Thursday, March 19, 2026

My son Elijah has been home all week for Spring Break, though we don’t have a lot to show for it. I need to address my shop lights, which I think are due to dirty connectors between the 8 foot sections. Should be able to address that tomorrow or Saturday.

Today, we moved my old air compressor from the rear corner of the barn about 15 feet forward. The compressor had nearly fell over when the groundhog burrow under it collapsed. We muscled it back upright and walked it 15 feet forward.

My plan is to replace the compressor on it. The old tank is good and the 5 hp motor is good. No reason why I shouldn’t add a pump to it and have it available as a standby.

My Dewalt compressor has been working well, but today my son was going to drain water from it, and the drain line clogged up, probably from rusty scale that’s fallen to the bottom of the tank. I need to depressurize the tank, remove the drain pipe and clean it out. Otherwise the damn rust will continue to collect and continue to clog the drain.

55 DRIVER’S DOOR REHAB. Today I decided to work on removing the window from the window regulator on the driver’s door. One of the two rusted phillips screws on the right side actually broke loose for me today, which was a pleasant surprise. But the other screw wouldn’t budge, and the head rounded off with no practical way to remove it.

I got out my drill and attempted to drill the screw head out, but didn’t have much luck with that. My drill wouldn’t stay in place and I ended up drilling next to the actual screw head. The issue now is that the right side access hole on the driver’s door is a very small hole designed for use with screwdriver. And now that head is stripped, there’s nothing left to do but keep drilling (and hope for the best) or my second option — use a cutting tool to cut enlarge access to that end of the regulator track so I can cut the screw head off with a cutoff wheel.

I can mig weld the access panel back in place once done. The weather is nice now, and I just need to get it done. I’m going to have to buy a new track for the regulator as well as a new regulator. Once I have the track loose I will remove the window and the regulator, then I can remove the vent window assembly.

One of the issues I might face is getting the door handles loose. I’m not sure but it almost seems like the handles are rusted in place. Each handle still has the rusty ass springs, as well as the plastic covers. I may need to cut the springs just so I can get the C clip tool in place on the handles. We’ll have to see.

I probably should record video of all of this as decent YouTube content.

LINCOLN DAY DINNER. Tomorrow night our local GOP has its annual fundraiser dinner. Its one of those things that I loathe, but will end up enjoying when its over. This being an election year, there’ll be a lot of politicians. I already have received a text from a candidate for U.S. Senate who wanted to meet with you ahead of the dinner. He’ll be at the dinner, so I advised his team that I would catch him at the dinner.

Tomorrow I’ll cut into the door in order to finish cutting the head off that stripped out screw. Wish me luck, lol!

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