Hiya, folks!? Happy Monday!
Up late. Up early. Phone started ringing off the hook even before 8 a.m. So. Many. Calls. Today. It’s safe to say that the replenishment of the schedule after being out of town and having to work back up to super busy has arrived. We are replenished. We are–super busy again.
First job was a pre-purchase inspection, and it was the perfect example of why you have a mechanic look over something before you buy it.
Good. Freaking. Gravy.
The body was a rust bucket, but… unless you looked closely, you wouldn’t know it. Why? Because they’d put bondo on it in certain places (very poorly done, by the way). And then believe it or not, they actually put tape over all the rusty areas, putting it almost flush with the rest of the body panels. Then they spray painted the whole thing a matte black. So if not looking at everything closely and carefully, the body actually looked really good. Upon thorough inspection, it was… a polished turd, as the saying goes. Rust-bucket body, worn out suspension, oil leaks sending oil… everywhere, super nasty engine oil, low coolant, and on and on.
Needless to say, I recommended they not buy it, and they agreed, saying the owner seemed a little shady, so I confirmed everything. That was a 70s pickup truck.
Second car was a 2016 Nissan Frontier that was a no crank, no start. Turned out to be just a badly corroded battery cable and cable ends. Took almost an hour to clean everything up, but once we did, it was good to go.
Third car was… well, I only took the job because we’d been a little slow for a couple days, and I’d been out of town, so Malaki was low on work hours, so I accepted a job I would have run the other way from normally, but he needed hours, so I said yes to it. It was a 1991 Pontiac Sunbird that was blowing a fuse every time they tried to start it.
When we got there, it was a lot worse than that. It was a mess of wires, some chewed up by rodents, some spliced by the owner, etc. It had been sitting in a garage for like 10 years, and they’d wired multiple things directly to the battery. It was a big mess. A mess. It had had the fuel pump replaced at some point, it appeared, as the wiring coming from the fuel pump didn’t match the wiring from the Pontiac service manual for the car.
I did notice that the oil pressure sensor was wired into the same circuit as the fuel pump on that car, so I did a little digging, and I found that the blowing fuse was likely from the a shorted oil pressure sensor, so I unplugged the sensor, and it stopped blowing the fuse, so I showed him how to fix the issue (splice the messed up wire and replace the sensor).
I lucked out a bit on that one. It was far too old for what I normally work on, and the car was… a complete mess–exactly the reason I don’t go to cars that old, generally. They can be such a nightmare. This one easily could have been. Luckily, I was able to figure out the issue, and that was that, but it wouldn’t have been a surprise at all to have not been able to figure out the issue and to have not made any money at all on that job. In fact, I’d have lost money, since I’m paying Malaki to be with me.
Well, I’m making a lot less than normal right now because I have Malaki with me. Jobs go slower, and on top of that, I’m paying him, so I’m making a lot less right now, but cross your fingers, it’ll hopefully pay off soon.
Fourth car was going back to the gentleman who was trying to talk me down that I finally almost permanently removed as a client. But we went back today, and unfortunately, the special order radiator we ordered was damaged out of the box, so… we went to try to put it in, but it wouldn’t work because it was damaged, so we had to postpone the job yet again. I reordered the part. Hopefully, it’ll be in on Wednesday, and we can get that one finished finally.
After that, we headed north to the fifth car and had pretty much a repeat of Saturday. Last car of the day, an alternator, and again one that took a lot longer than is should have.
Ugh.
But it’s done. I’m home; I’ve eaten dinner, and I’m off to bed here.
Daily Gratitude (want to get back to that).
- I’m grateful that though multiple connections were pulled apart inside my really expensive scan took when I split the case trying to figure out why there was something loose inside, I was, eventually, able to get it back together and functioning again (my first two attempts to reassemble the $3200+ device resulted in blue screen and then frozen screen. Finally, though, after resetting the connections inside the case, I was able to get it to start up as normal. Phew!!!
- I’m grateful that we were able to get that Sunbird figured out. That was a complete gamble, and I lucked out today.
- I’m grateful that I was able to get the alternator out and back in on the last job (2008 Ford Fusion 3.0). It was so freaking tight, and some of the fins on the radiator got pushed in a bit, but after all was said and done, success. Wahoo! Still don’t know how me managed to get oil all over the AC condenser. There’s literally nothing that could leak oil onto the condenser. It’s the furthest forward of any part on the car. But there we were, staring at exactly the impossible. I have no answer, so we’ll deal with that another day, but he’s up and running now, so that’s what he wanted today. New alternator. Good to go.
- I’m grateful that things are going better with Malaki. He’s really made a solid shift, going from thinking he knows how to do something to recognizing he doesn’t and asking for help. It’s… fabulous. That makes it so much easier and less stressful. Also not being under pressure to get him out on his own way before he’s ready is really nice. We’ve got some time to play with, a good bit of training to do, and he’s still learning quickly. Good stuff.
- I’m grateful to have the rain. It started raining tonight, gratefully literally just as we were finishing up the last job. That was nice.
Well, folks. I hope you have some things you’re grateful for today. I’m gonna do better at that.
Still contemplating New Zealand/Australia. Got sent a deal for Australia today–$800 R/T from XNA!!!!! Those are really crazy numbers. That’s what you’d normally pay to go from Los Angeles, if not more. But from my little local airport.
Hoorah!
I’m almost ready to pull the trigger. Almost.
Alright, folks. It’s gonna be an early one tomorrow, so I’m off to bed. Good night, my lovelies.
Love and hugs.
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 