Thayn Moore's Space: Hobbies

Joseph caught his first fish

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:44:26 GMT

I had one of those sniffily, "I can't believe how fast my kids are growing" moments recently when I took Joseph fishing and he caught his own fish. We went out to Silver Lake in Everett WA. It's a nice little lake in south Everett near our home. We went out early on Saturday morning, I had purchased a cheap Spiderman fishing pole for him the night before. I crept in to his room and whispered, "Do you want to go fishing?". Sleepy as he was, he was so excited. We went downstairs and he opened his new fishing pole, much to his delight. I've never seen him so excited about anything. He jabbered on a mile a minute, saying things like, "Daddy, I love fishing!". It was really fun. We stopped and had a McDonalds egg sandwich and then off we went to the lake.

We fished for about an hour before we had to return to help with a move. The entire time he never wavered in his excitement. He was so patient (I don't remember being that patient at 10, and he's only 3). In the end, we had several strikes but no fish and it was time to leave. I had him reel in while I gathered up our stuff. Once he had reeled in and was still waiting for me to gather everything together he sat and sort of dipped his worm in and out of the water there at the dock's edge. All of a sudden he yelled, "Daddy, I caught a fish!" My first thought was, yeah right. But then I looked and sure enough, he had caught the smallest bass I've ever seen. The angle of the picture doesn't do justice to how small it was (I'll have to remember that trick when the next time I catch a really big fish *wink*).

All in all, what a fun time. He hasn't stopped telling everyone he sees about his fish. When we arrived home we attached a rubber casting weight on his line and he sat for an hour and cast his pole in the front yard. It looks like I've got a future pro on my hands.

The Great Halibut Fishing Trip...

Fri, 11 May 2007 17:20:05 GMT

My dad and I went Halibut fishing this week. He flew up to Seattle over the weekend and on Sunday night at about 1:00 am we drove out to Westport, WA. The boat left at 4:15-4:30ish and it headed out about 30 miles off coast. It took about three hours to get out there and ugh, I was so seasick. I had started taking Dramamine the night before but it didn't seem to matter. From the lack of sleep and bunch of smokers puffing away the entire trip didn't help. I ended up bundling up and spending a good portion of the trip out trying to take in fresh air.

When we arrived at the location there were easily another 2 dozen other boats at the same spot (after we started fishing I could tell why). The fishing was excellent except for one issue, the number of people fishing on the boat. There were 18 fishermen (including my dad and I) and the skipper had asked us to buddy up and take turns so that only 9 were ever on the water at once. The problem was that some of the crew also at lines in so we tended to have 12 or so lines on at once. The skipper had us all fishing on the same side of the boat and it was a mess. A few of the fishermen were pretty inexperienced (including the guy next to us) and kept getting their lines tangled with everyone else's. At one point my dad had landed a huge fish (much bigger than the one that I ended up catching) and it ended up getting off while Dad was struggling to untangle his line from the next dude's.

The first fish I caught was about 15 lbs and I was amazed (at that point it was the biggest fish I had ever caught) then looked around to see that it was small compared to what everyone else was catching. Deep sea fishing is such a different game! Later, I ended up catching a 40 pounder! It was 47 inches long. As I was bring it up (I knew it was a big one) the guy next to me kept putting the tip of his pole within 2 feet of mine. I actually asked him if we would move over a bit several times. In the end we tangled and while we were trying to get the line untangled the fish rose and jumped out of the water (and almost escaped!). Luckily, we untangled pretty quickly and I brought the fish closed up to the boat. It was so big that the skipper was worried we wouldn't be able to bring it in and got out the harpoon. He harpooned the fish to drag it on board.

All in all it was a great day! My dad and I brought home a ton of fish between the two of us (Dad caught a 30 lb fish as well) and had a ton of fun. We definitely would like to do this again.

My Comedy of Errors

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:08:37 GMT

Yesterday was such a horribly bad day that it deserves some comment...most of it revolves around my dang car.

It started in the morning when I left for work. I had a dentist appointment yesterday so I needed to drive to work instead of take the vanpool. I invited Josh to ride with me so that I could take advantage of the carpool lane. I noticed as I started my car that the transmission was sticking a little so I checked the fluid and found that I was low. There was no puddle on the garage floor so I figured it must be a very slow leak and went ahead and filled the transmission up and didn't worry about it. I picked up Josh and drove in to work without event.

At about 10:00 in the morning I noticed a burning smell and checked my test machine, the CPU fan had gone out. I hurried and shut the machine down! I really needed that machine as I needed to complete some work on that machine and couldn't wait until a new fan could be mailed in. I went to the admin who was out for the day. I found someone to break into the hardware closet and see if any fans were available, but the fan I needed was a weird size so they didn't have any there. I started to call around and finally ended up driving myself down to Harddrives Northwest to buy a new fan out of pocket.

While in the Harddrives Northwest parking lot my transmission started to stick again! This time I checked under the car while it was running and saw that it was leaking. I hurried and headed back, trying to figure out what I was going to do. At 2:00 I had the dentist appointment, I went out to my car and my key clicker wasn't working. It was out of batteries! Because of the shaved handles on my doors, I couldn't open the doors! Luckily there is a backup way in to open the door (I won't say what it is) and I was able to get in. The problem was that I couldn't turn the car alarm off either. It started to go off and wouldn't stop. The security guys came running over to see what the problem was, everyone was looking. Finally, I unplugged the security system. The problem is that without the security system, there's no power to my doors at all so the backup way of opening the doors was now dead as well.

I drove to the dentist and had to leave the door open so that I could get in. I went in to the dentist and they tried to rip me off. I didn't have any cavities but they want to "change" one of my fillings since it leaves a gap where food "could" get and cause a cavity in the future.

I drove back to work checked the transmission fluid again, now it was leaking like crazy and I realized I'd need to fix it before I could drive home. I called Josh and told him I'd be late and to get a ride with the vanpool. I knew I needed to fix it quickly since Holly had a meeting at 8:00. I popped my truck and yep, all of the tools and jack I normally have in the back weren't there. No Tools!

From the side of the car I tried to figure out what the problem was and to the best I could see it was that the patch in the transmission line, that I did during the rebuild, had gone bad. I got a ride with James down to the Schucks and bought a new hose and a screw driver (since I didn't have any tools). I changed into my running clothes (so I didn't dirty my work clothes) and started to work. Since I didn't have good access since I couldn't lift the car, the 10 minute job took about an hour and I killed my arms and shoulders but I did finish at a little before 7:00. I called Holly to tell her I was heading home and took off.

Right after passing the 522 on the 405 I ran out of gas! I had put a few gallons in the other day but didn't have time to fill it up all the way and then forgot! I couldn't believe it, I was so upset that I got out of my car to wave down a car (remember that I don't have a cellphone) and slammed the door. I had locked myself out. That's right, the car alarm was still unplugged and I was now stuck on the side of the freeway in a T-shirt and no coat, freezing to death, locked out of my stupid car!

It took about 10 minutes to flag someone over, when I finally did, I called Holly but the noise was so bad that I couldn't hear anything she said. I yelled, "I'm out of gas...and bring your set of Mustang keys". She probably didn't have any clue why she would need to, but it was a good thing I did, because she had recently taken them off of her set. She yelled back, "Yes" and left.

I waited for about 20 minutes and then saw Holly drive past on the freeway, where she could turn around. 5 minutes later she came past again, but she had turned around in Woodenville and the freeway entrance is barricaded from where I was until all the way past Beardslee! She had to do the entire loop again. After an hour of sitting out in the cold, poor Holly finally made it to me. It was so sweet, she had dropped everything, thrown the kids in the car and come down (Thanks again Holly).

With Holly's keys I popped the trunk, climbed in, and took out the back seat. I climbed into the car that way but as I did so I broke a can of cranberry juice I had back there and it leaked all over my new upholstery! Would this day never end? I hurried and cleaned the mess, filled the gas tank, and flew home (I was cut off on the way home and almost died but after all that had happened, it's sort of a footnote) and took Holly to her meeting.

What a day!

An update on the 1969 Mustang Coupe

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:02:36 GMT

Well, I've been working a bunch on my car for the last few months. I replaced the outer tie rod ends and had it aligned. After changing those and the controller arm, the steering is nice and tight now. No more swerving on the freeway. I noticed that the front passenger tire still had a bit of play, I need to repack the bearings (and maybe replace them) and get a new cover for the inner wheel (its missing on that side).

I also fixed the brakes, well, at least the front brakes. They were starting to fail so I replaced the wheel cylinders (they are drum brakes) and in the process broke one of the springs. I searched high and low for the right spring set and none matched the ones that I had on there, so I ended up buying the one sold at the Mustang shop and used it. It worked. It fit a little differently, but it fit. Now the brakes work well. They are still drum brakes but that's ok. I thought about changing them to disc brakes in the front but it was pretty pricey for the kit ($1200). I also thought about finding an old car with a suitable disc brake system in a junk yard, but then I realized that I'd probably need to buy new brake lines, new pads, a new cylinder (power) and new calipers. I'd end up spending almost as much and it wouldn't be new. So for now I'm biding my time with the old brake system. Someday.

I had been having a lot of electrical trouble. I'd have plenty of power and the alternator and battery seemed fine, but when I'd drive on the freeway it would drain my battery to nothing, which seemed kind of opposite to what it should be. I finally changed my spark plug cabled to custom length cables with silicone sheathing. The kind needed for engines with headers. It fixed the problem. I figure that when I went on the freeway, the old cables would heat up and start to bleed power like crazy. The engine runs smoother now and no more power problems. My neighbor also helped me out. He had a brand new battery that he'd picked off a car he had sold. It had a higher charging and storage rate, just an all around better battery than the one I'd picked up from Walmart. He gave it to me and that seems to help as well.

The next thing I need to get done is to align the dang quarter windows. I'm tired of the whistle when I go down the freeway! I also figured out how to change the voltage regulator on the instrument panel. You see, the instrument panel is glued to the dash! I can't take it out. But I think I can get to the regulator from beneath the dash...we'll see.

Here are some pictures we took recently of me driving my car...

Releasing the '69 Mustang Alpha

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 18:52:32 GMT

Yeah, the mustang has been coming along great lately! Over Thanksgiving, Dad and I installed the new engine. It's a remanufactured Ford 302 from PowerPro2000. I worked hard to prepare before my Dad got here so that we could jump right in but a few things came up.

I had a bunch of the parts cleaned at a local performance shop and when they came back I realized that the time cover had corroded over time and would probably fail. This meant we had to run down the first morning and get a new one.

Here are the parts I had cleaned

Here is the timing cover, you can see the corrosion.

We put most of the engine together the first day and painted it Ford blue.

The next morning we installed the engine and got it ready to start for the first time. The next day we started it and heard a horrible bang bang bang! We couldn't figure out what was hitting but we hoped it wasn't something major! We ended up pulling the transmission (ugh!) and found that there were two guiding bolts in the transmission converter where it connects to the flywheel. I had connected the flywheel 90 degrees turned so that the guiding bolts where hitting the flywheel and torque-ing it instead of going into the guide holes. Once we turned it and reattached everything (including the whole transmission), it all fired beautifully!

Attaching the engine mounts

In it goes!

The sad thing is that there was a leak in the transmission lines so we couldn't take it out while my dad was here. They had rubbed up against the starter motor and been cut. I got them fixed and took it out for it's first run a few hours after my dad left *sigh*.

On its first run I realized that the steering was really sloppy and that the power steering wasn't working. I filled the power steering fluid (it had drained a bunch while the engine was out) and tightening and re-calibrated the steering box. It is still giving me a little trouble but its much better.

I also finished installing the carpet, seats, and seat belts (thanks to Holly who was out on the horribly cold night installing the seat belts).

I painted all of the metal panels in the interior, they look like new

Before installing the carpet, we coated the interior body with an enamel based "Rustoleum" to protect it from any further rust.

Lately, we've been reinstalling the door windows, they were all installed crooked by the previous owner so I pulled them and straightened them. Now I need to reinstall the back corner windows to match them.

Here are some of the things that need to be done to reach beta...

Reinstall the small back windows to align with the door windows.
Get the dash controls working (speedometer, gas, etc.), brighten the dash lights, etc. I think this has to do with a faulty voltage regulator in the dash.
Get the shorty headers installed. This involves taking the car into a muffler shop so that they can re-weld the exhaust line to fit the headers. This will add 17-19 lbs. of torque and the install should fix the 3 holes in the exhaust system currently. This will make the car run considerably quieter and smoother.
Change the vacuum control on the transmission. This seems to be a cheap and easily accessible part that will smoothen out the shifting.
Install the car speakers and stereo system. I'm still undecided on what I'm going to install and how much I'm willing to spend right now so we'll just see on this one. With this I'll also install a new cover for the back window where the back speakers sit.
Tighten the dang steering control and get a good alignment!
A need to install a new headliner and sunvisors.

Some of these items might have to wait until beta 2, but the safety and drive related items take priority.

I drove the Mustang to work today and it was fun! For all of the work that still exists, it's getting there and the engine sounds great! I haven't taken any pics of the interior yet, but I will soon!

The Death of a Mustang Ford 302 Engine

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:20:48 GMT

Within the first few days of owning my 1969 Mustang coupe the engine died. Call it bad luck or poor judgement (I'd like to claim the prior but have to acknowledge the latter). Recently I pulled the engine in preparation for a rebuild...

...and found that the engine not only is dead, but is really dead! I knew it would be bad when I emptied the oil and coolant poured out first. As I removed the spark plugs, one of them was smashed and shattered (I had changed them the day before it died so they were brand new). When we pulled the valve covers off we could see that one of the lifters was broken. We then pulled the head and to our surprise, there was no seventh piston!

It was entirely gone as you can see in the picture. When I bought the car, the kid told me that it was a brand new rebuild. But from the scorching and wear on the pistons, I'm pretty sure he was totally lying to me. I wish there was something legally that I could do. We investigated further and it looks like the valve head broke off and helped to shatter the piston head.

Now the piston is in little pieces in the bottom of the oil pan.

I ordered a new engine from PowerPro on Tues that should arrive Saturday or Monday. I've been reading several books on the subject: How to Rebuild the Small-Block Ford, Ford Mustang and Cougar, 1964-73 (Chilton Automotive Books), and this guy's good blog on his 69 rebuild: Dan's 69 Stang.

I've been doing the inside work as well. I'm re-upholstering the seats and I've finished all but the driver's seat. I'm waiting for new foam to arrive for it, as the old foam is too damaged to use again. Holly and I have also removed all of the carpet and most of the inside paneling. I'm going to install new carpet (it's laying out to remove some of the wrinkles right now). I'm also going to repaint all of the panels so that they look new. I ordered a new steering wheel as well. I plan on posting updates on that project as they happen.