Started reassembly on the back half of the engine. Hate it when you drop a nut in a dark mysterious place...



FOUND IT!

Unfortunately we had to stop the reassembly due to a busted T3 gasket. Will be running up to Summitt to grab one tomorrow. Then it's on with the show.

 

Mine are safely hibernating, unlike the oldies radio station's blizzard covered HHR in Philadelphia on the news this morning.

 

I hope everyone effected by the storm has faired well through the blizzard!
Neat ride for the oldies station!!
Today's do was out to the coin car wash for a spritz of soap and water, and a quick towel dry!!
Then home for coffee and apple fritters with Sweetie!!

 

Now that's funny That is generally the position I'm in when the phone rings

 

Still have an extended warranty so I took it to our local friendly Chevrolet dealer for what I thought was wheel bearing noise, window electrical issue, and driver's window snapping at both top & bottom limits.
Turned out to be 2 cupped tires, (bearing noises), driver's door window switch going bad, and a window mechanism that needed tightening and lubing.
They 4 wheel aligned it for the tire wear, gave me the option of fixing the switch myself, which I am, and did the window mechanism tuneup. Charged me $109.00. Not bad I think.
My warranty deduction is $200.00, so we didn't use it......

 

OldBlue, we were on the edge of the front line here in Carolina, We LUCKED out. no more than 2 miles. Just as well, I had to go into work from 9pm to 6am and the roads were just fine on the way home

 

Todays project was to start on a custom built storage tray. I had looked at a couple of pre-made organizers online, & while they looked decent, they didn't quite fit what I wanted.

So I decided to make my own & picked up a full sheet of high quality 1/2" void-free cabinet grade plywood which I'll be making the whole thing out of. I started by cutting a piece 3ft x 4ft. Then laid out the rubber mat on the cut piece & traced the outline of the mat onto the plywood.


One of the reasons I'm after an organizer, gas for the lawn mower, I used a bungie strap to try & secure my 5-gallon can last time, but it still managed to fall over when I went over the RR tracks just before my home. Fortunately, the cap stayed on tight & only a very tiny bit spilled out. Definitely do not want to make a habit of spilling gasoline inside the car.


I then took the plywood to the bandsaw & rough cut it. I also decided that instead of cutting out the same notch that's in the rubber mat, I would just slot the base to fit over the rear anchors & I will use 1 1/2" wide nylon webbing (attached to the anchors) to hold the board in place when it's in the car.





When completed, it'll be able to hold up to 4 5-gallon cans, plus whatever else I need to pick up. While the rear part of it (against back seats) will be a fixed size to accomodate two 5-gallon cans, the rest will all be size adjustable. Got a good bit of work ahead of me before finished, but it's a start.

plywood $29
1.5" Nylon webbing & buckles $17
Already have everything else I need to finish it with

Cheapest pre-made I saw that I like & considered buying - Rola 59001 M.O.V.E. 38" wide organizer - about $60, so a little cheaper for something that will suit my needs better!!!!

 

One word...Parked.

We've been sick as dogs for the last couple of days, and thanks to everyone who sent PM's and e-mails out of concern, I'll write back to all of you..that's a promise.

Thanks to the Winter Wonderland/Ice Capades outside, we are still "Hunkered in The Bunker", friends tell me the roads are much improved over yesterday. But then we get the dreaded Black Ice as everything re-freezes after sundown.

Don't forget, The HHR Of The Year Contest starts tomorrow at noon, and we've got a great field of HHR's entered to see who comes out on top.

 

Took a ride out for a coffee with Sweetie and her mom, then home for dinner

 

Replaced the driver's door window switch module. Easy peasy....