84 Fifth Avenue progress

[lowbudget]

Interior headliner and trim all recovered and installed

I got the timing chain replaced with a double row chain and tensioner. It was a little overdue at 127000 miles. I had to re pull the water pump as I forgot the bolt that goes behind the inlet. As soon as I ended up with the dreaded extra bolt I knew what I had done as I did it on my 87. The good news is it only took me 1 1/2 hours to do it. The even better news is no leaks. It also included new water pump and all new hoses. It got new belts and fuel pump last days off

I got the old exhaust out and have the new Canadian Y pipe ready to go in. I just need to go to NAPA and grab some new bolts. I think I got 90.00 for the pre cats and old cat last time so that means beer money!

I feel like an old man today after wrestling with the old exhaust yesterday.

 

[Justwondering]

You are way ahead of me.
Love that you have the trim and interior finished!

 

[lowbudget]

I got 110.00 for the catalytic converters. I will finish putting in the exhaust this morning. I also flipped the tires around so the whitewall is facing out and had longer valve stems put in so the wire wheel hubcaps will work.

 

[BudW]

Who is willing to pay $110 for (3?) cat converters?

 

[Jack Meoff]

No pics??????

 

[kkritsilas]

BudW:

As catalytic onverters, nobody. As a source of some pretty expensive metal that can be extracted/refined from them, plenty of people who deal in those metals (rhodium, platinum, palladium).

The company I work for uses rented one ton pickups to go out to jobs. We had a job come back on a Wednesday night. When Thursday morning rolled around, 3 1/3 trucks had had their cats sawn off, probably using cordless reciprocating saws. The 1/2 comes from one exhaust pipe being sawn through about half way down. Cops figured the reciprocating saw had run out of battery power by that time. Total value: $C10K for the cats, plus the repair to the half sawn exhaust pipe. Cop said it was a real problem, and the target vehicles are alway late model pickups.

 

[lowbudget]

My scrap dealer. 40 each for the pre cats and 30 for the main cat. I'll try and get some pictures today.

 

[BudW]

I don’t have the thought process to be a thief, I guess.

A lot of pickups, you can generally crawl under. There is not anything different about a pickup or car cat converter, per se.

I happen to have a dual cat Y pipe laying around and not far away from having the 3 cats removed from current 5th Ave.
Nice to know. If I can get same prices, that would be about $190 for Christmas.

 

[kkritsilas]

A one ton diesel cat is about 3 feet long, and about a foot to a foot and a quarter wide. They are not different in terms of function, or probably even metal. There is just a lot more catalytic converter material there to extract. They are extremely expensive when bought new.

I didnt understand any of that until the cop told me why it is happening. Same cop (RCMP guy actually) told me that the thieves will get $1000-1200 a piece for the 3 cats. $3600 for 30 minutes worth of effort seems to appeal to the low lifes of the world.

 

[lowbudget]

Well the rotors are shot, brake lines don't look to shiny. It will be front brake time tomorrow.

Today is get the Mighty Aspen ready to go to the airport Sunday. 200 lbs of sand in the back and pop the studded mud and snows on her as it will be winter when I get back the 1st of November. She only has 1000 miles since the last tune up/oil change so it's more of a wash and clean detail.

 

[lowbudget]

It's always something. I went to pop the hubcaps on the front and I have 1 wheel with a shallower dish on it so the hubcap doesn't fit. So it's time to grab a spare wheel and get the tire swapped

 

[BudW]

Are you able to snap off a couple of pictures, first?
You have me wondering about a couple of things.

 

[lowbudget]

They had a 6" wide wheel and 3 7" wide wheels.

How can someone run the pads down into the rivets? All done now. All I can do is think of what to do to it next days off as I'm off to the desert today.