Its been a crazy week (Post #195) 8/20/2010

My half shaft arrived from Paul Grant yesterday. I also got a hit on my Discovery 2 rims from a chap in Colorado. I’m hoping he will pull the trigger on the rims. I’ve made him a good price and am willing to drive halfway to meet him to save on shipping. It’s insane what it costs to ship something that weighs 30 pounds. Basically it costs more than the rim is worth to ship the rim. At least doubling the rim’s cost. In any event if I can move the rims I can fund the first half of my Range Rover restoration and that would be nice.

Seamus came over yesterday for some help. Seamus is my son’s friend and I genuinely like the young man. He is funny and has a great view of the universe. He often comes over just to chat but yesterday he needed automotive assistance.

Not exactly Seamus's but it looks just like it...mostly

His 1991 BMW 325i is truly a sweet car. For a kids first car, it is a dream auto. Lately though according to his mom it has become a money pit. A money pit insomuch as it needs a few maintenance items and the clutch failed. Seamus has a great outlook on it all referring to the age, “Well, my car can vote.”

Seamus asked for help in sorting out a few non-functioning tail lights. So we popped the boot and I showed him the access panels and how the lamps were removed. We sorted out which ones were working and which were not. I went to check the reverse lamps, neither of which worked, when all of a sudden Seamus killed the engine. I told him to fire it back up but he politely told me the temp gauge was in the red. I said, “In the red? but it…” and then I saw the puddle under the front.

The BMW had spilled the magic cooling fluid all over the driveway. The air temperature was over 100F. And I thought it odd it would dump fluid. Seamus reported it had needed a bit of cooling juice just a few days ago and his dad had showed him how to add it. But this was probably not just a little over filling. I believe he has a bad radiator.

I pushed the car back down to his house and told him to leave it so it would cool and tomorrow we could work on it. The radiator is not a huge project and I couldn’t see them paying for labor when it was a couple of screws and its out kinda job. Getting a radiator is the hardest part of the project. To reinforce what his mom Kasey said, “That thing is a money pit.” they will be out around 200$(US) to pick up another.

I don’t believe you can fix a plastic tank radiator. So I suggested picking up a new one and if it wasn’t bad after we got it out, they could just take it back. Disappointing? yes. Devastating? no.

IF I can get the radiator done and Zacker’s football scrimmage (Go Lions) out of the way, the afternoon is set aside to remove the differential from the Range Rover and get it cleaned out and ready for the new(used) half shaft.

Thanks for reading, Go Lions, and Happy Rovering.

2 Replies to “Its been a crazy week (Post #195) 8/20/2010”

  1. If my best buddy knitted me a cable knit sweater in Land Rover green or Sooner crimson, I can assure you OkieRover’s blog would become a knitting blog for at least a whole week.

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