ReSassy

Finale

jayce — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:15:20 +0000

Last week I was thinking, “I should just get rid of Sassy.” I figured I’d get out and take some parts then call a scrapping company. In a serendipitous moment, the doorbell rang a half hour later and it was a scrapping company who wanted my Civic. I said I wanted to clean some things out first but that I’d call them. I pulled some electrical parts and cleaned out some final personal items.

They paid me $100 (I may have been able to get more, but who cares — the car had no rear suspension.) This morning they came by with a flatbed and dragged it away.

Chapter closed.

Preparing for the Scrappers

jayce — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:52:56 +0000

This past Wednesday, I was thinking how I should probably just get Sassy scrapped as it’s become little more than a rusting hulk in the driveway. As serendipity would have it, later in the day a small scrapping company stopped by and offered me cash for Sassy. I took their information but declined the on-the-spot offer as I wanted to get any interesting parts first.

So today I went out and went through the beast. I took out the air horns I had installed, then got the under-hood fusebox (which will presumably come in handy for higher-power 12V projects I have in mind, what with the high-amperage fuses and relays). I also pulled the stereo speakers but was unable to get the stereo itself (a wretched Clarion DB336MP that had problems playing 2 out of 3 MP3 CD’s I burned among numerous other problems). I had forgotten that I had installed a power inverter under the dash so I grabbed that along with some miscellaneous items not bolted down like a couple dollars in change in the compartment in the center of the dash. Finally from the rear I kept the scissor jack, spare tire, and the wiring for the trailer connector.

Upon completion, I guess I’m ready to get rid of it. Although I’m sad I didn’t get to complete my intended project, I’m glad that I can free up some more yard space and recover the tarp that covers it before it gets shredded in the wind like the last one.

New Uses for Old Parts

jayce — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:03:13 +0000

As part of a project to build a Tadpole Trike which has three wheels and kind of looks like a tadpole with two wheels in front for steering and one rear wheel for propulsion. I blogged about elsewhere, but I did want to mention that I dismantled the rear suspension on Sassy. I brought the main arms to my friend’s place who has a better saw and chopped them down until I had just the spindles (I was dismayed to discover that finding replacement spindles is almost impossible). I did use one of the original hubs, but remembered that there were problems with the bearings so I bought two replacements. Anyhow, the rear spindles and replacement hubs became the front wheels on the tadpole. One of the original hubs is the rear drive wheel — I discovered that the McMaster-Carr Quick-Disconnect SH-style sprocket adapter (#6086K216) press-fits into the bearing races of the rear hub. As such, aligning it for welding was a breeze.

Taking Parts sans Database

jayce — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:33:11 +0000

At the suggestion of Ali, I decided to not bother pretending I’m going to build a nifty database and track all this, but to just start taking parts.

Yesterday I went to drive the Buick and the battery was nearly dead (I blame a defective solar charger that I just started using). I got out the charger and while I was waiting for it, I thought I’d pull the battery from the Civic — after all, it’s doing it no good to be slowly discharging and I can probably use it for something else … like jump-starting the Buick. Alas, it didn’t have enough juice, but I think it helped a little in conjunction with the charger.

Now I have a car battery. I’m working on converting a gas scooter to electric, so I may use that battery to test the electronics. I got the corrosion cleaned off of it and set it to charging last night. This morning it was done, and seemingly holding a charge. I’m sure it’s not like-new, but it holds a bit of energy.

Researching WordPress Plugins

jayce — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:35:14 +0000

It doesn’t appear to be all that hard to build a WordPress plugin. As best I can tell, it’s just a matter of setting up some hook functions to initialize, update, and make changes. I probably will utilize the WordPress Post Meta methods for the tagging and naming of parts, one way or another, but add my own tables for additional information.

A Different Kind of Non-Start

jayce — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:30:47 +0000

Yes, of course, like a billion blogs, this one has a bunch of old stuff. I have two notes that I’ll post in succession.

First is that I just went out to move Sassy so I could get better access to her passenger side. Alas, the engine turns over but won’t stay running. I assumed oil fouling at first because there has been a slow drain into the cylinders, but several minutes of weak operation led to no operation at all. More or less … I guess she’ll still start, but continue to fail over and over.

I did manage to get the parking brakes to un-seize with the aid of another car — at least for long enough that I could move her back and forth in the driveway to get away from that passenger side a little bit.

More Database Stuff

jayce — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:10:50 +0000

I know this is supposed to be a blog about taking apart a car, but so far it’s been more about building a website. C’est la vie. Here’s more of the same.

I got to thinking about that whole “use the WordPress term/tag tables” thing I was talking about and am now considering expanding the idea: what if I write the database access as a WordPress plug-in? Then I can use the WordPress Dashboard to enter data, and the whole thing will be more tightly integrated with WordPress. I think it’s a win-win. Plus, I get to explore building a proper plug-in in addition to brushing up [er ... relearning] MySQL.

The Basics of Database Building

jayce — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:51:57 +0000

I’ve long been wrestling with what I want the ReSassy database to do. So far it’s congealed into the following goals:

I want to track each piece of Sassy.
I want to be able to summarize data from anywhere on a hierarchy of sub-assemblies.
I want to be able to summarize data from a dynamic list of characteristics (“parts made of plastic”, “parts that were recycled”, “after-market parts” etc.)
I want to track all the parts by weight and compare to the total actual weight and the 2094 pound curb weight. I want to be able to enter weight in whatever unit is convenient.
I want to track financial exchanges for each part: either how much it was sold for, or how much it cost me to get rid of it.
I want to note where a part will likely end up at the end of its useful lifetime, and to rank its utility during that lifetime and its value or destructiveness after that lifetime.

I’ll be using MySQL as that’s what Dreamhost offers and it seems to be a relatively useful and long-lasting database software. My MySQL skills are quite rusty but I know you create a set of tables that contain records of fields. The structure is defined by the tables and fields and the data itself is organized in records. I probably should diagram the whole thing, but I’ll forgo that step because I think the database will be pretty simple. Here’s the tables and fields I’ve come up with so far:

Parts – one row for each part in Sassy
- ID – number – a unique identifier > 0
- Name – text – the short name of the part
- isDefinitive – Boolean – true only if there is exactly one of this part in Sassy (i.e. “the engine” versus “a spark plug”).
- PluralName – text – the plural name of the part (i.e. “wiper assemblies”) or blank if adding “S” works (i.e. “wheel”+”s” = “wheels”)
- ParentPart – number – ID of the parent part if this part is a component of something else (i.e. “fuel injector” is part of “intake manifold”) or 0
- Description – text – optional text of complete sentences of additional description
- Weight – number – measured (or estimated) weight of part or 0 for unknown
- WeightAsPercentage – number – estimated percentage of this part compared to the total parent part’s weight, 0 for unknown or between 0.0 and 1.0.
Tags – one row for each unique tag name (can I just use the WordPress term/tag tables instead?!)
- ID – number – a unique identifier > 0
- Name – text – the real name
- Slug – text – the HTML-compatible name
TagLink – one row for each tag used in a part
- ID – number – a unique identifier > 0
- PartID – number – unique ID of part
- TagID – number – unique ID of tag

The Low Hanging Fruit

jayce — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:30:02 +0000

In taking Sassy apart, I’m going to start with the “low hanging fruit”. I’m sure I can sell the OEM alloy wheels on eBay. The VTEC-E engine might be a popular thing too, but I’ll need to figure out how to ship an engine. Likewise with the transmission … a nice bolt-on for someone toying with an electric vehicle conversion, for instance (plus I have the original clutch in the garage). The control computer will probably fetch a good price too.

There’s a guy who works at an auto parts store who always asks me about buying the front fenders so they’re early on the list too. The remaining metal will probably need to be scrapped due to insane amounts of rust … except maybe the hood which is in okay shape.

I’ll probably keep some stuff like the battery and alternator for some alternative energy projects. The air horn I installed will probably get reused on a new bicycle — something to scare the devil out of those careless drivers I occasionally encounter.

The 15-Year Anniversary Kick-Off

jayce — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:59:29 +0000

So 15 years ago today, I took ownership of a 1994 Honda Civic VX from John Holtz Honda in Rochester, NY. She was named “Sassy” just a few years ago, and this year I decided to start this project where I’ll be taking her apart and selling, reusing, repurposing, recycling, or (as a last resort) throwing away each piece. Check out the About the Project page and Sassy’s History for more details.

In the coming weeks I’ll be developing a database to track where the parts go and then it’s time to start unbolting!