Miatatude

The Company You Keep

Company

Years of soakings of oil and fork lift traffic have really taken their toll making the main traffic areas in the Turned Parts department very rough and the whole department dark and slippery. This past week a contractor came in and is floating some sort of epoxy / concrete hybrid mix down about a 1/4 inch thick and following up with a two-step epoxy paint job in light gray. A couple years ago they did a section at a different end of the department before we added some fancy new fangled CNC machines and it looked fantastic, still does, so they are working their way north throughout the whole shop.

We moved some of our machines around and even shipped a few down to Mexico to create about 5000′ square feet of floor that is being upgraded. Trouble is the main entrance to our cube farm is smack in the middle of the area, so since Tuesday we have had to walk out a service door in the back of the plant to get into a side door of the office area. The only down side for me has been that bathroom breaks now take a bit of forethought because what used to be a 30 second walk is now about 2 minutes long.

Where we park the Emperor (or Purple Whale) is in the far corner of the parking lot from the front door and is normally vacant except for us. This week we’ve had company out there because as it turns out our corner of the parking lot is at one end of the hypotenuse of a scalene triangle with the other end being the door to our offices. In other words the shortest distance between parking lot & office chair for my department members is Donna and my normally quiet corner of the parking lot. Hence the crowd.

The final coat of paint goes on the floor on Sunday, so by Monday morning we should be back to having our corner of the lot to ourselves.

Where is my NB love Mr. Blipshift?

Just might be coming to the internet soon…

A couple weeks ago I sent in a rebuttal of sorts to the then latest Blipshift T-shirt, well today, I received this in my email inbox:

Thanks for your blipshift submission. We read your idea loud and clear, and we think it has great potential (plus we agree, it’s time for an NB design)!

It’s pretty typical for us to go back and forth with the idea to either modify it or suggest further tweaks, and we will be working with our talented artists community and in-house pit crew to transform this idea into a blip-tastic design. For this one we’ll probably start by reaching out to the artist of the original NA shirt. Once a finalized design has been made, we will get some more details from you, and can get it scheduled for printing. Then when people ask you, “Whose awesome idea was that?” you can say, “Mine!”

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Cheers!
Daniel
-team blipshift

Looks like I’ll be adding a new Blipshift Miata shirt to my T collection. Maybe a hoodie too. Oh, and a poster. I hope Santa leaves me some money in my stocking.

No NB Love

Today’s Blipshift T-shirt is another Miata design. NAlware, which is kind of a pun in a few ways. I’m sure of the first because of the always allow pop-ups tag line and the NA Miata headlights. Malware and pop up windows on the internet. Maybe a stretch, but ware = wear, a t-shirt with an NA on it.

pop_up_detail_grande

I’m going to pass on this one though, if I still owned a blue 1st gen car I’d be all over it. Maybe buy more than one, wear a hoodie over a short sleeve version….but I’ve got enough Miata themed shirts from them and all of them are of the 1st gen car. All their shirts have been of NA’s except one and that was a 3rd generation (NC) car.

Blipshift is always asking for design ideas or artist submissions, so I felt that this last NA design needed a response, so I submitted a version of my latest internet avatar.

Pop-up Blocker Detail Grande

Where is my NB love Mr. Blipshift?

How Ya Been?

Me too.

The Emperor returned home Wednesday evening. And the squeal was not related to the oil leak at all. The leak was caused by the exhaust cam seal. If about now you are thinking, wait a minute, exhaust cam seal, that sounds familiar. Right you are. It was changed back in October which is why Steve didn’t charge me for changing it this time.

He did charge me for a used alternator though. That was the squeal. Not oil on the belts, but bad bearings in the alternator. Steve said that the very act of backing the car up and driving the 75 feet into the garage made the alternator almost too hot to touch. Glad that sucker didn’t lock up somewhere in the mountains of western North Carolina.

When Donna asked if I minded the used vs. a new one I said, “Nah.” “This one came off a car with like 60,000 miles on it and the original failed at 160K, so I figure by the time the used one goes the Emperor will have over a quarter millions miles on it.” Of course, wouldn’t you know it, yesterday coming home from work in the Miata, a couple times when we came to a stop sign the car let loose with a squeal of sorts. Didn’t sound like what I thought was belt squeal before, not as loud and a different pitch, but it wasn’t a normal sound either.

We are going to breakfast with the MMC tomorrow, if the noise appears again we may just be driving back to Panic Motorsports this Sunday morning too.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 113

Squealing Like A Stuck Pig

Last Friday when we were at the gap, as we left the dam overlook, the Emperor took off with a horrible bit of belt squeal for the first 50 yards or so. Talk about embarrassing, especially as the few cars that were there were tricked out Subaru WRXs and tarted up Nissan Z cars. On Sunday morning we got so early a start for home it was still dark out. Turns out this was a good thing because not many people were awake and those that were couldn’t see which car was emitting that howling banshee squeal for the first 1/4 mile going east on NC 143 out of Robbinsville.

Tuesday evening the Miata got a bath, so Wednesday when we went to back out of the garage, the belt squeal started right up, and if you think this is noisy when driving outside, inside our one-car garage it is ear piercingly loud. I didn’t even let out the clutch and turned the car off.

Have I mentioned that there is still oil accumulating on the garage floor? At first I could explain it away as left over oil from the previous leaks aided by gravity finding its way down, but after wiping up a paper towel’s worth for three Saturdays in a row I’m thinking this is not the case. My best non-mechanically educated guess is that these two things are related. Who knows, maybe wherever the oil is coming from now it is splashing some on one of the accessory belts.

This morning I squirted a little belt dressing on them to prevent scaring little children and setting the neighborhood dogs barking as we left to drive the Emperor back to Panic Motorsports.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 111

Living In Denial

They1 were calling for rain for Saturday and when we got up and checked the radar, it was, thirty miles north of us. We ran the futurecast and it looked like the rain would hold out until between 9 and 10 at the site of Cars & Coffee. All we needed was a few minutes to get the “Car Show Photo” for the Motoring Challenge and then, for all we cared, it could pour. We left home with the top down.

There was a very slight mist in the air. We sat by the window while we ate breakfast to keep an eye out. As we were ready to leave Hardee’s a car pulled in and it was quite wet. Donna asked the woman where she came from and where was it raining. Her reply both relieved us a little and scared us some too. We started for downtown and about halfway there it started to sprinkle a bit. I asked if we should put up the top before I got out of the car to take some cash out of the ATM. Donna said no, but hurry up.

Flush with twenties, we headed west towards Augusta. A couple blocks later larger drops started to fall. When those large drops started to come a little quicker, I asked again and this time Donna said yes. The rain wasn’t too bad so we continued on hoping that it might break and it would even be sprinkling when we got to Augusta. Ha. Less than a mile later it really started raining. The further we got out of downtown the harder it came down. When it got to the point that I could no longer drive the posted speed limit safely, I hung a left and drove back home.

They1 we calling for a cloudy morning today and when we got up it was, so we proceeded with our usual Sunday morning bike ride for breakfast. As we pedaled through the neighborhood we could feel some moisture in the air, but that was to be expected with yesterday’s rain and this morning’s lingering clouds. A few miles into the ride the mist thickened and with the cool northerly breeze it was not real pleasant. Donna offhandedly mentioned turning around, going home and getting in the car. I said, no, its not that much further.

Ha. Should have listened. The further we rode, the heavier the mist got and glasses were getting hard to see through. It was too late by this time to turn around, so we rode the last mile grumbling to ourselves getting very damp.

We enjoyed a nice leisurely meal inside of Ridgecrest sharing a Breakfast Panini and reading the local paper while sipping hot morning drinks. When we went back outside to get on our bikes for the ride home, the clouds were still low and thick, but the mist was completely gone. The ride home was a lot drier.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 96

1. When I say “They” in this case, I mean the finely trained expert meteorologists at the Weather Channel.

The Emperor Is Acting Like A LBC 1

State - Georgia

He’s got an oil leak. Wednesday when we left Vicksburg, MS in the morning the car clattered a little longer than usual, but I chalked it up to the fact that is was parked nose up at about a 20° because of the slope of the lot. At our first stop of the morning I smelled a little cooked motor oil, but chalked that up to the ratty pickup truck we were next to in the quick stop lot. At the second stop I smelled it again. This time we were all alone in the lot.

I popped the hood and, oh yeah, the smell is coming from there. I checked the oil. The bottom of the dip stick was dry! Added two quarts of oil and it brought it up to full. At least it only needed two…the car only holds four. From then on for the next day and a half and 650 miles we carried around a quart of oil in trunk. Every couple miles I’d add a 1/2 quart or so.

Yesterday I jacked up the car and boy was it oily. I bet half of what I lost was coating the underside of the car. I was more on the right side than the left and it really seemed to be coming from around the oil filter. But when I went to see if it was loose, it wasn’t, it was still tight.

I sprayed Simple Green around the bottom of the car and pressure washed it as best I could using my lame homeowner weekend washer. Changed the oil and filled it up again. Then I washed the car and gave it a quick spray wax. I then laid a towel down in the garage and parked the Miata over it.

This morning we went to breakfast at Steak & Shake in Augusta with the MMC. When I backed out of the garage the towel didn’t look dirty at all. The leak went away? Highly unlikely. On the way to breakfast we stopped on I-520 going into Georgia to get the last State we’ll get for the Motoring Challenge, bringing this year’s tally to 22 (if you count DC as one & they do), this is exactly twice last year’s eleven. When we got home at about 11:00 AM the Emperor got parked back in the garage.

We went out this evening in the Purple Whale to fill it with gas and get an ice cream cone. On returning home I backed the Miata out of the garage and looked at the floor. There was a pool of of about 5 or 6 ounces of clean oil on the floor. I guess the leak is still there. My guess now on the source is near the upper front right, probably the valve cover gasket. It leaks out during operation and falls down on to the plastic under tray and then during that 8 hours of down time drips slowly onto the floor. The dip stick was down a half a quart.

I think it is time for another visit to the Miata Doctors at Panic Motorsports.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 88

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 75
Totals So Far: 143 points & 7640 miles

1. LBC is an acronym for Little British Car.