Winter Blues, Winter Options

[r_towle]

OK,
It was 10 degrees below zero (farenheit for Jeroen) still 2 feet of snow here and its f##@@$% cold.
to cold to touch metal
to cold to breath in through your nose.
And way to cold to rebuild my car this weekend....

Even with the heater in the garage, its just to cold to go out there..

A nice fire, the auction on speed, some football....

California always looks great this time of year.

Rich :finger2:

[Brad Roberts]

34-24 with 9 minutes to go. Raiders have the ball..

It's the "Gruden Bowl" in San Diego this year !! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif)

Yesterday was chilly in North Bay, we went to kick on the heater in the prodcution area and realized the gas was off.. DOH !!


B

[Brad Roberts]

Sorry.

41-24 with 3:25 to play.

B

[GWN7]

-33 C here tonight....almost a heat wave

[mskala]

Rich,
I know what you mean. Luckily I put all my suspension
back on when we were way up at 11 degrees. I can
get good heat. But there's so much snow and no
insulation in the garage, so I'm worried about creating
leaks from ice dams. Anyway, I've been practicing
welding in the warm basement.
Mark S.
'70 914-6

[Jeroen]

luckily, the frost is gone here (even though it was no where near as cold as with you norhtern guys) and I don't think we'll have anymore this year...
So it's back to the same old same old drooly depressive dutch weather

I did work on the 914 tonight!
(my wife actually made me go to the garage, dunno if she was tired of me or if she wants the car done)

I sorta test-fitted the steeringwheel and recaro seat (the wife was VERY happy to finally see that one move out of the house and into the garage).
I definatly need a quickrelease for the steeringwheel, otherwise there is no way I'm ever gonna get into that seat once the rollcage has been installed...

Next I took off the rear suspension. Wow, that was easy for a change!
Either the shocks or the bushings (or maybe both) were pretty frozen up.
With the rear controlarm all the way down, I could actually jack the car up from the controlarm without the suspension moving an inch!
Luckily, everything unbolted smoothly, so that wasn't a problem.

Then I crawled a little further under the car to stare at the rusty framerails...
I think I found a way to save the tub.
Last time I looked at this, I was close to giving up on it, which I really hated 'cause I made some kind of stoopid commitment to myself to use this tub and not 'whimp out'.

I gave the front struts another try, but still couldn't get the struts to seperate from the a-arms.
I tried putting a stand under the hub, and (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) -ing the arm, like Brad suggested and I tried heat, but neither would work.
I'll give it one more try next time, or otherwise I'll get nasty and hit the a-arms with an angled grinder (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
(the a-arms and struts are crap anyway, so there's nothing lost).

Cheers,

Jeroen

[rick 918-S]

It's frickin freezing here. NO SNOW! We usually have chest and neck high banks around the edge of the driveway by now. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining about not having snow. If you live in this part of the country you'll spend a 1/3 of your life behind a snow shovel. But if it snows it warms up a little. Long term forcast more below zero farenheit for the next week. I finally have the new hobby shop insulated and sheet rocked. I've been out there with a turbo heater trying to install the water heater for the slab heat. But with no snow to insulate the ground the frost is deep. I'm not sure I can afford to thaw the dang ground out around and under the slab with the hot water. I'm thinking I should just forget about using the new shop until next winter. I can still heat the old garage and get a little work done. I took the attached photo this fall. Foreground my wifes California 59 MGA, back ground my new hobby shop. I've been working on this thing for 3 years. I cut and nailed every cedar shake on the gable. I still have to finish the other gable.

[Brad Roberts]

Rich,

that is a hobby shop ?? It looks like a national monument. Good job.

B

[vortrex]

it's bigger than my house!

[campbellcj]

We're having a damn freezing spell here too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool_shades.gif)

I was gonna go swimming yesterday, but the pool is 56F even though it was almost 80F outside

[Mark Henry]

It is colder than a witch’s tit here! It’s –20 C at night and 18 inches of snow.

If you don’t have heat you don’t work, period!
Luckily, I have my own wood lot and a little shop. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Mueller]

snow SUCKS....

True story here:

Drove up to Tahoe years ago in a 4 banger 80's Mustang...Automatic....

Going up Hwy 80 the tach starts to climb yet I'm slowing down...WTF?? Or damn, it's snowing and my tires are bald (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

On top of that the car has to be pulled over every couple of hours due to a sparkplug wire comming loose....oh, did I mention we had no heater or defroster in the car?

Get to Tahoe, win a few hundred bucks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Next morning things good better, yea right:

Dead battery...so I go by jumper cables....

Huge f'n storm approaching: I go to buy new rear tires and chains...I then lock the keys in my car

Desperate, I borrow a screwdriver and pry the lock out of the rear trucklid.....

Get new tires and chains and head on home...driving along and next thing I know I am intiamate with a snow bank...back up and keep on driving.....oh shit.....now I rear end a toyota pickup and push him into a snowbank...I stop...no damage and start back torwards home....Did I mention no heater or defroster??

Due to no defroster, I am wiping the windows with newspaper
with the windows down.....I am creeping at about 5 miles per hour since I am scared shitless now of going off the road again...guess who comes by? A big f'n truck that hits a puddle and splashes 50 gallons of ice cold water, slush and snow INTO the car (window was down)


I want to cry....finally make it to Truckee where we get the very last hotel room.....I take a 2 hour shower trying to warm up....

Next morning car is covered with snow, I had to buy a snow shovel to uncover the car.....finally make it home later that day when the roads finally open.....

Put a heater in the car the next weekend........

Needless to say, I have only been back to the snow twice in 10 years of that happening........

SNOW SUCKS

[Brad Roberts]

That is a great story no matter how many times I hear it/read it.

I try to keep my stupidty down. I would have never left in a car without heat.

I drove a 914 in ONE Texas ice storm.. the carb kept freezing up.

B

[seanery]

Mike,

I had a similar, but not so shitty experience.

I decided to bring my 944 turbo to Los Angeles until the race car was done do I could do DE's and stuff.

May 1, 2001: I fly into Indy, get my car and start heading west. I take I-70 because I love the drive through Colorado, and hey, it's spring, so no problem, right?

I'm doing great, make a little off course excursion to a Kansas Harley shop, I stop at all the open hog shops when I travel. I then head to Colorado Springs and spend the night. I can see snow at Pikes Peak as I pull into town and stay at the Hampton Inn & Suites (plug here, my client).

The next morning I head down to Pueblo to cut across Colorado 50 which will take me to Durango and then to Ouray. Once I get west of Peublo it starts to snow, but not sticking to badly. Higher and higher I go, getting farther west than the Interstates. The car does ok, but I really need new tires, but that's ok, cause I have a new set of Boxster S wheels and great rubber waiting for me back at home in LA. I'm being as careful as I can and then all of a sudden the roads are totally covered and I'm way, way, way up in the mountains on the East side of Monarch Pass. Things aren't going so well, so I turn down John Denver singing "Rocky Mountain High", yeah, I know I'm a dork. I'm getting pretty worried cause my rear tires are just about bald, but I'm going uphill and the hill is on my side of the road so I'm not gonna die or anything. Well right as I was thinking that the car does a 360 in front of a Jeep going the other way. I end up running into the mountain! Luckily, the ground wasn't frozen and I didn't break anything, but I couldn't get the car out, and there was no cell service! I try to push it for a while but get no where. I can't run the engine to stay warm because the exhaust is blocked by the mountain I slammed into. Finally someone picks me up and drops me at a tow service 1/2 mile down the hill. They take me to my car, tell me that I really shouldn't be driving a Porsch in this weather. They pull me out and I follow the guy back down the hill and spin 3 more times. I'm totally scared shitless because I'm driving 5 miles an hour, now going downhill with the edge side now on my side of the road.

If you're still reading my story know this:

That was the best trip of my life. I ended up totally taking my time and going back down the mountain until I got to Texas Creek. I saw a ranch for sale that I liked, stopped and watched buffalo running in the snow, and just thoroughly enjoyed the drive. I've been searching for land between Texas Creek & Ouray ever since.

It goes on, though. Things were great, once I got into New Mexico, no snow, the weather got warmer so it was nice. Until Arizona, where the thermostat died in the turbo! ARGHH! I'm in the friggin' desert and the thermo's stuck closed.

Well I drive with the heat cranked up and well back from anyone to get a breeze through the rad and stop at this little podunk town.
Lucky for me, the guy could get the part at NAPA. Hmmm, that's weird. He spends like 5 or 6 hours tearing apart my car, get's it all together and all seems good.

It went well except that he didn't bleed the system and an hour or so, I'm baking again! I pull into Tuscon or some other town and rented a truck and a trailer and towed it the rest of the way home.

But you know what?
It was still the BEST trip of my life!

Hey, the car is for sale if anyone wants it.

It's in Indy again.

[r_towle]

Old days...at least it's warm now

[Spoke]

Not looking forward to winter.

Winters were fun when the kids were younger and we skied alot. Not so much these days.

Days already starting to get shorter.

High temps in PA hedging around mid to upper 70s. Nights hitting upper 50s.

[02loftsmoor]

I know what you mean a cold front is coming though Sunday late, supposed to drop into the upper 90s (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)