Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
I was busy in the garage this weekend, and I'm still recovering from it. I've actually got a fume hangover. 
I worked Saturday, so I had only Saturday night and Sunday to do anything to the cars. I decided I'd best get right to it.
My first order of business was to finish up one of Stretch's speakers (yeah, they're still not done) by final trimming the port tubes to length. Easiy enough with the hacksaw, but not so straight. Since my Dremel tool is here, the only other option I had for trimming them straight was the bench grinder. :doh: Ah, the smell of molten plastic.
Next I decided to finally finish painting the engine bay in the LeBaron, which involved scuffing the paint, then primer, paint and clearcoat. After about two hours of painting time, the pink elephants were doing a conga line around the garage so I knew the time had come to close it up for the evening... I'm still getting silver in my Kleenex.
Since I hadn't learned my lesson from the night before, I spent part of Sunday afternoon working with carburetor cleaner and the dip tank, followed up by attempted removal of my lower-control arm bolts. This last bit is not as easy as it seems, since someone welded them to the nuts, and there's insufficient clearance to get in there with a sawzall or torch. My thought was to cut through the bushings and the bolts with the sawzall between the LCA and the K-member. Of course, I then got a snoot full of rubber smoke, as well as a lesson in the ridiculous hardness of LCA bolts on squad-car M-bodies. After destroying two Sawzall blades, I was not even halfway through my first bolt.
Plan B included the die grinder, and cutting off the weld and the end of the bolt using a burr, since there's no cutoff-wheel clearance in there. Sadly, Plan B was cut short due to the fact that the Compressor of Hate (direct-drive Craftsman) ran constantly and I just couldn't take the noise anymore. I almost got through the first bolt before my will to continue as a person with hearing overcame my determination to get the f__kin' bolt out.
Next I decided that I'd gone long enough without chemical fumes, so I silicone-sealed the speaker ports for Stretch's speaker and installed them. Yummy. At least that got finished; next weekend hopefully I'll get speaker #2 close to completion... more painting. More elephants, too.
:felant: :felant: :felant:
While the elephants are out, I may start jambing the trunk of the LB or do the outsides of the inner fenders and the front of the core support.
Then, as if I hadn't punished my central nervous system enough, I decided to start peeling the sad-looking tint out of the quarter windows of the Conquest. I got one side done, and the resulting smell drove me out of the garage for good. That stuff reeks when you pull it.
I'm seriously thinking a respirator might be a good investment... but I'd really miss that conga line. :dance:
I worked Saturday, so I had only Saturday night and Sunday to do anything to the cars. I decided I'd best get right to it.
My first order of business was to finish up one of Stretch's speakers (yeah, they're still not done) by final trimming the port tubes to length. Easiy enough with the hacksaw, but not so straight. Since my Dremel tool is here, the only other option I had for trimming them straight was the bench grinder. :doh: Ah, the smell of molten plastic.
Next I decided to finally finish painting the engine bay in the LeBaron, which involved scuffing the paint, then primer, paint and clearcoat. After about two hours of painting time, the pink elephants were doing a conga line around the garage so I knew the time had come to close it up for the evening... I'm still getting silver in my Kleenex.
Since I hadn't learned my lesson from the night before, I spent part of Sunday afternoon working with carburetor cleaner and the dip tank, followed up by attempted removal of my lower-control arm bolts. This last bit is not as easy as it seems, since someone welded them to the nuts, and there's insufficient clearance to get in there with a sawzall or torch. My thought was to cut through the bushings and the bolts with the sawzall between the LCA and the K-member. Of course, I then got a snoot full of rubber smoke, as well as a lesson in the ridiculous hardness of LCA bolts on squad-car M-bodies. After destroying two Sawzall blades, I was not even halfway through my first bolt.
Plan B included the die grinder, and cutting off the weld and the end of the bolt using a burr, since there's no cutoff-wheel clearance in there. Sadly, Plan B was cut short due to the fact that the Compressor of Hate (direct-drive Craftsman) ran constantly and I just couldn't take the noise anymore. I almost got through the first bolt before my will to continue as a person with hearing overcame my determination to get the f__kin' bolt out.Next I decided that I'd gone long enough without chemical fumes, so I silicone-sealed the speaker ports for Stretch's speaker and installed them. Yummy. At least that got finished; next weekend hopefully I'll get speaker #2 close to completion... more painting. More elephants, too.
:felant: :felant: :felant:
While the elephants are out, I may start jambing the trunk of the LB or do the outsides of the inner fenders and the front of the core support.
Then, as if I hadn't punished my central nervous system enough, I decided to start peeling the sad-looking tint out of the quarter windows of the Conquest. I got one side done, and the resulting smell drove me out of the garage for good. That stuff reeks when you pull it.
I'm seriously thinking a respirator might be a good investment... but I'd really miss that conga line. :dance:
