so friday I was ready to pull the lowers and reinstall everything when my middle daughter called, her car was overheating and the dealer said it would be 11k to fix. considering the car only cost 8k, I was a little apprehensive about their sporty quote. had the car towd to the house and, it seems that telling her to check the oil, check the coolant, once a week at least, and to change the oil every 5k, went in one ear and out the other. the motor ran out of oil and started overheating, and ran out of coolant. at least its clean and dry now to throw away. /sarcasm
so we need a 1.6 NA mini cooper engine and 6 spd, or a whole mini cooper. I looked at two replacements already. this is her money and her time, she learned a very hard lesson already when I told her to pick up a serpentine belt so we could fix it (her and I, not me alone) and she ignored it till it snapped. it cost ~$500 +the tow at the dealer because I refused to fix it AFTER it was broken. same deal now, I will only swap this engine if she helps. this lesson will cost her ~4k. seems like it might be cheaper to listen to dad but hey, no one learns to sail on glass.
then I tried to pull the lowers. one bolt on each side refused to come loose. after beating on it for a day and chopping the lower arm on the drivers side to get to the bolt with a cutoff wheel, I stopped at homer derpot for a carbide sawzall blade and did the second bolt in a couple minutes.
IMG_0822 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
55641533960__9EC519D9-395E-447E-BD4A-6C0497B7B30C.JPG by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_0825.JPG by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
painted the parts I couldnt get to after assembly
IMG_0826 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_0827 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
but I still had two chopped bolts. turns out they are M14x2 in the front and M12x1.75 in the rear, 10.9 strength. fastenal had the smaller ones, but not the larger. I tried the salvage yard and the guy actually said "what makes you think anything I have sitting in the muck is going to be better than what you have?" good point. so I tried a dealer. computer showed a pair of each in stock 50 miles away, so I buzzed out not believing my luck. turns out they were special order parts that had been picked up but not removed from inventory. crap.
I called the first dealer back and gently admonished (may or may not be what actually happened) him for leading me astray, he felt so bad he overnighted the bolts from dearborn. I picked them up and finally assembled the front end, well partly. the paint is drying on the sway bar and I have to assemble the new rotors.
IMG_0838 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_0839 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
the monotube shocks I ordered arent here yet, so I took a break and started fitting patch panels to the rusty cab corners.
IMG_0836 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
beeps is in full time school now so I have every day minus the day joerb to work.
oh the hired help I had planned for sunday did not bother to come, normally dry kansas rained all dang day. really felt like western pa, overcast drizzle and 75 degrees