Well, had a crappy day on the car today. Was supposed to get a lot done but didn't and ended up making more work for myself. Put loads of penetrating oil on the bolts of the air tubes that are bolted into the headers. Waiting, added more, waited, added... you get the picture. Got the right size spanner (14mm) and it fit nice and tight, and it started slipping. What was actually happening was the bolt head was deforming. Sure. What a f*cking great thing to happen. Tried a different bolt, same f**king thing. As you can tell, i'm pretty pissed of with it, took 6 HOURS
to sort just one out. And it's not even sorted. I tried everything. Heating it up, more penetrating oil, using tools like a pipe wrench, monkey wrench etc. filed it down (because of course it was chewed by now) to a 13mm, that just rounded it. In the end i welded the bolt head to a long steel bar, but i think too much had been filed down, as it just started to twist apart
I was left with a bolt still in the header and a short bit of pipe sticking out from it. Of course, it's a stainless steel pipe, so unreel the mild steel from the welder, put it stainless wire, adding to the unnecessary fun and time of it all
I weld it up, start the car, it's blowing a bit, so undo the battery again, try and find where to weld, of course it's getting dark now too making it harder to see, let alone with a welding helmet on. redo battery, start car, that's good, find out now the pipe that was cut, going to the other pipes, is blowing. great. undo battery, weld, redo battery, start car, small part where its blowing. Undo battery, weld, start car, not blowing. Finally. 6 F**king hours later and a shit quality job done. Really not happy with it. I bought a set of 8 bungs, got all the tools out, used the penetrating oil etc, expecting to do a decent job and ended up just f*cking it all up. I'm so pissed off, mainly at the fact that the bolts won't come undone but also my inability to do stuff like this. So frustrating. Still 7 to go and this was the easiest one to get too. I have no clue how i'm gonna do the others. There's less space with them. Ironically, the pipes are the in way. That's the reason i'm gettiing rid of them (partly for a touch of weight saving) but mainly for space and access. I had bruises from changing the spark plugs and bad ache as it was so hard to get to them. I need to do the valve stem seals at some point which means i have to get the spark plugs out to get compressed air, to hold the valves up and just generally, those pipes seem to get in the way anytime you need to access something. Oh and here's a fun fact - when i used an angle grinder with a cut off wheel to cut the pipe, i moved it too soon and it was still spinning and took a chunk out of the alternator cable. In two spots.
Are you f*cking kidding me. So that's another f**king job to sort out and money to spend. Great. I've put some electrical tape on it for now, it still starts, charges, lights work etc. but i'm worried about that cable now and how much it's going to affect current / charging etc. It's the main wire that goes out of the back of the alternator and to the positive of the battery. I'm worried that over a period of use, i.e 30 minutes of driving with lights on / fan on or whatever, the cable is gonna heat up / battery won't charge or something, due to the cable not being thick enough anymore. There is something else thick in the car whilst being driven
As you can tell i'm really, really pissed off. I had other stuff to get done, so not only didn't they get done, it also just put me in a foul mood. Plus i have no idea how to sort the other 7 out which is really frustrating. I don't want to cut the end of the pipe off by the header and weld it, for two reasons - first is that some are a bitch to get to and i won't be able to and second is that i don't want bits to be sticking out as the whole point is to clean it up and make access easier. I was supposed to be done in 2 hours - i worked out 15 minutes per pipe to remove the bolt and place the block off bolt in. So plenty of time technically as all you're doing is unbolting something and bolting back in. I gave a bit of extra time for the fact that they may be a bit hard to unbolt - but the fact that they didnt budge, what a f**king joke. The bothered to use stainless steel pipe, but plain steel bolts, probably to save a few quid. Why not just f**king use stainless bolts. Or brass. Yet, on something as important as brake lines, it's rust friendly steel. Yet these air pipes that aren't near the level of moisture as the undercarriage where the fuel and brake lines are, oh ye, let use stainless. I'm so frustrated. So pissed off. I just wanted to do a decent job. I also just wanted to get something done. What the hell can i do?
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