Curt’s Basement

Hey guess, just so you know that as I go along my program and pass my exams I will be able to do various things if you ever need them. Will post in occasionally as I always do and let you know what more I can handle. Of course I will be able to give good prices compared to your local garage rest assured that and obviously parts I can usually get good as I am the ultimate shopper lol

Well school is pretty intense finally. We wrapped up our introductory course and got on to shop work. So now we will be starting to work with hand tools, power tools and more fun stuff. Apparently one of our projects will be to build our own puller for a gear or whatnot. Pretty nifty. We are also wrapping up our health and safety course tonight. It is not particularly interesting mind you however there are a few noteworthy bits. We will be taking a look at air conditioning this evening. We have to pass it so we can officially be able to work on them. We get a fancy license for it. Of course it only means you can do it at the garage.

We got our tool box also which has all the standard tools we will need. It gives a good idea of what I am missing. I have quite a bit already but there is still more needed and then there are more specialized tools. Thing is we basically need to buy everything for our toolboxs by the time we graduate as in any garage you need to bring your own tools.

Speaking of tools I went to grind clean my surface so I can weld the new floor in….when….my grinder started sparking and heating to the point of non touchable. So the grinder died. Not sure what caused it but maybe it overheated and shorted with this hot weather. I have no idea. At any rate I went and got another though this time lithium battery powered. It has an interchangeable battery that I can use on other select tools from mastercraft. So that is a cool feather. Though the battery was not included. So I went to the store. Wahoo…found the battery! Oh wait, they don’t come with a charger…Ok so had to do two canadian tire stores to get a battery and a charger. Really annoying but now I am equipped!

I am also pretty beat. Pretty much it’s run around all morning cleaning and preparing dinner and studying, then school, then when I come home some more studying and then bed. It’s a pretty hardcore schedule but I think it is very worthwhile.

The tiger is roaring again. Apparently all that needed to be adjusted was a screw on the carburator that allowed the car to idle. Not sure why is came loose but pretty happy it was a simple and cheap resolution to the problem. I took an exhaust pipe which had a hole into the garage as I wanted to test my MIG welder. I have the argon – carbon dioxide gas now which will provide a more steady weld bead. I was a bit discouraged at first as it was sputtering. I was worried about voltage, the gas, etc. Finally after adjusting the wire speed and temp settings I managed to find the right flow. So I patched the hole so will grind smooth tomorrow and voila. Will then do those elusive floors panels.

School is a bit slow but that is normal to start. It is still intimidating to a certain degree. New terms, new topics, exams, certs. Just need to take it easy and take it slow. But it’s still very cool.

Well school has officially started. Began last monday. Was a bit nervous heading in kind of like that first day of school feeling we would get when younger. So far it’s just an introduction so not a whole lot interesting but hey at least it has started.

As for my work on the camaro things have progressed. As I mentioned I had a carburator fire and then a bunch of melted wires. So I went out and bought new battery wires. The negative wire was a bit of a pain as it was setup behind a large pin which was behind the alternator. The positive wire was a whole lot more of a pain in the butt. It was attached to the started which was on the bottom of the engine in a small nook. I had to take off the exhaust headers on one side to reach it.

Finally with all that done I verified the distributer plugs and make sure they were in the proper firing order. Thank the internets for that info. Finally it was go time. With everything all back installed I started the engine. At first I had a bit of trouble but finally as fluid made it’s way through the system it started fine…and then…stalled. It seem’s that I can start the engine and as long as the peddle is being pressed it will run but ease off and it stalls. After some researching it seem’s to point to the carburator. That would make sense due to that whole fire thing I had. I have some things to check on it to try and resolve the issue without forking over a bunch for a new one.

So we have some positive progress going on at least. Hopefully I can cheaply fix my idle issue.

Well fuck. Today was a very very off day. Started getting the car ready for the initial start up. All was looking good and I slid in the key. Cranked her up and the engine was having a hard time starting. While this is not an unfamiliar fact of older engines and long periods of non use it was still quite the annoyance. Finally on one turn as I though the engine was going to turn on…I had a caburator backfire which means my carburator caught fire. The fire cracked my fancy fuel line folder, some gas spilled and the fire spread. I managed to control everything and killed the fire however the damage was done. I had a vacuum hose toasted, some wiring got toasted and the battery cable which attached to the starter got toasted.

Suffice it to say I was and still am very upset on a few levels. I googled the situation as I was purely blaming me and telling myself I am horrible and a million other things but as I hear these things do occur to others of older vehicles as well. But still knowing it wasn’t a fault of my own still did not make me feel any better. You know when you just want to get thing done with but something always holds you back?

Well I went out and purchased new batter cables, new hose, new wiring covers and new fuel line filter. I managed to get most things installed so tomorrow will just be the new battery cables. Hopefully I will not discover other wiring toasted. In a sense it’s somewhat of a good thing that the wiring is being refreshed. On the downside is just expenses we don’t need right now.

All in all this is a lot of good experience headed my way. Not the way I wanted it obviously. The engine is a very intimidating beast when you get down to all the options. I guess it’s just a matter of getting used to how it all comes together. But yes my adventure continues.

Ach! I’m telling you for those wanting to weld, jesus it is a pain. So I bought a mastercraft MIG / Flux welder. Comes with cheapy flux wire and you can use a standard outlet. I gave it a shot recently but realized that it was not as efficient for two reasons. One is because the recommend not using an extension and the voltage fluctuations can cause inconsistent welds. The other is that MIG is superior to flux but requires a specialized industrial gas which is a mix of Argon and CO2.

So I dug around and found one place that offers this for residential people like myself but it was in the ass end of nowhere in north Montreal. It also costed a lot as I had to buy the tank initially and from there I can refill it cheaply and it gets delivered to my door. Basically they bring you a new tank and take the empty one. Ok cool. Then I have to buy a regulator as we cannot let argon and CO2 run freely. Ok so buy a regulator. Now need a proper mig wire, so I get that. Finally I get home and start setting everything up but the tube for my welder is too small for the male end of the hose from the tank. So now I need an adaptor. Like arg!! LOL

It’s somewhat humerous because it’s just one thing after another. I call them learning lessons to keep my mood optimistic. Also I was prepping the enging for starting. My gear head neighbour came by and suggested some engine tune up tips. So hey why not. That went well but then when trying to start the car…FACEPALM…

I will pass on some words of advice which may seem obvious but sometimes we just do not thing of them. When you have a battery on a seasonal car it tends to lose it’s juice over a long period of non use. Normally what I should have done is purchased a trickle charger which recharges your battery and then keeps it charge without overcharging it for however long required. So now I must go and do this. Luckily my neighbour has one somewhere. He still isn’t done unpacking so I may have to pick one up. But still just one of those annoyances.

In all it’s just a case of learning what supplies are needed and learning some things along the way that should be done. I think it’s just the fact the floors are something I have been wanting to get off my list so it’s just hanging there annoyingly. Anyways, always check your tube sizes and get trickle chargers for your future vintage cars on their off season.

Well things are finally rolling along. Got school next monday which I am pretty excited about. The thing about sitting on your butt for two months is that yes it is kinda good but on the other hand you go a tad crazy. Going to the Metro is an exciting adventure. I went to visit the school a week ago as a mandatory thing and it was really interesting. Well interesting in the sense that I got to explore the facilities. It’s pretty well setup. For instance there is a room with engines on racks with batteries and small oil and gas tanks with a little keyoard. The teach will press random keys and it causes a problem which we will then have to diagnose.

While I am excited about the school an the topics it’s still a whole change in profession and somewhat intimidating since it’s all new material. But it will be fun at least. Finally some challenge.

I got a notice from the town to complete my car or remove it. Being that it is older then 7 years old and is not plated for the season yet the are doing a little hissy fit. So I have been working on the car about every day now. I have all the four wheel wells all completed. Patched up holes here and there. Tomorrow the floor will go in. I was going to do the floor about a week ago but ran into some technical issues. Welders are tricky beasts and they don’t like extension cords. Being on an extension causes voltage fluctuations and thus the unit does not operate as it should. But the cord is not long enough so I need to roll the car into the garage as much as possible and weld away in there.

I have also been digging away at finding out how to install my charcoal canister. Need my car to be as “environmentally” friendly as possible. I have some diagrams in my assembly line book however they were all pending blueprints for it’s installation back in the day. Funny enough I found how to install it via a Corvette message board.

So things are getting done and I am learning more and more. I would have liked to have done more cleaning from under the car and some nooks and crannies however I just do not have the tools at the time. I feel a bit annoyed that I can’t do all the things I want to do but what can you do. I can do more stuff as time goes on right. Once you get into all this stuff though you tend to let things carry you away so sometimes you have to kick yourself to focus on one thing at a time.

So when not doing that I finished our little stone patio here. Our table is installed and it’s about the same size as our kitchen table. So that’s pretty awesome. It feels good to finally sit outside and enjoy the weather every now and then. Unfortunately we still have no fence so it does not always feel so private but progress is progress right. And well we also did the lawn, havve a little hedge up on one side so yeah.

How is everyone doing?