Subie Shocks And Struts.... Round Two! Persistence Pays With Victory!

Having hatched a plan "B" ( for "Broken!") I took another stab at the Subie this afternoon after church. ( And a long nap!)   I was pleased with the results.  

First, I want to say that I have never worked with "heat" before in removing nuts or bolts. As far as the science goes,  It is simple:  Apply heat to the nut to expand the metal.   Then break it free.   It works!  

I managed to get all 4 of the nuts off the bolts and safely remove the Shock/strut assemblies. Victory never tasted so sweet!

In the process of putting thing back together thought,  I noticed why one bolt in particular gave me such a hard time.  Turns out the threads on the nut are compressed!   And they are even MORE difficult to put back on!  So... with daylight running out,  Dave took me to several stores to find a substitute.   Menhards happened to have the right bolt... But not the NUT!  ( Murphy's Law!)  So I purchased a substitution that is close to hardness and size.   But now the day is over and I will have to postpone the finally until tomorrow.  

The new Strut assemblies are in!  I just have to clean and tighten things up. 

So... That was a big Victory for me.   Any time I am "successful" with the Subie,  I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. 

I also ran 8 miles, did 1000 sit-ups, and finished designing Fransiscoe's Embroidery shirt request. ( A zebra with a rose in its mouth.) You would think he is from Spain with his strange requests.   Did I mention I did most of this before Church? ( I did get up around 4 A.M.) 

But one of the BIG events of the day was the Car Show going on at the Petrified Springs Beer Garden.  I dropped in after church in the 92 degree heat to check out all of the cool cars.   I managed to find Kevin from Work who told me about the show last week.   He was showing off his Corvette Stingray and will be going to another show in a few days to show off his Chrysler "Boat" that he has.  ( I forget the name of the design.) 

I managed to flag down all of my previous vehicles and several other designs that have a certain meaning to me.   Mostly they were all AMC cars.   My first car:  The Gremlin.   My only truck:  A Jeep Comanche. Several other jeeps and AMC cars that I have fond memories of.  The Concord,  The Pacer,  The Wild Willy Jeep.   

I was bummed that I could not find an AMC Eagle.   The first 4X4 wheel drive sedan.  They were ahead of their time before the AWD cars came into vogue.   Now, my love is for Subaru. 

I could have taken a TON of pics,  but I limited the scope to cars that meant something to me personally,   There were LOTS of cool old cars there.  And talking cars with Old Men is kind of fun.  

Tomorrow,  I plan on finishing up the embroidery,  the Subaru, and perhaps finally get to Painting the fish and the birdhouse.  IT seems that three days will be taken completely up in the small tasks I have set up for myself.   But staying busy is not a terrible thing, after all.  And it helps when you actually WANT to do the things you have set up.  Because time is short... And every second counts.