The Renegade

In my last posting of the Summer, I mentioned this cool new non-aqueous (no solvent) cleansing unit.  I'm gonna flap about that today, but first a little flashback.

Worst Boss Ever

Carl's truck looked like this

We've all had some pretty bad bosses.  After a rough meeting last week, some of my peers were concerned about how my current boss was doing things.  Well, I tried to assure them that I've seen far worse and my skin was thick enough to take it.  It was recalling a boss I had when I was 19 and doing lawn maintenance for a living that helped them understand.  This boss, let's call him "Carl" was the biggest a-hole the small city of Albany NY could contain.  Carl didn't pay payroll taxes, or offer any benefits other than an envelope of cash at the end of the week.  He drove us around in his red dump-truck, hauling a trailer of equipment, and we would mow lawns or perform clean-ups where ever he stopped and pointed.  Grass clippings and other debris would go into the truck bed.  When the bed got full, he would dump it illegally in one of a small collection of spots he knew about (empty, no trespassing areas usually).  Now, put all that aside.

the Renegade

Carl was about 5'4" tall, thin as a rail, mostly bald and more ready to throw a punch than a drunken sailor on leave.  He knew our names, but chose to call us other things instead, mostly "lapper"' though none of us knew what that meant.  He yelled often.  He insulted more.  But beware the lapper who didn't do what he wanted the way he wanted in the time he wanted.  Some of my co-workers found themselves abandoned at a job site, having to find their own way home.  The worst, though, was when he got in your face and started really yelling at you.  He'd get all wound up, and then pull out his upper rack of false teeth.  Spittle flying out of his mouth, he would poke you in the chest with his false teeth.  One time, I remember him doing that because I had set the mower one 1/2 setting too high on a particular lawn.  Wow.  Worst boss ever.  I ultimately lost that job because I went on tour with the Dead for a week and he refused to pick me up again.  He did me quite a favor.

Renegade

view of the washing attachments

MS, my real estate agent, has many jobs. One of them is as a dealer in this Renegade machine. The Renegade is a non-solvent cleanser. It has an integrated filter unit, and it re-circulates this biodegradable cleansing material so it is self-contained. The filter needs to be replaced occasionally, and the cleanser needs to be replaced every so often too. The waste cleaner is safe to go down a standard drain. Pretty neat. The power of this thing is pretty amazing. With the integrated scrubbers, heating unit and light, and the large wheels, it's mobile and can wash all kinds of different shapes and sizes. I had an oil leak and I was able to get many parts completely clean using the Renegade. I just wish it had a drain attachment so I could slide it under the bus and wash the engine. I cleaned all fasteners that I touched, my bumper mounts, even my bumper. Very cool.

That's it for today. I'll update the post tomorrow with some pictures of the Renegade. It really is an amazing bio-friendly cleaner.

Tank sealed

Brief posting. I finished sealing the tank on Sunday (3/16) with the stuff from Eastwood. Easy to use, easy to follow instructions. I went off-script only with the rust-killer. The Eastwood and ratwell.com instructions both indicate to use muriatic acid to eat the rust. When I was at Home Depot, I found a "zap" product that claimed to eat the rust, and do so with a no-toxic formula. Now, I've got kids running around all the time, so any opportunity to use something that's less harmful, I'm taking it.

According to the instructions on the bottle of Zap, it works considerably slower than muriatic acid. When I got it home on Saturday, I took a long look at the insides of the fuel tank, and my rust was very minimal. I used the Zap stuff, and it ate the rust that I had in there in about 30 minutes.

I used the Metal Etch according to the instructions, but I didn't clean up the excess with the Acetone. Instead, I let the tank drain overnight and it was dry and had that hazy light gray color anyway. I'll be returning the Acetone later. The liner poured in easily, and coated very well. It was pretty easy, just move the liquid around the tank so it covers as well as you can get it. Drain it well when you're done. I stood the tank like I did the night before - with the fill spout at the very bottom, so it couldn't pool as it dried.

If I had to do it over again, I'd set up a saw horse or something to set the tank on. Leaning over a tank all afternoon got my back hurting. One of these days I gotta remember that I'm not 20 anymore. I didn't get to paint the outside. The weather turned rainy, so its sitting under a tarp waiting for the next sun break.

I should be cleaning, vibration & sound insulating, etc the tank bay this weekend. Hopefully, I'll have some before-after pictures. I expect to start posting pancake (type4) engine parts for sale soon. If you have needs, email me.