ODDREE.COM

IRC and MUD Style Bug Repair Journal

* ray enters #thegarage *
ray> Whaassup!!
* ray wields themotherfucker *
* ray set's mode -bolt on channel #heater
* ray set's mode -bolt on channel #heater
* ray set's mode -bolt on channel #heater
ray> Fuck!
* ray drops themotherfucker *
* ray wields vicegrips *
* ray strikes bolt doing 4 damage *
* ray leaves east *
You begin to feel hungry.
* ray arrives from east *
ray> Word! Time to clean up!

Bug Repair Translated

It was a good day to work on the Bug. It was really warm outside, so after some grocery shopping I brought up the garage door a little bit and went to work on the heater channels. One of my first moves was to give some support to the center of the car. Not really for the car itself. The chassis is suspended in air, and the upper body can hold its own. Yet, I wanted to be able to sit my fat ass inside the car and not worry about falling through (ouch). So as you can see here, I pumped up the 10 ton jack with a long 2 X 4 wedged on top. It worked nicely and gave my fat ass some confidence when leaning and sitting inside.



Getting the bolts out of the floor pan was a chore. I expected it to be pretty bad. As I tried twisting out the bolts, the nut-like pieces that are welded into the heater channel were breaking free and rotating inside. I wonder how many others out there have tried a job like this, and had the same problem.



Thank God I had a pair of vice-grips. My wife talked me into buying a pair for $4 at Odd Lots when we were out shopping this past weekend. I was able to peel back the heater channel inside the car like a ripe banana, and then put the grips onto the broken nut-like pieces. All the while I was grabbing onto chunks of 'stuff' and tossing it into a pile. The floor pans and some of the heater channel is still on the car. The rest is in a pile here below.



While laying under the car I glanced up at the door and noticed some wear on the bottom of it. This is definitely from opening and closing the door under pressure from the weight of the car. Without the heater channel supporting the lower part of the body, the whole car sinks on the left.



I also chipped away some more of the area behind the left tire well. Under the riveted aluminum I found some window screen! Looks like the window screen gave something for the bondo to hold onto. Ouch. That will have to come out.



And what was My Pet Monster doing this whole time? Just sitting on the hood of my car, slacking as usual.



And so that is all tonight. After all, it's Sunday night. If I want to work on something, I could work on my Security+ class setup that I have going in my basement. I worked a few hours on it this morning, only to later realise that I had named my server "Server1000" instead of "Server100". That typo cost me the installation. I had to start over installing everything again. Bummer. If I wasn't doing all this at home in my underware I might have been a little more angry about it.

I will close with my Most Valuable Tools awards for the night.



First, I would like to thank the Leather Gloves. These were left in the trunk of the car for dead. They have served me well when working with sharp metal fragments. Also, as usual, "The Motherfucker" was a wonderful aid. It's a chisel! It's a crowbar! And it's still a flathead screwdriver! The vice grips. Oh, were they helpful. I don't know how I would have done it without them. I owe my wife a favor for making me buy those. Oh yeah, and tin snips. They helped me tear away some of that heater channel stuff and get it out of my way.

Good night all! I'm off to shower away the orange hand cleaner smell I am carrying around.