Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[BenelliSEI]

Well for only the second time since 2009, the wife’s little Hyundai left her stranded at her mother’s place yesterday. She called me at work to say that she couldn’t get it to go into gear, and I immediately assumed that the clutch had let go. I drove over after work with a bottle of brake fluid, and sure enough, the reservoir on the MC was empty so I filled it, slipped it into reverse and backed up a few feet, where I could then see a pool of fluid on the driveway.

I rang my local brake and clutch shop and told them that the slave cylinder had let go, then had it towed over for them to fix it. I could have done it myself but couldn’t be bothered crawling around in my driveway so am happy for someone else to do the job.

I checked the prices for a replacement slave cylinder on Ebay and the most expensive was $80, so it’ll be interesting to see how much the shop will charge me to fix it. The last issue was just the clutch lockout switch failure a few years ago which I fixed just by cutting the wires off and hotwiring it, so I really can’t complain, apart from a battery, tyres and a windscreen, nothing’s gone wrong with that car in 14 years of ownership.

Terry…. Parts expensive? Back up camera for our Sante Fe was $420 from Hyundai Canada. Got a perfect fit and repair on EBay for $45! Most recently, A/C hose leak. Thought I’d replace all three in one go. +$2000 from Hyundai Canada!!! In the US, the same parts are less than 1/2 the price!!! Not resolved yet.

Well I got a call from the shop the next day,  the whole job with labour was only $283 John, (towing was free via the auto club membership) so I couldn’t complain.

Sweet. Sounds like a fair shop!

[Bankerdanny]

Nice find on the GTO, sounds exciting. This popped up today on my wife's facebook and I got a kick out of it.Not the best year maybe being 1971 but still neat to see the prices.

$4,899 for a 426 Hemi 4-speed 'Cuda, probably a $200,000 car today

[Don R]

 I set my mig up for stainless steel again and started tacking up the 304 SS exhaust on my 69 firebird. I decided to go out under the gas tank, just below the license plate like it was when I got it in 1970. The difference is, this will be all 2 1/2" pipe with an X crossover and 3 1/2" exhaust tips at the rear.  I found some nice u bolt clamps in 304 with smooth metal to make the rear hanger from. I'm thinking under the thicker than normal gas tank I'll have 10" of ground clearance. Worst case, I'll make some oval pipe in my press.

[Terry in Australia]

I went for a ride yesterday, and when I got home, as I was still wearing my wet weather pants, I pulled my little daily driver 1995 Subaru into the carport and gave it the second wash for the year. It's white, and parked under a tree out the front of my place gets covered in bird sh1t and sap, so is a bugger to clean.

I bought a gallon of "Muck Off" motorcycle wash a while ago, I filled a little spray bottle with a 50/50 mix and spritzed the whole car to soften the crap on the car while I dragged the hose around from the back of the house, and used a soft wash mitt and warm soapy water to scrub the gunge off, then finally washed everything off with the hose. Being winter it'll look like crap again in a couple of weeks, but it looked nice when I'd finished.  

[RAFster122s]

You know what aI used to hear a lot more on the forums than lately...
Pics or it never happened!
Common guys we are a visual lot...
We wanna see them jiggle and wiggle too?

[dave500]

#$%*ed around with the front passenger window mechanism in my old Holden all #$%*ing arvo!its been really stiff to wind up n down,theres a weird coil spring jigger that acts as a one way brake clutch or similar,its #$%*ed,i #$%*ed it worse now the window falls down so i have it cable tied up for now,i found online new repro mechanisms for not much money,didnt know they were available!i bought both the left and right hand as the driver one i toyed with years ago and if you want you can push that window down!i was expecting to pay say 100 bucks each for old used ones!got these with discount code for 115 bucks the pair delivered,gotta love old HQ Holdens they still make parts for them!

[RAFster122s]

A ‘66 Volvo I owned years ago suffered from the crank mechanism wearing out like yours did causing it to be defeated if you pushed in and down hard on the glass you could gain entry. Not secure but luckily no one ever tried to break into the vehicle. It was handy if I pulled a bone headed move and left the keys in the car and locked it…
Just had to be careful to not let others in on my secret. Parts like that were not plentiful for the 66 in the mid-late 90s and I didn’t want to trust it to a gamble on eBay.

Glad you were able to get new ones for the car. Congrats!

[dave500]

and i put pics!

[RAFster122s]

and i put pics!

Haha, that you did Dave!  I thank you for that.
We visually stimulated crowd thank you.  Not that we like to watch but sometimes you understand things better with pictures…

[grcamna2]

#$%*ed around with the front passenger window mechanism in my old Holden all #$%*ing arvo!its been really stiff to wind up n down,theres a weird coil spring jigger that acts as a one way brake clutch or similar,its #$%*ed,i #$%*ed it worse now the window falls down so i have it cable tied up for now,i found online new repro mechanisms for not much money,didnt know they were available!i bought both the left and right hand as the driver one i toyed with years ago and if you want you can push that window down!i was expecting to pay say 100 bucks each for old used ones!got these with discount code for 115 bucks the pair delivered,gotta love old HQ Holdens they still make parts for them!

New window crank regulators !!  Excellent Dave. 

[Terry in Australia]

A ‘66 Volvo I owned years ago suffered from the crank mechanism wearing out like yours did causing it to be defeated if you pushed in and down hard on the glass you could gain entry. Not secure but luckily no one ever tried to break into the vehicle. It was handy if I pulled a bone headed move and left the keys in the car and locked it…
Just had to be careful to not let others in on my secret. Parts like that were not plentiful for the 66 in the mid-late 90s and I didn’t want to trust it to a gamble on eBay.

Glad you were able to get new ones for the car. Congrats!

Ha ha, I think you could leave a ‘66 Volvo parked anywhere with the keys in it and it’d be pretty safe David…. Although if it had a full tank of gas that would probably double the value.

[RAFster122s]

Bite me Terry, 66 Volvos were not boxy...
Very nice 122S just sold on BaT for $23k
They have been selling for 9-12k on average
Wish I still had my 66 122S, loved that car, it was not stock, mild street rod and super fun in curvy roads

[Don R]

 Wasn't it Paul Neuman that made the Volvo wagons with the small block ford engine swaps? Even Steve McQueen got one.   
  I cut the 2 1/2" stainless for the tailpipes. I made a change to the design so now I'm waiting for the exhaust tips and clamps to arrive.

[RAFster122s]

Yeah, the small block kits Paul put together turned the cars into quick bricks but unless you used aluminum heads the weight distribution was screwed up and required to much putzing with things to restore handling...went well in straight lines but curves were not much fun...

The 240s I owned I often equipped with HD Bilsteins and strut braces and changed sway bars to make them corner very well and very flat. Drop a different camshaft and a few other mods and you had a car that could go through corners very well and PDQ embarrassing some cars with higher HP that were not quick in the corners... You might get left on the straight aways but you were all over their ass in a corner as they were holding you back. Really would tick off Corvette drivers or Camaro drivers who didn't have good driving skills to see some 120-140hp boxy swedish brick continue to fill their rear view mirror driving in curvy roads where the Volvo was not slowing much for the curves and they were having to and any advantage on the straights getting erased by the curvy roads.

[Terry in Australia]

Bite me Terry, 66 Volvos were not boxy...
Very nice 122S just sold on BaT for $23k
They have been selling for 9-12k on average
Wish I still had my 66 122S, loved that car, it was not stock, mild street rod and super fun in curvy roads

Ha ha, I knew that would fire you up David. All old cars here have gone through the roof price-wise, I paid 900 bucks for my 1972 Mazda RX2 coupe in 1979, now, if you can find one, they’re selling for over $40K. My little Subaru daily driver cost me a whopping $500 in 2015, and when that young guy scraped it 2 weeks ago he paid me $700 for the damage, but I think I’ll wait awhile and get the whole car repainted as it’s still mechanically sound, and so much fun. No powerhouse of course (my twin turbo B4 is much quicker) but it goes around corners better than most modern cars, so like your old Volvo, it’s a joy to drive.

[Stev-o]

...gotta love old HQ Holdens they still make parts for them!

Hey Dave...I dont see Holdens at the car shows here, I know they are GM.  Selling reproduction parts is big business here for the 1950-1980 cars [and more] but the quality can be dodgy as most parts are manufactured in China.

[Bankerdanny]

Not a vehicle per se, but I pulled the old and deteriorated deck off of my $100 trailer and installed a new sheet of 3/4 pressure treated plywood.

[Terry in Australia]

Not a vehicle per se, but I pulled the old and deteriorated deck off of my $100 trailer and installed a new sheet of 3/4 pressure treated plywood.

That’s something I need to do to my trailer that’s parked at Spotty’s place Danny, it’s one of those little Chinese folding trailers and while quite well built, the plywood deck was rubbish to begin with and it’s totally rotten now. While my little truck is great for hauling bikes around it’s a bit more difficult to load/unload so I probably need to give the trailer a birthday so we can both use it again.

[grcamna2]

Not a vehicle per se, but I pulled the old and deteriorated deck off of my $100 trailer and installed a new sheet of 3/4 pressure treated plywood.

3/4" plywood will give lots of strength to that trailer 

[Bankerdanny]

Not a vehicle per se, but I pulled the old and deteriorated deck off of my $100 trailer and installed a new sheet of 3/4 pressure treated plywood.

That’s something I need to do to my trailer that’s parked at Spotty’s place Danny, it’s one of those little Chinese folding trailers and while quite well built, the plywood deck was rubbish to begin with and it’s totally rotten now. While my little truck is great for hauling bikes around it’s a bit more difficult to load/unload so I probably need to give the trailer a birthday so we can both use it again.

Mine is the same. It works great for a hauling a couple bikes, small furniture, wood and other misc stuff and can be towed with pretty much any vehicle I own other than my 750. The tilt bed made it super simple to load up my friends odd Chinese 3-wheel scooter and also the John Deere garden tractor my girlfriend bought for the Michigan house. Last year it got one new light and both wheel bearings and wheel/tires replaced.  I have no idea how old the wood that was on it was. But it was starting to rot and curl up and replacing it cost me $40. I will probably take it back off some time next month and give the frame a good wire brush and fresh paint.

[Kelly E]

Last fall we had to redeck the 12' trailer because the dual 3/4" layer of plywood was starting to rot after 12 years. This time we used 1/8" diamond plate steel instead of plywood to make it permanent. We took the opportunity to change the fenders from 14" to 15" wheel size.
It came out pretty good, we use it at least a couple times a month. I still need to drill the holes for the wheel chock and weld the flange nuts to the bottom of the deck for hauling bikes.
We built this trailer in 2011 using a 1969 12' travel trailer frame that has a 4500lb rated single axle. We took 6" off each side so now it's the same width as a full size truck. My 72' MGB GT fits on it and is 400lb to 500lbs under our 4000lb personal maximum capacity of the axle. The change to 15" wheels allowed us to used higher weight rated trailer tires so we are a ways from the maximum capacity of the tires and slows down the wheel bearings. Now we don't have tire trouble on 2 day 1500 mile trips in summer heat.
Eventually we'll build the removeable 1/8" thick x 12" high aluminum diamond plate sides so we can pick up 1 1/2 yard loads of gravel for driveway maintenance.
For hauling bikes around locally we rebuilt Paul's cousin's tilt bed golf cart trailer. We replaced the taillights with better lights at the back instead of the fender and added amber marker lights at the front. We also put new tires on it and I completely rewired it. We also added a safety pin for the tilt bed, there wasn't one just the latch.
We welded in two 1/4" plates with threaded holes for the wheel chock. The next time it gets tires I have a set of 14" wheels to replace the 13" wheels. I don't trust wheels smaller than 14", seen too many little trailer wheels blow up from overheating.

[grcamna2]

Kelly,does the trailer use a pair of special ramps with support blocks underneath? or do you use planks ?

[Kelly E]

Kelly,does the trailer use a pair of special ramps with support blocks underneath? or do you use planks ?

We have long and short ramps and use good jackstands at each rear corner. It's the perfect size utility trailer for a homeowner. It weighs 1200lbs and has a 2800lb load capacity not counting our 500lb safety buffer. But the best thing about it is that it doesn't make any noise when it's empty, not even when it catches air crossing the railroad tracks.

[70CB750]

Last fall we had to redeck the 12' trailer because the dual 3/4" layer of plywood was starting to rot after 12 years. This time we used 1/8" diamond plate steel instead of plywood to make it permanent. We took the opportunity to change the fenders from 14" to 15" wheel size.
It came out pretty good, we use it at least a couple times a month. I still need to drill the holes for the wheel chock and weld the flange nuts to the bottom of the deck for hauling bikes.
We built this trailer in 2011 using a 1969 12' travel trailer frame that has a 4500lb rated single axle. We took 6" off each side so now it's the same width as a full size truck. My 72' MGB GT fits on it and is 400lb to 500lbs under our 4000lb personal maximum capacity of the axle. The change to 15" wheels allowed us to used higher weight rated trailer tires so we are a ways from the maximum capacity of the tires and slows down the wheel bearings. Now we don't have tire trouble on 2 day 1500 mile trips in summer heat.
Eventually we'll build the removeable 1/8" thick x 12" high aluminum diamond plate sides so we can pick up 1 1/2 yard loads of gravel for driveway maintenance.
For hauling bikes around locally we rebuilt Paul's cousin's tilt bed golf cart trailer. We replaced the taillights with better lights at the back instead of the fender and added amber marker lights at the front. We also put new tires on it and I completely rewired it. We also added a safety pin for the tilt bed, there wasn't one just the latch.
We welded in two 1/4" plates with threaded holes for the wheel chock. The next time it gets tires I have a set of 14" wheels to replace the 13" wheels. I don't trust wheels smaller than 14", seen too many little trailer wheels blow up from overheating.

I see your KZ and raise you a CB  - on a home built trailer.

[dave500]

my mate next door rang me yesterday arvo im at work,its his daughters end of school year 12 formal and the car they had booked(camaro)had cancelled(#$%*s),its a big thing here for school leavers,they gotta make an entrance with photos in a special sort of car and out do each other to a degree etc,he asked can you do it with your premier?i said yeah cool,so i gotta get home and rush wash my old holden after work,clean the inside especially the back seat,i cant remember when anyone sat on them let alone open the rear doors?plus reinstall the trim on one door i had left off until i get new window winder mechanism delivered,had to shower and dress neat,we got it done!mate gave me more than a  few bucks and im happy it all worked out nice,shes a good kid and her escort was a very polite guy,i wasnt out of place in the old holden,was a 40 minute idle queue,was a 68 holden monaro few cars in front,early mustangs and chevys etc,an old very very clean beetle with surfboards on top,too many cars to list,just a light mist of rain hid all my old cars rusty bits!the kids had a great time and all i had to do was drive em there!