In the interest of sparing your eyes and brains for a bit I present the second installment of the Buick saga, although this one is a bit more technical and number-y rather than the whim and whimsy you've all come to love and expect from my posts. Okay so maybe it was just the last post but still.
Anyone not terribly interested in cars or machinery may wish to skip ahead to Miriam's next posting, since I can get a bit dry and boring. You've been warned...
I got the Buick about a year and a half ago with the intention of using it during the winter while my grandparents used it during the summer so that they could leave their own car down at their Floridian condo. While I got the car for a great price, it wound up with a bad transmission after only about 60' of driving. Yes, that's a "feet" apostrophe. I'm starting to get why the guy was soo willing to drop the car off for me. The plus side to this is that it forced me to get the tranny rebuilt, which is by far the most I've ever gone to an actual shop for (luckily a transmission line blew right in front of the shop, so that saved even more grief). So a week and $1000 later, the car is running great. Lets fast forward to now and I'll just give a list of things that have "popped up" with the car....
Coolant reservoir leaking: fixed that. Dealership only part and VERY expensive for a plastic pressure tank.
A/C clutch bearing shot: went to fix it only to find the clutch frozen to the A/C compressor, which prompted me to replace the compressor (for much more money), which then forced me to replace the main hoses since THEY were frozen to the compressor. WHO KNEW that when you put aluminum pipes in a steel compressor body that they will be galvanically welded to each other in 20 years...oh right, that's just science! Thanks a lot GM!
Dash fan quit working: replaced that.
Mufflers rotted out (which I knew when I bought the car): I replaced them with much cooler sounding ones. You can actually tell that it has a V8 now!
Rear bumper failed inspection: it's near impossible to find a bumper that isnt swiss cheese for these cars and I wasnt going to spend $300 for a new one, so I found a used one, cut it in half (sliced the top off essentially) and grafted it to the bottom of my bumper. Welding skills are important when one wants to save money :D
Rear shocks failed inspection: these have to be the worst designed shock mounts in the history of everything!!! It took me three days...THREE DAYS to get these off. Granted this was only a few hours per day before and after work, but still. It should not take like 7 hours to dismount shocks. I had to cut the bolts off without causing sparks and blowing up the fuel tank that they are mounted next to.
New battery: pretty much self explanatory.
And the kicker....the axle ripped out of the frame when I pulled away from Town Fair Tire trying to get an alignment done (horrible frame rot in an isolated location, something I was going to get around to and waited too long). This was another shop fix, as I wasnt about to try to re-align the rear end on this beast. I'm impressed with the work though, quite a solid repair.
So in trying to be a "look on the bright side of things" person, I see all this as I now have ice cold A/C, a sweet sounding exhaust, and um, not an axle dislodged from my frame. This all sounds bad I know, but it's a pretty solid car with an unbelievably comfortable ride.
Now lets see what could go wrong with the car on such a long trip? Well, pretty much anything, but considering I have a newly rebuilt tranny, professionally repaired frame/axle thingy, and custom fabricated exhaust (courtesy of ME!), I have dared to cross those off the list of potential goings-wrong. To prevent future misadventures with our beloved Moby the White Whale (I think Miriam gave you the introduction in a previous post), I took the liberty to both expertly and thoroughly install the following:
Alternator
Starter
Idler pulley
Water pump (and radiator hoses, thermostat, and gaskets)
Plugs and wires
K&N air filter
Fuel filter
Hand fabricated spare tire well (since the old one rotted off)
Front and rear brakes (pads, rotors, and shoes with assorted hardware items)
Front wheel bearings
Front shocks
Engine oil change (to synthetic)
Differential oil change
Hand fabbed exhaust heat shield to stop the annoying jingle-bell noise from the loose factory one
Rear coil springs swapped for variable rate springs to allow heavier loads in back. It also raises the rear end about an inch and a half which looks pretty cool.
Fuel tank straps
Note: by expertly and thoroughly I of course mean done by me, to save as much money as possible.
And for convenience sake I have added the following amenities to the car:
Tachometer
Oil pressure gauge
Coolant temp gauge (yes the factory cluster has one but it doesnt have actual numbers on it, just tick marks)
Voltmeter
Hourmeter (for trip logs)
4 extra 12v cigarette lighter sockets (three are from a charging kit that will live on the front floor, the fourth is installed nice nice in what used to be the ash tray).
Offroad "Alaska" lights. I just call them that since I plan on using them driving up to Alaska
Fog lights
Backup camera (wired so we can use it as a regular rearview mirror while driving)
CD player (per request of the wife)
CB radio (per request of the me)
Trailer hitch and wiring mounted and installed. Although the hitch came with a 1.25" receiver tube I cut that off and welded on a 2" tube so the hitch hardware matches the hitches on my trucks.
Perhaps it goes without saying but all the fabrication, mounting, wiring, and repairing has taken for-freakin'-ever and has been a pain in the butt. I'm really happy with the results so far, and the Moby runs and drives so much better than when I got her. Oh, and I havent even gotten to the cargo rack/spare tire carrier/bike carrier ordeal which was another time and effort pit (although all done now!)
Hopefully I'll be back with some pictures this time!
RhodeKill Rob
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