The DIY thread - DIYourself

rlb

Well-Known Member
Did exhaust work on my Camry. Was only planning to do the front pipe, but after getting under the car and seeing the flanges on the rest of the pipes I knew there was no way they were reusable. Thankfully I have an independent store nearby (Joy in Green Brook) who can still get a lot of stuff same day. $460 later I had the rest of the exhaust at the house.

The studs coming off the manifold were no problem (go figure, that's what I expected to go wrong). I finally broke out the new impact gun which broke them loose with no complaints.

And of course one of the new pipes leaks, so I get to do this again next weekend.

IMG_20190330_103634.jpgIMG_20190330_103800_766.jpgIMG_20190330_123003.jpgIMG_20190330_123013.jpg
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
File this under Duh! It Yourself.

So a few years back, we had our fence replaced, including a gate across the driveway. Nice wood jobby.

A month and a half later, neighbors have basically the same fence installed, except in plastic.

49981D72-79FB-4620-8B58-8797989D00D3.jpeg
Their end post butts right up close to ours, and immediately I’m having trouble with the gate door alignment.
All a symptom of the concrete they used setting neighbor’s post, shoving mine out of alignment.

I have been futzing with this since-
Adjusting the catch, the hinges, even using dowels in the hinge bolt holes to scotch them over a bit.
Things last a while, then they don’t.
It’s the bane of my existence.

Weather is getting good, and I know this is on my list again this spring.
Ugh.

Then I wake up this morning-
Duh.
You’re approaching this all wrong my dude.

15 seconds with a hammer and 2x4 to mash a piece of concrete as a shim between my post and driveway to plumb the post.
9F1AEF30-B24A-4F74-A953-BF05124E693F.jpeg

Gate door instantly re-leveled, so well I have to undo the adjustments I made to the latch.

Oh well, better late than never.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
File this under Duh! It Yourself.

So a few years back, we had our fence replaced, including a gate across the driveway. Nice wood jobby.

A month and a half later, neighbors have basically the same fence installed, except in plastic.

View attachment 92428
Their end post butts right up close to ours, and immediately I’m having trouble with the gate door alignment.
All a symptom of the concrete they used setting neighbor’s post, shoving mine out of alignment.

I have been futzing with this since-
Adjusting the catch, the hinges, even using dowels in the hinge bolt holes to scotch them over a bit.
Things last a while, then they don’t.
It’s the bane of my existence.

Weather is getting good, and I know this is on my list again this spring.
Ugh.

Then I wake up this morning-
Duh.
You’re approaching this all wrong my dude.

15 seconds with a hammer and 2x4 to mash a piece of concrete as a shim between my post and driveway to plumb the post.
View attachment 92429

Gate door instantly re-leveled, so well I have to undo the adjustments I made to the latch.

Oh well, better late than never.
Do yourself a favor and add this
https://casterconnection.com/6-inch...icQUtlw3smTbWIHl7A2HSJ7JEPqeeDXBoCK4UQAvD_BwE
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's

iman29

Well-Known Member
In my car search for my soon to be 17 year old middle son, I stumbled across this steal of a deal on this 2006 Hyundai Azera (I never heard of it either) with 55,900 miles on it.

Garage kept and it shows since none of the trim or headlights are faded and the interior is nearly pristine. The guy I bought it from said his already elderly parents bought it new in '06 and not to long after the dad passed, leaving his mom only barely using the car. It has some minor bumps and bruises but overall its in really nice shape just needs a little interior shampoo and maybe some new car mats in the front.

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Here's the DIY part for today.

When we test drove it, the passenger power seat was able to recline but not come back up. I bought it anyway since I figured this would be an easy fix (fingers crossed). Since we were in the car we knew the seat motor wasnt the problem so it had to be the recline switch.

Ordered on on eBay used for $28 bucks and it got here last week. I am still finalizing the paperwork for the car, but this afternoon son got anxious and begged me to take a look and see if we can replace the switch. I had no luck finding any how to youtube videos so we just took a crack at it ourselves. On thing I did read online was to disconnect the negative battery terminal before working, to avoid any potential issues with the airbag sensors. Last thing I need was to launch an airbag while fixing a seat!

Problem is obvious here, can't even drive it with him if the seat wont come back up (thats middle son ducking out of the pic)

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We loosened the 4 seat blots and probably spent 30 minutes poking underneath to see if we can get the plastic seat panel off in order to get to the switch, but we finally decided the seat had to come out. Masked off the sensitive spots with some Duc tape so the seat rails didnt scratch anything.

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Once we laid the seat upside down it was obvious where all the little clips were to gently squeeze them with pliers or big flathead screwdriver to get the front panel off so we can then get the side panel off and get to the switch. There was no way we were gonna get this done if we never took the seat out.

Below the front panel is already off, and we are working on removing the side panel to get to where the switch is located.

1554692136469.png


Now we have the side panel off and we can replace the switch. The switch handles pop off with very little tension and nothing gets broken (somehow!)
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Re-assemble everything carefully and it snaps back together perfectly.

1554692389406.png

Now we have to get it all connected back into the car to test the replacement switch and hope it works. I even remembered to reconnect the battery before we tried it :)
1554692466775.png

And..... It Works! bolted the seat back in place and took it for a ride with him (me driving of course).

Not to be corny, but a really cool Father/son moment when it all worked perfect and nothing got damaged or scratched or broken in the process like usually happens on a Sunday.

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jklett

Well-Known Member
File this under Duh! It Yourself.

So a few years back, we had our fence replaced, including a gate across the driveway. Nice wood jobby.

A month and a half later, neighbors have basically the same fence installed, except in plastic.

View attachment 92428
Their end post butts right up close to ours, and immediately I’m having trouble with the gate door alignment.
All a symptom of the concrete they used setting neighbor’s post, shoving mine out of alignment.

I have been futzing with this since-
Adjusting the catch, the hinges, even using dowels in the hinge bolt holes to scotch them over a bit.
Things last a while, then they don’t.
It’s the bane of my existence.

Weather is getting good, and I know this is on my list again this spring.
Ugh.

Then I wake up this morning-
Duh.
You’re approaching this all wrong my dude.

15 seconds with a hammer and 2x4 to mash a piece of concrete as a shim between my post and driveway to plumb the post.
View attachment 92429

Gate door instantly re-leveled, so well I have to undo the adjustments I made to the latch.

Oh well, better late than never.
That helps prove my theory that most of life's little problems can be solved with a couple of well placed shots with a hammer!
 

A Potted Plant

Honorary Sod
Getting there need to pull some dirt out to add more stone
IMG_20190413_184028478.jpg

Yes that's my water heater.

After putting more stone down I'm going to do another run of stones put in the dirt pull the sad mail box and seed. I'm thinking lavender and strawberry plants. Considering elephant ears but I think those don't like full sun.
 

rlb

Well-Known Member
I replaced my new leaky exhaust pipe today. I thought I was being wise by using stainless bolts the first time (a few weeks ago), but to my surprise something didn't jive and the nuts wouldn't come off. My non-scientific guess is the heating cycles allowed the threads under tension to stretch a bit, so they didn't want to play nice with the unstressed threads as I tried to back the nuts off (twss).

So, I went back to the trusty new impact gun and blasted the bolts until they sheared, which didn't take much. It even drove a nice dent into the floor pan (I know, basically tin foil) with the wrench resting against it. This turned a sub 1 hour job into a sub 2 hour job since I needed to get some new bolts, always a pleasure. I didn't waste the extra few bucks on stainless this time. I did want to try grade 8s, but depot sucks at keeping anything other than galvanized coarse bolts in stock.

In all, the gun was a good purchase. Saved me from using the cutoff wheel under the car again (not fun!).


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Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Did you use stainless nuts on stainless bolts? Sounds like you experienced galling.

Exactly. Best is to use Stainless bolts with brass nuts on exhaust, if possible. Anti-Seize helps but I dont't trust it fully (use it though) in high heat situations to do it's job.
 
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