What did you do today non-detailing related?

[vaca22]

It's the first day of winter in Australia...

That is a sad thing, mate!

Is it formally winter? Or unofficially? Memorial Day here in the States makes the "unofficial" start of summer, with the official start being June 21, technically speaking.

I always get a kick out of watching Sandro @ Car Craft Auto Detailing. In the dead of winter I see him with short sleeves under a seemingly blazing sun and then I get jealous. Then in the summer (here) I see the long sleeves come out and then realize he's not having summer fun anymore

[Bdubbs]

The Ford Performance Oil Separator I fitted to my Mustang has been on for 7 months now, curiosity got the better of me today.

Emptying these catch cans can be done a couple of ways, either on or off the vehicle. Owing to the difficulty I had in fitting the push pins into place, I decided to leave the unit in place and remove the top hat.

First, remove the engine cover to allow access and then loosen the four bolts holding the lid in place.





After unclipping the hose connected to the inlet manifold, I went through and removed each screw by hand VERY carefully. These are not magnetic so don't rely on your magnetized screw driver to hold them in place. A replacement for something this obscure would be very difficult to find. (Keep in mind I am in Australia, EVERYTHING takes longer here.)



Hardest one to remove was the one sitting under the radiator expansion tank. I actually lifted the lid off and out with the screw still in tact to be safer than fiddling with it and risking dropping it into the depths of a Coyote engine bay. I have seen where the hose is removed to gain access but I do not like digging deeper than I have to with these sort of things.



The amount of oil collected was about what I expected.



Removing the oil can be done a couple of ways. When the whole unit is removed from the car, the oil can be simply be poured out. When left in place like mine, you can use a syringe to suck the oil from the container or use paper towels to absorb it. The amount in the tank was such the paper towel method was better suited here.







Once the tank is cleaned out, replace the top hat, remembering to click the hose back onto the inlet manifold in the process.



Engine cover back on.





As mentioned, the amount of oil was what I was expecting, owing to the minimal km's done over those 7 months.

I love the factory look of those Ford Performance oil separators, but not what one needs to go through to empty it. My GT 350 already had the JLT separators from previous owner which makes life much easier. But I don't like the looks of them all that much.

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[DFB]

That is a sad thing, mate!

Is it formally winter? Or unofficially? Memorial Day here in the States makes the "unofficial" start of summer, with the official start being June 21, technically speaking.

I always get a kick out of watching Sandro @ Car Craft Auto Detailing. In the dead of winter I see him with short sleeves under a seemingly blazing sun and then I get jealous. Then in the summer (here) I see the long sleeves come out and then realize he's not having summer fun anymore

Except for the frost morning where it regularly reaches -2 deg C / 28 deg F, I don't mind winter...........me and heat don't mix well so I prefer the cooler months.

Winter begins on June 1, no un-official start of winter in Australia.

[DFB]

Day two progress -

We get trees from two suppliers, the main one delivered today and the secondary supplier's stock will arrive next week. This is mildly frustrating because it's easier to process them in one large lot.



Trees taken off the truck and sorted into their varieties. I would get in trouble if I told what the dollar amount is sitting there on the concrete..........suffice to say it's a VERY significant cost to the business. Not pictured here is the hessian we cover the trees with to keep the roots moist while we process them.



Trees are bundled and labeled with a simple tag at the grower, we then attach a pictorial label to each and every tree for retail sale.



This is me pretending to be a real man using machines to load sand into a trailer and lugging it into the nursery ready to shovel into the sand beds. We are lucky to have two of these machines, although both are wounded. The engines burn oil and the one with the bucket leaks it too. In fairness, both have done a power of work over a number of years.



I'm actually pretty proud of being able to use those machines, although I have only a fraction of the skill using them that my three boss's do.

Initial work began on burying the larger standard and weeping trees.......think weeping Cherries, weeping Maples and Catalpa's. It's actually good to get these ones out of the way first, bigger trees mean bigger roots to cover and more heavy sand to shovel.



We then moved onto the smaller growing and flowering trees.......think Japanese Maples, Crepe Myrtles and Crab Apples. Here you can see how we work row by row to ensure each tree is properly covered with sand.



The dinky little trailer empties pretty quick but is able to fit down the rows easily. The machine is actually really easy to maneuverer a trailer with. (I'm not a real man so I can't back a trailer.)



Calling it a day, the trees that made it into stock today are watered and the ones that didn't covered and saturated to get them through until morning.





Shattered after a long day, and injuring my knee in the process wasn't helpful.

[DFB]

Day Three Progress -

Another chilly start and frozen fingers, starting where we left off yesterday.

We were notified this morning out secondary supplier won't be delivering for another two weeks, so the decision was made to put everything out that needed to be in stock rather than hold off certain lines till next week. This is somewhat frustrating as it means a clunkier roll out of stock and means some pre-orders can't be filled and, most importantly, paid for.

Finishing up with the nursery stock, watering them in generously to remove any air pockets and settling the sand so that we can go through and top up where needed to ensure the roots are all covered.



Work then focused on putting the surplus stock into a holding bay. Luckily, we use up left over potting mix for this part, much lighter to shovel.







This surplus is used to replenish the nursery stock if needed, but most importantly, ensures we have enough trees left to pot up in August which allows us to sell advanced trees all year-round.

During all of this, pre-orders are pulled and buried close to the shop.



A clean loading dock, no more trees and all of the mud hosed away.



The sun setting on a very busy three days. The area surrounding the beds is raked and cleaned up after all of the work and price signs added.









I'd like to say I have earnt my weekend but both myself and a colleague who did a lot of the work are having to man the fort for the weekend trade, no rest for these two ducks. Thankfully, my knee held in there but I'm exhausted.

[FrankBardani]

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[PaulMys]

Snagged this Gearwrench set on sale from $90 down to $49.99 online from ACE.

And grabbed this ICON ratchet and US General magnetic tool holders at HF from their sale this past weekend.
(They only had the 3/8” ratchet in stock, but I got the 1/4” and 1/2” locked in on the sale price, and I’ll pick them up Thursday).




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[bbmach]

Gave some thought (and thanks) to the insanely brave folks who stormed those French beaches 78 years ago.

[PaulMys]

Gave some thought (and thanks) to the insanely brave folks who stormed those French beaches 78 years ago.

AMEN to that!

[dgage]

Snagged this Gearwrench set on sale from $90 down to $49.99 online from ACE.

Thanks for the heads up. Picking up a couple tomorrow.