What Did You Do To Your Car Today?

[Firm]

Sometimes it's not bad...On the MGB, everything is easily accessible, there's no computers/modules to figure out, so it's 'clean' work - sort of a detective type approach. It can be satisfying.

[Bridgecity]

I did the brakes on the Tundra on the weekend. Fronts were causing wheel shake, and the rears were pulsing also.  The rears were done about 3 years ago, and the fronts about 5 years ago.  Lots of pad life left, but rotors were no good.  I don't recall what brand I put on but I typically don't by the cheapest and go with mid grade.  Anyway, it didn't work out so well that go around.  Ctire had Brembo's on sale, so I grabbed the pads from there and the front rotors.  Rear rotors weren't available so I picked up Brembo's from a local parts store.

The improvement in brake feel and strength is pretty incredible, considering the pads that were on the truck were fine.  No more sponginess, just a good solid and smooth brake feel. 

I am having a bit of an issue with the parking brake.  It wasn't holding well previously so I adjusted it while I had the rotors off.  They spun fine by hand with the rotors on, so I knew they weren't grabbing much. When I took the truck for a drive they were making a racket.  I said eff it, pulled into the garage and readjusted them to the position they were in previously.  I was done at that point.  However, they still made some noise after that (although much less), but after a day of driving are almost totally quiet, except when I take a corner hard there's a bit of noise.  I know, this makes no sense.  I need to pull the wheels off again and see what's going on. 

[Firm]

Well the brakes look good, interesting to see that Brembo now has black shims on their pads, before leaving CTire I was in charge of the brake programs and I told Brembo a few times that people were over red shims, and a lot of customers (myself included) didn't want to see red shims.

[Firm]

I had a pretty productive weekend on the cars last weekend. Continued plugging away on the MGB project, got the interior panels back in it, swapped the turn signal flasher and now all the lights work, little things like that.

Installed new Bilstein 4600 front shocks on the Escalade, the Monroes I installed about 9 years ago were done. Easiest shock swap ever, didn't even need to jack up the truck, just cranked the front wheel to get access, two bolts, and that was it. An hour for both sides, including clean up.

On the MGA the engine is seized from sitting 40 years, I've been soaking it down with Marvel Mystery oil, and bought a big 1"5/16 wrench to try and turn over the engine. So far it's beaten me, it must be really seized up. Next step will be to put it in gear (3rd?) and pull it behind the truck up the driveway to see if the dragging force can bust it free. After that, I guess I am pulling the head.....

Got this photo from Saturday night, we had a birthday party for the girl, so I moved a bunch of the cars over to one side of the driveway so people could get through to the backyard easy. Not often that I had this many of them uncovered at once.

[Revelations]

Nice looking fleet for sure Firm! That silver T/A looks wonderful 

[Firm]

Thanks, I was thinking the other day, I've owned that T/A since January 2015, over 10 years now. I've put about 30K kms on it during that time. When I got it, I did a bunch of work to bring it up to spec, and other than A/C repairs, I haven't done anything else since. It just works. Yeah it's slow, but the old carb'd 305 / 700R4 combo is ridiculously reliable, it rides and handles shockingly well (factory optioned WS6 suspension package), stops well (4 wheel discs) and still feels special to drive. Don't think there's a more appropriate car for bumming around rural West Tennessee on the weekends than an old T/A.

[Firm]

This ratty MGB has been on my side burner project list for about 18 months now, just tinkering with it maybe a couple hours a month for most of that time. The last couple weeks I've been a little more focused on it. It's finally coming around to looking decent...It starts easy and runs/drives quite well, paint has been polished out, most of the paint areas that needed to be repaired have been, everything electronic works properly, the interior is all complete and clean/functional, the trunk is no longer a garbage dump, so we're getting there. I need to pull the windshield and frame next to replace the seals - never done that before on an MGB, but apparently it's a frustrating job. Once that's done I've got a couple small things to wrap up, and then I can get it listed for sale, and hopefully out of my driveway.

[Revelations]

I love that color. Reminds me of the early Audi S4 nogaro blue.

I finally got the soft tonneau cover on my 94 Sierra today. Finding one was difficult, installing it even more so. The beaming hot sun was the answer, helped the vinyl stretch enough to finally fit nice. Trucks complete now and I'll soon be listing it.

[Firm]

Man that's a good looking truck. Standard Cab long bed with with 4x4 is probably a fairly uncommon configuration too. Should be an easy sell.

Those vinyl tonneaus can be a serious pain. I remember way back in the day I had one of those, but the snap style, on my Sonoma. In the winter I'd have to pour hot water on it to get it to stretch back on if I opened it.

[Gurgie]

Nice looking fleet for sure Firm! That silver T/A looks wonderful 

That silver T/A is one of my favorites in Firm's fleet. Must be because I was in my late teens when that gen came out & saw them everywhere all over the GTA. A good friend of mine's older brother had it in black/gold & it was pretty cool when he'd pick us up from grade 10 & give us a ride home. I remember a few years later after high school I was up in Wasaga Beach visiting my buddy & he & his brother both had C4 vettes (can't remember the exact years) and the old T/A was still there as a beater for whoever needed it in the family. So I took it for a good little rip and remember the crisp hard shifts from 1st to 2nd in the tranny.

[RRocket]

Lots of good work here, fellas!

I did an oil change on my boat. I stuck my oil extractor in the dipstick hole. Done. Spun off filter. Replace. Add oil.

This was ridiculously easy.

[Firm]

One of the OE HID Headlight bulbs in the DTS finally gave it up. GM's phenomenal design here dictates that the front bumper cover needs to be removed (or very loosened) in order to remove the headlamp assemblies and replace the bulbs....So, 2.5 hours to replace both sides. I changed every bulb in the assemblies while they were out, so hopefully I don't have to do that again anytime soon.

I've continued plugging away on the MGB recently too...Cleaned up the engine bay, replaced the windshield seals (not fun), replaced a sketchy fuel pump, etc. Waiting on a parts order now for a factory stripe kit and a U-joint, once that stuff arrives and get installed I can give it a good detail and get it listed. Not sure how the MG market is down here in the south, but we'll find out.....would be nice to have one less car in the driveway.

[Firm]

This was a weekend or two ago, but got the Jag out for a nice ride to 'Mud Island'. An island (sort of) in the middle of the Mississippi river, just west of downtown Memphis. It has a nice park, a marina, some neat brick streets with some restaurants & shops, and some really nice southern style homes (big tiered screened in porches). Nice spot to cruise around a bit, and a big contrast from downtown Memphis just across the bridge.

 

[Gurgie]

This was a weekend or two ago, but got the Jag out for a nice ride to 'Mud Island'. An island (sort of) in the middle of the Mississippi river, just west of downtown Memphis. It has a nice park, a marina, some neat brick streets with some restaurants & shops, and some really nice southern style homes (big tiered screened in porches). Nice spot to cruise around a bit, and a big contrast from downtown Memphis just across the bridge.

 

Very cool, remember seeing that last time I was down in Memphis! Jag is looking fantastic!

[Bridgecity]

I did an oil change in the Tundra yesterday. Now sitting at 292k.

I also polished the headlights. I would post a before and after photo but doesn't seem possible from my phone to load one direct. Ah well.