Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reminds me of the time I parked at a shopping mall next to an oddly parked car which otherwise looked normal except for a small mountain of what I think were used coffee grounds between the driver's seat and front passenger seat. This was in Seattle.
Is this maybe supposed to work like putting coffee grounds into the fridge to absorb bad smells?
Never hose out a Honda Element
251–260 of 275 posts
Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything on a Boeing airliner has drain holes in it, usually at least 3/8" in diameter. Boeing really does not want accumulations of water in its airplanes, as it causes corrosion and can form ice and it's heavy . The drain holes in car doors are usually too small - they'll get stopped up with bits of grit and leaves. I drill them out larger for Seattle weather.
Aircraft are not typically made of steel. Do make sure that you coat the edges of your drain holes after you drill them out with some sealant (epoxy coating for instance) so that you don't give rust a fantastic place to start and make sure you get all of the shavings from the inside of the door.
https://www.wileymetal.com/aluminum-corrosion-why-it-happens...
I didn't worry about the edges, as it would take a very long time for the corrosion to progress that way on sheet metal. Didn't worry about the shavings, either, just more of the usual grit at the bottom of the door.
Though if I have a dab of paint or grease handy I'd use it.
Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#253Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#254I don't get it - would you would think you can hose out a consumer car like this, with the fabric seats and all that plastic trim? I've hosed out Land Rovers, but they're clearly an off-road vehicle designed for wading.
Wranglers have fabric and plastic trim, and they specifically advertise that the floor can be hosed out. The difference is that it has drains (and floor != seat).
After we finally got him winched out of the hole, all the water immediately drained out.
Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aircraft are not typically made of steel. Do make sure that you coat the edges of your drain holes after you drill them out with some sealant (epoxy coating for instance) so that you don't give rust a fantastic place to start and make sure you get all of the shavings from the inside of the door.
Aluminum corrodes, too. https://www.wileymetal.com/aluminum-corrosion-why-it-happens... I didn't worry about the edges, as it would take a very long time for the corrosion to progress that way on sheet metal. Didn't worry about the shavings, either, just more of the usual grit at the bottom of the door. Though if I have a dab of paint or grease handy I'd use it.
As the former owner of a metal workshop I think I'm aware of that little detail :) Especially fun when welding it without fancy processes. The speed with which that top layer oxidizes is uncanny, you can actually see it happening under a microscope.
I've seen tiny little holes in sheetmetal cause enormous trouble in no time because it causes the paint to blister, lifts it up and then exposes a much larger area, this is an exponential process, with ever new bit exposed an even larger surface becomes active in the process because the edge length keeps increasing.
MB had an interesting mishap when they switched paint processes, it caused absolutely miniscule holes in the paint, the result was entire doors rotted out in under 3 years, resulting in massive recalls. Once rust has a hold on something if unchecked it will progress rapidly.
Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm tentatively morbidity curious what happened to the VW bug, Fits and other cars this friend came in contact with.
There are so many stories... I will start before the Bug: Daewoo Nubira: Drove it until the brakes fell off. Among other oopsies. VW Bug: Among about $5k in damage from various bad decisions, eventually somehow got T-Boned on his way to traffic safety school. (Too many speeding tickets) He literally rolled up to traffic safety school in a wrecked car. Fit: I have asked a few times about the Honda fits. First time wen…
Objectively speaking (in the interests of constructive assistance) I wonder if this person may be somewhere around "low but definitely non-zero" on the Kevin Spectrum (ad-hoc definition taken from https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/219w2o//cgbhkwp/). If relevant, my next thought is whether some degree of cognitive issues may run in the family.
I've noticed that one of the significant impacts of the developmental delays and perpetual catchup associated with my high-functioning autism has been a deeply-ingrained awareness of not just feeling "behind the curve" like I'm perpetually scrambling to keep up, but having hard evidence left right and center that I really am not simply Getting Gud.
If this person grew up in either a hostile environment that cultivated a belief that it was impossible to ever do anything right, or simply a situation devoid of leadership to the extent he was left going round in circles due to lack of (for want of a better way to say it) developmental autocue, I could totally see some really terrible social anxiety, self-loathing, social detachment, and compounded awkwardness and depression developing from that.
Getting traffic-jammed at the entry to a speedway that always seems too fast to merge onto, or stuck in front of a street curb with duckling legs that never grow to the point of scaling, can have an impact over the long term - The Show Must Go On, and staying relevant isn't really a question in the fight for survival, so the only really viable option is to hack it and pretend that everything mostly works.
Extrapolating this status quo and envisaging the worst-case-scenario end state, I'd imagine it would be like waking up one day and realizing the biggest themes in my life were a) the giant delta between how much I pretend to have sorted out and what I can really keep up with, b) how much I'm pretty much blindly depending on some circumstantial alignment to happen soon to provide some opportunity to catch up and maybe get some confidence, c) the terrifyingly disproportionate amount of calling life's bluff I'm doing on a regular basis and d) how much I have have to cram this stuff into the nearest can and sit on the lid in order to cope.
If the situation I was in resembled the above, attempting to discuss it (particularly considering (d)) would probably produce a reactive and shouty mess. It would be very difficult. But it could prove life-saving.
Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm also interested! I know a few classes of car destroyers. Some of them get into serious crashes. Some of them are more persistently mildly abusive or inattentive and do a lot of cosmetic and cleanliness damage. One person I know does ultra marathoning and uses his car like a locker room, so it smells like a great multitude of new bacterial species. Another one does zero maintenance and runs things until they don't…
My friend is for sure the inattentive type. This extends to road conditions. Getting stuck on medians, taking a corner in the rain too fast. Not noticing a tree while parking. Not noticing brakes making horrible screaming sounds. Not noticing after weeks of screaming sounds that the car starts diving for the left lane.
My thinking is here that if your friend has ADHD, that naturally imposes a "don't want to develop focus on details because not interesting" "unaware of details in everyday life because no developed subconscious awareness of them" problem.
Track and rally racing could neatly solve both sides of this status quo by merging them a la "oh no must learn to focus on details so as not to flip car and die". The idea would be to create a situation that is interesting enough to supercede the "I will treat this situation like a TV remote I have no idea how to use and push all the buttons on it until it works" instinct, by tuning the mental stimulus on the situation to correct for the inattentiveness threshold. A bit like putting music on to concentrate, just... faster. It's crazy enough it might work, *if* the caveats and risks can be managed.
Apparently race drivers have the lowest reflexes of any sport. That sounds both like a good skill to have if you're inattentive, and kind of mutually incompatible with inattentiveness in the first place (like if you're a race driver it would basically just kick the inattentiveness out the window to some extent).
Obviously this is a vErY bAd iDeA on its face, and would only be wise after some analysis of mental dysfunction and if this person was prepared to listen to everything the trained driver in the passenger seat was instructing them to do (in terms of pacing and learning and not simply just going "yay!" *floor accelerator*).
Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aluminum corrodes, too. https://www.wileymetal.com/aluminum-corrosion-why-it-happens... I didn't worry about the edges, as it would take a very long time for the corrosion to progress that way on sheet metal. Didn't worry about the shavings, either, just more of the usual grit at the bottom of the door. Though if I have a dab of paint or grease handy I'd use it.
> Aluminum corrodes, too. As the former owner of a metal workshop I think I'm aware of that little detail :) Especially fun when welding it without fancy processes. The speed with which that top layer oxidizes is uncanny, you can actually see it happening under a microscope. I've seen tiny little holes in sheetmetal cause enormous trouble in no time because it causes the paint to blister, lifts it up and then exposes…
Holes not only let the water drip out, but help to dry out the metal.
I notice dramatic differences in rust on metal where it can dry out vs where it can't.
Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm tentatively morbidity curious what happened to the VW bug, Fits and other cars this friend came in contact with.
I'm also interested! I know a few classes of car destroyers. Some of them get into serious crashes. Some of them are more persistently mildly abusive or inattentive and do a lot of cosmetic and cleanliness damage. One person I know does ultra marathoning and uses his car like a locker room, so it smells like a great multitude of new bacterial species. Another one does zero maintenance and runs things until they don't…
Re: Never hose out a Honda Element
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is this, what features give you value ?
Heated and massaging seats, auto deploying running boards and tailgate step for your aching back 360 degree camera for maneuvering in tight spaces 110V outlet for charging tools Sunroof you can stick your head out of to get a higher vantage point
Most of my tooling was petroleum, and I had no back problems. I will be the first to admit that maneuvers in tight spaces was definitely a learn by fire trial.