clokker

iTrader: (2)

Well no, I haven't.

Sigfrid removed the logo on his wheel but it left holes, so he covered it with a foam circle.
It looks kinda OK but only under very casual inspection...to me, it's an obvious bandaid.

But I have no better solution at hand, so for the time being the logo will stay and I'll think about it till something presents itself.

ACR_RX-7

iTrader: (1)

My dad taught me this trick when he taught me to ride dirtbikes. Ultimately, it works. I did it years later on my crotch rocket. The controls are very much not symmetrical, but fit like a glove.

TonyD89

iTrader: (10)

Spin up a little disc of aluminum, you could even file and polish a nice big radius across the front so it doesn't look cheap. If you radius just the edge, or bevel it, whatever you want, mail it to me, and I'll engrave RX-7 in it for you and mail it back. Send it to me before you part it off. Or not, it's easy for me on the conversational mill we have at work. Most of my g-jobs for friends involve engraving something. The Ford V8 symbol, Chevy bowtie, I don't do HD wings but the actual name and the bar it's in, yes.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I'm full of fail here lately.
First, I carelessly lost the steering wheel construction pics...a typically old person ("I didn't DO anything!") move.
So meh, that was silly.

Then, the steering wheel clamshell decided to spontaneously revert to the earth.
Ironically, I'd just be bragging to Cory how intact/perfect it was- which it was until I contemplated touching it. Now it is scarred with glue and electrical tape and still looks bad and is still breaking.
The plastic is simply losing it's will to cohere.
Apparently, it would prefer to morph into black powder as it's next plane of existence.

Evolution, man.

The good news is that the wheel itself is all done and a joy to use.
Horn and signal cancel present and accounted for.

Next I think should be gauges.

A bright light in a somewhat dreary day...new episode of just dropped.
There's a bit towards the end concerning the wheels that will curdle meercat's blood.

My Mazda cat gaskets arrived and I splurged on some header wrap ((which I regret not doing at the beginning) but I still have no cat, so the exhaust remains problematic.
As in obnoxiously raspy.

Just takes money.

ACR_RX-7

iTrader: (1)

I just finished watching the episode an hour ago. Very good stuff.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Along with all the other brilliant facets of their build, I'm impressed with the deep appreciation for classic British engineering. The gas tank straps/fixings are straight out of the steam age but still perfectly suited for the application.

In particular, the sliding capture nut plates perfectly illustrate some basic engineering philosophical differences between the Brits, the Japanese and the Americans.
The British realized their manufacturing tolerances were crap, so everything slides or is adjustable...it was fiddly but even wildly varying parts could be made to fit.
The Japanese eliminated tolerances and made even complex parts fit every time. A Japanese engineer would be horrified at the thought of a movable capture nut because it would imply he didn't know precisely where it should be.
An American engineer made everything from 1/4" plate and zip ties. Parts can't break if they're not really fitted in the first place and anyway, what loser keeps a car for more than three years anyway?

You can infer a lot through such details.

Anyway, moving down from the mountaintop that is Binky and into the plane of normal existence...the Audi wheel:




Yes, I dislike the white gauge faces, too.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

very true. my new job has me working with Ford which has been eye opening. very different style of engineering; he says charitably.

i know quality is job 1 at ford, but certainly, learning to count must be job zoidberg, and next on the list is giving your engine a cool name. you can't have a good engine unless it has a cool name, like Lariat.

for example the Pinto engine doesn't have a name, while the Crown Victoria* uses a Modular engine on the Panther platform, so its just awesome.

and well that is pretty much it.

they never seem to actually engineer a whole car like Mazda, they just slap together some subassemblies. these subassemblies are what the engineers seem to output. the 6 cylinder in the vans is 1947, twin I beam 1958, the small block is 1962(or so), fuel injection is mid 80's, they made a heater box in the 90's, and then anything after 1/1/1996 is either Mazda or Volvo.

*if you're up for a ponder, why is the default police car named after a British queen? the Caprice isn't much better.

TonyD89

iTrader: (10)

None of it matters as long as a UAW worker is zip tying them together.

ACR_RX-7

iTrader: (1)

Then there are the cars i battle with daily.

German cars.

Everything is engineered plastic that is designed to be clever and lightweight, at the extreme cost of longevity and reliability.

Fancy clips and harnesses that are either 2 feet too long and bundled up in zip ties, or exactly long enough that by routing them just a tiny bit incorrectly will strain the wires and cause driveability issues.

The lack of available information and the scores of diagnostic trouble codes they store, even for the most trivial of items. On a good day, a Mercedes or BMW will only have 5 codes stored in all modules.

Let's talk about odd sized fasteners, clips that are impossible to reach with the engine in the car, and aluminum bolts that must be replaced and are conveniently non-magnetic; for those times you lose one down a fender.

Then there are the proprietary fluids, the disgusting oil leaks, and the excessively complicated devices that are wonderfully engineered, but probably are not necessary in the big picture. Complication for the sake of being complicated.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

+1

German cars, at this point in time should not be owned, only leased.

ACR_RX-7

iTrader: (1)

If owned, dump them off to some poor soul with about 75K on the vehicle. That's just low enough to make a person think that it has low miles, but high enough to where you don't need to repair anything....yet.

rx7racerca

iTrader: (1)

+2. And this has been the case for at least 20 years. Actually, 30. My '87 GLI was a hoot to drive, but the pits for reliability. Absolutely the worst.

ACR_RX-7

iTrader: (1)

Amazingly, even with a bad ownership experience, people STILL buy them. I had a customer who was on her 4th Volvo. Every single one had issues, but they keep buying them.

I had another customer who had a X3 with every oil leak imaginable. They decided to trade it in because they were tired of dumping money into it....they bought an X5

jjwalker

Dude, you aint kiddin'.

At work we cringe when a german car pulls up in the parking lot. If we see one driving by we are wispering "keep going...keep going".

I put an alarm in a 1976 Mercedes the other day, it sucked.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I recall from the distant past a (possibly fantastical) story that when Honda began making cars, they made the designers actually work on the cars they'd drawn.
Nothing like spending ten minutes trying to access a bolt to give an engineer an appreciation for the real world consequences of their decisions.

I recall that when Sigfrid owned the Audi TT he was all hot to add some minor engine upgrades...we discovered that to do almost anything to that car required removing the entire front end.
Something about "service position"?
Anyway, all those parts are still sitting in his garage, years after the TT was sold because we never did anything to that stupid car.
I tried helping out my brother as he tried changing the spark plugs on his new Beetle...another job we couldn't complete.

After the nightmare of German cars, I really appreciate gazing at my FC bay- or the Z, for that matter- and seeing all the service points hanging in the breeze, easily accessible.

jjwalker

A co-worker on monday pulled his car into the shop to check his oil because the low oil light came on.

After about ten minutes I hear "Cam, my car is making me feel stupid, help me find the dipstick!"

His BMW doesn't actually have a dipstick. You have to start the car, thumb through some menus with a button on the steering wheel, select "oil" and it pops up an oil level meter on the dash.

WHY!?

Oh, and I loved this when I read a warning sticker in his car....

" Using a cellular phone within this vehicle, without the use of an external antenna, can cause severe electrical system damage".

Uhhhh....

jjwalker

I found a picture of it....haha

ACR_RX-7

iTrader: (1)

My secret is to use a $13k scan tool to access the oil level screen. Nominal oil level is 72MM on the display.

They really do not want the end user to mess with the car. It's built in obsolescence.



Also note that it says not to use the FOB to lock the doors with someone inside. This is because BMWs have double locking latches. It disengages the outer and inner handle so that you can not break into the car. Never a good day when you lock the keys in the car with the window up. Has not happened at my shop, but I know a few instructors in the area who visit shops and work at colleges. Students locked a BMW. The locksmith used a brick to "open" the window. There is no earthly way to slimjim or open the doors otherwise.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

[QUOTE=clokker;12089879
I recall that when Sigfrid owned the Audi TT he was all hot to add some minor engine upgrades...we discovered that to do almost anything to that car required removing the entire front end.
Something about "service position"?
After the nightmare of German cars, I really appreciate gazing at my FC bay- or the Z, for that matter- and seeing all the service points hanging in the breeze, easily accessible.[/QUOTE]

the Audi/VW's are packed in so tight, that they made the core support unbolt, so you can have enough room for the width of the timing belt.... it sounds nice, but its like a 2 hour job to get the car into "service position" which is where you can start working on it....

semi related, i used to have a 190 mercedes, and someone backed into it. cracked grill was the only external damage. of course under the grill was the AC condenser, which is right up against the radiator which is up against the engine, so i had to put another radiator in it...

those sensors go bad all the time too, so its like double stupid


really though when one looks at a VW/Audi wiring diagram one has the distinct impression that they have no idea how electricity works, it may as well be magic. i had an MGB a year ago, and that one, seemed to have been wired by someone who really understood electricity very well, but then didn't understand water (corrosion)

rx7racerca

iTrader: (1)

I've heard that the sensors fail often too. Service techs end up draining the oil to find out how much is really in it.


This is so true. Both really, but mostly I identify with the VW/Audis - I had three, electronics and service were horrid (except on the GLI, with its simple CIS-E injection and roomy bay relative to the tiny engine). Yet even with its minimal electronics, the GLI was a plagued with gremlins that neither I nor shops could exorcise.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

They understood water just fine and the preferred approach was to simply ignore it.
Even British coupes leak but the Empire's crowning achievement has to be the utter failure to ever develop a water tight convertible top...while living in a perpetually wet climate and insisting that a real sports car had a soft top.

This charming eccentricity shows some interesting aspects of the British mentality.

They adopt their cars as pets.
Their cars must be "fettled" regularly (stuff like greasing the chassis every 1000 miles, adjusting the points or drying out the distributor cap) and that's good- it means the car needs the owner, it's not just a one way street.
Like an unfed pet, the unfettled car became sickly and weak, which of course, reflected badly on the moral character of the owner.
Besides, who could trust a machine that was perfect?

Which segues nicely into the second aspect...the British expect to be disappointed. More than expect really, they require it because constant trials mean you're capable of overcoming constant trials and the overcoming is the important thing.
Essentially, that freezing spray to the face builds character and moral fiber...you're a better person for enduring it.
That whole "stiff upper lip" meme is based on frostbite.

ACR_RX-7

iTrader: (1)

2 hours? What, did you take a 1 hour and 30 minute break before opening the hood? I'm flat rate, so I can have an Audi/VW timing belt going on in about 2 hours. This includes cleaning all flanges and torquing all bolts.



They go bad because the Jiffy Lubes of the world turn the key on with the oil out of the sump. The sensor is a heating element that heats the oil and looks for a drop in temperature over time. No oil, or low oil causes them to fail early. When they do work, they work great.


What? You don't like track style wiring diagrams that require you to learn a bit of German to read the color codes?

The idea is that you can follow power distribution through the entire car on those diagrams. All connectors, splices, and junctions are well labeled. They are just ungainly. I prefer system diagrams, but I have encountered plenty of system diagrams that omit connectors, so you end up chasing your tail for awhile. The nice thing with a track diagram is that you can print the whole track system out, lay if on the floor next to the car and follow the wires. This is for those times when you get a collision car that was not put together properly.

jackhild59

iTrader: (7)

The Brits have an whole different understanding of what it means for something to be sealed. I have never seen an MG that didn't leak and seep. Oil. Coolant. Rain. Electricity (praise be to Lucas, Lord of Darkness).

Why do the English drink warm beer? Lucas made the refrigerators, too.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Looking back, I see that it was inevitable this nugget would appear.

During my long infatuation with Brit cars I enjoyed all the eccentricities and foibles (I had a BRG tee shirt with Jack's joke on the chest), while never actually suffering from any of them.
I approach a "new" (to me) Japanese project car by going through the brake system- the job gets you under all four corners of the car and starts to give you a good idea of the general condition.

For the same reason, I always started an angloauto project with the electrical system.
Of course, the classic British sports car has about the most rudimentary electrical system imaginable and the brakes will always suck, so there's little point in working on them...the wiring was an easy and effective place to start.

You know what's weird?
British wiring systems (specifically speaking of 50/60's vintage) use almost no connectors. Most of the wire is just terminated and stripped, then goes into screw down post terminals...and this is for everything-switches, gauges, light sockets, etc.
This lighthearted approach to electricity is paired with a casual disregard for fluid containment- a combination that's particularly exciting in the dash area, where they bring a tube of full strength engine oil and screw it to the back of the oil pressure gauge.
That always goes well.
The windshield washer pump is hand operated and has a feed line from the engine bay and the output hose to the squirters...you push/pull the **** to slowly force water to the glass or, equally as likely, blow the hose off the pump and soak your knee.
Which is already covered in hot oil from the leaking gauge and thus waterproof...so there's that.

ACR_RX-7

iTrader: (1)

Seems like the Brits were in the dark ages of engineering. I will say that the cars look excellent, as long as you don't mind oil leaks and electrical issues.