thanks guys for the responses... ill do something with it... dont know yet.... just got some more stuff dropped in my lap here in the past two days.....

my and my dad were changing oil on my wifes HHR and my dad told me to put the jack on the engine cradle and i didnt look at it so i did, and started jacking it up and the jack slipped off the cradle and all the weight of the car smashed the radiator and cooling fan, as soon as it fell all i saw was a rain of orange coolant... so i have to get that all fixed...... its always something.....[>:]

o yea her car is so new that we have to order the parts from GM... there isnt a rad for a manual trans hhr in ohio, wv, or pa.... glad my uncle owns a body shop and can get the parts cheaper....

 

dang bro when it rains it pours. good luck with that.

 

Iowa i know you know nothing about me, or my dad, but my dad has been a mechanic on GM for as long as he has been driving, he is 54 now. The only real place to jack the car up is on the pinch welds under the rocker panel, but the part of the body covers the pinch weld up, excpt in two spots on each side, where you would typicall put the lift points on a lift at a dealer, and if you put the jack under one the jack stand doesnt fit under there. Its a real pain in the ***. we have a set of ramps to drive up on, but the bumper is too low, and we also tried putting a piece of 2X6 on to make it a better angle, wood kicked out.You have to jack the car up to drain the oil, my body does not fit under the car to pull the plug with it on the ground. I jack my truck up every time i change the oil, rotate the tires, and grease it. The piece of the engine cradle we jackd up on was strong enough, but the bottom wasnt flat it was angled and you couldnt see that unless you were under it, and my dad just bent down and saw it. I did use a hydrolic jack, we have a 3 1/2 ton and a 4 ton jack, but i dont trust the jack to hold the weight so i always put jack stands under it and remove the jack. I think we have a clue what we are doing. My dad is the best mechanic i have ever seen for GM. He probably knows more about GM cars and trucks than all of us on here know about bikes. It was just a stupid thing that happened. My dad says that " you save money doing all your own work, but some times you end up breaking some things, but your still saving money." One time he went to change spark plugs in his caviler, and one broke off in the aluminum head, then an easy out broke off... so a simple change of plugs turned into him having to buy a new head.... sh_t happens..... sucks but it does....

 

here is the rad..... its on its side...... the bottom is on the right. [sm=headbang.gif]

 

ok back on topic..... one of the other forums that i posted about the big gun exhaust, one of the guys told me to talk to mike young, the owner. So i called back and he was "out to lunch" i left a voice mail. Im going to see what he has to say about this. Ill try to get some clarification on the materials also. If he doesnt call back, ill call again tomorrow....

 

Whatever you do, avoid talking to Phil, the Customer Management Supervisor! (Apparently he's an intellectual giant, and even felt compelled toinform me he's got a college degree!!! [sm=sleeping.gif])

I spoke with Mike a couple times, and although things ended up sounding very positive, it was more of a brush off, and no action came out of it ... I got dumped backwith Phil.

Sorry about your ordeal ... I know what it's like. At times it got so frustrating that I'dwake up in the middle of the night just so I could hate them some more!!!

Give BG a chance to do the right thing, but don't hold your breath. Some of the suggestions that others have made sound pretty good, and would give your bike a pretty decent custom touch. (On the other hand, with all the mud that you go through ... it might be hard to tell!!! )

Good luck.

Mike

P.S. - Just looking at that rad was painful. Please try to avoid such disturbing graphics in the future. Thanks! (J/K ... again!)

 

Heat paint works great,Ive never had any problems using it

 

On the off chance that the pipe is some sort of stainless (which I doubt)...don't use steel wool to clean the rust off...best usescotchbrite. Steel wool will leave traces of steel which will not help the rusting problem. I fabricate ALOT of 304 (food grade) stainless and it will rust if it comes in contact with other metals that rust or certain corrosive environments.
Also, be careful checking stainlesswith just anymagnet....strong magnets WILL stick to type 304 SS....not the grab that regular steel has, but it will grab.

 

Snal is right on the steel wool and stainless thing.......EMS ya don't like the black ceramic BG idea ...... I'll bead blast that bastard for prep...just for fun.