I spent Friday cleaning up from the Thunderstorms on Thursday night that caused a canopy in my back yard to come down and do some damage to my Toyota parked in the driveway. After spending 2 hours taking apart the canopy I took the car to the body shop and got an estimate of $1,100. Then headed to the insurance company and found out that the insurance agent doesn't really do anything anymore. I had to call and get a case # and now I am waiting on the adjuster to call me (said it would be 3-5 days cause the car was driveable) and then we will decide what to do.

Hopefully things turn out ok. The damage is not that bad because nothing fell on the car. The poles from the canopy just scratched the car down to the metal. My Toyota is a 2008 but I only have 50,000 miles on it and have taken very good care of it. I would hate to not have this fixed.

I feel like I got quite a bit done today...

bed swap, installed the bigger fuel pump, etc.

Just a busy beaver aren't you?

Filled up all my vehicles today. Getting ready for the road trip to NOCC on Thursday.

My 2 pigs are gonna need gas in the next couple days.

Not much to see... the rain put a stop to things early. Sanded and buffed headlights, installed tail lights and the billet inserts into the grille. I still need to do the same to the marker lights and install them. No PCM yet, I checked on it Wednesday - he still hasn't had time. I am going to order a new plastic cap for the front bumper and a plastic step pad for the rear bumper. Then I can install the bumpers next weekend. Still need to finish prepping and paint the tailgate. I really hope to have my truck back by the end of this month. I haven't driven it since April.

Have done nothing for the past 7 weeks...can't drive. :(

How are you doing Bill ,a lot of your Chevelle buds were asking about you in Ohio ?

Thanks John
Still gimping around...progress not moving fast enough. Summer's going quickly...
Thinking about selling the '72 and buy an auto Chevelle.

I finished the "cosmetics" of the front of the truck yesterday. Still waiting for my base tune. :rolleyes: I really need to learn how to do it myself.

I been doing maintenance on the vehicles. More like looking the van over and the truck needs things. But after the checks I pulled the muffler off of the truck today. Ordered a new one. It is a 4WD and I mainly only use it in the snow. So it gets a beat down from salt and snow. That muffler is only a few years old but it is shot.

Finally! Going to install the PCM tomorrow and see how close the base tune is.

Been fighting a no start issue since Friday. Finally heard it run briefly today, now it appears that I need to reset the VATs system. I will give it a shot tomorrow, I need to get it sorted out soon. It is going on the chassis dyno Monday morning at 8:30. (The 26th)

Starting installing a set of headers on the motorhome. Of course one of the studs was busted already busted off below the surface of the head. All the rest backed out without any problem. Got the busted stud out, hung the header and connector pipe. Have to start on the other side now. A lot less access on the drivers side. You would think a motorhome would be easy but I'd much rather install new heads and headers on the Chevelle then install headers on the motorhome.

Got it running this afternoon, still working out a few kinks. I plan to put about 100 miles on it this weekend.

Son, buys a new 2017 Volkswagen Jetta, the other night. I get a call yesterday that his wife took it out for a drive and a logging operation had dropped mud and good size rocks on the road. With on coming traffic she was unable to miss a large rock, bent the rear right rim, tore off the brake caliper and damaged the rear control arm. Car with only 100 miles on and about $3000 in damages. Have to wait a least a week for parts and now trying to get damages from the logging company.

Took it for a short ride this morning, still working out a few bugs. But, happy to have it moving under it's own power again.

Putting it to work this morning. :D Shuffling around some vehicles so I can get the C10 on the lift.

Put a bike rack on the receiver hitch of my 93 Indy truck ,going to get back into riding the bike now .

:mad: The driveshaft exploded on the dyno this morning...

How many pulls did you get in before it let go on ya? Damage anything else?

I think 3 or 4. The muffler is toast, the DS loop that I built took a shot. And unsure if it hurt the transmission internally or not, I will have to get another driveshaft in it to find out.

Carnage picture...

More carnage pictures...

I am having trouble getting a u joint, I have another yoke. But, it's not exactly the same.

Getting the ol Dragon in shape for winter. Had leaking trans lines. Got the old ones off. Radiator came with the front part to the rubber lines.

I gonna save 250 bucks here I am good with that. I needed both lines and both rubber hoses they were wasted. I got a roll of tubing on the way. And it took hours to find but I also got the inverted flare fittings and nuts to join what I am making to the front lines.

I ain't with the quick leak fittings anyway. I prefer the flared ends. No leaks and if I ever got to take it apart they still work. As opposed to the 6 months the quick release got before they are junk and leak if you got to mess with them again.

Poor ol dragon(durango) is the snow car. So all it sees is salt and nasty. Taking it kinda hard on the lines rusting. Good ol truck tho she earns her keep.

Finished up installing headers on the motorhome. New iridium plugs and wires. Runs good and no more exhaust leaks.

Yea, I know headers are worthless with a full exhaust. At least that's what the 'EXPERTS' on the other side of the pond say. Maybe a set of electric cutouts is in the future for the motorhome. Don't want to waste all that money and effort installing headers if they won't increase performance. :confused:

I get puzzled looks from friends when they see the headers on my truck.

"Wait... you have headers on your truck, but not on the Chevelles?"

I was able to get my truck up and running again, found a u joint, had another driveshaft and a spare yoke. Been driving it, drivability is crap. I have been going back and forth with the tuner. I did my own research and trouble shooting, it seems like the segment swap for the transmission part of the tune didn't carry over. (He copied and pasted my old tune, then made adjustments) I had the notion to try the PCM from my old truck this morning. I'll be damned, it shifts and locks the converter now.

I am going to pay him a visit this week with my findings and see what happens. I didn't get over there today - I was busy with other things and honestly needed to cool off a bit.

This however is the push I needed to buy HP tuners and learn how to do this type of work myself.

A good friend of mine stopped by Wednesday afternoon and helped me get the tune mostly sorted out. It runs strong. :D

After work today, I went over and put a stepside bed on my father's Sierra. Still need to finish the body work and paint it.

Got my truck on the lift over at my folks. The muffler has come apart... succumbed to the damage from the great driveshaft debacle. Have a new one on the way. Also replaced a section of crushed pipe from the same incident. Did a new transmission filter at the same time. Going to install larger transmission cooler too - trucool 40K.

The plugs are shot from detonation during tuning, have a set - just need to install. And the replacement MAF sensor is acting up, so I picked up a genuine GM part.

Lastly, I am going to take measurements and order a beefier driveshaft. The truck should be ready for a final tune at that point.

Finally had some time after work today...

Installed my big arsed transmission cooler yesterday. :D

Tailgate is painted and installed on the truck finally. Small progress here and there when I have time and the weather is agreeable.

I installed my new grille Friday. It's aftermarket and isn't the best, but it's better than the one my father leaned on and broke. I have yet to reinstall the bowtie. It's not the prettiest. I was considering painting it black, but not sure it will look the best. Then I started thinking maybe blue? Chevrolet cars and trucks from the late 60s had a blue bowtie. I took a picture of the bowtie on the grille of my 69' Malibu for reference. I think I am going to try to find some paint a similar color.

Thoughts?

Poor van must have a curse on it. Been totalled 4 times and never has it been the person driving it at the times fault. One time the poor thing was just sitting in a parking lot and got nailed.

But today she escaped doom. Sitting at a light. Guy was tailgating and weaving in and out of traffic. Einstein made his move nailed it about hit to cars and got out of the pack. He is looking over at the guy he just about hit in triumph. So he is doing easy 80 in a 55 now racing that guy.

Well he looks forward and there I am sitting at a red light. Nails his brakes after his eyes get as big as saucers and his jaw dropped.

I am thinking not again this never ends well. I see he isn't even going to be able to stop. And he is going to end up 6 foot inside my van.

So I nailed it and did a drag strip type take off. He was 6 inches away when I started pulling away. He ended up being where I was just sitting.

So the Phoenix van escaped fate this time. Me and my boy didn't get hurt. So all in all we were lucky,

So why do people cover or blur out the license plate when they post a pic of a vehicle? Every where you go it's visible but you don't want somebody online to see it. So what gives?

BTW: Changed the front brake hardware on the old Malibu today. Brakes didn't feel right, lot's of rust around the clips holding the pads. Had to knock one pad out with a small hammer. I'll test it in a bit. Hope it's good, that's the car we'll tow behind the motorhome when you go to FL.

Hank, it's just out of habit I suppose.

I was just wondering, you see it a lot.

Spent the day with the van. I gave her a physical. Just making sure everything was okay and no maintenance was needed. I put a new spindle on the passenger side a while back.

So I did a caster camber and alignment on her. Drives like new again. I love it when a plan comes together.

Finally changed the plugs and MAF sensor on the truck. Gave it a quick wash too. The recent modifications seem to be keeping the transmission fluid nice and cool. The true test will be when I tow the C10 for a tune.