Monthly Archive for May, 2008

JDM?

Published on May 30, 2008 in car and rant by taro. Closed

Being at an impasse with the rear struts on the FX, decided to look at some smaller issues. Sunroof is slugish. I pulled the motor from the previous FX, it was actually new replaced just before I bought it, and also pulled the fuzzy edge trim since current FX doesn’t have it and just has ugly edges. Replaced motor, greased up tracks, put on edge molding. Looks nice, closes. Ugh, doesn’t open! Attempts to, cracks open a bit, and stops. What is going on? I remove the trim and the sunroof opens, still slugishly. It turns out that the fuzzy panel on the sliding roof section has been out of it’s correct track all this time. I pop it back, put the trim back, and the roof slides better than new!

Next up was the driver window. Lately it’s gotten quite, cranky. I figured it was like the original FX and the gears on the toothed crescent shaped thing on regulator was stripping out. img_1237.JPGI pop the door panel off. What the heck is that blue thing? It’s a door lock popper solenoid, assumedly stuck in by the alarm installers. This explains why the action of the lock mechanism was never nice, the throw on the solenoid is adjusted so the mechanism doesn’t click all the way it’s supposed to. I readjust it, not sure if the popper will work correctly, but I’m not concerned with that. The installation is a bit of hack, but with something like this there isn’t really any other way aside from getting the factory power locks. Just wait until I get to the other side though, I’ll find it later, the solenoid doesn’t even match and the sheet metal is hacked up leaving pointy jagged edges worse than the meanest China build your own PC case. Continue reading ‘JDM?’

Trials boys go… dirt jumping?

Published on May 29, 2008 in bike by taro. Closed Tags: .

That’s right, Sunday, at high noon, Ken, Nathan and Reef met up and headed to the Koko Head Park dirt jumps. I actually rode up in the blazing heat to join up with them. I thought they were daft for choosing this time of day, and yet here I was. The one good thing was that there wasn’t anyone else crazy enough to be baking out here. We had the jumps all to ourselves.  Kinda nice flailing amongst friends, no worries about looking like an ass.

It was bone dry, the upper table jumps were getting eroded, but the middle jumps were packed down and maintained well. The newest one had quite a good kick to it. It actually was quite fun. Nathan was managing to clear the little speed bump doubles, I swear he was getting more air off of those than the big jumps! I know he was working a heck of a lot harder to clear those. As the day went on, a couple of regulars showed, hit some jumps, then went off to ride Kailua. A trio of groms rode through, and at the end of the day, one of the old fart guys came to hit the jumps. We were actually amazed at the lack of riders on this long Memorial weekend day.

It was something different for trials riders, I think we’ll do it more!

More pics here.

Strutman

Published on May 28, 2008 in car and rant by taro. Closed

So after my blunder with my junyard struts, I’m forced to go junkyard diving again. Called around to other yards and it sounds like they don’t have anything that old. So I find myself at ABC again, I called them and didn’t realize it as they’re listed in yellowpages as something else, and they were the only ones that were hopefull. Actually even before I get through the gate, I see an AE92 Corolla, looks like they’re ready to haul it to scrap metal as its on the bottom of a stack of cars. I measure the struts, and they measure too small, WTF? Am I hallucinating? But right inside of the gates are the new cars, and there’s a ’99 Corolla sedan. I measure the strut case, and it’s the correct size! I take a quick look around for anything else, this Corolla is the only new one. img_1232.JPGDamn, did I luck out? This Corolla is quite clean too, just brought in, suffered rear end damage. It’s so new that after prying the trunk liner free of the crumpled metal, I find the spare tire and jack still there. Choice, I don’t have to go searching and draging some crusty ones from somewhere else in the yard! Continue reading ‘Strutman’

Okonomiyaki Chibo

Published on May 28, 2008 in Food and Review by derek. Closed

Having spent the evening fruitlessly shooting at the 2008 Honolulu Toro Nagashi, Root and I decide to fight the traffic and re-visit Chibo at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Centre.

After standing/sitting/kneeling around at Ala Moana Beach Park for the better part of the afternoon / evening, we’re pretty parched. Excellent! Chibo has Yebisu Beer.Mmmm, Beer Continue reading ‘Okonomiyaki Chibo’

Spontaneous Orgasm

Published on May 27, 2008 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

This past Thursday evening dinner choice was Little Village, located on Smith Street, downtown. A mid sized eatery for the area. Chinese food, Fabio was hard pressed to give it a style. When we arrived, it was fairly crowded, a little unexpected as past visits have been pretty quiet. Interior decor is a bit unusual, it seems the thought was to make it feel like you’re eating outside in a “little village”, in the comfort of airconditioning. It does give it a bit of a theme park aura. There’s a little faux oriental style bridge leading to a double door facade seperating the farther dining area. We were half expecting some kung fu fightin to break out and some various martial stunt man to come crashing through the round window.

Anyway, on to the food. As is common for somewhere like this, we  go family style and order Monoglian beef, seafood noodle, and the spicy steamed fish. Dave started of by ordering an iced milk tea. Warning, it seems you’ll be batting 50/50 on this. His first instance, he ordered a milk coffee, and found himself with a milk tea. He enjoyed it so much he orders that exclusively now, but now it seems half the time gets iced coffee, which is what he found himself with this time. The ticket from their computerized POS system even prints it out, go figure. dscf1256.JPG  Continue reading ‘Spontaneous Orgasm’

Flag Respect

Published on May 26, 2008 in rant by derek. Closed

So as we take this long weekend to remember our heros, I found myself at the veterans cemetery visiting with some deceased relatives. it looked like there was a plan to plant numerous flags at grave markers again this year. I started to think about how great it is for these kids to be volunteering to do this, but I got distracted when my eyes wandered to a nearby trash bin, when my heart nearly stopped.

There we noticed 4 slightly tattered flags sitting helpless in a heap with misc garbage.

WTF! This is totally unacceptable! And even more shameful at the veterans cemetery!

We rescued them from this travesty and put them back where they belong, and for the one that was beyond usable service, it will see a proper end.

Cooke Street Diner

Published on May 23, 2008 in Food and Review by risu. Closed

Cooke Street DinerFor lunch on Wednesday, we walked a block up from the office to Cooke Street Diner on the corner of Cooke and the street where Tyke was shot. We had tried this small corner take-out lunch place the first week they opened. They had taken over the spot left after Mizutani’s Coffee Shop left vacant when they shut down several years ago. At that time, they hadn’t gotten their routines wired yet, but more importantly, I wasn’t really impressed with the food. I thought it was time for another try. In addition to the regular menu, there were over half a dozen specials, including two sandwiches. One of the specials was meat loaf, and I was compelled to order it. Plates came with a choice of white or brown rice, and tossed or macaroni salad. I chose brown rice and tossed salad. If it was a testament to the quality of the food at Cooke Street Diner, the place was full, and there was a steady flow of people arriving and leaving with their orders. I didn’t ask, so I don’t know for sure, but it looks like a family operation with daughter and grandma out front taking the orders and running the register, and dad and someone else back in the kitchen cooking and plating the food. My plate was prepared quickly, and I returned to the office. Continue reading ‘Cooke Street Diner’

Midnite Mechanic, FAIL

Published on May 22, 2008 in car by taro. Closed

After the previous night’s frustration with drillling, I decided to seek out professional help. Found RHT Enterprise listed under machine shops and location was in town, right off of Ward Ave. Spun by on Tuesday while out on a service call. Found the space after walking around a bit, I had actually walked right past it the last time I had my alignment done. Knocked on door, seems no one was around.

Today, wednesday I gave them a call and he called back. It seems he’s there after work and weekends.img_1220.JPG Made an appointment and went by right after work. Small space, but he has a good size mill, lathe, bandsaw crammed in there. It takes him half an hour to mill out the four holes exactly where I want. Sweet. During the days he’s actually at UH. Pretty cool guy, I’ll go back if I need to.

img_1221.JPGAfter this is done, I’m excited to head home and get this done! As soon as I get home, I break out the angle grinder to take off the unneeded tabs. Showers of sparks later, they’re gone, and I clean up the struts. Looking good. Continue reading ‘Midnite Mechanic, FAIL’

Fat Bastard

Published on May 21, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed Tags: .

It’s Wednesday afternoon and it’s raining on the windward side.  Looks like no riding today.  Boo.

I miked myself on the scale the other day – I lost 4.5 kg (10 lbs.) from the gastroenteritis!  That’s over a kilogram a day!  Too bad losing that much weight in 3 days in that manner sucked so much.

Midnite Wrenching

Published on May 21, 2008 in car by taro. Closed

Picked up a steering rack and rod ends and headed home after work. Had dinner first, no worries about power tools tonight, and trying to wrench when bonking is no fun. Plus gotta let the car cool down. By the time I start it’s late, almost 9PM. I’ll just see how far I can get. I’ve done this three times previously, everythings been anti-seized by me, it’ll all comes apart smoothly. Looks like I have to apologize to the Korean manufacturers, the source of the fault is the outer tie rod end, not the inner made in Korea rod. I don’t recall where the ends came from. It’s all being replaced anyway, the new ends are greasable too. Reassembly goes smoothly too. It takes me a bunch of fiddling to adjust the toe setting to something acceptable. And so now it’s almost 3AM. Yikes, but I was on a roll and finished. No test drive though, time to sleep!