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

[Bitter]

And the reliability to a minimum too.

[Box]

It's a direct copy of the Buick 215, can't be that bad. In fact I think Rover bought all the moulds and tooling from GM. Apparently lots of people use the Rover V8 in various cars, even the Miata. Another option would be the Ford EFI 5.0 used in '89-95 Mustang along with the T-5 behind it. Then again could do that all aluminum 5.3 LM4 with a third gen F-body T-5 trying to save weight and cost. Which it'd really come down to being able to do it for less than what it'd cost to turbocharge what's already there, I think $3,600-5,100 from Flyin' Miata depending on level and completeness of the kit. In theory you could do a V8 swap for less. I know you could get a 5.0/T-5 for next to nothing, maybe a grand pulled out of a running car.

[Bitter]

It's British. That's as bad as Italian.

[Box]

Hmm, not quite as bad. Somewhere between Italian and German.

Well even though wasn't all that far from the path of the eclipse really didn't see much except for it getting shaded outside, I knew should've just traveled up north into it's path in Tennessee. Oh well... At least I recorded the programs airing on the Science Channel.

[Bitter]

It was clear here before and after, cloudy during, but was able to see through the clouds to catch the peak at 85% for where work is through some welding lens.

[Box]

The more I think about it the more I'm mad at myself for not just driving to one of the places under total eclipse. Oh well, my life is full of let downs so why this is any different I don't know.

[Bitter]

Start planning for Monday April 8th, 2024.

[Box]

I could be dead by then.

Anyway, I need to find a NB2 Miata and Celica GT-S to look at since it'd be nice to know I'd definitely want one or the other before selling the Firebird. Which it's just reached a point where my disdain grows with each passing day, so I guess it really doesn't matter anyway.

[Box]

You'd think the size and not being able to see out of it is something that'd get less noticeable over time, but it's not. Every time I look to check the edges of the car I see the edge of the wiper arm on the driver side and I see nothing but dash over on the passenger side. Then I can flip the lights on, and then I get some reference 5 feet away from me. I'm just so used to having where the fenders came up on the Celica and it gave clear reference of where the car was in relation to the road at any moment. I think even the Miata had some kind of reference without the lights up. I don't know if it's a short person thing, but I literally can't see a damn thing when driving it which is one of the biggest issues. I don't feel comfortable at all driving it because of that since the entire time I have to imagine and place seven feet of car in front of me that I can't see any of. I always end up at least two feet away from those concrete stops or the edge of a sidewalk because I don't want to hit the front of the car, so then I'm sticking out of the back of the space and I have to creep it forward. It's to the point I actually just dread driving it for fear of ripping the front end off of it. I dread having to sell it. I just wish I had never bought it.

[Bitter]

Then you won't like the Celica, there's little reference up there. Scoop and maybe the tops of the headlights since I swapped to the more bulbous HID housings. Could add some JDM corner things, the little poles or flags they do on the cars so they know where the corner is at all times. Ooo and some fender mirrors.

[Box]

Yeah but at least you don't have almost 2 feet of dash in front of you and almost 6 feet of hood and bumper you can't see. If I could see the top of the headlights on the Celica that'd be enough, which from looking at pictures of the car the ways the top of the lights are bulbous I figured that was the reasoning.

[narly_charley]

Replaced both front brake calipers on the ES330 last night, as well as new rotors and pads. The bottom slide on BOTH front calipers were COMPLETELY seized up. The boots were torn. I just decided to spend $60 each and get brand new calipers and brackets. Must have had some air in the system before, because the brakes are NICE now.

[Box]

Going is nice, stopping is even better.

Apparently can swap in a Honda K20/24 into the Miata: https://kmiata.com/ Plus it retains the Miata transmission and differential, so that makes things easier. Still quite expensive though...

[Bitter]

Replaced both front brake calipers on the ES330 last night, as well as new rotors and pads. The bottom slide on BOTH front calipers were COMPLETELY seized up. The boots were torn. I just decided to spend $60 each and get brand new calipers and brackets. Must have had some air in the system before, because the brakes are NICE now.

Seized slides will feel like a low soft pedal kind of like air in the system, don't forget to check the rears, probably in **** shape too!

[narly_charley]

Replaced both front brake calipers on the ES330 last night, as well as new rotors and pads. The bottom slide on BOTH front calipers were COMPLETELY seized up. The boots were torn. I just decided to spend $60 each and get brand new calipers and brackets. Must have had some air in the system before, because the brakes are NICE now.

Seized slides will feel like a low soft pedal kind of like air in the system, don't forget to check the rears, probably in **** shape too!

That's exactly what it was. I actually replaced both rear calipers about two years ago, because that slide was seized up too.

I swear, I have the worst luck with calipers. I've replaced so many over the small amount of years that I've owned vehicles.

[Box]

Seems like you just can't get a break...

Anyhow before getting out of the car I thought to take some POV pics to show what I (can't) see, center of the camera lens is on the bridge of my nose so it's fairly accurate representation. Also I need to get around to polishing out all those scratches, when I waxed it it just filled in all the scratches and made them really noticeable.



Then when you have all of this in front of you to account for that you can't see:


This is why I'll never feel comfortable driving it. At least it looks good, I guess that counts for something.

[Bitter]

Replaced both front brake calipers on the ES330 last night, as well as new rotors and pads. The bottom slide on BOTH front calipers were COMPLETELY seized up. The boots were torn. I just decided to spend $60 each and get brand new calipers and brackets. Must have had some air in the system before, because the brakes are NICE now.

Seized slides will feel like a low soft pedal kind of like air in the system, don't forget to check the rears, probably in **** shape too!

That's exactly what it was. I actually replaced both rear calipers about two years ago, because that slide was seized up too.

I swear, I have the worst luck with calipers. I've replaced so many over the small amount of years that I've owned vehicles.

2 years, time to take the rears apart and clean/grease the slides and where the pads ride.

[Box]

Apparently cerium oxide made into a paste is the best thing to use for polishing scratches out of glass. Hmmm...

[Bitter]

Correct,you need a nice stiff pad on a good backer and you have to keep moving or else you'll make waves in the glass. A good oscillating polisher is needed and follow the internet directions closely.

[Box]

I was thinking about trying by hand first since they're really fine scratches. Though I think there's a random orbital polisher around here somewhere, would just have to get a pad for it.