jeremyweber.com

October 31st, 2005 @ 8.54 pm

One day a week+ ago I jump started the “fixed” vw and drove into the front yard to wash the car as it’s been a long time, and others have been cutting wood in the garage and making sawdust. After pulling out, I noticed a wet spot on the cardboard under the car. Transmission fluid. Right now I am awaiting new rear bearing seals, which should be here any day now. (The tracking #’s say 2 out of 3 boxes will be here tomorrow, but those boxes are mostly Whit’s new exhaust system.) While washing the car I left the engine running to charge the battery, but it wasn’t enough and the car will still not turn over on it’s own. Oh well.
This time last year I took the car out and drove around photographing it around the area for an excuse to drive it. With the beautiful weather this past weekend I was reminded of that excursion, but instead of wanting to drive the vw, I was glad to be driving the neon. Am I that scared to drive the car? I used to say I’d take an old car over a modern vehicle any day, but with all the trouble I’ve had, the reliability of a new vehicle is very appealing. I feel like a sell out for even saying that, and the vw was only a “daily” driver for a couple months. And by “daily” I mean it was my only means of transportation, but I drove it maybe once a week. For my next vehicle I’m pretty sure I’m going to get a small truck, such as a Colorado or Tacoma. I’d love to get a WRX (STI?), Mini or a Wrangler, but they don’t have the towing capacity needed to haul a broken down VW.

September 9th, 2005 @ 9.42 pm

That’s how long the vw lasted before breaking down again. at least the engine is running great still: this time it was the transmission. I went around a corner and heard a couple faint clunks… a little farther and it got worse. I pulled over and attempted a U-turn, but it made lots of noise when putting pressure on the transmission. I eventually got it turned around by pushing it (thanks to the kid who was riding his bike the process went quicker), and shut it down. Since I was less than two miles from home, I walked/ jogged back and got the old van to tow it home. I forgot the camera when retrieving the vw, but took a couple pictures when I got home, so as soon as I make some photo galleries I’ll make one of for times the vw has broken down (I’ve got pictures for three times now this summer).
I really hate to give up on this car, but I may need to. I’ve never thought of anything as “cursed” before, but this car very well may be. I’ve broken down in the span of less than 100 miles and a tank full of gas this summer alone!

September 7th, 2005 @ 8.53 pm

On Saturday I took the afternoon and pulled the vw’s engine (finally… it’d been sitting broken since August 6th when we towed it home). I discovered the culprit this time… more carelessness on my part. When I reassembled it last time I must have misplaced one of the screws that holds the engine tin together because sitting just upstream of the intake port was a chewed up screw that had partially gotten past the intake valve, but not completely. After pulling the cylinder head the washer that went along with the screw was found pressed into the head as a semi-recognizable mass that had been mushed and welded to itself with the heat. Luckily (again…) the scarring seemed limited to scratches on the surface of the cylinder and the head, but no real damage. That evening I bought myself a torque wrench (I know I’ll be needing it again and again in the future). Much of this was done under the careful supervision of Beverly, and then in the evening we really proved that I am no longer lactose intolerant by enjoying Blizzards from DQ.
On Monday (Sunday I went to Beverly’s church, house for lunch, and hung out at school) I reassembled the car and fired it up before heading to UMBC for a impromptu cookout. Tuesday night the I drove it ~12 trouble free miles, and then tonite (Wednesday) I put on another ten or so miles. With this cool dry air, that thing is pulling hard! (Well, for 1776cc…) With all the bad luck I’ve had so far I still am not going to trust the car for anything, and am still on pins & needles driving it, but just maybe I’ll make it through the month without breaking down again.

August 29th, 2005 @ 9.44 pm

the second half of this month has been increadibly busy, and yet there isn’t much to report about. the trip to Beverly’s grandfather’s cabin near Deep Creek Lake was a great adventure. We chickened out on the run across MD on the drive out mostly due to the temperature being at or above 90. Saturday evening we basically relaxed a bit, but after Beverly’s aunt and uncle stopped by we rode the atv’s a little and went to see their new house that is being build. Sunday we went to Deep Creek Lake and hiked around, and then headed down to the beach area for a bit. On Monday we did some geocaching around Swallow Falls, Pat did some fly fishing (Beverly gave it a shot too), and then we went swimming in the falls, which was a blast. I’m sure you couldn’t tell the difference between us and small children that afternoon : ).
since then i’ve been working, have worked on the vw only enough to know that it wasn’t a screw from the carburetor that fell into the engine, and have been remaking the bsm website that i just created. The reason for the remake is to make it easier to update using php scripting, so the end user won’t actually see any difference from what it looks like now.

July 31st, 2005 @ 7.47 pm

for some time now i’ve been wanting a digital slr camera, but never got one because they’re expensive. i’ve been using my dad’s slr camera that is fully manual (the battery operates the light meter… i do the rest), and that has been fun. however, that camera only has fixed focus lenses (we have a macro, standard 50mm, and 200mm telephoto lens’ that i used, along with a 2x converter), so taking action shots or shots with a particular zoom were tough. at christmas my mom got our family a point and shoot digital camera, and i have gotten lots of use out of it (it’s up to over 1100 photos). i’ve taken some nice pictures with it, and i like that i don’t look like the dork carrying the big camera, and it’s great for site survey pictures for work, but i like to be able to have more control over the photos. i feel like i’ve already outgrown the point and shoot, and the full manual 35mm just doesn’t suit my shooting/ finished product too well. (The pictures I don’t just throw in a folder get put up on my website, or the bsm website.) since I’m living at home and have a full time job i’ve got some extra money (can you see where i’m going with this?), and this new nikon d50 camera seems to be just what i want…. so with some decent rebates at ritzcamera.com and my debit card, i ordered the camera last thursday. it should be here on tuesday, so watch out! i may shoot you!

oh, and i think i’ve got the vw running well again… last weekend i went to the cruise in at home depot, and last nite beverly and i went down to a coffee house where nate filmore’s band played about 10 miles from my house. (yes, i probably butchered the spelling of his last name)

June 12th, 2005 @ 10.31 pm

but it’s not. I finally broke down for the first time this year in the vw yesterday. This time the cheap tarboard that acts as sound & heat insulation between the engine bay and passenger compartment melted, slid down against the engine and partially blocked the fan, causing the engine to everheat and melt the tarboard even more. It was kinda bad looking when smoke just keeps pouring out of the engine bay, but it wasn’t that bad…. sorta. I did make it home on my own power, but the intelligence of that can be questioned. With the vw’s running warm they may have the oil light flicker when idling at 800-900 rpms after running hard…. mine started to flicker at 1500rpms, so i know that engine was very hot. I even broke the oil pressure switch (it now leaks badly). My biggest complaint is the manufacturing of the tarboard that I used, as well as my stupidity in using it. The original looks like black cardboard with some tar impregnated in it…. the replacement I had was 99% tar, with a thread here and there, so I should have had the intelligence to guess that it would sag easily and block the whole cooling system of the engine. Now I get to pull the engine apart (or just pull it out) so I can put new tarboard in, replace the oil pressure switch, and replace the fried oil, and hopefully it’ll be good after that…

Oh well. In other news, I’m spending all my days at L2M as well as playing summer league on Wednesdays. Last week was awesome (though we lost 8-17 (or something like that) to Salisbury alum, though some of those guys were on the team that went to nationals, so we didn’t do too bad. I’ve got a week of vactation to use, but no idea when…. I should probably put in to take off so Beverly, a bunch of friends and I can go up to her grandfather’s cabin at Deep Creek Lake in August.