bike time 10 - breezer thunder

Trippy,
somehow the insides of this post were deleted.
Ok.

So here's Bike Time 10 - the 1995 Breezer Thunder.
Yeah,
this is the same bike I just wrote about
perich brothers (and sister): how not to sell a mountain bike - Breezer Thunder
but that was more about the acquisition.

1995 breezer thunder
hardtail mountain bike

If you remember,
the ad had said how it wouldn't shift and barely stopped.
Well the cables and housings looked like the exploding cigar cartoons.
The wires were frayed and the housings were jammed into the keepers.
So obvious but not if you're not looking!
The first thing I did was replace all 4 lines.
What a difference.
The deore XT derailleurs are tits.

Okay.
Actually I'm lying.
The first thing I did was get rid of that seat.
In one of those weird koinkidinks,
I found a bitchin Brooks B17 Champion Special on good old Craigslist.
Cheap.
Imagine that.

tired brooks b17 champion special
honey?

The seller was a craigslist flipper.
No way he could ride as he had a serious handicap,
but that's capitalism.
Someone needs to scrounge garage sales or junk shops,
and make a buck selling this kind of stuff,
cause there's was no way I'd pay $150 for a new one!

customizing brooks saddle
holes

The "saddle" was a little floppy,
and I tried to tighten the bolt underneath.
There is a better trick though that I've always wanted to try,
and that is lacing the bottom.

I started by drilling some holes on the bottom edge.
Than I cracked a beer.

laced brooks saddle

It took a while to figure out there needed to be an even number of holes
(on each side)
so the lace would end on the inside.
No problem.

tight brooks saddle

Holy chit this is the most comfortable bike seat I've ridden on.
It's like my butt is cradled in a forgiving leather piece of heaven,
instead of a banana shaped piece of plastic wedged in my crack.
Special thanks to the original rider who broke this seat in!

breezer thunder
hipster city bike

At this point the MTB was configured as a city bike,
with the short upright stem and riser bars.
Pure hipster,
all I needed was some tweed clothes and a pipe.
It was so comfortable to ride.

NOS 1" ZOOM stem

Sacrificing the comfort I scrounged up a CL special stem.
It's a little long but it actually fits me,
probably cause of those 2.5" hi-rise bars.

Still on the fence with those gripshift controls.
If only the thumbie style could push 8 gears.

1995 breezer thunder

The only other thing I've done is put some cranky Campagnolo Super Record pedals on it,
the ones I ripped off the Paletti.
It's surprising how light the bike is,
probably cause there's no front shock.

I've ridden it back and forth to the shop a couple times,
and it's a fun riding bike,
even with the barely warped rear rim.
That takes the hesitance out of bunnyhopping curbs!

TP

the missing link

Remember that update I just did on the hurtlocker truck right?
Well I finally found the cellphone pics that covered the same time frame.
That gap of time right after the patch panels were set.

cab patch panel

It's like unearthing an archaeological find.
The missing link.

If you look closely,
check out that gap between the door and the hump there.
That shows how much bondo was needed,
as the cab corner attaches to it.

slice and dice

This door jamb section was smacked hard.
The new door amplified how far off it was.

wacked

For months I had seen this section,
subconsciously figuring it out how to fix it.

2nd layer

I had tried bending it.
I had tried hammering it.
I had tried clamping it and pulling it with a twisted rope.
I didn't want to heat it and hammer it as the section is too large.
Besides finding a replacement section,
cutting, hammering, welding and grinding prevailed.
Typical.

stitched

Those months of study paid off,
cause the fix only took a couple hours.

magic paint
stool cameo

Now that the door jamb matched the door,
the original cab corner was fit in.

rough fit

Here you can see how bad the piece was,
even after hammering.
I was concerned that too much hammering would stretch it out,
farther than the door.
Well obviously I overthought that part.
Anyway if you look closely,
check out the black sharpie line next to the door.

major realignment

It was off a ton.
Also look at the rear peak where the patch panels meet.
Nothings easy.

trimmed

That section had to be cut out,
and that is why that other piece had to be welded in.

mini panel
from earlier post

With this part roughed in,
a new peak was hammered out,
and crudely installed.

almost there

As you can see it also got a little smoother.
This was after some really tough left hand hammering.
Hammering on this was probably not the smartest way
to test my ambidexterity,
but who has time to practice right!

magic paint

After a thick coat of epoxy,
it look alot better,
but far from perfect.

last patch panel

That paint is so strong,
that it is possible to hammer on it with out flaking.
Well before it is totally cured anyway.

If you remember,
I put it on thick with a mini-roller,
so that splotchiness is just the goopiness of the paint.

work truck

It will still need a good filler coat to smooth out,
but it was good to know what to do next time.
Buy a better cab!

TP

blackout party with the hurtlocker truck! - (v-ii)

The dreaded corner.

aye aye aye

The one part of the hurtlocker truck that truly sucks.
The drivers door did suck,
but that was an easy purchase.
This section doesn't come repopped,
unless you want the whole rear "big window" section.
Looking back,
it would have been easier to replace this whole section really.
Oh well.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

This post will be a little long,
so let's do an early song.
First a slow song that you can actually read to...



Blackout Party - wanna see you smile
 good band name huh!
For some reason,
this song reminds me of a stale beer smell,
and walking on peanut shells.
All it needs is some clanking pool balls to be perfect.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Ok that's better.

So back in JULY!!
I had cut this piece out.

when in doubt,
cut it out

Cutting it out was the easy part.
Here's a better shot of why it had to be fixed.
There was easy 1/2" of bondo on some parts of it.

bondo crazy

The piece was kicked around the shop,
while I tried to find a donor chunk.

soccer ball

Every now and then I'd start banging on that piece of sh...
I figured it couldn't be worse than what it was.
After 3+ months of fruitless searching for a new cab corner,
the original piece was looking good enough to use with a skim coat.

Ken had found new bottom corners,
so first I tackled the passenger side.

waiting

Typical truck rust and dents.
Seemed easy enough.

where's the stool?

That one went so smooth,
I figured it smart to start with the bottom panel,
than work my way up.
(on the other side obviously!)

there it is!

First there was a little subpanel repair,
but I must have been way focused cause I forgot to take pictures.

Uh oh,
an edit.
Here's the missing link.
perich brothers (and sister): the missing link

roughed in

Cause all of a sudden,
everything was back together.

This next part was,
let's say,
a pain in the asshh...

1955 chevrolet truck
technics sb-7000a 

The door had already been set,
and it was obvious early on that the accident had tweaked the cab good.

tool junkie

I would have liked to bend the door out,
but it was obvious the cab was pushed in.

With a couple strategic cuts,
some scrap wood,
and my brothers tool stash...

good enough!

With that all squared away,
the door jamb was next.
What's with it with me and these dang door jambs!

scratch built

Now I should have taken better pics,
this was the only one that came out clear.
The wire rolls came out clear in the other dozen shots.

With the door now lined up without the original 1/2" of bondo,
I found the perfect use of the cut off bottom piece.

chevy + chevy = chevy

The opposite side matched the curve closely.

male and female

Ok closely after a little hammering.

ta da

I'd love to say that that was it.
But nope.

welded

After a ton of welding,
it was obvious there was going to be alot of hammer work,
and on top of that one major patch.
I couldn't wait though,
it needed paint.

paint gooper

Everything looks better with a couple thick coats of epoxy.
Or maybe it's just the fumes.
I don't know.

a little better

There was a section that needed a patch.
It was the original fix to make the peak.

peak

The door had to be lined up first,
to match the peaks correctly.
So I had to wait til right about then to do it.
Ok maybe before the paint would have been better.

one more hole...

Since I was in the mood to make little holes everywhere...

yet another hole...

Hey when it rains it pours.
Probably not the right cliche for this moment,
but this is a long post and I'm getting a little tired here.
Has it been 3 minutes yet?
Good.
Here's another song.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%





Same band - different song
BLACKOUT PARTY - SPANISH GOLD
This will probably be there breakout song.

I know you'll like this,
so if you've got $1,
you can buy it or the whole record on this link-
it just came out last month

Spanish Gold | Blackout Party

Funny thing is there is no youtube stuff for me to ripoff of this band!

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

are we done yet?!

This was all done yesterday.
Just kidding.
This was all about 2 weeks ago,
but my pictures and time have been backed up.
So in the next day or more I'll do a more current update...

Until then....

TP

lil outrigger

your nine years old.
stuck at a grown-ups birthday party.
what are you gonna do?

little outrigger canoe

How about make a little outrigger canoe out of old plants?
Than float it down the little stream that feeds the koi pond!

miniature oc-1 or oc-2

By the end of the dinner party,
the little boat was dialed in.
Even capable of holding a bug passenger.

boredom killer

Funny how random yard debris could be so cool.
Good job Jake!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX




Dang it couldn't resist.
Grateful Dead - Cosmic Charlie
-trippy song, significance at the 1:00 lyrics!


TP

cursed

So the van died the other day.
It had been in the process of not wanting to start.
I'd gotten stuck  a couple times in the last 100 miles or so,
but it would start after a couple minutes.

On it's 4th to last trip,
there was this "door buzzer" type alarm ringing.
I'd have the kids open and close their doors but it didn't help.
Great.
The buzzing would stop after a while,
so I'd just drive it,
 figuring that there are so many wires on this thing maybe something shorted.

2001 ford e350
fuel pump repair

Fortunately the time it really died,
it was in front of the shop.
Because of the possibility of a wiring problem,
I was tentative on replacing the fuel pump,
even though it was the most likely culprit.

broken hangers

The van was from New Jersey,
and they must salt those rodes something fierce out there,
cause there is alot of rust.
As a result,
the threaded rods on the fuel tank hangers broke off.
Nice.

Also,
I have never been so dirty working on a car.
Seriously my hands and arms were black,
and so was my face.
The outer rubber on the hoses was like powder.
It was crazy.
Seriously.
It was ridiculous.

fixed

I must be cursed.
Seems like I can't do anything without breaking out the grinder and welder.
Oh well.
It justified doing it myself,
a mechanic would have doubled the price by than.
(even though it took a huge part of the day...)

I had priced out the fuel pump on the O'reilly website.

$90 for the pump only

$200 for the whole assembly (airtex)

$400+ for the whole assembly (bosch)

Since I'm a cheap mofo,

and the assembly was so clean,

(how could it not work after 200,000 miles!)

I started to think about replacing just the pump.

dead fuel pump assembly

Than I had second thoughts,
as they didn't make it easy to just swap out the pump.
Especially since its sitting inside the tank,
and will be pumping out 60 psi for a (hopeful) couple years.

So I got the cheaper replacement.
Hated to spend the money cause I still wasn't sold that it wasn't the wiring.
Sure enough it worked.
Ahhh.
Now I'm kinda thinking the Bosch pump would have been a smarter buy.
Those Germans make some good chit.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Lucy's Fur Coat - Still I complain

If you can find it,
get this CD or download or whatever.
"Jaundice"
Lucy's Fur Coat - Jaundice [Audio CD]
One of my most worn out discs.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway,
it runs,
I'm happy.

How could I write a whole friggin article on replacing a fuel pump!

TP