Good day for Favre

I finally got to work on my E9 today. I got a late start because I wanted to watch Brent Favre tie the touchdown pass record. You see, in Hawaii Sunday football games are on live in the morning. I got to the shop around 11:00, stoked that I got to see it happen. I can't understand why in the U.S. the only athletic record that makes big headlines is the baseball home run record.

So, my big accomplishment was to remove the front bumper. It sounds trivial but the 13MM nuts and carriage bolts were a bit rusty. I had previously shot them with PB Blaster and hit them again today. Even so I had to work them bit by bit. I wonder why those bolts are so long.

When the bumper was off I moved on to the next thing on my list, removal of the windshield. That did not go well. According to the manual all I had to do was get inside and push it out with my feet. I managed to get the upper left corner loose, but I was using all the force I dared and that was as far as I got. One of the guys at the shop said I should cut it out, but I didn't want to damage the rubber. I decided to work a putty knife along the joint starting at the loose corner to separate the adhesive. I got maybe two inches and the glass cracked.

Well, that's life.

Front bumper being removed, nerf thing on floor.

Front bumper with nerf thing removed.

Front bumper on bench.

Front bumper bits, rubber pieces go at ends, spacers go between bumper and mount.

Rubber trim falling off

Metal strip on back of rubber bumper molding trim

Rivets holding rubber bumper trim

RH front bumper mount

LH front bumper mount

Oops. Cracked the windsheild while removing.

Never enough time

For the second Sunday I did not get anything done on the E9, and I'm afraid this trend may continue for a few more weeks. My daily driver, a 97 Dodge Caravan, starting loosing water at an alarming rate. I traced it to the water pump and Sunday before last I replaced that and the accessory drive belt. Water consumption went way down, but not right. The radiator cap looked like it had gone through the war so I replaced that. Having pressure exposed a crack in the radiator header tank, so last Sunday was new radiator day.

The water pump was easy, but the radiator is a beast. In fact it's still not out. Extrodinarily bad design with no thought to maintenance. My Toyota Camry radiator required less than an hour.

On the 16th is the Na Wahine triathlon, which my wife is doing, and on the 30th I'll be doing the Honolulu Century Ride. Two Sundays with no car work. Oh well, better than sitting on the sofa watching Law and Order re-runs.