Da Groj

Geez, I'm SO behind on vehicle maintenance. I normally do it in July (wife's birthday month), and skipped it least year because... well, neither of us were really driving our cars! I got a big ol' case of the fxxk-its and just didn't do it. I also never finished converting the Mirage from "autocross car" to "street car". Nothing major, but I've got plenty of little things to do.

So, come help keep me motivated! Come work on your own stuff. Come learn stuff. Come hang out. Come help me eat lunch (the most important meal of the day).

Who: Me. You? Whomever.
What: Wrenching on various cars. Doing groj stuff.
Where: Loren's place in Safety Harbor (PM me if you need the address)
When: Saturday, July 24, 9am-4pm.
Why: Well, it's not nearly as much fun if I pay a shop to do it!

On my list of things to possibly do:
Oil change on the Mirage
Oil change on Cathy's Miata
Thermostat on Cathy's Miata (I put a cheap one on it a while back, have a proper OE one to replace it)
Inspect Cathy's Miata for October road trip
Swap stock tie rod ends on Mirage (tired of the squeaks, bump steer be damned)
Adjust alignment (and maybe ride height) on Mirage
Bitch about what a mess the garage is, but not really do anything about it

Who's coming? What else do we have to work on?

COVID Statement: I'm not gonna make anybody wear a mask, don't spit on each other. I'd prefer if you were all vaccinated, I am.

Not that anyone seems to care, but this is going to get postponed.

Been trying to get the driveway replaced/expanded since early June. Some kind of problem getting a building permit has been holding it up. They came and ripped the driveway out on Monday with the intent of pouring concrete on Friday. Then the rain started. Now there's a potential hurricane. Who knows when I'll have a driveway again? If it happens before July 10, it surely won't be cured enough for a bunch of extra traffic.

We'll see.

I would be down for a date change.

Yeah, gonna have to be a date change. Unclear when at this point. They may get back to working on the driveway on Monday. Maybe a couple weeks? For now, my driveway is a mud pit. And it's raining again.

I'll copy this to a new thread with a new date when I come up with something.

Changed the date to July 24, sorry for the short notice!

My driveway is done, and will be approved for use on Monday 7/19.

My priority will be getting annual maintenance and inspections done on Cathy's Miata. We'll be road-tripping it in October, and it's been largely neglected for 2 years. Anything else I get done will be a bonus.

Plenty of space for other minor projects, just try to not spill a bunch of oil on my new driveway!

I'll bring PDS3 up. I'm sure there will be stuff to do to it.
What time are you getting started?

I'll have the garage door open at 9:00. Will start... sometime after that.

While you're driving the Elantra, be sure to put it in Sport mode and marvel at the bizarre under-boosted low-speed steering! (and the fact that it won't shift past 5th gear in Sport)

Sport mode it is.
I won't be showing up til around noon or 1, just FYI.
You got enough jack stands?

I think I have 10 or 12 jack stands.

If you're coming after lunch, and nobody else is coming, I may sleep in a bit. If anyone else is coming, speak up!

Yes, there were cookies.

Indeed! Cathy's figured out how to make a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie that is indistinguishable from a classic Toll House cookie. Good stuff.

Got a fair bit accomplished today. It was wicked hot, though.

I got the oil changed on Cathy's Miata and general inspection. The car only has 31k miles on it, so everything looks great! Found the source of an occasional clunk in the rear that I was worried may have been a failing shock or something... it was the jack rattling in the right fender well. Piece of foam behind it fixed that. Also "fixed" the trunk release issue. The remote trunk release quit working a few months ago. I didn't think much of it, certainly didn't want to try to troubleshoot it. But, I spotted a button in the trunk while looking for that rattle... it said "trunk release on/off". Go figure.

Fixed the broken windshield washer on the Rio. I thought it was leaking from the pump (common failure), turns out some critter had bitten through the hose in two places! Easy fix, of course I had to remove a wheel and fender liner to get to it. I think this was probably a result of the same critter that bit through the injector wire on my Mirage a couple years ago. We've also had issue with mice in our attic since then. Freakin' rodents.

Steve did a thorough inspection of our new DE car, a low mileage 2018 Hyundai Elantra. It's only got 10k on it, and was a "CPO" car, so no issues found. We applied our graphics package to it. One step closer to being in service.

dang, missed this. Have a couple of things I could use a hand with.
Got a new seal for the hard top. Could take it off by myself, but would be easier with and extra set of hands.

Damn, wish I would've seen the new date, I was out driving around all Saturday afternoon in the 240, could've stopped by and told you guys what you were doing wrong. Loren, who did your driveway and would you recommend them ?

Loren wrote:I spotted a button in the trunk while looking for that rattle... it said "trunk release on/off".

First they put in an emergency pull for people who get themselves trapped in the trunk. Now there's a switch for people who don't want to be let out....

Solar wrote:Damn, wish I would've seen the new date, I was out driving around all Saturday afternoon in the 240, could've stopped by and told you guys what you were doing wrong. Loren, who did your driveway and would you recommend them ?

Hard to find anyone who's willing to take a small driveway job these days, as Steve learned a while back. I spotted a beautiful new driveway while picking up a student in my neighborhood earlier this year and immediately asked them who did it! Yes, very pleased with the work. Took a long time to get done, but that was due to a combination of permitting issues (apparently, the city was freaking out because I asked them to replace the crumbling curbing... and they usually stop with the sidewalk) and weather. But, once they got it done, it looks great!

https://www.birgesconcrete.com/

Loren wrote: Hard to find anyone who's willing to take a small driveway job these days, as Steve learned a while back. I spotted a beautiful new driveway while picking up a student in my neighborhood earlier this year and immediately asked them who did it! Yes, very pleased with the work. Took a long time to get done, but that was due to a combination of permitting issues (apparently, the city was freaking out because I asked them to replace the crumbling curbing... and they usually stop with the sidewalk) and weather. But, once they got it done, it looks great!

https://www.birgesconcrete.com/

Thanks ! Yeah, finding anyone to do any type construction work now is tough, I need a complete removal and replacement, not looking forward to see that estimate.

If we'd skipped the sidewalk and the curbing, ours would have been around $7k. We wanted to get past the city's patchwork approach to the ratty old sidewalk and curbs, so we splurged and did the whole thing. But, it's good for another 40 years!

Correction:

The total job was $6900, net size was about 38' x 24', and that included the street curbing.

Would have been $1300 less without the curbing part.

Loren wrote:Correction:

The total job was $6900, net size was about 38' x 24', and that included the street curbing.

Would have been $1300 less without the curbing part.

Thanks for the cost breakdown. Thats pretty reasonable, considering the cost for a yard of concrete right now, do you know if it was a 4" or 6" slab ? Did they use rebar ?

4" fiber reinforced 3000# mix. They used steel mesh for at least the first 10 feet or so. Under the sidewalk area. I didn't see the rest, not sure if they did all of it or not. Sort of makes sense to tie that sidewalk area together, though. The invoice didn't say anything about any steel, just fiber reinforced mix... which I read up on, and it's supposed to be good for a basic driveway without additional reinforcement.