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The Car Thread ... !
- Thread starter D.T.
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Rebuilding my Caliber SRT-4 after a drunk driver hit it last December.
Unfortunately they never caught the person *and* I attempted to save money by going down to liability-only insurance a few months prior after having full coverage since it was new in '09. So I am footing a pretty big bill and doing the repair myself.
Fortunately I finally have a good excuse to install all the upgrades I have for once.
[doublepost=1558765822][/doublepost]It doesn't look that bad before disassembly, but it messed up a lot in the impact. It was parked in front of my house at the time and happened at about 2:15AM.
Unfortunately they never caught the person *and* I attempted to save money by going down to liability-only insurance a few months prior after having full coverage since it was new in '09. So I am footing a pretty big bill and doing the repair myself.
Fortunately I finally have a good excuse to install all the upgrades I have for once.
[doublepost=1558765822][/doublepost]It doesn't look that bad before disassembly, but it messed up a lot in the impact. It was parked in front of my house at the time and happened at about 2:15AM.
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Sold my 2015 Honda Accord and picked up a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range! It's the cheapest one they make, but it's actually the next one up with some limitations (220 miles vs 240, live traffic on GPS, heated seats {though these work right now}, autopilot {not sure if it's active or not, will have to test it out})
LOVE this car! so much fun to drive
LOVE this car! so much fun to drive
Just learned my 2007 Saturn Aura was wrecked and totaled. Why do first cars always end up getting wrecked.
Right?! I bought my Caliber SRT-4 new. It's still my baby. I'm going to rebuild it better/faster/stronger now ha!
I have quite a few posts in this thread detailing repairs/upgrades on my MG-that includes pulling the engine/transmission for a transmission swap and a general rehab of some other stuff(new clutch, all new rubber bits, etc), along with some light engine mods to increase the C/R and a fair few other light and heavy repairs/upgrades over the time since I bought it.
I'm in the planning stages for a full engine rebuild. It's going to be done on a spare bottom end rather than the one currently in the car. I'll farm out the machining for obvious reasons(boring-but for wear, not to appreciably increase displacement, line boring, crank grinding, etc) then will put it all back together with a mixture of "best" parts from various years of engines along with a somewhat more aggressive, but still streetable, cam. Since the head is fairly fresh from doing the C/R bump a few years ago(where it was surfaced and had a full valve job including hardened exhaust seats, new exhaust valves, and new springs), I'll most likely just give the valves a quick lapping and stick the head back on as-is. I hope to drop it back in with a rebuilt overdrive transmission at the same time. All said and done, that SHOULD be good for a 10-15% or so bump in peak horsepower over stock.
Way cool! I am into the 80s/90s turbo Dodge/Chrysler thing. I have rebuilt suspension/chassis/brakes and all that on these "K-car" derivatives. I've gotten really into building engines from the ground up though. It reminds me of building model cars when I was a kid I suppose.
This Caliber SRT project is a bit new, but only because it's more body/frame work, which I don't have a whole lot of experience with.
But yeah, I farm out machining work and stuff like paint of course. You have to be really set up and well equipped to do that yourself.
I've gotten really into the DOHC aspect of turbo Chrysler Dodge 4-cylinder engines in the last 10 years. Building and collecting at least. In the days before the Neon SRT-4 was a thing at least. Back then Chrysler farmed out that stuff and the heads were made by Lotus or Maserati/Cosworth. Not many people know the Spirit R/T or Chrysler TC by Maserati were the SRT-4 cars of their day. Ahead of their time back then.
I've transplanted the TC DOHC motor into my Shelby Lancer and also have a stroked Lotus "TIII" engine ready to go into my Spirit R/T (the white car in the photos above).
[doublepost=1558845598][/doublepost]A couple of the Lotus headed Chrysler "TIII" engines I've built. The red one is slated for my '91 Spirit R/T. It is stroked from 2.2L to 2.5L. The blue one is 2.2L and slated for an '87 Shelby CSX (based on the Dodge Shadow) that my friend now owns.
I've gotten really into powder coating and try to go for a "it was born there" look and making things look perfect. As if factory. Nostalgia and all that. The Shelby Lancer with the Maserati 16v DOHC engine is still being built in the background.
This Caliber SRT project is a bit new, but only because it's more body/frame work, which I don't have a whole lot of experience with.
But yeah, I farm out machining work and stuff like paint of course. You have to be really set up and well equipped to do that yourself.
I've gotten really into the DOHC aspect of turbo Chrysler Dodge 4-cylinder engines in the last 10 years. Building and collecting at least. In the days before the Neon SRT-4 was a thing at least. Back then Chrysler farmed out that stuff and the heads were made by Lotus or Maserati/Cosworth. Not many people know the Spirit R/T or Chrysler TC by Maserati were the SRT-4 cars of their day. Ahead of their time back then.
I've transplanted the TC DOHC motor into my Shelby Lancer and also have a stroked Lotus "TIII" engine ready to go into my Spirit R/T (the white car in the photos above).
[doublepost=1558845598][/doublepost]A couple of the Lotus headed Chrysler "TIII" engines I've built. The red one is slated for my '91 Spirit R/T. It is stroked from 2.2L to 2.5L. The blue one is 2.2L and slated for an '87 Shelby CSX (based on the Dodge Shadow) that my friend now owns.
I've gotten really into powder coating and try to go for a "it was born there" look and making things look perfect. As if factory. Nostalgia and all that. The Shelby Lancer with the Maserati 16v DOHC engine is still being built in the background.
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This is a trend that I wished would end.
I do.
Me and a friend have rented a very large garage for the past three years where I do all my work at. It is designed to hold two Greyhound buses, as the person that built it used to work on large diesel trucks and buses.
We could probably fit 8- 10 cars is in. It is a pretty nice work area, except there is no bathroom, and about 25 minutes away from where I live.
I used to do a mix of stuff to my own cars, and send the more complex stuff to a shop, but I couldn't find a shop that I trusted.
That is why I do all my own work.
I used to do my own wrenching, tearing down (and rebuilding) engines and such, but more and more I find myself buying newer cars that don’t require going too far into the drivetrain, and limiting my mods to bolt-ons.
But I find myself occasionally longing for a real project car or two, including the ‘93 Suburban that I have decided to sell rather than renovate. The main factor is that although I have a reasonably complete tool set, and some skill, I don’t have access to a functional shop, or even a decent size garage with a concrete floor.
The second factor is not having the available time to devote to another engrossing hobby.
That said, now that I live on a farm, I am finding myself becoming drawn into tractor (and other equipment) repair and maintenance, out of necessity. Somewhat different than messing with cars, but my wrenching experience is coming in handy. Kind of interesting.
On my way to FRM Stadium on this gorgeous 86° day. Found this walking in, Love me some old school Mustang....This was one was lowered/clean/nice set of AM wheels, but this ‘Gun metal slate’ is the best part.
Yeah she’s fine. No injuries. Sounds like it was totaled more based on age than actual damage.
Over the past year I’ve gone further and further with doing my own work. Did my first oil change about a year ago, did my own brake job late last year, and just yesterday finished my own timing belt/water pump replacement. That’s probably about as far as I’d go though. I’m planning on doing some drivetrain fluid changes and some minor suspension work. Probably won’t ever get really into the engine or do major suspension work. Don’t want to screw something up. Probably saved myself a pretty penny with the timing belt replacement though. Took me around 12 hours over two days.
Yeah, I'd HOPE no one would knock a person for farming out their machine work. It takes both a lot of skill and a lot of expensive equipment to do it right, which is why even the pros usually farm it out to an automotive machine shop.
My big problem in the MG engine now is that I'm getting a decent amount of blow-by, and I'd considered a band-aide fix of just tossing new rings in it. With some practice, you can do a decent job of breaking the glaze and putting fresh cross-hatching on the cylinders with a dingleberry brush on an electric drill(I have a spare block with a big crack in it to practice on). On an MG engine, you can do the rod bearings and 3 of 5 main bearings with the block still in the car, but it's honestly about as much work to get to that as it is just to yank the whole thing out. Plus, swapping cams engine-in is all but impossible, so you're still pulling it if you want to do that(I need a new cam in the engine-I'm opting for a "hot street" but one way or another, if the engine is getting torn down it's going back together with a replacement).
I'm also not brave enough to tackle rebuilding an overdrive myself, so that's going to a friend up in PA who is an expert on them. He sometimes has full time transmission shops ship them to him in pieces as they will attempt a rebuild and get in over their heads. BTW, the overdrive is a separate unit that hangs off the back of the standard 4-speed transmission and works independently of it. Unfortunately, it's not really possible to add one on to a standard 4 speed as the main shaft needed to mate to it is different-you're best to just swap the whole box.
Beautiful! Hope Tesla stays in businessSold my 2015 Honda Accord and picked up a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range! It's the cheapest one they make, but it's actually the next one up with some limitations (220 miles vs 240, live traffic on GPS, heated seats {though these work right now}, autopilot {not sure if it's active or not, will have to test it out})
LOVE this car! so much fun to drive
What sucks is that people actually hate on Tesla, when it's actually a great car. I have a lot of fun driving it around. my 90 year old dad was all smiles when I showed up at his house.
As much as I am an old school car guy, I hope Tesla succeeds.
Just yesterday I noticed there were Tesla charging stations in my town (Wyoming). Mind blown! There was a Tesla Model 3 in the parking lot. It was the first Tesla I have ever seen.
It had a "dual motor" badge on the back of it. It sounds cool. I would love to have a ride in one....that acceleration is nothing to deny!
*BUT* this is coal country and we all know deep down that they are powered by that. Just saying!
Just yesterday I noticed there were Tesla charging stations in my town (Wyoming). Mind blown! There was a Tesla Model 3 in the parking lot. It was the first Tesla I have ever seen.
It had a "dual motor" badge on the back of it. It sounds cool. I would love to have a ride in one....that acceleration is nothing to deny!
*BUT* this is coal country and we all know deep down that they are powered by that. Just saying!
Twenty years ago I used to do all of the work myself when possible, including engine swaps, turbo/sc installs, maintenance. Now I consider how my back feels, what bizarro tool would I need that I don't have, and how long the job will take me.
Automobile Batteries- Which brand do you trust? Yesterday, we woke up to our electrically dead 2013 Toyota Highlander. I shopped around and ended up choosing a moderate priced battery with the best warranty, the Walmart Everstart Max-24F with a 5 year warranty (3 yr full replacement, 2 yr prorated) for $94. This battery has better specs than the original Toyota battery I replaced.
Just installed it. While shopping, I stumbled across the Optima Yellow Top for a whopping $234 which has 3 year full replacement warranty.
So did I make a good or bad choice? I can take it. One other thing, despite them saying there is no inflation, batteries seem to have gotten expensive in the last 10 years.
So did I make a good or bad choice? I can take it.
One other thing, despite them saying there is no inflation, batteries seem to have gotten expensive in the last 10 years.
Just about a month back, I pulled a basic Everstart out of the MG with a sticker indicating it was made 4/08. Needless to say, I replaced it with the same-which was $50.
I put an Autocraft (Advance Auto Parts store brand) Platinum in my car over the winter. It's an AGM battery similar to Optima and others. I was going to get an Optima myself until I saw that they don't make one in the size I needed. My second plan was to go with Interstate until I found out many batteries, including theirs, are made by one of two companies, Exide and Johnson Controls. I also thought about going with one of the handful of boutique brands, but I needed a battery ASAP and they weren't available around here. The battery I replaced was the original from 2010, so it had a hell of a lifespan. I think I killed it when I left my interior lights on all day while doing some maintenance.