Underscore, I just got some flat enamel and brushed it on. I put a cloth underneath so it didn't drip onto anything. It took about an hour. Not a difficult job--just wants doing. If I had to do it over again, I might lay some thick paper underneath, take the blades off, and rattlecan the arms with spray black. Or take the arms off and do them.
Grip-addict, thanks! I've really been enjoying this. This car has changed my life. I find myself in conversations I never woke up knowing I'd be in. And it sure has improved my commute. Lastly, it's changed my whole remembrance of a period in my life that began with a great job and a new Super Red Celica ST and ended with getting fired and handing the Celica back to the bank. Following that were the rest of the nineties, which I made more difficult than they had to be. I was foot-bound for two years and eventually ended up in a 1982 Datsun 210 hatchback--basic transportation that served well but quite the demotion. Like this one:
Now, that bad memory is repaired. Which is what I was hoping for. And though owning this GT-Four entails troubles and money, it's been worth it so far.
Yesterday's detail work:
The engine compartment was pretty clean and dry when I got it. The main issues were dust and minor rust, and the normal old aluminum surface corrosion. I got after it with some Gunk engine degreaser, steel wool, and Meguiar's Ultimate Black. I'm not too sure you can see much difference but it does look better in person, and I fouled several microfiber towels in the doing.
The metal inside the engine compartment just aft of the headlight is especially exposed to the environment. I took a brass brush to it and then brushed on some flat enamel. It won't win any beauty contests but it sure looks better.
We took the GT-Four out to Luray and back to Alexandria along the twisties for a seven hour, 285km round trip. This was a longer range shakedown to test reliability because until now I've kept it close to home on shorter trips. The route was a very nice combination of open roads, expressways, and heavily wooded two-lane twisties. The weather was cool and clear--about as nice as you could ask for.
Which was helpful because the A/C stopped blowing cold after we made a stop at a roadside shop. It had been doing fine until then. The performance drop off I'd been noting was slow until it happened all at once. That didn't cast much of a pall over the trip, given the nice weather. The wife said that these things happen with older cars--she was mostly concerned that I'd be disappointed, or that I'd get discouraged if the expenses started mounting. She didn't have the "Oh, this thing is falling apart" angry wife attitude. That was nice. I told her that with the weather turning cooler I'm inclined to take my time getting it fixed, and told her I just want to slow the roll a little on the outgoing cash. That way if something more urgent presents I'll be better postured to correct it. She was pretty supportive, whether I wanted to get on it right away or later. So all good there for now!
:notworthy:
Performance was great. Running very nicely on 93 octane pump gas at stock boost. The suspension setup isn't the most comfortable for road touring, and I had to pay close attention to bumps and potholes lest we take a hit, but it's stiff and tight in the corners. Whoever set this up knew what they were doing, in my opinion. I don't have high performance tires on it but it held on very stably and I didn't have to widen out the turn at speed to avoid understeer in tight corners so much. It just feels so planted. On the open straightaways it doesn't have to be rapped out to get what you want in terms of acceleration and speed. It's a I4, so it
does rev higher at speed than I'm used to with a V6, and it
is a louder experience overall than most modern vehicles. But it passed the wife test as far as general comfort, with the proviso that it's a different sort of car and therefore a different experience as a given. Overall, it was an enjoyable time.
There's a very nice stretch of road between Sperryville and Luray, where HWY 211 crosses the Shenandoah Ridge--the kind of road the ST185 was made for.