Since the last update, not a lot has changed. With the pandemic, work has been brutally busy. In September, we had two guys quit, and then in November another go out for hernia surgery. UPS being the way they are, no one has been replaced and the efforts to stay afloat has been left up to the remaining employees. Needless to say, I didn't have much free time for a while and if I did, I was too tired to enjoy it. More recently, 8 coworkers and I all got the Covid. We were all out for 2 weeks other than one guy who was out 3 and one who was out 4.
My hobby ADD also kicks in full force and my funding goes elsewhere. I can't remember the exact sequence, but I've certainly dumped a good bit of time in my 3d printing, RC and computer hobbies. I ended up buying an RC car in kit form, and an assload of various upgrade parts. At this point, I realized that I didn't feel like setting up the folding table to build my kit so I embarked on a journey to set up my "hobby space" in the house. Katy and I both have some form of "crafting" hobbies. I bought her a Cricut for Christmas and she also had a sewing setup. I have my 3d printers (oh yeah, I somehow adopted a second one), my RC hobby and a lot of electronics projects. Our spare spare bedroom has become the craft room. She has about 2/3 of it for all of her stuff, and I have the remaining third.
That was my initial setup. Excuse the poor lighting. That is on the list of things to do in there. The desk was from my apartment, and the shelving units are some generic China junk that I 3d printed some spacers so I could bolt together. It was insanely cramped and mostly useless.
I decided to measure out the space and purchase a larger workbench ordeal. Rather than the 48x24 glass desk, I picked up a 60x30 work bench. While I was at it, I utilized Katy's Cricut abilities.
My entire concept now is to not have anything that actually stays on the bench. I want as much space and as little clutter as possible. I picked up a monitor arm and I absolutely love it.
I'm currently between two projects in there. One is doing a spare parts PC build and the other is fixing one of my 3d printers.
I am going to be adding some shelving above the bench and adding a shelf under the bench so I can keep things less cluttered. I'm also going to make all of the shelves with the printers white and work on lighting for the printers and my workbench.
Now, for automotive updates. I haven't done much of anything. I got into an old school audio kick. I picked up a new radio bezel kit which fits very nicely.
I also picked up an Alpine 6-disc CD changer that can be controlled by the head unit, and an RF adapter that I can use to add an auxiliary input to which is also Alpine. Everything is from the late 90's and blends in with the dash lighting very well.
I spent a few hours in the garage getting it cleaned up and organized. Now that the weather is breaking, I'll be able to start cleaning and painting things and getting them ready for assembly.
Hopefully the customer base is going to be the worst part of the job.
Can't be worse than the Mustang owners I dealt with in my Ford dealership days.
You mentioning that made me realize that the guys at the dealership where I bought my Mustang seemed very cautious about how they talked to me when I had an issue. I bought the car and it had condensation in the tail light. They agreed to fix it for me. I showed up in a Snap On jacket and looking rough like a typical mechanic. They treated me like I would expect them to treat a Karen who just an expensive car. I guess Mustang owners are douchebags when it comes to going to the dealer.
One night, I went on a YouTube binge and found the video of the younger guy who was rebuilding Teslas. It was a cool video. I ended up watching an assload of videos about the issues people had with the cars. Some insanely major with the dealers treating them like garbage. The majority were the owners admitting were petty issues, but for the price they paid, a lot of the fit and finish should be on point. The other point was that the cars are silent inside, so anything that rubs or vibrates becomes much more of a nuisance. That's why I feel the customers might be insanely frustrating.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Tesla and a lot of their practices. Hopefully they treat you well enough to change my feelings on the company as a whole.
Do they offer any benefits or retirement or anything like that?
I think the board notifications are broken, I missed a couple updates in here....
Your 18x9's from the Trans Am are +35, right? Don't make me scroll all the way back to when I was shopping for RAD era billets again. I don't need that thought coming back. Stock K-member/arms? 94-5 spindles or 96+?
I felt the lack of deadline crushing motivation in my soul. When HRPT got postponed, and ultimately cancelled, all urgency on my car evaporated and then scope creep showed up.
Yes, they are +35. Stock K-member, stock length arms and 94-95 spindles. They probably wouldn't *really* fit if I had the 96+ spindles.
Scope creep had been getting me a bit too. Luckily, not nearly as badly as you have been hit. I wouldn't be upset if things worked out and I landed a bunch of cool stuff the way you did though.
Do yours poke out of the fender? How much negative camber are you running?
Something that has been frustrating is that I have to buy a lot of the random supplies you take for granted. When I lived in my apartment, I couldn't store things like wire, wire loom, grease guns, chemicals, boxes of bolts and brackets and whatever else. I just didn't have the room. I've had to go out and buy a grease gun just for a few fittings where as when I lived with my parents, I just hijacked my dads. Needed some wire loom? Go and grab a foot. I just recently bought an assortment of wire loom. I've never had to buy it before in my life. Next, I'll be buying wire assortments.
Captive market. When they have little competition there is no reason for them to have great customer service. They know you'll have to come to them either way.
Cluster looks nice. I've wondered how it would look if an electroluminescent sheet was used to light it. Bring a little modern look to it. Plus no hot spots from bulbs/LEDs.
I figure that these companies must not need money. With the way everything is going, you would think that they would be doing everything they can to keep business flowing.
I've thought about the EL sheets before. The "indiglo" gauges were a HUGE trend in the early 2000's. Most were that blue-teal color and I was never really a fan. I don't really want to change the color or go too crazy. The hot spots aren't noticeable at all, I just want to add a little "saturation" to the green without making everything green.
Yessir. There's a bunch of telltale signs that pretty much every assembly in this thing has been rebuilt or replaced, but the body has certainly seen 226K.
I feel ya on the motivation factor. In my mind I had to make up for 10 years of doing literally nothing to my car. I had a good goal set up in mind for this year til the virus pretty much closed all the events I was interested in going to. That's okay though I get more seat time in it this year and finish up some odds and ends then come out swinging next year. I just want to enjoy the car now. Next year I wont have to fiddle with stupid stuff just get in and drive since this year is pretty much a wash.
Next year I want to run it at the track a few times and see what she does with and without nitrous. I also want to chase down some cones in some scca style runs just for kicks even though I can't see the right front corner I'm gonna giv'r hell
You just gotta make your own deadlines in times like these man
I didn't think a 10" wheel would fit up front. What size tires are you running? I have 275/35/18 on mine and it's close to the spring.
I've been trying to go out and do small tasks lately to keep myself moving a little bit. I've mostly given up on trying to get it rolling for any of the summer events for obvious reasons. At this point, I'd like to get it going for boost weather. It won't make a whole lot of power, but it'll still be fun to run around in and make whooshy noises.
I have been ordering little bits of stuff here and there as well. I go through phases where I will dump a ton of money, and then I'll be frugal as hell and spend hours looking to save 3 bucks. That hasn't been helping much either.
