2011 Seattle Auto Show

Today was a good day to make a journey to the BIG CITY, Seattle. The auto show was in town and like last year, I thought it would be fun to see what was new. The day was sunny and warm and the ferry ride to Seattle pleasant.

Like before, the Qwest Field exhibition hall floor was covered in shiny new vehicles. Some cars on rotating pedestals were being described by "beautiful people" even though nobody was listening. The display areas were carpeted in plush light colored carpet, so when I wanted to look under a car, it was nicer than in a garage on a concrete floor. Lots of eye candy with a lot of it in the category of "if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it"!

I looked at a lot of cars and a couple of things became apparent:

1. The manufacturers are getting a lot of power out of their engines.

2. Fuel economy for SUV's, trucks and larger cars is still not very good.

Fuel mileage of a lot of the SUV's is no better(and many times worse) than my 1984 Bronco. And the Bronco never got good mileage nor did it have a lot of power.

There was more electric cars and hybrids this year. I do think an electric car would be good for around town driving.

I was still drawn to the performance cars. The Mustang GT500 was awesome as was the Dodge Challenger R/T. The Audi TT was still cool. I was even impressed with the Cadillac CTS-V that was offered with a 6 speed manual transmission. With 556 HP, it is the fastest V8 production sedan in the world.

I only spent about 1-1/2 hours and caught the 3 PM ferry home. I did not go to Ivars, but picked up a muffin and mocha in the ferry terminal. I will be going back to Seattle for the Pacific Marine Expo next week and will have lunch at Ivars then.

Mercedes.

Cool Mercedes with the gull wing doors!

This is more my style! I really liked this Ford F150 SVT! Of course the GT500, Supercharged Mustang with the 6 speed manual tranny would be nice too.... Or maybe the Dodge Challenger R/T Hemi.....

At $340,000 it definitely fits in the category of "if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it"!

Same with this car! Very expensive!

The floor covered with highly polished cars. From soccer mom vans to high end sports cars! There was even a small section for motorcycles from Downtown Harley and RMC(Renton Motorsports Complex).

The Great Bronco Engine Transplant-Goodbye Ms. Granada

Tonight, I finally sold the remains of Ms. Granada. I posted an add on Craigslist a week ago. The response was amazing. Several of the responders were in the business of buying hulks for scrap. This guy called me in the evening and after negotiating a price, he was at my house within an hour. Better than the guy that was going to call me last night and was suppose to be here today and then didn't show. I did not get much for the remains, but am happy that it did not cost me to get rid of her.

Ms Granada provided the essential parts needed to finish the Bronco transplant project and her hulk will provide more parts for someone else and ultimately scrap steel to be recycled into industry.

Ms. Granada loaded and ready to leave.
Away she goes!

Mom and Dad's 60th Anniversary

Thursday was the 60th anniversary of my parents wedding. To celebrate, I drove them to Leavenworth, Washington. My sister and brother in law came up from Wenatchee and we had a great dinner at a Italian restaurant in town. Like most restaurants in Leavenworth, this restaurant offered an eclectic menu. Italian/Bavarian/Seafood dishes were served.

My parents and I spent an extra day in Leavenworth at the Bavarian Lodge that is located downtown. On Friday we drove into the country toward Plain and Lake Wenatchee. Plain is where their cabin was and we drove by it to see what changes the new owners had made. Later we went out to another Italian/Bavarian/Seafood/American restaurant and had another great meal.

The town was really pretty quiet with few people on the streets. It was easy to find places to eat with only a few customers. For those that don't know much about Leavenworth: It was a common small central Washington community that was supported by the apple industry. It had several cold storage and apple packing plants. As the business changed, some business leaders pushed for changing the theme of the town to represent a Bavarian village. The stores and buildings are all decorated in German motif. And the town is at the foot of the Cascade Mountains and could easily resemble a village in the Alps. Winter sports are big with cross country skiing being popular. An old ski jump area has also been reactivated. The changes to the town were successful and the main business is now tourism with many tourists driving over for events like Oktoberfest, tree lighting, etc.

Sister, Brother in Law, Father and Mother.
I really enjoyed the Eggplant Parmesan!

Downtown Leavenworth. Not many tourists.

Downtown Leavenworth again.

The Great Bronco Engine Transplant-Parts

The Great Bronco Engine Transplant continues slowly. This week I received two shipments of parts. Just like opening packages at Christmas, it is exiting to rip open the boxes and see what is inside.

On Wednesday, I received the shifter, electric fan and controls, emblems and some miscellaneous stuff from Summit Racing. Today I received the headers from L And L Products. The fuel pump was also suppose to arrive in the L And L order, but it has been back ordered. Last week I received the radiator and remote oil filter kit from Advance adapters. This is all good stuff, but I cannot proceed much without the oil pan and transmission adapter from Summit Racing. These are not scheduled to arrive until early November. Oh well, I still have some small projects to take care of.

Everything fits easily within one box. The cat loves to jump into these boxes!

I really like the headers. They are electroless nickel plated and this right side one is routed above the starter. Some of the other manufacturer's headers had interference issues with the starter. Hopefully this one will clear the firewall when I install it.

Hurricane Ridge Motorcycle Ride/Hike

The weather is suppose to get rainy starting tomorrow, so today was a good day to ride the motorcycle to Hurricane Ridge and hike up Hurricane Hill.

I left early at 0700. It was foggy and cold all the way to Port Angeles. My breakfast stop at Port Angeles was chance to drink a couple cups of coffee and warm up. Soon after I started up the road to Hurricane Ridge, I broke through the fog layer and into the sunshine.

I have never ridden a motorcycle up the Hurricane Ridge Road. It was fun carving good turns through the corners while maintaining the speed limit of 35MPH. The road is smooth, clean and was devoid of traffic.

From the parking lot at the end of the road, it is only a 1.6 mile, 650 foot elevation gain hike to Hurricane Hill. It is not real challenging, but on a clear day, the view is spectacular. Unfortunately, the Strait of Juan de Fuca was covered in fog so I could not see Victoria or Vancouver Island. The view to the south was great with the Bailey Range visible and Mount Olympus barely visible over the ridge.

I made a quick lunch stop at the visitors center and then rode back down the road and into the fog. As I got closer to Hood Canal, the fog was gone, but a strong breeze was blowing against me for the rest of the ride home.

Some of the permanent residents of Olympic National Park.
Hurricane Hill. If the winter conditions are good, I ski to the top of Hurricane Hill.

The Bailey Range with Mt Olympus peeking through.

The path on top of Hurricane Hill.

The south flank of Hurricane Hill.

I took a side trip over a small hill on the return. In the winter, I ski over this hill.

From the parking lot looking toward Hurricane Hill.

The Great Bronco Engine Transplant-Small Projects

A week ago, I removed the engine from Ms. Granada. Since then, I have been working at small projects to prepare the engine for transplanting into Mr. Bronco.

I removed some of the accessories and brackets that I will not be needing. Also the exhaust manifolds went away. The big job was working at cleaning the caked on oil and grime off the engine. Using a "eco friendly" cleaner, I worked for two days cleaning the muck off. This left me with a much cleaner engine, but now some rust was showing. So today, I used a wire wheel in the drill motor and scaled much of the rust off. I then painted the engine with three coats of high temp paint. I will be curious to see how well the paint holds up. I could not get to all the rust off nor could I get every bit of oil off.

Also this week, I received one parts order. The radiator and remote oil filter kit arrived on Thursday. This coming week I should receive packages of parts on Tuesday and Thursday. These are big orders and include most of the parts that I need. Unfortunately, the two parts I need the most(oil pan and transmission adapter) are not scheduled to be here until mid November. That's OK. A friend tells me that a project like this is a marathon and not a sprint!

I still had time in the morning for a bicycle ride to the boat where I worked on a couple of small rigging jobs. While waiting for more parts, I will have time to do other things. There is always something going on!

Three coats of "Old Ford Blue" paint.
And before I removed it off the valve cover to paint, I took this picture of the tuning data. Important stuff I will need.

The Great Bronco Engine Transplant-Harvesting Parts

The great Bronco engine transplant is underway! This week I spent about 8-1/2 hours over 4 days removing the engine from Ms. Granada. I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday disconnecting everything and then went for an overnight cruise with the yacht club on Saturday. When I returned this afternoon, I could not leave it alone and spent the last 1-1/2 hours lifting the engine out. This time did not include the time spent travelling to Tacoma on Friday to buy the engine hoist and leveller.

As hard as I tried not to, I spilled some oil and transmission fluid on the floor. I hope the cat doesn't mind me using his cat litter to soak it up.

This is a big milestone for me. Even though the parts I ordered may not arrive for nearly a month, now I can start looking into getting rid of the carcass of Ms. Granada.

Parts harvesting. The parts in the box will be reused. The parts on the ground are scrap.
Here comes the engine! The leveller was a great help.

And when it was tipped up like this, the residual transmission fluid ran out of the transmission and onto the floor.

Engine is now out of Ms. Granada. I had just enough clearance with the garage door.

And in my now crowded garage. Tomorrows task, clean up the garage!