Official Off Topic Discussion Thread #1

[Ulu]

After stripping down my collection of used McPherson struts, and draining the oil out of them, I had another pile of junk I didn’t want.

So I loaded up the truck full of any scrap steel that I didn’t want anymore and took it off to the recycling center.

Fortunately it’s very close and I didn’t have to spend much on gasoline, because they only pay $90 per ton.

That’s 4.5 cents a pound.

This load turned out to be 667 lbs or 1/3 of a ton, so I made $30 cash, which was enough to buy half a tank of the cheapest gas.

That was all I could get in one load but I’m sure I have another 600 pounds laying out there that I should recycle. A lot of this is stuff I collected to build a jig for my car frame modifications. Much of it is just leftover scraps or things I thought I wanted to keep but never did use.

 

[Ulu]

I want to rant about the quality of modern aftermarket parts.

They’re all garbage.

Here I am fitting up a lovely and expensive new custom Empi intake manifold, and it’s not lining up properly.


It’s because the geniuses in their manufacturing department never spot faced the casting where it bolts up to the engine block.



As much as I would like to just ship it back to empty and tell them to use it in some vulgar manner, I am just going to dress this down myself and make it fit by hand. Fortunately it is just aluminum and if I accidentally file off too much I can always put in a shim.

Meanwhile I’ve got the exhaust system trimmed back so it won’t touch the body, and everything there is fitting up pretty well.



Now I have to tack weld it and get it off the engine for the real welding.