The Off Topic Thread.

[arronm]

3 hours ago, k31th said:

random question; has anybody ever stored a car at a self-storage place? if so, how much $$ per week/month did you pay? quotes I've got seem expensive to me...

 

Yep self storage car size. $250 p/m

[Ezy2Confuze]

2 hours ago, arronm said:

Why dont you build, them you get exactly what you want and the quality you want.

Hell no,

 

Dad was a dual HIA award winning carpenter for over 30 years, working for Webb and Brown-Neaves among other companies and even he said he wouldn't build with 90% of them these days, they take too many shortcuts and they don't pay the workers anywhere near enough, he calls most of them cowboys and crooks. He finished the last 15 years working for a niche builder because they did quality work, didn't muck customers around and paid what the job was really worth.

 

Plus everyone I know that has built (I work for a home loans company and we've had a good 10+ staff build in the last 12 months, these are all what I would consider highly intelligent people too) have all said with the red tape and mucking around from builders, the local councils and the stress it all caused, they are happy they built but they would never do so again.

 

The places I have shortlisted are all solid, no problems and are basically move in and I don't really have to do anything except change the locks and down the track if I really want to, paint the walls.

 

I have two friends that are electricians, so I'm going to have a few battery backed up emergency lights installed similar to these (https://pixeltechnologies.com.au/wp-admin/images/emLIGHT.pdf) some Ethernet cabling run into rooms and if I get the one without solar, then a decent solar system for power and then just start paying the loan down (I've got $5k savings on top of the deposit, fees and charges, including 12 months rates for the council, approx. 12 months water rates, $1,600 as a rough estimate for 12 months home and contents insurance and an extra $1,000 for moving costs including connection fees for water, gas and electricity.)

 

Then there's the up to $2K you get back from the REBA cheque, the yearly bonus we get around the end of July and conservatively somewhere around the $3K mark back from taxes this year.  So that should get me anywhere up to another $6K if all the stars align properly.  I've tried to do my sums as much as possible, because as the biggest single purchase of my life, I don't want to be caught out on a hidden cost that could make life difficult for me.

 

I'm doing the CCTV stuff myself and upgrading the watering system to one I can control via an app on the phone, two of my friends set both systems up at their houses and the block of units they are the president and treasure of the owners group for, so I won't have problems there.  The cameras will be set to dump an image every 9 seconds to an AWS Server one of the friends setup for his home CCTV, so I can check the photos on my phone at any time.

 

I have a few different PoE Cisco switches from work that we decommissioned earlier this year, so it will cost SFA for me to do most of the stuff I'm looking at doing.

 

All the properties have FTTP NBN being in the Mandurah region (I always do a lookup).  Plus we have corporate RP Data accounts at work so I've already gone through the reports for each one.

[El Andrew]

For the control blade bushes, should the void be the same width the whole way round? I cant fit a finger below the centre part, but can almost fit two fingers above.

Chasing a rear end clunk and am a bit suspicious these have collapsed.

[Puffwagon]

I've only swapped mine once from stockers to whiteline.

 

While the stock ones weren't entirely buggered they were very soft. I bought mine on 10/1/17 so if you have a stalk of my profile from then on you'll see I posted a couple of pics of the stock ones. 

 

They're only 250ish and it'll help stiffen up the car. 

 

Chuck in some better diff bushes at the same time and you can forget about it for a few years. 

[El Andrew]

Thanks man, I'll take a look and compare. If I grab new arms it looks like a pretty straight forward job to install.

[arronm]

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FORD-WHITELINE-REAR-CONTROL-ARMS-SY-BLADE-ARMS-FALCON-BA-BF-XR6-T-XR8-FPV-G6/292298869098?epid=15007495054&hash=item440e5ec96a:g:V38AAOxynRRSRS~L

 

Look for tears and cracking.

[Puffwagon]

19 minutes ago, El Andrew said:

Thanks man, I'll take a look and compare. If I grab new arms it looks like a pretty straight forward job to install.

 

Mine were already off the car when I took the pics. 

 

It is fairly easy when you've done it once. Not so much fun figuring it out the first time. 

 

The bolts on mine were stuck af so be sure to use a single hex socket or spanner so you don't strip the head of the bolt.

 

Haha cheers Arronm, that link saved me a few bucks last year.

 

While we're at it, when my control blade and diff bushes were stock and worn, the back of the car would throw itself to the side, essentially crabbing under heavy acceleration. It was most noticeable when towing. 

 

After replacing all 5 bushes this problem went away.

 

Sorry for the novel but it should have some value when people use the search bar 

[El Andrew]

Ah ok, I'm mainly wanting to compare to see if I'm sagging or not, which probably needs weight on the car. They look factory, so chucking them regardless is probably not a huge waste of money. My bolts look like they'll want half a litre of WD40 too.

My centre diff bush is new-ish but not the front ones, as it has the Nolathane version that doesn't need the cradle dropped.

I might book it in for a look over at my suspension place before I order anything. Probably due for an alignment too, cos I hate asking a place to diagnose something for free and then I go off and fix it myself. At least I can pay them for something.

Thanks Arron, that's the link I was looking at too. Seem like a no brainer compared to buying pushes and getting them pressed in.

That pump is working a treat by the way. AFRs are a bit fatter on full throttle which makes me think the old pump was a bit weary. The filter was a bit crusty.

[Puffwagon]

Haha you gotta love that new pump feel 

 

It beats watching it go lean at 4500rpm.

[Rab]

8 hours ago, k31th said:

has anybody ever stored a car at a self-storage place?

 

Used to keep a car at Crown Casino.

 

Would head back to it every week or so to start it and keep the battery in shape.

 

Move it occasionally so it didn't get flagged.