Radiator Support

This weekend I had to replace the radiator support in the Corvette. GM lists this part as a "skid plate" but makes it to self destruct upon contact with anything. It does not appear to be a bad design but more so that it is manufactured poorly. The design of it would appear that it is to protect the bottom nose of the car from parking barriers etc. it also serves as the lower radiator support.

I took the Corvette into the dealership two weeks ago to have some things looked at, one being a popping sound from the rear suspension. The dealership found the lower radiator support broken, told me it was abused and would not be covered by warranty and that they would not be able to find the popping sound until it was fixed, which they would do for the sum of $380.00. I bought one from a GM dealer online for $130.00 and replaced it in a few hours.

My frustration with the whole thing is how poorly the support is welded. It obviously has some damage from rubbing against a parking barrier, but it would not have failed had the welds been adequate. Looking at them its apparent that there was no penetration on the welds and they have excessive porosity.

This is a picture of the end of the support upside down and the "fang" that sticks down below the nose of the car. I took it to show the amount of "abuse" the "skid plate" had sustained.

These are pictures of the poor welds that failed on the part.

Since there is no other damage than the welds pulling apart I plan to have it re-welded and use it as a backup for when the new one I installed does the same thing.

Project Garage: Week 8

 This weekend I got a lot of stuff done but not much of what I had planned to do.

I finished installing the pegboard and lights in the cabinets. The one to the left is all house items, the one in the center is mostly yard equipment and the one on the right is all automotive. I still have a lot of items to load into it,

 

I needed to finish the pinstripe in the double bay and behind the work benches. While I had them pulled out from the wall I decided to mount some T8 lights on them and change all the outlets around them from twist locks to standard plugs. This took the better part of the day because the benches had small boxes and were all wired with 10 gauge wire.

I still haven't made a decision on pneumatic lines and will probably wait a bit longer, I think I will work on the lighting next. My last garage has 8ea 4ft 4 bulb fixtures. I think for this one I am going to use the 4ft end to end fixtures. Right now it has 2ea 4ft 2 bulb builder fixtures and is very dimly lit.

Project Garage: Week 6

I managed to get quite a bit done this weekend. Friday I stopped at Harbor Freight to get a automatic compressor drain kit, the kit they sell is one of the few mechanical kits I have seen and is substantially cheaper than an electric one.  Unfortunately because of its design and my compressor I was only able to use one valve from the kit. I was able to get everything else I needed from Lowes and for less than $40.00 it seems to work quite well. It connects to the line between the pressure valve and the pressure switch, I was able to find a compression T fitting and run a 1/4 copper line down the back of the compressor to the auto drain valve.

When the compressor reaches its filled pressure the pressure valve opens sending air to the pressure switch shutting off the motor. Tapping into this line also sends air to the auto drain valve opening it for a second each time the compressor shuts off, which should drain condensation from the tank.

While I was looking for my tubing cutter I came across some old suspension parts I had. I found some upper a-arm bump stops which I decided to try as vibration isolators for the compressor. With them installed the noise during operation is much less.

I also picked up a Gladiator GearTrack section to hang some of the more commonly used items in the garage. I was never a big fan of hanging a bunch of junk on the walls but for these items and having them between the two garage doors, easy to get at it made sense.

I finally started installing the pegboard I cut down for the Lista cabinets. When I first got them they had pegboard installed in this area but the owner had let them sit outside for a couple of weeks and the pegboard got wet and warped. I would have liked to install metal but the cost of it was prohibitive. The old pegboard was bolted through the shelf cutouts which left the bolt threads protruding through nuts. For this I used existing holes in the rails and #10 screws

I still need to run airlines from the compressor, I just have not yet decided how I want to do it.

Project Garage: Week 4

Last weekend it was cold (45³-50³) and I wasted most of Saturday looking for 1/4" pegboard. I would have thought that would be fairly common but apparently it isn't. This weekend it was much warmer and I was able to get the 240 run to my compressor done.

Running 4/10 to a finished, insulated wall fuse box wasn't much fun. I had Matty help me pull it though after I got a feed through installed on the top of the box. I didn't need 10 gauge wire, the compressor is only 14 amps but I have it if I ever upgrade to a real compressor.

The drop was 12 feet away in the same insulated wall.

I found a cheap safety disconnect and left enough flex to be able to move the compressor out for maintenance.

I didn't realize how much I used it until I didn't have it to use. Now I need to decide if I am going to run PEX-AL-PEX or black pipe. I don't currently have plans for a huge run probably just a 35 foot single run to the work benches on the other side of the garage.

Indiana Plate

After an oddesy which began in Feburary and included two trips to the BMV, three phone calls, and three different registrations, I finally recieved a license plate for the Corvette. The morality department of the Indiana BMV prevented me from renewing my existing plate, so I chose the new one with an old nickname.

Project Garage: Week 3

I did not work on the garage this weekend other than to pick up some 1/4" pegboard which I need to cut down and paint. Last week I finished up making all the small pieces the movers lost, to finish putting the Lista cabinets back together. Just having them in place without anything inside of them has freed up a large amount of floor space in the garage. I had to relocate the GFCI on the wall behind the cabinets, but other than that it was just time consuming to re-assemble them.

They dwarf the 60 gallon compressor sitting next to them.

Next on my list is the compressor wiring and deciding on using Pex or copper lines. The Pex is very attractive both because of easy installation and price. My only concern with it is its ability to dissipate heat and the condensation in the lines that would create. I have some ideas for water traps that if they pan out with my research, I will probably use the Pex.

Project: Garage

After being razzed by someone (Harold) at work (Harold), I decided it was time to get my garage in order. Initially I had been looking at doing something with the floor. Because I do welding and grinding, vinyl tile and paint solutions would not work for me. I am leaning towards doing porcelain tile if I can find it cheap enough. Until then the plain concrete with desifier will be good enough.

Next before I could could clean up our move in pile, set up my shelves and benches I needed to do something with the walls.

Last week I took a couple days off and started painting the walls.  My last garage had all white walls and everything from about four feet down got very dirty from grinding, welding etc. I decided to paint that area grey with a lista blue border.

Taping the walls off and painting them was a pain due to the poor quality paintjob the builder did when they finished the garage, I had to repair multiple areas along the tape line.  Lesson learned, if I ever build a home again I will take some masking tape to the final walkthrough and do pull tests on the paint.

The grey came out darker than I intended and the final stripe was too plain, so now I am adding a 1/4" pinstripe to the edges of it.

Mower

When we were in Indiana before we had a Simplicty walk behind with a 34" deck. It was basically a riding mower with the seat removed and handle bars installed, It was extremely overbuilt, cut and mulched very well but was at times difficult to turn. I would have bought another but was informed by the local dealer they were no longer produced. After looking at numerous residential WAW (Wide Area Walkbehind) mowers and reading how bad they were, I started looking towards zero turns and commercial walk behinds.

I settled on a Gravely ZT42 which was priced under many same sized box store mowers and much less than a commercial walk behind.

It has a 23hp Kawasaki twin, three blade 42" deck and a top speed of 6mph. Buying it from a local dealer adds the service and warranty that costs extra from the box stores. Its total overkill for my lawn and I love being able to mow it in less than 20 minutes, possibly faster once I learn how to actually drive it.

Gizmos Brother

Tania decided that Gizmo needed a buddy to play with, so two weeks ago she found Ozzy on the internet. Ozzy is a rescue dog that apparently has had a hard life to date. He is very good natured, plays well with Giz, but has a small flatulence problem that will make grown men cry.

Next Door

Wow its been a while since I updated my blog. Since the last update we moved in to our new home the following week and I have been focusing on work. I have many plans for home projects I will be posting on here, once the warmer summer weather starts.

Yesterday Kim and Andy came to visit and while we were having lunch a truck next door to us was dropping off a beam that was part of the floor support for the basement. The driver apparently did not feel outriggers were necessary for this small beam.