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What Did You Do With Your SSR Today?

1M views 15K replies 567 participants last post by  Stlhotrod 
Went to lunch with @abadssr and new member @jhunsfun today. We like to give Marc a hard time because never gets his taxi out of the garage but his SSR actually has the highest mileage of the three (19k). It was really cool to see the 15/45 Brickyard car with all the documentation including the window sticker autographed by NASCAR driver Jeff Green.
Nice looking rides. I dig the retro CA plate. It takes me back to simpler times and helps blur the age of the R. Nice subtle touch.
 
Gave her a bath...

After a few upgrades and running around in the spitting rain for a few days, it was time for a bath.

It was 36F.. 2 bucket method, H-O-T water and thorough warm blow drive. Warmed her up and went for quick spin to shake off any hidden drips.

All purdy, clean and shiny and back under wraps.
:silver:
(We both felt better) :wink2:
 
36F!!! That is car wash weather here in ND but at that temp I would just go for a pressure wash. I admire your dedication to detailing.
Thanks Big Jon. My neighbors think I’m nuts. My wife understands, and (now) laments when her car shows water spray. Elise projects a stock look, and people don’t thinks she’s 12yrs old. I do my best to keep up appearances. My goal is: Subtle sleeper.

We’ve had a cold winter in Houston and had “snow” for the third time in 26yrs. Our “snow” likely equates to a quaint dusting in ND. That said, I’ve seen the “ICE POSSIBLE” from Elise too many times this winter, but she’s tough, has great seat heaters (yes we use them regularly), and we “muscle through it”.:smile2:

I’m a warm weather person by nature. Anything under 70F is chilly and takes me too long to to get up to operating temperature.

For the record:
One of Elise’s siblings had to sit dirty this week. There’s something about her, and she’s typically first in line.
 
Went out and visited her twice in the garage and patted her.

Long weekend meant lots of time to fill:
- Replaced the Trailblazer crossmember with Mike’s, which is much more stout
- Applied Gummi Pflege Stift to all the weather stripping.. Works great, but doesn’t fix where over zealous buffing took place (before me).
- Reshaped and added industrial “Velcro”, like on the headlights, to the lower windshield cover.
- Replaced the industrial “Velcro” on one A pillar, that that was apparently ripped off when the windshield was replaced last year.
- Polished the headlights, removing the haze/slight yellow that was starting on one.
- Made some cargo net retainers, repurposed from a Vette...pretty cool.
- Fiddled with the front license plate mount, to be continued.

Played the clip of Mike’s tips... awesome, but not as good as the real thing
 
Well it is sort of what I did for the betterment of my SSR. I have been remodeling my kitchen with all new flooring. Had to rip out the old underlayment and tile and now just need to get the new stuff down. Had a friend do it last time and this guy went crazy with the staple gun. You ask how a new kitchen floor has to do with the SSR. Simple if the wife is happy then I can get more parts for the truck. So the flooring is an investment in the future lowering and shocks for the truck.
Nice!

Don't forget the safety aspect of new shocks... and the time/cost savings of doing both together.

Something like: "Since I'm there doing the shocks, it makes sense to do the springs at the same time. Otherwise the work has to be done 2x, once to replace the shocks and another time to do the springs."
 
Jumped in Elise and shot down to the dealer to check the A-pillar pins that were ordered for the 3rd and 4th time to say, “that’s not it”, even using the part number from prior threads...
 
Ripped around on a couple of quick errands. Confirmed I like the transmission without the inTune programming, less wandering with heavy-ish loud pedal. Still need to make a call and likely trip to Dallas. Does “the list” get shorter?

Then gently backed into the garage next to her siblings...
 
Fixed a couple nicks in the rear hydraulic hose covering, made sleeves and gave the one side more slack, per river_rat. Thank you.

Sealed up the stock radiator cover, up to the K&N intake (I know the opinions on stock, but prefer the K&N).
 
Finished some lingering chores:

- Made sure I liked the routing of the hydraulics
- Leveled out Mikes front license plate, its been on for weeks without actually putting on the plate. Mike's front license plate is cool, sits low when on.
- Installed SRP pedal covers.

Went roaring around on a couple errands, Permagrin.
- Robert
:silver:
 

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Replaced the badly checked rear tires with shiny fresh ones.

I suspect a gas mileage decrease is looming as they need to be “dusted off” and properly “broken in”.

- Robert
 
Short road trip back from Houston Tech Day in Winnie, TX to Pearland, TX.

Unloaded soft bags full of tools, and gave Elsie much needed bath, followed by a warm blow dry and vacuum.

Special thanks to Steve, not an SSR guy, who jumped in and helped on front shocks. Great teamwork, knocking out a couple front sets. Then I transitioned rear shocks and heater hoses, and he jumped into camera wire routing.

P.S. Mike’s heater hoses are very slick. They route nicely falling into place, come setup and ready to go on. Quality product. Mine are now on order.
 
Put my heater hoses and surge tank

Put on new heater hoses and coolant tank from Simple Engineering.

The hoses just lay in place and the new tank allows me to easily see the fluid level. I highly recommend buying this new coolant tank when you buy the hoses. The tank allows you to see the fluid level, and watch the system burp itself. It really is an active part of the system. I could not do that with my OEM tank, nor with the aluminum tank on one R that I worked on last weekend.

Top notch stuff from @Mike in AZ (as usual)

As this is the third set, first on my R, I’ll pass on a tip to make it real easy.

No tools are needed for the heater hoses on the firewall. As you press inward on the white retaining clips next to the firewall, gently push the hose towards the firewall to relieve the pressure and allow the clip to release. Then rotate the housing and do the same for the opposing retaining clip. The retaining clips will make a little clicking sound when they release from the outer housing. Then hold both retaining clips on the outside of the black housing, closer to the firewall, against the aluminum tubing and pull the hose off the retainer clips.

To pull the retainer clips off, simply pull them outward with your fingers, off the tubing and forward. Again, no tools.

Tools required for the job: 8mm for the engine cover, 10mm for the surge tank, small channel locks for the clips on the heater hoses. 18mm for the rear shock retaining nut.

The new hoses are setup with new o-rings and retainers and simply click on and lay in place. Really slick stuff @Mike in AZ.

Attached are a 3 pics.
Before, the Dex-Cool is at the cold fill line, can you tell?
The new hoses.
The new surge tank, Dex-Cool just below the full line.
(Sorry for the pic rotation.. I’ll try and fix tomorrow on my computer)
 

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Replaced broke fog light bulb, had to remove housing

Top down crusin’ with the A/C on today, followed by replacing a broken fog light bulb.

Bulb had broken off in the housing... How? Don’t ask me. If I tapped the fog light housing, I could hear it bouncing around.

First remove the bezel from the back side. 1inch clips at 12 & 6PM, pushing inward from the back side. Next the housing. Big clip on the top from 10-2 o’clock at the top from the front, again pushing inward. It seems pushing the facsia outward from the fog light housing clip as much as pushing the housing clip inward. Once the top clip and facsia separate, push the housing up and back. What a pain.:surprise:

Job done. Broken bulb out and all back together with new bulbs on both sides.

-Robert
:silver:
 
Drove it on a parts run.... Needed some wire loom protector for current project. Quick trip, but Permagrin recharged.
-Robert
:silver:
 
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