Sunday, April 18, 2010

Loose Glue and the Monster Tumbleweed

There have been a few things that I have been meaning to fix on my car but just haven't had the time, until last week. I have had a request to include more pictures in my posts, so I shall try my best to give the people what the people want.


First up, cosmetic issues. I am not quite sure what happened, but the glue holding the mirror in the passenger side sun visor had completely failed and left the mirror flapping around when ever the sun visor was in use.



Here is exhibit A. It was really tacky and I wanted to improve the aesthetic view of my interior. I was able to find a pair of lightly used sun visors on eBaymotors for just $9.90, including shipping. A real bargain I thought, so I played the eBay game and ended up winning, as the only bidder. Maybe I am the only one with this problem.


So I was able to quickly replace both sun visors and I think they turned out rather well. The next cosmetic project I had to work on was a result with an entanglement with a wild, crazed six-foot tumbleweed. Yes... it's true. I was driving home from work when all-of-a-sudden this ginormous tumbleweed ambushes me from the roadside ditch. Before I could do anything the tumbleweed attacks the front of my Bimmer and comfortably lodges itself in my center grille; after doing a number on my paint as well. The tumbleweed wouldn't come out. I had to pull over and force it out, which was no easy task. There was tumbleweed remnants everywhere in the front of my car. It must have exploded somewhat upon impact. I was too angry to take a picture at the time, however I did get a picture of the results. I guess the grille did what it was supposed to, protect the fan and radiator.



Finding a quality replacement grille was much more difficult than obtaining the sun visors. I found some on eBaymotors, but after a little research, it seemed that these were cheap imitations of the real thing made somewhere in Asia. I wanted the real thing from Germany. A brand new one from my favorite parts store
Bavarian Autosport would set me back $75. Since that equates a few hours at work, I decided to explore other options. I found a used one on eBaymotors, but the auction went up to $45 pre-shipping total. I finally called a European car junk yard, and they said they had a few, for $35 a piece. They gave me a deal on one, only $30 because the chrome had been chipped. That meant I had to pull the chrome off of my car and transfer it to the new grille. With my Dad's help, we made the switch. I installed thew new grille and you could never tell it wasn't the original piece.



I think they turned out pretty well.




Here is a list of a few of the modificiations/repairs to date:



New fuel filter


New fuel lines


New fuel pump and auxilliary pump


New water pump


New timing belt


New V-belts


New shift knob


New M style steering wheel emblem


New sun visors


New grille

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

2009 Regular Season in the Books.

The cougs finished the regular season at 10-2 after a nail-biter against the arch rival Utah Utes, again, in Provo. Finishing in the top 15 in all the major polls, we now have the opportunity to beat another Top 25 opponent. Although the payout is much great in last Vegas, the problem is we have to go to the Las Vegas Bowl, again. The cougars have all the weapons on offense necessary to beat the Beavers and our D has proved they can stop the spread attack. It should be a good game and I am hoping that it doesn't snow on us this year. Go Cougars!





Sunday, October 11, 2009

Magic Happens... in the NFL too!

Every year I set up a fantasy football team with some of my mission buddies. It is fun to trash talk a little and gives us an excuse to chat with each other and catch up on life. While this is somewhat of a social event, there is no doubt that we are out to win.

The past few weeks all of my WR's have been injured and unable to play. I acquired Austin Collie, from Brigham Young University who is now playing with the Colts, since he had a TD grab last week and I thought what the heck?


That decision turned out to be a great move, since Austin had 8 catches for 97 yds and 2 TD's on the day today vs. Tennessee. He provided my fantasy team with 21 points and I could have beaten any other team in the league today. Let's hope he keeps up the good work. Way to represent the Cougars! Nice game today Austin.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Luck had nothing to do with it... (Cough cough)

So I found this little gem the other day. We always have a great time when we go shooting outside of town. Thanks Johnson.