - field) steering box outside of Kingman AZ in searing heat:

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Went fine except the damn thing leaked like a sieve. Back out it went. Re-sealed, re-adjusted, re-used the never-used gear lube. Very nice, light turning effort. A bit clanky right off the center with those worn pitman arm bushings, but smooth and light is easy to live with:

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Went immediately thereafter to the laundromat in Kingman. 100 billion degrees of desert and infernal dryers and no air-conditioning:

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Young employee was wiping down the washers. Lovesick suitor was following her around.
"Hey you can move in with me!"
" What?"
"I am working now, I can pay the rent."
"But what about . . ."
"I'll call your dad, really, "
" . . . my dad? He . . ."
" . . . he'll understand."
" . . . won't understand."
"The landlord will wait . . ."
"Besides, with that landlord, how is it . . ."
". . . until my first paycheck. This can work!I know it will . . ."
" . . . ever going to work out?"
" . . . work out!"
. . . and the beautiful hot day just kept working its hot thing while we worked out our lives inside the laundromat with the big ceiling fans:



Drove past a power station with a looming thunderstorm coming up fast. tried to get the one-in-a-thousand shot of lightening behind the station. Didn't happen, so I made up this:

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The real lighting was lovely:

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The afternoon before my appointment with pmaggiore, I visited my mountain above Los Alamos:

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I love it up there, looking down on all the rocket scientists:

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Here is the reckless diagonal parking job in preparation for this month's monthly oil change . . . :

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. . . at which time, I finally got around to disassembling the clatteringly loose Type 1 beather/oil filler assembly by means of Dremel-fashioning a special tool out of my oil sender 24mm socket. I had to, don't have the special collar wrench. The afternoon was evaporating quickly if prettily:

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You can be sure I was washing chrome dust and metal flakes off of everything three times over before getting anywhere near the engine. That poor Dremel was smoking hot by the time I had ground down the 1/4" perimeter of chrome-plated socket edge:

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The evening was evaporating quickly as well, when I decided that I HAD to paint the breather assembly:

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It was totally dark by the time I had it sanded and cleaned thoroughly (an oil filler/breather assembly on an engine with *no* filter had best be spotless!). Painted it in front of the headlamps. Hung it on the driver's door ventilation duct. Went back to the other side of the car, whhooof!! a big blast of wind shut the driver's door and threw the filler breather assembly into the dirt. Did I yell and curse and make a fool of myself, or did I calmly pick up the sticky dirty mess, clean it again, and paint again only better this time? Mostly the former. Next morning's perusal of prior night's paint job:

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Did you know that there is a paper gasket required under the breather assembly?:

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. . . and here is the part, picked up on July 25th from Wolfsburg West, that renders this engine completely complete, the draft tube grommet now installed with the spiffy breather which is now secure and leak-free:

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The engine now wants for nothing:

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Installed a new sliding door seal up above Los Alamos with spatters of raindrops adding some impetus. The new seal was not quite figuring out channel's deviations from the sloppy rocker panel installation. The rain sure didn't care, I was frantically trying to get it under the edges. Done! Now re-attach the upper roller bracket! Quick! Stupid rain! Rain, try hail! Where's the lower bracket? Quick, find your slot find your slot, stupid rain, come on! Where's the screws the screws the screws! No pictures either, no time for that, and the long-suffering camera did not deserve to get rained on.

Next day was The Bowers and the day after, the jtauxe visit and his remarkable pick-ups, I jumped in on his post with pictures, but I repost this picture here. Do not underestimate the powers of a rumpled rocket scientist. He gave me a comic magazine to read and I found incomprehensible formula scribbles in it, probably doodling while on hold with some customer service agent . . .

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I am now in Denver Colorado. Shot a video of crazy weather blasting poor Chloe on I-25. Will post it if it makes any sense . . .
Tomorrow morning I get to finally meet Curtis4085.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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