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Day 1433 “Dash Face Lift”

I worked on the dash last night. I trimmed some foam to make it fit better and look better. The foam is pretty thick vs what I need on there. I trimmed next to the windshield to let it slide into place a little easier. I also trimmed the front where it meets the dash so there isn’t a large thickness difference. It looks better just not 100%

The foam around the edges are trimmed and then glued back. Duct tape is also your friend.

Defrost Vent:

Cut:

Formed:

Painted:

Fit test:

I’ll probably trim the fins a little. They stand up pretty tall.

Day 1440 “Post G18”

Post G18.

Well, the first thing I do after I unpack is begin the tear down of the booth. It’s kinda sad. G18 is over and the booth’s time is past. Time to work on other things around the house. Also I need to have a place to protect my new paint.

Day 1461 “Annual Clutch Issue”

Well there a brief hiccup with the camaro. It seems the clutch problem I was experiencing on the way to the gathering finally decided to break.

The pedal got really stiff and popped now it chatters and grinds if I try to press the clutch. It drives fine other than that. :-\

My guess is the Clutch spring broke, again. If so I’m never buying a parts house clutch again. I’m going through them yearly.

All driving habits aside I know how to ruin a clutch, just ask my first car. These clutches aren’t being abused. They get normal daily driving with an occasional hard acceleration. I don’t spin the tires or shift that hard. I try to keep my transmission functional.

1 year ago before the gathering my clutch failed as well (after only a year of it being installed) The spring inside the clutch plate broke out its becoming an irritating problem.

This is last year’s failure.

Day 1471 “Clutch, Ugh”

Well I think the spring broke out of the clutch again. I took a video of the debris in my clutch through the hole on the bell housing. I really would hate using an Autozone clutch again.

You can see what looks like a spring in the first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds of this 3 minute video. The other 2 minutes are of me huffing and pulling a screwdriver handle spinning the flywheel.

Day 1481 “Discounted Refund”

Well, I spent a majority of my week off working on the car, mainly because it was hot as hell and I’m getting old.

Turns out it failed the same way as the one previous to it.

1 year ago clutch failed:

Replacement clutch  after one year of use:

Needless to say I told them I wanted cash refund and not a 3rd clutch. All were under warranty.

So after Autozone did some stupid discounts on my refund and cheated 23 dollars I didn’t get back,  I went to Oreilly’s and bought theirs. Same price, same warranty, but hopefully it lasts a little longer. It seems that the duralast clutch doesn’t handle extra HP very well. Hopefully if it fails again I’ll step up to a DF clutch. I just didn’t have the 400 to get one.

It seems that the stiffness I experienced at g18 was the spring stuck behind the pressure plate forks.

Here’s the Oreilly’s clutch.

I’m finally getting it back together. It only took 2-3 days. :-\

Its working fine not, but since I didn’t drive it for 2 weeks things aren’t working like they should. I had a misfire that seems to have worked itself out. The bank 2 o2 sensor isn’t making a good connection so I’ll have to work on those before the cruise.

Day 1485 “Cruise Prep”

So I got the o2 sensor issue figured out before the Cruise. It seems there’s a soldered ground that came loose from the side of the sensor. I’m going to have out shop here at work solder it back and had a good sensor as a backup or if someone needs one at a discount.

What one should look like:

What the bad one looks like:

Since it was sitting for a long period of time it had a nice layer of filth that I was happy to wash off.

This was in preparation for the Cruise.

Day 1534 “Well Earned Maintenance”

I’ve started to do some well earned maintenance on the car. With the new Fuel pump, I have start issues if it sits in the heat for a few hours. For whatever reason if it sits overnight I don’t. So I figured since I’ve never installed a new FPR I ought to start there.

Also my Keyless Ignition has a few more bugs to massage out. I think it’s the relays being of low quality off the parts house shelf. So I ordered some Hella relays in the hopes that they are more robust and reliable than these parts house ones.

I figure that once I get all the bugs out I can do a write up. Since I’ve taken off from school for the moment, I have time to do these little things

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