Delivery

If you are seeing this, Hope will be here soon.  The information below will help you find us in the hospital.

We are trying to limit visitors to a reasonable number, so please don't head to the hospital unannounced.

Hospital address:  25825 S. Vermont Avenue Harbor City, CA 90710

Terrible Toaster

Our old toaster oven was a giant piece of junk.  It was supposed to be a quality unit, but it sucked.  The biggest problem was it literally took 10 minutes to make toast.  It also made a metallic "clang" every time it warmed up.  It had a rotisserie function, but wasn't big enough to cook a normal chicken, despite being a huge on the outside.  The last straw was when it stopped "dinging" and would stay on, in an attempt to burn our house down.  I had to kill this thing before it killed me.

We replaced this with the cheapest toaster oven we could find on Amazon, and we are much happier.

Shoddy Shoes

After many, many years of service, I have finally retired my "garage shoes."  They were starting to expose my toes a little too much, which felt unsafe in some situations.

I got these stylish new slip-ons for $10 at Big 5.  What a bargain.

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As you recall, we got a changing table/dresser for Hope's room and I managed to cram it into a company car.  That wasn't the only thing we used the car for in one weekend.
We also bought a bench and a bunch of groceries.

Then we bolted on a set of roof racks, which we inherited from a friend and his departed Audi A3 (yes, the same racks fit a last generation A3 as well as the 6th and 7th generation Golf), and transported our old bed frame to Chrissy's sister's.

I think we got our money's worth.

Underbody Aero Part 6 (of 5?)

Last time I wrote about underbody aerodynamics, I had finished my completely flat bottom on the Miata.  On the first long drive, a serious problem became very clear.  I was retaining A LOT of heat, and my puny NACA ducts were not able to cope.
I was driving down the freeway in the evening and the cabin was getting hotter and hotter.  When I finally parked, I felt the floor pan and it was too hot to keep my hand on.  I was worried the gas was going to boil in the tank.  Serious heat.  That spurred an emergency removal of the center section in the parking garage.  Not easy.

I took off all the belly pans for the big round of maintenance I did and they stayed off while I contemplated what I wanted to do to address the heat problem.
After staring at the underbody for a while, I decided I should make a heat shield to protect the body, driveline, and fuel tank from the exhaust heat, and hopefully reflect it downward.  I plan to also cut a bunch of vents in the belly pan to let the heat out.

The heat shield started with another scrap sheet of aluminum about 3' x 5'.  This was going to be a serious heat shield.  The front would go above the catalytic converter and the rear would extend past the differential.  It would put my pitiful sheet-metal skills to the test.

I needed to make a U-shaped channel in the sheet, with the front having a flat bottom to clear the cat and the rear being round to hug the exhaust pipe.  I used a precision guide to get the correct radius.

After some man-handling, I had the basic shape.

Now I had to bend the sides back down to create the mounting flanges.  I got two boards and clamped them where I wanted the bend.

With a little help from the trusty dead blow, the bend came out well.

The second bend went well too.  At this point I was very pleased with how things were going.  It looked shockingly professional and was going very smoothly.  Unfortunately this is the prettiest the heat shield ever looked, because to get it to fit required quite a bit of "massaging."

Next I removed the rear portion of the exhaust and a chassis brace.

These photos of the initial test fit should give you a better idea of what the heck I was doing.

 I was trying to avoid removing the center section of the exhaust, but I eventually had to come out.  I started with the puny existing heat shield for the cat.

As expected, the fasteners did not want to cooperate.The first one came out without too much of a fight, but it did destroy its threads.  The second was a bastard and forced me to work for it.

 After starting to unscrew, the bolt jammed and I sheared it off.

 Luckily, I was able to remove the remaining bit with a pair of Vise-Grips.

I don't think threads are supposed to look like that.  It could be a weird Japanese pitch.

 Remember my pretty metal work?

It didn't last.  This was after the first of about 36 adjustments.

I consoled myself by starting the car with the exhaust removed.  Don't worry about the videography; focus on the sound.  So refined!

More shaping and the addition of holes for the exhaust hangers.

Mounting holes added.

Stainless steel mounting hardware.

The new bolt for the exhaust was hitting the heat shield that surrounds the cat.

So I hacked off the offending piece.

This is that the final installation of the heat shield.

And here it is with everything reinstalled.  It's a thing of beauty.

After a lengthy hot-weather drive to Joshua Tree and back, it seems to be working.  The floor pan didn't heat up any perceptible amount.  Great success.

I've Got Sole

In case you weren't convinced that I'm the biggest cheapskate in Los Angeles, I now have proof.
I bought a pair of Born shoes a couple years ago and quickly noticed the relatively thin soles were wearing very quickly.  I didn't want the soles to wear out long before the leather upper portion, so I decided to install an expendable sole "skin."
I thought "grip tape" would be the best place to start, but it took me a while to find the product I wanted.  Lots of grip tape is very similar to sand paper, but I wanted one that was more rubbery, like the sole of a shoe.  I eventually found something I liked at OSH and bought a couple rolls.
The first thing I did was coat the entire sole of the shoe in the tape, but it quickly peeled off the toes, where the shoe flexes most, so I came up with a solution inspired by a Vibram sole.

I bought a set of leather punches and proceeded to cut a bunch of circles out of the grip tape and stuck them on the shoe.  Now when the tape wears out, I can stick a new piece on and keep the shoes forever.

Black Friday Bargain

Gustavo (that's our car's name) can go no bigger.

Even though I don't really believe in all the madness, we caved to the pressure of Black Friday and bought a TV for the living room.  Technically, we got it Thursday, so we are better than most Black Friday shoppers.

I did extensive research and decided to get what many sources were calling one of the best deals this year, a 60" LED backlit smart TV.  My dad and I trekked to Walmart and waited in line to score this giant Vizio.

We got it home, just barely (see above), and it's working great.  The only problem is we can't find our rabbit ears, so it looks like we're going to miss Sunday Morning tomorrow on CBS.  I still have no intention of paying for cable or satellite.

It is sitting on our old dining table right now.  Hopefully we will come up with a permanent place for it soon.

The best part is, I was able to hook it up to my speakers using a fiber optic cable and the sound is amazing.
The worst part is I now have something in my house worth stealing, so I'm going to be paranoid about locking up.  I'm going to have to remember to start closing the back door when we leave too.