Learned'd VIII: Less Bewbs, Same Nonsense

[audtatious]

Luckily I've avoided getting sick in over a year. I tend to try and stay away from kids and that seems to work

[gwoods]

75 today in Phoenix spent my day at the junk yard buying a 115k ka34de and some honda parts. Installed said honda parts.

[nissangirl74]

Our whole house was sick over Christmas, except for me. I guess someone had to be able to clean up after the invalid, right?

Sorry I haven't been around much guys. Nursing school is kicking my butt. It's not difficult (yet) but the amount of material I have to read each week is just unbelievable. 5 chapters here, 10 chapters there, it's time consuming as hell. Anyway, hope you guys are doing OK. I miss you. I'll pop in when I have time.

Dave, I hope it warms up for you soon. I am SO thankful I don't have to deal with that anymore.

[Dattebayo]

Its supposed to be warm here for a while, hopefully i can do a steering arm replacement to clean up that undefined centerline and maybe even do an oil change! I'd really like to imstall some wheel well liners as well...

[Hijacker]

I thought we were getting polar vortex part deux this upcoming week?

[Kompresshun]

http://www.weather.com/weather/5-day/Le ... 40511:4:US

Looks like today will be the warmest day all week for me. I really need to get a remote starter for my car...

[Hijacker]

We're supposed to get snow sometime this week. Good thing the vert stays in a garage with its own oil heater!

[Kompresshun]

The Miata stays in the garage too, but since the wife's car has to other spot occupied, my car sits outside.

If she's not working though I usually take her car since it also has heated seats. I never cared about them until I had to sit on cold leather a few times after I started parking the 500 outside.

[Hijacker]

Cold/hot seats are why I'm going back to cloth seats.

[Kompresshun]

The KIA is a win with seats - cloth heated seats.

I honestly don't care anymore. I like leather, but i'm not against getting cloth seats in my next car.

I've still gotta squeeze some more miles out of the 500 though, so it'll be a while before it gets replaced. I put 20k on it in the first year I had it, but then it drastically decreased when we bought the KIA. It pretty much only gets driven to work now and that's it. Once warmer weather hits, it'll probably get driven even less since I have the Miata now.

Not complaining though. It's honestly the first car in a while that the thought of replacing makes me somewhat sad. It's paid for and has asked for very little maintenance since purchasing it. That's saying a lot for a Ford made in Mexico.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Cold/hot seats are why I'm going back to cloth seats.

That's not a problem when the leather is heated and cooled.

[Hijacker]

Cold/hot seats are why I'm going back to cloth seats.

That's not a problem when the leather is heated and cooled.

Aaaand my 23 year old S13 certainly has that. lol I'd rather toss in cloth recaros than add in heaters

[frapjap]

Morning fellas.
Heated seats are too fancy. I used to keep a power inverter and an electric blanket in my car for redneck heated seats. Worked like a charm.

Now cooled seats, those are a gift of technology.



The cheap turbo manifold on the Miata cracked about 3/4 of the way around at the turbo flange. Can't say I expected anything less from a $500 grab from Craigslist (for everything, not just the manifold), but it still held its own and was a blast to drive even in that condition. Looking for cost effective options to replace it. I may have Marky Mark make me a downpipe/manifold for my existing turbo. Otherwise, I'll have to be on the lookout for used parts and spend money from savings that I really don't want to touch over a toy. Stupid Mitsu turbo and not having any cross utilized parts, grumble grumble grumble.

At least when it gets repaired it'll be quieter, faster, and won't sound like a lawnmower at idle.

[Kompresshun]

We had heated seats in our old QX4. I was just telling the wife how I miss that thing the other day. I wish we would've kept it.

I've actually been perusing CL for R50 QX4's and Pathy's lately. Even though they get crappy fuel economy and are rust prone, i'd love to pick up another one at some point.

Ray, considering $500 total spent on the kit I wouldn't have a problem paying to get the right stuff now. If I had $1,000 or more invested, i'd probably be pissed though. I'm trying to work out piecing together a cheap turbo kit right now, but i'm not sure if i'll get mine boosted this year or not. Right now i'm more worried about making sure everything is mechanically solid.

[frapjap]

I've spent a good chunk of change for the other mods that were more paramount to a good system- Megasquirt stand alone & accessories, wideband 02, injectors, upgraded clutch, intercooler, etc. With all of the 'now I need this' parts I've bought, its easily over a grand. However, a new manifold and downpipe from FM is approx $750, followed by a turbo for 500-1000, I'm erring towards the side of making my current turbo work for me with quality hardware & fabrication.
Normally I don't have a problem spending the cash on my hobby, but I don't want to empty the shiny, sparkly ring account over it.

[Bubba1]

I thought we were getting polar vortex part deux this upcoming week?

I believe we're getting it's little brother. We're supposed to get 1"-3" snow here, but with temps only in the 20's.

[Kompresshun]

Yeah I think i'd be more inclined to fix what i've got too, just for the sake of saving the cash and being able to salvage some of the investment i've already made.

Trust me, if I figure up i'm going to be spending well over $1,000 to boost my Miata i'll probably just hold off for a while. Honestly i'll probably do a 1.8 swap before I boost it if I have to spend over $1,000 because i'd rather have the better motor in it.

Who cares about a darn ring though? You should see the one I bought my wife for Christmas '12 to replace our original wedding set her parents gave us to use(they insisted on it, I already had the money to buy her one) - I spent $500 on it, it's white gold with white and black diamonds and is gorgeous. It looks like a $1,500-2,000 ring easy.

You can get a really nice ring without breaking the bank for sure. I'm not cheap, but I never have seen the reason to spend $3,000+ on a ring. You just gotta know the right places to shop and what to look for.

[frapjap]

I love what you did for the original ring and wish I could do it, too. Her mom got a not-very-impressive ring when she married her dad, and Lindsey knows full and well that the physical possession means less than what it represents. She isn't into diamonds, so I'm spared a bit on that side of the cost. She would rather have a clear sapphire (blue sapphire heated in a lab to be clear) in a rose gold band- and to think she assumes I'm not listening!- and its very reasonable in price. Its really a matter of actually shopping and finding it. Downside is most of that kinda thing is found on the internet and I wouldn't feel right without a review of what I bought by a proper jeweler. Any large amount of money spent on the ring is better put towards wedding or home ownership.

[Kompresshun]

I thought that was great and all, but honestly I would've just preferred to go ahead and buy her a ring then. Same thing though, it was the meaning of the set more than how much it cost. We still have it, I just got her something nicer as I promised her.

I bought hers from Kay Jewelers online and there were plenty of deals from Jared and Shane Co as well. I've bought two rings online and both were really great quality, plus they have a return policy if you find out it's not what you had hoped.

My wife is the same way - She'd rather put that money towards a home or pay down debt than spend it on expensive things that don't really matter. Which is exactly what we've been trying to do the past couple of years, because as soon as she's done with school we're moving and getting a bigger house.

Hopefully a house with a separate shop out back, because that DOES matter

[frapjap]

Hell yeah the shop matters. She keeps showing me houses for rent and to buy without a garage or suitable workshop. Never gonna happen!! Chances are, the garage will be bigger than our house.

Thanks for the tips on the jewelers, I'll have to see if they carry something like she wants when the time comes. It'll be decent, but not $2,000 decent. I have no idea who came up with the "3 months salary" adage, or when it was coined, but I'd go back in time to promptly kick that person in the nads/vag.

[Bubba1]

I think the jewelry stores came up with the 3 months salary campaign.

[Kompresshun]

Yeah our next place requires AT MINIMUM a 3 car garage, but preferably a 2 car garage with separate detached 2+ car workshop with a ceiling high enough for a lift. Oh and has to be over 1.5 acres of land as well. That's all my criteria.

Yeah another tip I learned and why I like to order online compared to the store is the jewel clarity BS. Unless you buy a real low end clarity jewel, no one will be able to tell the difference at all. You honestly shouldn't even worry about clarity, because most jewelers aren't going to stock anything that looks like crap and I can promise no one is going to eyeball that ring and say "OH MY GOSH, THAT CLARITY IS TERRIBLE YOU CHEAP BASTARD!"

Yeah the whole three months salary thing is just plain stupid. Let's encourage people to go into MORE debt before getting married on top of the cost of the wedding. Because starting off a marriage with debt or a huge investment in a piece of jewelry is a good way to begin.

I'd like to also add to that the fact that spending $25k+ on a wedding, unless you have an insanely huge family that all MUST be there is absolutely bonkers. If you need that kind of wedding to make you happy, then you need to re-evaluate your happiness in life.

One of my exes got married to a guy, spent $25k on this huge wedding in St. Augustine, FL and got a divorce 2 years later. Granted, I was honestly surprised she got married in the first place though.

[Hijacker]

We're going to be building a detached in our back yard with side yard access. The plan is to make it 34' x 34', and while it would be nice to have the height for a lift, it's not a must have on the necessities list for the shop. I'd prefer to have an upstairs usable for storage or fabrication space. Putting my work stations upstairs or even just parts storage would free up room downstairs for work around the car. I HATE having to finesse my way around a car crammed into a garage.

[Kompresshun]

That is another must for me - enough space for at least a small stock room. In our old house in GA I had fully stocked shelves of parts, chemicals, paint, and ect. I kept cases of oil and filters for each car on the shelf at all times.

I'd really liked to have something big enough for some fabrication tools as well, but i'm not going to make that a must right now since I haven't done much fabrication in my life so far.

[Hijacker]

For me, it' sgoing to be all the electrical I'll need. I'll need a few 240v circuits set up so I can run my compressor, my welder, and maybe one other attachment if needed.

But yeah, parts storage becomes a huge necessity. We've torn down Deidra's Impulse to basically the shell, but since we don't have much storage space, it's all been stored inside the car. Once I get to the point of stripping the S13, we're really going to need storage space. LOL We had to do some tetris-like maneuvering to fit the hatchback floors into the attached garage with the Impulse, my car, and the work bench/toolbox. I pretty much just hacked the nose, tail and roof of a hatch and brought it home. It took up more space than I thought it was.

[Bubba1]

We're going to be building a detached in our back yard with side yard access. The plan is to make it 34' x 34', and while it would be nice to have the height for a lift, it's not a must have on the necessities list for the shop. I'd prefer to have an upstairs usable for storage or fabrication space. Putting my work stations upstairs or even just parts storage would free up room downstairs for work around the car. I HATE having to finesse my way around a car crammed into a garage.

I have a very old 2 car detached with a second floor (for storage). The combination of a big overhead door and not very tall ceiling makes a lift impossible for me. But having all that storage room on the second floor more than compensates.

[Hijacker]

I did some organizing today, trying to reclaim some space. The hatch floor is going to end up being a storage spot, but I still need to be able to walk through it to get to my air compressor and flip it on. It's really just in an awkward place. I have a loft it could fit in, but it's a bit too long and a hair too tall.

[frapjap]

Look at us. Used to be we'd talk about what the car would have, now its about WHERE the car is going to be stored, haha. I have a decent sized 2 car garage with upstairs storage for the whole length/width but keep most of my things downstairs on either side of the car since there is about 1 miata worth of width on either side of each door. Both sides have work benches and plenty of shelving. If I were buying the house, it'd be a good start.

[Hijacker]

It's cause we're all mature and s***!

My backyard is a mudpit, but that just means i won't tear up the grass laying cement to erect (hehehehehe) a shop.

[Kompresshun]

My garage has a reasonable amount of space for the size of house we have, but I still have to be creative in how I store everything since we keep two cars in the garage in addition to a riding mower, two power wheels toys, two mountain bikes, a 40 gal upright air compressor, 2 toolboxes, a parts washer, a pressure washer, oh and a freezer too.

I've always had somewhere to store a car most of my life though. The only places I haven't has been the house I grew up in, which we moved out of when I was 15 and the first apartment we lived in here in Lexington. It's one thing that I will rarely budge on.

Honestly, the only keeping me from tearing the Miata down in the garage and painting it the right way this year is because we will be moving in about a year, so I don't want it torn down and have to quickly put it back together for us to move. I don't like being rushed when i'm trying to do something the right way.