Clean Up
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Preface
Before the delivery of my Nova, I had to make preparations to my garage in order to have enough room for everything. One of the improvements was done in April when I rewired the electricity in the garage and the breaker box in the house to allow for 220 volts in order to run my air compressor. After a few phone calls between my dad and other electrical experts, I installed it the correct way.
The next improvement was to repair the leak in my air compressor. This was done in the beginning of May with the expertise of my uncle. I thought it would have been an easy weld to patch a tiny hole, but I was wrong. Long story short, he cut the motor mount bracket and welded a steel plate to cover the entire leaky area.
Repairing my leaky—and apparently partly moldy—roof, was done on my birthday weekend, with the skills, knowledge, and help from my dad. We were both a little sore the next day and I learned a new trade. The most recent improvement which was completed on Saturday before the delivery, was a 9 foot work bench. This, I constructed with the verbal help from my uncle, and a borrowed saw from my other uncle to make a few cuts. Currently, the bench is completely covered with car parts. Perhaps a shelf between the bench and the floor would be a good improvement for extra storage space.
All of the above mentioned people deserve a big thank you for helping me thus far. Someone else I would like to thank is my great uncle who left most of his tool collection to me after he passed away. Without it all, I wouldn't be able to get started with this project.
Post
Today, I went to Harbor Freight to purchase over $100 worth of supplies and tools, including a few wire brushes, mechanic's gloves, safety goggles, and a new air hose and reel. I started my work by vacuuming out the interior and cleaning certain areas of the windows, as shown in one of the above pictures. I also started cleaning up the engine compartment using the wire brushes I had purchased. The first two above pictures are closeups of the engine compartment before I started cleaning.
My brother-in-law spent a lot of time cleaning the engine compartment with the a little help from the wire brush, the air compressor, and the Goof Off that I purchased earlier. Nowhere on the bottle does it say anything about rust removal, but it seemed to have done the trick. I spent some time disassembling a few parts, looking up the parts in a catalog, putting the nuts and bolts into Ziploc bags, and labeling them accordingly.
I removed both inner fender wells and set them on the floor of the garage. I later found out that when my dog got scared when my air compressor kicked on, he bolted out of the garage and he *censored for graphic content* cut his leg on one of the fenders. That incident resulted in a trip to the veterinarian emergency room at 11 at night. He is doing OK now. The five stitches come out in ten to fifteen days.
We also managed to remove the driver's front fender to have better access to the engine compartment. The work that has been done is shown in the photos below.
Delivery Day, June 13 (a short story)
Saturday, June 13, my uncle and I picked up my Nova and parts from its previous owner (to mask his identity, I will refer to him as Brent) and delivered it all to my garage. We ran into a few problems along the way, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. It started raining the minute I showed up at my uncle's house and I was starting to wonder if that was a bad omen.
I drove my 2004 5-cylinder Chevy Colorado to my uncle's to hook up the enclosed trailer and had to back up a hill to the barn to remove the corrosion from the electric hookup. It was a learning experience for me because it was my first time backing up a trailer of any kind. I found out that I do alright if the trailer is straight from the start. Needless to say, there was a lot of backing up and pulling forward on my part.
After my uncle got his vehicle trailer attached to his 1994 V-8 Ford Bronco, he told me that he was a little concerned about the rusty frame on the rear passenger-side, right where the ramp rests. Later that day, we found that the other side is the side we should have been concerned about.
Off we went to the site of the Nova. On the way, we apparently passed Usher in his *correction* pearl white Bentley? I must have been focusing on where we were going and didn't notice. Also on our way, we drove on the worst road in Akron. We were going 5 mph, dodging all kinds of holes, dips, and bumps.
A little shaken from the drive, we arrived at our destination and we decided to load up the Nova first. The car had to be jacked up and put on car dollies to move it over to the side of the garage with the larger door. We hooked a chain up to the Nova's hitch and Brent's Blazer. I got into the Nova and went for my first ride. Even though the transmission wasn't installed, I was an idiot and put it in neutral. Brent pulled the Nova up through the gravel to the flat part of the driveway with me steering and my uncle guiding me.
When I got to the top of the driveway, I held the brake down as my uncle backed up the trailer to the end of the driveway. Luckily, it wasn't a busy street, because his truck was blocking the road for about 10 minutes. We didn't have any troubles loading the Nova onto the trailer, except for the low rear bumper scraping the ramp. With me in the car, the two guys pushed the Nova onto the trailer. I held my foot on the brake while my uncle pulled the trailer onto the street to strap it down. Not five seconds went by and the first vehicle came up the street.
I let my uncle back up the enclosed trailer into the driveway...to save time. He first pulled forward into the neighbor's driveway and the trailer jack got lodged between the sections of payment. I had to lift up the trailer at the hitch while he reversed to get unstuck. After he backed up inside the garage, we loaded up all the parts—engine first—into the trailer and secured everything for transport.
I thanked Brent again for the sale and his two boys waved good bye to the Nova and Brent took a picture as we drove off to its new home. Because of the rain earlier, the roads were a bit slick and my uncle's truck was barely holding traction going down a fairly steep brick road. Even though I have lived in Akron for almost two years, I still didn't know this particular area quite well. I kept looking back at my uncle in my mirror as if to ask for directions. I saw him pointing in the direction I needed to go. At one point, he was changing lanes and I thought he wanted me to switch lanes as well. So I pulled out in front of him and I heard his tires grab a hold of the pavement and screeched a few times. I then realized that he wanted to pull ahead of me and lead the way home.
We did finally make it safely to our destination. Again, it took me awhile to back up my narrow driveway and inside the garage. I set my keys, phone, and wallet on my grill while we unloaded. I opened the trailer and surprisingly everything was still in place and nothing shifted. We unloaded the trailer of all the parts and improvised with vehicle ramps and plywood to get the engine out with its stand. Thankfully, that part went smoothly. I pulled out into the street and my uncle went around the block to get situated for his turn to backup into the driveway. It took him the same amount of time to back up the driveway with his 20+ foot trailer as it did me and my 10 foot trailer.
We ended up having to jack up the front of the trailer to bring the back end down a little to minimize the distance the Nova would have to travel downwards. We also added 4x4's under the ramps to decrease the angle, so as not to scrape the bumper again. With me in the Nova and my uncle pushing from behind, I went down the ramps onto the driveway—only not as expected.
When the front tires went off the 4x4's and onto the ground, it was enough force to break through the rusty ramp bracket. This resulted in the ramp unhooking and getting lodged between the rear passenger tire, the rear bumper, and the ground. Mind you, this was opposite side that my uncle had been concerned about. He then explained to me the improvements that he intends to make on the trailer to make loading and unloading easier. This occurrence gave him more of a reason to start the project.
We dislodged the ramp and with me in the drivers seat, continued pushing the Nova into its new home. I put it on vehicle dollies again for easier maneuvering in my garage. After we got everything situated, I closed the garage door and thanked my uncle again for his time and effort. We agreed to go to back to his house now and drop off the trailers.
I walked out to my truck and reached to open my door and realized it was locked. I remembered that I left my keys on my grill inside the garage. Needless to say, I broke into my own house by means that will not be disclosed for obvious reasons, to get a metal hanger, to bend it just right and fish it through the slightly cracked driver's window of my truck, to hit the unlock button, to open the door, to get my remote garage door opener, to open my garage, and to retrieve my keys, wallet, and phone that I previously left on my grill.
Most of the excitement was over for the day and we finally headed back to his house. He wanted me to backup the trailer up a hill into its preassigned parking spot. Even though I had my truck in 4 wheel drive, the tires were still spinning on the wet grass and creating a mess of his lawn. I pulled forward and around and had trouble backing up into the spot. He took over the wheel and did the job right.
This experience was relatively problem free and nothing unrepairable occurred during the day, so I was pretty excited to have my new toy parked in my garage. I must have been exhausted, because I went home, warmed up some leftovers and fell asleep in my chair after I ate. I didn't get any work done.
Fin.
I will try to keep the blog going and take many pictures of my ongoing progress. I will also try to keep the blog entries a little shorter than this one. Check back at times to see the updates I have made.
Enjoy,
Dan