Stewy

Welcome! Very nice collection! 😀

Love the color! Welcome 🙂

Nice! I'm a sucker for T-Tops! Love it!

Nice GP! Shout out to a fellow Grand Prix-er (even if there are a few years between us 😀).

I started B.T.'s fall detail. I swear I've done nothing but detailing this entire summer. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it and love the fruit of my labor but this seems to have been an unusual spring / summer / fall (in so very many ways...).

I've considered doing a research project entitled "Computer Message Boxes and the Human Response". 🙄

Some people just want to watch the world burn... 😁😆

So beautiful! Welcome 😀. You and I started @ FP the same way - Instagram following 🙂

Holy. Freaking. Awesome. LOVE it!😍

As of Sunday evening I have begun the fall detail regimen on T.C. and I'm looking at getting a tailgate hinge lock for B.T. off of Amazon (apparently stealing tailgates is a thing 😕). I'm also searching for an adapter for B.T. that will connect my Motive pressure bleeder to the brake reservoir in preparation for next spring / summer when I am planning on flushing the brake system on all the vehicles again.

Yesterday I reconnected T.C.'s battery after load testing it (after I drained it testing the rattle issue in the rear passenger speaker). I was concerned the battery was too far gone however load testing showed it to be holding on between 900 and 1000 cranking amps (so I think it's all good). Otherwise, I replaced the weather seal around all three barn bay garage doors. The 10' doors weren't bad and the 12' wasn't bad either aside from not having a tall enough ladder and therefore having to do the universal no-no and stand on the very top. I figured what's the worst that could happen - a trip to the E.R.? 🤪

.

This morning I have come to the conclusion I'm 85% sure I have root-caused the speaker rattle in T.C.. Turns out the speaker looks to be good - yay! That's $40 I can keep in my pocket and not give to Rock Auto (nothing against Rock Auto - just like keeping money in my pocket 😀). So last night I disassembled the entire back seat and remove the rear decking - seat belt assemblies were a pain (turns out, it's easier to remove the rear deck and THEN remove seat belts and not the other way around) and so was disconnecting the wiring harness for the high-mount stop lamp but over all not a bad dismantling process. This morning I started with root-causing the rattle. As soon as I turned the radio on and looked at the pass-rear speaker, I found what I believe to be the cause - Mexican jumping bugs!! This little guy (what was left of him, at least) was dancing ALL over the place on top of the speaker dust cap. Sometimes he would fall down onto the actual diaphragm and the rattling would subside (but still be present) and then, depending on how the bass hit, he would jump back up onto the dust cap and the ratting would come back to it's original annoying level. At first I thought "nah, that couldn't be the cause", so turned the radio off, removed the bug, turned the radio back on and *poof*, the rattling was gone. To test further, I turned the radio off again, put the bug BACK onto the dust cap, turned the radio back on and *poof*, the rattling was BACK. At this point I have the rear decking re-installed and am going to give T.C. a few days of driving as a final test (the test of time) to ensure the rattling is gone. So long as it appears to be, it will be time to reinstall everything. Soooo.... in order to give me confidence the rattle was, so far, gone, I left the radio on while I was working on other things in the back end. Not surprisingly I drained the battery. I have T.C. on my Battery Tender now and I'm hoping I can save the battery but I have a question: does anyone know of a battery power supply? I'm not looking for something to charge the battery and maintain it (I already have that) but instead something that, generally, plugs into the wall outlet, connects to the battery, and provides multiples of ten amps. Something where you can have the electronics of a car on (engine off, of course) and this device will keep the battery powered so you can run the electronics without draining the battery. I know they exist - I've seen various shops use them - but I can't recall what they're called; terminology is sensitive because a battery "maintainer" is not what I'm after (a "maintainer" will charge the battery and then keep it "full" but not necessarily power the car). Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated. Thanks!

I've toyed with doing that. Then I heard from a good friend (from Saginaw, MI) who ordered her groceries online through Walmart. Went to the store at the appointed time, parked in the designated spot, notified via the app that she was ready for pickup. A hour and forty-five minutes later they loaded the groceries in her car. She's a better soul than me to wait around THAT long. I'm sure that's likely not the normal but still, doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies about online ordering of groceries. Then again, it is Walmart... 🤪 "It's always an adventure at the Walmart" -Stewy

Hey, Oshawa, cool - GM's Oshawa plant 2 is where Ren was born 🙂

Yesterday Ren went to, and came home from, having her coolant and transmission fluid exchanged, a new transmission pan gasket and filter installed, two transmission fluid line compression fittings replaced (original fittings were starting to weep) and her fuel system serviced. Turns out, I think my multimeter may be having issues because when the technician parasitic load tested her battery they found less than a 30mA draw (where as my tool said almost 3.5A (HUGE difference!). Also, yesterday, Rubi was officially christened (we even took our first ride as a family in her on our way to pick Ren up). I found a couple spots on Rubi's paint where I apparently didn't fully clean off the ceramic (the sun is a great tool and a great enemy in showing the true state of painted surfaces!). I swear, it makes me feel like I'm a noob at detailing (when in reality I've been doing it for 25+ years *face palm*). That said, and as promised to Kiwi, pictures below 🙂 In the last picture, I tried to get a close-up of the gloss / clarity (as expected, the picture doesn't do the gloss justice). When Rubi first came to live with us, the clear coat had the snot swirled out of it. Many hours with a two-step polish and dual-action polisher later, I'm very pleased with the results (and I'm a picky person!). Next project with started at 4am this morning - tearing TC's ('09 Malibu) rear decking apart to root-cause the really annoying rattle coming from the rear-passenger speaker when the radio is on. The song "Party Rock Anthem" comes to mind with the line "Every day I'm shufflin'...".

Regardless of current or past, it's nice to see another Grand Prix-er in the house 😃

Will do, Kiwi. Right now she's up on jack stands in the middle of an oil change. Consistently getting up at 4am has drained me so last night I drained the oil, swapped filters, put the new oil in and then went to bed; I left everything else until later today. 🙃

I know about knee pain! I had to have some of my left knee removed years ago due to a football injury. There is a very specific way a knee is to bend and bending in any other direction is bad 😝. So, as of last evening, detailing Rubi is finally done!!!! Literally MONTHS of work! There is no emoji to relate the level of completion I feel about that. However, that doesn't mean she's ready to be christened. Next up, oil change. Then to get my daughter's car seat moved from our temporary "family hauler" (T.C.) to Rubi. For as much work as I've put into Rubi over the last few months I really do feel like breaking a champagne bottle over a quarter panel is in order... if only that wouldn't undo all the detailing work I put into the paint! As an aside, I made an appointment for Ren to have her dealership maintenance items taken care of. Since I don't have the appropriate tools, I take her in for specific things - transmission fluid exchange, fuel system cleaning and coolant exchange. It's just easier when the garage has the exchange machines - really does make life easier and what I may pay in $$ it certainly makes up for in saving time - which I seem to have none of as of late. After Rubi is in service, next up will be tearing T.C.'s ('09 Malibu) rear deck apart to see what gives with that rear passenger speaker rattle. The trunk release button (mounted on the driver door) has been acting up so I ordered a replacement switch last night from Rock Auto. Slowly, very slowly clawing my way through the to-do list...

One word...

Hey, Car Guy Garage - I may have seen your car in my email and not realized it 😀

x2 on liking the garage 🙂. Also, happy to see another GP-er (even though we may be a few years separated 😉)!

If interested, this is who made it - https://www.jarheadbobandmax.com/

I've doubled my counseling sessions with my therapist since I met Frosty 😁 Oh, and I forgot to pop the trunk for ya, Frosty -

Hey Kiwi - funny you mention that because, as in the case of my wife, her company rented office space from a landlord. Since going full time work-from-home, her company (as I learned from my wife) will not be renewing their office space lease (when it expires this fall) in the building they've been in for the past several years so she will be going back to her original office one more time to collect her personal effects from her desk. Otherwise, the plan is she'll never be back in the same building. IF (big "if") her company does go back to an in-person office setup, the company (who is still trying to figure things out) will be getting a bigger office (more square footage) to allow for the whole social-distancing-while-at-work idea. On one hand it's bad for one land lord, on the other hand it MAY be good for another... "c'est la vie", I guess