Scoobywagon

Here I are.

Well, its been a while and I no longer work there. However, if I recall correctly, we used DuraCool for that. The problem is that it is a blend, so the lighter gasses boil off first. That means you really can't just "top it off". Same applies to all the refrigerant blends. You'd need to evacuate the system and recharge from scratch.

That was me! Sorry, but I don't tend to be as active on here as I used to be. What's up?

Got myself a bit of a head scratcher here. The car is an 88 GL with SPFI. The engine runs strong under 3k. After 3k, it starts having a miss and the Tachometer starts jumping around. I lose a bit of power, but the car will continue to go. As soon as I get back UNDER 3k, the problem goes away. I did not have this problem until a couple of days ago. At that time, my water pump ate itself and though the engine got hot, I did not allow it to get into the red on the guage. The alternator also died at the same time, though it had been acting silly off and on for quite a while. I changed the water pump and alternator put the whole thing back together and got it fired up no problem. And now this. I just checked the plug wires, cap and rotor. I found that the wires for cylinders 2 and 4 were corroded. I fixed that, started the car and checked it. Still have the problem. The rotor looks fine, but the contacts in the cap look a little boogered up. So, if I can find an open parts store tomorrow, I'm going to change the wires, cap and rotor. Anyone think of anything else I should check? Thanks

I own a Blue Point strut spring compressor. "By the power of Snap-On, I cast thee out!"

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was referring to using the flattener on single stage paint. Specifically the Nason Fast Dry.

No, the paint is already somewhat shiny. It has a flat appearance because the flattener gives it a rough finish. You could achieve a semi-gloss (I think) by using less flattener. It also occurs that you could try shooting the color straight and adding the flattener to the clear coat.

Again, the Nason Fast Dry is a good choice. I think what I like best about it is just how hard it is when finished. It is equipment paint, after all. Its a single stage, so its about as simple as it gets. But you can clear coat it if you want.

Actually, flat black requires an additional additive. When you paint, you mix color and reducer to get a gloss finish. If you want flat, you add a flattener.

What is 'best' is going to be determined by what you want to accomplish. If you're after a quick paint job that doesn't look completely crap-tastic and won't break the bank, I like Nason Fast Dry Enamel. It is a single-stage paint, provides a decent finish and is VERY hard. It is also fairly inexpensive as automotive paints go. If you want a replacement factory finish, I prefer PPG. It is significantly more expensive than the Nason and requires more work to apply. But you can achieve a very OEM finish with it. If you want to put in a little extra work, you can shoot multiple color and clear coats to get a very nice finish. If you want a wild paint job and don't mind all the work that goes into such a thing, SEM and House of Kolor both make excellent products. The 3 Subaru's I've painted all got Nason Fast Dry with 3-4 coats of paint and some wet sanding in between.

As a rule, painting should be done as soon after priming as possible if for no other reason than to limit foreign contaminants in the paint. The surface to be painted needs to be VERY clean in order for the paint to stick properly. That'll be nearly impossible if you wait for 2 weeks. I normally use a self etching primer. That said, I do use high-build primer in areas where there has been a lot of body work. That includes bondo or fiberglass. That way you can lightly sand the primer back down to get a very smooth surface.

OK...if you're only going to run a 30 amp fuse, why in the world are you pulling 0-gage wire through the car??? That said, you should also understand that there is nothing that wal-mart sells that will reliably produce the power advertised on the box. At that price point, it just isn't going to happen. Just know that. Since you're going to be running multiple amps in this system at some point, here are my recommendations. 1) Run a high-quality 4-gage wire from the positive terminal on the front battery through the car to an input port on a 1-to-4 power distribution block. This wire should be protected with a fuse holder not more than 12 inches from the front battery. Install the rear battery in the rear of the car and run another high-quality 4-gage cable from the positive terminal of this battery to another input port on your distribution block. The second battery should also be protected with a fuse holder not more than 12 inches from the battery. 2) For high-quality power wire, don't bother with the stuff you find at car stereo shops. That stuff is stupidly expensive and is also garbage. Instead, go to a local welding supply shop and as for some #4 welding lead. It isn't pretty, but it is MUCH nicer wire. It is built with thinner strands and more of them. That makes it VERY flexible and helps it cope with the harshness and vibration inherent in an automotive environment. 3) Have each amp draw current on its own output port at the distribution block. This allows you to individually fuse each amp which gives you better overall protection and makes diagnostics easier later. 4) You can run a ground all the way back to the front battery from the rear if you like. It will not really gain you much and it doubles up your wire-pulling workload. Instead, ground the rear battery to the body and make certain that the front battery's body ground is in good shape. Running a new body ground on the front battery with some of your leftover 4-gage isn't a bad idea. 5) If you feel like being a total perfectionist on this install, run your power down one side of the car, signal down the middle and speaker down the other side. Ideally, this will give you a fair degree of separation between high-current DC (your power lead), low current AC (RCAs) and high-current AC (speakers) to avoid any crosstalk, inductance or any of that other fun stuff. Don't feel like tearing the whole interior out of the car to do that? No problem. You can run it all down one side of the car if you like. It really doesn't make any appreciable difference. 6) Some people want to re-wire the speakers on the assumption that the OE wiring isn't up to snuff for the amp they are installing. This might be true in a competitive vehicle, but is patently untrue in a daily driver. Just because someone installs an amp that CAN give you 125 watts per channel RMS, doesn't mean you're ever going to get that out of it. That's because your ears will start bleeding LONG before the wiring becomes a problem. So save yourself a bunch of work and busted knuckles. Don't bother replacing all the OE wiring unless you just really want to. 7) Don't bother with the stupid expensive RCAs. They're just that. Stupid and expensive. Just get a good quality set and be done with it. Good luck with your system!

You guys hit me with a couple of rocks on Brooklyn at Olympus. Personally, I feel that there should have been more airborne rocks. Do better next time! Rally is awesome. What other sport lets you go home at the end of the day and brag to your friends about getting pelted with rocks?

I was working the Brooklyn stage (stages 4 and 5). He was running pretty raggedy on 5 and another marshal and I commented that he must have broken something and that maybe we should call it in as a safety concern. We didn't. It also sucked that one of the contributing factors was a drunk spectator. But I guess that's a long story that needs to go somewhere else.