What did you do today non-detailing related?

Re: Installed some Conti DWS06's on the RedSport

Gathered up all caustic chemicals and took them to a collection event today. $25 fee. Done and gone.
 
Did the front brakes on my girlfriend's car. I agreed that I would do them this weekend before I realized it would be in the 90's. So I started them last night and finished them up this morning.
 
Put in the Pontoon boat today n took a 2 hour ride with my better half . The Cobalt ski boat goes in the water tomorrow and then I need to touch up both.
 
Mowed and edged the lawn, cleaned up my smoker in anticipation for a pork shoulder tomorrow, and took some items up to the garage attic for storage.
 
I work in a retail plant nursery and with winter approaching, it's the calm before the storm at the moment. As the days are getting colder and people are allowed to move around the country again, customer flow has dropped off a bit. And with a massive delivery of new trees arriving for the winter bare-root season within the next couple of weeks, we are making the most of the lighter customer flow to get on with some maintenance jobs around the place.

This pocket down the back was primarily designed to showcase a line of water features we once sold. Set amongst the water features is a fernery full of palms, ferns and other shade loving plants. The area is split in half with a running creek bed and three small foot bridges to allow customer access.

The trouble with "gardens" within a garden center is that maintaining stock for sale, attending to customers and keeping the whole place presentable takes priority. When I first started there 19 years ago, there were four gardens dotted around the place. The way we overhead water means that these gardens got far too much water and really struggled to flourish. Weeds on the other hand love those conditions. One by one, I have been responsible for the removal of those gardens, they never looked good and took valuable staff away from maintaining products that actually helped pay for our wages. It took a lot of gentle, calculated suggestions to gain approval to remove those gardens, but I got there in the end! :D:xyxthumbs:

The fernery is the only remaining garden now. Even so, it still needs far more attention than we allow for. This bottom end of the creek bed has been bugging me for years. The plants that were planted either side of the water completely took over. It was a mess, and guess who drew the sort straw to remove all of the horrible, stinky Acorus Gramineus strand by strand. That was many years ago now but I still shudder at the though of that task. After the gutting, I put down weed mat and shoveled white stones to cover up the multitude of sins. We then attempted to deflect the attention away from it by displaying plants and trees in front of it. :doh:

With spare time on my hands this week, I started placing re-claimed rocks along the length of the creek bed before topping the rest with stones to help it all blend in. No before pics, I didn't think to at the time, this was a little job that turned into a bit of a project. Each rock and stone was placed "just so", that would surprise anyone here though.





The stone toppings should help to keep weeds down too, they are probably layered 4 inches thick! :laughing:

Best bit apart from it looking VASTLY better than what we were trying to hide, was getting praise from a boss who never gives positive feedback unprompted.
 
The Ford Performance Oil Separator I fitted to my Mustang has been on for 7 months now, curiosity got the better of me today.

Emptying these catch cans can be done a couple of ways, either on or off the vehicle. Owing to the difficulty I had in fitting the push pins into place, I decided to leave the unit in place and remove the top hat.

First, remove the engine cover to allow access and then loosen the four bolts holding the lid in place.





After unclipping the hose connected to the inlet manifold, I went through and removed each screw by hand VERY carefully. These are not magnetic so don't rely on your magnetized screw driver to hold them in place. A replacement for something this obscure would be very difficult to find. (Keep in mind I am in Australia, EVERYTHING takes longer here.)



Hardest one to remove was the one sitting under the radiator expansion tank. I actually lifted the lid off and out with the screw still in tact to be safer than fiddling with it and risking dropping it into the depths of a Coyote engine bay. I have seen where the hose is removed to gain access but I do not like digging deeper than I have to with these sort of things.



The amount of oil collected was about what I expected.



Removing the oil can be done a couple of ways. When the whole unit is removed from the car, the oil can be simply be poured out. When left in place like mine, you can use a syringe to suck the oil from the container or use paper towels to absorb it. The amount in the tank was such the paper towel method was better suited here.







Once the tank is cleaned out, replace the top hat, remembering to click the hose back onto the inlet manifold in the process.



Engine cover back on.





As mentioned, the amount of oil was what I was expecting, owing to the minimal km's done over those 7 months.
 
Re: Installed some Conti DWS06's on the RedSport

Just purchased a leaf blower. Figured better than sweeping after mowing. Don't need anything pricey. Just something to do the job. Did some research. Again, you can fall down the rabbit hole. Like the fact it comes with 2 batteries. It should fit my needs. And it had a $20 off coupon.

Amazon.com
 
More expensive but I love my Ego setup. Even better, I have batteries that are 4+ years old and they still work well.
 
Even though it’s a company car, I bought a neato cargo mat for the back of the Explorer. While I was at it, I had to treat the carpet with Blackfire fabric protectant and the cargo mat got a coating of Duragloss 253.
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DFB said:
The Ford Performance Oil Separator I fitted to my Mustang has been on for 7 months now, curiosity got the better of me today.

Emptying these catch cans can be done a couple of ways, either on or off the vehicle. Owing to the difficulty I had in fitting the push pins into place, I decided to leave the unit in place and remove the top hat.

First, remove the engine cover to allow access and then loosen the four bolts holding the lid in place.





After unclipping the hose connected to the inlet manifold, I went through and removed each screw by hand VERY carefully. These are not magnetic so don't rely on your magnetized screw driver to hold them in place. A replacement for something this obscure would be very difficult to find. (Keep in mind I am in Australia, EVERYTHING takes longer here.)



Hardest one to remove was the one sitting under the radiator expansion tank. I actually lifted the lid off and out with the screw still in tact to be safer than fiddling with it and risking dropping it into the depths of a Coyote engine bay. I have seen where the hose is removed to gain access but I do not like digging deeper than I have to with these sort of things.



The amount of oil collected was about what I expected.



Removing the oil can be done a couple of ways. When the whole unit is removed from the car, the oil can be simply be poured out. When left in place like mine, you can use a syringe to suck the oil from the container or use paper towels to absorb it. The amount in the tank was such the paper towel method was better suited here.







Once the tank is cleaned out, replace the top hat, remembering to click the hose back onto the inlet manifold in the process.



Engine cover back on.





As mentioned, the amount of oil was what I was expecting, owing to the minimal km's done over those 7 months.
Click to expand...

That’s a bigger pain in the but than my aftermarket ones. Looks good though.

I know you like the stock look but I think those coil covers powder coated red would look amazing.


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Received my front spoiler for the Chevelle

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I didn’t think something like this was for me till I saw a pic of it on a car. Custom made by a guy name randy. Business is called spoilers by Randy

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Coatingsarecrack said:
That’s a bigger pain in the but than my aftermarket ones. Looks good though.

I know you like the stock look but I think those coil covers powder coated red would look amazing.


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Click to expand...

I chose the Ford Performance oil separator for the OE fit and look, I like that it looks very discrete. JLT make a version with a removable cup that would be more convenient though. That said, it only took about 5 min to remove the top hat and soak up the oil.



I actually went looking for red coil covers but couldn't find any that were sold in Australia. I also didn't want to paint them myself, I feel they never look quite right when done like that. I knew the blue ones were going to clash with the Race Red paint but I actually really like the contrast. Blue and Red are my favorite colors.............

 
I played in the local soccer team years ago and have been a coach as well. Still help them out when I can. The belt to the lawnmower breaked so I ordered a new and replaced it. And then I helped with mowing the soccerfield. I played 3 years before my injuries. It where not a soccer team when I moved here. So I was the team captain in the first league match for the club. In Sweden there are different sports in the same club. So it's been ice hockey and pingpong and gymnastics before. A little history about the club and team in my little village

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DFB said:
I chose the Ford Performance oil separator for the OE fit and look, I like that it looks very discrete. JLT make a version with a removable cup that would be more convenient though. That said, it only took about 5 min to remove the top hat and soak up the oil.



I actually went looking for red coil covers but couldn't find any that were sold in Australia. I also didn't want to paint them myself, I feel they never look quite right when done like that. I knew the blue ones were going to clash with the Race Red paint but I actually really like the contrast. Blue and Red are my favorite colors.............

Click to expand...

No i get it. I have the other side of the mod bug. Like my cars to look the least stock as possible. Nothing wrong with either spectrum. I can like and respect all car cultures. Even the big ol donks. Not for me but I’m all for car culture so if you like it…. Do it.

Here is my plenum and coil covers, hydro dipped. Never got them on before I wrecked the fifty.



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Here you can see the pattern better. Need to sell them but don’t really need too. Might go on garage wall if I ever get around to painting.
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36th oil change on my daily driver.

275,182 miles and counting (bought it with 102k).
 
Leaf blower worked PERFECT today. Did all i usually do with a broom. And on 1 battery with time to spare. What a time saver!
 
Two plants flowering my garden at the moment.

Camellia 'Yuletide' -



Magnolia 'Little Gem' -

 
I got rained out today so put the time to good use by changing oil and blades on my machines.











 
It's the first day of winter in Australia, and that means it's time for all of the winter 'bare-root' stock is due to arrive at the nursery.

First task though is building sand beds to store the various deciduous trees, shrubs and fruit trees that are turning up tomorrow.





These beds are pretty simple and certainly not pretty. We use treated pine sleepers sitting on bricks to give some extra height, which are then secured with stakes and lots of tech screws before lining them with weed mat. The trees are then lined up one row at a time while sand is shoveled over the roots to keep them moist. A customer can then select the tree they want, pull it from the sand bed and take it home for immediate planting.

We also had a surprise delivery of bare root roses arrive today. Normally, we would receive our first delivery late June/early July. Our roses are always later than the likes of a hardware store nursery (we are a traditional retail nursery, a family run business that racks up 40 years this month), this stock is naturally defoliated rather than being sprayed with a defoliant to get them into dormancy early, the result is a healthier plant. The concept here is the same, except the roses are bundled into pots not a bed.





The above roses are about a 1/4 of what is expected to arrive this year. Busy, busy time ahead.
 
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