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ohiofarmer

The unwilling Mechanic

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ohiofarmer

   Our daughter has been on quite an educational journey working her way through school. She is not the snowflake type that has to have the perfect car, but luck has not always been with her in keeping one. The best car she had was the old Lumina until another driver killed it. The longest survivor was my mom's 97 Buick lesabre. The brakes blew a line and a good bit of corrosion and other stuff like fuel leaks made it not worth fixing. I may have been able to patch it together, but a mechanic making their wages was impractical to the value of the car that I could not transport 200 miles to my shop Now she has my old Pontiac Bonneville with mileage somewhere north of 200k .

  She is in ann Arbor with us 200 miles South. When she is out of the country, it is not possible or recommended to leave the car there, and she is pretty good about driving Dwight [the white] car very easy just to make it hold together. I drove it home about 65 top speed because of mushy handling as it gets older.  Noticing the brakes were a bit mushy, I added a bit of fluid and went to pump them up and promptly blew a line in my driveway. Things took a dive from there.

  The brake line was not horrible as I took my time and added Deep Creep penetrant to the fittings and let it set, one on the driver's side connection at the wheel cylinder and another at the passenger front, about 12 feet with factory fittings. then I saw a fuel leak and pondered it with dread, but a good parts guy at a small auto parts store had a rebuild kit that let us tag on to whatever was there with high pressure plastic to metal fittings that saved me from having to pull the tank

  Then I saw a real issue that is quite the challenge. The sub frame on the unibody that holds the upper spring perch is just a disaster. It had collapsed from corrosion and we had been driving it for way too long as the top spring insulator was just about drifted off the mounting point. Parts are NLA, and it is easier to rebuild it ith some ten gauge and some angle iron and even some tractor frame steel from the old lawn tractor frames I keep just in case. I need new insulators, but GM quit making spares. I am hoping that some aftermarket repops for a BMW will fit or be made to fit the old 04 Bonneville.  No one seems to have shop drawings of the simple designed rubber insulators, so all I could do is order them by guessing they will fit by what they look like  There are all kinds of parts said to be available on the internet, but the dealers selling OEM never bother to delete them from their inventory once they run out. Then they get cross if you actually expect them to supply something after you send payment...

    Give me a truck any day. Trucks have actual frames that springs and shocks and all manner of components can fasten to. With a unibody and road salt , you are sort of riding on such weak stuff that is not supported by anything substantial.

Edited by ohiofarmer
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Jeff-C175

Old cars are sure fun, ain't they?

 

I'm planning on starting a front suspension rebuild on my wife's '98 Monte Carlo ( a fancy Lumina! ) soon.  Very low miles, only about 175K right now.  Should be good for at least another 50K I figure.  That's ten years for her.

 

Last time it was on a lift I did a 'million point inspection'.  Surprisingly good condition.  Garage kept... probably why!

 

Edited by Jeff-C175

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ebinmaine

Gotta agree with the preference toward a full frame.  

Trina and her mom are currently trying to get the momma's car to take an inspection sticker for one more year. 

2009 Pontiac G3. Very small car. Unibody of course. 

Rockers are soft. Lots of surface rust under the body..... Which means there's also likely structural integrity issues coming into play soon. 

 

It's being carefully inspected this week. 

 

🤞

 

 

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lynnmor

They cover the roads with salt all winter long for "safety" reasons.  People beg for more of the stuff, they want every square inch covered, no thought is given to the failing brake components, suspension, body and frames.  The only way to protect your vehicles from this salt invasion is to move south.

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Jeff-C175
23 minutes ago, lynnmor said:

move south.

 

Away from coastal areas!

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RandyLittrell
22 hours ago, lynnmor said:

They cover the roads with salt all winter long for "safety" reasons.  People beg for more of the stuff, they want every square inch covered, no thought is given to the failing brake components, suspension, body and frames.  The only way to protect your vehicles from this salt invasion is to move south.

 

Vegas!!!

 

When we went to Las Vegas, we drove around out in the residential areas some and couldn't believe how many old cars and trucks that looked in great shape with no rust. 

 

Someday I want to fly there, let the wife gamble while I look for a nice old truck to drive home!!

 

 

 

 

Randy

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Handy Don
2 hours ago, RandyLittrell said:

 

Vegas!!!

 

When we went to Las Vegas, we drove around out in the residential areas some and couldn't believe how many old cars and trucks that looked in great shape with no rust. 

 

Someday I want to fly there, let the wife gamble while I look for a nice old truck to drive home!!

 

Randy

Make sure you have your truck payment in your pocket when you drop off your wife at the casino!

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ohiofarmer

   Well, after a long absence on this forum, I have an update.  The spring perches were just gone. one of them came out with a tug from my mighty forearms. I managed to place a bridge of metal across the subframe and made sure it ran tightly to the floor pan. Plug welded some ten gauge pads to the car so I could turn up the heat and really get a good connection to the bridge that the button for the spring to fit over. As suspected, the BMW spring insulator, or donut was too small for a tight fit against the spring. I fixed that by adding a Fermco plumbing repair fitting for 1.25 plastic pipe over the thing. The button that it fits over is better and deeper than the OEM and is made from a one inch nut for a one inch bolt, ground to a round taper with my grinder. Once weight is applied, no way is it coming loose.

  There was really no room to get a spring compressor on the coil springs, so I made some from scrap steel and bolts. Very stable, but a million cranks from the wrench to tighten. Then a million more cranks with little room to loosen. My poor hands still ache There was only one brake line to replace, and Pontiac made sure to put the connection in a tough to reach location behind the front wheel. Penetrating oil was applied over a two week period and also on the bleed screws. I made the double flare on the new brake line and it went on nice. Next I found two compromised fuel lines that would require a dropped tank to replace. A great counter man at Brookville Auto Parts told me to instead cut the lines and he fixed me up with a custom repair kit that included a proper fuel filter.  The car drives better than she has for two years. I have piccs in the camera, but this computer will not post them.

    I also have had a very high stress time as of late that involves a criminal theft of a furnace and water heater from my rental property. The Covid protocols of no evictions are the direct cause of all the bad behaviour. I located an eye witness to the crime and my own tenant assisted them, but that is another story. Maybe i can get back with you guys when time allows.

 

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