Monday, September 7, 2026

9.7.2026


Hope everyone had a nice, long Labor Day weekend!

Jim worked on attaching his Soda Master to the side of the blasting cabinet.  He figured out where he wanted it and used his step bit to drill a hole for the tube and drummed the first small attachment hole as well...


Then he could put the attachment up and mark the other attachment holes...


Punching the location...


Drilling...


Putting it in place...


Attachment in place, everything put back in its right location.  He tried it out on a piece of tubing at it worked great.  The soda cleans without etching the metal.


He had to do more grass cutting at the end of the day.

High 74.1/Low 53.3


Sunday, September 6, 2026

9.6.2026

Jim opening up and organizing new parts...


Jim ordered this add-on for his blasting cabinet - it holds baking soda type material in a separate container.  That material is not reusable because it's so fine.  Jim will have to attach this to the side of the cabinet...


Jim wanted to degrease the engine compartment on the 4Runner, so he came up with a way to move the car in and out of the garage with the help of the Bobcat.  He put the trailer hitch on the 4Runner, and attached a towing strap...


I had to sit in the 4Runner while Jim pulled it out - success!


This was the compartment before...


Degreaser sprayed on...


Power spraying it off...


Pictures don't do it justice, but greasy water came out...



He did two rounds of cleaning - and it looks so much better!


Now we had to get the car back in the garage.  Jim put this board on the front of the Bobcat so that it would connect with the trailer hitch and he wouldn't make any contact with the actual car...


All back in place!


Jim sprayed all the greasy run off from the driveway and then got things put away before hitting the treadmill.


9.5 - High 72.1/Low 58.5
9.6 - High 70.9/Low 58.1






Friday, September 4, 2026

9.4.2026

Another big fire school mailing done - Jim helped do the schlepping up and down and into my car, and even went with me to the post office to help carry them all in!  (Best husband ever!)

Then he headed to the engine shop with the new pistons and miscellaneous parts so they can hopefully get the block together.  When he got home, he had the newly-cleaned and painted cylinder heads, with new valves and seals...  


Jim had ordered some high heat paint and painted this exhaust hanger with it after getting it all cleaned in the blasting cabinet...


He had cleaned the bell housing for the transmission, but decided to give it a coat of paint too.  Looks very cool...


 

High 77.7/Low 60.5


Thursday, September 3, 2026

9.3.2026

 
This is funny but sadly true, it seems!  We started our day early - Jim had an 8:00 appointment with the cornea specialist below Albany, so we were on the road about 6:30.  He was put through so many tests...including green drops that left him looking like this!

We really liked this doctor - he spent a lot of time with us and gave us lots of information.  Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be any reason for the fact that Jim sees ghost images after having his cataract surgery.  Those images cause his distance vision to be very distorted.  It's amazing to watch him read the eye charts - with the left eye, his distance vision is terrible and he can't read much past the big E.  But if he puts the pinhole occluder device on, he can read almost 20/20.  So the operation results look fine, the lens is the correct prescription, they tested the thickness of his cornea - all seems good. The recommendation was to replace the lens, thinking that it's maybe possible that the lens is defective, even though there's no sign of that.  The very last test was for them to put a gas-permeable contact lens in his eye that puts pressure on the eye and then they did more tests.  That one showed that there may be some irregularities on the surface of the eye, even though the doctor can't see any.  There is a procedure they can do to debride the surface and then it grows back (the human body is amazing).  They can still do the lens replacement if that doesn't fix the problem.  We didn't get home until about noon, but we finally feel like there is a hopeful path we can follow.

Jim is already planning improvements to my kitchen island - power!  He bought some cool electronics - one is a self-contained receptacle that he can put in the side of the island, and then run power down through the floor.  That would be more of a temporary set up, but would work great as long as we are here.  The issue is that if we ever need to replace the refrigerator or wine cooler, the island needs to be moved.  So a more permanent solution is to put the big box in the floor with a pop up receptacle.  We're going with the temporary fix for now.  

New car parts come in daily...pretty new pistons - 

And piston rings...


He did some grass cutting at the end of the day.


High 78.6/Low 63


Wednesday, September 2, 2026

9.2.2026

This afternoon, Jim headed back to the engine shop.  He had enough new parts to drop off so they can finish the head work.  

He brought home more newly-cleaned and painted parts - the housing for the intake manifolds...

The flywheel...



High 65.1/Low 61.7 - spotty showers


Tuesday, September 1, 2026

9.1.2026


Yikes - how is it September?  Although it felt a bit like September today.  It pretty much rained all day and the highs were only in the 60s.  Much better than the 90s we see are happening in Ohio!  

One of the seals that Jim ordered is not correct - he spent over 1-1/2 between online, AI bots, and tech support trying to get that situation resolved.

Jim continues to work on cleaning parts - here he's cleaning the oil dipstick tube...


More new parts...gasket set and seals...


Starting to put some of the seals and gaskets in place...

New oil pump...



High 66.7/Low 64.4 - rainy



Monday, August 31, 2026

8.31.2026

More parts are coming in - main bearings, freeze plugs and transmission seals... 

Jim is actually starting to put things together rather than tear them apart!  A new bearing and seal on the front of the transmission - torquing the screws...



High 76/Low 56.8