Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Bitter]

Yea, sometimes that old **** I have laying around does come in handy! It's a little different shade of green but it's illuminated now! I'm trying to get it buffed up but holy hell badly oxidized single stage paint, especially a pigment rich one like red, is such a mess to work with. This paint is SO soft that just wiping the residue off after working a panel gets my MF towel soaked in red paint that takes forever to wash out by hand and gets on EVERYTHING. I hate it so much. Also I can't find my bottle of forever black but I also haven't used it in a year so it was likely dried up. Ordered a new bottle, she's getting blacked trim against the shiny red paint instead of the original gray, it'll really change the look of the car and make the two colors pop against each other nicely! I did M7 glaze the hood twice and the first time it just soaked it up, debating on doing a 3rd round since that paint gets so much abuse between the hot engine and sun beating on it, the paint is dry on this car. That glaze just really pushes those deep gloss oils back into single stage so nicely, I think I'll do a more thorough rub in of the paint on the whole car just this once to get it a little more rejuvenated before the 476 wax goes over top.

[Box]

I think that's the secret to getting a good used car, buy from the first or second owner. I'm the third owner of the Firebird and it's the nicest car I've owned, though the Celica was nice too after my uncle sorted it.

She won't recognize the Capri, she'll think you got a newer one. Also I hate red paint, that is all.

This post has been edited by Box: Oct 22, 2016 - 10:48 PM

[Bitter]

Yea, I did this once before a number of years ago, hopefully she keeps up with it better this time. The paint is in poor shape in general, rubbed through on the edges in places to the white base coat. Softest paint I've seen on a car really, crazy stuff.

So out of boredom I began to rub another coat of M7 glaze on the hood, I'm doing it more slowly and in small sections with more rubbing in straight lines one way then perpendicular the other way several times, I can clearly see the paint change a shade darker from a red orange to a red. This is why I love M7 glaze so much, this is the color red it was when it was new. But now I have to do the whole hood and fenders at least to the pin stripe lines, damnit. I should do the doors too...but M7 is a pain to work with since to do it right you HAVE to do it in small sections with lots of hand rubbing and on a car with paint like this it has to be done 2-3 times since the first and sometimes 2nd application is just sucked up into the paint so fast it doesn't go on right. I don't want to invest that kind of time into it, so I'm going to keep it to the hood area only.

This post has been edited by Bitter: Oct 23, 2016 - 12:01 AM

[Box]

Have to love that single stage paint. That's ok I never got around to detailing my paint, maybe next weekend. Just now finally had a weekend in the 60's, but it's supposed to be in the 80's again tomorrow and the following week. Apparently Alabama didn't get the memo it's ****ing Fall, as usual.

[Bitter]

Going to wash/clay/wax a Highlander this afternoon, clear coated paint FTW. It's headlights are horribly hazed up, past the point of buffing. If they still have the car in the spring I might offer to try to clear them, they won't be perfect but they'll be better.

[Box]

Wash, clay, and wax a Highlander... I guess at least it isn't the Sequoia.

Speaking of headlights, ended up buffing out the CRV's for my grandmother. Got them 95% better but she had somewhere to go so I'll have to get the other 5% some other time, also changed out the bulbs for the 60W/55W Autopal H4's I took out for the CP bulbs and good thing too since the passenger bulb had a scorch mark on it and the driver side didn't look much better. Had to have been the original bulbs and I don't think the headlights had ever been polished out, hopefully now she can see better driving at night when she has to.

Which I just had a thought, I wonder how well soda blasting would do as a first step in restoring plastic headlights.

[1994Celica]

At work we ended up talking about cars. One guy kept on about how the cts v is just a Cadillac body on a corvette chasis. I didn't want to get into it with him about how that's not really right....

[Bitter]

It's not so bad, I'm about 20% clayed in 30 minutes and that's not working hard. Lowers of the doors and the front bumper will get REAL clay, rest gets the clay cloth. Even going to do a few swipes on the roof too and wax it. Just tossing on 476, no sealant or cure time.

[Box]

At work we ended up talking about cars. One guy kept on about how the cts v is just a Cadillac body on a corvette chasis. I didn't want to get into it with him about how that's not really right....

Some people are stupid like that, for what it's worth the CTS is Sigma I/II(though the Cadillac XLR was a Y-body) and the Corvette is STILL a Y-body. Yep the same platform from 1984 is still hiding somewhere in the C7 Corvette, though I guess it's Y-body II since the first Y-body platform ran from 1960-1982. I guess if it's not broke don't fix it? Seems to be the GM motto anyway.

Finally finishing up flushing and draining the cooling system, outside of beating me up and being a total pain things are going ok. Going to let it cool down some before getting to the pump. Oh yeah get this ****, the thermostat looks brand new too. I'll have to write a thank you letter to the previous owner and thank them for being car smart. This is why I'm NEVER getting rid of the Firebird, I am NEVER this lucky.

Clay barring is the worst part for me, the bending over and working a tiny section for awhile kills me. I really need to get that clay towel and call it real as far as claying goes.

[Bitter]

All done, cleaned up better than expected actually. Claying all the **** off the paint brought the gloss back big time, could have used a buff to take out a lot of the fine scratches and swirls but not this time and probably never.

[Box]

Well I got all the hoses off before it started getting dark, so just slid them back on so can just pop them all off and tuck them out of the way to get started on the pump. Waiting on the engine to cool off and then a few hoses had the clamps tightened from underneath for some reason killed time, so maybe tomorrow will get the new pump on then wait until Tuesday to fill it up and bleed it...

This post has been edited by Box: Oct 23, 2016 - 8:00 PM

[Bitter]

[Box]

I know it's terrible, ****ing fibro and working on the ground don't get along at all. It actually just pisses me off, I can't do half the **** I used to be able to do and what I can takes me twice as long or longer. Which I guess it's an improvement before starting the LDN in which I could do pretty much nothing, at least I'm able push myself if needed and I can do light duty work or desk work. Which it could always be worse, but it's still aggravating at times...

[Bitter]

I've just been spoiled by work, I don't want to do **** on a jack at home anymore even though I'm perfectly capable. I need to flush the Celica brake fluid and can do it at home, have I? nope.

[Box]

A lift helps immensely, when I changed all the fluids I was able to use a shop lift but I also knew I could finish it all in one afternoon so taking up a needed bay because I couldn't finish quick enough wasn't a concern along with figuring out getting home and back. Then again with a lift I probably could have done it all in an afternoon, really it's just all the preparation to get to removing the pump is all I've done. Not being able to get to the block drain bolts made draining and flushing a much bigger ordeal than it would've been, had to go between crawling under car to drain and leaning over car to fill then rinse, wash, and repeat a few times while letting it run for a couple minutes each time to mix the coolant and distilled water. Then after all that used the Shop-Vac to pull any remaining coolant after the last drain, and by the time it cooled off enough to take hoses off I saw where for some reason three had hose clamps upside down so doing that in a cramped space from above was a pain since I wasn't about to crawl under the car all the way with it on a jackstand on a gravel driveway.

I should only have to pop the hoses and intake back out of the way then can get to removing the ignition coil and smog pump bracket that's over the driver side of the pump, then can get to covering the Opti to be extra safe and removing the pump itself and putting the new one on. Then it's just a matter of letting the RTV on the pump gaskets cure before filling it and bleeding it.

Also speaking of jacks and having to work on crap at home, low profile aluminum floor jacks are the best thing ever. So much lighter and easier to maneuver than the big steel ones, close to a third of the weight and a good bit smaller too. Of course the weight capacity is also less, but for any actual car I can think of it does the job.

This post has been edited by Box: Oct 24, 2016 - 12:22 AM

[Bitter]

Man those new zinc battery terminals are tight to get onto a positive terminal! They sure do clamp down like the dickens though, and I don't feel like I'm going to strip the little bolts when I clamp the wires to it. I like!

Here's the green LED in the headlight switch to illuminate it, before I dim it down any.



I'll try some sharpie on the nose of the LED, that's the only thing I can think of to easily cut the light down some other than trying to desolder and solder another resistor inline, but then I need to figure out what resistor and what resistor is already on the LED and I'm sure I don't have the right value laying around.

[Box]

Finally got the old pump off and the new pump in and everything back together, will fill it and bleed it tomorrow afternoon and hopefully good to go. Some other good news it turns out the plug wires were changed after all since the contacts were bright and shiny as I had to take a few off to get to one of the bracket bolts. I can't tell but I think the Opti might've been changed, the front cover is bright yellow then the middle section housing is black and the part of the housing next to the timing cover is bright yellow. Oh and you couldn't spin the old pump by hand, so I should get a few hp regained right?

Also I want to know what people's problem is since there's no way for coolant to just drip or drain onto the Opti if you drain the system, I guess maybe they're not draining it thoroughly so when they pull the pump off it dumps onto it? Or they just didn't bother draining it at all? Even then how the coolant ports in the block are positioned in relation to the Opti it seems like you'd really just have to try in order for coolant to get onto it. Even the weep hole everyone talks about is out in front of the Opti a fair amount. From the way everyone talks if the wind blows the wrong direction it's all over, seeing everything and doing it all in person I'm a lot less worried about it than what I was a few days ago.

[Box]

Could sharpie the LED like you said or perhaps try a layer of 35-70% tint on the back of the button face.

[Bitter]

Getting that deep into the button doesn't look easy, I'll try sharpie!


The problem is coolant DOES blow back against the block and onto the Opti and any moisture in there is bad as the electrical parts are NOT potted in any way. They're very sensitive to moisture, that optical pickup is delicate.

[Box]

That or maybe some kind of cover on the LED if that doesn't work.

At least the revision Opti is sealed and has ventilation so I don't foresee problems outside of user neglect or error. My father's '96 Z28 never had an Opti issue in it's almost 200K miles, ate through 4L60Es like no tomorrow though. From what I've found it's not so much the optical sensors but the cap and rotor, Mitsubishi and Nissan used a variation of Opti-spark and you never really hear about them having problems like you do on the LT1 and the sensors are the same between them all. Or at the very least it'd appear Mitsubishi made the sensors for GM and Nissan as well.

This post has been edited by Box: Oct 24, 2016 - 10:36 PM