kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[DerekTheGreat]

Sad when you realize you're getting old, the treasure yards are drying up and that it's getting harder and harder to drive the stuff you like to drive. I remember when they were just "20 year old used stuff."

[GM_Guy]

$20 drum eh? Must be toyota corolla owners where one of their drums is probably still less material than you ground off yours. =-)
Let the internet haters hate, they obviously have a cash ambundance and have never had to make do with what was available. I'd rock that drum until it cracks.

[kishy]

Sunday, long overdue: thorough cleaning of the junkyard carpet. Yes, should have done it sooner. It didn't look or smell bad, but the colour of the water I pulled out of it says otherwise.



Last night, oil change. The check oil light has been coming on depending on the angle the car is at, and the dipstick supports it was a bit low. 7811km on the oil, which is synthetic. I'm trying to use up my supply of 10W30 synthetic; I usually lean towards a diesel/HDEO or high-mileage synthetic blend, but I do have a little synthetic hanging around, and want it off my oil shelf.



Today, met up with TecNickal. He was in the Toronto area in his 89 wagon and we agreed to meet for lunch in London (sorry Alex, I feel like I've snubbed you yet again, but my plan-making abilities quickly break down when number of participants increases).

Lunch was burgers and poutine at The Works. The food was good, but I am perhaps spoiled by having access to (IMHO) better burgers and better poutine in Windsor. In the parking garage ($13!) we unintentionally located an imported Toyota Crown wagon and chatted with the owner for a bit. He geeked out over our cars, we geeked out over his, as one does.



I drove the 89 for a bit, and he the 85. Impressions of each were good.

I had tried to do some research on good possible car photo spots, with preference toward run-down or abandoned areas, and didn't have much luck. I did find an abandoned veterans' rehab facility, and despite some light rain, got something decent:



From there, on to Canada Computers (akin to Micro Center, and while I've bought from them online, haven't been to a store as none are local to me) to browse for a bit, then parted ways.

As always, it was nice to see you Nick. Also interesting to see what my wagon would have looked like if it had stayed down in SC instead of migrating to the rust belt mid-life.

[sly]

I'm always amazed at how much crap comes out of even "clean" carpet that's more than a year old.

[87gtVIC]

These are good carpets. They can hide and hold a lot of schmutz.

Awesome on the meet up!

[gadget73]

I really need to pull and wash the carpet in the Continental. I'm sure its gross. Also faded. It should be that same blue, but its more of a blue-grey. Compared to the carpet in the trunk the difference is not small. Would like to re-dye it but I don't want something thats going to make it feel like Scotchbrite or just bleed out.

[DerekTheGreat]

...Let the internet haters hate, they obviously have a cash ambundance and have never had to make do with what was available. I'd rock that drum until it cracks.

Internet haters.. Hmm. Safety first, and I'd rather not deal with it again is my rebuttal. You gotta piss with the cock you've got: I don't have access to friends with balancers and all that either, so new drum it would be for me. I am not made of cash, if I was, I'd have a car payment. But I do my best to take care of that which takes care of me. I'm certainly watching to see how much mileage can be obtained from said drum. My opinions are subject to change when good data supports said change.

...Last night, oil change. The check oil light has been coming on depending on the angle the car is at, and the dipstick supports it was a bit low. 7811km on the oil, which is synthetic. I'm trying to use up my supply of 10W30 synthetic; I usually lean towards a diesel/HDEO or high-mileage synthetic blend, but I do have a little synthetic hanging around, and want it off my oil shelf...

As a dude who swore by Rotella T6, don't do the diesel oil thing. They're not better. Check out the attachment and if you're curious, 540 Rat has a blog that's worth skimming through. I'm running 5W-30 FS Quaker State nowadays. Speaking of meeting up, I think I'll post in the Metro meet-up thread..
540 RAT Oil Wear Protection Ranking List (2019).pdf

[GM_Guy]

Today, met up with TecNickal. He was in the Toronto area in his 89 wagon and we agreed to meet for lunch in London (sorry Alex, I feel like I've snubbed you yet again, but my plan-making abilities quickly break down when number of participants increases).-

LOL. Being a weekday, wouldn't have been able to make it anyway being at work.

I had tried to do some research on good possible car photo spots, with preference toward run-down or abandoned areas, and didn't have much luck. I did find an abandoned veterans' rehab facility, and despite some light rain, got something decent:

I know exactly where you where. I drive past there multiple times per day, and don't live that far from there either.

if you where to ask me for abandoned places to photo shoot around here, I'd be hard pressed to give you locations. The photogenic spots (ie: old psych hospital) is fenced off and patrolled, as is the St.Thomas one due to all the urbexers breaking in, and the homeless breaking in.

[DerekTheGreat]

Do you guys ever venture into those places? Urban exploration is awesome, I love seeing what's left, what kind of shape it is in and then imagining what the place was like while it was functional.

[kishy]

I really need to pull and wash the carpet in the Continental. I'm sure its gross. Also faded. It should be that same blue, but its more of a blue-grey. Compared to the carpet in the trunk the difference is not small. Would like to re-dye it but I don't want something thats going to make it feel like Scotchbrite or just bleed out.

This carpet lost a lot of colour from me washing it. A before/after comparison would probably be fairly dramatic. Using less or different shampoo might have helped with that, but I used what I had and wanted to be thorough.

The car smells a lot nicer inside, however it does still have unresolved water ingress problems that will surely 'fix' that soon enough. I need to pull the dash and soak the car, I feel like there's something in the cowl area leaking, maybe around the HVAC stuff.

Internet haters.. Hmm. Safety first, and I'd rather not deal with it again is my rebuttal. You gotta piss with the cock you've got: I don't have access to friends with balancers and all that either, so new drum it would be for me. I am not made of cash, if I was, I'd have a car payment. But I do my best to take care of that which takes care of me. I'm certainly watching to see how much mileage can be obtained from said drum. My opinions are subject to change when good data supports said change.



As a dude who swore by Rotella T6, don't do the diesel oil thing. They're not better. Check out the attachment and if you're curious, 540 Rat has a blog that's worth skimming through. I'm running 5W-30 FS Quaker State nowadays. Speaking of meeting up, I think I'll post in the Metro meet-up thread..
[ATTACH]58475[/ATTACH]

The problem with new drums is there is a reasonable risk the same would happen again. Of course, had this been noticed early enough (impossible as the parts were bought months ahead of ever driving the car), the bad one could have been warranty-swapped...but that ship sailed years ago.

The braking surface is fairly round and stops evenly. Dan, friend with machine shop who ground the drum, still wants to try to make it "perfect" and get that 1.00oz remaining imbalance out of it...as a science project, if nothing else. It will likely get turned on a lathe at the same time as well.

The use of HDEO is based on these engines having flat tappet cams and the belief that HDEO has more of the zinc additive that reduces wear for that specific application. With modern HDEO I'm not sure if that holds true anymore, and it might just be that there is no option left on the market. Zinc oil additives are not sold in this country.

LOL. Being a weekday, wouldn't have been able to make it anyway being at work.



I know exactly where you where. I drive past there multiple times per day, and don't live that far from there either.

if you where to ask me for abandoned places to photo shoot around here, I'd be hard pressed to give you locations. The photogenic spots (ie: old psych hospital) is fenced off and patrolled, as is the St.Thomas one due to all the urbexers breaking in, and the homeless breaking in.

I had remarked to Nick that since London probably has a budget and police that aren't on back-to-back calls, unlike Detroit, there wouldn't likely be many opportunities to find some old neglected places. Detroit is truly a treasure for it.

Do you guys ever venture into those places? Urban exploration is awesome, I love seeing what's left, what kind of shape it is in and then imagining what the place was like while it was functional.

I've gone to a few spots in Detroit/Highland Park and definitely enjoy it.


---

Took the car for another front end alignment. It drove quite well after its last one from the same place, but particularly after I tightened all those lower control arm bolts that were barely hanging on, it hasn't felt quite right. Driving kinda like it has some bad toe-out, and eyeballing it, it sure might have. Tire wear was a bit feathered on the outboard edge of the tread. Got that done this morning and it drives more like I'd expect.

[GM_Guy]

Do you guys ever venture into those places? Urban exploration is awesome, I love seeing what's left, what kind of shape it is in and then imagining what the place was like while it was functional.

I used to. My account on uer.ca still exists. Logged in pre-covid just to see, but havn't really done anything else with it, or empty places for that matter. Work has probably numbed me to it since I got access to anything I want within our own system.

[GM_Guy]

The car smells a lot nicer inside, however it does still have unresolved water ingress problems that will surely 'fix' that soon enough. I need to pull the dash and soak the car, I feel like there's something in the cowl area leaking, maybe around the HVAC stuff.

Since you mention hvac and cowl, pull the cowl screen off and look down. You'll see the recirc door, and you might find a rusty crusty section of firewall at the bottom that lets water go directly inside (and there will be a small drain hole also) or a recirc door that isn't quite in one peice either letting water right into the passenger compartment.

[gadget73]

a different perspective on diesel oil in gas engines.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/diesel-oil-in-gasoline-engine/

[DerekTheGreat]

I'd be all up for exploring in Detroit if I could get a group together. Not going to do that solo or with say one other person.

There is a lot of speculation there on oils. But one thing I read in 540Rat's blog was his most important test criteria- film strength. He swears that's what oil protection comes down to and it makes sense. Break through the film, metal on metal and thus bad. Swears and shows several oils that have low zinc content yet offer higher protection than those that do. Also shows how adding additives in most cases actually decreases film strength.

[gadget73]

yeah the film strength is a large part of it. The additives to deal with soot or foam or other combustion by-products are also important though. What you get in the oil of a gas engine as it runs isn't necessarily the same as what diesels deal with so that part of it may not work the same.

I've given up attempting to be smarter than the people who design this stuff so I just run what it calls for.