What did you do in your shop today?

[Willie_B]

I think it is past the daub stage. I have had a bulkhead sound deadner material there. I will clean that area good and leave that off.

Also finished the wiper system overhaul. Replace wheel boxes and the tube & drive cable. Clean and lube motor assy.

[MiniDave]

I need to do that on my car too, the wipers barely even move anymore.....

[Scargo]

jedduh01...hopefully you can divert much of the the surface drainage away from the garage wall by regrading the yard.

Whether you do or not, I would suggest excavating the soil down to the top of the footing so you can parge the entire foundation wall from top to bottom. I would make that excavation at least 12-18" wide and install a french drain system to include a couple of drainage structures connecting to a perforated pipe which should be installed to allow for positive drainage away from the area, if the surrounding grades will allow. If the existing grades will not allow the pipe to see daylight and surface drain, you may want to consider digging a gravel filled sump to receive the end of the pipe. Once you have the drainage system in place, back-fill the excavation with gravel as mentioned by Dave. I would also leave the top of the gravel visible, with no soil on top. In a perfect world, the top of grade at the wall should be at least 4" below the top of your slab, and should drain away from the building, but that may take some major regrading of the entire area.

Hopefully garage roof drainage is not contributing the problem. If it is, that can easily be addressed.

[Willie_B]

Out with the old standard, in with new EVO. Old ones are probably about 10 years old. 1/2" difference in height.

[bikewiz]

Played around with the milling machine today. I took .150 off the carb spacer so I could gain some air cleaner room at the bulkhead, I could probably take another .125 and still have clearance for the throttle cable. Wasted some time polishing some bits also.

[Willie_B]

That is an aggressive looking mill bit.

[bikewiz]

That is an aggressive looking mill bit.

For aluminum only. US made NOS I bought for $40 off eBay, works great for stuff like this.

[tmsmini]

Did you make the throttle barcket as well? It looks a little different than any of the versions I have.
Terry

[bikewiz]

Did you make the throttle barcket as well? It looks a little different than any of the versions I have.
Terry

No it was on the car, I have been curious if it was "home built" it works but isn't very well made. I just ordered a piece 1/8" thick stainless to make another nicer,
more rigid one.

[gr8kornholio]

Mother Nature installed an auto drywall remover spray.  If all the mess wasn't in the way it'd make a nice jet sprayer for washing the car.  Then I got to clean shovel pink snow instead of just the white snow.

[94touring]

Oh dang that stinks man!

[MiniDave]

What happened? Frozen pipe break?

[BruceK]

Sorry that happened Mark. 

I'm afraid we may have some pipes frozen too and won't find out until it warms up a little bit.

[gr8kornholio]

Yep. I heard a loud crack this morning from direction of the bathroom.  Had a bad feeling. So I removed the extremely badly placed access panel in the garage roof and opened the door to the house to warm up the area and around 11 it thawed and... well. 

Luckily I was able to turn the water off quick and a plumber to come  over.  I'd talked to him last week about a gas line adjustment.  He's been swamped with broken water lines.  Glad I could keep him busy. 

The shower and tub side of our bathroom is still frozen but no loud cracks or sprays from it.  That side has froze up before.  We hoped with all the insulation during remodel we'd fixed it.  Of course these are extremely unusual temperatures for us.  Also doesn't help, like everything else in this house it was done cheapest to code in 91.  We have m gauge copper. Modern code minimum is L. Thankfully again it was above the garage and I had the mini back enough.

Almost wish I'd turned the water off before thawing.  Maybe would have minimized the water mess. 

[Willie_B]

I am really riveted to what I am working on.

[Scargo]

Oil & filter change, lube, rocker clearance check, replace fuel filters, flush hydraulics and add a new electronic speedometer and tach on the Sprite this weekend. Mini is next up this week and the Moke after that.

[MiniDave]

You have way too much room in your garage!!!!!

[jeff10049]

I am really riveted to what I am working on.

[tsumini]

Yep. I heard a loud crack this morning from direction of the bathroom.  Had a bad feeling. So I removed the extremely badly placed access panel in the garage roof and opened the door to the house to warm up the area and around 11 it thawed and... well. 

Luckily I was able to turn the water off quick and a plumber to come  over.  I'd talked to him last week about a gas line adjustment.  He's been swamped with broken water lines.  Glad I could keep him busy. 

The shower and tub side of our bathroom is still frozen but no loud cracks or sprays from it.  That side has froze up before.  We hoped with all the insulation during remodel we'd fixed it.  Of course these are extremely unusual temperatures for us.  Also doesn't help, like everything else in this house it was done cheapest to code in 91.  We have m gauge copper. Modern code minimum is L. Thankfully again it was above the garage and I had the mini back enough.

Almost wish I'd turned the water off before thawing.  Maybe would have minimized the water mess.

We got lucky no water pipes broke but our plumbing is all PEX. My neighbor said he talked to a plumber who told him he didn't have a single leak in a PEX plumbed house. I know of at least two in our neighborhood had split copper pipes. This is probably the coldest I've seen in Texas since a time in the 1990's when dallas got into below zero for a couple days. Froze pool solid.
I have a feeling that winterizing Texas homes for this cold is going to be far more difficult and expensive than winterizing power generators in Texas.

[cstudep]

Got around to making this, It's not all that pretty like the polished up machined parts you guys are making, I just don't have that sort of equipment at my disposal. It will do what I need it to though, which is hold the radiator where it needs to be on the engine test stand. Now I just need to go get the correct size bolts to fit the radiator.

[MiniDave]

1/4-28 unless it's one of the Chinesium rads, then it's M6-1.0

[cstudep]

Thanks Dave, it's just an old non chinesium one for now so 1/4-28 it is. That was going to be my guess as to size, glad to have confirmation.

[MiniDave]

Today I got word that yet another Mini was making its way to my shop, so I had to do a bit of re-organizing and cleaning to make room for it.

I have been storing a bunch of parts for the Pup that Dan sold and I'm building an engine and trans for so I had to move them to a spot in the basement - but first I had to clean and organize some more of the basement so I would have a place to put  them!

Then I had to enlist the help of my 29 year old next door neighbor to help me carry them down there. Nice to be young and strong.....(sighs)

So after working all afternoon I now have enough room and the Mini owner called to say it would be next week before he could bring it over from Cuba (Mo).  ::)

Now I kinda hope he waits till the following Sat so I can finish building both these engines - one will leave and the other will be stored in the engine stand - then I can load the three Sprite gearboxes that are on the floor onto the parts shelves and I may then actually have enough room to work on his car!

No idea yet what I'm doing to this car - we've only talked about cosmetic things up till now....

[94touring]

We've been having terentual downpours and my dirt driveway where it meets the street has been a small muddy pond.  I dug about 75 feet of ditch along the road that had filled with sediment since the town was founded in the 1800s if I had to guess.  Most of the digging was just a matter of inches to get water flowing but about 25 feet needed about a foot worth dug out.   Also I'm out of shape.

[MiniDave]

Got hung up for parts on both engine builds, so I started tearing down a Sprit transmichigan.....guess I'll start a thread on it....