New England B.S. Thread

What have I missed? How's everyone doing? Drove the family down to Disney last weekend and just got back today. Infiniti behaved and drove great. Officially crossed 125k miles.

 

I like how you described that "the Infinity behaved ". Lol

 

Our garage is about 450sq ft, but I need to do an exact measurement. That will likely be tomorrow when it warms up. One thing I do need to do is figure out how to seal the garage door sides. The door blows around in the and that means heating or cooling will be a PITA.

I'd like to do it in the spring before the summer blast furnace turns on and my HVAC guy is running all week long.

 

For a mini split?

I'd love to do that and try to find one that would just let me set the heat to 50ish all winter, but I'd need to insulate the garage to make it practical. It's not really drafty and the doors are insulated and sealed well, but the walls are just plywood, some sort of wrap/barrier, and vinyl siding and it's wide open up to the roof. My garage is 24x24, so 576 sq ft.

I use a combination of a 6000 watt shop heater and a propane torpedo heater when I want to work out there in the winter now. Shop heater doesn't do much if it's below about 25 degrees, but it'll maintain temperature if I heat it up with the propane heater first.

 

Inside pocket on the green purse. Bottom is sewn in, then sides, then the divider.



Then I use a shaped block and a slicker to wet mold and burnish the corners, to give the pockets a nice shape.



The strap attachment points are attached where they belong, on what will be the narrow sides of the bag.



The look is really coming together.

 

Handles finished and on. I like 'em. One is a tiny bit shorter than the other so they nest when they're held together.



Now that everything but the nameplate is sewn into the bodies, it's time for the stressful part - final glue-up.




Binder clips and wood shims to prevent marring the leather.



These corners on the pocket side are going to be very tricky to punch and stitch, but they will make sure that the bag has plenty of body even after it gets the shit kicked out of it for 10 years.

This glue is going to get the rest of the day to fully cure, then I'll stitch these sections and glue up the pocket side of the body.

 

I'm a number of years behind Dean in skill and abilities.

I made a hat.

 

On today's episode, we convert an M1 Abrams tread maintenance tool into a cobbler's hammer with files, foam sanding blocks, and cussing.

 

I am trying to locate a 3rd gen factory 4:30/e-locker third member.
This would be from a 2016-2023 TRD offroad or TRD Pro with the 6spd manual.
They are difficult to locate as most auto salvage places want to sell the entire rear axle assembly. Front diffs are a dime a dozen at $400. If someone can locate one for a good price (under $600) and i purchase it, i'd be happy to venmo someone $50 for a finders fee

 

Try asking ecgs if they have any they'd sell ya? I'll keep my eyes open

 

One LKQ in Texas and one LKQ in California have a rear diff (carrier assembly), the one in Texas is $506 and the one in California is $591. They are both listed as non locking, but the diff from Cali says it is from an Off-Road, so I would call before you order one. I found them on car-part.com.

 

Both of these come back to the same trd sport if you google the VIN number. I have been searching LKQ, car-part, ebay, and fb marketplace.

That's not a bad idea. I doubt they will since they sell 4.30s. It doesn't hurt to ask.

Small vent session: originally had a deal to get someone's 4.30s from his truck and he would use my diffs as regear cores to 5.29s. We went back and forth, talked on the phone a couple times, sent pictures. I agreed to pay him $450 for his. I bought 5 gallons of oil, toyota diff gaskets/the crush washers ECGS bushings and both install tools (about $400 worth to share between both our jobs). We planned to meet for a friday and saturday at his place. I packed up the night before, sent him this picture, and he was good to go. I skipped opening of deer season. 4pm friday when i was leaving work to his house, he called me and said he had work that weekend and couldn't swing it. I understood, things come up. We made plans for December. The week of, he said he hit a deer with his truck. We discussed doing it after the truck was assessed for repairs, do it afterwords, blah, blah, blah. He stopped communicating. didn't take a phone call, didn't return texts. I got burned on two vacation days i scheduled off as well. lesson learned. I wonder if he's on here TBH.

 

Fucking gross. A pox on his house etc.

 

One of the diffs I saw came out of a 2016, and the other a 2022. Here is a screen shot of the car-part website:


The website is awful to sort out the different gear ratios with or without the diff lock, because the only listed carrier assembles with a diff lock are 3.91 (even though that is not true).

 

Yeah, i did my best to vet the situation and person and it all checked out. I don't know what came up but a simple "hey i cannot do the deal anymore" would have been appreciated.

I referenced both those listing on LKQ online. Both listing reference the exact same vin number even though the title says different years. It seems that same VIN truck has parts in CA, TX, and MI through LKQ online. I did get my factory 4.56 diff for my old first gen through them via an email so they may have something not listed.
I messaged them on this listing just in case.

 

Ah, gotcha. I didn't dive to deep into looking for a VIN, but that makes sense. Hopefully they get back to you with some good news!

 

It actually fits together correctly. Phew.

 

Okay. What's the best beam pattern for a ditch light? Flood or spot?

I'm looking at two different lights.

$56 Auxbeam 3" LED Pods 40W 4800LM Flood Beam Light Bar Offroad LED Cubes Work Square Driving Bumper Lights for Truck Jeep SUV ATV UTV Car Backup

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0998Q9D2H?smid=AFLE0NKKTARYW&th=1
or

$48 Auxbeam 3" LED Pod Light Bar 20W Spot Offroad Light LED Cube Fog Lamp with DT Connector Plug & Play Driving Lights Spot Lights for Truck Jeep ATV UTV SUV Car Pickup

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KD7QT1C?smid=AFLE0NKKTARYW&th=1

They will be only used as ditch lights and angled out. Not looking at "side shooter" lights.

 

Flood 100%. I really prefer these smaller ones and a bunch of us run them and havent had any reliablilty issues.

$27 Nilight Motorcycle LED Pods 2 PCS 3" Flood Offroad Fog Light 1160LM Built-in EMC Driving Auxiliary Lights for Motorbike SUV ATV Truck Boat Tractor Forklift

https://www.amazon.com/Nilight-Moto...&sprefix=small+pod+lights,aps,143&sr=8-2&th=1

 

I have those in combo for ditch lights and aux reverse lights…and Amber spot for chase lights. Good bang for the buck.