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I’ve had a good bit of time to finish up some “when I have time” projects. The AMGs I bought 7 years ago to put on my coupe but had such wicked curb rash that I kept putting off refinishing them.  Disassembled, polished and reassembled   And popped on the car  And there was great rejoicing … yay… The Dakota engine came out due to a faulty expansion plug (freeze plug)   So the engine bay got cleaned  And the rack leaked everywhere so a rebuilt one was sourced  Still need to reassemble that but maybe this weekend. Engine cleaned and being regasketed  New chain installed as well. It had a LOT of slop as this truck has covered 226k miles. Unfortunately after I had sealed the intake I put one of the brackets back on for the return spring and the intake cracked. So I’m searching for another of those. I can do that with the engine back in but it would be easier with it out; hopefully find one soon. |
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 Pouring concrete for a patio so moved these off to the side; don’t see them together very often so I snapped a pic. Two thumbs up. |
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The kids were out of school for a solar eclipse today; we were in the “Path of Totality” (great heavy metal band name) so the middle girl helped me a little while I finished up some little projects. Antenna seal on the 300CE, oil and trans change on the 328i and actually dropping the trans on the Dakota. Clean it, mate it with the engine and stab it all back in is the plan.
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Apr 10, 2024 23:52:07 GMT
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Because I don’t Have enough to do my brother and I drove to Indianapolis to dig through a guys collection, he said he’s getting to old to mechanic so wanted to clear stuff out; he had a “nice” e320 wagon w210 which I’ve been looking for a good one for awhile as well as three 280c, some 190e, some r107 and a bunch of other old Mercedes. 3.5 hour drive and the pictures were from ten? Fifteen? Twenty years ago? It was bad, the w210 had a broken spring mount which is an easy job but also bondo in three doors and rust everywhere else. Dang it. The 93 190e in green which was my second interest had been sideswiped but of course none of his pics showed it. I left disappointed  He asked for no pics so I…um…didnt take any pics…. This is the good side Since we then had an empty trailer we quick hit FB Marketplace and found an $800 w126 seven miles away. Sure, let’s look. Shiny and straight, turns over but doesn’t cough. Shiny was a spray over; the rust, mostly. It’s an older car and the Midwest is not great for rust so not surprised and probably could have got it cheaper but decided to just head home empty handed. Meandered through the country trying to keep with 2 lane roads only while watching for cars along barns but found nothing we had to look at; came across a car on fire and stopped and pulled the kids out. The mom and kids sat in the truck while my brother and I threw cups of water from the ditch on it. Scary for a few minutes. The guy was panicked so I called 911 then got back to fire fighting. Ended up that a connecting rod had let go coating the entire underside in oil which is what was on fire, spread to the insulation but we had it out before the fire department got there. I couldn’t quite believe it, car was toast though, wiring and insulation had all been on fire in the engine compartment.  No pics while it was burning since my hands were full. Couple has two other cars luckily, they were on their way home from the hospital with their 3 DAY old baby. Sheesh. Scary.  One of my nephews was out of school and said” it’s exciting going to look at cars with you”. Yeah, that’s not the plan. |
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A buddy of mine called and said he was offered a first gen Speed3 for $1500 and wondered if I was interested. Not really, needs to be a pretty nice car for that money and they are all worn out by now. He agreed but had thought about me when it was offered. Much appreciated.  Called back and said the guys wife told him to sell everything that wouldn’t fit in the garage, make it $800. Ok. Runs, drives, smokes and the engine is mounted on hopes and prayers. The motor mounts on all of these are horrible; I’ve found the electric focus RMM to be the best so I’ll order one of those. Otherwise it’s rusty and dirty but is all there and those oh so comfy mazdaspeed seats are in really good shape so the middle daughter will learn to drive in it. |
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Apr 21, 2024 23:49:26 GMT
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A friend of mine text me and asked if I’d bought the MZS3; he bought two from insurance auctions a few years ago and built one to flip. He had a bunch of extra parts left over that he wanted out of his garage. Woot!  The exhaust will come in handy since it needs one and going to 3” won’t hurt anything. |
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Started my new job which has kept me pretty busy; managing a service shop for semi trucks. Sold 464 truck tires this week which is a LOT. I did get the engine and trans back in the dakota but one of the bolts in the new trans mount broke so I’m waiting on its replacement to button that up. Sky has been weird, we had a 100% total solar eclipse and tonight we were able to see the northern lights which don’t show this far south usually. Amazing view  |
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464 tyre’s , is that fitted as well?
fantastic photo
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May 11, 2024 19:37:33 GMT
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The contract is for container chassis so many of those are delivered by box truck to the yards 100 at a time. Mounted on rims and aired but their techs fit them to the chassis. Those are 10.00-20 and 11r22.5 but we sell and install the gambit as well as having a retread plant in house and a 9 bay pull through shop. Pretty cool to have a truck and trailer and a bus being worked on in the same bay. It’s a cool place. Oh yeah, I already made some u-bolts since I now have the machine behind my office haha  |
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Jun 22, 2024 14:46:27 GMT
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Because I don’t have enough projects we bought another 190e,   It’s not very nice but red w201 always look good. Had an immobilizer wired into everything which my brother removed. Also, it had a new starter but unfortunately it had been installed because the previous one had knocked some teeth off the flywheel. Boooo |
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Jun 30, 2024 16:59:07 GMT
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Another weird sky picture; shelf clouds? Weird  |
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Aug 28, 2024 23:50:24 GMT
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I’ve sold four cars (well, one goes tomorrow) trying to get the number down to a manageable amount. My oldest went to university in Indiana last weekend so the red e36 is not in use til the next kid turns 16 in October. I’ve driven it to work all week, what a nice car. To bad how bad it is underneath  Had to drop one title off tonight and couldn’t skip this photo opportunity  |
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