Scratched off a couple of the more minor items that needed to be fixed from the mile long list of issues the bird has.  Had been wanting to attend to these for a while now but made them more of a priority in order to make a trip to Atlanta to visit some friends this past weekend.

The first was a split upper radiator hose that I noticed some time back.  At the time it wasn’t an issue as there wasn’t a leak present but it finally broke through the inner wall of the hose and began spraying coolant all over the engine bay.  No auto part place in town carried them and wanted in the neighborhood of $40 or so to order one.  So instead I picked up a generic hose with the approximate bend angle and cut it down to size.  Now back in running condition with no more leaks.

Next was an issue with the side mirror that has been bugging me since the day I bought the car last fall.  The driver’s side mirror had a good deal of excess give and vibrated badly when driving around making it difficult to use.  Pulled it off and this is what I found.

Well there’s your problem!  The mounting bracket had snapped clean in two.  Being the kludger that I am, replacement wasn’t even part of the equation.  So I pulled it apart, cleaned it up a bit and began my repair.  First I filed the edges of the break a bit to roughen up the surface for better adhesion and used a 5 Minute epoxy to get the pieces back together.  I then slathered on a thick bead of JB Weld around the break and let it set over night.  The end result looked promising.

So far it has survived 6 days and an 800 mile drive to Atlanta and back with no signs of it failing.  I’d say kludge successful  Unfortunately on my way to Atlanta an issue popped up with the car that is causing it to pull to the right a good more than I am comfortable with and some vibration in the steering.  I’ll have to bring it by a shop soon to have balance and alignment checked since I don’t have the equipment to do that myself.  If it isn’t once thing it’s always another.