Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

What if the mysterious rattling noise from the back of the MR2 turns out to be just a loose intake tube rather than, say, any of the more dangerous and expensive possibilities?

Well you can always ask this around thomas, he'll climb in and look for the rattling noise. :lol:
 
Well you can always ask this around thomas, he'll climb in and look for the rattling noise. :lol:
:lol: Isn't he kinda tall? I don't think he'd enjoy (or even fit in) an already small trunk that's now half-occupied with ECU, fuse box, and battery.
 
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He's likely to try anyway, from what we saw of him on this visit. :p
 
:lol: Isn't he kinda tall? I don't think he'd enjoy (or even fit in) an already small trunk that's now half-occupied with ECU, fuse box, and battery.

Well... I speak from some experience on this one:

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:lol: Challenge accepted

And now for something completely different, what was the last car (specifically not a truck) to have a column-shifted manual transmission? Could it really have been the 1980 Saab 96?

EDIT: Wikipedia tells me that Toyota Crown and Nissan Cedric taxis sold to Hong Kong had them.
 
So the mustang is not good for body disposal, got it.
 
So, y'all remember how I was saying that buying a 70s jet boat with a blown motor might be kinda the best/worst idea ever?

Well, uh, I now own a 70s jet boat with a blown motor. Pray for me.
 
:lol: Challenge accepted

And now for something completely different, what was the last car (specifically not a truck) to have a column-shifted manual transmission? Could it really have been the 1980 Saab 96?

EDIT: Wikipedia tells me that Toyota Crown and Nissan Cedric taxis sold to Hong Kong had them.

Nigerian license-built production of the Peugeot 504 complete with the column shift manual option only ended in 2006 - IIRC that makes it the last as the Crown and Cedric had dropped them by 1999.
 
Nigerian license-built production of the Peugeot 504 complete with the column shift manual option only ended in 2006 - IIRC that makes it the last as the Crown and Cedric had dropped them by 1999.
Intriguing. Time to start hunting.
 
Have a rental Camry for a few days. No review needed. How did they make the interior echo like a minivan? It looks nice but, that?s it.
 
Need photos. Meow!

Sadly no good photos yet. Did a full-day road trip to buy it, got unloaded around midnight and flew out to Vancouver the next morning, where I'm stuck for the next few weeks.

So the story goes, previous owner bought the boat (a Glastron CV-21) from a guy who had done some really bad cosmetic stuff to it - basically covered the upper half in bedliner and then spraypainted the Rolling Stones logo on it. Horrific stuff. The 460 Ford in it was well-built with good parts. So the P/O takes it out a couple times and realizes three things - the jet drive needs work, the electric fuel pump is flakey, and he can't live with that fucking paint job. So he spends three months of weekends hand-scraping off the bedliner and repaints the boat a nice (if boring) satin blue. Once that was done, he sent it into the local boat shop and paid them ~$1000 to rebuild the Berkeley jet drive with a new impeller and everything. Excited to get back on the lake, he realizes he's forgotten to get a new fuel pump. A buddy provides one that he had in his shop, which unfortunately is a dinky POS. After an hour or so of putting around the lake, buddy decides it's time to have some fun and pins it. Unfortunately, the fuel pump can't keep up with the big Ford at WOT and it leans right the fuck out (a major vacuum fitting also fell off the carb around the same time, which didn't help matters), melting a piston and breaking 5 others in the process. Owner decides he's going to build a stroker motor and tears down the engine, but eventually comes to the conclusion he'd rather just go snowmobiling for the winter and sells me the boat and all engine parts for 1500 Canadian pesos.

So that's the story, I'll do a PYC later. Should be a fun winter/spring project (build motor, give boat nicer coat of paint, fix some cosmetic stuff), no idea if I'll keep it long-term or just sell it. Needs new pistons (obviously) and maaaybe a new block but I won't know until I get back and dig into it. Good news is that marine 460s used the same block as everything else so they're a dime a dozen if I need a replacement.

For now here's an advertisement for the CV-21 with a Miura. Mine is... less brown.

egcUCHz.jpg
 
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So, y'all remember how I was saying that buying a 70s jet boat with a blown motor might be kinda the best/worst idea ever?

Well, uh, I now own a 70s jet boat with a blown motor. Pray for me.

Oh you poor bastard...
 
A friend recently got a boost gauge. It was about a week after he installed it that he noticed the manufacturer, iPD messed up with the design.

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It looks perfectly fine at first, but when you take a closer look you notice that the increments are not 1psi. There are only three markings between 5-10, 10-15, etc...

It's the kind of thing that isn't really a problem, but once you see it, it will bother you all the time.

First problem - bought 'performance part' from iPD.

Should have bought AutoMeter.
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Or even the SunPro line that Bosch bought and reskinned:
mechanical-vacuum-boost-gauge.jpg
 
The iPD gauge is a reskinned VDO gauge, and they are pretty solid.

iPD stands for I Paid Double.
 
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