Ed's Shop Build Thread

Awesome stuff Ed!

Love the updates, and observations. And you make us laugh too. :)
 
Ed Abbondanzio said:
I think I finally understand why I keep blowing through the bearings. When they say DRY use they mean DRY use only. Sometimes I was sucking up liquids with it which (I'm guessing here) causes the liquid to turn into a mud slurry in the tool that seeps into the bearing ruining it. Good thing I didn't read the instructions on how to use it as there's probably a warning about this in there! I probably saved about 5 minutes and it only costed me nearly $100!
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Not sure I follow you on the dry/wet thing? The velocity vac can be used with liquids. The Key to the bearing set is to clean them after every use with WD40. Don't let them dry out with the dirt in there and lube/clean it out with WD40, plenty of it. I treat mine like surgical instruments clean and let the WD 40 penetrate and run through the bearing set rotating it by hand, blowing it out then repeating until they are 100% smoooooth rolling. Takes 5 mins afterwards. I use mine a lot both wet and dry with no issue.
 
Ed Abbondanzio said:
Thanks Uncle Davy!

I'm a little overdue on an update so I figured it's time I sit down and write one. Last week was a weird week. One of my jobs was a 96 Corolla with only 49k miles. No that's not a typo!

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Overall the car was in excellent shape. The interior had almost no wear minus some staining on the carpets and seats. Exterior wise the paint had seen better days but there was almost no rust on it which is rare for this area.

The owner of the car said it was his mothers who passed not long ago and he wanted the paint shined up so they could sell it.

Upon drop off, I suffered a mere 20 minute existential crisis wondering if I was in over my head as just a production detailer and debating how easy it would be to skip town and start a new life undo a pseudonym I decided to give it my best shot.

Instead of using my classic white Lake Country pads with HD speed combo I opted to use the orange! Lake Country pads with HD speed. Who woulda guessed?

This provided a good level of correction with about 4 - 6 passes per section. The flat areas including the roof and hood needed some spots to be done twice. It took a much longer time than normal (for me) to work the car due to moving at a slower speed since I needed to get a good amount of correction.

Here's a 50 / 50 shot of the hood. This is actually my first 50 / 50 I've ever tried in the shop.
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Hood done.
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All done.
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Straight outta 96'.
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The best part was that the owner was extremely happy with how it came out. When he picked it up he mentioned his wife was starting to think that they should hold onto it since it was in such good shape. Funny enough, the owner actually stopped by today with it wondering if I knew of a good tinter in the area and mentioned that they decided to keep it. He said his wife liked how good it came out that it was basically a done deal once she saw it.

Another odd job I did was a carpet someone pulled from a truck their restoring. He just wanted it vacuumed and shampooed. Moderate amount of stains but no salt.
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Also I got a life pro tip for everyone. Don't scrub things with fluid film on them. It'll get stuck in your brushes and basically ruin them. I ended up throwing out three brushes.
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Honestly though, it was like perfect timing as all my brushes were due for replacing. I ended up buying some new ones to try out.
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And lastly, until today none of my vacuums had any wheels on them. I finally caved and ordered a new one because I was tired of dragging my vacuums around.

Why did they have no wheels you ask? Because in a stroke of genius I had back in March I concocted this amazing idea to put some upgraded wheels on my vacuums. I wanted vacuums that could glide across my shop like figure skaters on fresh ice.

Ridgid doesn't sell upgraded wheels though, and the provided casters were subpar in my opinion. I pondered on this for a few days before realizing I could buy generic caster wheels with threaded rods and get them to thread into the vacuum.

It took a bit of trimming with the hackzaw but my crazy contraption worked.
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My vacuums rolled smooth as a caddy and thanks to the large diameter of the wheels, handled cords like nothing. It was pure bliss until I realized how bad of an idea this is.

Whenever I'm done with the vacuum I like to wrap up the hose real fast around the vacuum similar to when a cowboy performs a hog tie right after lassoing the pig at the rodeo. I think my speed record was about 1.5 seconds for a 12' hose.

Well when your vacuum has extremely low friction wheels the the entire vacuum will spin just about as fast as you can wrap the hose around it. So instead of wrapping up the hose you end up doing that ballroom dance move where the male holds his and his partners hand high above her head so she can twirl. Which may look elegant at the ball, it's utterly useless in a shop.

That wasn't the worst part of it though. About 5 days after modding out my vacuums I picked one up to move it over the water hose and set it down a little too fast. When it landed on the concrete it snapped the plastic molding that was holding the caster wheel in one corner. My pimped out vacuum now had a permanent lean due to the broken wheel and was less useful than how it was stock. In a fit of frustration I ripped out every wheel and decided to live with it.

6 months later here we are :).

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I ended up going with the red and grey series Ridgid offers online. It's got two large wheels in the rear and a nice handle so I don't have to bend over to move it. I used to be very against this wheel style but honestly I regret not switching to it sooner. I even got a nice upgraded filter to try out on it.

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I use a lot of fluid film around an also Krown Rust Control. Optimum Power Clean destroys the stuff just for future info if you find your brushes greasy again...

Sent from my VOG-L04 using Tapatalk
 
Another great update, Ed.

I'll be up your way on Monday.... Auburn, ME.
 
Awesome update, Ed!

I can lend you a terrier for that mouse.......... ;)
 
Ed Abbondanzio said:
Speaking of wildlife I've got a mouse problem. Little chonker jumped out of my Jeep the other morning and ran into the wall. Found some droppings in my microfibers. I'm going to close up some of the holes in the walls, and see if Home Depot has any landmines that are sensitive enough to trip for a small rodent.
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Good ol' wooden Victor "snap" trap and peanut butter for bait. Works every time, the little suckers love peanut butter.
 
The shop is coming together nice ! I really like the ceiling height, my Cobalt 242 bow rider could fit in there for its yearly buff n polish.
 
Accidental bucket trap? Lol. I use a 5 gal bucket trap and can get a dozen out at our farm/barn.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk
 
Ed Abbondanzio said:
Damn, didn't realize that a bucket could be such an effective killing machine lol. I noticed all the peanut butter on my traps has gone missing in action. I fear the war isn't over yet.
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Yep. You can make a very effective one out of a 5 gal bucket, soda can and a coat hanger, etc. YouTube is your friend. Just look up Bucket Trap.
 
Ed Abbondanzio said:
Happy Turkey Day guys! Haven't had much good things to post in awhile so I've been laying low.

The day after I bought my mouse traps I was setting them up when I found out some bad news. Cheesers passed away.

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He died doing what he loved. Swimming in my drain bucket for the hot water heater.

I didn't end up setting my traps up until a week later when I saw a friend of his dart by me.

I started off with 2 traps to no avail. Then I upped the stakes and put down 6 traps. Within 15 minutes I heard a snap and got em.

Haven't seen a mouse since then.

Upstairs was finally spray foamed. Drywall will be coming in a week or so.
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Business wasn't great for a stretch, especially so around the election. I think people just had other things on their mind. It's picked up since then to a respectable level which I'm cool with. I think I needed some extra time off from detailing after how busy summer was.

It's like they say when life gives you lemons you make the best of it.
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I haven't really posted much because I've been living next to my Jeep trying to finish it for the winter. I was all done with it till I found out the rust in the rear had gotten too bad to pass inspection.
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I basically chopped out the entire rear and have been fabricating a new one. New frame rails, new shock crossmember, new gas tank mount, and more. For anyone interested I wrote up a detailed series on it
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I got it to the point where it was driveable so I could get it to the shop for an alignment. Felt so weird having that half of the
shop empty for a day.
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That's really it for now. I'll share pics of the drywall when it's up.
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I hope you gave Jerry mouse a Christian burial. The transformation on the truck floor was amazing. Did you have to use an extractor?
 
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