It Just Keeps Getting Deeper and Deeper

Welcome back to Pop’s Garage.

Hope everyone has had a pleasant Christmas and a safe New Year’s Eve. During this holiday season I have been able to finish up with my wife’s van and completed a long overdue oil change. For a vehicle as old as this one (1999) it runs very well and looks good too. At some point I may have to turn my attention from the mechanical to the aesthetic and try and buff out the paint and repaint the running boards. Add the spare tire mount and replace the spare tire. There are some small repairs that need to be done on the interior like repairing the armrest for the passenger seat. And then one heck of a detail job needs to be done. You know, Children and Grandchildren.

My daughter had to rush back to Iowa to assist a friend in need. I gave her car (2004 Toyota Solara) a good inspection before sending her on her way. Unfortunately when she was almost to Topeka, KS she met up with Wile E. Coyote. I suspect you could call it a draw. Wile E. died but her car may be totaled for the experience.

This past week I have been able to spend time on my 03 Eclipse and start removing what need to be cleared to install the battery tray in the trunk. As I was preparing the engine bay by tracking down where all of the old positive cables went, I discovered that they needed to be replaced. This required me to remove the entire front wire harness. Not a big deal right? Well, to remove the harness I had to remove the old battery tray (that was going to happen anyway), air induction, alternator, electric radiator fans, and exhaust manifold.

While I have it this far apart I decided to clean the engine and loose parts. Done. next I will attack the wire harness to clean and make repairs to what I am keeping. I will be ordering more parts to make the final repairs to the harness before putting it back in. Then this project can be put to bed. I have heard the you need to be prepared to do more than you expect when doing this kind of work, boy were they right.

One last piece of news. While i was riding with my daughter home from Iowa, we stopped in Iola, KS to visit my aunt and look in on a project that we will be starting in a few months. It is a 1965 Ford falcon Futura. I wanted to see if I could get a picture of the VIN plate on the driver’s door and check out the rocker panels and wheel wells for rust. I was able to get the picture I needed and discovered that what I thought was a black car turns out to be a dark ivy green metallic with a palomino interior. I also found NO rust on the rocker panel and some rust in the wheel wells. This may not be as bad a job as I originally thought. (I’m pretty sure that statement will bite me in the butt).

That’s it for now. Hope you had a good weekend, stay safe and wrench on kids.