Post #3

 Tell a story about a happy/challenging/funny/meaningful moment from the week

One story that sticks out to me was meeting some prospective buyers for the van. We have been hoping to sell the van we worked on in the first week in order to pay ourselves back for the supplies and materials we have invested in this project. We have met a few interested customers, but the last people we talked to were the most interesting. They were an older couple who needed a van to be able to drive their grandkids around in. During the test drive, we inquired a little bit about their lives. He ended up telling us the story of how he was a veteran who had learned who was stationed in China about 50 years ago. He met a woman and learned Cantonese in order to talk to her. That woman ended up being his wife, and 47 years later they are still married. They moved all around the world due to the military but ended up in Tuscon Arizona before moving to Forest Grove a couple years ago. This impacted me because these were people I would have never met, and a story I would have never heard if it weren't for reaching out to those in the community. Unfortunately, they decided they did not want the car, but it was still very cool to meet them nonetheless.

What have you learned? 

This week was the realization that troubleshooting is a necessary aspect of fixing old technology. Just today we had two big issues that required some thinking outside the box. One occurred when we were fixing a bolt on the door, and it required that we take the screws out of the door and effectively take it completely off. After we had replaced the bolt, then we noticed that one of the screws was almost completely stripped and would be nearly impossible to put back in(likely due to age). To fix this we used bolt cutters to put some threads into the screw and using all of our combined strength we aligned the door and brute-forced the screw back in. We were so surprised when it actually worked. We also had trouble getting a certain Hex screw out of the ceiling so we could replace the fabric. The hex was too small for a 1/4 drill bit to work, but too large for a 3/16 bit to fit. After many other techniques didn't work we decided to use needle-nose pliers to manually twist them out and we were able to make some progress that way.

Reflection on progress towards goals from week 1

This week we were able to work on all of the goals we had set for ourselves. It was great to meet more people in the secondhand market, troubleshoot around issues, and look at the interworkings of a car more. I think by the end of next week we will be confident that we have completed all of the goals we have set up for ourselves. The car runs drastically better, is much cleaner, looks better. However, there is still room to improve it and next week we will hopefully get it to a place we are happy with.

Questions you have

At this time I do not have any questions other than how we are presenting our projects. We would like to be able to bring the car to school for everybody to look at if this is how we are presenting.

1-2 images/photos

This is the door hinge after we had replaced the bolt that holds it in place.

This is the throttle, we found it when changing the coolant in the engine 

Respond to a comment from last week

There were no comments from last week's blog so I will respond to Enrique's from the first week again.  We may not end up having enough time to modify the car in substantial ways like a turbocharger, but a new BRIGHT coat of paint may be just as fun!