feipoa wrote on 2025-03-20, 23:45:

That's way too clean!

Nice Bilstein shocks. When I replaced my shocks with Bilstein, there was the option for standard replacement, or the "HD", heavy duty. I went with the HD, but wasn't sure if the ride would be as soft as the original. I felt maybe it wasn't as soft. Is this the general consensus?

That would be my expectation, stiffer when driving the car alone. However, 4 or 5 people and a bunch of luggage onboard and it might feel like ride quality improved, due to less bottoming and jolting.

Sphere478 wrote on 2025-03-23, 06:53:

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-03-14, 13:11:

Sphere478 wrote on 2025-03-13, 05:29:

The EV silverado is working its way up to the big container.

I’m going to make a triple wide container house on wheels. Fun little project 😀 going to tow it with the EV.

Triple wide? Pullout each side? Or three sections that you haul out to a site separate and bolt together?

I'm just looking for a little A-liner or something to tug behind my new PHEV.

Three separate trailers and containers (containers with frames welded on)

Cool, that's gonna be quite a vacation mansion, I think it's approaching floor area of my house 🤣

I'm driving a 2012 RAV4 V6 Limited. 2012 was the last year you could get a V6 in a RAV4, and honestly it's overpowered. The thing takes off like a rocket - I love it. I'll drive it until it dies.

Automotive ADD strikes again... I DO NOT need a project... however, a project is calling to me, it's a kei car, it's a 4x4, it's old.... Suzuki Jimny ... 1981 edition .... 800ccs of throbbing goat power... yeah it's a lot less than horsepower but it goes up the side of mountains in low range.

Never seen one? It's something like a half scale G-Wagen or shortwheelbase Landrover wagon. ... well maybe 3/4 scale is more accurate.

I've seen one for sale for a low price and can't get it out of my head. It's currently in a "some assembly" required state, which is actually giving access to it's only apparent larger problem, needing some floor replaced. Everything about it is dead simple. When I have thought about a "What if I gave a car a complete rebuild" in the past, I've thought of going with small and easy for a first attempt like a Triumph Spitfire or MG Midget... this also seems to be in that ballpark.

Such a car/toy I would assume to have no practical use... the problem with this one is that I keep thinking "If I can fit a plow blade for an ATV/Gator, I can clear my driveway in winter." which is dangerous, because I might even justify it to myself.

Sensible objections are nullified by it's size, like "You should wait until you move out to a property with a full size shop sometime, with garage space to keep it in" becomes "Nuh uh, this critter is small enough that it fits and could be worked on in a permit free "shed" ". "You need a lift" becomes "can probably strongarm, lever, pulley hoist, jack, rig or finesse anything in or out of it, or get it in any position I need it."

Even more dangerous is the thought that whether via the Nissan or Kia route I could end up with a spare motor of the kind of size suitable to contemplate an engine swap.... just so you don't have to ask the magic 8 ball whether you can get to 60mph today.

Another problem is that I always kinda wanted a tiny 4x4 and was kinda hoping for a Lada Niva (Cossack) because the Sidekick/Trackers got too bloated in later life and the earlier ones were all ragged out and rare to find. These weren't even on the radar on the assumption that I would never see one, never mind one in decent enough shape to consider.

So I don't know whether to hope this is gone by the time I next look or it teases me for months until I've got some more automotive ducks in line and can actually go for it, or what.

It's not the size, its how you use it.
Never owned ones but have seen Jimny's succeed where "real" 4x4's have failed. much like a WW2 Jeep it's lack of size and weight gets it places larger 4x4's can't.
Go watch the Top Gear Bolivia special, if you can still hold out from buying it after that then I guess it wasn't meant to be 😉

The model sounds great, but I am going cold on this particular example. The "basically solid apart from drivers side floor" on close examination of further photos just mean "that's the only bit that actually fell off so far." It had been hit with primer, so I was initially thinking the topsides bodywork was all good, but there's enough bubbling round the back arches to make me think there's no real metal left around there or back corners. Then an engine bay shot showed the front corners which look like where it bolts to chassis at front were looking like brown flaky pastry. Then a more suspicious look at rear floor wasn't confidence inspiring either. Anyway, seemed like it needed 4 corners refabricating, maybe a complete floor.

Also dude seems a bit evasive on the subject of paperwork, and implies that he thought he'd only be selling it as a bush beater/farm truck... thus maybe can't be assed to round up the indicators, brake lights, and most of what electrical it needs to be road legal... if he's still got them, so "basically complete" means not... so probably a decade sniping eBay for this and that to get there.

So think I'm gonna leave this one to the Suzuki enthusiasts that already have a part stash, inside knowledge on where to get stuff and favors to call in. Better known "classics" as it were, at least you can get repair panels for them, my welding and fab skills are rudimentary.

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-03-31, 03:15:

So think I'm gonna leave this one to the Suzuki enthusiasts

Sounds like a wise move, a decent Jimny would make a fun project though. The newly released ones are super popular around here in my corner of AU at the moment - they look like a great little car. People are doing funky paint jobs and jacking them up, etc. There's a 4 door model getting about too that looks nice.

badmojo wrote on 2025-03-31, 09:49:

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-03-31, 03:15:

So think I'm gonna leave this one to the Suzuki enthusiasts

Sounds like a wise move, a decent Jimny would make a fun project though. The newly released ones are super popular around here in my corner of AU at the moment - they look like a great little car. People are doing funky paint jobs and jacking them up, etc. There's a 4 door model getting about too that looks nice.

Yeah I was seeing those while I was hunting up info, and seeing a lot of stuff from Australia. Seems you got far more of them over more spread of years, and more variants like the ute and stretched flatbed. So this would be an easier project in Aus with more "parts bin" range compared to here where we only got 2 years of hard and softop in low numbers.

So got to record my first full fill of the new new ride, the 2025 Escape PHEV. It came "full" but since I didn't know how full or how many kms used off it, the figures weren't that reliable for me. Thus this is the first full tank we filled and refilled and drove 100% of doing 100% "normal for us" stuff.

However, on the "guess-o-meter" here, the only thing that's solid is the 900.3 km, gas pump to gas pump. 562.7 miles. The 512.3km is the total electric run distance, BUT, it's lumping in the "normal hybrid" electric runtime, with the "pure EV" mode electric running. The 3.6L/100km economy rating, which converts to 66mpg might be about 5mpg high, based on the amount to fill the tank which was just over 35 litres, but wifey has "ran off" with the receipt with exact number so I can't check that until later.

The morning temperatures, have been hanging around freezing point, affecting max charge and max range on the EV battery, so only been getting about 2/3 of potential at present, which is expected. Anyway, subtracting the morning trips which were full EV from the rest, indicates about 37mpg, 90% highway on the "normal hybrid" part of the system. Also not sure if my guessometer is showing me MGPe consumption of the electric combined in or not, or if it's only counting gas use. Based on how it performs when the EV battery is depleted, I'd say the regular hybrid version is a pretty good "economy car" of useful dimensions also, so could be a good, cheaper buy in a 2020 or 2021 if you can find one under $20kCDN/15kUSD

Anyway, satisfactory "cold weather" performance thus far, tank of gas now lasting 2 weeks, and we could have gone another day, and using about $10 per 2 weeks worth of electricity on the charges. (And for those interested, that should be the clean stuff, draw a 30 mile circle around me and it gets megawatts of hydroelectric, megawatts of wind, megawatts of solar and a nuke plant, no hydrocarbons as far as I know.... well unless you count the kW of landfill gas microgeneration)

Edit: heh, and another positive feedback loop reinforcement of "sofa king glad I'm not on a waiting list" showed up https://www.msn.com/en-ca/autos/research/toyo … one/ar-AA1C5sPH

Oh wow, we were really jumping the gun there getting all excited about 79-80s Jimny and the recent respin. The actual ultimate tiny Suzuki offroader was just announced today (Remember the date!)

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-03-31, 03:15:

Also dude seems a bit evasive on the subject of paperwork, and implies that he thought he'd only be selling it as a bush beater/farm truck... thus maybe can't be assed to round up the indicators, brake lights, and most of what electrical it needs to be road legal... if he's still got them, so "basically complete" means not... so probably a decade sniping eBay for this and that to get there.

there's a big gap between something good enough around private land and a car that's going to be road legal and reliable enough for some mileage

i sometimes watch restore vids or series on youtube for interest, certainly less costly in hours, skinned knuckles and cash! I like to see an old car restored and either go to a collector or, better yet, become someone's daily driver for a while.

as a side note i'm also impressed by the ability of some youtube mechanics who can get a car engine turning over in those "will it start" videos but i always think - what happens afterwards? was it just for entertainment? Sometimes the car body might be a loss but some of the mechanics could be saved for parts. Sometimes some old wreck has nevertheless managed to preserve most of the engine and it even seems, eventually, to run ok and i think "can't you hoist the engine out and save it?"

I guess some of these types of video are 'fake' but rather i think some are real enough, just edited well and in fact getting the engine to turn over took hours more and then the poor thing was just grinding itself to pieces for 20 mins before being finally, irretrievably, lost.

gerry wrote on 2025-04-01, 19:31:

as a side note i'm also impressed by the ability of some youtube mechanics who can get a car engine turning over in those "will it start" videos but i always think - what happens afterwards? was it just for entertainment? Sometimes the car body might be a loss but some of the mechanics could be saved for parts. Sometimes some old wreck has nevertheless managed to preserve most of the engine and it even seems, eventually, to run ok and i think "can't you hoist the engine out and save it?"

I guess some of these types of video are 'fake' but rather i think some are real enough, just edited well and in fact getting the engine to turn over took hours more and then the poor thing was just grinding itself to pieces for 20 mins before being finally, irretrievably, lost.

Yeah there's a whole lot of "goal dependant" stuff wrapped up in there. Then on a case by case basis, sometimes very little is needed, fresh battery fresh fuel, but it's better to go over a bunch of stuff if you "like" the vehicle at all... if it's a really unlovable old wreck that needs to be got out of the way, then you take the shortcuts.... Things like stab through the fuel filter with a screwdriver if it's blocked and crap like that. However, you might need to be moderately "nasty" to it to get somewhere, like smack the fuel tank to get the pump going or smack the starter with a big hammer. There's stages too, i) get it running ii)get it running and moving iii) get it running and moving and kinda stopping iv) get it running and moving and stopping and steering reliably. v) all that plus actually able to drive it at say 30mph for ~20 miles vi) all that and go up to 50 for a 100 miles vii) actually pretty safe and able to do a longer distance trip.

Depending if you just need to run it out to a road to get on a flatbed or drive it to a parts store parking lot or rental garage or something to patch it up more, or whatever. Each stage adds further systems to verify and triage or bandaid.

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-04-01, 17:09:

The actual ultimate tiny Suzuki offroader was just announced today (Remember the date!)

😂

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-04-01, 21:28:

Yeah there's a whole lot of "goal dependant" stuff wrapped up in there. Then on a case by case basis, sometimes very little is needed, fresh battery fresh fuel, but it's better to go over a bunch of stuff if you "like" the vehicle at all... if it's a really unlovable old wreck that needs to be got out of the way, then you take the shortcuts.... Things like stab through the fuel filter with a screwdriver if it's blocked and crap like that. However, you might need to be moderately "nasty" to it to get somewhere, like smack the fuel tank to get the pump going or smack the starter with a big hammer. There's stages too, i) get it running ii)get it running and moving iii) get it running and moving and kinda stopping iv) get it running and moving and stopping and steering reliably. v) all that plus actually able to drive it at say 30mph for ~20 miles vi) all that and go up to 50 for a 100 miles vii) actually pretty safe and able to do a longer distance trip.

Depending if you just need to run it out to a road to get on a flatbed or drive it to a parts store parking lot or rental garage or something to patch it up more, or whatever. Each stage adds further systems to verify and triage or bandaid.

yes true, it pains me to see rescuable motors being wrecked for fun - but its true that sometimes there isn't a future in them anyway. as you say getting a car back on the road as a reliable driver is going to take lots of work across mechanics, body, interior and electrics.

Still, if i see that some process is followed with engine "will it start" vids i'm happier; engine turn is tested by hand to look for sticking points, covers are lifted and any rods and valves checked, pistons in chamber are checked, cleaned and lubricated, carbs are emptied of detritus and air filter renewed, oil drained (and sump cleaned) with new oil & filter added, distributor check, cleaning points if needed, plugs checked for spark, belts and chains at least looked over for fraying and rot, cooling system at least topped up for the testing period and then, maybe, try and turn the engine with the starter motor. After all that its the hard work of troubleshooting and fine tuning, but at least the engine has been given a chance.

in any case, i always enjoy the "gravity pump" gasolene can with tubes that tends to get used in place of an uncertain gas tank and often tricky fuel pump 😀

the thing with cars is they take up so much space and needs good equipment to fix up, computers much less so!

Today on BitWrangler's dumb obsessions Season 17 Episode 05, I have been playing around with a concept for a retro truck stripe, retro "8 bit sunset" crossover, for vinyl decal/striping application on a vehicle....

Whats a truck stripe?

This kind of thing...
https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/the-top-7 … s-and-graphics/

The 3 color stripe in brown red yellow was kinda popular on Toyotas. Anyway, it's making a slight comeback, see all sorts of premade ones on fleabay.

I have decided..... the stripes are upside down. Needs magenta at bottom, yellow at the top. IDK if I want to massage the colors, trying for simplest RGB values to keep "8bit" pretentions. Though it's probably more like EGA.

Though still pinging back and forth on whether I'll get the vehicle these might go on. Contrary choices are 2013-2016 German diesels, like a MLK250, GLK250, X3 xdrive28d, back and forth on whether to consider a Q5 at all. Still on that 30mpg "tow pig" kick, and mildly enthusiastic about the promise of renewable diesel. The flash in the pan was it 2 year or only really 1.5 diesel CX5 is tempting for more mod cons from 2019, but finding one will be a PITA, then there's the complete lack of parts thing and nobody knowing shit about them to fix them. Though gas CX5 from that era just before they put the CVT in seem to do good.

After 17 years of not owning a car, I decided to buy a Volkswagen. I've always liked the styling of the VWs from the 70s and 80s, and thankfully in China they kept making these B2 Passats until 2012. I grew up in the rust belt, and these things all turned to dust and mostly disappeared from the roads decades ago.

In China these are not considered classic at all. They were mostly used as taxis, and driven privately by poor farmers. It's a great FU car. People get out of my way because they think I'm driving a piece of crap and I have nothing to lose in an accident.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2025-06-09, 12:58:

After 17 years of not owning a car, I decided to buy a Volkswagen. I've always liked the styling of the VWs from the 70s and 80s, and thankfully in China they kept making these B2 Passats until 2012. I grew up in the rust belt, and these things all turned to dust and mostly disappeared from the roads decades ago.

In China these are not considered classic at all. They were mostly used as taxis, and driven privately by poor farmers. It's a great FU car. People get out of my way because they think I'm driving a piece of crap and I have nothing to lose in an accident.

that's a nice car, funny about people thinking you have nothing to lose 😀 Some modern cars are so 'augmented' in that there are many driver aids, everything is automated, controls are touch screen and so on that a large part of the driving experience is gone or at least very much changed.

Things like the radio, fan, a/c and even things like gear selection (auto or otherwise), wipers and so on are all kind of 'aware'; Cars will have sensors for everything including things like staying in lane and suggesting you might be tired (from recent inputs and warnings i guess), they are integrated with online services that tell you about upcoming traffic, weather and temporary restrictions. They have selectable (or self selecting) driving modes that adjust to weather, traffic, load (in trucks) and your choices - by noticeably changing how the auto shift behaves, how acceleration is tempered (no flooring it!) and so on.

Much of this has been slowly gaining ground for the last 2-3 decades but still, getting into a car that drives like one from 20+ years ago is a different experience, i think more different that say a car from 2005 compared to one from 1985

I'm not saying either is better or worse, and in any case, driving as something regular people do is slowly fading, a few decades at most perhaps

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2025-06-09, 12:58:

After 17 years of not owning a car, I decided to buy a Volkswagen. I've always liked the styling of the VWs from the 70s and 80s, and thankfully in China they kept making these B2 Passats until 2012. I grew up in the rust belt, and these things all turned to dust and mostly disappeared from the roads decades ago.

In China these are not considered classic at all. They were mostly used as taxis, and driven privately by poor farmers. It's a great FU car. People get out of my way because they think I'm driving a piece of crap and I have nothing to lose in an accident.

Cool I like VWs from before they started thinking they were a luxury brand, well mid, below Audi, (sorta buick not cadillac I guess) and forgot what Volks meant.... then rapidly forgot how to build a decent car. But as you say, gone to dust in northern parts of North America. The "enthusiasts" for VWs don't do them any favors either, the older ones have got modded to shit, and I mean shit.