By Jeff Glucker
I spent the day yesterday refinishing the headlight surrounds and grille on my 1991 Mitsubishi Montero. A few years prior, I had painted both flat black. The surface of the headlight surrounds always needed a bit more paint on them. With the grille, the surface was begin to get pitted and some of the chrome-plated plastic underneath was showing. So I set off cleaning, lightly sanding, then spraying it all. Flat black on the surrounds and the grille, but this time, I also taped off the MITSUBISHI lettering on the grille, so I could spray that bit in a gloss black as well. It’s an easy project that makes the nose of my truck look a bit nicer. I shot a video of the process, and I’ll have it up on YouTube later this week.
Regardless, it was a nice little way to lean into one of my car goals for the new year. That would be getting my project vehicles into their best shape. I have much more in store for the Montero, and I also plan on getting the Jag to a prime place. Especially considering I blew the power steering pump over the weekend, and I’ll tell you more about that story later today.
But for now, I want to know what sort of car goals you have for 2022? Share below!
First goal of the new year: Drive uphill out of my driveway without slipping sideways into either my house or my fence.
Status: Achieved!
That’s very ambitious, but I would have expected the Ford to have a drastically different track width than the FSAE, and I don’t see enough marks in the snow.
Oh, you meant you wanted to drive ONE car out of the driveway instead of ALL of them?
The ’70 International 1200D is the widest, so of course I went with that one for the proof of concept.
Battery, Cables and Alternator for the Econoline.
The alternator has a bad bearing and makes a godawful racket, like a power steering pump going bad. Works fine, but causes anxiety.
The battery cable post clamps are all mushed and disappointing. On one occasion a loose connector had to be wrestled into providing a good enough contact to run the starter. Also working fine but causing anxiety.
The battery is not the right one for the truck. Not enough CCA and doesn’t fit in the battery tray. Again, works fine, but if I’m getting a new alternator and cables, why not round it out with a correct battery?
Front brake pads for the Africa Twin. At 19,500 miles, I’ve finally worn out the original pads. Oddly, the rear pads wore out some time ago. The DCT will do a fine job of slowing the bike down by downshifting, and I’ve always been one to back off the throttle early in traffic, so I don’t hit the front brake too much. However, I do lean on the rear brake just enough to light the brake lamp while the engine management and DCT are slowing the bike down.
Interesting. I usually burn out the front pads on my mountain bike before the rears. No, it’s not the same but it’s the only thing I ride on two wheels.
I mentioned previously that I changed the cam sensor on a car, only to see a big spark shoot out of the battery when hooking everything back up. It was a body control module that had fried. I took it to an electrical shop near my neighborhood. I walked over to the shop to pick it up last week, just a couple hours before the place closed for New Year’s. I paid and left. I got about 50 yards and then it died, and it won’t restart. He didn’t have time for a proper diagnosis yet, but the prediction is a dead fuel pump.
So I suppose my first car goal of the year is having the car drive less than a mile home under its own power?
Get the x3 back on the ground. I’m still in the process of attempting to pop the old ball joints out for the front tension struts. I haven’t had much time to spend on it, though last night I did apply a bit of heat, and was able to get the flanges to bend a bit, but after another 20 minutes of pounding, no movement. I think I’ve found a scissor jack that will fit between the top of the steering knuckle and the tension strut, and if it does, that should work. I’m waiting to hear from the ebay seller on the dimensions of it. If that doesn’t pan out, it’s going to a shop. This isn’t fun anymore. 🙂
I find it really hard to figure out what I want – as an automobile omnivore, there’s so much I’d like to try driving this year. We couldn’t agree with ourselves if we want a new car or not, so for now, it’s “not”. But I enjoyed the test driving a lot. Ghost shopping for another year?
So the most obvious, almost decision free first goal of the year would be to get the Centennial back soon. Or fix the stereo in the baby Hyundai. Or should I try to identify the possible bad cell in the Leaf’s battery, that has been degrading oddly fast lately? Or that rust spot on the Hyundai’s hatch? Dammit…
Most likely, the first automotive goal for the year is just getting another one. We’ve got space now, and I feel comfortable saying that if my wife hasn’t given up and decided to drive manual after 7 years it’s never going go happen. Plus, if there’s one small upside to minivans being toxic to the general public, it’s that they’re relatively unaffected by the current blip in residual values.
I also have to clean up a bit of surface rust on some underside components, but that won’t happen until spring when I switch back to summer tires.
Probably not happening this year, but with 3D printers getting cheaper (and it seems like something that’d be fun to have around with a kid), I’ve long wanted to swap out my Mazda badges for something with the vintage lowercase m logo.
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My friend has a 3D printer and he made a gauge cluster housing for his Forester. We’re looking for excuses to make other things.
First goal was selling my 12 year old Ranger for an absurd price to Carvana.(Done).
Second, expecting delivery of a hybrid Maverick sometime this year. (Unsure of actual delivery date) .
Finally, I’m looking to buy a project car but holding off due to the same absurd used car prices right now.
The prices of beaters are nuts! A friend of mine went to look at an 05 3 series convertible with 174k miles on it (against my judgement, cause it looked beaten on)…the ask was $5000. When my buddy walked, it immediately came down to $3800, which is still over a grand too high….crazy…one would think mdharrel could retire if he sold out the fleet…. 🙂
Oh, I could never part with my… Wait, how much?
I’m hoping to get close to $5K for my 2002 325Ci with 188K, but it’s a pretty clean 2 owner car with almost $4K in new parts in past 3 years. I’m hoping I’m not dreaming thinking those repairs are worth something.
My first goal is to acquire a new project car, though that may necessitate a divorce, and those take a while.
Wanna buy a 325Ci? 😁
Since it’s down to a 1/4 tank, steel myself to gas up the F150. Fortunately it’s “only” a 25 gallon tank unlike the 40 gallon tanks on my son’s Suburbans. I also need to do long overdue oil changes, and sort out the Buick’s parking light. Everything else can wait for warmer weather.
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Sell the E46 and buy a Boxster before everyone realizes how good and how cheap they are.