Toys in the Attic

We recently switched from Dish Network to AT&T's "U-Verse" service. So far, we've been pretty pleased with the service. Our only complaint is that you can only start recordings or pause live TV from the main box in the living room. Apparently, they are working on adding that capability from any TV soon.

But I digress... the only reason I mentioned any of that is, I had to return the Dish Receivers and the center part of the dish itself. The instructions said there may (or may not) be a "switch" between the dish and the receiver that needed to be returned too. I did not see this switch on the outside of the house, so, being the fine upstanding citizen I am, I went up into the attic (which in itself was a major task as the access panel to the attic is in a storage closet which is full of stuff that I had to unload) to look for said "switch". I did not find a "switch", but what I DID find was this:




For those not versed in HVAC, this is an air return. The duct in the foreground is SUPPOSED to be attached to that silver box with the hole in it. The theory is, the a/c unit is SUPPOSED to draw air in through the filter that you can see inside the hole. The reality is that the A/C is drawing in unfiltered 120 degree air from the attic. And we wonder why the A/C unit is struggling to keep the house at 76 degrees.

This has apparently been this way for about 2.5 years. Not long after we moved into this house in 2006, we hired a contractor to finish out the upstairs. The whole job was one screw-up after another, but that's a story for another day. Part of the remodel involved replacing one of the 2 Heating/AC units with a larger one. This duct was originally attached to the existing unit, but needed to be re-routed to the new unit which was about 2 feet further away. I'd like to think the HVAC guy just forgot about this one short duct, but for some reason, I think he just didn't really give a shit. The HVAC was done in October, and we were concerned that when summer came, we would be sweltering. Sure enough, we had to call him out a couple of times because some of the rooms weren't getting cool. He came out and did a few things which did help some, but it never did get as cool as we thought it should be. We just figured that's how it is when it gets this hot in Oklahoma.

My in-laws happen to be visiting (Happy Canada Day!!!) and since my father-in-law has a lot more experience at this kind of thing, he helped me get this issue resolved, or more accurately, I helped HIM get this issue resolved. We found some scraps of ducting left over from the remodel and we thought we were all set, until Art tried to tape the new piece onto the end of the exisiting duct. That's when we realized, we needed 16" diameter ducting and the piece we had was 14". So off to the store we went. Of course, you can't find this kind of stuff at Lowe's or Home Depot. We went to a building supply store, who did have it, but only it 25 foot lengths. Another customer suggested using a piece of pipe which comes in 5 foot sections which worked out perfectly. Here's the finished product:



Thanks Art!!! We did wrap the new section in insulation, but I didn't get a picture of that. The next step is probably to have the ducts cleaned. We're debating as to whether to pursue legal action against the joker who was responsible for this mess.

I'm No Longer in a Class by Myself!

Well, the inevetible happened. At the May 17 AutoX, I wasn't alone in DSP. As I predicted, I got smoked. Well, it wasn't THAT bad. The Nationally competetive guy still wasn't there, so I only lost by about 3.5 seconds. But even thought I lost, I was pleased with my performance, and I had a blast! And that's the important thing.

Apparently, nobody took pictures of the first heat (when I ran), or if they did, they didn't share them with anyone.

Another Autocross... Another Trophy! 4/26/2009

Please forgive the arrogance of the title of this post. It was said with tongue firmly planted in cheek. This is the third event in a row that I've come home with a 1st place trophy... well, if you can call a little orange foam cone with "1st" on it a trophy! Currently, I am competing in DSP (D Street Prepared). This class allows for WAY more modifications than I have done to my car. The only mods I have done that truly affect AutoX performance are the Koni Adjustable struts and Ground Control Coilovers that I installed here. Normally, that would put me in ST (Street Touring), which, by the way, I would not be competitive in either.

So, why do I stay in DSP, you ask? I run on R-Comp tires (Kumho V710's) that I got for the price of a couple of six-packs of beer... really EXPENSIVE beer, but still. Since that pretty much used up my racing budget, and since my all-season street tires would really suck for autoX, I would rather run R-Comps and be bumped up a class, than wear out my street tires prematurely, since I'm not going to be competitive anyway.

I had no idea the season was going to work out this way when I made that choice. The guy that normally wins DSP is usually competing for FTD (Fastest Time of the Day), and I am typically about 9 seconds slower than that. But for some reason he has not been to any events this season... along with everyone else in DSP. This has led to my 3 undeserved 1st Place trophies. I'm sure if ANYONE shows up in DSP, my trophy days will be over.

But I'm not in it for the trophies, anyway. I'm just in it to have fun and improve my driving skills.


Photos Copyright 2009 Sean Grubb / iZoom Graphics

Full event photos can be viewed here.

Autocross!!!

The weather for this event was quite different from the last event. This was just about as close to perfect as you could get. High 60's and just a bit of breeze. I once again had camera battery issues, but at least this time I got most of my runs recorded. The missing runs are where the video started just fine, but just stopped about halfway through.

Class Run #1


Class Run #2


Class Run #3


Class Run #4


Pax Run #2


Pax Run #4


Photos courtesy of Andrew Watts
Click here for full event photos.

There's No Such Thing as a Free Piano, Part Deux

The next day, I called some neighbors and they kindly said they would help me unload the piano. It took us longer to unwrap the piano than it did to actually get it off the truck and into the house. Of course, everyone was SOBER, so that helped considerably.

Within seconds of getting the piano in the house, it was besieged by 3 future pianists:



Notice to the left of my son, the condition of the keys. Our oldest child "H" is sitting in the middle where all the functional keys are located. Our middle child "A" is sitting to her right. "H" was scolding "A" for playing her keys. "A" screams, "But my keys are all BROKEN!!!"

I finally succeeded in shooing the future pianists away and began to assess the damage. The jammed keys had simply shifted off their pins and they were fairly easy to put back into place. There was some damage to some of the hammers so there are still about 5 keys that don't work. But considering what the piano has gone through, it's not in that bad of shape.



The only real repair I had to do was to glue the rod that holds the front panel on. I found all the broken pieces down in the bottom of the piano and used some carpenter's glue to re-attach them.

Here's what the intact right side looks like:


Here's what the left side looked like before I started:


Here's a picture of my repair job. I was so happy that I got to use my handy clamps that my in-laws gave me for Christmas several years ago!


As for the broken hammers, I'm going to have my brother-in-law take a look at it the next time he comes to visit. He doesn't repair pianos for a living, but he's around piano's all the time and he has performed similar repairs on my mother's piano. If nothing else, I'm sure a piano tuner would be able to perform the needed repairs.

There's No Such Thing as a Free Piano!

About two years ago, my brother offered to let me have my grandmother's piano. His daughter was now in college, so it was sitting collecting dust. He wasn't actually "giving" it to me, but I could take possession of it, if I could figure out a way to get it home. It was in my hometown which is about a 6.5 hour drive from where I live. The price of gas finally came down to a reasonable price and Enterprise had a special weekend rate with unlimited mileage on a big pickup. We planned a trip for the Friday of Spring Break.

The trip up was uneventful. We stopped at my Step-mother's house, which is where we were going to stay for the night, and visited for a bit. I got in touch with my brother and we planned to meet to load up the piano, which was about 40 minutes away. He was on his way to pick up his 2 "helpers".

We arrived at the building where the piano was being stored and my brother and his helpers were already there examining the piano. Apparently, my brother's "helpers" were quite drunk and had already managed to tip the piano over on it's back! Several keys on either end of the keyboard were either stuck down, or unable to be played. The panel above the keyboard was off to the side and could not be mounted because the rod on one side had broken off. The keys in the middle of the keyboard still played and it didn't sound all that bad all things considered. For a moment, I considered just forgetting the whole thing, but I realized that it would cost the same amount to get home with or without the piano (well, ok, it would cost a little more WITH the piano due to the weight), so we decided to load it up and see if it could be fixed when we got it home.

We get the piano loaded into the truck without TOO much incident. Kinda scratched the bed and tailgate a bit, but no additional damage to the piano. Here's where it gets good. I had brought a ratcheting tie-down strap. I wasn't sure how it worked, so while I was reading the directions, one of the "helpers" immediatedly grabbed it out if my hands and started to put it together. He got the strap wrapped up inside the ratchet to the point that it couldn't be released, rendering it useless. Every time I tried to get it apart, he would get right up in my face and try to "help" me, and kept yelling that there was something not right with the tie-down. I wanted to scream, "Yeah, because you broke it you drunken idiot!!" I wasn't sure if these guys were good friends of my brother's or what, so I just bit my tongue and walked away. My brother told me later that he was not quite right in the head even when he was sober. Great!

In the meantime, my brother had some rope. The other "helper" used the rope to strap down the piano, and when he was done, he proclaimed, "That won't tip over, I'll stake my life on it!" I could shake the piano easily, so I guess his life wasn't worth much! We headed back to my step-mother's house and crossed our fingers. My wife was stressing, because every bump we hit made the piano rock precariously. On the way, my brother called my cell and apologized profusely. He had no idea his helpers were going to be in that condition. If he had known, he would have picked other people to help. Luckily, we made it to my step-mother's house without incident and put the truck and piano in her garage and went to bed.

We realized there was no way we could get the piano back home in one piece in it's current state, so the next morning, I went to the hardware store and bought 4 tie-down straps. Before I started re-securing the piano, I took a few pictures to document the "I'll stake my life on it" packing job.

Original Packing


Original Packing


Original Packing


Notice the tightness of the ropes (or lack thereof)! After looking at it, I was amazed that we made it that far without the piano tipping over! I removed the rope and started to secure it the right way. I wrapped the piano in furniture blankets and covered it with a tarp. Then we wrapped it in several layers of stetch tape to keep the tarp from blowing away. When all was said and done, I strapped 2 long tie-downs around the back to keep it secured against the front of the bed. Then I strapped 2 tie-downs over the top to keep it from tipping. When we were done, it was very secure. When we tried to shake the piano, the whole truck would shake.

After Re-Securing


After Re-Securing


After Re-Securing


We felt much better about the trip back. There was no stress about tipping. The piano never moved. However, it was very windy and we were afraid the wrapping we had done was going to blow off. The stretch tape began to shred and one of the tie-down straps was "buzzing" in the wind and started to shred. But we made it home without incident. I took some pictures of the wind damage.

After Trip


After Trip


After Trip


After Trip


After Trip


And that concludes the story of our piano trip. I'll save the unloading and damage assessment for another post.

Aut-t-t-t-oc-c-c-ros-s-s

March 1 was the first Autocross for the NEOKLA (NorthEast OKLAhoma) SCCA region. It was held at Stroud, OK. It was a bit nippy to say the least. Standing in line for registration, someone said it was 27 degrees. (BRRRR!!!)

Usually, drivers prefer to work the first heat and drive the second heat. I wanted to drive the first heat and work the second heat in hopes that it might warm up a little in the afternoon. It did warm up some, but there's nothing to break the wind, so it was still a pretty chilly work assignment.

I intended to get in-car video, but my camera batteries died. I knew they were close to being done, so I brought some spares. They were even even worse than the ones in the camera. Oh well.

For the first time, I came in first in my class (DSP). I'd like to say I beat some fierce competition... but I'd be lying! I was the only one in the class ;)


Photos taken by John Brooks

Suspension Surgery, Part III

On February 13 (Friday the 13th!!!) I took a day off work to finally fix my broken suspension. I had already purchased stock upper strut mounts and bearings as I was going to replace the adjustable camber plates with the stock replacements. First problem I ran into... had to go get ANOTHER socket that I didn't have. You'd think by now I'd have pretty much every size imagineable, but no.


The next problem I ran into was closely related to the first. When I was trying to remove the little plastic piece (the thing it hangs from on the store shelf) from my newly purchased socket, it splintered and took a big chunk out of my thumb!!! The good news is that was the only injury I sustained for the whole project, other than my pride (more on that later)


Some more good news. Since I had done this twice before, taking everything apart was much easier than I was expecting. Here are some pictures of the carnage.

Underside of the Passenger Side Camber plate. Note the wear spots


Side view of the Passenger side camber adjustment plate. Note the wear on the right side.


Top View of the camber adjustment plate.


Underside of the Strut mount


Top View of the strut mount


Passenger side camber plate and strut mount together.


Passenger side washers for Strut Bearing. Not *too* bad.


The Passenger side wasn't too bad, just worn out. Now comes the good stuff!






Driver's Side camber adjustmet plate (M-I-C... K-E-Y... LOL)


Remains of one washer on driver's side strut bearing. There should be 2 washers, this was all I could find.


All that's left of the driver's side strut bearing. Didn't get a picture of the Passenger side... more on that later.




Since I was going back to stock style upper mounts and no longer using the camber adjustment plates, I assumed I needed to get stock style strut bearings. WRONG!!! The strut mount had nothing to do with the type of bearings required. Because I have "coil-over" type springs, I needed a completely different type of bearing which I did not have and wasn't sure where to get. This was about 1:00 pm on a Friday, and I REALLY needed to get it back on the road by Monday so I could get to work. Ah the joys of working on your daily driver!

I threw around some ideas trying to figure out how to proceed, most of which involved spending way more money than I wanted. I could have put the stock struts and springs back in, but that would have been a step backwards as the struts were pretty worn out. I couldn't put the stock springs on the Koni struts because when the coil-overs are installed on the struts, the stock spring perches are cut off. There was no way I could afford a new set of Konis. Even a set of OEM replacement struts was not in the budget. Finally, I decided to try a company I'd heard a lot of good things about. I got on the Internet and searched for McMaster-Carr. Sure enough, I found the bearings and washers I needed and they did Saturday delivery! It never said how much the shipping charge would be for Saturday delivery, but at that point I didn't really care! I placed the order. How did we do anything before we had the Internet.

The parts came on Saturday afternoon. There was one minor hitch... I had ordered the wrong washers, the ones I got were quite a bit thicker then the original ones. There was no turning back now, I would have to make them work. I quickly put the Driver's side back together. I should have been concerned that everything was going back together too easily. After I got the passenger side put together, I noticed that it looked a bit different from the driver's side. I re-checked my work and realized that when I put the driver's side together, I hadn't seated the bearings properly, so they got pinched between the top of the strut rod and the upper strut mount. My brand new parts were RUINED!!!

Here's what's left of the NEW driver's side bearing that I installed incorrectly! (smacks forehead)


Fortunately, the new washers were still OK and the old Passenger side bearing was still intact, so I re-used it and CAREFULLY put everything back together. When I took it for a test drive, I was delighted to find out that the steering wheel was straight again (had been at a 45 degree angle when driving down the road) and the car no longer pulled to the right!!! And of course there is no more clunking when turning the steering wheel!