Tag Archives: cars

Doing it the right way

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Another chance to let my mind wander free…

This week has been dull. I keep telling myself I’m going to get motivated to get out and get active on the weekends, but I always end up staying inside. I think I’m going to have to do something about it if I’m going to get anywhere.

However, I guess that’s not entirely true. I went to work on the iFixit LeMons car again this past Saturday and then went out with friends later that night. So I suppose I am getting out. It just feels like I don’t for some reason…

Next weekend we’ll be taking the car to Button Willow Raceway so I and the other newbie drivers can learn how to drive on a real race track. It’ll be the first test of the car’s integrity as we’ll be driving it both Saturday and Sunday. I’m excited and nervous to get out on an open track. The only experience I’ve had going fast was on the 55 freeway going 120 mph in my ’88 Supra during mid-morning traffic when I was 16. But don’t tell anyone.

Now I get a chance to do it the right way. Not the way I have to feel bad about for the rest of my life, but the right way. Big difference.

In fact, much of my experience in SLO has been just that. Doing things the right way as opposed to the wrong, stupid, or irresponsible way. I feel more in control of my life in a lot of ways. Other ways, not so much, but those are mostly leftovers from having done things the wrong way for so long. I’ll turn it around. I just have to keep my head up and put one foot in front of the other.

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iFixit Racing Team

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Le Mons Volvo 245 004

photo courtesy of @mdjuric under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 license

I work at iFixit, the online repair manual creator and parts/tool retailer in San Luis Obispo, California. It’s a pretty sweet gig; the people are cool, the atmosphere is relaxed, and we get a lot of flexibility in our lives. One of the projects we’re working on is building a race car for the 24 Hours of LeMons competition in March at Infineon Raceway.

It’s pretty exciting for someone who doesn’t really have much hands-on experience with the mechanics of cars. I’ve installed a few car stereos, speakers, and subwoofers myself, but never had the confidence to touch any of the engine components.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I replaced the clutch on the 1992 Volvo 240 wagon. Well, the team did it as a group, but I still took all the bolts off of the engine connecting the transmission, separated them, and hooked it all back up when we were finished servicing the clutch.

Typically, I wouldn’t have known how to do it, but the racing team captain, Scott Dingle, has done repairs on quite a few Volvos before, so I had a good mentor.

We’ve been filming around the repairs, and are going to be featuring episodes of each of the repairs on iFixit.org as we make a push to introduce automotive repair into the iFixit realm of possibility. I wrote the first blog post which will come out around the same time as our first episode. Basically, I touch on the concept of how similar cars and computers are. Look for it coming out in a week or two.

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