Postcards from the garage

[greatbear]

Saturday's session of hotrodding the MINI was an unabashed success. Beautiful weather, an iPod blasting everything Rush has ever done through the stereo, and for a change, no issues with wrong parts save for the wrong belt, which I corrected yesterday. Hadta go and gas up tonight, since it's tough for me to keep my foot out of it now (well, more than usual). I'm far from done, but this will hold me until my next round of mods to that car. A supercharger's siren song is addicting. How I am managing to stay free of speeding tickets (and I mean serious ones, for 100+) is almost beyond me. I gave up using a radar detector about 15 years ago, and I have not slowed down. Quite the contrary. lol

I used to do lots of work on cars, if not part time at the garage in Laurel, then it was basically almost full time in my garage here at the house. I lived in the garage. My free time consisted of working in the garage. My hands were perpetually dirty, and I smelled like parts washer solvent. That was until I got busted up in the car accident and was unable to do any serious work on cars (or much else for that matter). Time passed, and in the couple years it took for me to recover to a decent level I let my garage here turn into a storage barn, and my 'clients' had to find other shops much to my (and their) chagrin. I extended my hiatus from the garage to catch up on other projects that I had neglected. Now that I am slowly catching up, I'm beginning to feel the 'pull' again. With luck, and maybe with some help, I can get to a point where I can reclaim my garage from the tractors and tillers and such and get back to the hobby I really love. I miss it a lot these days. Gasoline is in my blood I guess.

Comments

[leatherotter.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Back atcha!

[airbearma.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling. I've worked on engines since I was 12 when I rebuilt my first Briggs and Straton. My uncle taught me how to overhaul a 392 Hemi when I was 13. (he owned a major repair garage). I've worked on various car engines, experimental aircraft engines, modified snowmobile engines for ultralight airplane use and now mess with a wide variety of RC model 2 strokes, 4 strokes, gassers, and glow engines.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

We have petrol in our systems I guess!

[cutepacub.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.....

Patsy Cruiser is having some issues. Mostly with HORRIBLE gas mileage and mysterious antifreeze usage. Perhaps she needs to come see the greatbearmd garage. Ha Ha.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Eeek.

When you start losing coolant and there is no visible leaks, it's a sure sign of a blown head gasket. I have done countless head jobs (GET your MIND out of the GUTTER), and mostly in the cooler months where the temperature swing of the engine from cold to hot is greatest. If you notice a miss or vibration along with possibly a loss of power, these are also signs of a leaking head gasket. You will also notice your car 'steaming' from the tailpipe more than usual when you first start up or when sitting in traffic. You might also notice the telltale sweet smell of coolant.

[cutepacub.livejournal.com]

The only thing I've noticed is just the missing coolant. No power loss, no excess steam, no vibrations etc. I think it's Chrysler's ploy to make you buy their ungodly expensive antifreeze. I'm going to have the system flushed and switch to the "green stuff". What is in the car now is a 100,000 mile antifreeze that the part's guy at the Chrysler garage didn't seem too fond of.

[jkusters]

Hope you were going full bore when "Red Barchetta" came up. One of my favorite driving songs, and for good reason...

Glad it was a good time!

JOhn.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Red Barchetta is one of those songs that causes an increase in driving speed every time I hear it in the car, truck or whatever I am driving at the time.

[musicmanchicago.livejournal.com]

you keep feedin me visions of you and toools....

i LVOE you for that!

[beg1n.livejournal.com]

HUGS to you Phil! I'm sure you have it in you to get your garage back in working order!

[beastbriskett.livejournal.com]

Hey! Good to hear you're getting greasy again. Hear's to getting your garage all shipshape again!
I bet that Mini is FUUUNNN!

[shawnsyms.livejournal.com]

Maybe I do need to learn how to drive after all...

Simple Things

[liftinmoose.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that you're on your way to functional (and hopefully, total) recovery. Hope you do get to reclaim your garage. I'm a lover of simple things myself too. Nuzzling with my parrot, rockin' music, a good workout, etc, all give me more joy than any shopping or fine dining could. I imagine you probably feel the same in your garage. Maybe you can send me one of your used cloth... WOOF WOOF. Weird? Naw... I used to jack off to the smell of WD40...